Monday, March 8, 2010

A Tour of St. Irene Chrysovalantou Monastery in Lykovrisi

Many thanks to my sister Vaso, my mother, and my niece Christiana (you can see my nephews Pano and Demetri as well) for taking this rare video footage of the Holy Monastery of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou in Lykovrisi, Athens. This was filmed in the summer of 2009.

To read more about Saint Irene Chrysovalantou and her Monastery in Lykovrisi, see here, here and here.

If videos don't work, just click on them and they will take you to the originals on Youtube.


























Posted by J.Sanidopoulos at 11:44 AM
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8 comments:

  1. Neat, John. I was blessed to visit that monastery back in 2003 or 2004.
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  2. Nice post, JS. Lykovrisi is a wonderful Greek Old Calendarist (ΓΟΧ) monastery. I am mystified by the post, though, given that this site, sadly, has never tired of calling the ΓΟΧ "wolves in sheep's clothing." :-(
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  3. Thanks for sharing your family's videos, John.
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  4. Your comment is worth responding to OrthoScooter. From the link in this post to a previous post, you may have read the long time devotion my family has had to St Irene, mainly through my mother, and the special reverence I have for this monastery. You probably also read that this is a monastery founded before the schism that contains a miraculous icon painted before the schism. I have absolutely no doubts there is grace in this monastery as far as the miracles are concerned through the wonderworking icon and even the sacred apple and holy oil and holy water etc. I find it unfortunate the nuns are in the GOC and my doubts of grace do extend to the Holy Mysteries, which I would never partake of from there as long as they are not in communion with the Church of Greece and by extension the rest of the Church. I find it interesting how silent the nuns are there over the issues which divide us, and I hope in my next visit to find out why, because their adherence to the Old Calendar is absolute and they are absolutely repulsed by the New Calendar, as is evidenced from the icon in the entry way in the video above which depicts the miracle of the cross in an Athens from the 1920's, and the inscription that it is the proof for the advocacy of the Old Calendar. And I am not the only one to observe these contradictions among some GOC monasteries and holy shrines popular among New Calendarists. Elder Epiphanios writes the following:

    " Go dear friend to an Old Calendarist Hermitage, especially the one in Lykovrisi outside Athens [St. Irene Chrysovalantou], and you will see whole busloads of New Calendarists disembarking, all arriving there to attend the Liturgy! I have heard that the New Calendarist church-goers on Sundays by far outnumber the Old Calendarists! In fact, the periodical issued by the said Hermitage has occasionally expressed its request to the "pilgrims" who wish to attend services there to come dressed modestly - men, women and children. However, it makes no mention whatsoever that New Calendarists should not attend there at all; No! The only thing it stresses and is satisfied with is the avoidance of improper attire. This achieved, nothing else is examined. This achieved, the New Calendarists are most welcome to common attendance and common prayer!"

    http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/02/ecumenism-and-schismatic-old.html

    Does this make the wolves in sheeps clothing? I'm not sure. I don't think everyone in the GOC is a wolf in sheeps clothing. I only call those in the GOC wolves in sheeps clothing who appear Orthodox, yet denounce the New Calendarists and think their church is the only genuine one. On paper this is how they seem to be at St Irene's, but I see no danger in anyone visiting as a pilgrim and partaking of the grace permeating in its holy atmosphere. I just discourage people from partaking of the Holy Mysteries until their ecclesiology is rectified.
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  5. Tomorrow I will post another tour my sister shot of another GOC monastery in Kalamata called Panagoulaki, which I also believe is a holy shrine of Orthodoxy.
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  6. Yes, thank you, John, for those videos, too. I'll view them this evening!
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  7. Hi John, many thanks for your posts on St. Irene's Monastery. Unfortunately, I can't access the last 2 of the 3 "read more" links at the top of this page. I get "not found, error 404"'s-did you take them down? (The 1st "read more" link is "The Miraculous Icon of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou in Lykovrisi, Attica" which led me to this page. Warm regards, Reggie Guevara
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  8. Here they are:

    http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/07/miracles-icons-and-photos-of-st-irene.html

    http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/07/saint-irene-chrysovalantous-power-over.html
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All Saints Celebrated In January

Sisoes, the great ascetic, before the tomb of Alexander, King of the Greeks, who was once covered in glory. Astonished, he mourns for the vicissitudes of time and the transience of glory, and tearfully declaims thus: "The mere sight of you, tomb, dismays me and causes my heart to shed tears, as I contemplate the debt we, all men, owe. How can I possibly stand it? Oh, death! Who can evade you?"

"Ascend, ascend, brethren, ascend with eagerness and resolve in your hearts, listening to him who says: ‘Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of our God, Who maketh our feet like those of the deer, and setteth us on high places, that we may be victorious with His song.’" - St. John Climacos

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." - Galatians 6:14

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 18:3