The Name-Day of His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem celebrated in Jerusalem

Patriarch Theophilos III of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All Palestine celebrates his Name-Day on the Commemoration Day of Forty Holy Martyr of Sebaste. The Holy Martyr Theophilos, the heavenly patron of the primate of the Church of Jerusalem, was among those who suffered martyrdom on Sebaste Lake.

The solemn Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, which was celebrated today at the Church of the Lord’s Sepulchre in Jerusalem, was attended, among others, by the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, Archimandrite Yelisey.

In his speech of greetings addressed to the patriarch, Archimandrite Yelisey noted that the Church of Jerusalem, attracting pilgrims to the Lord’s Sepulchre from all over the world, serves today as a source of unity for universal Orthodoxy.

In his response, Patriarch Theophilos said that, just as the forty martyrs who showed their unity in their martyrdom at Sebaste Lake, the Jerusalem brotherhood of the Lord’s Sepulchre is united in its important service to the whole world. His Beatitude thanked Local Orthodox Church for their assistance in preserving church peace in the Holy Land.