Delivery of the Relic of Saint Chrysostom to the Metropolis of Thessaloniki

With heartfelt longing, the President of the Fraternity, Charalambos Metallidis, traveled last month to Congo to participate in the ceremony of the translation of the venerable relics of Saint Chrysostom Papasarantopoulos, the Apostle of Africa and spiritual founder of our Fraternity. The translation was performed with splendor by His Beatitude Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria at the saint’s tomb in Kananga on Sunday, March 22, 2026.

Among his returning luggage, Mr. Metallidis also brought a tremendous gift from the Alexandrian Church to the Fraternity: a fragment of the sacred relic of Saint Chrysostom.

A portion of this relic was delivered on March 31, 2026, to His Eminence Metropolitan Philotheos of Thessaloniki at the festively celebrating church of Panagia Dexia, so that his memory may be honored here as well, and the faithful of Thessaloniki may be sanctified.

In his sermon, Metropolitan Philotheos spoke with moving words about Saint Chrysostom:

“Among these saints today, here at this Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, we had the special blessing to have with us and near us on the Holy Table a fragment of the sacred relic of a new saint of the Church, Saint Chrysostom Papasarantopoulos, a saint of our times, a saint who practiced and himself undertook missionary work in the sensitive region of Africa, within the Patriarchate of Alexandria. Recently, His Beatitude Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria and the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria decided, following a universal request from the clergy and people of this ancient Patriarchate, the canonization of Fr. Chrysostom Papasarantopoulos, who was officially included in the hagiology of our Orthodox Church.

Here in our city of Thessaloniki, many Orthodox missionary associations are active, associations that strive to help and support the work of the Missionaries. Among the brethren present today is also the President of this Association, Mr. Charalambos Metallidis, who, on behalf of Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria and Metropolitan Chariton of Kananga, brought us this fragment of the sacred relic, which the Patriarch offered to the Fraternity, and those people of the Church offered it to the Holy Metropolis, to be kept in the Holy Metropolis, and every year on the feast day of Saint Chrysostom, during the Twelve Days of Christmas, at the end of December, his memory may be celebrated with splendor.

We especially thank, first and foremost, the Patriarch, and also the members of the Orthodox External Mission Fraternity for this great blessing, which all of you will be deemed worthy to venerate at the end, after receiving the antidoron. So that we may have the blessing of this new saint of the Church and also that all of us may desire this struggle for the sowing of the Gospel of Christ among all nations. We have this exceptional blessing, the great privilege, the great grace, and also the great responsibility to belong to the body of Christ, to the one holy catholic and apostolic church, and what we have as a most precious treasure, we are obliged to transmit and spread to the ends of the earth —and this is the work missionaries do, and we must all keep them in our prayers— but also to the people who are here in our own land.”

After the service and the veneration of the sacred relic, the President of the Fraternity stated: “The love and unreserved support of His Eminence the Shepherd of Thessaloniki for the External Mission gladdens us, gives us courage and strength in the difficult and glorious work of the mission. May we have his blessing.”

We remind you that Saint Chrysostom is, among others, also a saint of our local Church, as he served as a clergyman of the Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki in the late 1940s and ministered as a parish priest of the Holy Church of Agia Paraskevi of Nea Krini, Kalamaria.

The Fraternity will also deliver a fragment of his sacred relic to the Holy Metropolises of Nea Krini and Kalamaria and Neapolis and Stavroupolis, a gift from the African Church to our pious people.

We pray that the saint may bless the people of Thessaloniki and intercede for all workers of the Missionary endeavor, for whom he constitutes an unparalleled example.