Orthodox pilgrimage center "Thessaloniki". Pilgrimage service. Pilgrimage center Thessaloniki group trip to Greece

We are glad to meet you on our website!

Our pilgrimage service was created so that you can get to know the wonderful country - Orthodox Greece. The main task of the Thessaloniki pilgrimage center is to ensure that the enormous spiritual wealth accumulated by Greece over the centuries enriches your life.

After Jerusalem, Greece is the second place in the whole world that has a rich history associated with our faith! If the Holy Land is the beginning of the Gospel, then Greece is the land trodden by the footsteps of the apostles, a direct continuation of the New Testament, and the island of Patmos, where the Apocalypse was written, is, as it were, its final part. From our point of view, the Greek pilgrimage center is simply obliged to give the entire Orthodox world the opportunity to visit such places that are significant for Orthodoxy. This is precisely our ministry.

Touch the shrines of Greece! And our pilgrimage center will help you, without being distracted by the bustle, feel that everything here breathes Orthodoxy. The works and exploits of the apostles, righteous people, and martyrs are visible everywhere. Their efforts were not in vain! Like a seed that fell on good soil, they produced rich fruits that feed us today. Our pilgrimage service has developed optimal pilgrimage routes so that our guests can get acquainted with the abundance of Orthodox shrines located in Greece.

We invite you first on a virtual and then on a real pilgrimage to the holy places of Greece!

And we, the pilgrimage center of Thessaloniki, using the experience of many years of work, will do everything possible to make your pilgrimage comfortable and meet the spiritual needs of everyone. All our groups are accompanied by a guide with theological education. We philanthropically invite a priest to each group who will provide spiritual care for you throughout the trip. Our pilgrimage service uses the technical capabilities of the largest tour operator in Greece, Mouzenidis Travel. This makes it possible to choose the most suitable hotels for our pilgrims, organize good meals, including a Lenten menu, and travel on magnificent, comfortable buses with highly qualified drivers.

With us you will make a pilgrimage to the places where the saints preached, where they labored, and some of them received the crown of martyrdom, places where miraculous, myrrh-streaming icons and relics of saints are carefully preserved. You will have the opportunity to begin the Holy Mysteries in these holy places, serve prayers and memorial services with the priest, and pray for your family and friends.

Please contact our pilgrimage service with any questions, and we will be grateful for your feedback on your impressions of the pilgrimage on the pages of our website.

So, let's go! With God blessing!

Today there are many traditions and rituals that religious people strive to observe. Pilgrimage occupies a special place in this list, i.e. visiting holy places in different parts of the world. Unfortunately, not every believer can do this on his own (lack of knowledge, fear and other reasons prevent him). Then the Solun pilgrimage center comes to the rescue, organizing tours to holy places. So, information about the trip to Mount Athos can be found here http://www.solun.gr/holy-places-greece/3-athos.

Pilgrimage from "Thessaloniki"

However, Holy Mount Athos is not the only place that the employees of the Solun center offer to visit. A detailed list of Greek shrines is published on the “Holy Places” page. Here anyone can get acquainted with religious sights and decide on a direction.

After this, it’s worth taking a look at the “Pilgrimage Programs” section, where the upcoming races are collected. The tour page contains information about arrival and departure dates, cost and number of remaining seats. There is also a description of the route, a list of excursions and a list of monasteries and churches that are offered for pilgrimage.

It would be useful to visit the following pages of the site:

• Feedback from pilgrims - here are collected the impressions of religious tourists, their opinions regarding the work of the center;
• Photo gallery - here are colorful photographs of those places that annually attract hundreds of thousands of pilgrims;
• Multimedia - webinars are published here, in which specialists from the pilgrimage center talk about the holy places of Greece;
• Russian-Greek phrasebook - here are the basic words and phrases that will allow you to feel comfortable in a foreign country and communicate with local residents.

The online tour order form cannot but rejoice. This makes it possible to organize a pilgrimage without leaving home. And if additional questions arise, the specialists of the “Salun” center are always ready to give clear answers - this can be done using the information provided on the “Contacts” page.

