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By the grace of Christ our God, Who said, “ If I am raised up from the earth, I shall draw all men to Myself”. (Jn. 12:32), the Monastery of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross was set upon the Great Ridge of the Municipal district of Vayia in the Sacred Diocese of Thebes and Levadeia, 10 kilometers from Thebes, where the tomb of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke is located. Here, in 1963, Demetrios and Georgia Chellou built a traditional cruciform Church with a dome, dedicated to the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. In the center of the Church there is a wooden cross reaching up to the ceiling, while the iconostasis is adorned with beautiful Byzantine icons which were painted in the Holy Monastery of the Paraclete in 1972.
On 28 Oct. 1993, to their eternal memory, the Chellou couple entrusted the Church, with the acre of land on which it stands, to the Very Rev. Archimandrite Dionysios Kalabokas. Archimandrite Dionysios is originally from the village of Georgia - St. Paraskeve Aspropotamou in the Metropolis of Trikkala and was brought up in Christ in the shadow of the ever-memorable Hierarch Dionysios, first the Metropolitan of Lemnos and afterwards, of Trikkis & Stagon. Indeed, Metropolitan Dionysios was the Spiritual Father of his own revered Elder, the Very Reverend Archimandrite Aemilianos, formerly the Abbot of Great Meteoron and thereafter, the Abbot of Simonos Petras Monastery on the Holy Mountain of Athos. When the land in Thebes was given, Archimandrite Dionysios was Abbot of Holy Cross Monastery and Headmaster of the Patriarchal Seminary in Jerusalem. The donors’ intended that Elder Dionysios establish a Holy Monastery for his spiritual children. And in fact, the foundation of the Monastery was laid by the burial there of the Elder’s sister according to the flesh and according to the spirit, Maria, who fell asleep in the Lord on 6 Dec. 1994. She was, in essence, the first spiritual Mother of a Monastic Sisterhood initially comprised of approximately forty Nuns and Novices, from Greece, certainly, and also from America, Armenia, Byelorussia, England, Jamaica, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Lebanon, Norway, Palestine, Rumania, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and elsewhere.
The Sisters are young and well-educated, both by secular standards and in Christ. Entering the monastic life having already earned superior scholarly distinctions, they have continued in theological studies with the highest merits. But more essentially, gathered together by God, they are being formed in Christ by their life-long Elder and spiritual Father, the Founder and Builder of the Monastery, Archimandrite Dionysios, who for decades has been synthesizing the monasticism of Meteora and Mount Athos.
With the fervent recommendation and personal solicitude of that eminent friend of monasticism, the Hierarch of Thebes and Levadeia, Ieronymos, as contained in his letter number 586 dated 5 Dec. 1994, and through Synodal Decision number IX of the Church of Greece, dated 9 Dec. 1994, the Holy Monastery was thus established by Presidential Decree number 110, dated 29 Mar. 1995, published in FEK 71 No. 1, on 13 Apr. 1995.
Holy Cross Monastery is situated in a prominent position dominating the Boeotian countryside. It is surrounded both near and far by lower green hills, valleys, plains, and mountains which include the peaks of Kithaeron, Helikon, and Parnassos, among others. It is above the amphitheatre and temple of Kavirio, and across the valley from the hill to which is ascribed the location of the ancient Sphinx. Like a strategic gallery overlooking all the surrounding area of Thebes, Plataees, Thespies, Thisbe and their environs, the Monastery “cannot be hidden, being set on a hilltop” (Mat. 5:14).
After great privations and sacrifices, the property was soon augmented to include more than twenty-five acres. The construction of the present facilities includes cells, workshops, offices, library, guest house, guest rooms, refectory, and exhibition. This forms a compound which, in the future, will be used exclusively for guests. There is also a belltower, cemetery, and barn. Likewise, thousands of trees were planted, an effort in which the Army (KEPB, Thebes) assisted from time to time. A well was drilled to the depth of 430 meters, from which lucid and abundant water gushes forth. This water refreshes, both spiritually and materially, through hospitality and receptions, every true pilgrim from near and far. The hospitality thus given “in the name of a disciple” (Mat. 10:42), for Christ, radiates not only throughout Greece but also abroad.
In the beginning a deep cruciform Baptistry was built of stone, with stairsteps descending from the west and ascending to the East, according to a pattern which originates from the earliest of Christian times. The Baptistry, located in the center of the Southeast inner yard of the present compound, foreshadows the prospect that the Sacred Monastery itself be constructed upon the highest point of the Great Ridge, likewise in the shape of a Cross.
