It was the hope of Metropolitan Michael Stakos of Austria to make Orthodoxy in Austria more visible with the visit of Patriarch Irinej of Serbia to Austria between September 10-14.
He said that there are over 400,000 Orthodox Christians in Austria, and if including the Oriental Christians, the figure reaches half a million.
As a result, the Orthodox Church is the second largest in presence in the country after the Roman Catholic Church, said the Metropolitan to the Austrian Catholic news agency Kathpress.
For the past two hundred years, Austria also houses the Greek National School, the oldest Greek school outside Greece.
Patriarch Irinej visited churches in Vienna and Linz, and the Mauthausen concentration camp.
He also scheduled met with Austrian President Heinz Fischer, Vienna Mayor Michael Haeupl and Cardinal Christopher Schonborn, the archbishop of Vienna.
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Read also: The Contribution of Orthodoxy on the Course Towards a United Europe by Metropolitan Michael (Stakos) of Austria