Archimandrite Justin Mamalos, Guardian of Jacob’s Well, Has Fallen Asleep in the Lord

On Thursday, October 1, 2026, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem announced with deep sorrow the repose in the Lord of Archimandrite Justin Mamalos, the longtime Abbot and guardian of the Monastery of Jacob’s Well in Nablus, Samaria. He fell asleep in the Lord after a prolonged illness while receiving treatment at the General Hospital of Patras. He was eighty-five years old.

The Patriarchate of Jerusalem remembered him as the renovator of the Holy Shrine of Jacob’s Well and the founder and renovator of the Church of Saint Photini the Samaritan, whose life and many years of service had become inseparably connected with the complete restoration and preservation of the monastery. In its official announcement, the Patriarchate emphasized that Fr. Justin devoted his strength, his labors, and a great part of his life to the restoration, dignity, and protection of the sacred monastery, leaving behind an honorable legacy through which the memory of his offering would remain alive.

Archimandrite Chrysostomos Tavoulareas, Longtime Abbot of the Monastery of Abba Gerasimos of the Jordan, Has Reposed

Archimandrite Chrysostomos Tavoulareas, the longtime abbot of the Holy Monastery of Abba Gerasimos of the Jordan near Jericho, reposed in the Lord on Sunday, September 6, 2026, in Athens, following a serious illness. The Patriarchate of Jerusalem announced his repose with deepest sorrow, describing him as a devoted member of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre who faithfully served the Church of Zion and the All-Holy Shrines for decades.

Elder Chrysostomos, who was originally from Mani, became closely identified with the Monastery of Abba Gerasimos, where he served for more than four decades. The monastery stands in the heart of the wilderness, beside the Jordan River, in the region where Saint John the Forerunner baptized Jesus Christ. In 1974, while serving as a deacon in Bethlehem, he came to the then-abandoned monastery as both a visitor and, ultimately, its permanent guardian. He had become involved in an incident with the Latins, and the Patriarchate of Jerusalem had decided to send him for six months to the Monastery of Saint Savvas as a disciplinary measure. At that time, an elderly abbot suggested to the 92-year-old Patriarch Benedict that he instead be sent to the Monastery of Saint Gerasimos, which stood abandoned in an extremely dangerous area and to which no one wanted to go.

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.

A First Look at the Holy Light (Holy Fire) of Jerusalem 2026

Today in Jerusalem the Holy Light, known in the West as Holy Fire, once again descended into the Tomb of Christ as Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem knelt in prayer within the Holy Sepulchre. This ceremony has taken place just about every year for hundreds of years on Holy Saturday, shortly after 2:30pm. With 33 candles in each hand he distributed the Holy Light to the many present. Following the Holy Light ceremony, the flame is taken by plane to other Orthodox communities in countries such as Greece, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria, Georgia and Romania. In Greece the Holy Light is usually received with the welcome of a Head of State.

Saint Sophronios of Jerusalem: The Guardian of the All-Holy Sepulchre

The Guardian of the All-Holy Sepulchre

By Archimandrite Kallinikos Georgatos

(The present text is an expanded version of a sermon delivered at the Solemn Vespers of the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent in 2014, at the Sacred Metropolitan Church of Saint Demetrios in Nafpaktos.)

Behind the wondrous life of Venerable Mary of Egypt, which amazed both men and angels; behind the theological prayers and the beautiful hymns of our Church; behind the struggle of the Orthodox against the Monothelites and other heretics of the 6th and 7th centuries A.D.; behind the beneficial regime for the Orthodox Romans concerning the Holy Pilgrimage sites and the All-Holy Sepulchre — there stands a great saint of our Church, Saint Sophronios, Patriarch of Jerusalem, who throughout his entire life sought the will of God and fulfilled it at all cost, despite the whirlwind of historical events in which he lived; and Christ rewarded him by granting him His rich blessing.

To this great Saint, and to those things which make him the “Guardian of the All-Holy Sepulchre,” we shall refer below — briefly, but with reverence and gratitude for what he offered to the Church of Christ.

