On Friday evening, 27 March 2020, a vigil service in connection with the spread of the coronavirus infection was held at all monasteries on Mount Athos and Meteora reports Orthodox Times. During the service, prayers were offered to the Most Holy Theotokos and Saint Charalambos, who is the patron saint against epidemics. His scalp is kept at the holy monastery of Saint Stephen of Meteora. In this way the monks united their prayers, asking the Virgin Mary to help and protect us from the coronavirus pandemic.
A religious procession with the relics and the miraculous icons of each monastery was held on Mount Athos, and special prayers and supplications were read in Meteora for the support of those fighting at the front line against the coronavirus. Pilgrims weren’t allowed to enter and the services were held behind closed doors.
The monks read a special prayer of the Metropolitan of Edessa in connection with the coronavirus:
O Lord Jesus Christ, Our God, healer of soul and body, for us humans You became human to heal any wound. You did not ignore the hopelessly sick and You healed ten men with leprosy, You saved them and cleansed them. You came down to Earth as God-man and in Your presence, all the sick recovered. You can cure all types of ailments, You help them recover, the paralysed, the blind, the sinners of the spirit and flesh. Oh Our Lord, accept our prayer graciously and repel by Your power the deadly virus the shape of which takes the form of a crown and which terrifies and kills the sick and the people who suffer.
And if in the midst of many of our sins, You allowed this temptation, we are begging you, show mercy on us, and make this virus disappear from the world.
If You are testing the faith of the faithful through this trial, please, heal the people, who suffer from this virus.
And if the virus was spread due to the wickedness and the negligence of the people, please, destroy it, Lord God Almighty!
Protect the youth, take care of the sick and the elderly. Heal us from this deadly virus and make it disappear forever. Please, heal us with the help of the Theotokos and all saints!
Amen.
