“Many times, over the recent period, I have stated that the conversion of the Hagia Sophia, along with a similar decision for the Chora Church, caused us great pain and sorrow,” the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, declared in an interview published in a school newspaper of a vocation school in the greater Piraeus area.
His All Holiness added: “Hagia Sophia, the seat of my predecessors for roughly 900 years, was and is a supremely holy site, one that enjoys respect and honor by Orthodox Christians, and not only; it is also a landmark religious building of an entire era; of a singular 1,000-year civilization, Byzantium. These feelings of respect and love towards this exquisite monument, which was erected to honor the Wisdom of God, have not ceased to be expressed even after its use, from the 15th century onward, as a Muslim mosque”.
The interview was published by pupils of the 1st vocational school in the working-class Perama municipality.
