One week after our parish's feast day, we had another feast day at our chapel of the Archangels. Originally, it was a separate parish here in Portaria. The old church was severely damaged by a German bomb in WWII. After the war, the parishioners fixed a roof so that the chapel could continue to be used somewhat. When the current hotel, Xenia Palace, was built next to it, they also rebuilt the church, according to the same style, although slightly smaller. The dimensions are the same, except that they turned some of the inside area into a covered exo-narthex area. You can see the chapel above, from the southwest corner.
The altar.
Censing during "Lord I have cried," taken from outside the main entrance on the west.
Before the artoklasia, since there are some misconceptions about the angels, I read a homily with details from the Fathers about who they are and how they operate.
We spent all week cleaning up the church, and the eve of the feast, with artoklasia, drew an enormous crowd. I found the original festal icon from the chapel, dating to 1860. Below, you can see a young boy holding it during the artoklasia.
At the end of the service, I asked people to consider donating in order to restore the original icon of the archangels. Thank God, someone volunteered the next day to give the money for restoration (each icon is generally about 100 euros).
Here's a photo of the quiet before the beginning of Orthros on the day of the feast.
The chapel's other main feast, according to the village's tradition, is St. Modestos on December 18.
No comments:
Post a Comment