Feast Day of Saint Photios the Great and Memorial Service for Late Metropolitan John of Pergamon at the Church of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Athens

On Sunday, 4 February 2024, at the Church of Saint Nicholas of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the centre of Athens, the Divine Liturgy took place presided over by His Eminence Metropolitan Theodoritos of Laodicea, Director of the Representative Office of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Athens.

During the Divine Liturgy, the annual memorial service for the late Elder Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon was conducted, who for a number of years had also been the Director of the Representative Office of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Athens.

Several clergy participated in the Divine Liturgy, some of whom were graduates of the renowned Theological School of Halki, as the Estia of Theologians of Halki celebrated the memory of the School’s patron saint, Saint Photios the Great, and as every year, cut the Vasilopita after the end of the Divine Liturgy.

Present among others for the feast day were, the President of Estia, Emeritus Professor Mr. Nikolaos Xexakis, graduates and professors of the School, as well as Archons of the Ecumenical Throne.

Also present and joined in prayer were, Their Graces, Bishop Chrysostomos of Vereniki, (a fellow graduate of the Theological School) and Bishop Iakovos of Zinoupolis.

It should be noted that during the Divine Liturgy the graduates of the School, clergy and laity who fell asleep in the Lord last year, were prayerfully remembered.