We had a brilliant time on Crete, but it was here that it began to seem that things were speeding up and we were running from one place to the next. However, this part of the trip was very special for me. We visited a monastery that had been re-founded by a nun who was close to Elder Porphyrios, my spiritual grandfather (spiritual father’s spiritual father). I saw something for the first time, an icon of the elder. When we got back onto the bus I saw another student had bought a similar icon in the bookstore. I held up the bus while I ran back in the hot sun to buy one for myself. I got there just as the nun who kept the store was leaving. As I ran back to the bus, I had the most perfect fall I’ve ever had. The lace of one shoe got caught on the buckle of the other. I pitched forward and fell flat on the ground. I skinned up my elbow and had a headache for the rest of the day, but it was worth it. The monastery was nice otherwise, there was a very old icon screen which is usually closed off but they let us in to venerate it.

We met with one metropolitan and later the Archbishop of Crete. Unlike most of Greece, Crete is not part of the Church of Greece. It is an eparchy directly under Constantinople, just as the GOA is. That’s why it has its own archbishop.

The Archbishop saw us off at the port, which was quite a surprise. Someone said it would be like Arb. Demetrios see off a group of Cretan travelers to the US.

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