Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou was recently on Mount Athos, with the Metropolis releasing the following relevant information:
"During September 11-14, 2024, His Eminence the Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou, Mr. Hierotheos, visited the Holy Mountain, as a guest of the Sacred Great Monastery of Vatopaidi, with the permission of the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Mr. Hieronymos, in order to celebrate the festival for the greatest feast day of the Sacred Monastery, the Deposition of the Holy Zoni of the Most Holy Theotokos, which is kept in this revered Sacred Monastery."
His Eminence was accompanied to Mount Athos by: the Mayor of Nafpaktia Mr. Vasilios Gizas, the Deputy Mayor Mr. Thomas Kotronias, the lawyer Mr. Konstantinos Efthymiou, the Archimandrite Father Polykarpos Theophanis, the Protopresbyter Father George Papavarnavas, the Deacon Father Paisios Paraskevas and lay people.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 11, His Eminence arrived with his entourage at the Sacred Monastery, where he was received as usual at the entrance of the Sacred Monastery by the Abbot, Elder Ephraim, together with all the brotherhood and pilgrims.
Afterwards, in procession and with solemn ringing of bells, everyone went to the Katholikon where the Doxology and Polychronismos of the High Priest was performed.
The Abbot, Elder Ephraim, addressing His Eminence Mr. Hierotheos, expressed his emotion and his joy at the presence of His Eminence and thanked him for accepting the invitation.
Then Elder Ephraim said:
"Your Eminence, you are our man among your own, you are a man of the Holy Mountain, you are a man who knows the importance of the Holy Mountain. From a young age you came here and enjoyed the teachings of the Hagiorite Fathers, and you promoted Saint Gregory Palamas as a Saint, and this is a very great contribution to the Theology of the Fathers and to Mount Athos in general."
Referring to the Metropolitan's book "A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain", Elder Ephraim said: "For me, it is a very captivating book which really provides the inspiration to engage in spiritual work."
Finally, the Elder spoke about the great blessing of the presence of the Holy Zoni of the Theotokos in the Sacred Monastery, as well as about the great offering of Mount Athos to the whole world.
His Eminence responded the Most Venerable Abbot Father Ephraim expressing his thanks for the invitation he gave to visit the Holy Mountain and Vatopaidi Monastery, as well as to the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Mr. Hieronymos and the Holy Synod for the permission granted.
Then, he praised the Abbot of the Sacred Monastery, Archimandrite Father Ephraim, for being without reproach, which is a great gift, because he honors and praises the special gifts of all the members of the Church, especially the High Priests and Clergy, and he also expressed his joy that Elder Ephraim faced the whole adventure he went through with an ecclesiastical ethos.
He then emphasized two theological truths connected with the feast of the Deposition of the Sacred Zoni of the Most Holy Theotokos.
First, that the Divine Grace through the soul is also channeled into the body of the saints, and of the Most Holy Theotokos of course, and from there it flows into the clothes and irrational creation. We see this in another perspective with the garments of Christ on Mount Tabor, which became white as light.
The second theological truth is that the kissing of sacred relics, sacred icons and the Sacred Zoni of the Theotokos benefits people, according to their spiritual condition, since God, according to the Holy Fathers, is the purification of those purified, the illumination of the illumined and the brilliance of the deified. Nothing happens without preconditions.
In closing, he wished everyone to have a good vigil and to feel the Grace of God through the intercessions of our Lady the Theotokos, according to one's preparation.
The following day, Thursday September 12, he visited the Community in Karyes with his entourage, to personally deliver the Ecumenical Patriarch's letter for permission to visit the Vatopaidi Monastery. There, together with his entourage, he met the "Protos" of Mount Athos, the Monk Symeon of Dionysiou, and other representatives of the Sacred Monasteries.
After the formalities, His Eminence remembered that he visited Dionysiou Monastery for the first time in 1966, almost 60 years ago, with a group of students, under the supervision of the Professor of Patrology Panagiotis Chrestou, along with other Monasteries, to record the manuscripts of the Sacred Monasteries. His visits to Mount Athos continued in the following years.
