8day pilgrimage tour Holy Land Saint Catherine (Zina) 23/08/2011

23/8/2011
Meeting at El. Venizelos Airport at 23:00 pm.

Day 1: 24/8/2011
Mount of Olives – Holy Monastery of the Holy Cross - Katamonas
Following passport control we will take a flight to Tel Aviv. Upon our arrival we will board our bus and be transferred to our hotel in Jerusalem. There we will check-in and rest. Our tour will begin after 11:00am. We will visit the Mount of Olives, from where our Lord ascended. This is where we will find the Greek Church of Men of Galilee where Jesus met His Apostles for the first time after His Resurrection. We will also visit the Holy Monastery of the Holy Cross and the Holy Monastery of St Simon of Katamonas. Return to the hotel. Dinner. Overnight stay.

Day 2: 25/8/2011
Gesthemane-Mount Zion - Bethlehem –Monastery of Saint Savvas -Monastery of Saint Theodosius
Early in the morning we will participate in the Holy procession of the Virgin Mary’s icon being transferred from the Metochion of Gethsemane to Her Tomb. We will continue onto Mount Zion, where we will find the Coenaculum, and King David’s Tomb and the Holy Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. Then onto Bethlehem, where we will visit Church of the Nativity, we will pilgrimage at Christ’s birthplace as well as at the Cave of infants massacred by Herod. We will also visit the Holy pilgrimage at the Village of the Shepherds, the Holy Monastery of St Theodosius of Cenobiarch and the Holy Monastery of the glorified St Savvas at the desert of Judea, where we will pilgrimage his full-bodied relics. Return to the hotel. Dinner. Overnight stay.  

Day 3: 26/8/2011
Galilee-Mount Tabor-Nazareth-Cana-Tiberias-Mount Beatitudes-Jordan.
Following breakfast we will depart for Galilee, where we will visit Mount Tabor, the place where the Transfiguration of Christ took place. This is located close to Nazareth and Capernaum, areas where Jesus lived and taught. We will pilgrimage at the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration and we will 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. In Nazareth we will find the home in which the Virgin Mary lived and Joseph’s workshop.
Our tour will continue with a pilgrimage at Cana, where Christ performed His first miracle, the conversion of water to wine and the blessing of marriage. We will then go on to the Church of Holy Apostles at Lake Tiberias at Capernaum, which is the only natural reservoir in the region. We will also visit 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. Return to our hotel, dinner, overnight stay.

Day 4: 27/8/2011
Bethany-Desert of Jordan –Saint George of Chozeba- Saint Jerome of Jordan - Mount of Temptation - Church of Saint Elisha the Prophet - Actual Baptism Site of Jesus Christ

After breakfast we will visit the Holy Monastery of Martha and Maria in Bethany. We will then be transferred to the Orthodox Monasteries in the Desert of Jordan, starting off with the Holy Monastery of St George of Chozeba. We will also visit the Holy Monastery of St Jerome of Jordan, who is depicted with a lion, one of the greatest spiritual forms of the ascetic life of the Holy Land. This will be followed by a pilgrimage at Mount of Temptation, were Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights fasting, located to the southwest of Jericho (Monastery of Temptation). We will visit the Church of St Elisha the Prophet, where we will see Zacchaeus’ sycamore. Our next stop will be the River of Jordan, the actual place where Jesus was baptised. In the evening we will arrive at the tomb of the Virgin Mary in Gesthemane, where praises are sung to the Virgin Mary. Return to our hotel, dinner, overnight stay.