“All Greeks in Greece, Cyprus and the Diaspora celebrate today, on the anniversary of the Greek revolution and national independence, freedom and reflect on the sacrifices made for it, having as a model of true freedom the Virgin Mary and the Immortal Mary” . Archbishop of America Elpidophoros makes this point in his encyclical for today’s national anniversary and for the feast of the Annunciation of the Theotokos.

“We sing the Akathistos Hymn during the Great Lent”, he emphasizes, honoring the Virgin because on March 25th she receives the joyful message, the Annunciation, from the Archangel about the incarnation of the Lord and on the same day, many years later, the race is reborn us with her almighty intercession.

As the Archbishop points out, the Mother of God is literally the unsullied tower and the impregnable wall who constantly intercedes at the throne of God for her people, the people of the Church, the citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

Our Virgin Mary, he says, is the guarantor of our faith, because God takes from her human nature to make man god by grace, proving that each of us has his own role in the work of salvation. Through the Theotokos, he emphasizes, “we become like the Son of God according to humanity, as the Son is like the Father and the Holy Spirit according to divinity”.

The Archbishop of America concludes in his encyclical: “This freedom practiced by the Virgin is related to the struggles for the freedom of our race and is a cause for celebration every day and not just today. We must keep alive in our hearts, at every moment, the memory of the fighters of 1821 because their example is always relevant and because their struggles remind us that the cost of freedom is heavy and sacrifices are needed both for conquest and for its preservation”. We have the great honor and responsibility, he concluded, to remain worthy of the freedom bestowed upon us by the heroes of 1821 and to preserve the democracies in Greece, Cyprus and everywhere in the Diaspora, where power is drawn from the people for the people.