All
Venerable Fathers who have shone forth on Holy Mount Athos were commemorated on
July 3 at the Russian St. Panteleimon’s Monastery on Mt. Athos, reports a
spokesman of the Afonit.info.
This
feast is by tradition celebrated on Mt. Athos every year on the Second Sunday
after Pentecost. According to the centenarian abbot of the Russian monastery,
Schema-Archimandrite Jeremiah (Alekhin), on this day the whole of Holy Mount
Athos rejoices because each of its monasteries is blessed with having its own
ascetics who pleased God and were famous for their holy life.
The early
Liturgy at the monastery was celebrated at the church dedicated to All Athonite
Saints, and the later Liturgy was served at the monastery cathedral. The festal
service was headed by Metropolitan Sergy (Ivannikov) of Barnaul and Altai who
had arrived to Mt. Athos as a pilgrim.
On the
same day the "Abbess of Holy Mount Athos” icon of the Most Holy Mother of
God is commemorated at the Russian monastery on Mt. Athos. The icon is kept at
St. Panteleimon’s Monastery and famous for many miracles.
The feast
in honor of the Venerable and God-bearing Fathers who have shone forth on Holy
Mount Athos is celebrated by all Athonite monks. Solemn services on this day
are by tradition held in all monasteries, sketes and cells of the Holy Mountain.
The
service of the Synaxis of All Saints of Holy Mount Athos was composed in the
nineteenth century by Venerable Nicodemus the Athonite. However, the troparion
to this festival had existed long before St. Nicodemus and the feast of All
Holy Athonite Fathers had been celebrated long before the nineteenth century.
The
Synaxis of Saints of Holy Mount Athos includes some 450 ascetics, while there
are also several thousand unknown and unrevealed holy men who by their prayers
blessed the soil of the Athonite peninsula, which is why it is called “the Holy
Mountain”.
Source: http://orthochristian.com/95025.html
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