On Sunday, December 19, 2022, / January 1, 2023, Sunday before the Nativity of Christ, the annual memorial service for the repose of the souls of the departed Hagiotaphite Fathers, memorable Patriarchs, High Priests, Priests, Hieromonks, monks and nuns was held at the Catholicon of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

This memorial service was held after the Divine Liturgy which was officiated by His Eminence, Archbishop Philoumenos of Pella.

The memorial service was presided over by H.H.B. our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, with the participation in prayer of their Eminences, the Metropolitan Isychios of Kapitolias, the Archbishops, Aristarchos of Constantina, Theophanes of Gerassa, Methodios of Tabor, Theodosios of Sebastia, Philoumenos of Pella, and the Metropolitan Joachim of Helenoupolis.

After the service, the Patriarchal entourage returned to the Patriarchate Reception Hall for a reception for the departed.

From Secretariat-General

On Saturday, December 18/31, 2022, the commemoration of our Holy Father among the Saints Modestos Patriarch of Jerusalem was celebrated by the Patriarchate in the Holy Monastery named after him, which is located on the hill of Abu Tor, in New Jerusalem, near the Hebron Street, leading to Bethlehem.

On this feast the Church of Jerusalem commemorates that Saint Modestos practised as a monk and an Archimandrite at the Holy Monastery of Saint Theodosios the Cenobiarch and later on as the Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem renovated many Churches and Holy Monasteries and displayed a remarkable pastoral and charitable mission in the Church of Jerusalem, comforting his flock after the Persian invasion of 614.

On the morning of the feast, the Divine Liturgy was presided over by the Most Reverend Archbishop Filoumenos of Pella with the co-celebration of the Elder Kamarasis Archimandrite Nektarios, Archimandrite Makarios, the Arabic-speaking Priest Fr. Nektarios and Hierodeacon Simeon. The chanting was delivered by Mr Gotsopoulos as the service was attended by the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Evangelos Vlioras and Consulate members, monks, nuns and pious pilgrims.

During the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos with his entourage visited the Holy Church for veneration.

After the Divine Liturgy, monk Antiochos, who renovated the Monastery, served a treat in the courtyard.

From Secretariat-General

On Sunday, December 12/25, 2022, the Patriarchate celebrated in accordance with its Typikon the feasts of the Holy Forefathers and of our Holy Father Spyridon the Miracle Worker, Bishop of Trimythus.

During the feast of the Holy Forefathers, celebrated on the 1st Sunday after December 11, the Church commemorates and honours the pre-Law and post-Law Forefathers of Christ in the flesh, who were pleasing to God, that is, Adam the Forefather, Enoch and Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve Patriarchs, Moses, David and Daniel and the three Children, Zechariah and John the Forerunner and a multitude of others.

On this occasion, a Divine Liturgy was held in the Church of the Holy Forefathers in the Shepherds’ Village / Beit Sahour, presided over by H.H.B. our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, with the co-celebration of their Eminences, the Metropolitan Isychios of Capitolias, the Archbishops; Aristarchos of Constantina, and Methodios of Tabor, the Metropolitan Joachim of Hellenopolis, the Elder Kamarasis Archimandrite Nectarios, and the Hegoumen of  Beit Jala and Beit Sahour Archimandrite Ignatios, the Priests of this community,  Fr. Issa, Fr. Savvas, Fr. Ioannis and Fr. Georgios. The chanting was delivered by the Community Byzantine choir, as the service was attended by the full congregation of this parish, the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Evangelos Vlioras and the Mayor of the city Mr Haik.

His Beatitude delivered the following Sermon to this congregation:

“The genealogy of Christ according to the divinity cannot be phrased, however, His lineage according to man is possible, as He became a descendant of man, He who is also the son of man in order to save man”, Saint Gregory Palamas preaches.

Beloved brethren in Christ,

Dear Christians,

The Grace of the Holy Spirit brought us all together today in this holy place of the Village of the Shepherds, where the angel of the Lord gave the good news to us the people of great joy and where there was a multitude of heavenly hosts with the angel praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men” (cf. Luke 2:10-14), so that we may celebrate in Eucharist the memory of the Forefathers in the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ before the Law of Moses and according to the law; especially of the Patriarch Abraham, in whom first the promise was given, when God said to him  “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).

Indeed, as the Holy Bible says, Abraham was given the promise, that is, the promise that, because he obeyed God’s command, through Christ, Who would be one of his descendants, all the peoples of the earth will be blessed. “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Gen. 22:18).

 And according to the psalmist: “His name shall endure forever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed” (Psalm 72:17).  The land of the promise is none other than the land of blessed Palestine and the city of Bethlehem, where, according to the true testimony of the Evangelist Luke, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

The holy Church of Christ honours the memory of the holy Forefathers, in order to demonstrate through the mouth of the Apostle Peter that: “we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16). The Forefathers in general and the Prophets, in particular, refer to this very majesty of the power and presence in human history of the Son and Word of God according to the Father, and of the Son of man according to the Mother.

