On the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, May 28th 2023, His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, served the Divine Liturgy at the Holy Patriarchal Monastery of St George in Old Cairo.
Among the pilgrims who crowded the so-called “Rotunda of the East” were dozens of young people from the Orthodox Students Association of the Congregation of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America, connected by Fr. Theodore Petrides.
In his sermon, His Beatitude addressed his homily to the young people with paternal advice for their spiritual life and the importance of their mission as Orthodox youth in the modern turbulent era.
He also referred to the great missionary and humanitarian work carried out by the Patriarchate of Alexandria on the continent of Africa. He asked for everyone’s prayers and declared today a day of friendship and cooperation between the youth of America and Africa.
Furthermore, His Beatitude referred to his official visit to America (October 2022), during which he received the “Patriarch Athenagoras” Human Rights Award, in the presence of His Eminence Elpidophoros, Archbishop of America, Hierarchs, Lords and members of the Greek-American community.
After the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude offered as a blessing to all the young people an icon of the Holy New Martyrs Gabriel and Kyrmidolis, who were martyred in Old Cairo in the year 1522.
This was followed by a tour by the Abbot of the centuries-old Holy Monastery, the Very Reverend Archimandrite Damaskinos, to the Repository, the Greco-Roman Catacombs, the Library, the Center for Studies and Dialogue and the adjacent Cemetery, where the graves of many Hierarchs and prominent Greeks lie, as well as the Holy Church of the Theomitor, where, according to tradition, the Holy Family lived during their flight to Egypt.
It is noted that during the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, the same group of young people visited Alexandria and worshiped at the Holy Patriarchal Monastery of Saint Savvas the Sanctified, in the presence of the Blessed Primate of the Second Throne Patriarchate.
Σημειώνεται ότι κατά την Δεσποτική Εορτή της Αναλήψεως του Κυρίου ο ίδιος όμιλος νέων επισκέφθηκε την Αλεξάνδρεια και εκκλησιάσθηκε στην Ι.Πατριαρχική Μονή Οσίου Σάββα Ηγιασμένου, παρουσία του Μακαριωτάτου Προκαθημένου του Δευτεροθρόνου Πατριαρχείου.
