On March 7th is celebrated the integration of the Dodecanese with Greece, after several years of bondage and struggles. On the same day, however, it was defined by our venerable Ecumenical Patriarchate, at the proposal of His Eminence Metropolitan Ambrose of Karpathos and Kasos, for the Dodecanese to honor all the Saints, Apostles, Venerable Ones, Martyrs and New Martyrs of the Dodecanese. An icon was even painted by the Hagiographer Victor Stoupka, which was offered to His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, when he visited the Dodecanese in 1994. By order of His All Holiness a specific Service was drafted by the Hymnographer of the Great Church of Christ the All Venerable Archimandrite Fr. Athanasios of Simonopetra.
Among these Saints celebrated are the following:
Paul the Apostle to the Nations
John the Theologian
Christodoulos the Wonderworker of Patmos
Kassiani the Hymnographer
Phanourios the Newly-Appeared Great Martyr
Xeni
John of Karpathos
Nikitas of Nisyrios
Constantine of Hydra the New Martyr
Christos of Peveza
John of Nafkliros
Anthimos the New Ascetic of Kefallonia
Gerasimos of Byzantium
Savvas the New of Kalmynos
Leontios, Patriarch of Jerusalem
Meletios of Ypseni
Malachia the New of Rhodes
Nikandros of Sinai
Makarios of Corinth
Makarios the Kalogeras
Gregory Gravanos
Platon Aivazidis
Gregory V, Patriarch of Constantinople
Five Venerable Martyrs of Leipson
Jeremiah of Crete
Dorotheos, Metropolitan of Adrianople
Clement of Ankara and Agathangelos
Euthymios, Metropolitan of Rhodes
Cyril Loukaris, Patriarch of Constantinople
Megalynarion
Let us reverently praise, the torch wielders of the Dodecanese, the divine Apostles, Venerable Ones and Martyrs, honoring them with annual hymns.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
