A visit of particular significance and high symbolic value will take place on Friday, May 8, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., at the Arsakeia High Schools complex in Psychiko, Athens.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will honor the event with his presence, as part of the celebratory events marking the 190th anniversary of the founding of the Society for the Promotion of Education and Learning (Philekpaideutiki Etaireia) (1836–2026). This anniversary coincides with the completion of 35 years of his distinguished Patriarchal ministry on the Ecumenical Throne, thereby lending the visit special historical and spiritual importance.
Following an official invitation, the Ecumenical Patriarch will participate in a series of events highlighting the longstanding ties between the Society for the Promotion of Education and Learning (Philekpaideutiki Etaireia) and the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Upon his arrival, he will officiate a Trisagion service at the Church of Saint Anastasia the Roman. Subsequently, at the central courtyard, the President of the Board of Directors of the Philological Society, Professor Georgios Babiniotis—who has been honored by the Ecumenical Patriarch with the title of Archon Didaskalos tou Genous—will deliver an address welcoming the Primate of Orthodoxy.
This will be followed by an address by the Ecumenical Patriarch, along with his paternal blessing to the students, teachers, and parents of the schools of the Philological Society in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, and Ioannina. The event will be accompanied by a student choir, which will perform musical settings of poems by Georgios Drosinis and C. P. Cavafy, set to music by Mikis Theodorakis, drawn from an anthology compiled by the Ecumenical Patriarch during his student years.
The visit highlights the strong and enduring ties between the Society and Constantinople dating back to the 19th century. Many of the Society’s benefactors originated from the Phanar, while numerous Arsakeion teachers staffed Greek schools in Constantinople and in Asia Minor. Today, this tradition continues through the Society’s support of Greek diaspora education in Imbros, the birthplace of the Ecumenical Patriarch.
