The first external pilgrimage of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – Mount Athos (April 28 – May 3, 2025)

From April 28 to May 3, 2025, with the blessing of His Eminence, Archbishop-elect Atanasie, of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, “Saint Brendan the Navigator” Pilgrimage Centre, organized a pilgrimage to Mount Athos.

A group of faithful spent several days, in a unique environment, on the Holy Mount Athos.

The visiting programme was as follows:

Day 1

Xenophontos Monastery

According to historical tradition, the monastery was founded at the end of the 10th century by Venerable Xenophontos (998). A monk with a distinguished education, Venerable Xenophontos was a contemporary of Venerable Athanasius the Athonite, the founder of the Great Lavra Monastery.

In the Xenophontos Monastery there is a miracle-working icon of the Holy Great Martyr George, which miraculously came by sea from Constantinople to the shores of the Xenophontos Monastery. At the location where the miracle-working icon of Saint George was laid down, a spring with healing water appeared, which still exists today. Even though the spring is at sea level, the water is drinkable. This blessed water of Saint George is considered to heal all sort of diseases, especially kidney diseases.

Simonos Petras Monastery

The monastery is located on the south-western side of the Holy Mountain, built on a rock, 300 meters above the sea. It was founded by the Venerable Simon the Myrrh-Bearer (†1257), whose cell was dug in a nearby cave. One night, a few days before the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord, the venerable one saw a star suddenly descend from heaven and stand above the rock in front of his cave and received a command from the Mother of God to build a new monastery on the mountain in front of his cave.

The most important item of the monastery is the wondrously warm hand of Saint Mary Magdalene, the hand that touched the hem of the garment of our Lord Jesus Christ after the Resurrection (John 20:11-18). Saint Mary Magdalene’s hand is intact, with skin and tendons, and spreads a sweet fragrance. Those who kiss it with faith and devotion are convinced that it is warm, as if it were alive.

The Great Lavra

The Great Lavra Monastery is considered to be the first monastic settlement on Mount Athos, founded around 963 by Venerable Athanasius the Athonite. To this day, the Lavra holds the first place in the hierarchy of the Athonite monasteries.

The tomb of Venerable Athanasius is located in the Chapel of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sevastia on the north side of the main church. Next to his tomb, there is also the metal staff with which he split the rock at the Mother of God’s command, where today is the place called “Spring of Venerable Athanasius”.

The Romanian Hermitage of Prodromu

The Romanian Hermitage of Prodromu is the most famous place of asceticism of the Romanian monks on Mount Athos. The settlement is located at the eastern end of the Athos peninsula, in the hermit area called Vigla. Since the 14th century, Romanian monks have been hermits here. In the second half of the 18th century, about ten hermits from the Romanian Countries took refuge in the caves here, built a few huts and a small stone church.

The most precious item of the Prodromu Hermitage is the miracle-working icon of the Mother of God called “Prodromița”. Although the icon is attributed to the Romanian icon painter Iordache Nicolau from Iași, the faces of the Mother of God and the baby Jesus were painted following a miracle. Dressed in silver, the icon of the Mother of God is placed in the large church of the hermitage in front of the iconostasis, on the left side. Also, in the large church of the hermitage, there is a miracle-working icon of Saint John the Baptist. It is not known exactly when this holy icon was painted. The first attested miracle of this second icon occurred in the 19th century, when Turkish soldiers entered the church to steal valuables. While they were rushing towards the icon of Saint John the Baptist, this frowned at them and they were sized with such fear that they took out their pistols, and started to shoot at the icon. But they became even more terrified when they saw that the bullets were returning and hitting them too.

Cave of Venerable Athanasius the Athonite

The saint lived in this cave during Lent. He brought with him bread and dried vegetables, boiled them in water, and lived in prayer, fasting, and asceticism, praying both for the purification of his own soul and for his community in the Lavra. The cave is located in the north-eastern part of the Vigla Desert, not far from Prodromu. It is naturally located at the base of a steep slope, formed as a result of landslides caused by an earthquake. Accessing the cave requires to descend 221 stone steps and then climbing another 34 steps to get to the door of the Cave, a total of 255 steps.

The Cave of Venerable Athanasius houses the icon of the Mother of God “Egyptissa”, to which Mary of Egypt prayed before leaving for the Jordan Desert. Tradition says that this icon is the one that was in the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem and that Venerable Mary of Egypt placed as a witness before Christ, when she went to worship the wood of the Holy Cross, which was situated in the same church. Because of her sins, an unseen power prevented her from entering the church. But, as soon as she placed the Mother of God “Egyptissa” as a witness, promising Christ that if she was able worship, she would stop sinning and begin a new, pure and honest life, she was allowed to enter and worship the relic of the Holy Cross.