From the pure flesh of the Ever-Virgin Mary and from the Holy Spirit, the incarnation of God the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ is a universal and irrefutable event, witnessed by sacred and secular history; at the same time, it is also a great mystery, impossible to be understood by the human mind, that is, by human logic: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (1 Tim. 3:16), Saint Paul preaches.

St. Gregory Palamas, referring to this great mystery of piety, of the so-called divine Providence, asks: “How to form a lineage for the One Who was from the beginning, and was God, and with God, and also was the Word of God, and the Son of God”, (Cf. John 1:1) and He did not have a Father prior to Himself and has a name after the Father “the name above every name” (Phil. 2:9) and “every word?”

Indeed, my beloved brothers, Jesus Christ has a lineage according to His human nature, that is, the human form, which He assumed for the salvation of us humans. “Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13), the wise Paul says.

According to the interpreter Zigavinos, the Word God, becoming a man, did not avoid “our disgrace”, that is, he did not despise certain human weaknesses which were not sinful. He assumed the whole of human nature, except for its sin: “For Christ came for this reason also, not to flee (=avoid) our disgrace, but to receive it and relieve it through his own virtues. For He came as a doctor, not as a judge.”

As for the divine nature, i.e. the divinity of Jesus Christ, it is unapproachable and indefinable. “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18), the evangelist John teaches.  “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see” (1 Tim. 6:16), Saint Paul preaches. “For there shall no man see me, and live” (Exodus 3:20), says the Lord. In the next life, however, those who have reached perfection shall see Him. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8), says the Lord again.

We are also called to this, my beloved brothers, to purify our hearts and properly approach and worship the born Christ, Who “sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready” (Luke 14:17), as we listened to today’s Gospel reading.

Interpreting the above words, Saint Cyril of Alexandria says: “God and Father in Christ has prepared for those on earth, the goods given to the world, the forgiveness of sins, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the splendour of adoption, the kingdom of heaven.” And Saint Paul says: “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4-5).

Let us also listen to the hymnographer: “Since Thou art the God of peace and the Father of mercies, Thou hast sent unto us Thine Angel of Great Counsel, granting us peace. Wherefore, having been guided to the light of divine knowledge, and watching by night, we glorify Thee, O Friend of man” (Katavasia of Christmas Ode 5).

This Angel of the Great Council of God the Father, the illumination, as it were, of the knowledge of God (Eph. 2:14), our Savior Jesus Christ, Whom the Forefathers prepared and the Prophets foretold, let us also hasten and come in repentance, so that by the intercessions of the Most Blessed Theotokos Mary and the prayers of our holy Father Spyridon the Wonderworker, who is celebrated today, we are blessed with our spiritual rebirth on the one hand and physical renewal on the other. Amen. Many Happy returns and blessed Christmas.”

This was followed by the parade of the Boy Scouts and a reception at the Hegoumeneion, where H.H.B addressed those present through the ministering Priest of the Church, Dean Priest Issa Mousleh as follows:

 “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1), exclaims the psalmist.

Dear Mr Mayor,

President and honourable members of the Ecclesiastical Council,

Holy Fathers and Brothers,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Beloved brethren in Christ,

Today’s solemn commemoration of the holy Forefathers is the harbinger of the great Feast of Christmas.

The truly joyous and universal event of Christmas was overshadowed for a moment by the tragic and sudden death of two innocent and angelic infants, brothers of your biblical Village of the Shepherds. And the psalmist says “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth” (Psalm 103:15) and our Lord Jesus Christ says: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

The Birth of Christ refers to the rebirth of us believers and His resurrection, which is a sure guarantee that our hope will not be denied, but we will also be resurrected, as the Apostle Peter preaches saying: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4).

This means that the Church of Christ, and especially the Rum Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem constitutes the physical and spiritual Ark, which throughout the centuries guarded and continues to guard the Christian congregation of the Middle East in general and of the Holy Land in particular. The political and social crisis created by the occupation situation and its consequences, the uncertainty and the impasse is enough to demonstrate that the Rum Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem is the only institution that guarantees not only the religious but also the cultural identity of those in the wider area of living Christians.

What is noteworthy in this regard, is the fact that the present Patriarchate, whose ecclesiastical and spiritual jurisdiction includes the State of Palestine, the Gaza Strip, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Emirate of Qatar and the State of Israel, consists of one point of reference, that is, to belong, but also “the unity of the spirit of Christ’s flock in the bond of peace; one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling”, (Eph. 4, 3-1) according to Saint Paul.

We want to assure you, my beloved brothers, that the Patriarchate of Jerusalem has never ceased to care as much for the protection of the Holy Places and the divine worship performed on them, as for the various needs of its pious flock: “Ask, and it shall be given to you, seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you”, Matthew 7:7), says the Lord. Nevertheless, “let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40), the Apostle Paul orders.

