Greek PM Visits Serres to Receive Religious Relics Returned from Bulgaria

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended a Divine Liturgy and Doxology at the Metropolitan Church of the Holy Archangels in Serres to celebrate the city's patron saints. He then followed a religious procession during which important church relics were placed in shrines. The objects had been removed in 1917 and returned to Greece after long-term cultural diplomacy with Bulgaria.

Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, Deputy Foreign Minister Tasos Hatzivasileiou, Deputy Interior Minister Konstantinos Gioulekas, Serres MPs Foteini Arapatzi and Theofilos Leontaridis, and Serres Mayor Varvara Metlianga attended the ceremony. The Metropolitan of Serres and Nigritas, Theologos, also took part.

“I do not feel that I am coming to your monastery as a benefactor, but as a humble pilgrim who simply performed his duty.”

Mitsotakis said the returned items included holy icons, crosses, vestments, reliquaries, vessels, lecterns, and a carved episcopal throne. He stated that every repatriated sacred object heals a wound in collective memory and does not simply go on display.

The prime minister also visited the Monastery of Timios Prodromos in Serres. He was guided by Abbess Febronia and the nuns, who briefed him on the monastery's long history and restoration work completed over the past three years after fire damage in 2010. He toured the 14th-century Catholicon, relic rooms, and library.

Speaking to the abbess, Mitsotakis said he felt like a humble pilgrim rather than a benefactor. He described the return of relics looted by Bulgarian conquerors over a century ago as the correction of a historical injustice and pledged that recovering all looted treasures would remain a constant priority for him.