Official Communique from the First Day of the Proceedings of the Holy and Sacred Synod
(9 March 2020)

On Monday, 9 March 2020, the Holy and Sacred Synod convened under the chairmanship of His All-Holiness to carry out the tasks of its three-day sitting.

After the reading of the minutes of the previous sessions, it began its consideration of the items on the agenda.

In particular, the Holy and Sacred Synod, on the recommendation of the Canonical Committee, entered into the Catalogue of Saints of the Orthodox Church the following blessed Athonite elders, who were variously gifted by God and widely recognized for the sanctity of their life and works.

a) Daniil Katounakiotis, whose provenance was Smyrna, a worthy and true successor to Blessed Nikodimos the Athonite and the other kollyvades Fathers, the author of pleasing spiritual treatises, close friend of the holy and wonder-working hierarch Nektarios of Pentapolis, and mentor of the holy brotherhood of the Daniilei, who, to this day, preserve the tradition and legacy of this renowned and dulcet chanter. (The date of his annual commemoration is the 7th day of the month of September).

b) Iosif the Hesychast, who labored mightily in recent times, becoming a sharer in divine illumination and the whole array of divine gifts, proving to be an example for monastics; a servant of the practice of vigilance and a meticulous modern incarnation of the theology of Palamas concerning the uncreated light; a model of obscurity and quietude; a worthy successor to the tradition of the Philokalia; a measure of ecclesiology in bleak times when unbridled zeal decimated many devout monks and Christians and estranged them from the bosom of the Church; a great contributor to the widely-recognized revival of the Holy Mountain and its blossoming during the course of the 20th century through his disciples and Elders who have been distinguished in virtue and asceticism. (The date of his annual commemoration is the 16th day of the month of August).

c) Efraim Katounakiotis, an outstanding personality in modern Athonite monasticism. He proved to be a theologian and pedagogue of the wilderness, known as ‘the giant of Athos’ who actively experienced the vision of the uncreated light. (The date of his annual commemoration is the 27th day of the month of February).

Thus, the Mother and Holy Great Church of Christ boasts of the Spirit-bearing and Grace-filled harvest of Holy Athos and has officially fulfilled the announcement made by His All-Holiness the Patriarch during his recent pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain, in the month of October last year, 2019, regarding the induction of Athonite Fathers with a blessed life into the Catalogue of Saints of the Church.

From the Chancellery of the Holy and Sacred Synod

Source: pemptousia.com

 

 

ABOUT THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN NETWORK

Orthodox Christian Network (OCN) is a 501(c)3 and an official agency of the Assembly of Canonical Bishops of the United States of America . It is a recognized leader in the Orthodox Media field and has sustained consistent growth over twenty-two years. We have worked to create a community for both believers and non believers alike by sharing the timeless faith of Orthodoxy with the contemporary world through modern media. We are on a mission to inspire Orthodox Christians Worldwide. Click to signup to receive weekly newsletter. 

Join us in our Media Ministry Missions! Help us bring the Orthodox Faith to the fingertips of Orthodox Christians worldwide! Your gift today will helps us produce and provide unlimited access to Orthodox faith-inspiring programming, services and community. Don’t wait. Share the Love of Orthodoxy Today!

OCN has partnered with Pemptousia. A Contemporary post-modern man does not understand what man is.  Through its presence in the internet world, Pemptousia, with its spirit of respect for beauty that characterizes it, wishes to contribute to the presentation of a better meaning of life for man, to the search for the ontological dimension of man, and to the awareness of the unfathomable mystery of man who is always in Christ in the process of becoming, of man who is in the image of divine beauty. And the beauty of man springs from the beauty of the Triune God. In the end, “beauty will save the world”.


avatar

Pemptousia Partnership

Pemptousia and OCN have entered a strategic partnership to bring Orthodoxy Worldwide. Greek philosophers from Ionia considered held that there were four elements or essences (ousies) in nature: earth, water, fire and air. Aristotle added ether to this foursome, which would make it the fifth (pempto) essence, pemptousia, or quintessence. The incarnation of God the Word found fertile ground in man’s proclivity to beauty, to goodness, to truth and to the eternal. Orthodoxy has not functioned as some religion or sect. It was not the movement of the human spirit towards God but the revelation of the true God, Jesus Christ, to man. A basic precept of Orthodoxy is that of the person ­– the personhood of God and of man. Orthodoxy is not a religious philosophy or way of thinking but revelation and life standing on the foundations of divine experience; it is the transcendence of the created and the intimacy of the Uncreated. Orthodox theology is drawn to genuine beauty; it is the theology of the One “fairer than the sons of men”. So in "Pemptousia", we just want to declare this "fifth essence", the divine beaut in our life. Please note, not all Pemptousia articles have bylines. If the author is known, he or she is listed in the article above.

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Avatar placeholder