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September 7, 2024

The Last Photo and the First Icon of Saint Daniel of Katounakia


The old man, bony, looks at the photographer with a stern, patient look under his wrinkled forehead. The short sleeve of his garment reveals a skeletonized wrist ending in a clenched palm. Perhaps he is holding a handkerchief in his right hand. In the background of the image, on the left, the vine has embraced the beams of the monastic cell's balcony.

The value of this photograph was pointed out by Hieromonk Justin of Simonopetra. It is the last photograph of Elder Daniel who reposed a few months later at the age of 83, on September 8, 1929.

On March 9th 2020, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate decided on the canonization of Saint Daniel of Katounakia, with his annual commemoration to be celebrated on September 7th. 
 
Following the announcement of his canonization, the Sacred Hesychastic Brotherhood of the Danielites, where Saint Daniel served as a renowned spiritual father in his life, commissioned the Monastery of Panagia Odegetria in Parnassos-Tithorea, to create the first icon of Saint Daniel, which would adorn and bless the place where the Saint lived in asceticism, the Skete of Katounakia, on Mount Athos.

The request of the Brotherhood of the Danielites is to make this icon widely known, so that pious Christians can invoke and pray to the new Saint Daniel of Katounakia.
 





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