With all due splendour, reverence and according to the monastic order, the memory of Saint John the Hermit was celebrated again this year in the historic Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of Our Lady of the Angels, Gouverneto, in Akrotiri Chania, in the place where Saint John lived the last years of his life and gave up his spirit in repose.
Hundreds of pilgrims came again this year to the Monastery, but also to the Cave where Saint John lived, to receive his blessing and participate in the Festive Vigil, at the evening Divine Liturgies, which were held in the cave of the Skete of the Monastery and in the chapel of the Katholikon of the Monastery, which are dedicated to his memory, likewise also participating in the Poly-Hierarchical Divine Liturgy on the main day of the feast.
At the Festive Great Vespers of the Vigil, His Eminence Metropolitan Kyrillos of Ierapytni and Siteia officiated, while the Abbot of the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of Toplou, Archimandrite Ambrosios, The Protosyncellus of the Holy Metropolis of Kydonia and Apokoronos, Archimandrite of the Ecumenical Throne Nikiforos Eikosidekas, as well as a delegation from the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of Zoodochos Pigi – Chrysopigi were also present.
During the Hierarchical co-celebration, which took place on the main day of the feast, His Eminence Metropolitan Kyrillos of Ierapytni and Siteia presided over the Divine Liturgy and was joined also by His Eminence Metropolitan Damaskinos of Kydonia and Apokoronos, the Abbot of the Holy Monastery, His Grace Bishop Irenaios of Eumeneia, The Abbot of the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of Toplou, Archimandrite Ambrosios, representative of the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of Panagia Odegitria Gonia and clergy from Crete.
After the conclusion of the festive Divine Liturgy, a special prayer was said for the cessation of the war in Ukraine. A litany followed around the Katholikon Church of the Monastery, a monastic offering of hospitality was offered in the Synodikon of the Monastery and a festive meal, in which Metropolitan Kyrillos of Ierapytni also referred to the historical ties that connect the Metropolis of Ierapytni and Siteia with the Monastery of Gouvernetou, whilst also reffering to the person of his predecessor, the blessed Bishop Filotheos Mazokopakis of Ierositeia, who was a brother of the Monastery of Gouverneto and dedicated the Episcopal Chapel, in the Episcopate he erected from the ground up, to Saint John the Hermit, as a gift of gratitude for the good deeds of the Monastery of his repentance towards him, thus spreading the honour of St. John in eastern Crete. In the Chapel, a large piece of the sacred Skull of St. John was donated by the Monastery of Gouverneto and is kept for the sanctification of the faithful.
Proving to be quite moving was the coming of the numerous pilgrims to the feast day – of all ages – also the presence of many faithful at the sanctified place of asceticism in the gorge, where the presence of hermits and ascetics is witnessed from the 10th century, who, continuing the tradition of half a millennium, bravely traversed the stone path that leads there, to enter into the depth of the dark and inaccessible cave and venerate the place where Saint John reposed in the Lord.
