Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk visits the Iveron Monastery and Xilourgou scete on Mount Athos
On 13th February 2014 Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, who is visiting Mount Athos with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, arrived at the Iveron Monastery. After a talk with archimandrite Nathaniel, hegumen of the monastery, the DECR chairman read Akathistos in the Greek language before the Iveron miraculous icon of the Mother of God. Later, he met with archimandrite Baselios, the former hegumen, who shared his impressions of the conference ‘St. Isaac the Syrian and His Spiritual Heritage’, held in Moscow last October.
On February 14, Metropolitan Hilarion officiated at the Divine Liturgy in the church in which the miraculous icon is kept. Brethren of the monastery and clergymen who accompanied him concelebrated.
That same day the pilgrims went by foot to the Stavronikita Monastery. They venerated the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas and visited the church with frescoes by the famous Theophanes of Crete, a leading icon painter of the Cretan school in the sixteenth century, and by his son Simeon.
Later, the pilgrims went to Karyes, the capital of Mount Athos, where the met with, the protos, hieromonk Simeon, who presented Metropolitan Hilarion with a book about the Athonite monasteries. The head of the Holy Kinot was presented with “The Mystery of Faith,’ a book by Metropolitan Hilarion in the Greek language.
After the talk, the pilgrims prayed before an icon of the Theotokos called ‘It is Meet’ in the Cathedral of the Dormition.
That same day Metropolitan Hilarion visited the Xilourgou scete, the first Russian abode on Athos, and talked with hieromonk Simeon, who gave a thorough description of the restoration work and noted that during his visit to the Holy Mountain in 2013 His Holiness Patriarch Kirill had paid special attention to the necessity of the soonest revival of the scete due to the upcoming celebration of the millennium of the Russian presence on Mt. Athos.
Source: Moscow Patriarchate
