With a moving address filled with gratitude and hope, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew marked the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Zappeion Girls’ School on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, praising its enduring contribution to education and Hellenism in Constantinople.
The Patriarch opened his speech with the Paschal greeting “Christ is Risen!” and referred to the Divine Liturgy held earlier that day at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stavrodromi, during which a memorial service was celebrated for the founders and great benefactors of the Zappeion, Konstantinos and Evangelos Zappas. “May the God of love grant rest to their souls in the land of the living and in the tents of the righteous,” he said.
Speaking about the historic and educational significance of the institution, he emphasized: “We are proud of our historic school, a model educational institution of the City… ‘it nourished thousands of children with spiritual manna, equipping them with knowledge and humanity.’” He noted that “from 1875 to 1980, 28,713 girls attended Zappeion… The school’s teacher training department, which operated from 1885/86 to 1923/24, provided 420 educators to Greek education. The Zappides represent the strength and moral integrity required of women in the Christian family.”
In a deeper reflection on the role of education, the Patriarch remarked: “The quality of a society’s vision and its humanistic orientation is judged by how it organizes the education of its younger generation… We need purpose and meaning beyond ourselves… Education must support the spiritual dimension of the human being.”
He continued: “True freedom requires time and effort to grow. The school must be a space of resistance to the reduction of the human being, and a place for cultivating spiritual values.”
Concluding his address, the Patriarch reminded the faithful: “The life of the Church is in itself a victory against all forces that threaten the sanctity of the human person… Offering a hymn of thanksgiving to the benevolent God… we invoke upon all of you the grace and mercy of the Risen Christ.”
He also warmly welcomed the graduating seminarians from the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston, noting that “even in America, the same principles and standards apply concerning the truth of the human being and their earthly and eternal purpose.”
