Patronal Feast Day of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew – Many years, Your All-Holiness

On 11 June of each year, the Orthodox Church honours the memory of the Holy and Glorious Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas. “Divine instruments of the Paraclete, and exponents of the Word of God, you have appeared…”, we hear in their Dismissal hymn. Words that illuminate not only the apostolic work of the honoured Saints, but also the testimony of their successor and current Primate of Orthodoxy, His All-Holiness our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who celebrates his venerable name day.

It is a fact that His All-Holiness, in the almost 65 years since his entry into the priesthood and especially in the last 35, after his ascension to the Apostolic and Patriarchal Ecumenical Throne, has devoted himself to cultivating a spirit of love, unity and peace within the Church and unerringly guides his spiritual children throughout the world, rightly teaching the word of Truth.

With memories still fresh from his recent apostolic visit to Australia and with a deep awareness of the blessing that his presence at the helm of the Holy Great Church of Christ represents for us and for the entire Orthodox world, we pray from the depths of our hearts that God will keep our Ecumenical Patriarch physically and spiritually healthy, so that he may continue his precious and God-pleasing work.

Many blessed Years, Your All-Holiness!

From the ‘Vema’ editorial team