Adamovka, Ukraine, July 3, 2018
Photo: svlavra.church.ua The Skete of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco in the Donetsk Region, attached to the Holy Dormition Syatogorsk Lavra, celebrated its patronal feast day yesterday with a cross procession and hierarchical Divine Liturgy.
The skete is located in the great saint’s home village of Adamovka.
Photo: svlavra.church.ua It has become a tradition in recent years to begin the celebrations for St. John with a cross procession from the village of Nikolskoe to the skete in Adamovka, with the first procession being held in 2016. The procession is always headed by Metropolitan Arseny of Svyatogorsk, the abbot of the Svyatogorsk Lavra. All major construction and finishing work has been finished at the new skete, and with God’s help, it will soon be opened on August 1, reports the site of the Svyatogorsk Lavra.
Photo: svlavra.church.ua An icon of St. John began to stream myrrh during the celebrations at the skete last year.
The brethren of the Lavra, as well as the sisters of other local monasteries, and numerous clergy and pilgrims all took part in the festive procession this year.
Photo: svlavra.church.ua Met. Arseny brought an icon of St. Nektarios of Aegina with a particle of his relics to be placed in the Church of St. Vladimir in Nikolskoe, where the procession began. He explained that the great Greek saint once appeared and said, “Why do you not pray to us, the holy God-pleasers? You do not pray to us, and we are without work there in Heaven…” His Eminence then added, “Well, today, St. Nektarios has work.” He also noted that the holy hierarch is noted for his love of village faithful and recounted a recent story from Greece wherein St. Nektarios served Holy Week and Pascha in a priestless village church.
The procession then began after a moleben for the beginning of a good work. An akathist to the Theotokos was sung during the procession, which arrived at the Church of St. John at 3:00 PM to celebrate the festal All-Night Vigil, headed by Met. Arseny.
Services began at 6:00 AM the following day, beginning with the reading of the monastic rule of prayer in the upper church, after which a moleben for the blessing of waters with an akathist to St. John was served in the church courtyard. At the same time, the Hours were read in the lower church, followed by the early Divine Liturgy.
Photo: svlavra.church.ua Following the moleben, the Hours began in the upper Church of St. John, after which Met. Arseny was formally greeted, who then led the hierarchical Divine Liturgy, concelebrated by the brethren of the monastery and visiting clergy. The service was sung antiphonally by three choirs.
After the reading of the Gospel, Met. Arseny addressed the gathered pilgrims with a homily in which he noted that St. John’s entire life is an example and model of a true minister of the Church of Christ, and of a true Christian:
How often do we justify our lack of spirituality, immorality, and indifferent life by certain circumstances? All his life, St. John had no place to lay his head: He wandered all over the world, expelled from his Fatherland. Sometimes the world turned against him (as it was during the construction of the San Francisco cathedral), and at the same time he retained kindness, love, and the desire to live spiritually and morally. Brothers and sisters, we stand here indifferent to spiritual life and think, “What is it that is stopping us? He lived at the same time as us.” ... And today, brothers and sisters, standing in this place, what shall we bring to St. John?—yes, perhaps, our repentance. The fact that we are here testifies to the fact that we perceive his life as an ideal, and we take our lives critically and with repentance. We have gathered to draw from this well of living water, to give water to our thirsty souls, to water our dried-up hearts, that the seeds sown in Holy Baptism would finally sprout within us, and perhaps bring forth fruit an hundredfold—the fruit of the spiritual, moral and virtuous life.
A procession was held around the church following the Divine Liturgy. At the end of the procession, Met. Arseny presented to the skete an icon of the Synaxis of all Saints of Kharkov, including the image of St. John. All those gathered were also given a small icon of St. John the Wonderworker.
Photo: svlavra.church.ua In all, about 2,500 took part in the day’s celebrations.
Follow us on Facebook!