Today, the day following the Nativity of the most holy Theotokos, we celebrate the synaxis of Saints Joachim and Anna, honouring them as her parents.

Saint Euphrosynus the Cook was from one of the Palestinian monasteries, and his obedience was to work in the kitchen as a cook. Toiling away for the brethren, Saint Euphrosynus did not absent himself from thought about God, but rather dwelt in prayer and fasting. He remembered always that obedience is the first duty of a monk, and therefore he was obedient to the elder brethren.

The patience of the saint was amazing: they often reproached him, but he made no complaint and endured every unpleasantness. Saint Euphrosynus pleased the Lord by his inner virtue which he concealed from people, and the Lord Himself revealed to the monastic brethren the spiritual heights of their unassuming fellow-monk.

One of the priests of the monastery prayed and asked the Lord to show him the blessings prepared for the righteous in the age to come. The priest saw in a dream what Paradise is like, and he contemplated its inexplicable beauty with fear and with joy.

He also saw there a monk of his monastery, the cook Euphrosynus. Amazed at this encounter, the presbyter asked Euphrosynus, how he came to be there. The saint answered that he was in Paradise through the great mercy of God. The priest again asked whether Euphrosynus would be able to give him something from the surrounding beauty. Saint Euphrosynus suggested to the priest to take whatever he wished, and so the priest pointed to three luscious apples growing in the garden of Paradise. The monk picked the three apples, wrapped them in a cloth, and gave them to his companion.

When he awoke in the early morning, the priest thought the vision a dream, but suddenly he noticed next to him the cloth with the fruit of Paradise wrapped in it, and emitting a wondrous fragrance. The priest, found Saint Euphrosynus in church and asked him under oath where he was the night before. The saint answered that he was where the priest also was. Then the monk said that the Lord, in fulfilling the prayer of the priest, had shown him Paradise and had bestown the fruit of Paradise through him, “ the lowly and unworthy servant of God, Euphrosynus.”

The priest related everything to the monastery brethren, pointing out the spiritual loftiness of Euphrosynus in pleasing God, and he pointed to the fragrant paradaisical fruit. Deeply affected by what they heard, the monks went to the kitchen, in order to pay respect to Saint Euphrosynus, but they did not find him there. Fleeing human glory, the monk had left the monastery. The place where he concealed himself remained unknown, but the monks always remembered that their monastic brother Saint Euphrosynus had come upon Paradise, and that they in being saved, through the mercy of God would meet him there. They reverently kept and distributed pieces of the apples from Paradise for blessing and for healing.

Saint Helen, the mother of Saint Constantine the Great, when she was already advanced in years, undertook, in her great piety, the hardships of a journey to Jerusalem in search of the cross, about the year 325. A temple to Aphrodite had been raised up by the Emperor Hadrian upon Golgotha, to defile and cover with oblivion the place where the saving Passion had been suffered. The venerable Helen had the statue of Aphrodite destroyed, and the earth removed, revealing the Tomb of our Lord, and three crosses. Of these, it was believed that one must be that of our Lord, the other two of the thieves crucified with Him; but Saint Helen was at a loss which one might be the Wood of our salvation. At the inspiration of Saint Macarius, Archbishop of Jerusalem, a lady of Jerusalem, who was already at the point of death from a certain disease, was brought to touch the crosses, and as soon as she came near to the Cross of our Lord, she was made perfectly whole. Consequently, the precious Cross was lifted on high by Archbishop Macarius of Jerusalem; as he stood on the ambo, and when the people beheld it, they cried out, "Lord have mercy." It should be noted that after its discovery, a portion of the venerable Cross was taken to Constantinople as a blessing. The rest was left in Jerusalem in the magnificent church built by Saint Helen, until the year 614. At that time, the Persians plundered Palestine and took the Cross to their own country (see Jan. 22, Saint Anastasius the Persian). Late, in the year 628, Emperor Heraclius set out on a military campaign, retrieved the Cross, and after bringing it to Constantinople, himself escorted it back to Jerusalem, where he restored it to its place.

Rest from labour. A Fast is observed today, whatever day of the week it may be.

This Saint was of high birth among the Goths beyond the Danube River. He was taken by Athanaric, pagan ruler of the Goths, and after being tortured, was burned to death for his confession of Christ. According to some, this took place during the reign of Saint Constantine the Great; according to others, under the Emperor Gratian.

Our Holy Father Bessarion* was from a village called Porta Panagia,** near Trikala in Thessaly. He was born in 1490 with the name Vasilios Tsigaridas (or Ganas) and raised by Orthodox parents. While pursuing his studies he became passionately in love with the monastic life at the age of ten. For this reason he went to Metropolitan Mark of Larissa*** and stayed with him for a long time as a novice, then he passed through all the canonical ranks of the priesthood, first becoming a Reader, then a Subdeacon, then a Deacon, then a Priest. After this he was ordained Bishop of Domeniko and Elassona at the age of twenty-seven in 1517.

