The Monastery of Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene, Griva, Goumenissa, and a "Resurrection" by the Saint

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene the Newly-revealed (source)

   

A “Resurrection” by St. Raphael

On June 21^st 1995, 46 year old Katerina N. T., an inhabitant of Kalamarias, Thessaloniki, after a terrible car accident, was transferred to the Hospital “Papanikolaou” with a serious cranioencephalic condition: her skull on her forehead was traumatized, and her meninges, blood and soil were mixed together on her forehead. After five hours in the operating room, they took her to the ICU. Objectively, the doctors did not give her any hope of living, not even one in a million, and they said that if she would live, she would be a “vegetable”. Her relatives, full of agony regarding her state, but also with deep faith, all night entreated St. Raphael.

The next day they learned that there would be a vigil at the Holy Hesychasterion of the Precious Forerunner, Metamorphosi, Chalkidiki, where they took part and gave her name to be commemorated in the Holy Proskomidi [Oblation]. They left with souls less burdened, full of hope in God, even though the medical state of the sick woman was hopeless.

The next evening, the medical information was disheartening. Some doctor told them that the cranioencephalic damage was so severe that he could not leave them any hope, other than if she could get a “head transplant”! The mother, when she returned to the ICU after a few days, could not recognize her daughter if the nurse had not pointed her out to her!

Sunday June 25^th, they went in the morning to the Monastery of St. Raphael in Griva of Goumenissa. The Metropolitan of Goumenissa, Demetrios, was serving Divine Liturgy, and he told them not to loose hope, but to entreat the Saint, and he will work his miracle, as so many unbelievable miracles had occurred up to that point. They kneeled with tears and prayed in the Paraklesis which they asked to be served after the Divine Liturgy. They took holy oil and water. They then descended to the Holy Monastery of Panagia in Goumenissa, and were received with pain of soul before the wonderworking icon that this miracle might occur.

Daily they served Paraklesis to St. Raphael and to other saints in Thessaloniki. In the daily Divine Liturgies and holy Paraklesis services at the Monastery, they would continuously remember the name of the sick woman.

On July 2^nd and 9^th, both Sundays, at dawn all her relatives again ascended to the Holy Monastery for Divine Liturgy, and gave a prosphoro with the name of the sick woman, praying with deep faith and hope, kneeling with tears in the Paraklesis after the Divine Liturgy.

On July 9^th, there happened to also be a busload of pilgrims from Kozani who also prayed with them fervently, chanting along with them “Lord have mercy” in the Paraklesis.

The next day, after 18 days in the ICU, the sick woman recovered! The miracle had occurred. The objectively negative scientific prognostications were reversed! And while the previous days there was a significant risk of meningitis or stroke, ultimately, the Grace of God prevented these dangers. They transferred her to the Neurosurgical Clinic, from which she was discharged. When she recovered somewhat, they ascended as a family to the Monastery and had Divine Liturgy served.

She entered the Hospital again for plastic surgical repair of the bone of her forehead on September 20^th, and again, on October 10^th for another procedure on her eye and on her jaw. All of the surgeries were successful. After the most recent test, Professor F. confirmed that there was no more problem, despite her near death adventure.

In August, the woman who was healed, one night in her sleep saw that someone was knocking on her door, and opening it, she saw St. Raphael. She entreated him to come into her home to help her, but the Saint told her: “You don't have any more need, you are no longer in danger.” She awoke full of joy for the protection of the Saint.

And her husband was made worthy to see the Saint once in his dream fully alive in their house, for the first time. In the beginning, he did not understand who he was, and he was afraid of this unexpected visitor. The Saint blessed him, telling him to not be afraid, because he came for their good.

The whole family confesses the great miracle which St. Raphael worked for Katerina. They visit the Monastery routinely, to express their deep thanks to this wonderworking Saint of God.

Several times, it happened that the policeman Demetrios T. was also present as a pilgrim together with his family. He was the policeman who first raced with his car to meet the scene of the accident. Seeing her state, he could not believe that she could be saved, and however, with deep faith, he crossed her with holy oil of St. Raphael, which he always keeps with him in his car, and he entreated for his intercessions for her.

It is true that this event was a “resurrection”. Our brother and friend who is a surgeon in that Hospital ICU said clearly: “I remember at that time three 'corpses'; one of them was raised!”

(amateur translation of text from source)

   

The Holy Monastery of St. Raphael, Griva, Goumenissa (source)

  

The Monastery of Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene, Griva, Goumenissa, Greece

The Holy Monastery of St. Raphael is found on the verdant slope of the Paikou Mountain, at a height of 600 meters, with a view of the valley of Axiou, in the area of Griva, 7km from Goumenissa, Kilkis [about 1 hour from Thessaloniki].

