Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin in the celebratory Holy Church of Panagia toni Lithina in Sitiatranslated

With the appropriate splendor and magnificence, in an overwhelming atmosphere and with a huge attendance of believers, the first Theotokos feast of the new ecclesiastical year, the Birth of the Virgin, was celebrated in the post-Byzantine Holy Church of Panagia of the Stones of Sitia, where the miraculous icon of Panagia Odigetria is kept, an excellent example of post-Byzantine iconography in Crete. On the afternoon of Monday, September 7, 2026, Rev. Metropolitan of Ierapytni and Sitia, Mr. Kyrillos officiated during the Vespers of the holiday, blessed the bread, preached the divine word and led the litany of the miraculous icon of Panagia Amolyntos in the central streets of the settlement.

In his speech, His Holiness emphasized in simple words the message of the feast of the birth of the Virgin as a feast of universal joy due to the liberation of the Holy Forefathers Joachim and Anna from the shame of childlessness but also of all humanity from the curse of the first-born and the childlessness of sin. As he noted, the Virgin was born in a barren and spiritually sterile world, foreshadowing and preparing the coming of the Son of God, our Lord...