🗓 Saturday, May 31 / June 13
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8)
─── ⋅ ✧ ✿ ✧ ⋅ ─── All the venerable and God-bearing fathers who shone forth in Holy Mount Athos (postponed from June 14) ─── ⋅ ✧ ✿ ✧ ⋅ ───
Tomorrow we commemorate all the reverend fathers who labored on Holy Mount Athos for many centuries. This monastery, called the earthly Lot of the Mother of God, has been the greatest center of Orthodox monasticism for more than a thousand years, and thousands of ascetics have shone here in prayer and ascetic labors. Today we especially remember the saints who lived not in those times when monasticism was just emerging, but in a much later period, starting from the 9th century, when the Mountain had already reached its heyday. In the Russian Orthodox Church, the celebration of the Council of Mount Athos saints was established at the beginning of the 20th century, and in 2011, by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, it was included in the calendar as a church-wide celebration. Holy Mount Athos is located on the Chalkidiki peninsula in Greece and is revered as the earthly inheritance of the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to legend, in 49 after the Nativity of Christ, a ship with the Mother of God, heading to Cyprus to visit righteous Lazarus, was washed up on the shores of Athos by a storm. Captivated by the beauty of these places, She blessed them and said: “Let this place be My inheritance, given to Me by My Son and My God.” Since then, the Mother of God has been considered the patroness and abbess of Athos.
Monastic life on Mount Athos began in the early Byzantine period. The first hermits appeared here in the 4th century, fleeing persecution and worldly vanity. Already in the 7th century, monks from Palestine, Sinai and Egypt fled here to escape the Arab invasion. However, the official date of foundation of the first large monastery is considered to be 963, when the Monk Athanasius of Athos, with the support of Emperor Nikephoros Phocas, founded the Great Lavra - the first cenobitic monastery on Athos, which still exists.
Over the next centuries, 19 more “ruling” monasteries arose on Athos (Lava, Vatoped, Iviron, Hilandar, etc.), each of which has its own history and shrines. A special charter was formed here - a “typikon”. A special feature of Athos is that access to the peninsula has been prohibited for women for more than a thousand years, and every monk takes a vow of celibacy. The main treasure of Athos is uninterrupted prayer. The feat of the Athonite elders included hermitage, fasting, vigil and the constant performance of the “Jesus Prayer” (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”). It was here that the doctrine of “smart doing” (hesychasm), which was brilliantly defended by St. Gregory Palamas in the 14th century, received special development.
In total, over the history of Christianity on Athos, more than 200 saints have been glorified, the names of the most famous of them: St. Athanasius of Athos (founder of monasticism on the Mountain), St. Silouan of Athos (great elder of the 20th century), St. Paisius of Svyatogorets (an elder of the recent past revered throughout the world), St. Sergius and Herman of Valaam (enlighteners of the Karelian region), St. Nicodemus of Svyatogorets (translator of the Philokalia), St. Nektarios of Aegina, St. Gregory Palamas and many others. In the liturgical books for this day, the service was compiled by the Monk Joseph the Songwriter. Holy Mount Athos is the spiritual capital and beacon of faith for Orthodox Christians around the world. Through the prayers of these saints, the Lord preserves peace. In Rus', Athos was traditionally considered a great shrine. It was in the Great Lavra that the first abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, Rev. Anthony of the Pechersk, took monastic vows and studied “smart prayer”, bringing the traditions of Athos monasticism to Russian soil. Books copied on Mount Athos were distributed throughout all Slavic lands. And today, many Russian pilgrims make a pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain in order to touch the living tradition of Orthodoxy, which has not been interrupted there since the birth of Christianity.
#calendar #Petrovfast #Athossaints #venerables #Athos
--- Source: [Russia–China Business Council](https://t.me/rcbc_info/13298) · Telegram