Bishop Partenij visits Mount Athos for the first time in 36 years

Bishop Partenij, the abbot of the Bigorski Monastery, is currently on a pilgrimage to Mount Athos and is accompanied by members of the Bigorski brotherhood, the monastery announced.

The delegation is in Karyes to take part in services connected with the feast of Saint Panteleimon; the monastery said that the bishop will concelebrate on that commemoration. "In our pilgrimage we were also joined by His Grace, Bishop Athenagoras of Mirina, auxiliary bishop of the Orthodox Metropolis of Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean Islands, Venezuela and Colombia under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, with whom our Elder will concelebrate on the commemoration of Saint Panteleimon," the Bigorski Monastery said.

Visit carries personal and historic meaning

The monastery stressed that the stop on Athos has deep and historic significance for Partenij and for his monastic community. "This is his first arrival on Mount Athos as a bishop, but also his first liturgical presence on Athos after a full thirty-six years – from the time when, as a young theologian and novice, he lived for a period in the holy Monastery of Grigoriou," the statement reads.

According to the monastery, the visit is seen as the fulfilment of a long-held spiritual longing and as a significant chapter in the bishop’s path: once a young novice who received his first Athonite lessons with fear of God, he now returns to the same sacred ground as a monk, priest and bishop, accompanied by his spiritual children.

Bigorski added that Bishop Partenij will take part in the solemn vigil and will preside at the Divine Eucharist in honour of the great martyr and healer Panteleimon.

The monastery presentation framed the pilgrimage as both a personal homecoming for the abbot and a liturgical event that connects Bigorski’s present clergy with the spiritual heritage of Mount Athos.

Photo: Бигорски манастир