The purpose of the Monastic Sisterhood, already in large part being realized, is described in its Constitution as follows: “The unceasing doxology of the Triune God, through liturgies and personal prayer, the perfect living of the mystical life in Christ Jesus in virginity by those laboring in asceticism according to God in the Sacred Monastery, and the accomplishment of completely coordinated spiritual work, ‘with one mouth and one heart’, among the members, and their continual progress, as integrated Christian personalities.
The monastery likewise promotes “the diverse support of all persons through unceasing prayer; love towards all in action; the Christian education of and assistance to youth, chiefly among girls”. Also, “through the appropriate means, spaces, foundations, schools or camps, and conventions,” the Sisterhood aims “to cultivate the scientific, theological and ecclesiastical fruitfulness of its members, as well as internal and external missions,” all with the blessing of his Eminence Ieronymos, Metropolitan of Thebes & Levadeia.
Tirelessly the Nuns cultivate the earth, raise lifestock, and keep bees and silkworms. In addition, they cultivate the arts of sacred sewing, gold embroidery, iconography, Byzantine sculpture, mosaics, and various other handicrafts, inasmuch as some of them are distinguished graduates of the Academies of Fine Arts of Berlin, of Tbilisi, Georgia, of California and elsewhere.
On 14 Sept. 1995, the first Abbess of the Sacred Monastery, of German descent, was installed, according to the full ecclesiastical order of service, by His Eminence, the Metropolitan Ieronymos of Thebes & Levadeia . At that time he wrote in Letter No. 284/18 Oct. 1995: “We bless the election of Nun Diodora as Abbess, wishing as much to the Sisterhood, as to the Abbess, the abundant Grace of the Life-giving Lord”.
On 8 Sept. 1997, by Letter No. 351 from His Eminence Theokletos, Metropolitan of Ioannina, a number of sisters were canonically called and sent from here. Under the leadership of one of them, Nun Ieronymi, as Abbess, they reconstituted the historic and distinguished Holy Monastery of the Annunciation of the Theotokos at Ano Pedina of Central Zagorion, Ioannina, GR-440 07 Asprangeloi Ioanninon, Tel. & Fax 0653.71570, email: apedina@acropolis.gr. It was here that the Teacher of the Nation, Neophyte Doukas, once was tonsured and lived as a Monk. Through the above Hierarchical Letter, this new Sisterhood also has the same lifelong spiritual father and Elder, the Very Reverend Archimandrite Dionysios.
On 1 Dec. 1998, by his own request, the ninety-year-old ex-Metropolitan of Lemnos & Hagiou Eustratiou, Panteleimon of blessed memory, was buried in the Holy Monastery alongside the first grave. In 1960, in that Diocese, he had become the successor of the Metropolitan of Trikkis & Stagon Dionysios Charalambous.
Through his Hierarchical Letter of 5 March 1999, His Eminence Athenagoras of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Metropolitan of Panama & Central America, submitted “with much prayer and carefulness, a petition for a new Sisterhood from hence, for the foundation of a Sacred Monastery in the God-preserved eparchy of the Ecumenical Throne in Central America, and more specifically at Mexico City, as a firstfruit, that will bring forth much fruit in the future, according to the approval of His Eminence, the Metropolitan of Thebes & Levadeias, and according to the prior blessing of your Very Reverend Elder, Archimandrite Dionysios”. Accordingly, a sufficient number of sisters was likewise sent, under one of them, Nun Dionysia, as their Abbess, thereby founding in Mexico the Holy Monasteryof the Invincible Defender, El Santo Monasterio De La Invencible Defensora, Sacro Arzobispado Ortodoxo Griego, Agua Caliente Esq. Saratoga, Col. Lomas Hipodromo, Naucalpan, Edo. De Mexico, C.P. 53900, Mexico, Tel. & Fax: 0052.55894456. It belongs to the Sacred Diocese of Panama & Central America, of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Feastdays:
The Sacred Monastery celebrates twice a year, namely:
a) The fourteenth of September, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and
b) the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross.
EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS MONASTERY
322 00 THEBES BOEOTIA, GREECE.
email: ypsosis@fhc.org
Telephone: 30.226.2062265
Fax: 30.226.2062004
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