The Tomb of Saint John Moschos

In the biographies of John Moschos it is reported that after the plundering of Jerusalem in 614, because of the growing Persian threat to Alexandria, he and Saint Sophronios, together with Saint John the Merciful, crossed from Egypt to Cyprus. From there John Moschos, stopping at various Mediterranean islands, set out for Rome. There he worked on arranging the recollections of his travels (The Leimonarion, or The Spiritual Meadow), and there he also died (+ 619/634).

John Moschos bequeathed that he be buried at Sinai or, if barbarian raids did not permit this, at the Coenobium of Venerable Theodosios the Great in the Judean desert. In order to fulfill the final wish of his departed friend, Saint Sophronios set out with his body from Rome to Jerusalem and arrived there “at the beginning of the eighth indiction.” John Moschos was buried in the cemetery of the Monastery of Venerable Theodosios the Great.

The Kathisma of the Theotokos: The Resting Place of the Theotokos on Her Journey to Bethlehem

Theodosius the Pilgrim was a 6th-century German archdeacon who wrote De situ terrae sanctae (On the Topography of the Holy Land), an influential guide for pilgrims to Jerusalem and beyond, describing routes, holy sites like Bethany Beyond the Jordan and the Mount of Olives, and constructions by Emperor Anastasius. His detailed work, written around 518-530 AD, blends an itinerarium (travel guide) with religious commentary, helping pilgrims navigate and identify sacred spots, and even mentions monasteries and miracles, providing valuable archaeological clues for sites. There he wrote the following:

"Three miles from the city of Jerusalem is the place where our Lady Mary, the Mother of the Lord, during her journey to Bethlehem, dismounted from the donkey, sat on the stone of a rock and blessed it."

The site described is in fact known to be the earliest centre of the veneration of the Virgin Mary in Palestine, known as the Kathisma church, which by the early fifth century had become a focus of Marian piety. The Church of the Kathisma marks the place she felt labor pains before Jesus' birth, as described in ancient texts like the Protoevangelium of James. It is called Kathisma because it contains the "Seat" of the Virgin, where she sat to rest.

Location Where the Archangel Gabriel Announced to the Theotokos Her Dormition Three Days Prior

The Temple is called "My Soul Magnifies the Lord," or the Church of the Annunciation of the Theotokos, and is dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos. It is located in what is called Small Galilee on the Mount of Olives. The feast day is celebrated on August 12th.

The very place where this church stands was said to be the place of prayer of the Most Holy Theotokos in the years she lived after the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Lord. And three days before her Dormition and Metastasis the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her here to announce her repose in three days and she was given a palm branch as a sign of her imminent repose.

At present the place belongs to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In 1880 Patriarch Hierotheos of Jerusalem purchased the land of Small Galilee from Muslim owners, and it quickly became a monastic community. The current church of "My Soul Magnifies the Lord", a small cubical chapel crowned with a dome, was built on the foundation of a Byzantine church of the 4th-5th centuries by Archbishop Epiphanios of Jordan and consecrated in 1889.

Archaeologists Uncovered the Long-Forgotten Byzantine Settlement of Tharais

By Joanie Margulies
July 14, 2025
The Jerusalem Post

A team of archaeologists have unearthed what is believed to be the long-forgotten Byzantine settlement of Tharais, offering significant new insights into the history of Christianity in the Middle East. 

The findings, led by Musallam R. Al-Rawahneh, an associate professor of archaeology at Mutah University in Jordan, were published in Gephyra, a journal dedicated to the ancient history and cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean, in May.

Rawahneh’s discovery was guided by the Madaba Map, an ancient mosaic that has long intrigued historians. He pinpointed the site near the Jordanian village of El-Irāq, in an area known as Ain Al-Qala’a. Although the settlement had been lost to obscurity for centuries, the archaeologist noted its strategic location along ancient trade routes leading to the southeastern Dead Sea region.

In Jerusalem Archaeologists Uncover the Remains of a 5th Century Female Ascetic Wrapped in Chains

 

A team of archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority announced in March 2025 that a body found buried in Jerusalem wrapped in chains had been a female, from the fifth century AD. It is the first archaeological evidence of extreme asceticism practiced by a female that has been discovered in Jerusalem, since prior to this discovery it was only observed in male monastics.

The research, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports,  was led by Dr. Paula Kotli, David Morgenstern, and Prof. Elisabetta Boaretto from the Weizmann Institute of Science, in collaboration with Dr. Yossi Nagar, Zubair ʼAdawi, and Kfir Arbiv from the Israel Antiquities Authority. Due to the skeleton’s poor state of preservation, the Weizmann Institute team employed advanced proteomic and peptidomic analysis, which identified the biological sex of the skeleton through proteins found in the enamel of the teeth. By analyzing the variations of Amelogenin proteins, which are encoded by the X/Y sex chromosomes, the researchers confirmed that the individual was a woman.

May: Day 7: Teaching 1: Commemoration of the Appearance of the Sign of the Cross of the Lord in Jerusalem in 351 A.D.

May: Day 7: Teaching 1:
Commemoration of the Appearance of the Sign of the Cross of the Lord in Jerusalem During the Reign of Emperor Constantius
 
(Reflecting on the Cross of the Lord, we must not only thank the Lord for the salvation He has accomplished for us, but also pray to Him for the forgiveness of the sins we commit.)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today we commemorate the appearance of the sign of the Cross of the Lord in Jerusalem, which was in the sky in the year 351. It was during the days of Holy Pentecost, that is, between Pascha and Pentecost, on the 7th of May, about the 3rd hour of the day. The Cross was made of light and extended over Golgotha, the mountain of Christ's crucifixion, to the Mount of Olives, from where the Lord ascended, about a two miles distance. The Cross was visible to the entire population of the city, and was visible for quite a long time during the day, and its light was stronger than the light of the sun's rays. The people hurried in crowds to the temples, and all trembled and prayed to the Lord. This heavenly phenomenon converted many of the Jews and pagans to Christ. It foretold that great cross which was to come upon the Church for twenty whole years after Constantine the Great from the emperors Constantius the Arian and Julian the Apostate.

A First Look at the Holy Light (Holy Fire) of Jerusalem 2025

Today in Jerusalem the Holy Light, known in the West as Holy Fire, once again descended into the Tomb of Christ as Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem knelt in prayer within the Holy Sepulchre. This ceremony has taken place just about every year for hundreds of years on Holy Saturday, shortly after 2:30pm. With 33 candles in each hand he distributed the Holy Light to the many present. Following the Holy Light ceremony, the flame is taken by plane to other Orthodox communities in countries such as Greece, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria, Georgia and Romania. In Greece the Holy Light is usually received with the welcome of a Head of State.

In pre-COVID years, over 10,000 pilgrims packed the Holy Sepulchre to be witnesses of this miracle. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the ceremony to be closed to the public for the first time since the Black Death in 1349, with only clerics, police, and media present. Last year, only 4200 people were allowed in the church, due to the escalation of the conflict in Gaza and the resulting logistical problems.

The Repose of the Heroic Archimandrite Hierotheos Sifakis of the Lavra of Saint Theodosios the Cenobiarch

The late Archimandrite Hierotheos Sifakis, Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Abba Theodosios the Cenobiarch, reposed in the Lord on Tuesday afternoon January 28th 2025 at the age of 94. He had been in the Holy Land for over 70 years and served as Abbot of the Monastery of Abba Theodosios for over 45 years.

Metropolitan Hesychios of Capitolia presided over his funeral on January 29th. Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem was unable to preside due to his traveling to Albania to participate in the funeral of Archbishop Anastasios of Albania.

Elder Eudokimos, the spiritual father of the Lavra of Saint Savvas the Sanctified, has been appointed by the Patriarchate as the custodian of the Sacred Monastery of Abba Theodosios on a temporary basis.

A Sixth Century Account of Theophany in the Holy Land

The anonymous pilgrim of Piacenza, sometimes simply called the Piacenza Pilgrim, was a sixth-century Christian pilgrim from Piacenza in northern Italy who travelled to the Holy Land at the height of Byzantine rule in the 570s and wrote a narrative - an itinerarium - of his pilgrimage. Below is how he described the feast of Theophany near the Jordan:

We kept the Theophany near Jordan, and many miracles happen that night in the place where our Lord was baptized. There is there a mound surrounded with railings, and in the place where the water returns to its bed a wooden cross is placed in the water, and steps go down on both sides of the bank, which are paved with marble. On the vigils of the Theophany there are great vigils, - a countless multitude; and when the cock crows the fourth or fifth time, Matins take place.

