Warsaw, November 26, 2024
orthodox.pl
The Polish Orthodox Church enjoyed a double celebration on Sunday.
A host of hierarchs, clerics, monastics, and faithful laymen of the Polish Church gathered in Warsaw’s Hagia Sophia Cathedral to honor their primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa, on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of his episcopal consecration, and to draw the year-long celebration of the Local Church’s autocephaly to a close.
As the press service of the Polish Church writes, the autocephaly celebrations began on May 14, 2023, with the consecration of the same Warsaw cathedral.
Warsaw’s Hagia Sophia Cathedral consecratedThe new cathedral, based on the iconic Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Istanbul, is the first Orthodox church to be built in Warsaw in a century.Since then, liturgical services, conferences, festivals, concerts of Church music, and more have held throughout the country in honor of the Church’s autocephaly. The most important celebrations were held at Holy Mount Grabarka on the feast of the Transfiguration, August 19, and in Warsaw on November 13, the anniversary of the signing of the act of autocephaly.
100 crosses erected on Poland’s holy mountain in honor of centenary of Polish Orthodox autocephalyThe Polish Orthodox Church is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its autocephaly throughout 2024. The main celebrations will be held in November.
Celebrations of the 100th Anniversary of Autocephaly in WarsawThe Polish Orthodox Church has been celebrating the 100th anniversary of its autocephaly with liturgical and other events throughout the year. 
Photo: orthodox.pl
After the reading of the Gospel, His Eminence Archbishop Paisjusz of Przemyśl and Gorlice delivered a homily on the reading and the day’s celebrations:
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The complete answer is found in the Gospel. However, it’s worth considering whether I, as an Orthodox Christian, read the Bible every day? Is there a Bible in my home? And if so, has it collected a thick layer of dust? It’s in Holy Scripture that we should seek answers to all our pressing questions...
We’ve gathered under the dome of this wonderful church, under the leadership of our beloved father and metropolitan, to offer doxology to Almighty God for the gift of his episcopal consecration. What’s extremely important and symbolic at the same time, he was born on April 15, 1938. On that day, the first cross fell from over 100 destroyed churches in the Chełm Region and southern Podlasie. However, God didn’t abandon us. He gifted us with a wise archpastor who placed the holy cross above the Hagia Sophia built by his hands, radiating over the capital city.
During the service, prayers were offered in thanksgiving for the Church’s history and its deceased leaders, as well as for protection of the country and its people from divisions, spiritual decline, wars, and natural disasters.
In his word at the end of the service, Met. Sawa said:
Raising our prayers on this unique, holy Lord’s day, we proclaim “Great are You, Lord, and great are the works of Your hands!” Today we thank the Holy Trinity for 100 years of our Church’s autocephaly, for its metropolitans, bishops, clergy, and exceptional faithful who offered themselves entirely to Christ, as well as for the moments of difficult trials we had to experience. Let us not forget that we are heirs and continuators of the unchanging truth of holy Orthodoxy, brought to our lands by Sts. Cyril and Methodius. At the same time, today we ask God for blessing for the days ahead of us. He alone knows what awaits us in the future. Let us entrust ourselves to His hands, His will with confidence.
Photo: orthodox.pl
Referring to Warsaw’s Holy Wisdom Cathedral, he said:
Could any of us have imagined that such a magnificent temple would ever stand in the Ursynów [the Warsaw district where the cathedral is located—OC] fields? Its faithful prototype in Constantinople today functions as a mosque, while in the center of Europe and our homeland, in Warsaw’s Hagia Sophia, the wonderful singing of Orthodox hymnography resounds. Is this not a miracle and gift of God?
On behalf of the Holy Synod of Bishops, His Eminence Archbishop Abel of Lublin and Chełm offered heartfelt wishes to His Beatitude and presented him with an icon of the Christ the Great High Priest.
***
By decision of the Council of Bishops of November 16, 1979, Archimandrite Sawa, then the head of the Monastery of St. Onuphry in Jabłeczna was elected hierarch of the Diocese of Łódź and Poznań. The rite of appointmet took place on November 24, 1979 at the Cathedral of St. Mary Magdalene in Warsaw, and he was consecrated the following day.
In 1981, he was transferred to the Diocese of Białystok and Gdańsk. He was elevated to the rank of Archbishop in 1987, and on May 12, 1998, the Holy Synod unanimously elected Abp. Sawa as Archbishop of Warsaw, Metropolitan of All Poland. The enthronement took place on May 31, 1998.
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