Memorial Service for Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus in Alexandria
On Tuesday, August 3, His Beatitude the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa Theodoros II was present praying during the Divine Liturgy, which was held on the feast day of of Saint Theodora in Thessaloniki in the Holy Monastery of Saint Savva The Sanctified of Alexandria. After the end of the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude performed a holy memorial service, as well as a memorial prayer in front of the monument in the precinct of the centuries-old Andriantos Monastery of the late Ethnarch and Archbishop of Cyprus Makarios III, who was a Grand Benefactor of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, who fell asleep in the Lord on August 3, 1977.
During his speech, His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodoros II referred to the blessings of the ever remembered Archbishop to the Alexandrian Church, with the most prominent being the establishment of the Patriarchal Priestly School of Kenya “Makarios III”, which the blessed Primate erected and offered to the esteemed Patriarchate after his visit to Kenya (March 1971), according to which he baptised thousands of native brothers.
He also underlined the unshakable spiritual ties between the two Apostolic Churches, Alexandria and Cyprus, in difficult historical moments, such as during the period of the ecclesiastical crisis (1972-1973) against Archbishop Makarios, which was overshadowed by the Great and Extraordinary Synod that convened in Cyprus (July 1973) under the presidency of the Patriarch of Alexandria Nicholas VI, justifying the Ethnarch Archbishop of Cyprus.
In closing, the Patriarch once again expressed the gratitude of the Second-Throne Patriarchate to the Republic of Cyprus and the Church of Cyprus for their unceasing practical cooperation and sympathy towards them and its generally multilateral missionary, humanitarian and pastoral work on the African continent.
The aforementioned prayerful and spiritual meeting was attended by various Metropolitans; His Eminence Metropolitan Panteleimon of Nafkratis, Chief Secretary of the Sacred and Holy Synod, and His Eminence Metropolotan Narkissos of Pilus, Patriarchal Commissioner of Alexandria, His Grace Bishop Germanos of Tamiatheos, Proistamenos of the Holy Monastery of Saint Savvas The Sanctified, clergy of the Patriarchal Court, representatives of the Cypriot Brotherhood of Alexandria, the students of the Patriarchal School “Saint Athanasios” and many others.
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