In conclusion, we wish a blessed Christmas to all of you, and to the parents, tested by great sorrow, of their beloved children who unfortunately and unjustly fell asleep in the Lord, we express our deepest condolences, assuring them that “whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it” (1 Cor. 12:26). May the Lord God, give rest to the infant angels who have passed away in the Father’s arms. Amen”.

At noon, a meal was offered.

From Secretariat-General

 On Sunday, December 12/25, 2022, the Patriarchate celebrated the feast of our Holy Father Spyridon Bishop of Trimythus the miracle worker.

On the occasion of his celebration, Vespers was celebrated on Saturday afternoon and Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning, presided over by the Most Reverend Archbishop Theodosios of Sebastia, with the concelebration of the Master of Ceremonies of the Patriarchate Archimandrite Bartholomew, Fr Nectarios Rajaah and the caretaker of this Monastery Hierodeacon Dositheos, while many believers from Jerusalem and other cities and pilgrims attended the services.

Through this Divine Liturgy, the Church commemorated Saint Spyridon as the Father of the Church, who defended the one essence of the Son with the Father in the First Ecumenical Council, in AD 325 and as being deemed worthy of the gift to work miracles due to his honourable and virtuous life.

Through his prayer God dissolved the draught and sent down a lot of rain and again through his prayer he stopped it. In the same way, through prayer, he changed the snake into gold and again the gold into snake, he resurrected his daughter, to show him that she had kept the inheritance of a poor woman and co-celebrated the Divine Liturgy with angels, as his apolytikion says.

The officiating Archbishop preached the divine word to the faithful, and the caretaker of the Monastery, Hierodeacon Dositheos hosted a reception for the Episcopal Entourage and the congregation at the hegoumeneion.

From Secretariat-General

On Monday, December 6/18, 2022, the feast of our holy Father Nikolaos, Bishop of Myron of Lycia, was celebrated by the Patriarchate.

During this feast, the Church remembers that St. Nikolaos was the Bishop of Myra of Lycia who “gained the high places through humility, the rich through poverty” throughout his life, and especially as Bishop of Myra of Lycia, he defended the “one essence” of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Father, worthy of God’s gift to work miracles, by which he helped many, especially the seafarers.

His feast was celebrated in the nearby town of Beit Jala, with a warm welcome accompanied by the Boy Scout Corps and the Palestinian Municipal Authorities, and with a Divine Liturgy wich was officiated by our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, with the co-celebration of their Eminences the Archbishops, Aristarchos of Constantina, Methodios of Tabor and Philoumenos of Pella, the Archimandrites Porfyrios and the Elder Kamarasis Nectarios, Priests Yusef, Pavlos and George and the Hierodeacons Eulogios and Simeon. The chanting was delivered by the local Byzantine choir as the service was attended by the full congregation of the citizens and the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Evangelos Vlioras.

His Beatitude delivered the following Sermon to this congregation:

“Rejoice, O mind most sacred and great, and purest dwelling of the All-holy Trinity; thou steadfastness of the faithful, and pillar staying the Church, and the help of all bowed down with grievous pains; thou star ever scattering with thy beams of well-pleasing prayers the heavy darkness of temptations, of sufferings, and of all distress, O divine Hierarch Nikolaos. Harbour of all serenity wherein they are swiftly saved that flee thereto when encompassed with the tempestuous waves of life. Entreat Christ with fervour to grant pardon of our sins and great mercy to our souls” (Vespers, Aposticha 2).

Beloved brethren in Christ,

Dear Christians,

The Divine Grace of the Holy Spirit, who anointed His Holiness Nikolaos Archbishop of Myra of Lycia with divine myrrh, brought us all together in this holy place of his emigration, and the Church dedicated to him, so that we may solemnly honour his sacred memory.

The Bishop of Myra of Lycia, Nikolaos, rose in the firmament of the Church as a universal luminary, who enlightened the world through his virtues, thus he was recognized as a “Canon of the Orthodox faith of the doctrinal teaching of the divine mystery of piety, formulated by the first Ecumenical Council in Nice in AD 325 by the holy and approved Fathers of the Church.

It is noteworthy that as a member of this Ecumenical Synod, the wonderful Nikolaos effectively contributed to the extermination of the blasphemous heretical teaching of Arius, and formulated the truth about the Holy Trinity and the Theology about the Son and Word of God and our Saviour Christ as the hymnographer exclaims: “I reverence the uncreated Trinity, Father and Son together with the Spirit, a Divinity simple in essence, a Nature not severed in essence, being of Three Hypostases, while I distinguish Them according to person and hypostasis” (Matins, Ode 1, Canon 2 of the Saint, Triadicon). And again “Foreseeing things to come with the eye of thy mind, thou didst fill all men with upright doctrines, declaring unto us the Son’s consubstantiality with the Father; and thou hast utterly destroyed the madness of Arius, offering thy venerable achievements as a monument of the Orthodox Faith” (Matins, Ode 6, Canon 2 of the Saint, Troparion 3).

