The Return of Greece’s Lost Ecclesiastical Treasures: The 1917 Bulgarian Seizures and the Recent Agreement

On 3 October 2026, Greece and Bulgaria formalized an agreement concerning the return to Greece of 48 ecclesiastical treasures removed from religious institutions during the First World War and the transfer to Bulgaria of human remains identified as those of Tsar Samuel (r. 997–1014). The ceremony, held at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki and attended by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev, marked a significant moment in the cultural relations of the two neighboring countries. The treasures were physically brought back to Greece, more than a century after their removal in 1917, while the remains attributed to Samuel were transferred to Bulgaria. Yet, beyond the diplomatic symbolism, the agreement raises important historical, archaeological, ecclesiastical, and legal questions. It also brings renewed attention to the wider problem of cultural and religious property removed from Greek institutions during the upheavals of the early twentieth century.

Father Christos Pappas of Alyko, the First Priest Ordained by Archbishop Anastasios of Albania

Father Christos Pappas of Alyko, the first priest ordained by Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, has passed away at the age of 88.

“The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” (Psalm 117 [118]:22)

Father Christos passed away in the early hours of this morning at the University General Hospital in Ioannina, where he had been receiving treatment. His son, Leonidas, announced his repose in a post. The funeral service will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. local time, at the Church of the Forty Martyrs in Alyko. That is where he was born in 1938, and that is where he has returned, as all those who never truly leave eventually return.

He bore a surname inherited from a priestly ancestor several generations back. The ancestor was gone; the name remained, waiting. It took several generations for that name to be filled with meaning once again, and Father Christos was the one who filled it, at the age of fifty-three.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: October 9

 

The Month of October

Day 9

40. To Mothers Who Have Lost Their Children

(From the Life of Venerable Athanasia)

You mothers whom the Lord has ordained to suffer the loss of one or another of your children, we intend to speak with you today about the life of Venerable Athanasia, whose memory the Holy Church commemorates on October 9. From this same life, we hope to offer you consolation in your grief, strengthen your faith in the afterlife, awaken in you confidence in God’s all-good providence for your children who have departed into the heavenly realm, and finally draw you away from hopeless despondency, despair, and anguish. Listen attentively, then, to what is written in the life of this servant of God whom we have mentioned.

First Encomium on the Holy Martyr Pelagia (St. John Chrysostom)

Introduction

This homily on Saint Pelagia of Antioch was delivered by Saint John Chrysostom in Antioch on 8 October 386, during the annual celebration of the martyr’s feast. The date is securely established by the chronological work of Anne-Marie Malingrey and is also given by the Pravoslavnaya Entsiklopediya, which places the homily among Chrysostom’s early panegyrical sermons delivered in Antioch. 

The homily belongs to the earliest period of Chrysostom’s priesthood. He had been ordained a priest in Antioch in 386 by Bishop Flavian, and the sermon is part of the series of panegyrics he delivered in honor of saints particularly venerated by the Antiochene Church. Its occasion was the public festival commemorating Pelagia, a young virgin martyr of Antioch who, according to the tradition known to Chrysostom, chose death rather than expose her virginity to dishonor.

Chrysostom does more than recount Pelagia’s martyrdom. He interprets her death as a victory over both death and the devil, praises the glory of virginity joined to martyrdom, and contrasts the lasting honor of virtue with the fleeting display of wealth. In the final section, his attention turns directly to the congregation: he urges them to leave the festival in good order, sobriety, and reverence, warning them that their conduct is being observed by others, including members of other Christian communities. The homily therefore provides not only a panegyric of Pelagia, but also a vivid picture of the public character of martyr festivals and the pastoral concerns surrounding them in fourth-century Antioch. 

Second Encomium on the Holy Martyr Pelagia (St. John Chrysostom)

Introduction

 

The Second Homily on Saint Pelagia and the Question of Its Authorship

The second homily on Saint Pelagia has traditionally circulated under the name of Saint John Chrysostom and was regarded by Montfaucon as probably genuine. For a long time, however, that judgment rested largely upon a Latin translation, which is itself somewhat free and occasionally inaccurate. The Greek original remained unknown to Montfaucon and was published only later by Franchi de’ Cavalieri from Vaticanus graecus 2033, the manuscript that preserves the text. Franchi undertook a detailed examination of the homily precisely because the Greek original made possible a much more serious judgment about its authorship.  

