The Feast Day of all the Saints who have shone-forth in Thessaloniki

On Sunday, 30 April 2023, His Eminence Metropolitan Panteleimon of Veria, Naoussa and Kampania, officiated and preached the divine word at the Pilgrimage Church of Saint Dimitrios of Thessaloniki on the occasion of the feast of all the Saints who shone-forth in Thessaloniki.

His Eminence Metropolitan Panteleimon of Veria expressed his thanks to His All-Holiness Metropolitan Anthimos of Thessaloniki for his permission and blessing, as well as to the Head of the Holy Church of the Patron Saint Dimitrios the Myrrh-flowing, Archimandrite Damaskinos Petikas, for the noble invitation he extended to him and the hospitality.

In turn, the Proistamenos of the Holy Church Archimandrite Damaskinos Petikas warmly thanked the Metropolitan of Veria for his response to the invitation to preside over the celebration of the Synaxis of all the shining Saints of Thessaloniki, and for the multi-faceted work during his many years of ministry as head of the Holy Church and Chancellor of the Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki, and especially for his efforts and substantial contribution to the return of the holy and graceful relics of Saint Dimitrios to Thessaloniki.

During his speech, His Eminence Metropolitan Panteleimon of Veria mentioned among other things: “Today is the third Sunday since Pascha and our Holy Church not only continues to sing the victorious paean of the Resurrection of our Lord, the “Christ is risen from the Dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs He has granted life”, but continues to present us with witnesses of our Risen Saviour and Redeemer.

And if last Sunday we saw the apostle Thomas placing his finger on the mark of the nails and on the pierced side of his Master and confessing, “My Lord and my God,” giving the testimony of the Resurrection, during today’s Sunday the myrrh-bearing women take the baton, Joseph of Arimathea and the night-disciple of the Lord Nicodemus, and they proclaim that Christ did indeed rise from the grave and appear on the morning of the first day of the week to these pious and devoted beings, who went to offer the myrrh of their love and reverence to their beloved Master and Teacher.

However, witnesses of the Resurrection of the Lord are not only those who saw him resurrected from the day of his glorious Resurrection until the day of his glorious Ascension into heaven. They are also all those who walked their lives in the light of the Resurrection, lived as faithful and devoted disciples of the Saviour and Redeemer of their souls, and proclaimed with their words and works, with their life and death the joyful message of Christ’s Resurrection.

That is why it is not accidental or coincidental that during today’s Sunday of the Myrrhbearing women, the Apostolic Church of Thessaloniki also honours the numerous choir of all its shining and God-pleasing saints, from the first and heavenly apostle Paul, the founder of the Church, to its patron saint the great martyr and myrrh-flowing Dimitrios, but also its holy hierarchs, Paul and Philotheos “Kokkinos”, the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Eustathius of Thessaloniki, Gregory Palamas and Symeon of Thessaloniki, the devout excelling in asceticism, first of all Saint David the Dendrite, the faithful and Myrrh-flowing Theodora and the daughter of Theopistus, and the holy Euthymius the Younger, and the whole multitude of the holy martyrs and neo-martyrs, the devout and the ascetics, the disciples of Saint Dimitrios, Agapis, Irini and Chionias, Nestor and Lupus.

The Church honours and celebrates them, because they too, ” being bearers of myrrh” offered the Risen Lord the fragrance of their reverence and love and proclaimed the miracle of his Resurrection. Because the toils and sufferings endured by the great apostle Paul and his fellow Thessalonian apostles, in order to preach the Gospel of Christ and to proclaim that “Christ is risen from the dead … and death no longer has dominion over Him”, were a fragrance of reverence for the sake of the Risen Lord.

The struggles and pains of the holy and God-bearing fathers and hierarchs in order to form Christ in the souls of the noble Thessalonians and also to deal with the various censures of the heretics, were a fragrance of reverence towards the Risen leader and director of our faith.

The blood of the holy glorious martyrs and neo-martyrs, who sacrificed their lives for the sake of their faith and love for Him, “so that they may receive a better resurrection” was a scent of reverence towards the Risen Christ.

The tears, the sweat, the vigils, the sufferings and the patience of the faithful ascetics and monks, men and women, for the sake of the Risen Lord, were also a scent of reverence.

And with all this, with their death and life, with their holiness and martyrdom, with their writings and good works, they carried along with the holy myrrh-bearing women, with the  respected member of the council, Joseph of Arimathea, and the night disciple of the Lord, Nicodemus, the message of the Resurrection from generation to generation until today, until our time, in which modern man is anxious about both life and death, anxiety about his present and his future.

However, the message of the Holy Myrrh-bearers, but also of all the saints who shone in Thessaloniki and were pleasing to God, whom the Church of Thessalonica honours today, is nothing more than “the joyous proclamation of the Resurrection”, the message that the Resurrection of Christ is also the resurrection of all those who believe in Him, it is the cause of the joy and optimism of believers, because it gives us hope and perspective not only earthly but also heavenly, not only temporary but also eternal.

And proof of the truth of the Resurrection is also the holy choir of all the saints who shone-forth in Thessaloniki and were pleasing to God, who surround the city and protect its pious clergy and people.

I feel especially grateful to God, who is glorified in his saints, and to the celebrated saints, because I had the joy and blessing to officiate on this Sunday in this beautiful holy Church of our patron saint, the Great Martyr Dimitrios the Myrrh-flower, and to con-celebrate together with you, together with the Myrrh-bearers and the saints of our city, Thessaloniki.

For this, I thank from the bottom of my heart and with great gratitude the Proistamenos of the holy Church, Father Damaskinos, for his noble invitation, and I express my gratitude to His All-Holiness Metropolitan Anthimos of Thessaloniki, for his permission, blessing and love. And I humbly wish that the message of the Resurrection will fill the souls of all of us and that the grace of all the saints in Thessaloniki will always protect and strengthen us”.

More photos: