The Feast Day of Saint Spyridon, Bishop of Trimythous, the wonderworker, at the Patriarchate of Jerusalem
On Wednesday, December 12th/25th, 2024, the memory of our Holy Father Spyridon, Bishop of Trimythous the Wonderworker, was celebrated in his holy Monastery, located within the walls of Damascus.
On this feast day, the Church remembers St. Spyridon from Cyprus. He lived during the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great and his son Constantius. He was a married priest and the father of a daughter, living as a shepherd of sheep. After the death of his wife, he became a shepherd of rational sheep in his Christian and priestly vocation. He was elected Bishop of Trimythous, a historic city on the island of Cyprus, the first episcopate of St. Lazarus, the friend of our Lord Jesus Christ, during the early Christian years. God granted him the gift of miracles and prophecy through his virtues, holiness, and Christ-like shepherding. As the Church sings in his Apolytikion: “Thou wast a champion of the First Council and a wonderworker, O God-bearing Father Spyridon”. He defended the one essence of the Son with God the Father at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325, “Thou didst speak to one dead in the grave, and change a serpent to gold; and while thou wast chanting the holy prayers the Angels were serving with thee. Glory to Him Who has glorified thee; glory to Him Who has crowned thee; glory to Him Who through thee works healings for all”.
By divine grace, his holy relics remain incorrupt and are kept at the shrine named after him in Corfu, brought from Constantinople after its fall to the Ottomans in 1453, to offer aid, support, and healing to the pilgrims who approach him with reverence.
In his honour, Vespers was held in the evening and the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the morning at his holy Church, with His Eminence Metropolitan Joachim of Helenopolis presiding, assisted by the Overseer of the Typikon of the Monastery of the Holy Sepulchre Brotherhood, Archimandrite Alexios, the Hegoumen of the Monastery of the Holy Cross, Archimandrite Christodoulos (at Vespers), and the Presbyter of the Holy Church of St. James the Brother of the Lord, Fr. Charalambos Bandour, as well as Hierodeacon Simeon. The chanting was delivered by Mr. Eustathios Tsoumanis and the students of the Patriarchal School of Sion, while many monks, nuns, and Christians from the Old City of Jerusalem and other towns prayed with great reverence.
During the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem visited the Holy Monastery with members of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre. The Patriarchal and Episcopal entourage and the congregation were warmly received by the Hegoumen, Archimandrite Philoumenos, who is dedicated to the upkeep and beauty of the House of God.
From the General Secretariat
Source: Patriarchate of Jerusalem
