The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, will arrive on his ancestral island of Imvros on Sunday, for the opening of a new cathedral dedicated to St. Tryphonas, which will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 1, on the saint’s feast day.
His All Holiness will be accompanied by Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Katsaniotis, who holds the expatriate Greeks and ecclesiastical diplomacy portfolio.
The visit by the Greek official, among others, aims to assess the problems faced by the dwindling members of the ethnic Greek communities on the isle, which prior to its handover to the new Republic of Turkey in 1923, was inhabited entirely by ethnic Greeks for millennia.
Earlier this month, Katsaniotis spoke by video-conference to members of the Society of Imvros Natives, on the occasion of the group’s annual New Year’s Pie-cutting ceremony.
