The Community of Saint John the Forerunner on Antigone Island

Antigone is the second inhabited island of the Propontis after Prinkipo (Büyükada), when coming from Istanbul, and is the second in size in the group. It is covered with pine trees and has an area of approximately 1,500 square meters. Its Turkish name is “Burgaz,” meaning “fortress” or “wall.”

In the center of the island's inhabited area stands the magnificent Church of Saint John the Forerunner. According to tradition, it was built around 841 by the Empress Theodora over the crypt of Saint Methodios the Confessor. Following the Fall of Constantinople, the church was renovated twice, in 1759 and again in 1817. On June 28, 1894, during the great earthquake, the church was split in two and could no longer be repaired. The people of Antigone undertook a major effort to rebuild their church and organized a collection among themselves. Eventually, through the generous donation of the great benefactor Demetrios Pantziris, and with his son-in-law Nikolaos Dimadis serving as architect—he was the son of Konstantinos Dimadis, the architect of the Great School of the Nation—the magnificent Church of Saint John the Forerunner was erected. The church was consecrated on July 11, 1899, with the Patriarch of Constantinople Neophytos presiding over the ceremony; he was serving at Antigone at the time.

“The Honorable Forerunner is Gentle, Lovely, Exceedingly Beautiful”

Venerable Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis would say about Saint John the Forerunner, while pointing to his icons:

“The Honorable Forerunner is not so stern and fierce! He is gentle, lovely, exceedingly beautiful.”

And when he was asked whether he had seen him, he replied:

“I have seen him; that is why I tell you that he is gentle. Indeed, he told me that he would be my protector in this life and the guarantor of my salvation!”

Source: From the book Taught by God published by the Metropolis of Veria, Naoussa and Campania in 2023, which contains the file for the canonization of Venerable Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis. Translation by John Sanidopoulos.

 

New Archaeological Discoveries Beneath the Holy Sepulchre Strengthen the Case for Jerusalem’s Traditional Tomb of Christ

New archaeological discoveries beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem are shedding important new light on one of the oldest and most disputed questions in Christian archaeology: whether the traditional site of Christ’s crucifixion, burial, and Resurrection is historically credible.

The discoveries do not provide an inscription identifying the tomb as that of Jesus, nor do they constitute definitive proof that the tomb preserved within the Holy Sepulchre is the tomb in which Jesus was buried. What they do provide, however, is a remarkably detailed picture of the landscape that existed beneath the church during the first century. That landscape—a disused quarry subsequently used for cultivation and burial—fits important elements of the Gospel accounts and provides new archaeological context for the traditional identification of the site.

The excavations, directed by Francesca Romana Stasolla of the Sapienza University of Rome, have been conducted since 2022 as part of restoration work involving the floor of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. The preliminary results of the 2025 campaign have now been published in Liber Annuus, the archaeological journal of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem. The research represents the culmination of investigations in several areas of the complex and provides a broader topographical reconstruction of the site.

The Revealed Path: Saint Phanourios and the Memory of Nafplio’s Liberation

The veneration of Saint Phanourios occupies a unique space within Greek Orthodox folklore. Unlike many military, clerical or monastic saints whose legacies were codified in homilies or formal ecclesiastical historiography, Saint Phanourios exists primarily through the lens of lived experience and communal practice. The hallmark of his devotion is the baking of the phanouropita, a vegan cake made with seven or nine ingredients, which functions as a domestic ritual of intercession, traditionally associated with the recovery of lost objects, opening of closed paths, or offering prayers for his legendary, unrepentant mother. Alexandros Papadiamantis beautifully preserved this folklore and act of piety in his 1899 short story, Goutou Goupatou, recording the custom of offering a cake while quietly praying, "God forgive the mother of Saint Phanourios." Yet, when this same underlying folklore interacted with the localized realities of Nafplio, the concept of a saint who "reveals" (phaneronei) underwent a profound, civic transformation, shifting from a private domestic prayer into a literal catalyst for the Greek War of Independence.

