The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew paid a visit to the Refugee Care and Support Home, which operates under the auspices of the Christian Council for the Protection of Refugees and Migrants in Istanbul.

His All-Holiness, accompanied by Metropolitan Panteleimon of Maronia and Komotini, who was visiting the Holy Cathedral of the Mother Church, and the tertiary Patriarchal Deacon Alexander, Permanent Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in this body, was informed by the Home’s executives of the work being done to support our suffering fellow human beings, and then offered gifts and sweets to the refugees and their parents.

Earlier he had met with Metropolitan Panteleimon at the Phanar, accompanied by the businessman Panagiotis Karavetis.

Today, Thursday, December 12, the day that our Church commemorates Saint Spyridon the Wonderworker, Bishop of Trymithous, the Metropolitan of Maronia and Komotini will accompany His All-Holiness to Halki, where the Ecumenical Patriarch, as he does every year, will celebrate the Divine Liturgy that will be performed at the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropygial Skete of St. Spyridon.