THE VENERABLE LAMPADUS

July 5

From the Prologue

Loving Christ with a fervent love from his early youth, Lampadus withdrew into the wilderness of Irenopolis where he gave himself up to a life of asceticism. Since he overcame all passions and desires of the flesh, his soul was radiant with a heavenly light and an unspeakable peace not of this world. Lampadus was a miracle-worker, both during life and after death. He lived a life of mortification probably in the tenth century.

HYMN OF PRAISE

TO THE HOLY BIRTH-GIVER OF GOD

On Mt. Athos, a Lavra glows,

Wondrous monastery of Athanasius

One thousand years have slid by it

But the spirit and bread did not run out

It was neither lacking in spirit or bread

Nor the glowing vision of God's heaven.

Thus it was written in books of old:

About the Lavra, the Abbess - Ikonomisa worries,

Mount Athos is her state,

The most fortified wall of Orthodoxy;

That mystical Abbess - Ikonomisa

Is it not the All-pure Birth-giver of God?

The Lavra, She upholds and Iveron feeds,

And Hilendar protects and Rusikon defends,

Karakallou and Zograph, Simonpeter,

And Pandocrator, all She protects

Those fortifications, to Her citizens they belong

But peace and defense to all She is.