MOVING MOMENTS IN ALEXANDRIA AT THE FORTY DAY MEMORIAL OF THE PATRIARCH’S MOTHER

In an atmosphere of intense emotion and in the presence of hundreds of faithful from Alexandria, Cairo and many other areas in Egypt, the forty day memorial service for the late Cleopatra Horeftaki, Mother of Hs Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, took place on Sunday 14th May 2017 in the Holy Patriarchal Monastery of St Savvas the Sanctified in Alexandria, Egypt.

His Beatitude the Patriarch officiated from the Throne. The Holy Memorial was preceded by a Hierarchal Concelebration in which their Eminences Metropolitans Nikodimos of Memphis and Niphon of Pilousion, participated, together with His Grace Theodoros of Babylonos, as well as all the Clergy of the Vicariate of Alexandria and Cairo.

Also participating, apart from the Hierarchs who concelebrated, were Their Eminences Metropolitan Nicholas of Ermopolis and Chrysostomos of Cyrenia, from the Church of Cyprus.

Present were the Consul General of Greece in Alexandria Mr. Emmanuel Kakavelakis, the Chairmen of the Hellenic and Arabic speaking Communities of Alexandria, Cairo and Pilousion and representatives of Societies and Association from the city as well as many lay people.

The homily was preached by the Patriarchal Vicar of Alexandria, His Eminence Narkissos Metropolitan of Accra, who briefly spoke about the late Cleopatra Horeftaki and among other things said: “…the late blessed mother of His Beatitude our Patriarch and mother of us all, was a model of a mother dedicated to her mission, a Lady and noble to the extreme, loving, humble and devoted to her family, who with the difficulties of the early widowhood she faced, served as an example with ethos, as a model of a other, right up to the day of her departure, for the Heavenly Kingdom of God…”. He then spoke of the personality of the deceased emphasizing that she spent her life in the love of God, in the sacrificial love of her family, and so God also demanded her to see and admire her son as Patriarch on the throne of St. Mark.

After the Holy Memorial, refreshments were offered in the Guest Hall of the Monastery, and then His Beatitude the Patriarch hosted a lunch for all the Clergy and laity present, in the Hellenic Union, in memory of his late Mother.

May the memory of the late mother Cleopatra Horeftaki, be eternal!