Metropolitan Tikhon to open 114th Annual Pilgrimage to St. Tikhon’s Monastery
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon will preside at the 114th Annual Memorial Day Pilgrimage to Saint Tikhon’s Monastery, which officially opens today—Friday, May 25, 2018—at 3:30 p.m. with the greeting of the Hawaiian Myrrh Streaming Icon of the Iveron Mother of God at the entrance arch. Vespers and Matins will follow at 4:00 p.m. in the Monastery Church of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk. All pilgrims are invited to the dinner that will follow in the dining hall.
The icon will be available for veneration throughout the Pilgrimage, which formally ends on Memorial Day—Monday, May 28.
The 76th annual Commencement of Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary [STOTS] will be held on Saturday, May 26. Metropolitan Tikhon will preside at the celebration of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy in the monastery church at 9:00 a.m. He will be joined by His Eminence, Archbishop Michael of New York and New Jersey, STOTS Rector; His Grace, Bishop David of Sitka and Alaska; and His Grace, Bishop Thomas of the Diocese of Charleston, Oakland, and the Mid-Atlantic of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, a seminary trustee. A meal in the dining hall will follow.
Commencement Exercises will begin at 1:00 p.m. The Vigil for the Great Feast of Pentecost will be celebrated at 4:00 p.m., followed by dinner for all pilgrims in the dining hall. STOTS graduates will be honored at a graduation banquet at the Hilton Hotel in Scranton, PA after the Vigil.
The Hierarchical Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at 9:00 a.m. on Pentecost Sunday, May 27, followed by a meal for all pilgrims in the dining hall. Vespers and Matins will be celebrated at 4:00 p.m. In conjunction with the Choir Festival slated to be held during the pilgrimage, the Chamber Choir of Saint Tikhon’s Monastery, under the direction of Benedict Sheehan, will perform Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil at Saint Stephen’s Episcopalian Pro-Cathedral, Wilkes-Barre, PA, on Sunday evening at 7:30 p.m. Additional information on the festival and concert, as well as ticket and registration details, are available online.
On Memorial Day—Monday, May 28—the Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Holy Spirit will begin in the Monastery Church at 7:30 a.m. The Hierarchical Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m. at All Saints Bell Tower, followed by a Memorial Service for Veterans at 12:15 p.m. The Akathistos Hymn to Saint Alexis Toth will be celebrated in the monastery church at 1:30 p.m., while the Molieben to the Most Holy Theotokos with the Anointing of the Sick, Infirm and All Pilgrims will be celebrated at All Saints Bell Tower at 2:15 p.m. The pilgrimage will close with the celebration of Vespers and Matins at 4:00 p.m.