In Kytheri on 30 July 2021
P R O M O T E R A T I O N O F T H E E C O M M U N I C A T I O N
(No 201/2021)
To
The Holy Clergy and
Christonymos Laon
of our Holy Metropolis
Kythira and Antikythira
«Over the sun, the holy cross is lighted,
as a ray of wonders projected, and as
the shot of a gun, and men shall come, who
in the darkness of suffering, continuing always...»
(Stanza of the Feast of the Presentation of the Holy Cross)
My dear brothers and fellow ministers,
My Christian brothers, my beloved children in the Lord,
Rejoice in the Lord always.
We have arrived, together with the Lord, at the beginning of the holy season of the Fifteenth of August and our Holy Orthodox Catholic Church urges us to observe the fast of this short period with reverence and willingness. And through penance and the alternating Holy Prayers, the great and the small and all the other devotional opportunities, to greet and honour in a proper way the great feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
1. The first feast of this holy season of the Fifteenth of August is the progress of the Holy and Living Cross, namely the commemoration of the Litany of the Holy Wood in Constantinople. We copy from the Holy Synaxarion of 1of August the following, which we quote in plain language: «Because of the diseases occurring during the month of August, as a matter of fact, it was an old custom in Constantinople to carry the Holy Cross of the Cross in the streets and squares on these days for the sanctification of the place and the relief from infectious diseases. And on the day before yesterday, after taking it out of the royal treasury, they placed it on the Holy Altar of the Great Church. (of the now desecrated by the Agarene Aghia Sophia of Constantinople by converting it into a Muslim mosque). On this day and until the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, after the Holy Wood was distributed throughout the city, it was then placed in the pilgrimage of the people. And this is the so-called progress of the Holy Cross».
How much this Tradition of the Litany of the Holy Wood to the Queen should teach us in our difficult days, when we are facing the epidemic of the infectious disease of coronavirus!
2. But also the other feast of the first of August, The sacred memory of the seven children of Maccabees, after their mother Solomon and their teacher Eleazar gives us great saving messages.
We read in the Holy Synaxarion of that day: «The holy children of Maccabees were Jews by birth and keepers of the patron laws (of the Jewish tradition), and lived in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes king of Syria (2os centuries before Christ), who was a bitter enemy of the Jews. This king, having enslaved the whole Jewish nation and having done many evils, even to these holy things of religion, forcing them to eat, along with the rest, pork, which was forbidden by the Mosaic law. Then these pious children of Maccabees, after they had been arrested with their mother Solomon and their teacher Eleazar, and were oppressed to break the laws of their religion, were subjected to a myriad of tortures, such as a tyrannical mind and a savage soul can invent.
And the seven brothers with their teacher Eleazar, after having bravely endured everything and demonstrated in practice that good reasoning is the emperor of the passions and can defeat them, if it will, they gloriously suffered a martyr's death by the tortures that were inflicted on them, after they sacrificed their lives for the observance of the divine law. First the elderly teacher Eleazar sinned, and then all the seven brothers, from the eldest to the youngest. And their admirable mother Solomon, full of a brave spirit and the weak calculation of the theleos, after she had stirred him up with the anger of the male, was present at the triumph of her children against the tyrant, as she strengthened each of them in the holy war for the faith, and bore with a brave heart their sufferings for their hopes which they had in the Lord. And when she saw her youngest son also finished (supported the martyr's death), she too falls last into the fire and is claimed together with her children to receive the blessed end in the year 168 B.C.».
Oh how godly and godly nursing, godliness and upbringing of these Maccabean children by their pious and godly mother Solomon, this excellent and unparalleled pedagogue and educator! Oh what a wise and enviable manipulation and education of these blessed brothers by the pious and enviable teacher Eleazar and pedagogue! And
3. However, today's first day of August, which is designated as the month of the Holy Virgin, has another important feast, the holy memory of Saint Hoseparanth Martyr Eleni, patroness and curator of the Holy Monastery of the same name and of the island of Kythera.
God's gift to Saint Elesa in the then uninhabited (375 AD), due to the pirate raids, island of Kythera. Daughter of the pagan ruler of Elladi and his pious wife Eugenia, Elesa was the fruit of the merciful prayers of her mother, who was sterile until then, and who made a vow to the Lord and our God Jesus Christ to dedicate her to Christ and the Church.
This blessed daughter Elesa was conceived by her pious and virtuous mother Eugenia «in the nurture and admonition of the Lord» and together with the breast milk she also received «the reasonable and precious milk of faith.». However, at the age of 14, her pious mother, foreseeing her demise to the Lord, called Elisha to her and after instructing her to remain firm and steadfast in the holy faith of Christ and not to be influenced by the impiety and the pagan delusion of her father, he foresaw her martyrdom as a bride of Christ and left her his motherly blessing.
