Holy Mount Athos, July 4, 2016
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 icon of all Venerable Fathers who have shone forth in the Russian Athonite St. Panteleimon’s Monastery
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.
Metropolitan Sergy (Ivannikov) of Barnaul and Altai at the Russian St. Panteleimon’s Monastery, Mt. Athos
The "Abbess of Holy Mount Athos” icon of the Mother of God at the Russian St. Panteleimon’s Monastery on Mt. Athos
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”.
