From the Arabic, here. Archimandrite Parthenios is the abbot of the monastery of St. Paul on Mount Athos. He is also the spiritual father of Metropolitan Ephrem Kyriakos of Tripoli.
Your Beatitude, Patriarch of Great Theopolis, John,
The monks of Mount Athos greatly rejoiced to hear the news of your election as patriarch of the third-ranking patriarchate of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Answering your invitation, they decided to participate in this joy of the Church of Antioch and so they sent my humble person, despite my old age.
You have been well-known to the monks of the Holy Mountain for more than thirty years, when you finished your theological studies in Thessalonica and lived in our monastery, the Monastery of the Holy Apostle Paul for two years, with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan John of Lattakia. You received the monastic schema in our monastery from my hands. We remember your meekness, humility, and tranquility. In the days you passed at the monastery in order to learn the principles, you were a model for the monks and fathers of the monastery.
The virtues and talents with which the Lord Jesus Christ crowned you raised you up to the episcopate eight years ago. Then, after the departure of Patriarch Ignatius of thrice-blessed memory, the fathers of the Holy Synod valued your pastoral experience during these years and elected you patriarch.
Today at this celebration of the Church, they hand over to you a throne that has been adorned by great saints like Ignatius the God-bearer, Meletius, and Peter, people who made firm the faith in difficult circumstances. We join our prayers to the prayers of these saints, that the Lord God will show you to be worthy of the trust you have been granted by your brother hierarchs. May He grant you the strength to work for the Church as your predecessors worked, that you may be worthy with them of the kingdom of heaven.
In humility I call out to you, worthy, worthy, worthy.
Your Beatitude, Patriarch of Great Theopolis, John,
The monks of Mount Athos greatly rejoiced to hear the news of your election as patriarch of the third-ranking patriarchate of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Answering your invitation, they decided to participate in this joy of the Church of Antioch and so they sent my humble person, despite my old age.
You have been well-known to the monks of the Holy Mountain for more than thirty years, when you finished your theological studies in Thessalonica and lived in our monastery, the Monastery of the Holy Apostle Paul for two years, with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan John of Lattakia. You received the monastic schema in our monastery from my hands. We remember your meekness, humility, and tranquility. In the days you passed at the monastery in order to learn the principles, you were a model for the monks and fathers of the monastery.
The virtues and talents with which the Lord Jesus Christ crowned you raised you up to the episcopate eight years ago. Then, after the departure of Patriarch Ignatius of thrice-blessed memory, the fathers of the Holy Synod valued your pastoral experience during these years and elected you patriarch.
Today at this celebration of the Church, they hand over to you a throne that has been adorned by great saints like Ignatius the God-bearer, Meletius, and Peter, people who made firm the faith in difficult circumstances. We join our prayers to the prayers of these saints, that the Lord God will show you to be worthy of the trust you have been granted by your brother hierarchs. May He grant you the strength to work for the Church as your predecessors worked, that you may be worthy with them of the kingdom of heaven.
In humility I call out to you, worthy, worthy, worthy.
"Great Theopolis"? I usually see this as "Great City of God."
ReplyDeleteYeah, I can never decide which way looks better...
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