The Synaxis of Saint George Karslidis in Drama, Greece
With reverence and due magnificence, the faithful Saint-loving people of Drama celebrated the Synaxis of Saint George Karslidis, the new Confessor, which has been established to be honoured on the Fourth Sunday of Lent.
On Friday afternoon, 28 March 2025, the reception of the reliquary of Saint George from the Holy Monastery of the Ascension of the Saviour (Sipsa) took place at the Church of Saint Nicholas in Drama. Following this, the Service of the Fourth Stanza of the Salutations to the Theotokos was chanted by the students of the Drama Music School, and was officiated by His Eminence Metropolitan Theoklitos of Stagoi and Meteora.
On Saturday, 29 March, the Great feast day Vespers was celebrated, officiated by His Eminence Metropolitan Theoklitos of Stagoi and Meteora, and co-officiated by Their Eminences, Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Messinia, and Metropolitan Dorotheos of Drama.
On Sunday, the Fourth of Lent, the Synaxis of Saint George was celebrated with a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy presided over by His Eminence Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Messinia, and concelebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Theoklitos of Stagoi and Meteora, and the local hierarch, Metropolitan Dorotheos of Drama. Before the dismissal of the Divine Liturgy, the encomiums of Saint George Karslidis were chanted, and the procession of the Holy Relics followed, despite the rain.
His Eminence Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Messinia, in his homily during the Service of the Salutations to the Theotokos, referred to the institution of motherhood according to the example of the Theotokos, while in his address-interpretation of the Sunday Gospel, he referred to prayer and fasting as necessary means for our attachment to Christ, according to the example of Saint George Karslidis.
The Saint’s reliquary was accompanied in procession, with ecclesiastical order and splendour, by priests of the city, the abbess Gerontissa Porphyria and the nuns of the Holy Monastery of the Ascension, political and military authorities, representatives of school and cultural associations and a multitude of believers, who waited patiently to venerate the gracious Holy Relics.