It is a men's monastery. It was founded in 1992 by the Metropolitan of Goumenissa Demetrios and his synodeia, and it is the fruit of a special reverence towards the newly-revealed martyred Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene, who appeared during our era (1959-1962), 500 years after their martyrdom.

It celebrates on the Tuesday of Bright Week (Monday evening to Tuesday morning after Pascha), on the day when the Saints were perfected in martyrdom in Thermi of Lesvos, 1463. Furthermore, they also especially celebrate the feasts of the Holy Myrrhbearers, and St. Basil the Great, to whom are offered chapels in their honor in the original building complex of the Monastery.

The Katholikon of the Monastery (source)

   

The main church of the Monastery (the “Katholikon”) is dedicated to Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene. There are also two chapels dedicated to Sts. Peter and Paul, and to the Apostle Andrew.

Special care was given to the architecture of the church which joins the Athonite form with designs from Constantinople (a central dome, four surrounding domes, a dome above the Holy Altar, choirs, chapels, a dome in the narthex, and an external patio).

Due to the complex and costly construction, the church is still not fully finished. For the completion of the church, donations can be sent to the Ethniki Trapeza 250/601365-19.

In the Monastery are preserved portions of the Holy Relics of: Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene, St. Mary Magdalene the Myrrhbearer, and a small portion of the Precious Cross, given by the Blessed Patriarch Diodoros of Jerusalem to Metropolitan Demetrios.

The Holy Relics of Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene treasured by the Monastery (source)

   

Liturgical program:

Divine Liturgy daily until 9AM, Sundays until 10AM.

Vespers and Paraklesis: 5PM.

Holy Unction: The first Sunday of every month, after Vespers.

Feasts:

St. Raphael: Tuesday after Pascha

St. Basil (Divine Liturgy on January 1^st)

Finding of the Relic of St. Nicholas (Divine Liturgy on June 13^th)

Sts. Peter and Paul the Apostles (Divine Liturgy on June 29^th)

The Veneration of the Precious Cross (September 14^th)

St. Andrew the Apostle (Divine Liturgy on November 30^th)

Vigils (8PM-2AM):

The Finding of the Relic of St. Raphael (June 22-23)

St. Mary Magdalene (July 21-22)

The Finding of the icon of the Christ Pantocrator (August 1-2)

St. Catherine (November 24-25)

The Monastery remains open from 7AM until sunset.

Fervent request to pilgrims:

The Monastery is a place of Divine Worship, honor of the Holy Martyrs, and prayer and ascesis of the monks. Because of this, please respect the holiness of the place, and the religious consciences of the other pilgrims.

Do not come to the Monastery with improper clothing (e.g. women with low-necked garments, short skirts, pants, and any provocative outfits, and men with shorts).

The Monastery has many publications (including many miracles of the Saints) and many recordings of services. See the link below for some of the titles.

Address:

The Holy Monastery of St. Raphael,

Griva, 613 00 Goumenissa

Telephone: 23.430-20.270

Fax: 23.430-20.271

Email: agiosrafailgriva [at] gmail.com

(source)

   

Litany with the icon and holy relics of Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene (source)

   

Christ is risen from the dead, by dead, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life! Truly the Lord is risen!

Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

The Resurrection of Christ (source)

   

If any be a devout lover of God,
  let him partake with gladness from this fair and radiant feast.
If any be a faithful servant,
  let him enter rejoicing into the joy of his Lord.
If any have wearied himself with fasting,
  let him now enjoy his reward.
If any have laboured from the first hour,
  let him receive today his rightful due.
If any have come after the third,
  let him celebrate the feast with thankfulness.
If any have come after the sixth,
  let him not be in doubt, for he will suffer no loss.
If any have delayed until the ninth,
  let him not hesitate but draw near.
If any have arrived only at the eleventh,
  let him not be afraid because he comes so late.
For the Master is generous and accepts the last even as the first.
He gives rest to him who comes at the eleventh hour
  in the same was as him who has laboured from the first.
He accepts the deed, and commends the intention.
Enter then, all of you, into the joy of our Lord.
First and last, receive alike your reward.
Rich and poor, dance together.
You who fasted and you who have not fasted, rejoice together.
The table is fully laden: let all enjoy it.
The calf is fatted: let none go away hungry.
Let none lament his poverty;
  for the universal Kingdom is revealed.
Let none bewail his transgressions;
  for the light of forgiveness has risen from the tomb.
Let none fear death;
  for death of the Saviour has set us free.
He has destroyed death by undergoing death.
He has despoiled hell by descending into hell.
He vexed it even as it tasted of His flesh.
Isaiah foretold this when he cried:
Hell was filled with bitterness when it met Thee face to face below;
  filled with bitterness, for it was brought to nothing;
  filled with bitterness, for it was mocked;
  filled with bitterness, for it was overthrown;
  filled with bitterness, for it was put in chains.
Hell received a body, and encountered God. It received earth, and confronted heaven.
O death, where is your sting?
O hell, where is your victory?
Christ is risen! And you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is risen! And the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is risen! And the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen! And life is liberated!
Christ is risen! And the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be Glory and Power, now and forever, and from all ages to all ages.
Amen!
(source)
   

