The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, has issued an encyclical regarding Sunday’s Feast of the Holy Physicians.
The Mother Church will honor, for the first time, the contribution of medical science to mankind, following the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
The Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical patriarchate has decided to establish the Sunday closest to October 17 and 18 each year as the day of the Synaxis of all the Holy Physicians, as “… appreciation for the essential contribution of the medical science and its ministers toward humanity.”
The day was chosen to be closest to the Synaxis of the Holy Unmercenary Healers.
In the encyclical, the Ecumenical Patriarch stresses the significance of the physicians, nurses, and specialist healers and the reasons for the honor by the Church.