Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Saint Demetrios

There is a phenomenon known as the “Holy Week of St. Demetrios,” which is where they take the hymnography of Holy Week and adapt it to St. Demetrios, including an epitaphios service with encomia (aka praises, "lamentations") two nights before the Feast. It really felt like Holy Week this year because the Feast fell on Sunday. With Fr. Spyro’s blessing I went to as many things at St. Demetrios Church that week as I could. They do Orthros at 6:30 pm, with a three-ode Canon based on one of the Canons of Holy Week. Then follows the Paraklesis to the Panagia. After a short break, a vigil begins at 9:00 pm, the content of which varied by night. Mostly it was Vespers, Orthros, and Liturgy. One day they threw Paraklesis in there. Another day it was just Orthros and Liturgy. The vigils were generally well attended, some more than others. But there were always people. In the morning they did Orthros and Liturgy again. I never went to any morning Liturgies there because I have class every day.

Each year St. Demetrios is co-celebrated with a wonderworking Icon of the Panagia. In 2012 it was the Axion Estin (It is truly right) Icon from Mt. Athos, and the lines were out the door (I was in Thessaloniki from Oct 26-28 that year). This year they brought an Icon I had never heard of, Panagia Triphotissa from Ainon of eastern Thrace. I don’t know where that is, that’s just what it said in all the literature. In any case it was a great blessing to get to venerate both her and St. Demetrios every day that week.

I was torn where to go to church on October 26, the Feast Day of St. Demetrios. Half of me wanted to avoid the crowds and go to St. Haralambos (where there are always a lot of people on Sundays and Feast days, but not like at St. Demetrios on the Feast!). But what persuaded me to go to St. Demetrios that day was that I knew people would ask me something along the lines of, “Oh, you were in Thessaloniki. Were you there on October 26 for St. Demetrios? You were?! Did you go to his church on his Feast Day?” How anticlimactic it would be for me to say, “No, there were too many people.” How lame would that be! Now I went, I had the experience; and if I’m ever in Thessaloniki again for that Feast day, I will probably go to St. Haralambos, or somewhere else where there might be just a few fewer people. Fourteen bishops concelebrated at St. Demetrios, along with ten priests and four deacons (countless others were in attendance though).

Fourteen bishops. Metropolitan Anthimos of Thessaloniki was the main celebrant.
I got there after the Six Psalms, around 6:45 am or so (they started at 6:30). There were already a number of people there but I was able to find a place to stand right behind the roped-off area where the important people were to stand. It gradually filled up around me until I could hardly move.
For those of you liturgical nerds out there who know the set-up of Matins/Orthros, you may know that the practice of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is to switch the Orthros Gospel from its normal place before the Canon, to be read after the eighth ode instead, before More honorable than the cherubim. This so that the bishop can listen to and venerate the Gospel when he comes in at the Katavasies, and also so that the people who come to church late can hear the Gospel as well. The Church of Greece has largely corrected this and put the Gospel back at its proper place. However that day they did the inverted order. The bishop came after the canon and began the Katavasiae, then they read the Gospel, brought it out for him to venerate, and then brought out TWO Gospel books for the people to venerate! I think that was pretty smart. The church was not packed like sardines yet, but there were still a lot of people - definitely way more people than any church in America would have at Communion time on a normal Sunday, but still not nearly full!
Two Gospel books for veneration at Orthros
The veneration of the two Gospel books lasted through the 50th psalm, through the deacon’s petition O God, Save Thy People, and halfway through More honorable than the Cherubim, at which point one priest took his Gospel to the back of the church to place on a stand for veneration by late-comers (as is the normal Greek parish practice), and the other priest took his Gospel book back into the Altar. I’m also sure that not everyone venerated because there were people upstairs in the balconies, as well as those who were in the line to venerate St. Demetrios. That gives you an idea of how many people were there at that time, and that was when you could still move around in the church. Later on, forget it (see next paragraph).
This gives you some idea of how many people there were.


More people in the balconies

All the important political/military people. I was right behind them.