The Greek Orthodox pilgrimage center THESSALUNI has many years of experience in organizing pilgrimages to the holy places of Greece. Travel with us - virtually and in reality!

There is no doubt that pilgrimage exists and has existed from time immemorial, in all religions and among all peoples. Pilgrimage revives faith, comforts the soul, gladdens the heart and helps to live. There are few places in the Orthodox world where the memory of shrines and saints is so vivid and abundant as in Greece. We invite you first to a virtual and then to a real pilgrimage to the holy places of Greece! We invite you on a pilgrimage to other ancient shrines - to Cyprus and Georgia! The Thessaloniki pilgrimage center, using the experience of many years of work, using the technical capabilities of the largest Tour Operator in Greece “Mouzenidis Travel”, will do everything possible to make your pilgrimage comfortable and meet the spiritual needs of everyone. All our groups are accompanied by a guide with theological education. We philanthropically invite a priest to each group who will provide spiritual care for you throughout the trip. You will visit the places where the saints preached, where they labored, and some of them received the crown of martyrdom, places where miraculous, myrrh-streaming icons and relics of saints are carefully kept. You will have the opportunity to begin the Holy Mysteries in these holy places, serve prayers and memorial services with the priest, praying for your loved ones. And we will be grateful to you for your feedback about your impressions of your pilgrimage on this page or on our website. So, let's go! With God blessing!

Mission: Greek Orthodox pilgrimage center

One day the disciples came to the elder and asked him:
- Why bad inclinations easily take hold of a person, but good inclinations take hold of a person with difficulty and remain fragile in him.
- What happens if a healthy seed is left in the sun and a sick one is buried in the ground? - asked the old man.
“A good seed that is left without soil will die, but a bad seed will germinate and produce a sick sprout and bad fruit,” answered the students.
- This is what people do: instead of secretly doing good deeds and cultivating good beginnings deep in their souls, they put them on display and thereby ruin them. And people hide their shortcomings and sins deep in their souls so that others do not see them. There they grow and destroy a person in his very heart.
🙏Be wise.

📎8 days / 7 nights
📎Check in: 9.06
📎Tour cost from 738 Euro

⛰1 day. THESSALONIKI – OURANOUPOLI
Arrival at Macedonia airport. Group transfer to Ouranoupoli.

⛰2 day. OURANOUPOLI – HOLY MOUNT ATHOS
Meeting with the guide at the office of the Solun Pilgrimage Center in Ouranoupoli. Obtaining diamonitirion at the pier. Departure by ferry. Arrival at the Dohiar Monastery. Walk along the shore to the Xenophon monastery. Return to Dohiar. Accommodation in the monastery.

⛰day 3. HOLY MOUNT ATHOS
After the service, transfer by ferry to Daphne. Transfer to the ferry departing towards the monastery of St. Anna. Exit at the pier of the St. Paul Monastery. (If desired, the group can get off a stop earlier and visit the Dionysiates Monastery, after which they can walk along the path to the St. Paul Monastery). Accommodation in the monastery. Walk to New Skete.

⛰day 4. HOLY MOUNT ATHOS
After the Liturgy and meal, descent to the ferry and departure to Daphne. Transfer to a regular bus. Accommodation in St. Andrew's Skete. Hiking to Karyes, going to the Kutlumush monastery, visiting the Serbian cell “Typicarnica”. Return to the monastery.

⛰day 5. HOLY MOUNT ATHOS
After the Liturgy, walk to the cell of Panaguda, where Elder Paisius the Svyatogorets labored, and walk to the Iveron Monastery. Along the seashore through the Stavronikita monastery, go to the Pandocrator monastery. Accommodation, meals, overnight. If desired, the group can rent a bus on the spot (pay on the spot) and make a pilgrimage to Vatopedi, Philotheus and Caracalla.

⛰day 6. HOLY MOUNT ATHOS
After the morning service and meal, transfer (to be paid on the spot) to the Xiropotamus Monastery. Worship of the Honest Life-Giving Tree of the Cross of the Lord. Transfer to the St. Panteleimon Monastery (if the monastery does not accept, overnight accommodation will be organized in a neighboring monastery). Overnight.

