The Exarch of the Netherlands and Luxembourg, Metropolitan Athenagoras of Belgium, celebrated his name day on Wednesday, July 24, 2019, on the feast of Saint Athenagoras the Apologist.
A festal Archieratic Divine Liturgy was held in the Saints Archangels Michael and Gabriel Orthodox Cathedral in Brussels, in the presence of the Metropolitan, attended by the clergy of the Metropolis and dozens of lay people, who eagerly went to the church in order to honour their shepherd.
At the end of the Divine Liturgy Metropolitan Athenagoras thanked the clergy and the faithful. In his homily, the Metropolitan referred to the life and action of Saint Athenagoras of Athens and to the great figure of the Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras.
He remembered when he met Patriarch Athenagoras and the current Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who was then deacon, for the first time at the Halki seminary.
He stressed that the current Ecumenical Patriarch, when he was Metropolitan of Philadelphia, ordained him deacon and received the name Athenagoras “to honor the late Patriarch, and to always remind me of the when we fist met.”
“Today, I am grateful for all that he has offered me and we are all waiting for him next November to celebrate solemnly the Golden Jubilee of our Metropolis,” said the Metropolitan.
