Event for saving the holy heirlooms in the Holy Metropolis of Corfu
On Wednesday afternoon, January 31st, 2018, an event for saving the holy heirlooms was held in the historic church of Holy Fathers, in Corfu Town.
Archimandrite father Ioustinos Konstantas, Chancellor of the Holy Metropolis of Corfu opened the event. He conveyed the paternal wished of his Eminence, the Bishop of Corfu, Paxoi and Diapontian Islands, Mr. Nektarios and underlined the importance of listing and promoting the holy heirlooms of the churches.
In particular, as far as the church of Holy Fathers is concerned, father Ioustinos talked briefly about the history of the church, which was completely renovated by his Eminence the late Bishop of Corfu Timotheos. Local Church aims to promote more and more the church which is not only a museum full of valuable treasures but more importantly, it is a place of worshipping, where Christ’s Body and Blood is offered. For this reason, it is necessary to do the Divine Liturgy in this church more often in order for people to participate more in the Divine Adoration.
In his closing, the Chancellor thanked the speakers Mr. Ioannis Tsiouris, Archaeologist- Professor, Mr. Dimitris Alklifis and Mrs. Katerina Katsi, both scientists, preservers and members of the Social Collective Business “Pantokrator”.
The General Prelatic Warden of the Holy Metropolis, Protopresbyter father Themistoklis Mourtzanos addressed also the participants. He stressed the importance of listing, preserving and digitalizing the holy heirlooms as well. This is particularly important in Corfu, where the multiculturalism was always positive since it was faith-centered as opposed to today’s multicultural degeneration which targets the alteration of each people’s special characteristics.
The event continued with Mr. Ioannis Tsiouris, Archaeologist- Professor. In his speech, he underlined that the ecclesiastical collection of the church of Holy Fathers is the most important collection of portable sacred images in the island. Through this collection, a visitor and an expert can observe the evolution of Orthodox Drawing especially from 14th till 19th century.
In this collection, there are portable sacred images from the Byzantine period, like the sacred image of Saint John the Forerunner, which dates back to the first half of the 14th century and some sacred images of the most significant hagiographers such as Michael Damaskinos. These sacred images do not only come from the church of Holy Fathers but have been placed to this church from different churches in order to be protected and preserved.
Next speaker was Mr. Dimitris Alklif, who talked about the Social Collective Business “Pantokrator” founded in 2015 and has already quite a few collaborations with ecclesiastical carriers, Holy Metropoles and with Monasteries of Mount Athos.
Lastly, Mrs. Katerina Katsi presented the steps that have to be taken in order to list and digitalize the holy heirlooms in a church. The Social Collective Business “Pantokrator” aims to maintain the tradition and historical memory which is also significant duty of all Christians. It is a common obligation both for the clergy and the scientists to unite their powers in order to create right and steady basis for preserving the treasures of each church, combining the scientific knowledge with the respect for the holy heirlooms and hand them in the following generations.