"To Enter Where I Was Born, You Must Humble Yourself"

 

"And all the kings of the earth shall worship him, 

all the nations shall serve him." (Psalm 72:11) 

 

By Demetrios Panagopoulos, Preacher

You don't need intelligence in Christian matters. You need simplicity and humility...

In Bethlehem there is a door, one meter high. You have to stoop down to enter.

It's as if Christ is telling you:

"To enter here, in the place where I was born, so that I can be born in you, you must humble yourself. If you don't humble yourself and instead consider yourself to be someone, you won't fit in here. You will be humbled."

 

Saint Philoumenos of Jacob's Well According to William Dalrymple

 

The Anglican Hostel, Nazareth, 20 November
 

Around 570 a.d., after he was first professed as a monk at the Abbey of St Theodosius, John Moschos withdrew into the wilderness and spent ten years in the remote cave monastery at Pharan, to the north of Jerusalem.
 

Pharan, the modern Ein Fara, is reputedly the oldest abbey in Palestine. It was founded in the early fourth century by the great Byzantine hermit St Chariton, who, it is said, settied here in a cave above a pool of pure spring water. There he gathered a community of like-minded ascetics around him, living a life of silence, self-abnegation and severe fasting, interspersed with long hours of prayer. Two hundred years later, Moschos appears to have been drawn to the site less by its antiquity than by the wisdom of its then hegumen, Abba Cosmas the Eunuch. In a crucial passage in The Spiritual Meadow, Moschos credits Cosmas with first giving him the idea to collect the sayings of the fathers: 'Whilst he [Abba Cosmas] was speaking to me about the salvation of the soul, we came across an aphorism of St Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria. And the elder said to me, "When you come across such a saying, if you have no paper with you, write it on your clothing" - so great was the appetite of Abba Cosmas for the words of our holy fathers and teachers.' It was advice that was eventually to lead Moschos to compiling The Spiritual Meadow, and so to preserve the otherwise largely unrecorded history of the monks of Byzantine Palestine.
 

The Tomb of Saint Pelagia of Antioch on the Mount of Olives

Near to the Chapel of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, there is a singular tomb that the three local religions curiously attribute to three different women. For the Jews, it is the prophetess Huldah, mentioned in the Old Testament in the time of King Josiah. For the Muslims, it is the tomb of Rabi'a al Adawiyya, one of the earliest Sufi mystics of the 7th century who was the first to set forth the doctrine of divine love. According to Christian tradition, however, which is the oldest of the traditions and the only one directly connecting the person to the Mount of Olives, here is buried Pelagia, a former prostitute and actress and dancer from Antioch, who converted to Christianity by the Bishop of Edessa, then secretly went to Jerusalem dressed in men's clothing, to live as an ascetic monk on the Mount of Olives until her death, when her true identity was discovered. It has been said that the tension of polemical dispute regarding the identity of the holy woman made it possible for three religions to share the site. In addition, a shared ritual of repentance and belief in the holiness of the tomb appealed to people of all religious identities.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre Resource Page

 

Consecration of the Church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem in 335 

 

Homily on the Dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem

 

On the Consecration of the Temple of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem (St. Justin Popovich) 

 

September: Day 13: Teaching 1: Feast of the Consecration of the Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

 

September: Day 13: Teaching 2: Feast of the Consecration of the Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 

 

Prologue in Sermons: September 13 

 

Is the Holy Sepulchre the Actual Tomb of Christ? 

