The feast of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine the All-wise was celebrated in the Patriarchate on Sunday, December 8, 2024.
On this feast, the Church remembers that Saint Catherine came from the city of Alexandria, she was highly educated in philosophy, but also in Christ-like life and education, as the Church sings in her apolytikion: “Let us praise the all-lauded and noble bride of Christ, the godly Catherine, the guardian of Sinai and its defence, who is also our support and succour and our help; for with the Holy Spirit’s sword she hath silenced brilliantly the clever among the godless and being crowned as a Martyr, she now doth ask great mercy for us all”.
This feast was celebrated in the Holy Monastery, in the centre of the Old City of Jerusalem, near the Patriarchate.
The Vespers in the evening and the Divine Liturgy on the morning of the feast were presided over by the Metropolitan Joachim of Helenoupolis, with concelebrants the Archimandrites Philoumenos, Claudios and Christodoulos, the Priest Nektarios and the Archdeacon Mark. The chanting was delivered by Hierodeacon Simeon and the students of the Patriarchal School of Zion, as the service was attended by monks, nuns, and believers from Jerusalem and other cities.
During the Divine Liturgy, Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre Fathers visited the Holy Monastery for veneration.
The Patriarchal and Episcopal entourages were offered a reception by the Monastery’s good caretaker, the Reverend Hegoumen Archimandrite Stephen.
Source: Patriarchate of Jerusalem
