Patriarchal Evidence for Christmas 2025translated

+ B A R T H O L O M A I O S

ELEῼ THEO ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE - NEW ROME

AND Ecumenical Patriarch

PANTI Tῼ STAFF OF THE CHURCH

GRACE, MERCY AND PEACE

FOR THE SAVIOR OF CHRIST BORN IN BETHLEHEM

Venerable brothers Hierarchs and most beloved children in the Lord,

Called once again to reach the great feast of the Incarnate Birth of the Son and Word of God, we glorify the "unfathomable and incomprehensible condescension" of Him, the Savior of the human race and Redeemer of creation from corruption, ringing after the Angels "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, happiness among men"[1].

Christ was revealed as "Emmanuel"[2], as "God with us" and "for us", as God close to each one of us, as "our kinsman to them too"[3]. The "equal" God the Father eternal Word, as taught by the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, the 1700th anniversary of the convocation of which was duly honored by the Christian world during the past year, "resembles the poem itself", incarnated by the Holy Spirit and Mary of the Virgin, "to prove that men are gods".

The Apolytikion of Christmas proclaims that the Nativity...