Vine from Saint Simeon's Grave Bears Fruit After 800 Years

A vine has grown from the grave of Saint Simeon the Myrrh-streaming at Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos for more than eight hundred years. The saint promised the monks that a vine would spring from his empty grave as a comfort to the brotherhood. That vine continues to bear fruit today, eight centuries later.

The grave is the original burial site of the saint before his relics were translated to another location. The promise was made to the monastic community as an assurance of his ongoing spiritual presence. The vine has persisted through centuries of political upheaval, natural disasters, and the ordinary passage of time on the Holy Mountain.

Each generation of monks at Hilandar has cared for the plant, pruning it and harvesting its fruit. The grapes are collected annually and used by the brotherhood. The story of the vine is told to pilgrims who come to venerate the saint.

It is recorded in the monastery's chronicles and in the lives of Saint Simeon written by his contemporaries. The saint, who was the Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja before becoming a monk, founded Hilandar with his son Saint Sava in the late twelfth century. His relics are known to stream myrrh, a phenomenon that continues alongside the growth of the vine.

The vine from the empty grave and the myrrh from the relics are both seen as signs of the saint's intercession. The video presenting this account concludes with the observation that what is planted by faith outlives centuries.