The Ecumenical Patriarchate welcomes the exchange of historical relics between Greece and Bulgaria and expressed satisfaction with the “beginning of the return from Bulgaria of valuable and holy objects, taken a hundred and more years ago from holy metropolises and monasteries“ to the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate, according to a statement published on its website.
On Saturday, following an agreement between the Ministries of Culture of Bulgaria and Greece, the mortal remains of Tsar Samuil, discovered in the 1960s on the island of Saint Achilles in the Small Prespa Lake in present-day Greece, arrived in Sofia with a solemn ceremony. For its part, Bulgaria sent to Greece 53 items - church values, previously kept in the National History Museum, which were taken out of Northern Greece mainly during the First World War.
The dioceses in Northern Greece are in the diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, although they were given by it to the Greek Orthodox Church (Archbishopric of Athens) for management.
The statement of the Ecumenical Patriarchate says that it speaks of the “beginning of the return“, because “it hopes that this restoration (of the relics) will be completed quickly, according to the dictates of the moral order and international law and even more so within the framework of the cordial relations between the two neighboring and allied countries, both members of the European Union“.
The Patriarchate also recalls that the issue was raised several years ago in Sofia by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and states that it “congratulates both governments for the work done and for the future steps that will follow in this regard“.
The statement expresses the wish and hope that this step “will become a more general example and inspiration, which will make the competent authorities of other countries also contribute positively to the return of stolen cultural treasures such as the sculptures of the Parthenon (in Athens), of this monument-symbol for all humanity, which silently and patiently awaits its reunification with its remaining organic elements that were forcibly taken abroad“.