The Teaching on Weeping of Venerable Poemen the Great

A brother asked Abba Poemen what kind of spiritual labor a monk ought to undertake. The Abba replied: “When Abraham came into the Promised Land, he purchased a tomb for himself, and from the tomb he began to take possession of the Promised Land.” The brother asked: “What does the ‘tomb’ signify?” The Abba replied: “It is a place of weeping and lamentation.”

The following saying also belongs to Abba Poemen: “Weeping is twofold: it brings about and preserves.”

A brother asked Abba Poemen: “What should I do about my passions, which trouble me?” The Elder said to him: “Let us weep with all our strength before the goodness of God, until He has mercy upon us.”

A brother asked Abba Poemen: “What should I do about my sins?” The Elder said: “He who desires to be freed from the sins that dwell within him is freed from them through weeping; and he who desires not to fall into sin again avoids falling through weeping. This is the path of repentance handed down to us by Scripture and the Fathers, who said: ‘Weep!’ There is no other path apart from weeping.”

Venerable Poemen the Great Resource Page

Venerable Poemen the Great (Feast Day - August 27)

 

Verses

As from the open mouth of a wolf Poemen snatches,

The lives of the sheep of the exceedingly great Shepherd.

On the twenty-seventh Poemen is mourned as a great shepherd.

 

Life and Sayings of Holy Abba Poemen the Great

 

August: Day 27: Venerable Poemen the Great 

 

Homily One on Venerable Abba Poemen, the Shepherd of Souls (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos) 

 

Homily Two on Venerable Abba Poemen, the Shepherd of Souls (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

The Teaching on Weeping of Venerable Poemen the Great 

 

On Those Who Do Not Accept Our Forgiveness (Abba Poemen)

 

Seven Precepts For An Assured Salvation 

 

Prologue in Sermons: February 16 

 

Christians Today Are Like Watermelons

“Elder, what are Christians like today?”

“Like watermelons, my child.”

With this simple remark, full of spiritual wit, an elder on Mount Athos expressed a profound truth about our times.

If you think about it, a watermelon is a fruit that can easily deceive you. On the outside, it is deep green and firm, and you see a beautiful, hard surface that gives you the impression that nothing can bend or break it.

So it is with many Christians today. They wear the “garment” of piety, know the right words, follow religious customs, and appear steadfast.

“Help Us To Love Our Enemies, Our Brothers and Sisters.”

At the Sacred Pilgrimage Cave Church of the Nativity of Saint John the Forerunner (Damialis, Crete), traditionally believed to have been built by Saint John the Xenos (10th century), where, according to the liturgical schedule of the shrine, Divine Liturgies and Parakleses are celebrated every month, with the commemoration of all the names that the many pilgrims record during their pilgrimage, His Eminence Metropolitan Amphilochios of Kissamos and Selinos celebrated the Paraklesis to Saint John the Forerunner on July 14th 2026.

At the conclusion of the Paraklesis, the His Eminence Metropolitan Amphilochios referred to one of the “For Health” prayer requests that had been recorded at the shrine during the month of July.

In this particular request, which was written in English, the person making the request asked God to keep his or her family “in Lebanon” safe and to grant them peace: “Keep them safe. Make peace.”

The next sentence of the prayer request was a prayer for the “enemies.”

It reads:

“Help us to love our enemies, our brothers and sisters.”

The Hidden Greatness of Greece

“Scattered across the surrounding hills and throughout the entire rural amphitheater are an astonishing number of churches.

The immeasurable depth of Orthodoxy, with the houses of God that you encounter everywhere in Greece, whether you make your way through the ravines and mountains or along the sea-washed shores of this maritime land, three-quarters of which is surrounded by the sea, where the people have always found the foundation of their spiritual truth: 'that you may know how one ought to conduct oneself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.'

Faith and language, peasant and fisherman or sailor—the two primordial, indestructible cells, bound together in the form of a cross, like the lion, the angel, the ox, and the eagle upon the Tetramorph, or again like the four primordial elements, those four so celebrated, inexhaustible sources, flowing abundantly through life and death, ever-flowing springs that sustain a people who are the guardians of one of the most wondrous religions and languages in the world. […]