In an atmosphere of joy and excitement, the ceremony of appointing His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa as an Honorary Citizen took place at the Municipality of Holargos on the evening of 15th November 2019.
“For thirty years I have lived and moved among you, in the city of the Lady Faneromeni and the Crucified Christ, from where I began to then find myself in the bosom of African reality”, said His Beatitude, visibly moved.
“Thirty years with you, as one day, today I look back on the past and envision the future through your honour and love towards me”, mentioned the “thirteenth of the Apostles”, Patriarch of Alexandria, at the beginning of his address, who has maintained his Athens home in the city of Pericles since the long past 1989.
With the relevant decision of the Papagou-Holargos Municipal Council, during its first regular session last January, Cretan Patriarch of Alexandria Theodore II, is the second leading figure to take the title of Honorary Citizen of Papagou-Cholargos, after the President of the Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, a year ago.
“Grateful thanks to you, along with all my associates in the Lord, deacons, priests and bishops. I pray that the Municipality of Papagou-Holargos promotes and progresses in works of love, humanity and solidarity’, were the words of the second Patriarch after the Ecumenical, shortly before he received from the hands of the Mayor of Papagou-Holargos, Elias Apostolopoulos, the greatest local level honour and recognition for his rich and multifaceted work during the 15 years of his God-enlightened Patriarchal ministry on the dark continent.
Addressing from the heart the crowds that flooded the grounds of the Municipal Amphitheater, Addressing from the heart of the audience that flooded the grounds of the Municipal Amphitheater, the Patriarch from Holargos confessed with a trembling voice his promise to the Lady Faneromeni, the Protectress of the city of Holargos, when a few days before his election to the position he holds today, , finding himself in this Church, he asked of the Theotokos that she show her will of whether he himself was capable of contributing his services to the African Continent from this supreme Ecclesiastical position, promising that he would light a candle at her Church whenever he was in the area.
The event was attended by, among others, the Minister of Education and Religions, Niki Kerameos, as the representative of the Prime Minister, the Parliamentarian of New Democracy Theodoros Rousopoulos, representing the President of the Hellenic Parliament and the codicographer of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece and the Head of the Church of the Holy Protection in Papagos, Archimandrite Nektarios Karsiotis, as representative of His Beatitude Ieronymos II, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.
A special note of the evening was provided by the students of the Municipality who read the history of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the biography of the Patriarch, as well as the distinguished artists and musicians, Vassilis Skoulas (accompanied by his grandson), Vassilis Tsambropoulos and Nektaria Karantzis, who along with the Athens Byzantine Choir of the Cathedral of Panagia Faneromeni in Holargos, under the direction of the Archon Cantor of the great Church of Christ, George Hadjichronoglou, filled the City Hall with traditional and sacred sounds.
