On the morning of Wednesday, April 10, 2019, as he does every year, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew lit a candle and deposited spring flowers on the closed gate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the site of the hanging of his predecessor, the hieromartyr Gregory V, commemorating his memory.

The Ecumenical Patriarch, in a moving silence, prayed for a few minutes in this holy place for the present and the future of the Great Church of Christ, for the spiritual progress of his flock, for the protection of the Christian populations and all the persecuted people of the Middle East, for the relief of tensions, and for the prevalence of peace in the world. (Photos by N. Manginas)