Christ is risen from the dead, by dead, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life! Truly the Lord is risen!

The Holy Light of the Resurrection from the Holy Sepulcher 2014

Glory to God that once again, the miracle of the Holy Light has wondrously come to us from the Tomb of Christ, through the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos. See the video above, and here for more information on the great annual wonder of Christ to His Orthodox Church.
 

Come receive the Light, from the unwaning Light, and give glory to Christ, Who has risen from the grave!

St. Theophan the Recluse on the Cross

The Crucifixion of Christ (source)

   

The Lord accomplished our salvation by His death on the Cross: on the Cross He tore up the handwriting of our sins; through the Cross He reconciled us with our God and Father; and through the Cross He brought down upon us grace-filled gifts and all heavenly blessings. But this is the Lord's Cross itself. Each of us becomes a partaker of its salvific power in no other way than through our personal cross. When the personal cross of each of us is united with Christ's Cross, the power and effect of the latter is transferred to us and becomes, as it were, a conduit through which every good gift and every perfect gift (James 1:17) is poured forth upon us from the Cross of Christ. From this it is evident that the personal cross of each of us is as essential to the work of salvation as the Cross of Christ.

 St. Theophan the Recluse, from: "Homily on the Bearing of the Cross", (source)

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

St. Maximos the Confessor on the "Man bearing a pitcher of water", and the Mystical Supper

The Mystical Supper (source)

 

Question: In the Gospel, who is the man in the city bearing a pitcher of water? Why water, and why are the disciples told that they’ll meet him and are to follow him? Who’s the master of the house? Why don’t the Gospel writers mention his name? What is the large upper room where a table’s been laid and in which the dread mystery of the Last Supper takes place?

   

Answer:  It’s not only the name of the man to whom the two disciples were sent to prepare the Passover which isn’t mentioned in Scripture, but the name of the city, too. So, an initial attempt at interpretation might be that the city denotes the perceptible world and the man symbolizes the human race in general, to whom the disciples of God the Word are being sent. The law of the Old Testament and the law of the New are sent as precursors to prepare His mystical feast with the human race. The former, through asceticism, cleanses our nature of every stain; whereas the latter, through the mystagogy of contemplation, elevates the mind, with its cognitive power, away from the corporeal and towards visions related to what is spiritually intelligible.

   

An indication of this is that the disciples who were sent were Peter and John. Because Peter is a symbol of action, John of contemplation. This is why it’s appropriate that they’re met first by the man bearing the pitcher of water, who symbolizes all those who, passing through the stage of practical philosophy, bear upon their shoulders the virtues, just as, within the pitcher, and with the mortification of the earthly members of their body, they also bear the grace of the Holy Spirit which, through their faith, cleanses them of every taint.

   

After him, they encounter the master of the house who shows them to the upper room, where a table has been spread. He, again, symbolizes all those who, being in the stage of contemplation, have embellished their pure and elevated intellect with sublime concepts of knowledge and with dogmas, just as the upper room had been prepared, in order to welcome the great Word in a godly manner.

   

Finally, the house itself is permanent residence in godliness, to which the practical mind in pursuit of virtue is progressing. The lord of this permanent godliness, which is now its natural possession, is the intellect illumined by the divine light of mystical knowledge. This is why, together with the practical, the supernatural presence of the Word the Saviour is required at the feast.

   

The word ‘man’ is used only once in the narrative, even though it refers to two persons: the one who’s described as bearing a pitcher of water and the other who’s the master of the house. As I say, it’s used once to refer to two person, perhaps because the one nature which they have in common is divided into the practical and the contemplative, as far as godliness is concerned. The Word, Who unites them spiritually, takes them and manifests them as one.