Having the mind of Christ, (1 Cor. 2:16), Nikolaos exterminated the fury of Arius, because he spoke not with the spirit of the world, namely with human wisdom like Arius, but with the grace of the Holy Spirit, as Saint Paul preaches: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Cor. 2:12).

Behold, therefore, why His Holiness Nikolaos was called “canon of faith and pillar of the Church but also a great shepherd”. He, as a spiritual Father and shepherd, did not seek his own interest, but that of the many, so that they may be saved (1 Cor. 10:33). That is why he was “the support of the faithful and the help of the afflicted”. Nikolaos was recognized as a real Father, listening to and applying the order of Saint Paul saying: “Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). Of course, Christ is the model to which we are all called to conform. If we are encouraged to imitate the saints or the apostles, it is because before us the Saints and the Apostles like Paul, who received “visions and revelations of the Lord” (2 Cor. 12:1), conformed to the example of Christ and imitated Him.

In other words, Saint Nikolaos brought together all those gifts of the Holy Spirit, which make up the teacher and spiritual Father of the Church. He was “nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:6). That is why Saint Ignatius of Antioch considers “the bishop in the type of God” and listens to the Proverb: “Revere, son, God and the King” (Prov. 24, 21) and exhorts by saying: And I say; fear God, as the cause of all and Lord; the bishop as high priest, wearing the image of God; according to the principle, of God, according to the priests, of Christ”.

Indeed, my beloved brothers, the meek Bishop of Myra of Lycia proved himself to be a true High Priest of the Church, bearing in himself the image of God, as far as the administration [of the Church] is concerned and the image of Christ as far as the Ministry of the divine mysteries is concerned. “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:49), Saint Paul preaches.

Interpreting the above words of Paul, St. Methodius says: “the earthen image, which we have put on [which says, thou art dust and dust thou shall become], while the image of the heavenly, the resurrection from the dead, and incorruption, so that “like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). “Virtuous life is new life,” Zigavinos says.

It was precisely this “newness of life”, this life in Christ that our Father Nikolaos walked and taught so that he received the crown of incorruption. This life in newness, namely, the virtuous life we are also called to walk, listening to the voice of the wise Paul: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

In other words, we as human beings, but above all as reborn Christians, are His own creation, created to remain united with our Lord Jesus Christ. For even Saint Paul gives a paternal order, saying: “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise” (Eph. 5:15).

Here is this blessed time of our preparation through fasting and good works, of receiving in the cave of our hearts the Christ born from the pure blood of the Ever-Virgin Theotokos Mary.

Yes, my brothers, “not as unwise”, that is, as worldly, but as wise, since as children of the light of Christ we celebrate the metropolis of the holidays, the blessed Christmas in this God-receiving cave of Bethlehem.

Let us say along with the hymnographer “As thou standest before the throne of God, cease not to intercede earnestly for us all, thy faithful servants, O wise and wondrous Nikolaos, that we be delivered from the eternal fire and from the wicked counsel and ill-dealing of our enemies” (Matins, Ode 4, Canon 2 of the Saint, Troparion 2).  Amen. Happy and blessed Christmas.”

At noon, the Community Council hosted a meal, where His Beatitude spoke again in Arabic.

This holiday was also celebrated in the Holy Monastery of Agios Nikolaos, near the Patriarchate in Jerusalem.

The Vespers and the Divine Liturgy were presided over by the Most Reverend Metropolitan Isychios of Kapitolias, with the co-celebration of the Elder Master of Ceremonies Archimandrite Bartholomew, Fr Nectarios, Fr Dometianos of the Russian MISSIA in Jerusalem, the Russian Fr Nikolaos Kolinsky, the caretaker of the Monastery Archdeacon Mark, at the chanting of the Typikon Keeper of the Monastic Church of Saints Constantine and Helen Archimandrite Alexios, Fr Seraphim and Mr Gotsopoulos. The Services were attended by faithful Orthodox Christians and pilgrims from Greece, Palestine, Romania, and Russia.

After the Divine Liturgy, Archdeacon Markos, who continues the renovation of the Holy Church, offered a reception for the Episcopal Entourage and the congregation.

From Secretariat-General

On Sunday, 5th/18th of December 2022, the feast of our Holy Father Savvas was celebrated in the Holy Monastery named after him, which he himself founded on the right bank of the Brook of the Cedars that descends towards the direction of the Dead Sea.

On this feast, the Church of Jerusalem commemorates anew that Saint Savvas came from his birthplace Mutalaski in Cappadocia to the Holy Land in the year 456 at the age of 18.

At first, he studied under Euthymius the Great and Abba Theodosios for twenty years and then lived a hesychastic life in a cave opposite the Monastery, which is preserved to this day.

