The great feast day of the Synaxis of the Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, & St. John Chrysostom, was celebrated with millennia-old ecclesiastical rite and in a splendorous manner on Sunday at the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The feast day commemorates the patron saints of letters and education.
In his sermon, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, underlined that the Three Hierarchs, who were also pre-eminent theologians of Orthodoxy, combined, in their person, classical education with Christian life and theological wisdom.
His All Holiness officiated at a con-celebratory Divine Liturgy, co-officiated by Hierarchs of the Patriarchal Throne, and with worshippers in attendance including many Archons of the Mother Church, diplomats, ethnic Greek educators in Turkey, pupils and numerous faithful from abroad.
In a related development, the Ecumenical Patriarch on Saturday received the visiting Archbishop of Australia, His Eminence Makarios, who was accompanied by the newly ordained Bishops Kyriakos, Christodoulos and Eumenios.