The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew venerated the tomb of Saint Sophronius in Essex (PHOTO).translated

Archbishop Photios, the Ecumenical Patriarch Kallistos Bartholomew, celebrated Vespers on Saturday, September 20, 2026, at the Divine Liturgy which concluded in the Holy Church of Saint Sophronius the Athosite, in the Patriarchal and Cross-bearing Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner, Essex. The Hierarchs who accompanied the Most Reverend Metropolitan Geronymos of Priniponēs, Demetrios of Selyvria, Maximus of Sphakia and Zakynthos, Ioakeim of Theophilos, Bishop Melitene of Thyatira and Britain, Nicholas, and Archbishop Peter of Monastery Panosiolos, an Archimandrite who previously received the Patriarch at the entrance to the beautiful Catholic cloister, the Honorable Proxenos of Cyprus, Pieros Pieris, as well as a multitude of faithful and friends of the renowned Orthodox Patriarchal and Cross-bearing Monastery throughout Britain.

In his homily, the Patriarch expressed his special emotion upon once again finding himself in the Monastery raised by Saint Sophronius.

"Divine sentiments of holy love and paternal affection fill our hearts, both through the Fathers of the male part of the Monastery and through the Sisters of the female part, for...