Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece has been in Xanthi since Thursday to attend the festivities marking the 100th anniversary of the city’s liberation.
On Thursday afternoon, the official reception of the Holy Icon of Panagia Archangeliotisa was held in the presence of the Archbishop and Metropolitans Damaskinos of Didymotichon, Orestias and Soufli, Panteleimon of Xanthi and Peritheorion, Chrysostomos of Trifylia and Olympia, Kallinikos of Paronaxia, Theoktistos of Fokida, Panteleimon of Maroneia and Komotini, Justin of Nea Krini and Kalamaria, Stephanos of Philippi, Neapolis and Thassos, Athanasios of Sisanio and Siatista and Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod Archimandrite Filotheos Theocharis.
Deputy Minister of Education Sofia Zacharakis was also there.
The Metropolitan of Xanthi emphasized that “we glorify the liberator of souls. We praise and thank Panagia Mother of God, Panagia Archangeliotisa, to whom we owe our freedom. Today we celebrate 100 years of free life. Freedom is not given as a gift to any man or people. We earn it with struggles and blood. What the Church teaches us is not only to acquire it, but also to be able to handle it.”
After the Vespers the Metropolitan of Xanthi, among other things, stated that the freedom of the Apostle Paul is not a freedom that enslaves us to the desires of the mind, it is an existential freedom, of the spirit that is not dependent on external conditions.
Then, Archbishop Ieronymos expressed his emotion by stressing that we pay tribute to our ancestors, while emphasizing that the aim of the church in the modern world is to work for the unity of the people, the peaceful coexistence of all, and for condemning racism, which is a sect in the Orthodox world.
