Tribute to the memorial day of the 179 Holy Fathers of Pantokrator Tao
Pascha Tuesday 17 April 2012
The annual commemoration of the 179 Holy Fathers was celebrated at the Holy Monastery of Pantokrator. This was the fourth year that the Holy Fathers were honoured in the new Church of the Monastery, which happens to be the first dedicated in memory of the 179 Holy Fathers.
The Holy Feast was headed by His Grace Bishop of Nazianzus Mr.Theodoritos. The Sacred Feast was framed by many priests of the Archdiocese of Athens.
Pilgrim Testimonies of the holy feast
"The Holy Fathers are attracting more and more people with their miraculous grace. What I experienced during the Holy Liturgy is indescribable. Grace, Light, Grandeur... but even their presence. I felt them right next to me. There were moments that my whole being was filled with emotion."
"It is a whole different thing reading about miracles and hearing about them with your own ears or even seeing them with your own eyes. Your faith becomes more solid and you become a different person. It is amazing how God glorifies those who have loved Him and have sacrificed their lives for Him. After the Divine Liturgy, we were all offered a treat and I started chatting with a couple of people who revealed their own personal experiences. The one was clinically dead in the intensive care unit, and the other had been suffering from metastatic bone cancer. Both healthy now, were narrating to me how the Holy Fathers had intervened and gave them back their health refuting the doctors. After such miracles how can one not believe?"
"We came to the Grace of the Saints. Some came to pray for their problems and others to venerate and thank the Saints for always being willing to help and intercede to God for us. Life is extremely difficult on a daily basis. But, we are not alone. At such trying times God has given us His Saints to console and strengthen us. The Holy Fathers of the Monastery are by our side. How touching it was to see so many people entering the Church holding the candle of gratitude in their hands."
"I did not know the Saints. My family and I went for a ride in our car when we suddenly got lost. And it was by "chance" that we ended up at the Monastery on the day of their commemoration. Now, isn't that a miracle?"
"I am a doctor. At the Hospital of Athens where I work, specifically in the Pathology-Anatomy Department, I personally witnessed two miracles within one month by these Holy Fathers and I could not resist. I decided to go and find them, and see for myself who these Saints were. We doctors, most of us at least, have no faith in God, but after the miracles that I witnessed I have changed completely. In both cases what happened was impossible by nature, and yet it happened because the Saints made it happen!"