Among the thousands congratulating Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on the 30th anniversary of his patriarchal ministry in Athens these days was a delegation from Ukraine’s Lviv region, members of the International Knightly Order of Archangel Michael and the MIRO ART Association.
The Ukrainian delegation presented the Ecumenical Patriarch with a commemorative collar of the Lviv Stauropegian Brotherhood, Vysokyi Zamok reports.
The gift is associated with events that unfolded more than four centuries ago. At the end of the 16th century, Patriarch Meletius of Constantinople appointed Bishop Gideon of Lviv and Halych as his Exarch in Ukraine and Vicar of the Kyiv Metropolis. During the same period, the patriarchs of Constantinople granted the Lviv Brotherhood the status of a stauropegion (an autonomous Orthodox church unit, which is subject to the jurisdiction of the Patriarch, not a local hierarch, and enjoys special rights). In honor of the event, as well as on the occasion of the anniversary of the Patriarchal Ministry, Galicians presented Bartholomew with a jewelry piece, the symbol of power. The Lviv delegation was met by Stavros Michailidis, Doctor of Arts and Chief Restorer of Mount Athos.
The collar for the Ecumenical Patriarch was made by Oleksandr Miroshnikov, Honored Master of Folk Art of Ukraine, full cavalier of awards of the International Carl Faberge Memorial Foundation, head of the MIRO ART Association, who lives and works in Mykolayiv, Lviv region.
The 500-gram collar for the Ecumenical Patriarch is made of silver and enamel, covered with gilding. Alexander Miroshnikov spent more than half a year designing and producing it.
In 2015, an artist from Mykolaiv made of precious metals an order and a star of three degrees in memory of St. John Paul II. The award was consecrated in the Lviv Cathedral.
