Wonderworking Theotokos icon honored at Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos
At Vatopedi on Mount Athos, on the feast of the Life-Giving Spring icon, the monks and clergy celebrated the Divine Liturgy and held a procession with the monastery’s wonderworking icon of the Mother of God.
On Bright Friday, the feast of the Icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Spring,” celebrations were held at the Athonite Monastery of Vatopedi in honor of the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God Elaiovrytissa – the Divine Liturgy was served, followed by a procession, Orthodoxia News Agency reports.
The feast is observed at the monastery every year in keeping with established Athonite tradition. On this day, monks and pilgrims gather to venerate the icon of Panagia Elaiovrytissa, which is especially revered at Vatopedi.
By tradition, the holy icon is carried from the docheion – the place where the oil is kept – to the monastery’s main church, the katholikon. There, a solemn Divine Liturgy is celebrated with the participation of the brotherhood and clergy.
After the service, a procession with the icon of the Mother of God takes place around the monastery grounds, during which prayers are offered.
Among those who took part in the celebrations were Fr. Nektarios Moulatsiotis, abbot of the Monastery of St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Seraphim of Sarov in Trikorfo, Phocis; Archimandrite Bartholomew Vogiazoglou, protosyncellus of the Archdiocese of Crete; as well as Athonite monks and clergy from various metropolises.
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that celebrations in honor of the Tripiti icon of the Mother of God were held in the Peloponnese.