In the Monastery of Saint Dionysios he met back then Abbot Gabriel of Dionysiou, whom he inquired about regarding his entry into the Priesthood and received wise advice, as well as Father Theoklitos of Dionysiou, with whom he had frequent communication in the following years. He also met the successor of the Abbot, Archimandrite Haralambos.
Because the fathers present asked him how he came to know Father John Romanides, he recounted the meeting with him in Athens, the communication they had through the lawyer Athanasios Sakarellos, the discussions they had, the acquisition of his many cassettes (recordings) with his oral speeches, which were recorded by his spiritual children, and generally how he knew the whole course of his life and the development of his theology.
He said that Father John Romanides grew up in a Cappadocian environment, in New York, from an ascetic mother, and beyond his studies in scholastic theology and biblical theology, he switched to patristic theology. He met Father George Florovsky, whose best student he was, expanded his theological views and reached up to the theology of Saint Symeon the New Theologian, the hesychasm of Saint Gregory Palamas, Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite and Venerable Joseph the Cave-Dweller and Hesychast. That is why he spoke about the preconditions of Orthodox Theology.
He said that, in his opinion, he is the greatest dogmatic theologian of our time, because he connected the teaching of the Fathers of the Ecumenical Synods with sacred hesychasm.
Then the theological discussion expanded to other topics, such as Father George Florovsky, Russian theology and other contemporary theological movements.
In the evening of the same day, His Eminence officiated and ministered in the Katholikon of Vatopaidi Monastery in the Sacred Vigil for the feast of the Holy Zoni.
The Sacred Vigil lasted about 15 hours according to the Hagiorite Typikon with the "Exodus of the Holy Zoni", Small Vespers, Trapeza, Great Vespers, the Hours, Matins, the Sanctification of the Waters, the Sacred Litany, the clothing of the High Priest, the High Priestly Divine Liturgy, the official Trapeza and the dismissal of the Vigil.
In the "Synodikon" of the Monastery, in the interval between Vespers and Matins services, the Abbot of the Sacred Monastery thanked His Eminence for his arrival in the Sacred Monastery, referred to the miraculous icons that exist in the Sacred Monastery and the Holy Zoni of the Theotokos and begged His Eminence to speak to the monks and pilgrims.
His Eminence analyzed the great theological value of the Most Holy Theotokos, that her glory and our love for her is a consequence of the hypostatic union of the divine and the human nature in the God-man Christ. Thus, Theotokology is inextricably linked with Christology.
He referred to the term Theotokos, as seen in the teaching of the Holy Fathers, especially Saint Cyril of Alexandria, who prevailed in the Third Ecumenical Synod.
Then he said that the truth about the Theotokos, like the truth about Christ, is a matter of experience, since the Ecumenical Synods were based on genuine spiritual experience, the Revelations of Christ, to define the Orthodox faith, that is, the saints saw in the Holy Spirit Christ, the glory of the Theotokos, which is the glory of her Son.
He then invoked the testimony of two recently canonized Holy Fathers. First, of Saint Silouan of Athonite, who had an experience of the Theotokos in the Holy Spirit and saw her glory in the heavens. Secondly, a poem by Saint Joseph the Hesychast was invoked, titled "To the Lady Theotokos", in which the clear Orthodox confession of the holy ascetic, the clear Theotokology connected with Christology and the clear Orthodox soteriology can be seen.
He concluded that we should celebrate the feasts of the Most Holy Theotokos with theology and we should theologize with experience.
*
After the Vigil and the Divine Liturgy, the official celebratory banquet followed, in which, after a short address by the Abbot, His Eminence delivered the customary official speech.
It was prompted by the reading, during the Trapeza, which came from a discourse by Saint Germanos, Archbishop of Constantinople, who lived between the 7th and 8th centuries, and told how the theology about the Theotokos developed in the Church.
In the beginning, the Mother of God lived in silence, kept all the words in her heart, was the center of ecclesiastical life, and despite the great honor she had, she did not claim any "office" in the Church.
When the heresies arose that questioned the divinity of Christ, thus also questioning the term Theotokos, the Fathers at the Third Ecumenical Synod, mainly the great Cyril of Alexandria, decided that the Holy Virgin gave birth to God and should be called Theotokos and not Christotokos.
