Celebratory Divine Liturgy at Mt. Athos for procession of the Cincture of the Theotokos (VIDEO + PHOTOS)

A celebratory Divine Liturgy for the Cincture of the Theotokos, the Blessed Virgin Mary, was held on Thursday at the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopedi on Mt. Athos, before a multitude of worshippers. The Metropolitan of Guinea, His Eminence Georgios, presided at the Divine Liturgy, concelebrated with the Elder Archimandrite Ephraim, the Abbot of Vatopedi, along with several other Hieromonks and deacons.

Representing the Greek government was Macedonia-Thrace Minister Theodoros Karaoglou, along with the outgoing civil governor of the semi-autonomous monastic polity in northern Greece, Konstantinos Dimtsas, and the heads of the Greece’s police and fire brigades.

In his sermon, His Eminence Georgios underlined that the “garden of the Virgin Mary”, as Mt. Athos is called, is a singular location, where even a Christian with faltering faith will come to feel the Theotokos as his spiritual mother.

During Thursday afternoon’s vesper service at the monastery’s main cathedral, known as the Catholicos, the Cincture of the Theotokos was brought out by procession for veneration by the faithful.

On his part, the Abbot of the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopedi, the Elder Archimandrite Ephraim, later referred to the history of the Cincture, known in Greek as the “Haghia Zoni”.

Lastly, the Metropolitan of Guinea emotionally recounted how he has fulfilled a pilgrimage to Mt. Athos that was overdue by 15 years. Georgios was initially scheduled to visit the Monastery in September 2004, although he missed a flight aboard a military helicopter that eventually crashed just off the Athos promontory.

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