Feast Day of St. Gregory Palamas, Etna, California

On the Second Sunday of the Great Fast, dedicated to the renownedLuminary,Mystic, and Theologian of Orthodoxy, St. Gregory Palamas,

Archbishop of Thessaloniki, the St. Gre-gory Palamas Monastery celebrated itsFeast Day with great spiritual joy and so-lemnity. They were joined by His Emi-nence,ArchbishopAndronik of Syracuseand St. Nicholas, from our Sister Church,the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad(under Metropolitan Agafangel), whowas accompanied by his spiritual daugh-ter, Mrs. Tatiana Yemelyanova. Also a-mong the guests wereVivian and Read-

er PeterAvisov, wife and son, respectively, of the Starosta (Warden) ofour Exarchate parish in Oxnard, CA, as well as a nephew of His Grace,BishopAuxentios, anAir Force officer stationed on theWest Coast anda close friend of the monastery. During the Divine Liturgy, HieromonkPatapios,Academic Director of the Center for Traditionalist OrthodoxStudies, was appointed a Confessor by BishopAuxentios and given theEpigonation as a sign of his office. (See at left, above, the decoratedIcon of St. Gregory Palamas, a gift from the Icon studio of the Con-vent of the Holy Angels in Aphidnai [Athens], Greece.)

From left to right, above: His Grace, Bishop Auxentios and HisEminence, Archbishop Andronik blessing at Liturgy, and His Emi-nence, Archbishop Chrysostomos blessing at the Small Entrance,with Hieromonk Patapios at his far right.

archdiocese of etna, california

Above, the procession into themonastery Church, followingthe outdoor Blessing of theFive Loaves (at left).

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