On Saturday, 21 March 2026, the Name Day of Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem was celebrated, having been transferred one day earlier, on account of the commemoration of the Holy Forty Martyrs on the 9th / 22nd of March, those who suffered martyrdom in the lake of Sebasteia in Pontus under the persecuting Emperor Licinius.
The commemoration of these holy martyrs, and in particular of the Holy Martyr Theophilos, upon whose memory the Primate of our Holy Church of Jerusalem glories, was observed according to the prescribed Church Rite, not in the Church of the Resurrection, which remains still closed due to the continuing war, but in the Patriarchal and Monastic Church of Saints Constantine and Helen.
The feast was celebrated from the preceding evening by Vespers, at which His Beatitude presided, while the Holy Sepulchre Hierarchs and Fathers were present in prayer. Likewise, it was celebrated by the Divine Liturgy in the morning in the same holy church, His Beatitude officiating, with co-celebrants Metropolitans Kyriakos of Nazareth and Hesychios of Capitolias, the Elder Chief Secretary, Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina, and the clergy of the church: the responsible for the rites Archimandrite Alexios, Archimandrite Symeon, and Archimandrite Ioan, representative of the Patriarchate of Romania, together with representatives of the Patriarchate of Russia, Archdeacon Mark and Hierodeacon Prodromos.
Present in honour were also the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem, Dimitrios Angelosopoulos, and Consul Mantika, together with a small number of faithful, those who were able to overcome the adverse conditions of war and attend.
The Divine Liturgy was followed by a Doxology on the occasion of the Name Day of His Beatitude.
Immediately after the dismissal, the procession went to the Patriarchate Great Hall, where congratulatory addresses were offered to His Beatitude by the Elder Chief Secretary, by the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem, Dimitrios Angelosopoulos, and by all those whose names are mentioned in the thanksgiving words of His Beatitude.
