Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended the Divine Liturgy in the Municipality of Agios Dimitrios in Attica on Monday morning, October 26, where Archbishop Makarios of Australia congratulated him on an agreement protecting Saint Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai and the recovery of stolen religious relics.
The service took place at the Church of Agios Dimitrios as the municipality marked its patron saint festivities. Archbishop Makarios presided over the liturgy and addressed the Prime Minister at the end of the service alongside the local mayor.
Representing both the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Church of Greece, the Archbishop commended Mitsotakis and the Greek government for the results achieved regarding the Monastery of Sinai and the return of sacred relics in Northern Greece.
Feast day celebrations in Agios Dimitrios
After the Divine Liturgy concluded, Mitsotakis walked through the central streets of the town, which was celebrating its annual Demetria festivities. During his walk, the Prime Minister spoke with residents and exchanged holiday wishes with the crowd.
Agios Dimitrios is a suburban municipality in the southern Athens urban area within the Attica region. Named after Saint Demetrius, the Christian martyr whose feast day is observed across the Eastern Orthodox Church on October 26, the town marks the occasion each year with the Demetria festival.
In his remarks at the church, Archbishop Makarios said that because people say good deeds should be acknowledged, he was duty-bound that day to point out several positive developments. He welcomed Mitsotakis, leader of the New Democracy party and Prime Minister of Greece, and conveyed greetings from the Ecumenical Patriarch and from the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.
Greetings from the Greek Orthodox diaspora in Australia
Makarios added that, with the Prime Minister's permission, he also greeted him on behalf of distant Australia, which the Archbishop said he considers close. He spoke for the Greek diaspora in Australia, noting that its community exceeds 1 million Greek Orthodox believers.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia operates under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, while the Church of Greece is the autocephalous church administered from Athens. In his address, Makarios spoke on behalf of both institutions as well as the Australian diaspora.
The Archbishop told Mitsotakis that he carried the love, best wishes and faithful prayers of everyone for the Prime Minister's work. He described that work as valuable and difficult, adding that everyone recognised those challenges given the conditions that Europe and all of humanity are experiencing today.
Agreement with Egypt on Saint Catherine's Monastery
Turning to church affairs, Makarios stated that while clergy cannot judge political matters, they can judge ecclesiastical ones. On that basis, he congratulated the Prime Minister for co-signing a convention in cooperation with the Egyptian state to save what he called the oldest monastic institution in the world today.
The Archbishop noted that Saint Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai is older even than Mount Athos and described it as the most precious treasure the church possesses. Situated on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and founded in the sixth century, Saint Catherine's is a UNESCO World Heritage site, while Mount Athos in northern Greece became a formal monastic centre in the tenth century.
Makarios recalled that over dozens of centuries, the Sinai monastery had passed from one sultan to another pasha and from one commander to another, leaving its survival hanging by a thread, according to the popular Greek expression he cited.
He said he praised God that Mitsotakis, using his prestige and working with the Egyptian government, settled this major, decades-long pending issue so the Monastery of Sinai could acquire its own standing and secure its ecclesiastical and monastic rights. Makarios said the faithful could now rest assured that this Orthodox bastion would not be endangered by people outside the church, unfriendly to it, or hostile toward it, and he congratulated the Prime Minister for completing the historic initiative.
Return of stolen religious relics to Northern Greece
Addressing contemporary church matters, Makarios also congratulated the government on the recovery of stolen religious relics, noting that the Ecumenical Patriarch had previously spoken on the issue from the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He said the Greek state, along with several metropolises and monasteries, had received back some of the relics stolen during difficult eras and under harsh conditions.
With the help of the Greek government once again, he said, a very good start had been made and precious sacred items had returned. Makarios expressed his belief that gradually, through goodwill, courtesy and dialogue, which he said is how people must proceed today, everything would be accomplished so that believers, especially in Northern Greece, would be proud and able to venerate the holy relics and sacred treasures of the Greek nation once again.