Communion was interesting, to say the least. There were no chalices on the solea, because that’s where everyone was still in line to venerate the Panagia and St. Demetrios. They had instead multiple chalices at the front of the side aisles of the church, and even one in the courtyard! It was chaos getting up there. Someone accidentally knocked over the icon of the Panagia weeping at the foot of the Cross (there is a free-standing crucifix with the Panagia and St. John the Theologian on the left side of the church). Most of the clergy distributing Communion were not the ones who had concelebrated at the Liturgy, but those who had communed, put on an epitrachili (stole), and had the chalices to commune people. I think that was very smart, because the official “Communion time” during the Liturgy lasted for about a minute, and then they continued the Liturgy while the non-celebrating priests and deacons communed people on the sides of the church. I communed long after the Liturgy had finished.
The daily vigils and morning Liturgies are celebrated each day for two whole weeks – one week before the feast and one week after. This culminates with the Ἀκολουθία τοῦ καθαγιασμοῦ τοῦ μύρου τοῦ Ἁγίου Δημητρίου – the service of the sanctification of the myrrh of Saint Demetrios. This takes place one week after the Feast. The church was packed full of people who all wanted to see what was happening. The Metropolitan of Thessaloniki was there along with a ton of priests. They did a short 30-minute Vespers, and then the metropolitan talked and then began the service where there were basically some prayers, and then the choirs chanted the megalynaria from St. Demetrios’s Paraklesis (the hymns chanted at the end, after It is truly right). They repeated the megalynaria many times because it was during that time that the clergy opened the reliquary and (from the very little that I could see) rubbed cotton on the bones of the Saint to absorb the myrrh that he exhudes. Then they brought out two giant bowls of man-made myrrh which they use to make it go farther – somehow they mix the myrrh of St. Demetrios with the man-made myrrh and put it onto cotton balls to give to the faithful. It’s something to be proud of if you have connections and can get a cotton swab with only the myrrh straight from the Saint’s relics on it. I don’t...

The bishop, priests, and a bunch of people crowding around the relics during the myrrh service.
After the conclusion of this service one of the priests began Orthros immediately, and another priest interrupted the Six Psalms to announce that there were going to be ten priests distributing the myrrh, five on each side of the church (if I remember correctly), and to ask everyone to remain calm and orderly. Orthros lasted about an hour and people were going steadily to receive myrrh from the priests. They stopped distributing when Liturgy started. I didn’t realize that so I didn’t get any myrrh, because I was waiting until the line died down. Right before Communion a random young man stopped me and said (in Greek), “did you get myrrh?” I told him no and he pulled a small plastic pouch with a cotton ball out of his pocket and gave it to me. I asked him how he knew me and I forget what he told me (it was something that made sense – mutual friends. We had met somewhere before), but I did not remember him at all. That was very providential!


Last week I was talking on Google chat with one of my former professors from HC/HC and I was telling him a little bit of the above information about St. Demetrios (whom he loves). He was asking about the lines to venerate the relics. From what I could tell there was a pretty steady line during the early evening hours, during either Vespers or that “Bridegroom Matins-ish” service the week before the feast. During the vigil it was not as long and I could go during Orthros or Liturgy to venerate and not wait in line. I don’t know what the morning services were like, or what it was like during the day, but there were quite a few people venerating St. Demetrios and Panagia Triphotissa for two whole weeks! It’s pretty awesome! And on the Feast day you could wait several hours to venerate (I’m guessing), in a very long line - I got there before 7am and only waited 15 minutes. This professor told me he wanted to co-author a book with one of the other professors, about "cities, liturgies, and St. Demetrios." J

Monday, November 17, 2014

Greece 2014 so far (November 14)

