On the morning of Great and Holy Friday, 10 April 2026, the Royal Hours of Great and Holy Friday were read at the Holy Monastery of the Praetorium, the Prison of Christ.
The Royal Hours were read in the Patriarchal and Monastic Church of the Saints Constantine and Helen, His Beatitude having come down in procession, and having read the First Gospel, while the remaining Hierarchs read the other Gospels.
This was followed by our established rite of the opening of the Gate of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, when the Holy Sepulchre Fathers, Hierarchs, others, and members of our flock go there in procession.
After the opening of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a procession was led from the Praetorium along the Via Dolorosa towards the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with His Eminence Archbishop Philoumenos of Pella bearing the Cross.
The procession concluded at the Horrendous Golgotha, where the Royal Hours were completed just as the Cross arrived, and His Eminence delivered an address concerning the Cross.
