Virgin Mary Holy Belt The Holy Belt of Theotokos is the only heirloom that is preserved from its terrestrial life and a part of it is kept in the Vatopedi Monastery. According to tradition, the Virgin Mary herself made the Belt of camel hair. After her Metamorphosis and the delivery of...

The candle The word candle comes from the Latin word candela = candle. In the Christian Church, the candle is put in front of the sacred icon. The one located in front of the Crucified , in the sanctuary, is always kept alight and that is why it is called the  “ vigilant” candle. A candle...

Fasting is an essential aspect of practicing the Orthodox life. You cannot be Orthodox and not fast. Unfortunately, many in the Church today do not participate in this grace-bestowing and life-giving ascetic practice. They do this to the loss of their own spiritual and bodily health. The Holy...

This is the icon which St John of Damascus had recourse and prayed, with his just complaint, holding his severed right hand, with which he had written in favour of the holy icons and which had been cut off by the malice of the Eikonomachi. The Theotokos wrought the miracle of re-attaching the dead...

When on one occasion the Arabs raided the Monastery, the deacon-Monk and vematares (the monk in charge of the sanctuary – vema – and, consequently, responsible fro the sacred relics and other treasures kept there) managed to hide in the shaft below the altar (an ancient sacrarium) a priceless icon...

The most famous and most revered miraculus icon of the Theotokos which the Holy Mountain possesse was, in the 9th century in the reign of Theophilus the Eikonomachos (Iconoclast), the personal property of a devout widow from Nicaea in Asia Minor, who kept it and honoured it in her private chapel....

This miracle-working icon, which is today kept on the synthronon of the church of the Protaton in Karyes, was in the late 10th century in a kelli near Karyes which today bears the same name of “Axion Estin” because of the following miracle: while the Elder of the kelli was absent at a vigil in the...

The Holy Monastery of Docheiariou is the first monastery on the coast to which one comes when travelling by sea from Ouranoupoli to Dafni. The Blessed Euthymius, a companion in asceticism of St Athanasius the Athonite and docheiares (manciple) of the Megiste Lavra Monastery, is reputed to have been...

The Holy Monastery of Esphigmenou stands on the eastern shore of the Athos peninsula, near the Monastery of Chilandari, its foundations washed by the waters of the Strymonic Gulf. Round about, ruins and remains from other periods of history, from Roman times to those of the first hermits who lived...

The Holy Monastery of Chilandari stands on the north-eastern side of Athos. Some maintain that its name comes in all probability from the founder of an older monastic house on the site, while others derive the name from the word 'chelandion' - a kind of Byzantine ship. We now know that the...