Presvytera Pelagia celebrated her name day yesterday on October 8. To celebrate, we held a vigil Monday night from 9:00 PM - 1:00 AM in our recently renovated side chapel to St. Anthony. I found the complete service dedicated to St. Pelagia the Former Courtesan (read her incredible life here). I hope to translate at least her apolytikion soon. Of course, the general apolytikion with her name is available in English in the Menaion, but not the one written specifically for her.
As you can see in the photo above, since we celebrated St. Phoebe's feast here one month ago, we removed the old roll-on fake wood flooring and put traditional Pelion stones on the floor. We also painted and cleaned generally.
For the vigil, we used only oil lamps and candles. It was beautiful, but my eyes hurt a bit the next day.
As you can see in this photo, we put in a little electric heater to keep the small chapel warm. Since the first of October, the weather has turned decidedly cold and rainy. I believe they dedicated both side chapels to winter feasts at least part because it was more practical to heat them. (The other side chapel on the south side is dedicated to St. Athanasius and St. Tryphon. I hope to similarly renovate that chapel with new flooring and a paint job, if we have sufficient donations.)
The chapel was packed from the beginning until the very end of the vigil.
We also restored this old icon from 1862 of St. Anthony and St. Theodore and put it in the chapel. Above is the icon "before" -- you can see in this photo some small squares where they did examples of what it would look like when cleaned. And then the "after" photo.
We also restored this old icon from 1862 of St. Anthony and St. Theodore and put it in the chapel. Above is the icon "before" -- you can see in this photo some small squares where they did examples of what it would look like when cleaned. And then the "after" photo.
Next up is Benjamin's feast day on Sunday.
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