Department for External Church Relations
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Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople visits Trinity Cathedral at St. Daniel’s monastery
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His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, after a meeting with professors and students of the Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church Post-Graduate and Doctoral School on May 26, 2010, visited the Trinity Cathedral at St. Daniel’s monastery in Moscow.
He was accompanied by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations, Bishop Tikhon of Podolsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s financial and economic administration, Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, DECR vice-chairman, and Rev. Igor Yakimchuk, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations.
Patriarch Bartholomew was welcomed by Archimandrite Alexy (Polikarpov), abbot of the monastery, with a bouquet of flowers. His Holiness proceeded to the sanctuary, accompanied by the singing of hymns in Church Slavonic and Greek.
The abbot addressed the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, saying:
Your Holiness, the brethren of the monastery of Holy Prince Daniel welcome you in these days of the Holy Trinity to the Trinity Cathedral at a time when the grace of the Holy Spirit is poured on all the faithful of the Church.
We thank you for the blessing you have given to the monastery and the people of God and for the prayers you have lifted up in the Russian land for the Russian Church.
We wish you a life of peace and prosperity and the thriving of God’s glory throughout the universe. We thank you for your preaching to enlighten the people of God and ask your holy prayers and blessing.
Is polla eti, Despota!
In his response, His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew said:
Thank you, Father Abbot, for your kind words and generous gifts. With a great joy I come here today after many years since my last visit to this historic monastery. When this monastery was returned to the Church in the 1980s, its return marked the changes which were gradually taking place in the Russian land.
Whenever I come to any church dedicated to the Holy Trinity and have an opportunity to sing the troparion Bless are You, O Christ our God…, I think of the theological school on Halki Island, which was hosted by the monastery of the Holy Trinity from its foundation in 1844 to its closure in 1971. That monastery, according to tradition, was founded by St. Photius, a wise Patriarch who sent brothers Cyril and Methodius Equal-to-the-Apostles on a mission to Slavic countries.
From my heart I bless the brethren who have gathered here and convey the love and care of our Mother Church of Constantinople, and ask your prayers for the opening of the theological school on Mount Hope on Halki Island. We try to have this school open and hope that our hope does not disappoint. I also bless all the people of God present here, and in the persons of pious people of God standing here, we bless all the people of the Russian Church. Christ is always in our midst!
The brethren of the monastery sang Many Years to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.
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