Ecumenical Patriarch: ‘Every Orthodox temple as great as Hagia Sophia’ – (VIDEO)

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, on Sunday arrived on the historic island of Tenedos, in the extreme northeast Aegean, on the occasion of the feast day of Paraskeve the Righteous Martyr of Rome – the isle’s patron saint.

Ancient Tenedos, which was prominently referred to as far back as Homer’s Iliad, is called Bozcaada by the Turkish state. The latter was awarded its sovereignty in 1923, along with nearby Imvros (Imbros), both of whom were populated exclusively by ethnic Greeks for millennia.
His All Holiness is a native of Imbros, in fact.

In the morning, the Ecumenical Patriarch officiated at the concelebratory chapel of St. Paraskeve, while subsequently blessing the freshly baked loaves of bread laid out in festive table in the courtyard.

“…We pray to St. Paraskeve, a heroine of our faith, to intercede with Christ for a speedy departure of the current pandemic, and its repercussions…” His All Holiness told the gathered worshippers.

In citing the 200-year anniversary of the restoration of the historic Dormition of the Theotokos cathedral on the island, and in linking the occasion with the shocking conversion of the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, the Ecumenical Patriarch stressed : “every Orthodox temple is as great as the Hagia Sophia.”

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