The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, arrived this afternoon at the semi-autonomous monastic community of Mount Athos, which is located on a verdant promontory jutting out into the sea from northern Greece.
On Thursday, His All Holiness opened an international conference organized by the faculty of theology of the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, held on the occasion of the 30-year anniversary of his enthronement as the Primate of the Mother Church.
Speaking at the same conference, the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, referred to the horror of war, in comparison to the joy that comes through the Cross.
Earlier on Friday, the Ecumenical Patriarch toured the Center for the Preservation of Athonite Heritage, which is located at the Governor House, the former Macedonia-Thrace ministry in central Thessaloniki.