A large group of buildings comprising two imposing churches, ruined edifices and remains of an outer wall which surrounded the whole complex, once constituted the wealthiest monastery at Mystra: the Vrontochion, as it was called at the peak of its prosperity.
The founder was Pachomius, the Great Protocyncellus of the Peloponnese. By means of his services to the Emperor in the management of the political affairs of the Despotate, this energetic cleric succeeded in gaining so many privileges and receiving so many donations from the imperial bounry that in the course of twenty years he founded two churches( The Holy Theodoroi and the Panagia Hodeghetria or Aphentiko), complete with cells, towers and refectories unsurpassed in lavishness. He also finally succeeded in obtaining the privilege, granted by the Emperor, of declaring the Monastery independent of the local ecclesiastical authorities and establishing its dependence on the Patriarch.
The monastery's privileged position during the period of the Despotate probably accounted for its appellation of Aphendiko; a name derived from the official personages who were   members of its community and from the enormous wealth which came under its administration, thus likening it to the most powerful <<Aphendi>> of the locality.

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