THE ARCHBISHOP OF FINLAND VISITS SHRINES WITHIN JERUSALEM

On the morning of Saturday, the 20^th of April/3^rd of May 2014, His Eminence Leo, Archbishop of Karelia and All Finland, and His retinue, accompanied and toured by the Patriarchal Commissioner, the Most Reverend Metropolitan Isychios of Kapitolias, visited some of the holy sites of pilgrimages within the old city of Jerusalem, with the exception of the shrines of the Church of the Resurrection which He visited on the first day of His arrival, namely: the Tomb of the Mother of God and the Church of the Dormition in Gethsemane, the garden of the Betrayal, the site of the stoning of St Stephen the Protomartyr and Archdeacon, the Mount of Olives and the shrine of the Ascension of the Lord, the gallery of Pentecost on the hill of St Sion and the church of the Holy Trinity, wherein lies our Patriarchal Hieratical School.

At the end of His visit, His Eminence the Archbishop of Karelia and All Finland expressed emotion for having seen with His own eyes the sites where Jesus Christ our Saviour was incarnate, baptized, transfigured, taught, was crucified, rose and ascended to Heaven, inspiring the Hagiotaphite Fathers, the Holy Land’s keepers and conservators.

From the Secretariat General