The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew expressed his deepest sorrow and grief for the complete destruction of the historic Holy Monastery of Panagia Varnakova, in a letter to Metropolitan Theoktistos of Fokida.
As the Ecumenical Patriarch characteristically states in his letter, “the bad news that the historic Holy Monastery of Panagia Varnakova was once again burned arrived at the Phanar. Our pain was intensified when we were informed that valuable items of our faith were completely burned, and especially the miraculous image of the Mother of God.”
He also emphasizes that he sympathizes with the Metropolitan of Fokida but also with the flock, and expresses the grief of the Mother Church and of himself personally, because, as he points out, “this Holy Monastery, the Holy Lavra of Roumeli, is connected to our glorious past.”
“Expressing the paternal feelings of sorrow for the great catastrophe, as well as our full support, we pray to the Lord for the clergy, the people and the monks of the Holy Monastery,” he noted.