Distinguished in obedience, humility and devoted to all virtues, he was called upon by the monks of the desert and founded for them his Monastery as a Lavra, that is, a monastery for monks who had advanced to asceticism, and he guided to the right monastic state thousands of monks of this Monastery and of the eleven other Monasteries, which he founded. Along with his fellow patriot and co-ascetic Saint Theodosios the Cenobiarch, he became the defender of the doctrine of the Fourth Ecumenical Synod of Chalcedon in AD 451 of the synergy of the two natures, human and divine, in the one person of Christ, unconfused and indivisible. There were also many saints who lived in his Holy Monastery, such as Saint John of Damascus, Saint Stephen of Saint Savvas Monastery, John the Bishop of Cologne and others.

In honour of Saint Savvas, there was a feast which was presided over by H.H.B. our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos with the co-celebration of the High Priest according to the order for this year, His Eminence Metropolitan Joachim of Helenoupolis, His Eminence Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina, the Spiritual Father of the Monastery Archimandrite Eudokimos, Hagiotaphite Hieromonks, Archimandrite Dionysios and deacons, Arab-speaking Priests and Fr Joseph. The chanting was delivered on the right by Hierodeacon Simeon, His Eminence Archbishop Aristovoulos of Madaba and Fr George from the Holy Metropolis of Elias in Greek and by a Byzantine choir under the Bethlehem choir leader Mr Elias, at the presence of the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Evangelos Vlioras, monks and pilgrims and members of the flock from Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour.

Before the Holy Communion His Beatitude delivered the following Sermon:

“O Godly Savvas, blazing pillar bright with virtues’ fire, and beacon-light that showeth peoples the way leading through the sea of the wide world unto that divine port: spirits of error hast thou cast to the ground, O thou purest vessel of God the Holy Spirit; unto monastics thou art a guide and an exact rule and standard of abstinence; the outstanding height of true humility and meekness and fountain gushing forth with seas of cures and healings. Do thou entreat Christ, do thou plead with Christ, O righteous one, that the Church may be granted concord, tranquillity, great mercy and lasting unity” the hymnographer of the Church proclaims (Great Vespers, sticheron 3).

“Beloved brethren in Christ,

Dear Christians,

The holy Church of God, namely the Church of Jerusalem, today honours and upholds the memory of our holy and God-bearing Father Savvas the sanctified, in this Lavra which bears his name.

Saint Savvas diligently practised the virtue from infancy, becoming a vessel and instrument of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, thus becoming a teacher of the monasteries of the desert, a far shining luminary of the faithful, the peer of the Angels and the companion of the righteous. And his fame spread to the ends of the world, as the psalmist says: “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever” (Psalm 37:29).

Our Father Savvas, the offspring of Cappadocia, having come to the Holy Land at a young age, knew the great teachers of the desert such as Theodosius the Cenobiarch, Theoktistos, Gerasimos and the great teacher of the desert Euthymius, next to whom he was taught the manner of living of the ascetics, thus becoming a spiritual luminary, shining with miracles upon the world, as his fragrant imperishable relic also testifies.

Holding in his heart the illuminating energy of the Holy Spirit, Saint Savvas not only cultivated the barren desert by the streams of his tears but also became a defender of the Orthodox faith and the doctrines of the Fourth Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon, before the Kings of Constantinople Anastasios and Justin the Great. Therefore, even the hymnographer shouts in amazement and says: “O strange and terrible wonder is the clay tongue, the clay nature, the earthen body, for it has indicated the noetic and immaterial [of the Holy Spirit] knowledge “.

The God-fearing Savvas received the illumination of the Holy Spirit because he did not care for the earthly things but for the kingdom in the heavens, listening to Paul saying: “For our conversation is in heaven? from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil 3:20-21).

It is noteworthy that as the Hegoumen of the Lavra and shepherd of rational sheep, that is, monks, Saint Savvas ruled imitating the state of Paul, who “served the Lord after all humility and many tears and temptations of what happened to him in the councils of the warlike enemy of the devil” (Cf. Acts 20,19).

The renowned biographer of our holy Father Savvas, Kyrillos Scythopolitis writes about him: “Having received strength from on high [Savvas] surrenders himself to self-control as he suspends evil thoughts and fights the heaviness of sleep, and he restrains himself toiling physically, remembering David’s melody to God which says, “Look upon mine affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins” (Psalm 25:18). With all study and willingness, he humbled his soul with hunger, and tamed his body with toil and labour. Having sixty or even seventy co-ascetics in the monastery, he surpassed all of them in humility, obedience and painstaking for the sake of reverence”.

From the above, it is clearly demonstrated that the weapons of the ascesis, of the spiritual struggle of our Father Savvas, were obedience and humility. In his speech about obedience, Saint John of the Ladder says: “obedience is the tomb of will and the rising of humility” and in simple words, obedience means the burial of our own will and the resurrection of humility. Christ, on the other hand, is the ultimate model of humility, that is, of self-denial and obedience, as Paul also preaches. “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:8-9).