Day 2

The Spring of Saint Athanasius

One of the many miracles that the Mother of God performed for the prayers of Venerable Athanasius the Athonite was as follows: when the Great Lavra Monastery was left without water, in order to confirm her miracle and entrust him with her blessing, the Mother of God told the saint to make the sign of the cross over a stone and strike the rock next to it with her staff. At that moment, clean and cold water, that was good for drinking, gushed out from that rock. To this day, this place is known as the “Spring of Venerable Athanasius”.

Iviron Monastery

The Iviron Monastery is located on the north-eastern part of the Holy Mountain, in a small bay. The foundation of the monastery is attested somewhere between 980 and 985 and its founder was Saint John the Ivirite (Varasvatze), a general of the Byzantine armies who came from Iviria (present-day Georgia).

The monastery is best known for the miracle-working icon of the Mother of God called “The Gatekeeper”. The Mother of God appeared in a dream to a pious monk of the Iviron Monastery, Venerable Gabriel, telling him to walk on the water after her icon. Going to the shore, Gabriel stepped on the waves of the sea as if on dry land, deigning to take this heavy and large icon with his hands, which he placed in the monastery church. Near the monastery, there is a spring with healing water, especially for incurable diseases, called “The Spring of the Mother of God”.

Stavronikita Monastery

The Stavronikita Monastery is built on a cliff by the sea, on the north-eastern shore, halfway between Pantokrator Monastery and Iviron Monastery. Although this is the newest and smallest Athonite monastery, Stavronikita is the fifteenth in the Athonite hierarchy. The oldest mention of the monastery is in the 1012 Charter from the Archives of the Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra, in which monk Nikifor Stravonikita’s signature appears. This mention reinforces the opinion that the name of the monastery comes from the name of an unknown founder, the monk Nikita, one-eyed or cross-sighted, and for easier pronunciation the name was changed to Stavronikita.

The Icon of Saint Hierarch Nicholas – Streidas (“with a Shell”) is a miracle-working icon located in the Stavronikita Monastery. In 1589, the icon was discovered in nets by some monks who had gone fishing. Lifting the icon from the net, the monks found that a shell was attached to the saint’s forehead. When they removed the shell from the place where it was attached, the icon began to bleed, which is still visible in the form of an 8 cm crack on the icon.

Vatopedi Monastery

The exact date of the foundation of the Vatopedi Monastery is unknown. Tradition mentions Emperor Constantine the Great (361-363) as the founder of Vatopedi. The church founded by Constantine the Great was destroyed by Julian the Apostate and rebuilt by Theodosius the Great (379-395), in gratitude for the miraculous deliverance of his son, Arcadius. At that time, Plachidia, the daughter of Theodosius the Great, visited Vatopedi Monastery, but the voice of the Mother of God prevented her from entering the church.

The seven miracle-working icons of the Mother of God at the Vatopedi Monastery are: “Our Lady Vimatarissa”, “Our Lady Paramythia”, “Our Lady Pantanassa”, “Our Lady Elaiovrytissa”, “Our Lady Antiphonitria”, “Our Lady Esphagmeni” and “Our Lady Pyrovolitheisa”. The Vatopedi Monastery also possesses a piece of the Holy Girdle of the Mother of God, which the Mother of God wove herself from camel hair and gave to the Holy Apostle Thomas, after falling asleep, at the moment of her ascension to heaven.

The Romanian Cell of St. George – Colciu

The Romanian Cell of St. George the Great Martyr is located on the eastern slope of the Holy Mountain, a short distance from the Vatopedi Monastery. Athonite tradition says that in the area now called Colciu (Kaletzi) there was a hermitage founded before the 13th century. The abbot of this Romanian cell was Venerable Dionysius Ignatius (+2004), one of the greatest spiritual fathers of Mount Athos, whose holy relics are in the cell church.

Pantokrator Monastery

The Pantokrator Monastery is located in the northeast of the peninsula, between Vatopedi and Stavronikita. According to tradition, the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Comnenus (1081-1117) built here a small monastic settlement dedicated to the Mother of God and her icon “The Hasty Hearer”, an icon that was kept in the Pantocrator Monastery in Constantinople, founded by the same emperor. It is the only portable icon that represents the Most Holy Theotokos whole and in a position of prayer. It is also called “Gherontissa” or “Sparrow of the House” as it is known by the Romanians.

