Ι.Μ.Χ.

HOLY PILGRIMAGE OF SAINT JOHN THE RUSSIAN

The Holy Church of Saint John the Russian in Neos Prokopios, Evia, operates as a Pilgrimage, under the direct supervision of the Holy Metropolis of Chalkida.

This Pious Foundation is governed by a five-member Administrative Council, consisting of the current Metropolitan of Chalkida as President, a Cleric of the Holy Metropolis of Chalkida, and three distinguished citizens as members, appointed by the Most Reverend Metropolitan.

The Holy Pilgrimage performs a very important spiritual and social work. Without exaggeration, it is an oasis that comforts and rejuvenates the pilgrims, who live daily in the bustling desert of modern hostility.

The grace of the holy relic floods the faithful, consoles and calms their hearts, filling them with resurrection hope, and cultivates thoughts and a disposition of repentance.

The devout Holy Services, and especially the Divine Liturgy, enhance their prayerful disposition and longing for participation in the holy Chalice, so that they truly commune with God and are freed from anxious care, joyfully entrusting their lives into His hands. Moreover, the example of the saint teaches them to bear the Cross and face the tedium of life with patience, preferring the excellent life, the adventurous and martyrdom path of freedom and sanctification, instead of earthly indulgence and temporary happiness. Furthermore, in the holy confessional of the Holy Pilgrimage, the weary sinner is liberated from the unbearable burden of sins and guilt, and his communion with God, fellow man, and himself is restored.

Having before him the rule of fidelity, the measure of humility and exaltation, the saint, the confessor, the martyr, is freed, if he has the courage and strength of spiritual senses, from the allure that accompanies the myth of his perfect self, and, now privilegedly desperate, he casts his existence and the despair of his soul into the sea of divine compassion...!!!

However, apart from spiritual rest, the modern and very decent guesthouse also provides rest for the weary body of the traveling pilgrim.

It is a very old, yet human, position of the Church to provide physical rest to those it wishes to benefit spiritually.

This guesthouse was founded in 1977 and inaugurated in 1989 by the late Metropolitan of Chalkida, Chrysostomos A (Vergis).

It has a capacity of 160 beds and includes, besides the bedrooms, lecture and conference rooms, a Museum, dining rooms, etc., auxiliary spaces.

To date, among other things, it has hosted Clerical Conferences, Pan-Orthodox Conferences conducted under the auspices of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece to address heresies and para-religious groups, as well as liturgical symposia and events.

However, the Holy Pilgrimage, in addition to the above, also performs other forms of significant charitable work.

It significantly supports the welfare work of the Holy Metropolis. It financially assists the operation of all its Charitable Foundations, while it has been and continues to be the main source of funding for a very important and costly ecclesiastical project: the construction and operation of camping facilities in the coastal area "Taxiarchis" of Ilia, on an area of 46 acres, which host 800 children every year in 6 camping periods.

It also supports many cases of needy students, patients, and other disadvantaged individuals, takes care of the publication of scientific writings and other useful books, and oversees the study and execution of public benefit projects in the area of the Municipal District of Prokopios, while the conversion of the old Guesthouse of the Holy Pilgrimage into a MUSEUM SPACE OF ASIA MINOR CULTURE has already begun.

The pilgrim, leaving the Holy Pilgrimage of Saint John, returns "to his own" renewed and transformed, like the holy Apostles from Mount Tabor, to continue with new strength the invisible war within the daily asphalt reality and to have a victorious outcome with the intercessions of the saint.

Priestly Supervisor:

Protopresbyter Ioannis Markou

Priests:

Economos Dimitrios Stamoulos

Economos Nikolaos Markou

Economos Ioannis Gekas

Postal Address:

Holy Pilgrimage of Saint John the Russian - 340 04 Neos Prokopios

Phones:

Holy Church: 22270. 41209

Guesthouse: 22270. 41462

Fax: 22270. 41308