The Son and Word of God was found in human form from the Holy Spirit and the pure blood of the Virgin Mary for our salvation so that we might be deified, as the Great Father of the Church Athanasius says: “He became man, that we might also be deified; he revealed himself through the body so that we may receive the understanding [= knowledge] of the invisible Father; and he endured the curse of men, so that we may inherit immortality”.

Our sanctified Father Savvas also inherited this exact immortality in Christ through his humility and obedience to the will of God: “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister, and mother” (Matt. 12:50), the Lord says.

Indeed, my beloved brothers, Saint Savvas was shown to be the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, having boldness to Him; therefore, after the hymnographer, let us tell him: “O righteous Father Savvas, into all the earth, hath the sound of thine achievements gone forth?” wherefore thou hast found in the Heavens the reward of thy labours. Thou didst destroy the ranks of the demons? thou didst attain to the orders of the Angels, whose life thou didst emulate without blame. Since thou hast boldness with Christ God, pray that peace be granted unto our souls” (Matins, idiomelon after Matin’s Gospel).

Moreover, let us implore the righteous and sanctified Savvas, so that we may pass the stage of the blessed fast of Christmas and be worthy to worship the immaculate Son of the most blessed Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, in the God-receiving cave of Bethlehem, Amen. Merry Christmas.”

After the Divine Liturgy, a monastic meal followed.

After blessing the monks in the morning, His Beatitude returned to Jerusalem, passing through the Monastery of Saint Theodosios.

From Secretariat-General

On Saturday, the 4th/17th of December 2022, the Patriarchate celebrated the feast of the Holy Glorious Great Martyr Barbara in her chapel, located in the southeast wing of the Church of the Holy Monastery of Saint Nikolaos, on the south side and very close to the Patriarchate.

On this holiday, the Church remembers that Saint Barbara lived in the time of Maximian in Nicomedia and confessed Christ, was tortured and beheaded by her own father Dioscorus in the year 290 AD.

In her memory, Vespers was held on Friday afternoon and Divine Liturgy on Saturday morning, presided over by the Most Reverend Archbishop Theodosios of Tomid, of the Patriarchate of Romania, with the co-celebration of Archimandrite Athanasios and Archdeacon Mark. Archdeacon Mark hosted the feast as the Caretaker and renovator of the Monastery.

From Secretariat-General

On Thursday, November 25/December 8, 2022, the feast of the glorious great martyr Catherine the all-wise was celebrated by the Patriarchate.

On this feast, the Church commemorates that Saint Catherine lived in Alexandria under Maximian, the oppressive and implacable tyrant of Alexandria and that she was a young lady of great beauty, most prudent and highly educated. She confessed Christ and put to shame the philosophers who worshipped the twelve gods of Olympus. Due to her confession, she was subjected to various tortures and attracted many to the faith in Christ; finally, she was crowned with the crown of martyrdom in the year 305, and for this, she was called by the Christian believers as the “bride of Christ”.

In honour of this, Vespers in the evening and Divine Liturgy on the morning of the feast were held in the Holy Monastery of the Old City, presided over by the Most Reverend Metropolitan Isychios of Capitolias, with the co-celebration of the Archimandrites Dionysios, Makarios, Priest Nektarios and Hierodeacon Dositheos. The chanting was delivered by Mr Vassilios Gotsopoulos and the students of the Patriarchal School of Zion, with the participation of believers from Jerusalem, Greek-speaking, Russian-speaking and Romanian-speaking monks, nuns and pilgrims.

The Episcopal Entourage and the congregation were offered a reception at the hegoumeneion and in the courtyard of the Holy Church by the Hegoumen and conservator of the iconostasis of the Holy Church of the Monastery, Archimandrite Stefanos.

From Secretariat-General

On Sunday, the 21st / 8th of December 2022, the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple was celebrated by the Patriarchate.

During this feast, the Church remembers that the Theotokos, as a gift to her former barren parents Joachim and Anna, was presented/offered by them, in accordance with their promise to the priests of Solomon’s Temple and was kept by them in the Holy of Holies, when alone the High Priest entered once a year. There, she was nourished by the angels and prepared for the great mystery of the incarnation of God the Word, until she was handed over for safekeeping to Joseph her minister.

This feast was celebrated

1. At the Patriarchal and Monastic Church of Saints Constantine and Helen with Vespers on Saturday afternoon and with the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning, which was presided over by H.H.B. our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, with the participation in prayer of the Hagiotaphite High Priests, Hieromonks and monks.

After the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude visited the Holy Monastery of Megali Panagia, where he was received by the Abbess Nun Melani, who renovated the Church and preserved its ancient icons.

2. At the Holy Monastery of Megali Panagia, adjacent to the Central Monastery of the Hagiotaphite Brotherhood with Vespers on Saturday afternoon and the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning. The services were presided over by the Most Reverend Metropolitan Isychios of Kapitolias, with the co-celebration of the Elder Kamarasis Archimandrite Nectarios, the ministering Priest of the Monastery Archimandrite Makarios, Archimandrite Leontios from the Russian MISSIA, Archimandrite Dionysios and Hierodeacon Dositheos.