From then began an explosion of theology about the Mother of Christ, until the 8th century, when Saint Germanos of Constantinople acted to establish her feasts from Jerusalem throughout the empire, and Saint John of Damascus wrote inspired discourses and texts about the Most Holy Mother of God. Then, in the 14th century, Saint Gregory Palamas presented the Most Holy Theotokos as a model of sacred hesychasm.
Then His Eminence spoke about the Holy Mountain which is in particular "the Garden of the Panagia" and the monks love her especially. In fact, he presented the "three teachers", according to Saint Ephraim of Katounakia, which are obedience (primary school), patience in trials (middle education) and prayer (higher education). Saint Ephraim also said that we come to the Holy Mountain to obey, obedience will bring prayer, and prayer will bring Theology. The Most Holy Theotokos also lived these three virtues and reached Theoptia (vision of God).
Thus, the Holy Mountain is a school of the spiritual life, which expresses Orthodox theology, which teaches us how to train in our spiritual life, in order to be saved.
And at the Trapeza of the other days, His Eminence was asked to comment on the readings, which were read during the Trapeza, and each time he presented the theological significance of these readings.
Also, another Synaxis of the Brotherhood of the Sacred Monastery took place, as well as many theological discussions with the monks of the Sacred Monastery, who, indeed, have theological interests and spiritual pursuits.
The monks of the Sacred Monastery come from almost 24 ethnicities and, naturally, they have experienced many and varied philosophical, social and theological movements, but they want to live within the perspective of the Orthodox Church and Orthodox Theology. Inside the Monastery they participate in all the Sacred Services, but they also have a spiritual freedom.
*
It should be noted that His Eminence Mr. Hierotheos, apart from the Sacred Vigil services, participated by praying in the daily Liturgies in the Sacred Chapels.
On the occasion of His Eminence's stay and following the prompting of the Abbot Father Ephraim, another Synaxis of the Brotherhood took place, in which His Eminence spoke to the monks of the great offering of the Holy Mountain to the world, through his own personal experiences with holy people, who, although they lived outside of the Holy Mountain, modeled their lives after the monks and lived their lives as Hagiorite monks.
Finally, His Eminence answered the monks' questions and a discussion followed.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
"During September 11-14, 2024, His Eminence the Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou, Mr. Hierotheos, visited the Holy Mountain, as a guest of the Sacred Great Monastery of Vatopaidi, with the permission of the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Mr. Hieronymos, in order to celebrate the festival for the greatest feast day of the Sacred Monastery, the Deposition of the Holy Zoni of the Most Holy Theotokos, which is kept in this revered Sacred Monastery."
His Eminence was accompanied to Mount Athos by: the Mayor of Nafpaktia Mr. Vasilios Gizas, the Deputy Mayor Mr. Thomas Kotronias, the lawyer Mr. Konstantinos Efthymiou, the Archimandrite Father Polykarpos Theophanis, the Protopresbyter Father George Papavarnavas, the Deacon Father Paisios Paraskevas and lay people.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 11, His Eminence arrived with his entourage at the Sacred Monastery, where he was received as usual at the entrance of the Sacred Monastery by the Abbot, Elder Ephraim, together with all the brotherhood and pilgrims.
Afterwards, in procession and with solemn ringing of bells, everyone went to the Katholikon where the Doxology and Polychronismos of the High Priest was performed.
The Abbot, Elder Ephraim, addressing His Eminence Mr. Hierotheos, expressed his emotion and his joy at the presence of His Eminence and thanked him for accepting the invitation.
Then Elder Ephraim said:
"Your Eminence, you are our man among your own, you are a man of the Holy Mountain, you are a man who knows the importance of the Holy Mountain. From a young age you came here and enjoyed the teachings of the Hagiorite Fathers, and you promoted Saint Gregory Palamas as a Saint, and this is a very great contribution to the Theology of the Fathers and to Mount Athos in general."
Referring to the Metropolitan's book "A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain", Elder Ephraim said: "For me, it is a very captivating book which really provides the inspiration to engage in spiritual work."
Finally, the Elder spoke about the great blessing of the presence of the Holy Zoni of the Theotokos in the Sacred Monastery, as well as about the great offering of Mount Athos to the whole world.
