Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew prays at permanently closed gate where Patriarch Gregory V was hanged in 1821

An image of Ecumenical Patriarch, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, on Wednesday lighting a candle and praying outside the permanently closed entrance of the Patriarchical Church of St. George was widely circulated around the world.

The entrance, welded shut in 1821, is the place where Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory V was hanged immediately after celebrating the Easter Day liturgy on April 10, using the Old Calendar, on orders of the Ottoman sultan.

The martyred Patriarch, still in full Patriarchal vestments, was left hanging for three days.

Gregory had refused to leave Constantinople and the metropolis’ Christians in the face of threats and persecution, as the sultan and much of the Ottoman hierarchy at the time were livid over the eruption of the Greek independence struggle in the Peloponnese the previous month.

The Patriarch’s body was eventually interred at the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral, and Gregory is today commemorated by Greek Orthodox Churches as a national martyr.

In his memory, the St. Peter Gate, once the main gate of the Patriarchate, has remained closed ever since.

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