When memory becomes legacytranslated

Of the Metropolitan of Florini, Prespa and Iordaia Irenei September 3rd is not a simple date for me. Memories, nostalgia and deep gratitude arise in me for a person who marked my ecclesiastical and personal path. The Church honors the Holy Martyr Anthim, Bishop of Nicomedia, and my memory returns, almost unconsciously, to my blessed first Elder, the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, Anthim from Alexandroupolis. Sometimes, on such a day, the Episcopate was filled with prayers. Today the wish has become a prayer, the address a commemoration and the memory a source of gratitude. Paul, the Apostle of the Nations, aptly mentions it: "Remember your pastors"¹.

There are, indeed, people who simply do not remain in the memory. They become a measure of our own course.

Going back in time, I see him again in Alexandroupolis, where from 1974 to 2004 he spent thirty years of fruitful and varied pastoral ministry, and then in Thessaloniki, from 2004 to 2023. Forty-nine years of high priesthood. Two episcopal seats, but one immutable ecclesiastical conscience.

The Elder did not see the Bishop as a holder of authority, but as a guardian of a legacy, as...