Address by His Grace Bishop Parthenius of Antania, Abbot of the Sacred Bigorski Monastery, before the beginning of the all-night vigil in commemoration of the Nativity of the Honorable Forerunner, on June 23/July 6, in the year of our Lord 2026.
Your Excellency, esteemed Civil Governor of Mount Athos and Archon of the Great Church of Christ and of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, Mr. Alkiviadis Stefanis,
Your Very Reverences,
Most honorable fathers, and beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,
On this blessed evening, as the Spirit of God leads us into the all-night vigil for the radiant and joy-bearing Nativity of Saint John, the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, the heart of our sacred Bigorski Monastery is filled with special gratitude, compunction, and spiritual gladness. For this night is not merely another gathering in prayer, but a mystical continuation of that joy which began in the house of the righteous Zacharias and Elizabeth, when, after many prayers, silence, tears, and expectation, there was born the voice of the Word, the lamp of the Sun, the Forerunner of the Savior.
Saint John is the one who stands at the boundary between the old and the new, between the shadow and the fulfillment, between longing and manifestation. He is the desert-dweller who made the wilderness a temple, the silent one who became the strongest voice, the ascetic who kept nothing for himself, but transformed his entire life into a pointing toward Christ: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Therefore, our Monastery, which from its very foundation has lived under his protecting blessing, tonight gives thanks to God with particular trembling and awe for all His mercies and providential gifts.
And one of these gifts, undoubtedly, is this blessed continuation of the joy which the Lord has granted us in these holy days. After having had yesterday the honor and blessing of welcoming to our Monastery our dear and ever-beloved father and brother in Christ, Archimandrite Matthaios, as well as with the esteemed fathers, Archimandrite Prodromos, from the Metropolis of Karpenisi, and Archimandrite Philaretos, from the Metropolis of Thebes, and likewise our dear Protopresbyter Fr. Themistoklis from Athens and our dear hierodeacon Chrysostomos, today yet another priceless joy is granted to us: your presence among us, esteemed Mr. Alkiviadis Stefanis.
For our monastic community, this represents great spiritual consolation, a visit of profound significance, and truly a historic honor. For the first time, in this holy Monastery — and we may say, in these lands of ours as well — there sets foot such a high-ranking person, directly connected with the sacred Athonite State, with its centuries-old order, with its spiritual dignity, and with the living monastic tradition which there, like an inextinguishable vigil lamp, has burned for more than a thousand years.
Your coming, together with our beloved brother in Christ, the esteemed Athonite elder, Geronda Antipas, we experience truly as a great and blessed sign. In it we recognize a bridge of love, respect, and spiritual kinship between Bigorski Monastery and the Holy Mountain of Athos; between the mountain of the Forerunner and the Garden of the Mother of God; between our humble Monastery, nestled in these mountain embraces, and that holy land which for centuries has been the heart of Orthodox monasticism, a school of repentance, a workshop of prayer and holiness, and a quiet sanctuary of universal Orthodoxy.
Of your devotion and love for Mount Athos, esteemed Mr. Stefanis, we have heard with respect from Geronda Antipas, as well as from other Athonite fathers. Yet, by God’s providence, we also had the opportunity to be personally assured of this love of yours, of that sincere zeal for the Garden of the Most Holy Theotokos, when we heard your address at the symposium dedicated to the blessed memory of Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra, held in Athens on May 9 of this year. There we clearly felt that your service to Mount Athos is not merely a duty arising from an entrusted responsibility, but also an inward attachment, reverence, and spiritual love for its holy tradition.
Mount Athos has never been merely a geographical place. It is a spiritual condition, a liturgical breath, a grace-filled mystery of the Church. There, beneath the protection of our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos, and under the blessing of the First-Throned Ecumenical Patriarchate, peoples lose their divisions not because they cease to be what they are, but because they become what they are called to be: one body in Christ, one heart in prayer, one soul in repentance, one holy communion in the Chalice of the Lord.
Precisely there, in the Athonite tradition, the profound meaning of Romiosini is revealed with particular clarity: not as a narrow ethnic or political belonging, but as a supranational, ecclesial, and spiritual identity of the Orthodox; as a mode of existence in which different peoples, languages, and cultures are gathered into one faith, one Divine Liturgy, and one conciliar consciousness. All languages and all peoples, throughout the centuries, have learned there that true belonging does not abolish the homeland, but sanctifies it; it does not humiliate a people, but raises it toward the catholicity of the Church.
The monks who were nourished by that Athonite spirit, when they returned to their own lands, did not bring with them ideology, but peace; they did not bring human pride, but grace-filled humility; they did not bring divisions, but the experience of unity. So it was throughout the centuries, and so it was with us as well. The blessed Elder George Kapsanis, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou, in a time that was very difficult, unfavorable, and burdened with political and social prejudices, opened the gates of his heart to several monks from our country. He did not look upon us through the prism of earthly divisions, but with the eyes of the Church, with the gaze of a spiritual father, who in every person seeks the image of God and the possibility of resurrection.
From him we received not only Athonite hospitality, but also a spiritual testament. When the time came for us to return to our homeland, he blessed us and reminded us that monasteries must be open to every person; that the people thirst for living monasticism; that monastic communities must not be closed fortresses, but embraces of the Church, places where a person finds himself once again in God. The Elder had the opportunity to know the circumstances here, and therefore his word to us was not a distant lesson, but a prophetic direction, a fatherly blessing, and a foundation for the work which afterward, by the mercy of God, began to be built.
And behold, today, after three decades, as this Monastery, with self-sacrifice and love, strives to be an open home for every person, a hospital for wounded souls, a harbor for the young, a consolation for the elderly, and a witness to the faith and love of Christ in an environment often tested by various hardships, we experience your presence among us as an acknowledgment of that Athonite blessing. Not as an acknowledgment of our human merits — for everything good is from God — but as a testimony that the seed sown by the prayers of the Athonite fathers, by the tears of our predecessors, and under the protection of the holy Forerunner, has indeed borne some fruit.
Therefore, esteemed Mr. Stefanis, we thank you from the depths of our heart for graciously consenting to be with us tonight. Your presence is a great honor for our Monastery, but also a joy for all who love Mount Athos and see in it a spiritual mother, who unobtrusively, without noise, without earthly authority, and without vanity, has for centuries preserved the deepest dignity of the Orthodox person: prayer, repentance, obedience, liturgical unity, and love for Christ.
We also thank you very much, beloved Geronda Antipas, for enriching this evening with your Athonite presence and for bringing to us that fragrance of the Athonite desert, where silence speaks, where night becomes light, where man, stripped of everything, is clothed in the grace of God.
From our heart, we also thank the members of the choir “Nektarios Protopsaltis” from Bucharest, who, together with their spiritual guide, our beloved Father Ioan, with love and great self-sacrifice traveled especially from distant Romania, in order to enrich our monastic feast and this holy vigil with their prayerful and compunctionate chanting. Their presence tonight is yet another testimony that Eastern Orthodox chant transcends borders and languages, and that in common doxology we all become one choir before the face of God.
May this all-night vigil become our common thanksgiving to God, our common prayer to Saint John the Forerunner, our loving embrace toward Mount Athos, and our humble supplication for the unity of all Orthodox Christians. May the Forerunner of the Lord, who sought nothing for himself, but gave himself entirely to Christ, teach us also to live not for our own glory, but for the glory of God; not for divisions, but for peace; not for ourselves, but for the Church of God.
Welcome to the Home of Saint John the Baptist. May this vigil be blessed for you, may your prayer be peaceful, and may all of us together, on this holy night, feel the gentle touch of the grace of God.
Amen.
