06/07/2024
If you are in Zakynthos it is impossible not to be present for this occasions. SEE THE COMPLETE LIST OF ALL EVENTS : https://www.zante.info/zante-local-festivals-zakynthos/
Do you want to experience the real atmosphere of the Greek religious festivals? You have a great chance.
In addition to receiving a blessing from the Saint who is celebrated on every different occasion, we assure you that the energies in Greek ceremonies are truly very high and of great emotional impact regardless of whether a person is a believer or not. During the panigiri you will also be able to buy handicrafts and local products in the market that takes place along the road with hundreds of proposals. You will also have the opportunity to help locals producers in this difficult time for the world economy.
Why is it called PANIGIRI?
In Greek and Latin literature, a paneghiri is a laudatory or celebratory prayer in honor of illustrious personages; in the Christian one it is to give praise to a Saint.
An important reflection follows, translated automatically, so we apologize for any errors. Thank you.
"The Panigyri are a festival commemorating the lives of certain saints
We are now talking about the Saints of Zakynthos
Faced with the tiredness and spiritual ambiguity of the contemporary world, these saints invite us to return to the path of prayer, the privileged way to an authentic and penetrating experience of knowing God.
Prayer as a gift, that is, a response to the Spirit's initiative, but also as an "art" to be learnt and practised not to reproduce empty forms or liturgies, but to shape one's daily life on the Master's Word. God.
God is encountered in the world among human beings.
The saint encounters him, loves him, and is forged in love and purity.
(Enzo Bianchi)
Does not the life of the saint, his teachings, his double face, turned towards God and towards men, constitute the model of a human being who has reached a perfection that can be virtually realised by every man?
Every writing and every discourse on holiness aims to propose a model:
the purification of the soul, the acquisition of virtues, the journey towards God through the stations and states, until the realisation of that love and knowledge of God that characterise the saint, making him, with God's permission, a teacher called to guide men on the Way.
Saints bring us back to ourselves, to our true Seed!
Is holiness and saints spoken of in the same way in a doctrinal exposition or by recounting the life of a saint?
The question seems legitimate if one takes miracles as an example. While marvellous or supersensible facts have a generally central place in the lives of saints, their importance is often relativised, sometimes even denied, in a more elaborate discourse on holiness.
It is certain of their virtues, but far more the tales of their miracles that make the saints' popularity, while alive and after their death, far beyond the circle of their disciples or the accounts of their lives
But the saint venerates what belongs to God: science and virtues, and he strips himself of what does not belong to him and observes carefully and without complacency all that is permeable to vanity
A true guru, A SAINT enlightened by God is one who, having attained self-mastery, has realised his identity with the omnipresent Spirit and thus possesses the exceptional qualifications to guide the seeker on his inner journey towards perfection.
"The blind cannot guide the blind," Paramahansaji said.
"Only a true Master, a Saint, one who knows God, can truly impart divine teachings to others.
To regain one's divinity it is necessary to have such a Master or Guru.
This is the one we call a saint.
So a Panighiri is not really the outward celebration of a Saint but his call to our perfection, to continue our earthly journey by evolving and having him as an example and support
THANK YOU!"