His Eminence responded the Most Venerable Abbot Father Ephraim expressing his thanks for the invitation he gave to visit the Holy Mountain and Vatopaidi Monastery, as well as to the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Mr. Hieronymos and the Holy Synod for the permission granted.
Then, he praised the Abbot of the Sacred Monastery, Archimandrite Father Ephraim, for being without reproach, which is a great gift, because he honors and praises the special gifts of all the members of the Church, especially the High Priests and Clergy, and he also expressed his joy that Elder Ephraim faced the whole adventure he went through with an ecclesiastical ethos.
He then emphasized two theological truths connected with the feast of the Deposition of the Sacred Zoni of the Most Holy Theotokos.
First, that the Divine Grace through the soul is also channeled into the body of the saints, and of the Most Holy Theotokos of course, and from there it flows into the clothes and irrational creation. We see this in another perspective with the garments of Christ on Mount Tabor, which became white as light.
The second theological truth is that the kissing of sacred relics, sacred icons and the Sacred Zoni of the Theotokos benefits people, according to their spiritual condition, since God, according to the Holy Fathers, is the purification of those purified, the illumination of the illumined and the brilliance of the deified. Nothing happens without preconditions.
In closing, he wished everyone to have a good vigil and to feel the Grace of God through the intercessions of our Lady the Theotokos, according to one's preparation.
The following day, Thursday September 12, he visited the Community in Karyes with his entourage, to personally deliver the Ecumenical Patriarch's letter for permission to visit the Vatopaidi Monastery. There, together with his entourage, he met the "Protos" of Mount Athos, the Monk Symeon of Dionysiou, and other representatives of the Sacred Monasteries.
After the formalities, His Eminence remembered that he visited Dionysiou Monastery for the first time in 1966, almost 60 years ago, with a group of students, under the supervision of the Professor of Patrology Panagiotis Chrestou, along with other Monasteries, to record the manuscripts of the Sacred Monasteries. His visits to Mount Athos continued in the following years.
In the Monastery of Saint Dionysios he met back then Abbot Gabriel of Dionysiou, whom he inquired about regarding his entry into the Priesthood and received wise advice, as well as Father Theoklitos of Dionysiou, with whom he had frequent communication in the following years. He also met the successor of the Abbot, Archimandrite Haralambos.
Because the fathers present asked him how he came to know Father John Romanides, he recounted the meeting with him in Athens, the communication they had through the lawyer Athanasios Sakarellos, the discussions they had, the acquisition of his many cassettes (recordings) with his oral speeches, which were recorded by his spiritual children, and generally how he knew the whole course of his life and the development of his theology.
He said that Father John Romanides grew up in a Cappadocian environment, in New York, from an ascetic mother, and beyond his studies in scholastic theology and biblical theology, he switched to patristic theology. He met Father George Florovsky, whose best student he was, expanded his theological views and reached up to the theology of Saint Symeon the New Theologian, the hesychasm of Saint Gregory Palamas, Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite and Venerable Joseph the Cave-Dweller and Hesychast. That is why he spoke about the preconditions of Orthodox Theology.
He said that, in his opinion, he is the greatest dogmatic theologian of our time, because he connected the teaching of the Fathers of the Ecumenical Synods with sacred hesychasm.
Then the theological discussion expanded to other topics, such as Father George Florovsky, Russian theology and other contemporary theological movements.
In the evening of the same day, His Eminence officiated and ministered in the Katholikon of Vatopaidi Monastery in the Sacred Vigil for the feast of the Holy Zoni.
The Sacred Vigil lasted about 15 hours according to the Hagiorite Typikon with the "Exodus of the Holy Zoni", Small Vespers, Trapeza, Great Vespers, the Hours, Matins, the Sanctification of the Waters, the Sacred Litany, the clothing of the High Priest, the High Priestly Divine Liturgy, the official Trapeza and the dismissal of the Vigil.
In the "Synodikon" of the Monastery, in the interval between Vespers and Matins services, the Abbot of the Sacred Monastery thanked His Eminence for his arrival in the Sacred Monastery, referred to the miraculous icons that exist in the Sacred Monastery and the Holy Zoni of the Theotokos and begged His Eminence to speak to the monks and pilgrims.
