A Pilgrimage in Greece

We left Blagoevgrad at 7:00 am on Friday to start our trip to Thessaloniki and the weather could not have been more perfect - cleam, warm, and bright blue skies. We made excellent time down the Kresna Gorge and crossed into Greece around 8:15. We continued down the Struma River valley, eventually turning east to the city of Veroia (or Berea), which is on the Via Egnatia. At Veroia we visited several churches and the new Byzantine Museum.

The Museum is housed in a flour mill, dating from the early twentieth century and is one of the best laid out display spaces I've ever seen. There were glass floors above ancient mosaics so you had the sensation of actually standing on the floor without ever touching it. The exhibits concentrated on Veroia as a part of the Byzantine Empire and the headquarters of a metropolitan see. Admission was free because it was the Day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

From Veroia we traveled toward Thessaloniki along the valley of the Aliakmonas River.


We stopped at the Monastery of Timios Prodromos (or John the Baptist). It's the most important monastery in the area because of the numbers of notable monks (who were later canonized) who were members of the community. A few include Sts. Cyril & Methodius, St. Clement of Ohrid, and St. Antonios ("Crazy for God"). St. Clement's skull has been held there since the twelfth century. It is also believed that St. Paul was a visitor here. The monk we spoke with told us that pilgrims came here and we received a pilgrim's guide to the area and to other holy sites. The prayer of the monastery is "Prodromos, hasten to your friend, the Word, making me, who am dull, a vessel of the light."





It's a marvelous place, due to the beautiful, serene location and the fact that it's a working monastery. As we arrived, the monks were bringing their lunch scraps out to feed to the chickens, geese, and ducks. (The watermelon rinds seemed very popular.) We were given the opportunity to view the church and the narthex frescos were new and bright, the work of iconographers from Krania.



After leaving The Monastery of John the Baptist, we headed toward Vergina, but were distracted by a sign for another monastery. Following it, we drove 15km up a dirt track to find a brand new monastery! It was just being completed and will someday house a seminary. It was quite different from Timios Prodromos!

We decided there was no time for Vergina that day, so from there, it was a beautiful drive to the coast and into Thessaloniki on the Via Egnatia and to our hotel. We had a wonderful dinner on the waterfront, including eggplant, chicken in oregano, and fresh watermelon. And of course, Mythos beer!

Day two will follow soon!