THE FEAST OF ST MELANI AT THE JERUSALEM PATRIARCHATE

The Patriarchate of Jerusalem– January 2017

On 31st December 2016/ 13th January 2017, the memory of St. Melani the Roman was celebrated by the Patriarchate, at the homonymous chapel, which is located underground in the Holy Monastery of Megali Panagia, neighbouring on the south the Central Monastery of the Hagiotaphite Fathers.

According to the Synaxarion, St. Melani came from a wealthy family of Rome, she got married and bore two children. When both her children died, she and her husband devoted themselves in works of charity. The most important of those was the liberation of 8.000 captives and the sustenance of thousands of needy monks in Egypt where she itinerated.

From Egypt, she concluded in Jerusalem around 430 A.D. and lived a blessed life in a cell on the Mount of Olives where she slept in the Lord.

In the above mentioned chapel, Vespers was held in the evening, and the Divine Liturgy on the morning of the feast, headed by the Hegoumen of the Holy Monastery of the Shepherds Archimandrite Ignatios, with the choir of Temple Fathers and other choir singers, and the participation of praying monks, nuns and noble pilgrims.

After the Divine Liturgy, the renovator of the St. Melani’s church and Holy Monastery, Abbess Melani, hosted all participants in a generous reception at the hegoumeion.

From Secretariat-General

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