wfn.org | Saint Photios Foundation Inaugurates Anniversary Celebration

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GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA
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Email: communications@goarch.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 20, 2005

Contact:  Andrew J. Lekos
Tel.:	904-829-8205
Email: AJLekos@stphotios.com

Saint Photios Foundation Inaugurates Anniversary Celebration

St. Augustine, FL - On behalf of the St. Photios Foundation Chairman, His
Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America, Executive Director, V. Rev.
Nicholas Graff, has announced that the 23rd Annual St. Photios National
Shrine Pilgrimage, January 29 and 30th, will also inaugurate the 25th
anniversary celebration of the National Shrine in St. Augustine, FL. The
National Ladies Philoptochos Society will be the 23rd Annual Pilgrimage
Special Honoree and Trustee Dr. Manuel Tissura of Tucker, GA is Pilgrimage
Chairman.

St. Photios National Shrine Day, Sunday, January 30, 2005 will be
commemorated with a Hierarchal Liturgy followed by a Memorial Service for
Shrine Founders and Benefactors. The Pilgrimage Luncheon will follow at the
Casa Monica Hotel with Dr. John T. Chirban as the Keynote Speaker. Dr.
Chirban is the founder of the Orthodox Christian Association of Medicine,
Psychology, and Religion (O.C.A.M.P.R.), a clinical instructor in
psychology at Harvard Medical School and professor of psychology and
Chairman of the Department of Human Development at Hellenic College and
Holy Cross School of Theology.

St. Photios National Shrine consists of exhibits depicting the life of
early Greeks in America and the development of the Greek Orthodox Church in
America, The St. Photios Chapel is a living memorial to those first Greek
settlers, and to all the Greek Orthodox pioneers whose love of freedom and
desire for a better life for themselves and their children brought them to
this New World.  The National Shrine is located on 41 St. George Street in
historic downtown St. Augustine, Florida, the nation's oldest city.

February 6 is the Feastday of St. Photios the Great, patron saint of the
St. Photios National Shrine.  Saint Photios was Ecumenical Patriarch of
Constantinople during the middle of the ninth century.	Together with other
great Fathers of the Church, Saint Photios demonstrates through his writing
and his teaching that scholarship can be a valuable instrument in
proclaiming and expressing the Faith of the Church.  The Orthodox Church
honors St. Photios as a theologian, a supporter of missionary activity, and
a defender of the Faith.  Not long after his death in 897, Photios was
proclaimed a Saint by the Orthodox Church and as a defender of the
Christian Faith and pillar of the Church.

The St. Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine, a self-supportive
institution of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, is dedicated to
the first colony of Greek people who came to America in 1768.  As a service
to churches and the general public, the Foundation operates the St. Photios
Shrine Museum Store and the National Shrine Church Supplies (Tel
800-222-6727, or Email churchsupplies@stphotios.com). Information and
sponsorship for the Annual St. Photios National Shrine Pilgrimage and the
National St. Photios Day Luncheon is available at the St. Photios National
Shrine, P.O. Box 1960 - St. Augustine, FL 32085, Tel 904-829-8205, or
E-mail info@StPhotios.com.

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