Pat. Theophilos III speaks about spiritual ties of Jerusalem and Ukraine

Primate of the Jerusalem Church Patriarch Theophilos III

The welcome address to the participants of the conference of His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem and all Palestine was announced at the opening of the international conference "Kiev-Pechersk Lavra – Athos – Jerusalem: Unity Through the Ages" on July 20 by the Deputy Chief of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem Hieromonk Dometian (Markaryan), reports the website of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery.

Vladyka recalled the long historical and spiritual ties between Ukraine and Jerusalem.

"Patriarchs of Jerusalem spiritually supported the Orthodox population of modern Ukraine, as can be seen from the historical fact that after the signing of the Union in Brest (1596) and its strengthening, Patriarch Theophanes of Jerusalem (1620) restored the Orthodox hierarchy in Ukraine and blessed the Cossacks as defenders of the Orthodox faith in Kiev," said the Primate of the Jerusalem Church. "Later, when Bogdan Khmelnitsky liberated Kiev in 1648, he was officially received in Kiev by Patriarch Paisios of Jerusalem, who arrived in Kiev for this to bless the Zaporozhian Host. Thanks to the benevolence given by the Patriarchs of Jerusalem to the Orthodox people of Ukraine, they were rightly called by historians the spiritual leaders of the Orthodox Church in the Danube countries, especially in the 17th century."

Patriarch Theophilos III emphasized that since then the ties between Ukraine and Jerusalem have never been broken, but on the contrary strengthened at both the church and political level.

"The hegumens and brothers of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra have maintained a special relationship with Holy Jerusalem and the Palestinian ascetics – a pious tradition, which they still continue," the hierarch noted.

The international conference "Kiev-Pechersk Lavra – Athos – Jerusalem: Unity Through the Ages" will be held from 20 to 23 July 2018 at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The event is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the revival of monastic life in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the 1035th anniversary of the birth of the Father of Ancient Russian Monasticism, St. Anthony of the Caves, and the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’.

Earlier, the UOC announced festive events timed to the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’.

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