His Eminence analyzed the great theological value of the Most Holy Theotokos, that her glory and our love for her is a consequence of the hypostatic union of the divine and the human nature in the God-man Christ. Thus, Theotokology is inextricably linked with Christology.
He referred to the term Theotokos, as seen in the teaching of the Holy Fathers, especially Saint Cyril of Alexandria, who prevailed in the Third Ecumenical Synod.
Then he said that the truth about the Theotokos, like the truth about Christ, is a matter of experience, since the Ecumenical Synods were based on genuine spiritual experience, the Revelations of Christ, to define the Orthodox faith, that is, the saints saw in the Holy Spirit Christ, the glory of the Theotokos, which is the glory of her Son.
He then invoked the testimony of two recently canonized Holy Fathers. First, of Saint Silouan of Athonite, who had an experience of the Theotokos in the Holy Spirit and saw her glory in the heavens. Secondly, a poem by Saint Joseph the Hesychast was invoked, titled "To the Lady Theotokos", in which the clear Orthodox confession of the holy ascetic, the clear Theotokology connected with Christology and the clear Orthodox soteriology can be seen.
He concluded that we should celebrate the feasts of the Most Holy Theotokos with theology and we should theologize with experience.
*
After the Vigil and the Divine Liturgy, the official celebratory banquet followed, in which, after a short address by the Abbot, His Eminence delivered the customary official speech.
It was prompted by the reading, during the Trapeza, which came from a discourse by Saint Germanos, Archbishop of Constantinople, who lived between the 7th and 8th centuries, and told how the theology about the Theotokos developed in the Church.
In the beginning, the Mother of God lived in silence, kept all the words in her heart, was the center of ecclesiastical life, and despite the great honor she had, she did not claim any "office" in the Church.
When the heresies arose that questioned the divinity of Christ, thus also questioning the term Theotokos, the Fathers at the Third Ecumenical Synod, mainly the great Cyril of Alexandria, decided that the Holy Virgin gave birth to God and should be called Theotokos and not Christotokos.
From then began an explosion of theology about the Mother of Christ, until the 8th century, when Saint Germanos of Constantinople acted to establish her feasts from Jerusalem throughout the empire, and Saint John of Damascus wrote inspired discourses and texts about the Most Holy Mother of God. Then, in the 14th century, Saint Gregory Palamas presented the Most Holy Theotokos as a model of sacred hesychasm.
Then His Eminence spoke about the Holy Mountain which is in particular "the Garden of the Panagia" and the monks love her especially. In fact, he presented the "three teachers", according to Saint Ephraim of Katounakia, which are obedience (primary school), patience in trials (middle education) and prayer (higher education). Saint Ephraim also said that we come to the Holy Mountain to obey, obedience will bring prayer, and prayer will bring Theology. The Most Holy Theotokos also lived these three virtues and reached Theoptia (vision of God).
Thus, the Holy Mountain is a school of the spiritual life, which expresses Orthodox theology, which teaches us how to train in our spiritual life, in order to be saved.
And at the Trapeza of the other days, His Eminence was asked to comment on the readings, which were read during the Trapeza, and each time he presented the theological significance of these readings.
Also, another Synaxis of the Brotherhood of the Sacred Monastery took place, as well as many theological discussions with the monks of the Sacred Monastery, who, indeed, have theological interests and spiritual pursuits.
The monks of the Sacred Monastery come from almost 24 ethnicities and, naturally, they have experienced many and varied philosophical, social and theological movements, but they want to live within the perspective of the Orthodox Church and Orthodox Theology. Inside the Monastery they participate in all the Sacred Services, but they also have a spiritual freedom.
*
It should be noted that His Eminence Mr. Hierotheos, apart from the Sacred Vigil services, participated by praying in the daily Liturgies in the Sacred Chapels.
On the occasion of His Eminence's stay and following the prompting of the Abbot Father Ephraim, another Synaxis of the Brotherhood took place, in which His Eminence spoke to the monks of the great offering of the Holy Mountain to the world, through his own personal experiences with holy people, who, although they lived outside of the Holy Mountain, modeled their lives after the monks and lived their lives as Hagiorite monks.
Finally, His Eminence answered the monks' questions and a discussion followed.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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