 

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

 

The Holy Sepulchre, a 3D Journey Back in Time

 

The Prison of Christ in the Praetorium Monastery

 

The Location Where the True Cross of Christ Was Found by Saint Helen

 

The Holy Stone - A Fragment of the Stone on Which the Angel Announced the Resurrection to the Myrrhbearers  

The Miraculous Wax Holy Seal of the Holy Sepulchre

 

Regarding the Column That Was Split By the Holy Fire in 1579

 

The Torn Column and the Holy Light: Pascha 1579 AD

 

The Chapel of Saint Longinus the Centurion in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 

Hymns and Prayer Upon Entering the Chapel of Saint Longinus at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem 

 

The Chapel of the Holy Forty Martyrs in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre   

 

The Place Where St. Mary of Egypt Repented in Jerusalem

 

Herman Melville's "The Sepulchre"

 

Mark Twain's Visit to the Holy Sepulchre  

 

A Description of Greek Orthodox Easter in Jerusalem in 1915

 

Documentary: The Guardians of the Holy Sepulchre (Greek)

 

Fr. Mitrophanes, Guardian of the Holy Sepulchre (1)

 

Fr. Mitrophanes, Guardian of the Holy Sepulchre (2)

 

Fr. Mitrophanes, Guardian of the Holy Sepulchre (3)

Church of the Holy Sepulcher Comes Alive at Night

 

The Two Muslim Custodians of the Holy Sepulchre

 

One Door and No Fire Exit at Holy Sepulchre Church  

 

Pilgrimage Rights of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem

 

Did an "Open Eye" Miracle Recently Take Place at the Holy Sepulchre?

 

Feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross In Jerusalem (video)

 

Pentecost Vespers At the Holy Sepulchre (video)

 

A Prayer Before the All-Holy Sepulchre 

 

Akathist to the Life-Bearing Tomb of Christ  

 

Holy Cross Resource Page

 

Holy and Great Saturday Resource Page

Holy Light of Jerusalem Resource Page

 

 

September: Day 13: Teaching 1: Feast of the Consecration of the Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

September: Day 13: Teaching 1: 

Feast of the Consecration of the Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
 
(The Resurrection of Jesus Christ Serves as Proof of His Divinity)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Feast of the Dedication, i.e. the Consecration, of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, which is celebrated today, was established in the following manner. The place where the Lord accomplished our salvation, i.e. Mount Golgotha, where He was crucified, and the burial cave from which He rose, were in time abandoned and even desecrated by the Jews and pagans, who hated Jesus Christ and His disciples. Thus, the Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century ordered the Lord's tomb to be filled with rubbish and earth, and erected a pagan temple on Golgotha. In exactly the same way, other places consecrated by the Savior were desecrated by pagan temples and altars. Of course, this was done in order to erase the holy places from memory; but this is what helped their discovery. When, in the 4th century, the Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena accepted the Christian faith, they wished to renew the holy places in the city of Jerusalem and to open holy places for Christians. Empress Helena with a lot of gold went to Jerusalem for this. She, with the assistance of the Jerusalem Patriarch Makarios, destroyed the idol temples and renovated Jerusalem. She found the cross of the Lord and the tomb, and on Mount Golgotha, over the places of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, she built a large and magnificent temple in honor of the Resurrection. The temple was built in ten years. In 335, on September 13, it was solemnly consecrated, and it was decided to celebrate this consecration or dedication of the temple every year.

Controversy Over the 2024 Appearance of the Holy Cloud on Mount Tabor

A photo of the Holy Cloud over Nazareth at night from Mount Tabor

A Romanian Tourist Manager, Dumitru Georgeta, who often travels to the Holy Land has witnessed the miracle of the Holy Cloud enveloping Mount Tabor for the vigil of the feast of the Transfiguration on the night of August 18th into the 19th fifteen times, and this year pointed out the fact in a post on Facebook that the Holy Cloud did not appear over Mount Tabor this year while she was there for the feast.

A Romanian publication picked up on this and wrote a news report that the Holy Cloud failed to appear over Mount Tabor on the feast of the Transfiguration, which was then reported in Greek sources and possibly other languages.

However, Dumitru Georgeta, upset by this report, clarified that what was reported was not the whole story. On Facebook she had mentioned that the Israeli police would not let visitors go up Mount Tabor for this year's feast because the "organizer" of the event refused to pay the required money for a fire truck, ambulance and police to be present. However, a small group was allowed. She then says what she experienced: