Souroti Monastery is dedicated to St. John the Theologian and Evangelist, and the pilgrims visited on his feast day. At 2:30 a.m., the 61 sisters had finished the all-night vigil service (Vespers, Orthros and Liturgy combined) that took 6.5 hours. After a brief amount of rest, they greeted the pilgrims energetically at the front gate.

The monastery boasts newness not just in the buildings or the iconography, but in the newer saint whose relics are kept there, as well as a famed monastic who may join the ranks of Orthodox Christian saints. The nuns built the second church on the grounds in honor of St. Arsenios the Cappadocian (1840-1924) who was canonized for sainthood by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1986 (feast day November 10). The pilgrims venerated his skull which gave off the scent of myrrh.

Right outside St. Arsenios Church is buried the venerable Elder Paisios of Mount Athos (1924-74), the spiritual son of St. Arsenios who has a special tie to Souroti. While receiving medical treatment in the area in 1966, the first nuns approached him for help in establishing the monastery. He told them not to worry and that they would have it in one year. It opened on October 26, 1967 for the first services with Elder Paisios serving. He would visit Souroti twice a year to check up on the sisters and encourage them to continue their growth.

The pilgrims then visited the main Church of St. John, which also is filling with newly-written icons. Sayidna JOSEPH recalled that, when he lived in Thessaloniki in the 1970s, the monastery had nothing but this church. Now, it has two churches, olive orchards, gardens and a wealth of spiritual depth that would come from centuries of experience, not just 46 years.

Deputy Abbess Anna greeted us in behalf of Abbess Philothei, who expressed her regret that she could not meet with the delegation. The conversation focused mainly on the teachings of Elder Paisios and his six-volume work of "Spiritual Counsels." One pilgrim asked if it was better to run from from temptation or confront it. Mother Anna referred to the Elder and answered that the latter option is better. "We gain great personal life experiences this way," she said. "We learn how to struggle and learn that God will always win. We call upon Him at that moment so that we do not run and show weakness in that temptation." Mother Anna added that, when correctly overcome, temptation is always for our growth, development and humility, and these virtues lead to true joy.

Some of the nuns in Souroti come from Cairo, Egypt and it also embraced sisters from Lebanon during that country's civil war. They went on to establish their own monastery in Lattakia, Syria which, so far, has been untouched by that country's civil war. Sayidna asked the nuns to pray for everyone in that country and that the bloodshed come to a quick end.

The delegation returned to Thessaloniki for a quick visit to Ss. Cyril and Methodius Church. Like all of the other churches, this holy site offered tremendous beauty and mosaic icons of the patron saints. Sayidna JOSEPH had spent some of his ministry here, too. But what made this visit special was that it foreshadowed the pilgrims' journey into the Slavic country of Serbia. Ss. Cyril and Methodius crafted the first Slavic alphabet to preach the gospel in these lands. Thessaloniki had also declared 2013 as "The Year of Ss. Cyril and Methodius" in honor of the 1150th anniversary of their missionary journey.