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Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras
(April 6, 1886 – July 7, 1972)
Proclaiming the Resurrection by way of the Cross
(April 6, 1886 – July 7, 1972)
Proclaiming the Resurrection by way of the Cross
It was on the 6th of April that the
Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras was born in Tsaraplana (known today as
Vasiliko, Greece), which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. He was
ordained Bishop and Metropolitan of Corfu in 1922. In 1930, the Holy and
Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate elected him as Archbishop
of North and South America, a position which he held until 1948. On
October 18, 1949, he was elected Ecumenical Patriarch and was enthroned
on the 27th of January 1949.
What characterized Athenagoras as
Patriarch was his deep pastoral concern for the unity of Christ’s Holy
Churches and for the peace of the world.
What left an unforgettable and painful
mark on Patriarch Athenagoras’ 23 years on the Ecumenical Throne were
the episodes that took place in Constantinople in September of 1955
and the period that followed them. It was then that the Turkish
government organized a planned attack on the Greek Orthodox faithful of
Constantinople. In the evening of the 6th of September, mobs
spread out throughout the City, destroying 1,004 homes and severely
damaging 2,500 others that belonged to Greeks. The mobs looted 4,348
commercial businesses and workshops, together with most of the churches
and cemeteries of the City, even upturning many graves of the deceased.
The attacks lasted through the evening hours, reaching a point of chaos,
until it was put under control by the Turkish Army. This grieved the
Patriarch throughout the rest of his life. As a sign of mourning, for
the vicious and destructive events Patriarch Athenagoras decided to not
to preside in all the designated festive Panegyric Patriarchal Liturgies
following these events, which included the Easter Services of 1956.
Thus, Easter Day of 1956 was a true expression of a Resurrection by way of the Cross (Stavroanastasi).
It may seem strange to many of us, but, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has been celebrating Pascha (Easter) as Resurrection by way of the Cross for centuries. As Patriarch Bartholomew has stressed: “For
the Orthodox mindset, the enduring connection of the Cross and the
Resurrection is incompatible with every form of esoteric flight to any
false mysticism or self-sufficient pietism, which usually tend to be
indifferent to the misfortunes and misadventures of humanity in
history”(Easter Encyclical 2018).
During the most serious crisis resulting
from the coronavirus pandemic which continues to loom over us, the
manner in which the services are now being performed in the Most Sacred
Church of the Patriarchate brings to memory the way Holy Week and
Easter Services were celebrated at the Patriarchate with Patriarch
Athenagoras in 1956. The uniqueness of the way these services are
performed clearly reflects the ethos of the Patriarchate that expresses a
Resurrection by way of the Cross. On the one hand, this ethos
embosses the seal of grief and mourning, yet, on the other, it
constitutes the inextinguishable beacon of hope and the foretaste of
eternity for us all.