The chanting was delivered by Hierodeacon Simeon with the help of the Patriarchal School of Zion students and the services were attended by the Nuns of the Holy Monastery, the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Evangelos Vlioras and many faithful Christians from Jerusalem and pilgrims.

Before the Holy Communion His Eminence delivered the following Sermon:

“Today is the prelude of God’s goodwill and the heralding of the salvation of mankind. In the temple of God, the Virgin is presented openly, and she proclaimeth Christ unto all. To her, then, with a great voice let us cry aloud: Rejoice, O thou fulfilment of the Creator’s dispensation.”

Reverend Christians, dear children of the Lord,

The pious Anna, Joachim’s wife, spent her life without being able to bear children, as she was barren. Together with Joachim, she fervently prayed to God to enable her to give birth to a child, with the promise that she would dedicate her child to Him. Indeed, the All-Good God not only blessed her with a child but also qualified her to give birth to the woman who would give birth to the Messiah, our Saviour Jesus Christ. The fact of the entry of the Daughter of Nazareth into the Temple is not mentioned in the New Testament. Of course, it is not the only case, because neither the Nativity of the Theotokos Mary is mentioned, nor is her Dormition. The fact that the entry of the Theotokos into the Temple was preserved in one of the apocryphal texts, which is called the “First Gospel of James”, and which of course has nothing to do with James the Brother of God, does not mean that the Church embraced the ideas of a cryptic text. Simply, this apocryphal text saved the information about the entry of the Virgin into the Temple, but this does not mean that the aforementioned text also suggests her feast day.

What is important, however, is that the Feast of the Theotokos’ Entry into the Temple is based on a real event, and this feast begins to be established in the life of our Church in the 6th century AD. References are found in St. Sophronius of Jerusalem, St. Andrew of Crete and Fathers of the Church deliver solemn speeches in the 8th century during the Feast of the Theotokos’ Entry into the Temple.

Therefore, the feast of the Entry of the Theotokos is an act of the Church, which not only does not contradict the work of the New Providence but on the contrary is consistent and synergistic with it.

 Thus, the deeper meaning of the entry of the three-year-old child of Joachim and Anna into the Temple was not the fulfilment of a promise of the solution to the shame of childlessness. Still, it inaugurated the great chapter of the salvation of people. The childlessness of the parents of the Theotokos was part of God’s plan so that Mary would be the fruit of her parents’ gift to God.

Moreover, her entrance into the temple, due to the dubious calculations that it may cause many people, who think earthly and “foreign things”, is the “prelude of the future divine grace that would overshadow her “, as the Patriarch of Constantinople Germanos declares. And he adds: “Who has ever heard of such a thing? ” Who has seen or heard of this, now or in the past? A woman being brought inside the Holy Altar?”

Certainly, according to the Fathers of the Church, the three-year-old Daughter comes to be dedicated to the Temple, to become “the new immaculate and undefiled volume, “not written by hand, but gilded by the spirit”. And this had to precede, according to the divine order, because one thing is possible to stand as an impossible event in the almighty God, “to be in union with anyone unclean”, says Saint Gregory Palamas.

Therefore, if God, not from weakness, but because of His nature is unable to communicate with the impure, how much more must the Virgin Mary be immaculate and undefiled, in order for the Son and Word of God to borrow her pure blood and regenerate “by the Holy Spirit he for Himself” His human nature?

So, the Virgin stayed there for twelve years nourished by the Archangel Gabriel with heavenly food, until the time of the divine Annunciation approached. Then the Theotokos, emerging from the Holy of Holies, was given to Joseph the betrothed, that he might be the guardian and witness of her virginity and that he might serve as much in her seedless pregnancy as in her flight to Egypt and her return to the land of Israel.

May the intercessions of the Theotokos give you health, mental and physical strength. Many Happy returns”.

From Secretariat–General

On Tuesday, November 16 / 29, 2022, the Patriarchate celebrated the commemoration of the Holy New Martyr Philoumenos the Hagiotaphite, who suffered a martyr’s death at the shrine of Jacob’s Well on November 16, 1979, where he served as Hegoumen.

Saint Philoumenos, as a new martyr, was also included in the Hagiologion of the Church of Jerusalem in 2009. Every year his memory is honoured at the place of his martyrdom, where the rector for the last 40 years, Hegoumen Archimandrite Ioustinos constructed a magnificent Church.

