Hymn to the Theotokos   Την Ωραιότητα της Παρθενίας Σου Θεοτοκίον Ἦχος γ' Τὴν ὡραιότητα τῆς παρθενίας σου, καὶ τὸ ὑπέρλαμπρον τὸ τῆς ἁγνείας σου, ὁ Γαβριὴλ καταπλαγείς ἐβόα σοι Θεοτόκε, Ποῖόν σοι ἐγκώμιον προσαγάγω ἐπάξιον; τί δὲ ὀνομάσω σε; ἀπορῶ καὶ ἐξίσταμαι· διὸ ὡς προσετάγην βοῶ σοι, Χαῖρε ἡ Κεχαριτωμένη. Awed by the beauty of your virginity and by the brilliance of your purity, Gabriel cried aloud to you, O Mother of God, “How can I praise you as I should? With what name shall I call you? I am at a loss and amazed; therefore as I was [...]

Father Simon Arvanitis (1901-1988)   Father Simon was born in 1901 in Koukouvaounes, Attica, Greece. At the age of 16 he went to Mount Athos with friends in order to receive the blessing of Metropolitan Nectarios (St Nectarios). The Saint took his hands and told him prophetically: “You will become a Spiritual Father and save souls”. Simon’s love for God grew, and at age 24 he secretly left his family to be tonsured a monk at the monastery of St Haralambos. However he longed to be a cave-dwelling hermit, and continually begged this from the Monastery elders. The elders prayed [...]

The Seven Holy Maccabee Martyrs   Tradition informs us that the seven Maccabee martyrs, Abim, Antonius, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Alimus and Marcellus, their mother Solomonia and their teacher Eleazar, suffered in the year 167 BC under the impious Syrian King Antiochus. The King compelled the people to not live by the laws of God: “A man could neither keep the Sabbath, nor observe the feasts of his fathers, nor simply confess himself to be a Jew” (2 Mac 6:6). Eleazar, a Jewish scribe, was forced to open his mouth to eat swine’s flesh, however he spat out the flesh and [...]

Surviving the difficult years   Dimitri was a gentle man who would rarely speak about his early years. He had grown up in north western Greece, in a mountain village near the Albanian border in the 1920s. His father had died when he was a young teenager and being the oldest of four boys, he became the main breadwinner of the family. His mother, Maria, was a generous and compassionate woman, but the harsh conditions of the village life and the absence of a strong male presence took its toll on her. She was often short tempered and took out [...]

A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos. Published by the Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, Greece, 2003 (2nd Edition)   A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain details a discussion between Metropolitan Heirotheos of Nafpaktos and a Holy Elder who lived in the solitary peaks of Mount Athos. The author, Metropolitan Hierotheos, at the request of the Elder with whom he speaks, purposefully maintains his anonymity. The book begins with a young Hierotheos traversing the peaks of Mount Athos searching for this unnamed Elder to satisfy his increasing thirst for God [...]