The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), Patriarch Porfirije, announced today that the Belt of the Holy Mother of God, which is kept at the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, will be at the head of the Ascension Day procession on May 14 in Belgrade, the SPC Information Service announced.
In the Cathedral Church, on the religious holiday of the Annunciation, the Patriarch said that the abbot of the Vatopedi Monastery, along with ten monks, will be in the Ascension Day procession, and that a few days after that, in the Church of Saint Sava, believers will be able to bow and pray to the Holy Mother of God and receive the “blessing of her belt.”
He stated that it is the belt that the Holy Mother of God herself, with her own hands, wove from camel hair and which, after “her falling asleep,” was handed over to the Apostle Thomas.
Throughout history, the belt traveled from Jerusalem, through Cappadocia, Constantinople, Bulgaria, and for a period, it was also in Serbia. Holy Prince Lazar donated that belt with a part of the True Cross to the Vatopedi Monastery, where it is kept to this day in the altar of the monastery’s cathedral church, the Patriarch said.
The Ascension Day procession is a traditional procession held every year in Belgrade on the day of the city’s glory, the holiday of the Ascension of Christ – Spasovdan.
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Source: N1, Photo: Printscreen Instagram @orthodoxhr