At the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Ecumenical Patriarch, His All-Holiness Bartholomew I, on Saturday officiated at a Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Church of St. George, on the 200th anniversary of the martyrdom of Hieromartyr Gregory V, Patriarch of Constantinople.
After the Divine Liturgy, His All-Holiness went to the Closed Gate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Phanar district, where his predecessor was hanged on orders of the Ottoman Sultan, accompanied by several Metropolitans, clerics and faithful.
The Ecumenical Patriarch lit a candle in front of the icon of the Patriarch Gregory V, laid flowers and prayed for the intercession of the Hieromartyr for the Orthodox Church and the Nation.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew also sent a message on the 200th anniversary of the martyrdom of Gregory V.
As he emphasized, in the long line of Archbishops of Constantinople, there are figures who bear the Cross of duty with joy and deep awareness, and pass it on with awareness.
In Greece, the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, also commemorated the martyrdom of Patriarch Gregory V, during a sermon at the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral. The Archbishop dismissed revisionist historians in relation to the Hieromartyr.
On the historic island of Hydra, Metropolitan Ephraim, speaking during the Vespers service at the island’s main cathedral, recounted the life and martyrdom of Patriarch Gregory V, stressing that “St. Gregory made the ultimate sacrifice for his race”.
A memorial service was also held on Saturday in Munich, Germany at a monument where the names of the heroes and martyrs of the Greek War of Independence are etched in stone, with the first being that of Patriarch Gregory V.