⛰7 day. HOLY MOUNT ATHOS
After the Liturgy and meal, departure by ferry to Ouranoupoli. Hotel accommodation.

⛰ day 8. HOLY MOUNT ATHOS
Breakfast (in case of early departure - packed lunch upon prior request). Transfer to Macedonia airport. Departure.

🖇Detailed tour program on our website at the link http://bit.ly/2Pap8lh

📖On Wednesday, May 22 at 19:30, at the En Plo bookstore in Athens there will be a presentation of the book by Stefan Dimopoulos "Athos - a living country. Orthodoxy and modernity, personal experience of knowledge." Free admission.

📖The book is a collection of stories about incidents from the lives of famous and little-known Athonite Elders. Richly illustrated with unique photographs, the lively narrative makes you feel that the saints are next to us, among us.

📖The book also contains stories about the Elder and the viceroy of the Simonopetra monastery, who died on May 9, and the spiritual father of the Ormilia convent, Archimandrite Emilian. The love of the Elder pours out from the pages, which was felt by everyone who came to him.

📌We invite you to a pilgrimage to Athos with the Thessaloniki pilgrimage center!

✨Today the Council of Fathers of the Athos Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery is celebrated.
Russian on Mount Athos St. Panteleimon Monastery, one of the oldest monasteries on the Holy Mountain

✨The monastery is located on the shore of a small bay in the southwest of Mount Athos between the Daphne pier and the Xenophon monastery.
Near the monastery there is a so-called ossuary - a tomb with the Church of St. the supreme apostles Peter and Paul.

✨The monasteries of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (Xylurgu), Old Rusik, New Thebaida and Kromnitsa (Krumitsa) are assigned to the Panteleimon Monastery.

✨The treasure of the monastery is the library, severely damaged during the fire of 1959, and several priceless shrines, including the relics of St. Panteleimon, the foot of St. Andrew the First-Called, the honorable head of the Apostle Luke, the relics of John the Baptist, the apostles: Peter, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew and Barnabas; the first martyr Stephen, Isaac of Dalmatia, Dionysius the Areopagite, the unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, Cyril of Jerusalem, Tryphon and many others. Here is also the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, called “Jerusalem”, the icon of St. John the Baptist, ancient icon of St. the great martyr and healer Panteleimon and the icon of the holy martyr Charalampios.

✨From 1979 to 2016, the abbot of the monastery was Schema-Archimandrite Jeremiah (Alekhine).
On October 2, 2016, the election of a new abbot of the monastery took place in the Russian Panteleimon Monastery on Athos. Hierodeacon Evlogy (Ivanov) was elected as the new rector.
On October 14, 2016, during the Divine Liturgy in the Panteleimon Monastery, Archbishop Jonathan of Abakan and Khakassia ordained Hierodeacon Eulogius to the rank of hieromonk.
The enthronement of the newly elected abbot of the monastery, Hieromonk Eulogius, with his elevation to the rank of archimandrite, took place on October 23, 2016.

🕊I'll tell you one amazing thing! He who condemns others does not love Christ! When someone dishonors us, that is, inflicts any offense on us: with slander, insult, then we will think that he is our brother who has been captured by the enemy. He became a victim of the enemy!

Therefore, it is right to sympathize with him and pray to God that He will have mercy on both us and him. And God will help both. But if we get angry with him, then the enemy will jump from him to us and play with the two of us. He who condemns others does not love Christ. After all, selfishness is to blame for condemnation. This is where judgment begins.

⚜️Barbarian Myrrh-streaming - former robber, martyr (IX century)

⚜️The barbarian was a robber, he killed more than three hundred people, and no one could either catch or defeat him, since he had extraordinary physical strength. One day, looking at the wealth collected in the cave, he was filled with repentance. Leaving his comrades, Barbarian came to the nearest village, where there was a church, and confessed his sins to the priest. He made a vow to God not to rise from the ground until his sins were forgiven, and therefore moved on all fours.

The presbyter took him to his house and showed him slaves, cattle and dogs. The barbarian, due to his sins, considered himself like a dog and lived with the presbyter’s dogs for three years. Then for twelve years he grazed with cattle, eating only grass.