In this Church, above Jacob’s Well, the Divine Liturgy was officiated by our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, with the co-celebration of their Eminences, Metropolitan Kyriakos of Nazareth, the Archbishops, Aristarchos of Constantina and Philoumenos of Pella, the Elder Kamarasis Archimandrite Nectarios and the Typikon Keeper Archimandrite Alexios, Priests from Greece, the Hegoumen of Rafidia Archimandrite Leontios, Archimandrite Kyriakos from Saint Gerasimos Monastery, Archdeacon Mark and Hierodeacon Dositheos, Priests from the neighbouring regions and from Nazareth. The chanting was delivered by the Arab-speaking doctor Yacub Bejali, who received his diploma today, in Greek and the choir of the regions of Samaria in Arabic. The Liturgy was attended by the Consul General of Greece Mr Evangelos Vlioras and many members of the flock, monks and nuns from Jerusalem and pilgrims from Greece and Cyprus praying in reverence.

To this pious congregation, His Beatitude delivered the following sermon:

“Lord, the whole creation celebrates the commemoration of Your Saints, the heavens rejoice with the angels and the earth is glad with its people. By their intercessions have mercy on us”, the hymnographer of the Church proclaims.

Beloved Brethren in Christ,

Reverend Christians and pilgrims

The grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us all in this holy shrine of the Patriarch Jacob’s Well, where the Samaritan woman met the Messiah Christ, to honour in eucharist the commemoration of Saint Philoumenos the Hagiotaphite, the martyr and preacher of Christ’s faith.

When he came to the Holy Land from the island of Cyprus, he joined the monastic order of the “Studious” (Spoudaioi), namely the Hagiotaphite Brotherhood, and was distinguished for his godly zeal for all the Holy Shrines, and for this particular biblical place here.

We use the word “particular” because our Father Philoumenos suffered a martyr’s death for the love of our Saviour Christ in this holy place, and thus became an imitator of the passions of Christ and of the same blood with Him. As the psalmist says: “They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause. For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer. And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love” (Ps. 109:3-5).

Indeed, Saint Philoumenos, like Saint Stephen the First Martyr, received fire from the followers of the devil while he was praying in the same place where Jesus told the Samaritan woman: “I that speak unto thee am he [the Messiah]” (John 4:26), and “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

Interpreting these words of the Lord, Saint Cyril of Alexandria says: “God righteously accepts the spiritual pilgrim, who does not bear the style of reverence according to the Jewish way, that is in shape and formalities, but the pilgrim who shines in an evangelical way through the achievements of virtue and applies the true worship through the correctness of the divine doctrines”.

My dear brethren, the special honour which is offered to the holy martyrs by the Church is owed to this. “Lord, in the commemoration of Your Holy Martyrs the whole creation celebrates, the heavens rejoice with the angels, and the earth is glad with its people,” Saint John of Damascus says. According to Saint Clement of Alexandria, “we call martyrdom the end, not because the person has reached the end of his life, like the others, but because he has shown the end of a perfect work of love”.

This perfect love for Christ was shown by Saint Philoumenos with his martyr’s death, as he suffered many toils and received the crown in the heavens along with the other martyrs, whose only purpose is their union with the Saviour Christ. Saint Paul’s preaching has contributed to this cause: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body” (Phil. 3:20-21).

Commenting on these words of Saint Paul, Theodoritos says: “He says that our body will be fashioned according to Christ’s glorious body, not according to the quantity of glory but according to the quality. For even this [body] is full of light”. In other words, the martyrs’ bodies became of the same fashion as Christ’s body according to the quality, namely the incorruption, as this is phrased by the hymnographer: “Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their courageous contest for Thee received as the prize the crowns of incorruption and life from Thee, our immortal God. For since they possessed Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons’ strengthless presumption. O Christ God, by their prayers, save our souls, since Thou art merciful”.

The murdered body of Saint Philoumenos also received God’s incorruption, and his holy relics work miracles, testifying to the glory of God; “God is wondrous in His saints” (Ps. 68:36) the Psalmist says.

Our Father Philoumenos became a co-citizen of the Saints and a friend of God (cf. Eph. 2:19), and having boldness before God (1 John 3:21), he urges us all through Saint Peter’s words: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:12-13). [In simple words, my dear ones, I urge you not to be surprised regarding your persecutions and sorrows. No, do not feel surprised, but as long as you partake in the passions of Christ with the sorrows and the persecutions, suffering for the sake of His Name, you should rejoice as well as endure, so that you may have the great joy when His glory will be revealed in His Second Coming].

The Holy Church of Christ, especially the local Church of Jerusalem boasts in the Lord (Romans 15:17) for Saint Philoumenos, its confessor of faith and martyr of our Orthodox faith, who shines forth the light of the divine love, peace and righteousness, as well as of the truth, amidst the darkness of apostasy and turbulence of the world of this era.

Therefore, let us entreat the Holy Martyr of Christ, Philoumenos, who shared the passions of Christ and became a communicant of the heavenly brightness, that along with the intercessions of the Most Blessed Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, they may pray for the salvation of our souls.

Many happy returns and a blessed fasting period, toward the welcoming of the Nativity of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ in the caves of our hearts. Amen.”

At noon, the Hegoumen hosted a meal, attended by Mr Vlioras, Officials from the Palestinian Autonomy of Samaria and others.

From Secretariat-General