Well on the Gregorian calendar it's the feast day of St Constantine and Helen which means it's my name day again.
We got up at 4am and walked up hill to a nearby killi (skeet) and attended liturgy there. That went for a few hours and afterwards back to our skeet for coffee.
While Father Serafim was preparing for lunch Peter and I swept and hosed down most of the concrete yard outside . It wad a Hugh task but with patience we managed to do it. There is an abundance of water here coming from the mountain.
At around 2pm Peter and went on a trek to St Paul's Monastery. It's an hours walk up high in the mountains via a rocky path.
We took our hiking sticks and off we went. It was like an adventure walking through narrow paths over loose rocks. We encountered a snake it was a death adder (okia in Greek). It was in a small cave. We stopped along the way to catch our breath and to cool down because the temperature hit 28c but there was a gentle breeze from the sea and shade from the surrounding trees which helped. I didn't bring my hat but I wished I did, it was that hot.
We stopped to take photos. When we got to the monastery of St Paul I couldn't help marvel on how Hugh it was. This monastery was massive high up on the mountain. We saw a water fountain and headed straight for it. We then waited for 90mins for the next service.
During the service I chose my seat and a shirt time later a priest approaches me, he was young in age but a little on the heavy side, he says 'I didn't know you were an elder' (egoimenos). I apologized then sat a little further down. Then another priest approaches me a little while latter on and tells me again to sit a little further down. Musical chairs. Lol. Anyhow that first priest who told me to relocate from the first chair sat a little closer to me on the right and he starts chanting. The voice, seriously, he had a gift. a voice that was record label material. Peter and I looked at each other and we marveled. I enjoyed that service. Afterwards another priest approaches Peter and I to join them for supper. We followed them to the hall kitchen. It was a long room, long tables lots of chairs to fit quiet a lot of people. The food was laid put on the table. There was a bowl of potatoes in sauce and oil, wine an apple, olives and bread. We ate quickly because we knew meal time was timed. After 10 minutes a bell rang we all stood up (too bad if you didn't eat your meal) said a prayer and out we went.
We were then invited to venerate the three gifts from when Christ was born. Myrrh frankincense gold.
We entered the church but there were more relics than normal. I asked the priest for their blessing to take a photo because generally it is not allowed. I took a photo and video. Believe it or not here are the relics we venerated.
St Paul Yeropotaminos (9th century)
The three gifts (Τίμια Αύρα)
3 hierarchs (St Basil, St Gregory the 5 th, St John Chrysostom) these were all patriarchs of Costantinople
St George from Ioanina
St Dimitrios (Tripolios)
St Nektarios of Aegina
St Panteleimonos
St Damanios (Anargiros - un merciful)
Once we venerated these relics Peter and I were buzzing. We had never been around so many Saints. We trekked back on God speed. We even saw a snake slither past us on the way back.
What a great day especially that it was my name day. A day I'll never forget. :-)