In the blessed Aboukir in Alexandria, Egypt, where the Holy Unmercenaries Saints Kyros and John lived a part of their most virtuous lives, His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa, officiated today, January 30, 2021, during the Divine Liturgy in the modest chapel dedicated to their memory. A chapel that is associated with the history of the parish of the city of Alexander the Great.
The Divine celebration was attended by the Patriarchal Vicar of Alexandria, His Eminence Narcissus Metropolitan of Naucratis and His Grace Germanos, Bishop of Tamiathus, whom His Beatitude Patriarch Theodoros II, thanked and addressed wholehearted words, for their great contribution, but mainly for the tireless efforts and continuous supervision of the Patriarchal Vicar of Alexandria, His Eminence Narcissus Metropolitan of Naucratis in the important renovation project of the Holy Chapel of the Holy Unmercenaries in Aboukir.
A small Chapel that is now elevated to a Sacred Hermitage, with the Primate of Alexandria announcing the great event and exclaiming with emotion from the Royal Doors :«The Miracle of the Holy Unmercenaries in Abu Qir (Aboukir) will last for centuries …». The first Righteous and Spiritual Father of the Skete is the Elder Sacristan of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, Archimandrite Fr. Pavlos Iosifides, who with great emotion heard the Patriarch’s decision as a small reward for the tears of love of half a century of monastic life completed by this God-gifted eloquent priest who has a profound knowledge of theology as well as of the Byzantine music tradition, doing the chanting during today’s Festive gathering. His Beatitude gave him the symbol of the Patriarchate, which depicts the Cross of the Lord, which is also the Cross of the Resurrection.
With the completion of the second period of renovation of the Holy Temple, for which the Patriarch of Alexandria paid tribute to two Alexandrians, the Financial Supervisor of the Greek Community of Alexandria Mr. Paris Pefanis Makris and the President of the Arabic-speaking Greek Orthodox Christians of Alexandria, Mr. Marcos Vasilis.
“The Patriarchate will be eternally grateful and may many good things be with Pari Pefanis Makris and his family and to the President of the Arabic speakers of Alexandria, Marcos Vasilis”, stressed the Alexandrian Primate, adding that ‘No one becomes a lord, one is born a lord…’, thanking both for all that they have given to the entire effort, from the surplus of their hearts.
At the same time, speaking from the Chapel of the Holy Unmercenaries, who were doctors, Patriarch Theodoros asked for the prayers of the Saints to protect the world from the pandemic of our time: “Holy Unmercenaries and miracle-workers, visit our visit our community, our people and flee to the ends of the earth and give consolation and an oasis during the pandemic, ‘expel the fears from the hearts of the people (from the second or third wave of the pandemic?), because the Light of Christ dissolves the darkness of germs and the fear of death,’ said the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Africa.
Moreover, expressing his personal gratitude to the two miraculous Saints, the Patriarch donated his stole to the Chapel.
Finally, he thanked the teachers in the person of the Coordinator of Education of North Africa and the Middle East, Mrs. Sotiria Beta, on the occasion of the feast of the Three Hierarchs, as well as the Athenian Agency and the Cypriot News Agency which through the correspondence of the reporter Nikos Katsikas records his own struggles for Orthodoxy and Hellenism in Alexandria and throughout Africa, ‘giving messages to the lengths and breadths of the world that Alexander the Great lives and reigns here, Alexandria lives, Hellenism lives, our parishes live and we have hope that ‘Thermopylae’ will always be invincible ‘.