Her father took care to restore his daughter Elisha by marrying her to the best lord, but his daughter refused any proposal of marriage, wishing to be dedicated to her heavenly Bridegroom Jesus Christ. And when her father left their home for a time for commercial purposes, she found the opportunity to emigrate to the then uninhabited island of Kythera to live the monastic life dedicated to the Lord. Returning to his home, Archon Helladios learned of his daughter's departure to Kythera and immediately went to the island in search of her. When he met her, he begged her with tears to return to their home, but his pleas were in vain. Elesa was adamant in her refusal to return to their homeland, saying that it was impossible for her to live with her pagan and irreligious father, since she was a baptized Christian. Enraged by the persistent refusal of Elisha, Helladius seized her by the tentacles of her head, threw her to the ground and beat her with a rod, until he struck her down. At last Elisha escaped from her father's hands, and passed through the cleft of the rock, but he struck her from the other side of the rock, struck her with a stone in her forehead, and broke her teeth. Then this cowardly child murderer cut off her holy head with the sword, which was 1η August of the year 375 AD.
How great was the faith and virtue of Saint Elisha, how firm and steadfast she was in her decision to dedicate herself forever to Christ, but also how cruel and ruthless her wretched father was, blind and given to idolatry, as he preferred the inhuman murder of his daughter Helena to the respect of her choice to like her Bridegroom Jesus Christ!
My dear brothers,
The feast of the progress of the Holy Cross and the co-celebration of the holy seven Maccabean children after their mother Solomon, their teacher Eleazar and the holy Hoseparanth Martyr Eleni the Athosian in Kytheri have already opened this holy period of the 15th of August and strengthen us in this spiritual race of fasting and repentance. The power of the Holy and Life-giving Cross and the bright examples of piety, respect for the sacred Traditions of our Faith and self-sacrifice strengthen us in our holy spiritual struggle.
Through prayer, patience and perseverance, the Saints celebrated today have achieved the great deeds of their Faith, their perseverance in their holy beliefs, their confession of their faith to God and their martyrdom for the love of the true God.
With the same spiritual weapons of prayer, fasting, faith and patience, we too are called to struggle in the sacred stage of this short period of the 15th of August, but also in the coming new ecclesiastical year. Various serious problems are currently occupying our country: spiritual, educational, social, health, national, etc.
I will allow me to focus your attention in this Circular on the following burning issue, which has arisen from the coronavirus epidemic. Because of the vaccination of the population, which in theory and in accordance with the decisions of the European Council and other organisations is voluntary, but which in various services is made compulsory by law, there is a an alarming division of our Greek people into vaccinated and unvaccinated. The vaccinated are given privileges, special treatment and benefits by the State, while the unvaccinated are threatened with job cuts, wage stoppages and suspension of their health care until further notice, which are contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of our country and undermine constitutional freedom. If this is the way things are and proceed, then we will have first and second class citizens, which will be disastrous for our society and nation, as it will cause social imbalance and create insurmountable social problems. This acute problem is also highlighted by the frequent rallies in almost all the districts of our country, during which many vaccinated people protest against the «compulsory» application of the vaccine to other categories of workers, including children and young people.
This great issue of discrimination and the different treatment of the vaccinated and the unvaccinated is highlighted from a spiritual and social point of view and we urge those governing our nation to prevent it in time before it takes on huge proportions.
The Holy Synod, at its last session in July, declared that it cares for the unity and not the division of the People of God, will not impose the compulsory vaccination of the Clergy, as it was decreed, and recommended to the Christians to act accordingly, with the advice of their family doctor, on the matter of vaccination. However, within our Holy Church, the distinction between vaccinated and unvaccinated, masked and unmasked should never be applied. We are all children of our blessed Lord and God.
Εὐχόμενος, ὅθεν, πᾶσαν παρά τοῦ Τρισαγίου Θεοῦ ἡμῶν εὐλογίαν καί χαρίτωσιν ἡμῶν εἰς τήν σύντομον καί εὐλογημένην αὐτήν περίοδον τοῦ Δεκαπενταυγούστου καί τήν σκέπην καί προστασίαν τῆς Ἁγνῆς Θεομήτορος ἐφ’ ὑμᾶς, τούς οἰκείους καί συγγενεῖς καί τά πνευματικά σας τέκνα, διατελῶ,
Μετά πατρικῶν εὐχῶν καί εὐλογιῶν
The Metropolitan
† Seraphim of Kythira and Antikythira
