Festal Greetings to all on the feast day of the Baptism of our Lord by the hand of St. John the Baptist: the Theophany!
 
We had a wonderful gift given to the monastery today – a pilgrim who had experienced a spiritual reawakening some 15 years ago in the Pskov-Caves Monastery (recently made famous as the main place featured in the book “Everyday Saints”) brought us a gift of an icon of the Synaxis of the Saints of that monastery!
 
Especially of interest is the saint depicted in the lower right hand corner – that of St. Symeon. He is the most recently glorified saint from there, having reposed in 1960 and been glorified as a saint in 2003 or so. AND … his feast day was yesterday, the Eve of Theophany!
 
May we all have the prayers of St. Symeon, and all the saints and holy ascetics from this wonderful monastery!