Thessaloniki 2014 so far

Written on November 14, 2014

I know it’s been a ridiculously long time since I’ve blogged – I haven’t written anything since the last time I came to Greece in 2012 but here is a summary of my last month and a half here. I got to Thessaloniki on September 30th. You know things are bad when the Germans are on strike – the strongest nation in the EU. Well, my flight through Germany on Lufthansa was canceled, and my travel agent was very helpful and found a way for me to get on Turkish Airlines and go through Istanbul. I was in the middle of the plane, and in the four seats behind me were four people whom I ended up talking to: three priest-monks from the Monastery of Giromeriou (Μονή Γηρομερίου)(http://www.monigiromeriou.gr/) near Igoumenitsa (Ηγουμενίτσα), on the mainland across from Kerkyra (Corfu). One of them was the abbot, and the other two were monks of the monastery, one who lives there and another who is attached but is the preacher in the Metropolis of Katerini outside Thessaloniki. The fourth person was a layman who is a friend of the monastery and I believe he was from America but has lived in Greece for a long time. I talked with the abbot quite a bit (we sat next to each other on the plane from Istanbul to Thessaloniki), and hung out with the three fathers and their friend in the Istanbul airport during our layover. I have their contact information and hopefully will see them again, either visiting their monastery or when they pass through Thessalonica. See how God works? It was really providential that I got put on that flight. I’m very happy to have met them, and really hope I get to see them again.

With the three fathers and their friend, in the Istanbul airport during our layover.
We landed around 8:00 pm. My cousin met me at the airport and we took a taxi to the place where I am living, a building with very small individual rooms, for international students, about a fifteen minute walk from the center of Thessaloniki. The place provides sheets, that’s about it. So once I met the owners (who had come there because I had been in touch with them and told them my arrival time – they’re usually only there in the morning) and chose which room I wanted, I had to walk downtown to buy some basic things: soap and toilet paper. I probably could have found them close by but I didn’t know the area and I didn’t want to walk around a strange neighborhood by myself at night. So I went downtown. I went to bed late that night and it took a few days to get adjusted from the jetlag.
In the beginning I was going every day to St. Haralambos, the metochi (dependency) of Simonopetra in Thessaloniki. I blogged about it last time. It’s a really nice little church and I had gone there a lot during the month I spent in Thessaloniki in 2012. Right now the married priest who serves there (Fr. Athanasios) is on sabbatical (he’s also a university professor) so guess who’s filling in? Fr. Iakovos, the one and only. There’s a Greek expression, “πάντα μπροστά μου εἶσαι” (lit. "you're always in front of me") or something like that, which basically means that you see someone everywhere. I met Fr. Iakovos in Boston, then I saw him at Simonopetra in 2012 when I went, and then he was in Boston again last year. Now he’s here in Thessaloniki!

Before classes started I really had nothing to do and I was quite bored. Now the pace of things has picked up, I am plenty busy, and I am still going very frequently to St. Haralambos but am also going to the church in my neighborhood, Dormition of the Theotokos, which is closer and easier to get to on some weekdays. I have class 8:30 am until 12:00 noon every day, and I have started my ambitious translation of the Typikon of George Rigas, a 900-page book that is quite awesome, and way more detailed (and more accurate in some places) than the Typikon of Violakes, which is the official typikon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. I’m not the only one who likes Rigas, but unfortunately we are in the minority. (St. Nicholas Planas was reported to say, “by obedience the new (calendar), but by conviction the old!” I would like to modify that to say “By obedience Violakes but by conviction Rigas!” In other words, I am obedient to the Patriarchate and use Violakes even if I don’t like it, but I really wish we could use Rigas!) I’m not trying to start a revolution, however. Hopefully if this translation of mine ever gets finished (I’ve done about  30 pages so far), it will be primarily an academic reference tool, although most academics who would be interested in typikon would probably be able to read it in Greek. It’s also a great chance for me to practice my Greek…I have learned quite a few new words, as well as really interesting details about the services, including different Greek names for the various Litanies (συναπτές, ἐκτενή, δέησις), whereas in English we just call them Litanies or ektenias or something like that, but in Greek each has a specific meaning (at least for Rigas. I’m pretty sure it’s more common).

