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“The Church embraces with its affection and covers with its maternal mantle all people, and not only the socially high-ranking ones”, stressed the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, after the Divine Liturgy, that was officiated at the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Community of Belgradkapı, in Constantinople, today, Monday, February 1, 2021, a day on which the memory of Saint Tryphon, patron saint of the Gardeners, is celebrated.
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, the Ecumenical Patriarch blessed the koliva of the Saint and the Grand Hierokerex Panaretos read the exorcism of Saint Tryphon which is read, on the day of his feast, in gardens and crops.
As the Ecumenical Patriarch said in his speech, the Church “was founded for all without exception, because our Lord shed His blood on the Cross for the salvation of each one of us. And in fact, Christ, during His earthly life, approached and sympathized more with the poor and the humble. He called the poor and the humble “His brothers” and said that everything that is done to them is as if it were done to Ηim. His Church could not follow another line and discriminate in favor of the powerful of this world, without ceasing to be the Church of Christ.”
Elsewhere the Ecumenical Patriarch pointed out that, “before God all humans are equal and have equal rights. And His Church, as a true inn, accepts everyone without exception, without discrimination. The Church does not condemn but loves everyone.”
The Ecumenical Patriarch noted that Saint Tryphon, who lived in Lampsacus and was buried after his martyrdom in Nicaea, Bithynia, “is one of the thousands of martyrs who shed their blood in this blessed land of our Fathers, in favor of the faith of Christ, refusing to worship idols. What inspired the martyrs of the age of idolatry was their belief that “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”, except the name of Jesus Christ.
The Ecumenical Patriarch also stressed:
“No matter how many centuries pass, the memory and presence of the Saints always remain alive in the life of us Christians, and not only on the day of their feast. It must always remain alive, on the one hand as an expression of our everlasting gratitude to the martyrs, who sacrificed their lives to keep the teaching of Christ unadulterated and to pass it on to us later, and on the other hand as an example of holiness of life, bravery of mind and freeness in the confession of Christ. This triple message of the Saints is always relevant, always instructive”.
Concluding his speech, the Ecumenical Patriarch congratulated Metropolitan Maximos of Selyvria” for what he achieved as Supervisor of the Region of Hypsomatheia, with his hard work and humility”.