Franchi begins by acknowledging that there are substantial reasons for associating the work with Chrysostom. The homily is brief but well organized, with a clear exordium, narrative, and peroration, and its subject matter and rhetorical manner resemble the first homily on Pelagia. Several expressions, images, and turns of phrase also have close parallels in Chrysostom's unquestionably genuine works. The description of Pelagia as combining the innocence of the dove with the prudence of the serpent, the imagery of the net and the escaped prey, the contrast between the martyr's body and the bodiless devil, the dramatic apostrophe to the devil after Pelagia's leap, and several of the exhortations at the conclusion all have recognizable Chrysostomian parallels

Venerable Pelagia of Antioch in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church (1 of 2)

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Venerable Pelagia lived during the reign of Emperor Numerian and was from the city of Antioch. She lived among the orchestras and theaters of the time and was a prostitute, gathering a great deal of money from this wicked occupation. But when she was catechized in the Christian faith by Bishop Nonnus, who was a holy man, and earnestly repented, she was baptized and cast aside everything connected with her former sinful life as rubbish. Then she put on garments made of hair and, presenting herself as a man, secretly went to the Mount of Olives, where she enclosed herself in a cell, living out the rest of her life there in a manner pleasing to God. In this cell she reposed in the Lord.

2. Venerable Pelagia belongs to that company of people about whom the Lord, addressing the Pharisees, had said: “The tax collectors and the prostitutes go before you into the Kingdom of Heaven.” These are people who, although they do not have a good name socially, unlike the Pharisees, for example, who were considered the best Jews and therefore the closest to God, are distinguished by their good disposition and good intention, and who, for this reason, as soon as the call comes from God, immediately respond and follow God. The Lord spoke the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, as well as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, concerning such people, in order to show that what ultimately counts before God is awareness of one’s sinfulness, the “God, be propitious to me, the sinner,” and not an image of a person’s self-justification, perhaps because of some of his good deeds, which brings nothing upon him from God except condemnation.

Venerable Pelagia of Antioch in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church (2 of 2)

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

“She who was once ensnared by the serpent was revealed as a snare for him, restraining his dominion and trampling upon his cunning, by the power of God” (Ode 6).

The first part of the life of the Venerable Pelagia is well known: she lived in licentiousness, steeped in sins. And this was because of her ignorance of the true God, which causes a person to walk as one blind, making choices in which the only one who rejoices is the wicked devil. Just as the Apostle Paul says as early as the first chapter of his Letter to the Romans (1:24ff.): “God gave them up” (those who are ignorant of God) “to their vile desires and allowed them to dishonor their own bodies. For they exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and they revered and worshiped creation instead of the Creator.” “She was ensnared by the devil,” the Hymnographer of her service also observes.

But what happened? Because there was ignorance and she was a well-intentioned person, God therefore brought her into an encounter with Saint Nonnus, the Bishop of Antioch where Pelagia also lived. He catechized her in the Orthodox faith, and she was converted and earnestly repented, with the result that she was baptized in the name of the Lord and began a way of life that even the greatest ascetics, and even the Holy Angels, would have envied! A new Venerable Mary of Egypt! Now enclosed, wearing rough garments like Saint John the Forerunner, she remained until the end of her life on the Mount of Olives, in a cave, truly attaining great heights of holiness.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: October 8

The Month of October

Day 8

39. To Orthodox Women on How Christian Women Should Regard Their Female Friends Who Love to Dress Elegantly

(From the Life of the Venerable Pelagia)

Toward your female friends who are accustomed to dressing richly and elegantly, you, Christian women, for the most part do not conduct yourselves as you should. Usually, you look upon them either with condemnation or with envy. And, of course, neither the one nor the other can be praised, for both are sins before God, and both deprive those among you who envy and condemn of peace of soul. You must therefore look upon your elegantly dressed friends differently. You must look upon them not with condemnation and envy, but with such a disposition of soul that you may not only remain free from sin, but also learn good lessons for yourselves from women who adorn themselves elegantly and, through this, benefit your souls. “How can this be?” you will surely say. What lessons can we learn from women who dress themselves up? How can we derive benefit for our souls through them? Listen, Christian women; we hope that, by the example we intend to present below, we shall give you convincing answers to your questions.

Saint John the Hermit and the Spread of Veneration for Him During the Years of Venetian Rule in Rethymno and at the Sacred Monastery of the Savior of Koumbes

By Kostis Elias Papadakis

Your Eminence, Holy Abbot, Reverend Fathers and Sisters of the Monastery of the Savior, Ladies and Gentlemen,

My lecture, as you will already have understood from the title, consists of two parts:

a) the synaxarial, which concerns the Life and Conduct of Saint John the Hermit, and

b) the historical, which concerns the spread of the veneration and recognition of the Hermit as a Saint from the place of his ascetic struggle, the Akrotiri of Chania, to our prefecture of Rethymno and, more specifically, to the Sacred Monastery of the Savior of Christ, Koumbes.

Eight years ago I wrote my book on the Sacred Monastery of the Savior (Sacred Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior Christ, Koumbes, Rethymno, and Its Modern Founder, Nestor I. Vassalos the Dionysiatis, Rethymno 2011, p. 243), in which I demonstrated that, during the years of Venetian rule, one of the chapels of this Monastery was dedicated to Saint John the Hermit. This book of mine is the fruit of today’s lecture, through which the Monastery of the Savior is now officially introducing, with the blessings of the Church as well, the Apolytikion of this great Saint into its daily services, rediscovering once again its Renaissance roots and remembering its first Abbot at that time, Philotheos Phokas.