On Tuesday, July 2, 2025, the solemn feast of the Deposition of the Precious Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos was celebrated with great reverence at the Holy Church and Healing Spring of Panagia Vlacherna in Constantinople.
The Divine Liturgy was presided over by Elder Metropolitan Apostolos of Derkoi following the urging of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Concelebrating was Bishop Andrianos of Halicarnassus.
Following the liturgy, a solemn procession of the sacred icon of Panagia Vlacherna took place in the courtyard of the church.
Among the attendees were the Mr. Athanasios Balerbas, General Secretary of the Greek Ministry of Interior, Dr. Konstantina Karakosta, Assistant Professor of History and Archaeology at the University of Patras, and a group of pilgrims from Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Greece, and the Greek diaspora.
In his sermon, Metropolitan Apostolos emphasized that the feast is not merely a commemoration of a historical event but an ecclesiastical theology in practice, a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence of the Theotokos within the Body of the Church through her sacred relics.
He also stressed the importance of the Holy Church of Panagia Vlacherna for the history of Romiosyne (Hellenism). He declared: “Vlacherna is for Romiosyne a symbol of spiritual identity and historical continuity. Here still beats the pulse of the City of the Holy Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils. Here is preserved the experience of the Virgin Mary not as a mere memory of the past but as a living experience of faith. Today, Romiosyne struggles to keep alive the flame of Orthodoxy, and this sacred place calls us to repentance, faith, and hope, just as our ancestors did for centuries.”
