Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Babies Visit Elder Paisios

An English friend of the Lillies, a convert to Orthodoxy in Oxford back in the 60s, comes regularly to Greece to visit the Holy Mountain. When he came back to Thessaloniki to get a flight home this time, however, the volcano in Iceland changed his plans. After trying to for several days to find an alternative way to get home, he finally resigned himself to waiting it out. After about a week, he managed to get a flight back to England on Sunday. On Saturday afternoon, then, before he left, we took him and the babies for a visit to Elder Paisios' monastery in Souroti.

Above, you can see Phoebe playing at the entrance to the main church dedicated to St. Arsenios the Cappadocian. The babies also got to venerate his relic inside the church.

The babies playing at the entrance to the church. The nuns broadcast the services out into this courtyard area through speakers. We were there during Vespers.

The babies also venerated the grave of Elder Paisios. In the photos above and below, you can see the Elder's grave in the background.

Here's Benjamin crawling around the monastery.

For a couple more photos, click here.

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