The Patriarchate of Jerusalem on Thursday celebrated the first week of Great Lent with the transference to the commemoration of St. Gerasimus of the Jordan at the Holy Monastery dedicated to the saint, in the desert of the river Jordan, a short distance from the river’s estuaries towards the Dead Sea.
This Monastery was founded by St. Gerasimus when he came to the Holy Land from his native Lycia of Asia Minor, at the time of the monophysites’ turbulences in AD 451.
The Divine Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts was celebrated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Most Godly Beatitude Theophilos III, with co-celebrants being Metropolitan Isychios of Kapitolias, Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina, Metropolitan Joachim of Helenoupolis, the Elder Dragoman Archimandrite Mattheos, the Elder Kamarasis Archimandrite Nektarios, Archdeacon Mark and Hierodeacon Eulogios.
