The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Celebrated The Feast of the Repatriation of the Holy Relic of Saint Savva the Sanctified

This news is shared from the website of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

On Saturday, October 13/26, 2024, The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate celebrated the feast of the repatriation of the holy relic of our Holy Father, Savva the Sanctified.

On this feast, the Church of Jerusalem commemorates that after the lifting of anathemas between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, the meeting of the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras with Pope John Paul VI in the Holy Land, and the beginning of the Theological Dialogue between the Churches, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem asked the Roman Catholic Church for the relic of Saint Savva, which the Crusaders had taken to Venice. It was given back to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and returned to Jerusalem on November 13th/26th 1965.

After the exhibition veneration in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for one week, the holy relic was placed again in the Holy Monastery, which the Holy One founded and remains there as a treasure and a source of strength and healing for those who live in ascesis therein and its pilgrims.

Because of this historic and significant event, an All-night Vigil in the Catholicon of the Holy Monastery of Saint Savva, was officiated by His Beatitude Patriarch Kyrios Kyrios Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem, with con-celebrants their Eminences, the Elder Sacristan Archbishop Isidoros of Hierapolis, the Elder Chief-Secretary, Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina, the Hegoumen of Gethsemane, Metropolitan Joachim of Helenoupolis, the Spiritual Father of the Lavra, Archimandrite Eudokimos, other Holy Sepulchre Hieromonks, among whom the representative of the Holy Monastery of Hozeva, Hieromonk Chrysogonos, local Priests, Archdeacon Mark and Hierodeacon Patrikios. The chanting was delivered by Hierodeacon Simeon in Greek and by a Byzantine choir under Mr Elias in Arabic. The Vigil was attended by many faithful from the Bethlehem district.

Before the Holy Communion His Beatitude delivered the following Sermon:

“I have chosen rather to be an outcast in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of sinners. For the Lord loveth mercy and truth, God will give grace and glory” (Ps. 83, 11-12).

Beloved holy fathers and brethren in Christ,

Reverend Christians and pilgrims

Blessed is the Lord and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has gathered us in this holy Lavra of our Holy and God-bearing Father of ours, Savva the Sanctified, to celebrate the repatriation of his incorrupt relic from Venice, in the year 1965, during the Patriarchal Office of the late Patriarch Benediktos, our predecessor.

The young Savva had such a desire for reverence that he came to the place where the feet of our Saviour Christ walked. The discipleship of our Holy Father Savva under the great ascetics and anchorites, Euthymios the Great, Theodosios the Cenobriarch and Theoktistos the holy, in the deserts of Judea and the River Jordan, made him a teacher of the anchorite life and a citizen of the desert, as his biographer, Cyril of Skythopolis testifies, writing: “The earthly angel and heavenly man, Savva, the wise and science teacher, the advocate of Orthodoxy and persecutor of false doctrines, the one distinguished as a prudent steward, who multiplied the divine gifts, who was clad in the power from on high by the goodwill of God the Father with the assistance of Christ and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who inhabited the desert with a multitude of monks, with the seven famous monasteries he founded in Palestine”…

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This news was originally published on the website of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Please click here to read the full text.