September 16, 2014

Portions of the True Cross That Exist in the Monasteries of Mount Athos Today


"To date the most surviving portions of the True Cross belongs to Mount Athos, where they add up to 870.760 cubic millimeters, while in Rome there are 537.587, in Brussels there are 516.090, in Venice there are 445.582, in Ghent (Flemish region of Belgium in East Flanders) 436.456 and in Paris 237.731 cubic millimeters. The least amount is in England and those are in the hands of the members of the Roman Church."

(From the book: The Holy Mountain by Hieromonk Gerasimos Smyrnakis of Esphigmenou, Athens, 1903 [in Greek].)

The remarkable blog The Reliquary has identified several pieces of the True Cross on Mount Athos while primarily researching in foreign literature, but there are no photos of them except short descriptions of the reliquaries in which they are held. But during an amateur investigation they have managed to find photos for some of them along with short descriptions. Certainly research into these reliquaries will continue, God willing, although access to them and photographing them sometimes proves very difficult to impossible. As an overview of what has been presented on this website so far, we present below some photos of portions of the True Cross from Mount Athos.

Great Lavra Monastery

Vatopaidi Monastery

Hilandari Monastery

Koutloumousiou Monastery

Pantocratora Monastery

Xeropotamou Monastery

Simonopetra Monastery

Docheiariou Monastery

 Saint Paul Monastery

Saint Anna Skete

Protaton Church

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.