The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, on Monday visited the Monastery of Halki and the Orthodox seminary on the small Marmara Sea islet of the same name. The Patriarch’s visit came on the occasion of the Feast Day of Holy Myrrh-Bearer, Equal of the Apostles, Mary Magdalene.
Following the Divine Liturgy, His All Holiness arrived at the monastery and seminary accompanied by other Patriarchate hierarchs and the general consuls of Greece, Serbia, Slovakia, Poland, Croatia and the deputy general consul of the UK.
Exchange students participating in the Erasmus program and Russian theology students from Moscow were also on hand, along with pilgrims from Greece.
The Ecumenical Patriarch returned to the Fanar district Patriarchate in the late afternoon.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Halki seminary was closed by Turkish authorities in 1971, and has remained officially closed since then, despite decades of international pressure and charges of religious discrimination in Turkey.
