07/20/2026
July 26th is The Church of Holy Wisdom day of rememberence. Check out this encyclical From Archbishop Elpidophoros:
Prot. No. 321/2026
Archiepiscopal Encyclical on the Day of Remembrance of Hagia Sophia
July 24, 2026
Unto the Most Reverend and Right Reverend Hierarchs, Pious Priests and
Deacons, Presvyteres and Diakonisses, the Monks and Nuns, Presidents and Members of
Parish Councils, Honorable Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Members of
Leadership 100, the Day and Afternoon Schools, Philoptochos Societies, the Youth, Greek
Orthodox Organizations, and the entirety of the Christ-named Plenitude of the Holy
Archdiocese of America.
She is the effulgence of eternal light and the immaculate mirror of God’s energy, and
the image of His goodness
(Wisdom of Solomon 7:26.)
My Beloved Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
We mark this anniversary – the sixth to date – not only as a Day of Remembrance
for Hagia Sophia’s misappropriation to an alien purpose, but also as a day of
remembering Her essential role in the ongoing mission of the Church of our Lord Jesus
Christ. For She, the Great Church, is a holy temenos – a sacred space that refracts the light
of the sun in manifold and wondrous ways, manifesting how the Church is to transmit
the Divine Light within the hearts and souls of Her Faithful. And even though the
worship within Her material walls no longer ascribes glory to the Triune God of Heaven,
Her very presence still radiates through Her spiritual counterpart, the Great Church of
Christ, that is, our Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
We say, “Constantinople,” not to be ahistorical; for the modern naming of the
“Queen of Cities” is a fact of geography and topography. But there is more to a “place”
than its physical character. The spiritual essence of Hagia Sophia lives on in the Sacred See of Saint Andrew, which not only predates the physical “Great Church” but also bears the apostolic witness of the First-Called Disciple, who announced for the very first time in human history, “We have found the Messiah!” (John 1:41). Thus, the Sacred Lighthouse of the Phanar, which is the spiritual embodiment of Christian Constantinople, continues to pour forth rays of God’s loving splendor and is a polished mirror for all Christians, through which they can behold how their actions reflect the goodness and will of God. And though we are deprived of the structure of Hagia Sophia, we have, in the sacred person of His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, a living icon of all She represents. His ongoing Patriarchal ministry, the longest in the history of the Church, is a shining reflection of the Great Church, leading our Holy Orthodox Church in ways of righteousness and truth, often at great sacrifice and even in the face of opposition from Christian brethren pursuing alien purposes. Nevertheless, by God’s abundant mercy, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew “presses on toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). Therefore, let us not observe our Day of Remembrance for Hagia Sophia “as those with no hope” (I Thessalonians 4:13). We have a lively hope in our Mother Church of Constantinople, and in a living image of God’s goodness, the person of His All-Holiness, whose humble greatness reflects the glory of the Great Church of Christ.
With paternal love in the Lord,
†ELPIDOPHOROS Archbishop of America
