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"In the beginning a deep cruciform Baptistry was built of stone, with stairsteps descending from the west and ascending to the East - the same type as one from the earliest Christian times - in the center of the Southeast inner yard of the present compound. It foreshadows the prospect, in continuation, of the Sacred Monastery itself being raised upon the highest point of the Great Ridge, likewise in the pattern of a Cross."
from the Monastery Chronicle
Each year many people from both the surrounding countryside and from around the world are brought to the Monastery to be baptized. This year on Holy Saturday (traditionally the principle time at which people were baptized) Elizabeth from Sweden sealed her committment in Christ and was sealed in the Holy Spirit in Her baptism which took place as part of the Holy Saturday Vespers and Divine Liturgy of St. Basil.
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"I renounce the devil and all his angels, all his works and all his pride."
The baptismal liturgy begins with the excorcism of the person to baptized. As the baptizand stands facing west - the place of darkness - the excorcisms conclude with the person's willing rejection of the devil and everything diabolic. Following this rejection of the diabolic she acknowledges Jesus Christ as her Saviour and recites the Nicene Creed to affirm this acknowledgement.
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Procession to the baptismal font
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"I baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"
At the font the water is blessed. Then the baptizand enters from the west and is immersed three times: in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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"Vouchsafe unto me the robe of light, O Thou Who clothest Thyself with light as with a garment, Christ, our God, plenteous in mercy."
This is one of the most ancient rites of the baptismal liturgy and in early explanations of Baptism it occupied quite an important place. . . What it reveals and therefore communicates is the radical newness of [the] purity and righteousness, of that new spiritual life for which the neophyte was regenerated in the baptismal immersion and which will now be bestowed...through the "seal of the gift of the Hol Spirit".
Of Water and the Spirit
Fr. Alexander Schmemann
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"As Many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ! Alleluia!"
The baptismal rite concludes with the baptizand being led in procession around the baptismal font (3 times) as the faithful sing: "As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, Alleluia!" After wich the procession returnes to the Church to resume the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil.
EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS MONASTERY
322 00 THEBES BOEOTIA, GREECE.
email: ypsosis@fhc.org
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Fax: 30.226.2062004
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