Saint Elijah’s Hermitage

The oldest mention of the Saint Elijah’s Hermitage dates back to 1492, when Vlad the Monk, lord of Wallachia, gave it an annual income of 1000 aspres. Shortly after, around 1500, the Venerable Cosmas, former governor of the Holy Mountain, retired here from Hilandar Monastery. In 1757, the Venerable Paisius Velicikovschi from Neamț came to the Hermitage of Saint Elijah, accompanied by 35 of his disciples. The community was engaged in prayer, study and translation of spiritual writings from Greek into Romanian and Russian. This community also included Venerable Gheorghe, the future abbot of Cernica Monastery, situated near Bucharest.

Day 3

Protaton Church-Karyes

Protaton Church is the oldest church on Mount Athos and is located in its capital, the city of Karyes. The church was built in the 9th century by Emperor Michael III, after the period of the struggle against the Holy Icons. Inside this church there is the miraculous icon of the Mother of God called “Axion estin” or “It is truly meet” because the hymn with this name was first sung in front of this icon.

Typikario Cell-Karyes

During the Turkish invasion of 1459, the Christians of Serbia wanted to protect the holy relics and sent many of them to the Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos. Here they also brought several miraculous icons of the Mother of God, including the one called “The One Who Breastfeeds” which was placed in the cell dedicated to Saint Sava, a cell also called Typikario, which belongs to the Athonite Hilandar Monastery, of the Serbs.

Dochiariu Monastery

Located on the south-western part of the Athos peninsula, Dochiariu Monastery is the first monastery that the worshiper encounters when coming by ship from Ouranopolis to the Holy Mountain. The first mention of this monastery appears in the 10th century. Dochiariu Monastery houses the miraculous icon of the Mother of God called “The Swift Hearer”.

Zografu Monastery

According to tradition, the monastery was founded in the 10th century during the reign of Emperor Leo VI the Wise (886-912). The most prominent founder of this monastery remains Saint Stephen the Great, the ruler of Moldavia (1457-1504). He practically completely rebuilt the monastery and painted the large church, also building the port of this monastery. Zografu Monastery belongs today to the Bulgarians and houses 3 miracle-working icons of the Holy Great Martyr George, one of which is the very icon with which the ruler of Moldavia went to battle.

Hilandar Monastery

The Hilandar Monastery was founded at the end of the 10th century by the Greek monk Gheorghios Helandarios, from whom the name of the settlement was preserved. Hilandar is first mentioned in a charter in 1015, but by 1169 the monastery was abandoned.

In June 1198 the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Anghelos granted the Hilandar Monastery and the surrounding lands to the monks Simeon and Sava, i.e. the former Serbian overlord Stefan Nemanja and his son, Ratsko. Saints Sava and Simeon rebuilt the monastery and are therefore considered its founders. Since then, Hilandar has belonged to the Serbian people. The monastery houses the tomb of Saint Simeon the Myrrh-Bearer and the miracle-working icon of the Mother of God called “Tricherussa” or “the one with three hands”.

Esphigmenou Monastery

The oldest historical evidence about the monastery, dating from the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century, mentions that it held the fifth place in the hierarchy of monasteries of that time. Esphigmenou experienced great prosperity from the second half of the 13th century to the first half of the 16th century. During this period, a lot o financial help came from Emperor John V Palaeologus, Prince of Serbia, Stefan Dushan, and Prince of Serbia, George Brancovici.

In the Monastery of Esphigmenou there lived Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, who was also its abbot for three years. Also, the Venerable Anthony, the founder of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, was tonsured a monk here. In the cave on the Samaria hill near the monastery, the Venerable Damian the Sphinx, the great miracle worker, lived as a hermit. The Venerable Paisios the Athonite lived for a period in this monastery, with a very harsh communal life.

Constamonitu Monastery

The oldest written mentions of the monastery refer to the 11th century. In 1097, the abbot of the monastery was Hariton, a relative of Emperor Alexios I Comnenus. In the monastery there is the miracle-working icon of the Mother of God called “Antiphonitria”.

On the last day of the pilgrimage, we returned to the city of Thessaloniki, where we visited the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Demetrius, the Monastery of the Holy Venerable Theodora, the Church of Saint Sophia and the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Hierarch Gregory Palamas.

For booking and info, the pilgrims can contact us at: +447918441934 (Rassophore Damian).