7day pilgrimage tour at the Holy Land 23-30/9/2011

23/9/2010.
Meeting at El. Venizelos Airport at 23:30 pm.

Day 1: 24/9/2011.
Nazareth –Mount Tabor – Cana
Following passport control we will take a flight to Tel Aviv. Upon our arrival, we will be transferred to our hotel in Nazareth. We will have breakfast and rest for approximately 4 hours. After 12:00 we will visit Mount Tabor, the place where the Transfiguration of Christ took place. We will pilgrimage at the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration and then be transferred to the village where Jesus spent His childhood and adolescent years in Nazareth; there we will visit the Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary and see the well from the Virgin Mary would get water. We will go on to pilgrimage at Cana, where Christ performed His first miracle, the conversion of water to wine and blessing of marriage, and then on to the Church of St George. Return to our hotel. Dinner. Overnight stay.

Day 2: 25/9/2011.
Church of the Holy Apostles – Carpenaum – Mount of Beatitudes – Jordan – St Jerome of Jordan-Jerusalem
Following breakfast we will depart for Carpenaum, where we will visit the Church of the Holy Apostles located near Lake Tiberias, Palestine’s only natural reservoir. During the trip we will see Mount Beatitudes and the city of Tiberias, where we will pilgrimage at Church of Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and St Magdalene. The pilgrims will then participate in a symbolic baptism and be sprinkled with Holy Water at the river of Jordan. We will then be transferred to Jerusalem, but on the way we will visit Holy Monastery of St Jerome of Jordan, who is depicted with a lion, one the greatest spiritual forms of the ascetic life of the Holy Land. Arrival and check-in at the hotel in Jerusalem, dinner, overnight stay.

Day 3: 26/9/2011.
Bethlehem – Monastery of St. Savvas – Monastery of St. Theodosius – Holy Monastery of Prophet Elijah - Holy Monastery of the Holy Cross - Katamonas
Following breakfast we will depart for Bethlehem. We will be guided through the Church of the Nativity and we will pilgrimage at Christ’s birthplace. This will be followed by the Church of the Shepherds, with the Monastery Church “Glory to God”. This shall be followed by pilgrimage at the Holy Monastery of St Theodosius of Cenobiarch. In the basement, near the Church are the tombs of St Theodosius and his mother St Evlogia, St Sofia (the mother of the St Savvas), St Theodoti (mother of the Holy Apostles Kosmas and Damian), St Maria (mother of the Sts Arcadias and Ioannis) and 35 other martyr saints. Pilgrimage (optional) at the Holy Monastery of the glorified St Savvas at the desert of Judea, where we will pilgrimage his full-bodied relics. We will also see the Holy Monastery of Prophet Elijah, which is located on the main road between Jerusalem-Bethlehem. The Monastery was named after Bishop Elijah, who built it in the 12th century. We will also visit the Holy Monastery of the Holy Cross, which is the most beautiful and most ancient Greek-Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem. Our next stop will be the Holy Monastery of St Simon of Katamonas. Return to the hotel. Dinner. Overnight stay.

Day 4: 27/9/2011. Exaltatio Sanctae Crucis ("Raising Aloft of the Holy Cross").
Old City of Jerusalem - Patriarchate – Gesthemane – Tomb of the Virgin Mary
Following breakfast we will be transferred to the Church of the Ascension where we will participate in the Hierarchical Concelebration. Then, we will form of a procession and go to the Patriarchate where the Patriarch will welcome us.
This will be followed by a tour and pilgrimage of the Holy Sepulchre, at the Church of the Ascension, the chapel of the Finding of the Holy Cross, as well as the Holy Apocathylosis (unmounting of Jesus), Golgotha and other pilgrimage. We will also visit over ten chapels located in the vicinity such as the tomb of Joseph, The chapel of "Do not touch Me" or of Mary Magdalene, the burial place of Adam’s skull, the chapels of St Longinus and St Helena, the Pillar of the Whipping etc. As we walk down the Via Dolorosa (Latin for Way of Suffering), the road taken by Jesus as He carried the Cross, we will visit the Praetorium, home to Pontius Pilatus, the Roman leader. We will continue onto the Prison of St Peter and the home of St Anna and end up at St Stephen’s Gate. Our next stop will be at Gethsemane, where we will visit the Garden of Agony and pilgrimage at the Tomb of the Virgin Mary. Here we will also find the chapels with the bones of Joseph, the husband of Mary as well as those of the Sts Joakim and Anne (parents of the Virgin Mary). Return to the hotel, dinner, overnight stay.