Fthiotidos Simeon: "I am a crusader..."translated

With the participation of a large number of believers, the Despotic Feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Holy and Living Cross was celebrated in the Holy Metropolis of Fthiotidos. The Most Reverend Metropolitan Fthiotidos Mr. Symeon on the evening of Sunday, September 13, 2026, celebrated the Great Solemn High Priestly Vespers at the historic Monastery of Agios Athanasios in the village of Ombriaki, continuing his tour that day in the area of ​​Domokos, the once brilliant Episcopate of Thaumakos.

The High Priestly Vespers was held in the stone-built courtyard of the Monastery due to the large number of believers, reviving an old custom which has its roots in the years of the Turkish rule, when the Abbot of the Monastery, on this day, gathered the faithful inhabitants of the surrounding villages in the Monastery to celebrate with long services the great feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Holy Cross, to to protect them from the Turks, while also giving them fasting traditional food to commemorate this day with fasting.

The Venerable Mr. Simeon was flanked at the Solemn Vespers by the Holy Professor of the Monastery of Panagia Antinitsis Archim. Father Ambrosios Anastasiou, the new Hierarchical Commissioner of Thaumakos and...