He was shot by passing merchants who mistook him for an animal in the thick grass. The presbyter gave Barbarian burial at the place of his death.

Subsequently, numerous healings began to occur from his coffin, and his body was found incorrupt and streaming myrrh. Then his venerable relics were transferred to the village and placed in the church. Saint Barbara is revered by the Greek Churches as a saint and is called the myrrh-streamer.

🙏Every year, the second Week after Pentecost and the next after the Sunday of All Saints, when in churches we hear the Gospel reading from the Gospel of Matthew about the calling of Christ’s first disciples, on Athos the celebration of the memory of all the Reverend Fathers on the Holy Mountain who shone forth takes place.

🙏This is a moving holiday - it does not have a permanent date of celebration, but depends on the church calendar.

🙏Athos saints, like the apostles, left everything worldly, chose the monastic path of spiritual deeds and hardships, and many of them became elders and experienced confessors. In total, according to the book of the learned monk Moses Agiorite, the Council of Athonite Saints includes about 450 saints. However, in reality this figure is much higher. Since many holy ascetics led a secretive lifestyle, and their names have not been preserved by history. However, God does not have forgotten people, especially saints.

🙏The Feast of All Athonite Saints was established in the 19th century. At the same time, the Monk Nicodemus the Svyatogorets composed a service to the holy fathers of Athos.

📅Check-in: 2.06 – 9.06.19
📅8 days/7 nights
💶Price from 1018 €

✨⛪️THSALONIKA – VASILIKA – SUROTHI – THESSALONIKI
Meeting at Thessaloniki airport. Visit to the Monastery of John the Theologian, the Monastery of St. Anastasia the Pattern Maker.

✨⛪️THALONIKI – VERIA – KALAMBKA
Introductory tour of Thessaloniki. Visit to the Church of St. Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, Church of St. Sophia, catacomb church with St. source of John the Baptist, Cathedral of St. Gregory Palamas, monastery of St. Theodora of Thessalonica.
Transfer to the monastery of John the Baptist in the Veria region. Transfer to Kalambaka.

✨⛪️KALAMBAKA – METEORAS – IGOUMENITSA – CORFU
Pilgrimage to the Meteor monasteries, visiting two of the following monasteries: St. Barbara (nunnery) or St. Stephen (nunnery), Big Meteora (monastery), St. Nicholas (monastery). Transfer to Igoumenitsa. Departure by ferry to Corfu.

✨⛪️CORFU – IGUMENITSA – BARI (ITALY). OVERNIGHT ON THE FERRY
Liturgy in the Church of St. Spyridon of Trimifuntsky. Visit to the monument to the righteous admiral Feodor Ushakov near the fortress. Visiting shrines: the cathedral temple of the Greek queen Theodora, the temple of John the Baptist, the burial place of the Russian warrior, the temple of the Mother of God of Foreigners, the temple of the apostles Jason and Sosipater, where their holy relics are kept. Transfer to the town of Kanoni, visit the church where the miraculous icon of the Mother of God of Blachernae resides. Departure to Paleokastritsa. Return by ferry to Igoumenitsa. Departure for Bari (Italy) at 24:00.

✨⛪️ASCEMENT OF THE LORD. OVERNIGHT ON THE FERRY
Arrival in Bari. Festive Liturgy in the Basilica of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, where his holy relics are located.

✨⛪️PATRAS – MEGA SPILION – EVBOEA
Arrival in Patras. Visit to the cathedral church of the city, where the relics of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called and part of the cross on which he was crucified are kept. On the way to Athens (without entering the city), which runs along the Corinthian Gulf of the Ionian Sea, visit the Mega Spileon (Great Cave) monastery. Moving to the island Euboea.

✨⛪️EVBOEA – THESSALONIKI
Liturgy in the Church of St. John the Russian. Visit to the monastery of St. David of Euboea, Departure on the ferry to the mainland. Transfer to Thessaloniki.

✨⛪️SALONIKI. MACEDONIA AIRPORT
Departure to the airport. Departure.

💻📌Detailed tour program on our website following the link