With profound emotion, spiritual joy, and gratitude to the all-good and bountiful God, our beloved Elder and Abbot, His Grace Bishop Parthenius of Antania, accompanied by several members of the Bigorski Brotherhood, is spending these days on pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain of Athos \u2013 the blessed Garden of the Most Holy Theotokos and the age-old fountain and refuge of Orthodox monasticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joining us on our pilgrimage was His Grace Bishop Athenagoras of Myrina, Auxiliary Bishop of the Orthodox Metropolis of Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean Islands, Venezuela, and Colombia under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, with whom our Elder will concelebrate on the feast of Saint Panteleimon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The occasion for this blessed and grace-filled visit is the heartfelt invitation extended by the Dikaios of the Koutloumousian Skete of the holy, glorious Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon in Karyes, our dear friend, Hierodeacon Chrysostomos. Throughout the pilgrimage he has been an impeccable guide to us, leading us with brotherly care and love through the holy places of Mount Athos. With the blessing of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, of our esteemed His Eminence Metropolitan Georgij of Debar and Ki\u010devo, and of the Holy Monastery of Koutloumousiou, our Elder will preside at the solemn festal Vigil and celebrate the Divine Eucharist in honour of the great Martyr and Healer of Christ, Panteleimon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This pilgrimage bears profound and historic significance both for our Elder and for his entire monastic family. It is his first visit to Mount Athos as a bishop, and also his first liturgical presidency on Athos after a full thirty-six years \u2013 since the time when, as a young theologian and monastic novice, he lived for a certain period at the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou, under the wise spiritual guidance of the late blessed Elder Georgios Kapsanis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There, amid the prayerful hesychia of the Monastery of Gregoriou, surrounded by long divine services, obediences, and patristic instruction, the young novice acquired a deep and immediate experience of the Athonite tradition. From there he carried with him the blessing of Athos, which later became one of the spiritual foundations upon which the coenobitic monastic life at Bigorski Monastery was renewed, and more broadly throughout our homeland. This pilgrimage is therefore far more than an ordinary visit: it is a moving return to the spiritual sources, to the place where his monastic ethos first began to take shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Upon our arrival in Karyes, the administrative and spiritual centre of Mount Athos, on 26 July according to the Old Calendar, or 7 August according to the New Calendar, we visited the Holy Community of the Athonite State, where we had a cordial meeting with the Protos Epistates, Elder Georgios of Vatopedi. In the ancient church of the Protaton we venerated the wonderworking icon of the Most Holy Theotokos \u201cAxion Estin\u201d \u2013 \u201cIt Is Truly Meet\u201d \u2013 the all-holy symbol and protective veil of the entire Holy Mountain. It is our Elder\u2019s most beloved icon: it was this very icon that first welcomed and received him into the Garden of the Mother of God when, as a young theologian, he came filled with longing for the monastic life. Now, once again before her holy countenance, he implored her maternal intercession for our Holy Monastery, for our monastic brotherhood and sisterhood, and for all our people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After venerating at the Protaton, the first holy place we visited was the Sacred Cell of Saint Nicholas of Myra \u2013 Bourazeri, in Karyes. Its beautiful church, illumined by frescoes of heavenly beauty, drew us into profound prayerful silence. There we were received with sincere brotherly love by the Elder of the Cell, Hieromonk Arsenios, who introduced us to the spiritual wealth of this blessed Athonite refuge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our pilgrimage continued to the Holy Monastery of Philotheou. In the absence of the Abbot, we were received by the monastery secretary, Fr Markos, with monastic simplicity and attentiveness. In the katholikon we venerated the wonderworking icon of the Most Holy Theotokos \u201cGlykophilousa\u201d \u2013 \u201cShe Who Loves Sweetly\u201d \u2013 one of the most beloved icons of Athos. Here, with particular compunction, our beloved Elder also recalled his first Athonite all-night Vigil, on the feast of Palm Sunday almost four decades ago \u2013 a memory that still lives within him as an indelible seal of grace and of his first monastic yearning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the Holy Monastery of Karakallou we were welcomed by its Christ-like brotherhood. With prayerful compunction we venerated the wonderworking icon of the Holy Chief Apostles Peter and Paul, the precious skull of the Holy Apostle Bartholomew, and the other great sacred treasures preserved in the Monastery. This holy Monastery too is connected with our Elder by distant and sacred memories, from the time when, for the first time in his life, he spent Holy and Great Week on Mount Athos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Particularly moving was our pilgrimage to the renowned Holy Monastery of Iviron. With love and deep compunction we venerated the wonderworking image of the Mother of God \u2013 the Most Holy Theotokos Portaitissa, guardian of Iviron and of the whole of Athos. In the katholikon we also venerated the numerous relics of God\u2019s saints, as well as sacred treasures associated with the Lord\u2019s Passion upon the Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the picturesque and peaceful Holy Monastery of Stavronikita, our Elder met its Abbot, Elder Archimandrite Tychon, with whom he spoke about the ineffable depth of monastic life. In the grace-filled space of the monastery church, adorned with the magnificent frescoes of Theophanes the Cretan, we venerated the wonderworking mosaic icon of Saint Nicholas Stridas \u2013 one of the most ancient and revered holy treasures of Mount Athos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first day of our pilgrimage concluded at the Holy, Royal, Patriarchal and Stavropegic Great Monastery of Vatopedi. There our Elder and his synodia were received for an overnight stay with exceptional love and honour by the Abbot of the Monastery, the venerable Elder Archimandrite Ephraim, and by his Christ-loving brotherhood. With profound compunction we venerated the Holy Girdle of the Most Holy Theotokos, the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God Paramythia \u2013 the Consoler, the other wonderworking icons of the Queen Mother, and the countless sacred treasures of this renowned Monastery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the refectory following the evening service, the two Elders exchanged deeply moving words, imbued with gratitude to God and profound ecclesial joy. With particular feeling it was emphasised that at last the time had come for a hierarch of our Church to enter the Holy Mountain as a canonical bishop and to serve in its sacred monasteries. Elder Ephraim wholeheartedly thanked God for this blessed event and spoke with praise of our Elder\u2019s monastic work in the homeland \u2013 a work that has grown with the blessing of the Most Holy Theotokos and of the Holy Mountain of Athos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our Elder, deeply moved, spoke through tears of the feelings that overwhelmed him: after so many years since he had lived and struggled ascetically on Athos, beside the blessed late Elder Georgios Kapsanis, he was now returning to the Garden of the Mother of God as a bishop. With sincere gratitude he emphasised the love and honour shown to us by Elder Ephraim, his great evangelical work, and the quiet yet strong and persevering spiritual struggle of his Christ-like brotherhood. Finally, with humility, he asked for the prayers of the Elder of Vatopedi for our monastic brotherhood and for the whole spiritual work in our homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The brotherly fellowship with Elder Ephraim continued the following morning after the completion of the sacred divine service. We were blessed with the opportunity to hear his paternal counsels and grace-filled accounts of his spiritual predecessors \u2013 Elders Joseph the Hesychast and Joseph of Vatopedi \u2013 as well as of other holy Athonite ascetics, whose lives and struggles remain a living testimony to the ceaseless activity of Divine Grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We departed Vatopedi with hearts overflowing with gratitude to the Mother of God, to Elder Ephraim, and to his great and wonderful brotherhood, for the spiritual streams from which we had drunk in this blessed refuge. From there we returned toward Karyes, where we were received and offered hospitality with immense love by the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Esphigmenou, Archimandrite Bartholomew, and his brethren in Christ. In a warm spiritual conversation, they spoke of the love and beauty of our God and of the Church as the one communion of all in Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We continued our pilgrimage to the Sacred Cell of Saint Anna belonging to our beloved Elder Antipas, where, as always, we were received with great love in Christ. Elder Antipas and his God-loving brethren offered us heartfelt brotherly hospitality \u2013 first spiritually, and then also bodily \u2013 granting us yet another grace-filled moment of true monastic fellowship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our encounters with the venerable Athonite Elders and monks were far more than ordinary protocol visits: they were genuine events of monastic and ecclesial communion in the sweetest Christ. In a warm fraternal atmosphere, words of love, spiritual experiences, and good wishes were exchanged for the continuation and deepening of the bonds between the Athonite monasteries and the Bigorski monastic family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mount Athos has always held an inestimable and life-giving importance for the spiritual and educational life of our people. Through the centuries, its monasteries, sketes, and silent hermitages have stood like burning vigil lamps before the throne of God, from which the light of faith, the gift of literacy and learning, the purity of monastic tradition, and the consolation of the Gospel have ceaselessly flowed toward our lands. In days of trial, Athos was a spiritual refuge and a motherly embrace; in times of spiritual thirst, an inexhaustible source of prayer, wisdom, and hope. From this sanctified soil, watered by the tears and ascetic labours of countless monks, our people received strength to preserve the faith, to renew their ecclesial life, and once again to rise toward Christ. Thus, every coming to the Garden of the Mother of God is not merely a pilgrimage before ancient sacred treasures, but also a return to a profound spiritual kinship \u2013 to the living remembrance that we too are children beneath the protecting veil of the Most Holy Theotokos and heirs of the same patristic tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For our Elder, this visit represents the fulfilment of a long-standing longing and a wondrous completion of a spiritual journey: once a young novice who received his first Athonite teachings with the fear of God, today he once again walks upon the same sanctified ground of the Athonite ascetics as a monk, sacred minister, and bishop, accompanied by his spiritual children. At every holy place visited, memory, gratitude, and renewed surrender to the will of God are intertwined. The pilgrimage will reach its liturgical summit at the all-night Vigil in the Koutloumousian Skete of Saint Panteleimon in Karyes, where our Elder will preside at the festal Vigil and celebrate the Divine Eucharist. This event will remain inscribed as a particularly grace-filled and historic moment in the chronicle of the Bigorski Monastery \u2013 a moment of gratitude, ecclesial unity, and a reverent embrace of the spiritual heritage of Mount Athos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t