More than 300,000 people venerate relics of St. Silouan the Athonite

In all, approximately 315,000 people have venerated the relics of the holy elder Silouan the Athonite in Belarus and Russia, reports Interfax.

On September 24 the relics of St. Silouan departed for the Russian St. Panteleimon’s Monastery on Mt. Athos where they have been kept permanently for many years.

From August 20 on the holy relics were venerated in Minsk, Bryansk, Orel, Yelets, the Shovskoye village, Tambov, Yekaterinburg, and St. Petersburg. Moscow was the final destination in the Athonite monks’ itinerary.

It should be noted that another great Orthodox relic was brought together with the saint’s venerable head from Mt. Athos – the wonderworking icon of our Lord Jesus Christ before which Venerable Silouan had experienced a vision of the Savior.

In Moscow around 65,000 people have venerated the relics of the saint and the same number of small icons of the saint was distributed. The reliquary with the relics stayed at the Danilov Monastery and in the afternoon the delegation of Athonite monks departed for Greece with the holy relics.

With the departure of the Athonite monks’ delegation the main Moscow celebrations of the 1000th anniversary of the Russian monastic presence on Holy Mount Athos came to a close.

Saint Silouan (1866-1938) was an ardent ascetic of St. Panteleimon’s Monastery. He was born in the village of Shovsk in Imperial Russia's Tambov Governorate. At the age of twenty-seven, after a period of military service, he left his native Russia and came to the monastic state of Mt. Athos where he became a monk at the Monastery of St Panteleimon.

In 1896 he was tonsured into the mantle. In 1911, at the tonsure to the schema with the name Silouan he obeyed as a provisor. An ardent ascetic, he received the grace of unceasing prayer and saw Christ in a vision. After long years of spiritual trial, he acquired great humility and inner stillness. After death he left writings published in 1952 by his spiritual disciple and pupil Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov). Many monastics call them "New Philokalia" ("Dobrotoliubie") "Philokalia" is a collection of the spiritual texts of the Orthodox content by ascetic authors of IV-XV centuries).

Silouan the Athonite was canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1987. The day of his memory, September 11, is one of the most revered holidays of the Russian monastery on Mount Athos, which brings together hundreds of pilgrims.