With deepest sensibility, the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine of the God-trodden Mount Sinai announces that today, Cheesefare Sunday (March 1) of 2020, the venerable, ascetic and esteemed Archimandrite Pavlos Bougiouras, a distinguished member of the ancient Sinai Brotherhood, was translated to the Lord after a long and devastating illness, which he underwent with evangelic endurance, fortitude, silence and meekness.
His holy body will remain at the Church of St. Catherine of the God-trodden Mount Sinai ( Dorylaiou 26 , Plateia Mavili, Athens) from 3 pm today, Sunday, March 1. The holy Church will remain open today Sunday, March 1st from 3pm - 9pm (Contrite Vespers at 6pm).
Veneration by the faithful will continue tomorrow, Clean Monday, March 2 (from 7am to 9pm) until Clean Tuesday March 3 starting from 7am (7.30-9.30 Presanctified Divine Liturgy), when the Elder’s Service of Departure will be sung at 3pm on Clean Tuesday in the Holy Church of St. Catherine of the central Sinai Metochion (Dorylaou 26, Plateia Mavili, Athens).
Blessed Archimandrite Pavlos (born George Bougiouras) was born on January 17, 1939, in the town of Kranidi of Hermonidos, to a pious and traditional family, where he was brought up in “education and mind of the Lord.”
A person of deep faith and love, prior to his monastic dedication he served Christ in the face of his fellow man by working at the Annunciation Hospital.
Elder Pavlos talking to visitors at the Burning Bush
In 1972, mature, having completed his studies at the Theological School of the University of Athens, he entered the Holy Monastery of Sinai, where he received both the monastic schema and the Priesthood.
He served for many years as “Dikaios,” a member of the Holy Monastery Council second in authority to the eminent Archbishop and Abbot of the Holy Monastery.
A Hieromonk of strict asceticism and unceasing prayer; a lover of the services and hard work; without possessions and with proverbial charity toward all, especially toward the Bedouin inhabitants of the area surrounding the Holy Monastery; for 48 consecutive years he shone forth as a beloved Spiritual Father not only of the Monastery fathers, clergy and pilgrims, but also of multitudes of devout Christians in Greece, Cyprus, and other lands, up until, and in the face of, serious upheaval to his health.
The Abbot of the ancient and Holy Monastery of Sinai, His Eminence, Archbishop of Sinai Damianos, and the entire mourning Brotherhood of Sinai, together with numberless spiritual children of the departed, pray that the Lord of life and of death give repose to his soul in the Place of the living, numbered amongst His Saints and Righteous.
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