Though reports are suggesting that the winds are dying down and the fires in Athens are slowing down, they are still raging uncontrollably and monasteries are narrowly escaping total destruction. Yesterday it was reported that the famous Monastery of Penteli just escaped the flames when Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens arrived to oversee the prevention of its destruction. The video above shows nuns battling flames that are threatening the 10th century Pantokratoros Monastery outside of Athens, but this seems to have escaped further destruction as well. More can be read here about the fires at Pantokratoros. Today it is reported that one of Greece's most famous and sacred shrines, the Monastery of Saint Ephraim of Nea Makri, is also threatened. The nuns have been evacuated and they brought the relics with them, though this monastery also holds the tree upon which the Saint was martyred which obviously could not be moved. More about St. Ephraim's Monastery could be read here.
Let us keep Greece and its people in our prayers!
Nuns battling the fire at Pantokratoros Monastery outside Athens