As the Saint went to his diocese the people would not accept him and drove him away. It is believed this was either due to his young age, or because of a certain rivalry because this diocese had once been made an independent archbishopric, and they refused to be subject to the Metropolitan of Larissa. Therefore they appealed to Patriarch Theoleptos (1513-1522), and they received Archbishop Neophytos, whose body was indissoluble after death. The blessed Bessarion therefore, being an imitator of Christ, did not take to heart the rejection of his people, but took it as an opportunity for quietude, and went once again to live with his spiritual father and elder Metropolitan Mark. There in Larissa he served and healed with his words and actions those who were sick and poor both physically and spiritually.

After serving the people of Larissa in this way for four years, the Diocese of Stagoi (today known as Kalambaka) was without a shepherd. Therefore they asked for the Saint to preside over them as Exarch in 1521, which he did for six years. But this position brought him nothing but trials and tribulations, and it resulted in his exile by one called Dometios. Metropolitan Mark reposed in 1527, and at the request of all the Bishops, Clergy and Laity, Bessarion was elected and made Metropolitan of Larissa in 1522 by Patriarch Jeremiah (1522-1546).

His service as Bishop was marked with many God-pleasing actions, for he cared not only for the spiritual needs of his flock, but also offered them practical help in time of need. He therefore ransomed many who were held captive, and he planned and supervised the construction of a bridge over the Aspropotamos, which was a daring venture that no one before him was able to accomplish due to the increasing waters of that river when it rains, and it still stands as a reminder of his labors.****

He founded and built from the foundations the beautiful Monastery of our Savior Christ, known as Dousikou, in the village of Agios Vissarion (formerly Dusan) in Pyli, along with his brother Bishop Ignatios of Phanarion (1527-1534). This Monastery was later enlarged and embellished by his nephew Neophytos II, Metropolitan of Larissa (1550-1569). Saint Bessarion established this Monastery to be avaton, which means that it is not to receive female visitors, and it remains so to this day.

After having overseen his flock in a God-pleasing manner, Saint Bessarion departed to the Lord at the age of fifty on 13 (or 15) September 1540, after giving his last words and blessings to the clergy and monastics of his diocese from his deathbed. His holy relics were later stolen and sold by a Turk, except for his skull, which was miraculously saved. This sacred skull flowed with abundant myrrh and is a source of numerous miracles, especially healing people of diseases from plague and pestilence to those who flee to him with faith.

The Monastery of Saint Bessarion

The Monastery of Saint Bessarion (Dousikou) is 25 km away from Trikala, near the town of Pyli and in the village of Agios Vissarion (formerly Dusan). The monastery is called Monastery of the Savior of the Great Gate because of its association with the nearby and dissolved today monastery of the thirteenth century, Porta Panagia. It was established between the years 1527-1535, on the site of the ruins of the monastery of 13th-14th century dedicated to Christ. The first church of the monastery was built by the founder Saint Bessarion. With the help of his brother Ignatios they built the Katholikon in place of the old one, and rebuilt in 1557 by Neophytos, who is the second founder of the monastery, and is also given due for the expansion of the cells. The monastery was one of the rich and active monasteries of the area with land in Romania. Tradition says that in its heyday it possessed 365 cells, a bank (1682) and a rich library. In 1771 and 1820 the monastery was plundered by the Turkish-Albanians and in 1823 after the arrest and imprisonment of the abbot of the monastery, followed by the slaughter and looting by the soldiers of Schultze Korytza. The monastery suffered new damage by fire and the bombing of 1943. Today it operates with only a few monks and is inaccessible to women.

Formerly, the entrance to the city walls of the monastery was made by means of a mobile wooden scale, which was pulled up after sundown. Today, the visitor enters the precincts of the monastery through the main entrance, which is located approximately in the middle of the south side. The main building of the courtyard is the monastery church, dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Savior. This is an Athonite type temple with added narthex and exonarthex. Over these spaces are the chapels of the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist and Saints. The hagiography of the Katholikon, the work of painter Georges, was completed in November 1557. Of the three chapels of the monastery, the chapel of the Virgin Mary bears decoration of 1675, the chapel of Saint John the Baptist of 1693 and the chapel of All Saints in 1746. The wood-carved iconostasis of the Katholikon dates back to 1813. The church is surrounded by three-storey buildings with wooden balconies that house the other activities of the monastery. Left of the entrance to the monastery is the Bank. Many of the original buildings of the monastery, like part of the west wing of cells, were destroyed and today have been restored.

The small church and the hostel attached to the west side of the original enclosure of the monastery, were built in the 1960's to accommodate the needs of female pilgrims, which were denied access to the original monastery complex. These needs are now covered in the hostel and chapel built in recent years, a short distance south of the monastery.