Feast of the Three Hierarchs

Patriarch Gregorios III meets Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece

At the gracious invitation of Patriarch Ignatios IV

Patriarch Gregorios III attended the Divine Liturgy at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition in Damascus and lunch afterwards in honour of the visit of Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece. His Grace arrived in Syria to visit (from January 24-31) the sister Orthodox Church of Antioch as is customary for a recently elected (2008) hierarch, and in a spirit of ecumenical and interfaith friendship to cement the friendly relations between Syria, Lebanon and Greece and the Catholic and Orthodox Churches and Christians and Muslims in the Near East. His Beatitude was able to converse in German with Archbishop Ieronymos, who expressed admiration for the exemplary spirit of fraternity, amity and peace that he and his delegation had encountered in Syria.

Patriarch Gregorios III celebrates his patronal feast

Newly returned to Syria via Lebanon after his annual pastoral visit to Egypt, His Beatitude, assisted by the Patriarchal Vicar, Archbishop Joseph Absi, and twenty-five priests of the Patriarchate, celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Three Hierarchs on the evening of Sunday 30 January 2011 at the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Damascus. Representatives from the Greek Orthodox and Syrian Orthodox Antiochian patriarchates and bishops of different Orthodox and Catholic Churches in Damascus attended the celebration. The week before, His Beatitude had celebrated his patronal feast of Saint Gregory the Theologian in Cairo.