Pupil of Paisios the Athonite: UOC’s Primate – is blessing for the Church

Abbot of the Cretan monastery Gouverneto Archimandrite Irenaeus (Verikakis), when leaving Kiev said that he really liked the capital of Ukraine, believers, monastics of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. But especially he stressed that His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onufry is a blessing for the Church. This was reported to the correspondent of the UOJ by the leader of the Pilgrim Center of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Vladimir Telizhenko who was accompanying the famous preacher.

"We have known Father Irenaeus for a very long time. Father Irenaeus and his three companions flew to their homeland, Crete, on Friday morning. All of them with great enthusiasm left Ukraine and expressed their desire to return soon with other brothers of the monastery and pilgrims from Crete," said Vladimir Telizhenko.

He explained, "They felt a very great affinity in the characters of the Ukrainian and Greek people, which, in their opinion, is explained, on the one hand, by the similar faith and on the other, probably, by some deep roots that go back to the history of the two nations. All of them were merely fascinated."

During the visit, Father Irenaeus and his companions visited the nearby caves in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, visited St. Michael's Zverinetsky Monastery, met with the faithful in the Holy Trinity Church of Iona Monastery. They also visited Tithes Monastery, where they revered the shrines of the temple and told that their visit was "very informative".