I’m also trying to excel in Byzantine music. I know the 95% of the prosomia, and I can generally chant idiomela if I practice them (unfortunately I mostly sight-read them in church and therefore make more mistakes than I would like). My real difficulty however is the papadic genre, i.e. slower pieces chanted during the Divine Liturgy: the Cherubic Hymn, It is truly right, and the Communion hymn. It’s my short-term goal to learn at least one Cherubic Hymn and It is truly right in each mode, as well as (kind of ambitious) a Communion hymn for each day of the week, in each mode. That’ll take awhile. I bought a nice little book that has short Communion hymns in the eight modes that aren’t too hard. I’ve learned one and a half so far ;) I also bought a big book called Mousike Pandekte, volume 4, which has pretty much anything you could want for the Divine Liturgy (it’s 878 pages, 373 of which are just Cherubic Hymns...that gives you an idea of how detailed it is). It’s kind of cumbersome to carry with you to church, but it’s what is being used in the music class I’m taking at a church here, and my teacher in Boston recommended it as being good for practice. So, σιγά-σιγά. I want to be able to chant the Liturgy in any mode at the drop of a hat – a little ambitious, and baby steps will get me there (such as learning a Cherubic hymn in each mode first). It’s rare that I’m placed first at a Liturgy and am asked to chant the Cherubic hymn and/or It is truly right, but when it happens I want to be prepared – it happened the other day for instance. I was the only person who knew music, surrounded by three older men and a young guy, all of whom knew the order of the service very well, plus some basic things, but nothing complicated about music. I wasn’t prepared but I chanted the Liturgy in first mode (this week is plagal first) and it went ok. I want to be able to do that in every mode, and not to go “ok,” but “great.” Σιγά σιγά. My next goal is to learn a Cherubic hymn in plagal 2nd for next week, and to keep working on those short Communion hymns in that little book, particularly the ones in plagal 2nd.

On Monday nights I go to a Byzantine music lesson from 7:00-9:00 at Panagia Laodigitria. I am going to start going from 5:30 because in that class they are finishing the slow heirmologion and starting slow Doxologies, things that I studied in Boston but am nowhere near a master of. It’ll help, I hope. The 7:00 class is Liturgy stuff, so it’s right up my alley also! These lessons are down the street from the Panagia Laodigitria church, in the parish center, a multi-storey building. On the roof they have a little chapel to the New Martyr Alexander (I don’t know anything about him). At 9:00, after the music class finishes, they do Small Compline in there, and in the middle (instead of reading the Akathist) they chant the Paraklesis to the Theotokos, but only the canon (the “heart” of the Paraklesis), so that it takes about fifteen minutes, plus fifteen minutes of Compline, comes to half an hour altogether. At 9:30 one of the priests (Fr. Barnabas) gives a talk in an auditorium in the same building. The auditorium is full of young people every week. It’s impossible to find a seat, and most of the time I stand against the back wall. The talk goes until 10:30. I have met quite a few nice people there at Panagia Laodigitria, people around my age, and I hope to deepen our relationships and become friends with them through continuing to go to music lessons and talks. I also see some of them around at random things in other parts of the city, so it gives another setting as a background for a friendship.

On Thursday nights I go to a much more low-key talk at Panagia Acheiropoietos in the center of town, with Fr. Spyro. There are about 20-30 people every week. A lot of Americans go to that but Fr. Spyro talks in very simple Greek (with the occasional translated word or phrase) so it is helpful for us! I take notes when I go to talks, and my notes are half in Greek and half in English. It’s kind of funny for someone to look at my notebook if they’re not used to it. J

Oh, and…yes, I am learning Greek. Slowly. Equally as important as are the classes, I need to make sure I spend time with Greeks and not with Americans, so that I can learn slang and other informal things, as well as getting comfortable practicing what I learn in class. I also should probably try to read some Greek books. Now, however, on the rare occasion when I make time to read, it’s usually in English (unless it’s music or the Rigas typikon…).

That’s basically my life in a nutshell. I wrote it on the train between Thessaloniki and Athens because that’s the only time that I can get on my computer and not be distracted by internet. Otherwise I don’t find any time to blog, even though I know I should and people want to know how I’m doing. Forgive me.


(I am hopefully going to blog about my trip to Athens another time. I went there for the weekend, and now it is Monday and I am back in Thessaloniki, but this blog was written Friday on the train, as I mentioned.).