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Our Day in Thesolonica

Location: St. Dimitrius, Ancient Macedonia, Thesolonica, and Veria

We started our day today at an overlook of Thesolonica. There we had an amazing view of the whole city. While we looked out on the whole city below, we read from Acts 17 where it references Paul’s time in Thesolonica. In scripture, we can see that many of the people there, mostly Jews from the Synagogue he preached at, were convinced through his preaching to join him.

  • View overlooking Thesolonica
  • View overlooking Thesolonica

    • After some time of reflection in this place, we moved on to visiting some Orthodox Churches in Thesolonica, namely St. Dimitrius and Hagia Sophia (not the one in Istanbul). Here we had an opportunity to pray and spend time entering into the eastern style of spirituality. We walked around the church reverencing icons and even got to see some relics of the saints (St. Dimitrius and St. Basil)! Although we have some theological differences from our Orthodox brothers and sisters, it was beautiful to have time to appreciate the beauty of their art and spirituality.

    St. Dimitrius Orthodox Church
    Tomb of St. Basil
    View of the ceiling in St. Dimitrius

    We then took a walk on the promenade where we saw a statue of Alexander the Great who named the city of Thesolonica after his sister. The statue was quite impressive, but more than that, we were told that up until the early 1900s the whole shoreline was walled in. It’s hard to believe when you see how open it is now, but they had maintained the old city walls up till then. 

    Thesolonica Shoreline
    Statue of Alexander the Great

    We finished our day of touring in Berea, a city where they have preserved the actual steps that Paul preached from. We continued to read from Acts 17, where Paul comments about the noble nature of the people of that town. It was a deeply prayerful space in the middle of the city. I hope that one day my preaching will have some small part of the effect that his continues to have on this place.

    Mosaic Shrine in Berea

    -James Bryant, Archdiocese of Chicago

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