   

Again, if we want to attribute what’s been said to each person individually, we won’t have strayed from the truth. Because the city is the soul of each of us, to which words concerning virtue and knowledge are constantly being sent, as were the disciples of the Word. The man bearing the pitcher of water is the patient manner and thought that keeps high on the shoulders of self-restraint the unaltered grace of faith which was granted at baptism. And the house is that state of the permanent acquisition of the virtues which has been constructed as it were from many and varied stones, that is unshakeable and bold thoughts and habits.

   

The upper room is the broad and spacious mind and the intellect’s ability for cognitive power, which has been bedecked with divine visions of mystical and arcane dogmas. And the master of the house is the intellect which opens wide and is adorned with the trappings of the house, which means virtue, with the height, beauty and breadth of spiritual knowledge, too. And it is to this that the Word offers Himself at a repast, having first sent His disciples, that is, the initial spiritual notions concerning nature and time.

Easter, then, is truly the coming of the Word to our human intellect, when He Who comes, in mystic manner, the Word of God, grants fulfilment to all those worthy of it, through the offer of participation in His own good things.

(Σταυρός και Ανάσταση, Akritas Publications, pp. 84-7; Source-Pemptousia.com)

   

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

Excerpt from Homily III of St. John Chrysostom on the Raising of Lazarus

The Raising of Lazarus (source)

 
Excerpt from Homily III of St. John Chrysostom on the Raising of Lazarus (amateur translation)
The light of Lazarus was dissolved, and they were called to hasten to show the road towards him who was in burial clothes, who after four days was rotting in the tombs, whose bowels were largely consumed by the worms, whose harmony of the body was utterly dissolved, and who was a witness of decay, being placed foul-smelling in a tomb. But, [Christ,] the Breathing of life, and the Fragrance of the dead, provided a solution from the bowels [of His compassion]. The tomb became a womb, and as a womb giving birth, thus from the tomb arose the newly-formed Lazarus.

O new working of a wonder! A man returns to us in life, being carried out of the tomb in burial clothes, like a child wrapped in swaddling clothes. For the voice of the Master was recognized by the dead man, Who called him out of the grave with his burial clothes. “Lazarus,” He said, “come out.” And speedily the voice was heard by the dead man, and all the members quickened in the grave. To his own eyes returned order again, his own nose took its place, to the place where there was formerly the sign of his mouth, his tongue was placed, and his head breathed, and his pair of hands joyously began to move, as the harmonious number of his fingers took their order, and his nerves were reattached, and his bones were recreated, and his veins began to fill, his marrow was reformed, his tissue was rewoven, his hair was replaced. Slowly I traced the path of the members. But as a horse from the starting gate, thus the voice of the Master roused the dead man to leap up. “Lazarus, come forth.” Before He said, "arise", He provided an exit out towards the road, so that when He later resurrected him, then the resurrected one might then run straightaway.

Why did you proclaim the exit before the resurrection, O Master? I prepared the way, He says, that the dead man might not be engaged twice, wasting time at the exit. I did not tell him, "arise, and come out", but with greater haste, he receives resurrection and a path with one command. Then, Lazarus burst forth from the tomb, as protected under the wing, the dead man who was laid in the tomb.

Hades below, beholding the dead man being given up, cried out: “Who is this voice, which raises the dead from the tombs as if awakening from sleep? Who is this who dissolves the former laws of the dead? Who is this who preaches such a revolt, preferring that the dead be returned? Who is this who hastens to bring the dead towards life? Who is this who easily dissolves my bonds on the dead? Who is this, who tramples upon the writ of my dead? As I see, I hold the scepter of tyranny over men, but my unsound prison of death has gone from me. Elias raised the dead man to the joy of that woman. Elissaeus seized from me double the number of dead. But this is more bitter to me, because he has returned one of the dead, stealing one of the rotting dead, and therefore there is the danger that He will have authority over [all] the rotting dead. I am deprived, therefore of the dead man which I obtained. He conquered me, as the four-days-dead body with its burial clothes is beheld by those still living. I am trampled upon, therefore, together with the burial clothes, as a dead man is seized from me. Who, therefore, will be moved by that which I said, by the rotting dead man who conquered me, as I became like one simply standing by, guarding the dead?"
(source)
 

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

St. Porphyrios on Asceticism in the World

(source)

 
"Orthodox asceticism is not only for monasteries, but also for the world. Prayer within the church, full services, and the glorification of God in the spirit of love are a great blessing. You should know how many souls are tortured by the passions, and how much they are comforted near the love of Christ!"
-St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
(source)
 

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!