Most Reverend Prelates,
Your Eminences,
Your Excellencies,
Blessed and chosen people of God,
All those who honor the return from exile of the twice-exiled Saint John Chrysostom and the return to his See of Saint Gregory the Theologian, who willingly resigned from his leading position for the sake of peace in the Church,
Beloved Children in the Lord, awaiting the blessings of the Saints,

With great emotion and joy we return from Rome to our venerable See, accompanying the sacred relics of our holy predecessors, Saints Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, who, with their Christ-like virtue, their theological brilliance and their zealous apostolic work, illuminated the Archdiocese of Constantinople. For eight hundred years these relics have been in exile, although in a Christian country, not of their own will, but as a result of the infamous fourth “Crusade,” which sacked this City in the Year of Our Lord 1204.

Once again, from here, we would like to express our gratitude to His Holiness the Pope of Rome and his Curia, for their generous decision to return these Holy Relics to the Church of Constantinople, to which they belong. This gesture, differentiates them from the deed of their predecessors eight centuries ago, who accepted the spiritual and material treasures that had been taken from our City and our Church. The fact that, albeit eight centuries later, the Saints are returning to where they have always belonged, and justice has been restored, is a joyous event and worthy of special exaltation.

On the occasion of this historic event, the blessed spirits of the Saints are undoubtedly rejoicing at their return home. And together with them, in the same manner and spirit, the chorus of our City’s Saints rejoices, from Andrew the First-Called Apostle and founder of our Holy Mother the Great Church of Christ, and Stachys, to Photius the Great and Ignatius and Proclus and Alexander and Tarassios and Gennadios Scholarius and Gregory V, to Theodore and the other Studites, to the Martyrs and Confessors and all the Saints of the past. Also rejoicing is the congregation of the Church of Constantinople all over the world, in Western Europe, past Cadiz and in the Far East, even to the Antipodes. However, those who are rejoicing most particularly, are the members of the small flock remaining here, who will have the daily consolation, refuge, strength and blessing of the presence of their blessed Great Archbishops through their holy relics.

The bodies of the Saints, as dwelling places of the grace of God and of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, are as holy, as are their souls. Their holiness and grace were not left behind after their sleep in the Lord, but reside in their holy relics. That is why they give off a sweet smell, perform miracles, heal illness, exorcise demons, and abolish the power of evil spirits. Therefore, when we approach and venerate the holy relics with piety, we become participants in divine grace and in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Our soul is calmed, our heart becomes peaceful, the agitation of evil and unclean thoughts ceases, we are consoled, we are supported, we come to contrition, we gain strength to continue with patience our Christian struggle for repentance, purification, and union with our theanthropic Lord Jesus Christ. We have before us the “tangible” example of the Saint whose holy relic we venerate. He believed, he loved, he hoped, he struggled, he persevered, he gained, he was united, he was sanctified, he was crowned, he became the “extension” of Jesus Christ to the present time and forever more. This is exactly what has happened with Saints Gregory and John, who became Archbishops of Constantinople.

So our hearts with emotion again exclaim words of filial love, infinite respect and pious supplication to these Saints.

We all unanimously cry out once more to Saint John Chrysostom to take “your throne,” as shouted by the lords and people when his holy relic was returned for the first time to Constantinople from its exile in Komana, Armenia, where it slept in the Lord unjustly exiled, and placed it on the Episcopal throne in the Church as an expression of regret for their unjust decision by which he was exiled. Certainly none of us feel responsible for the second exile of this holy relic from our venerable See. Nevertheless, we need to explore to what degree we have kept alive in our hearts the treasures of his immortal teachings and salutary exhortations, or whether we have perhaps been led astray by the confusion of the ideas and beliefs of our time and have forgotten the only truth, which Saint John Chrysostom and all the Saints proclaimed, that there is no salvation but in Jesus Christ.

To Saint Gregory the Theologian, who literally restored the Orthodox faith to this city at a time when hateful Arianism had almost completely prevailed in it, we all cry out with one voice that “we welcome him with prayers,” refusing to activate the phrase “with prayers you dismissed us,” which he requested in his farewell speech before one hundred and fifty bishops when he resigned from the throne. The few Christians remaining in the city today welcome the holy relic of Saint Gregory, as it was welcomed in the past, when it first returned here, by the few who remained loyal to the Orthodox faith, having preserved the purity of their faith, when in the meantime thousands were following the odious heresy of Arius.

The task of restoring the faith, which he miraculously performed so long ago, we earnestly pray to him to undertake once more, because in his second arrival in this City, he finds it once again, although for different reasons, in a critical state.

With the arrival of the holy relics of Saints Gregory and John, two more saints are added to the chorus of saints who are manifest in our City through their sacred relics, strengthening us in our difficult work. Let us all ask them to show each one of us what we should do, to give us courage and forbearance, unshaken faith and peace in the Church in the midst of secular disorder, the illumination and grace of God, repentance and mercy, in order that, walking with God, we may reach the haven of peace, love, mutual understanding, tolerance of our fellow human beings independently of cultural differences, and cooperation for the good of all people. And the God of peace and love, Who, according to Saint John Chrysostom’s Catechetical oration on Easter, “accepts the works, embraces the opinion, honours the deed, and praises the intention,” and “grants rest to him who has worked from the eleventh hour just the same as to him who has worked from the first”, accepts each one of us, even the least, just as He accepts those who work from the first hour, and through the intercession of Saint Gregory the Theologian, grants us His great and rich mercy. Amen.