On Saturday, July 18, Saint Mardarije Day was once again celebrated at the Saint Sava Monastery. The day started with the annual procession from the New Gracanica Monastery to the Saint Sava Monastery at 6:00am. As usual, men of the Mountain Climbing Club of the Saint Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church, Indianapolis, IN, were at the head of the line, along with the clergy, carrying the processional cross and the cherubim. By God’s grace and through the prayers of Saint Mardarije, the air pollution that had been present through the week prior had cleared on Friday night and weather conditions for the procession and for the whole day were ideal.
Day’s activities continued with the Hierarchal Divine Liturgy in the pavilion on the Saint Sava Monastery grounds at 9:30am. Thirteen priests and four deacons concelebrated the Liturgy with His Grace Bishop Serafim, joined by hundreds of the faithful. Another blessing this year was an icon of the Protection of the Mother of God, brought by a Yelena Wassenberg of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. This icon has traveled around the world twice already, being blessed in countless holy Orthodox places. At its third journey around the world it was now carried from the Monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God – New Gracanica, to the Saint Sava Monastery, to be placed next to Saint Mardarije’s incorrupt relics and thus blessed for the continuation of its journey.
After the Divine Liturgy, Bachelor of Theology diplomas were given to two graduates of the Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox School of Theology – Nikola Rankovic and Mihajlo Knezevic. May the Lord bless them on their future path of serving His Church.
Everybody who was present at the Saint Mardarije Day had the chance to visit the booth set up and manned by the members of the Saint Mardarije Spiritual and Cultural Center steering committee, to find out information about the ending stages of the renovation project and to contribute to the final efforts ahead of us. Also, building tours were given to several groups of people from near and afar, all of whom were amazed at the construction progress and at the quality of work done at the building.
To contribute to the final efforts of the restoration please visit the monastery website at https://stsavamonastery.org/donate/
If you wish to be added to the email list and receive monthly updates on the progress of the project and other activities at the monastery, or for any other information, email us at stsavarenovation@gmail.com or call us at 847 807 4919
