Holy Cross Celebrates Patronal Feast, Pilgrimage Weekend, and Ordination (2019)

View Photo Gallery»

On Friday, September 27, the brotherhood of Holy Cross Monastery in Wayne, WV celebrated their patronal feast, the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.

On Thursday evening the All-Night Vigil, Litia, and the Rite of the Exaltation of the Cross was served. On the following morning was the Lesser Blessing of Water, followed by Hours and Divine Liturgy. As has been their custom, the clergy and parishioners of the nearby Christ the Savior Church in Wayne, WV joined the monastery for the celebration of the feast.

The following weekend, on September 28th & 29th, the annual Pilgrimage Weekend was presided over by His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America & New York. In the mid-afternoon a festal moleben was served, beginning in the monastery church and then processing to the outdoor chapel. The faithful were anointed with myrrh from the Hawaiian Myrrh-streaming Icon of the Mother of God, and afterward an outdoor supper was served before the beginning of the All-Night Vigil.

On Sunday morning, the greeting of the Metropolitan was followed by the Hours and Hierarchal Divine Liturgy. At the Little Entrance, monastery cleric Hieromonk Paisios was awarded the right to wear the nabedrenik for his service to the Holy Church. After the Great Entrance, His Eminence ordained monastery cleric Hierodeacon Basil to the holy priesthood. During the communion of the clergy, Fr. Daniel Marshall of St. George Church in Cincinnati delivered an inspiring homily on the taking up of the cross and the life of the holy Great-Martyr Euphemia the All-praised. 

Visiting clergy and pilgrims were then invited to a festal banquet, held at Holy Spirit Church in Huntington. Following the banquet, a presentation was given on the recently completed architectural plans for the new monastery church. "Memory Eternal" was intoned for the reposed Maurice and Nadezhda Sill, who donated the land on which Holy Cross Monastery now stands, as well as for Susanna Roth, Archimandrite Seraphim's sister who always faithfully catered the banquet for Pilgrimage Weekend prior to her repose earlier this year.