THE FEAST OF ST SPYRIDON AT THE PATRIARCHATE
On Wednesday the 12th/25th of December 2013, the feast of St Spyridon the Wonderworker, Bishop of Trimythous, was celebrated by the Patriarchate in the Monastery which bears his name and lies on the inside of the wall of the Old City of Jerusalem, near the Gate of Damascus.
His Eminence Dorotheos, Archbishop of Avila, led the Vespers and the divine Liturgy. Co-officiating were Hagiotaphite hieromonks and Arab-speaking (Rum Orthodox) presbyters and Hagiotaphite hierodeacons. The Patriarchal School choir chanted in the Byzantine style under the direction of Mr Evangelos Tsarkatzoglou, in the presence of a great crowd, praying piously in quest of the Saint’s mediation. According to his Apolytikion, the saint was proven an advocate of the First Ecumenical Council dogma of the homoousion [of one substance] of the Son with the Father, feeder of the poor and a worker by divine Grace of many miracles, i.e. the cessation of drought, the transformation of the snake into gold and of gold into snake, the compellation of the dead woman in the tomb and co-officiating with angels.
During the d. Liturgy, His Beatitude Theophilos, our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem, proceeded to venerate in the company of Hagiotaphite fathers.
After the divine Liturgy, the Hegoumen, Archimandrite f. Sergios, hosted a reception for the Prelatic retinue and all those present, at his quarters.
From the Secretariat-General