The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, this week officiated at an Archieratical Divine Liturgy for the great feast day of the Epiphany, as based on the Julian calendar – held at the Church of St. Basil in Triglia, a historic township on the shores of the Sea of Marmara in northwest Asia Minor.
The con-celebratory liturgy and the Sanctification of the Waters ceremony were attended by members of a delegation of the Regional Union of Municipalities of Central Macedonia, hierarchs of the Ecumenical Throne, Christian faithful in Turkey, pilgrims from abroad and diplomats.
The Blessing of the Waters and the tossing of the Holy Cross has taken place on the Epiphany for a fifth straight year in Triglia.
In his message, the Ecumenical Patriarch underlined that the Theophany of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as the Epiphany is called in Orthodoxy, is “…the revelation of the supreme mystery of our religion…as the grace of baptism gives us the joy of a new life.”
Back in Greece, the great feast day was also celebrated at the Holy & Great Monastery of Vatopedi, as based on the Julian calendar.
An All-Night Vigil was observed before the blessing ceremony and the eucharistic synaxis, or assembly, officiated by the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Bishop of Eumenias and Abbot of the Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in western Crete, His Grace Irineos.
The Patriarchal hierarch was accompanied by the Elder Archimandrite Ephraim, the Abbot of the venerable Mount Athos Monastery, along with other Vatopedi Elders, Athonite Fathers and visiting clergy.
Following the Divine Liturgy, the splendorous Sanctification of the Waters ceremony and tossing of the Holy Cross took place at the monastery’s boat slip.