The Holy City, which is the dwelling place of God, according to what the Prophet David said, was where the Apostolic Council took place in the year 52 AD. In the year 70, Titus, the son of the Roman Emperor, destroyed it and expelled the Christians and Jews from it. The church moved to the city of Pella in eastern Jordan until the year 135 AD. On its ruins, Emperor Andrian built a city called Aelia Capitolina, according to Ephesus (Church History 3.5, 2-3).
After a while, the church returned from Pella to Ilia Capitolina (Jerusalem). In the year 190, during the reign of Saint Tarkithos, the problem over determining the date of Easter was resolved by a local council. During the reign of Saint Bishop Alexandros, who was martyred in 250 AD, the theological school and library were founded.
The church in Jerusalem entered a period of prosperity during the reign of Saints, Equators of the Apostles Constantine and Helena.
In the year 326 AD, the first churches were established in the holy places after the Holy Cross was found during the reign of Saint Macarius. One of the factors behind the prosperity of the Church in Jerusalem in the fourth century was the arrival of pilgrims in large numbers.
Among the most prominent people who visited it at that time and wrote their memoirs was Etheria, who gave us information about liturgical life in the Holy Testament, and Saints Jronus and Rufinus, who lived for a period in the cave of the House of Christmas and were the first to translate the Bible into Latin. The Church obtained important information through the books of pilgrims’ memoirs about the order of prayers (Typikon) and religious teaching (Katechesis) by Saint Cyril. Among the important elements for the prosperity of the Jerusalem Church is the phenomenon of monastic life that spread from Egypt to Palestine and is related to liturgical life.
From the time of the disciples of St. Anthony Iliarion and Bar Chariton, who founded the Monastery of Al-Farran near Jerusalem and built monasteries on the Mount of Olives, the Holy City, Bethlehem, and in the Jordanian wilderness, as St. Cyril of Jerusalem tells us, Atheria and a group of monks specialized in serving masses in the new shrines, and they were called the group of important people from the mission that They were entrusted and they still remain in the Brotherhood of Guardians of the Holy Tomb. In the Fourth Ecumenical Council, during the reign of Saint Euvenalius, the church in Jerusalem was elevated to a patriarchate and included 60 diocese. The Patriarch of Jerusalem took the fifth floor among the churches. The Jerusalem Church played a vanguard role in the struggle against heretics by calling local councils at various times to preserve the unity of the church. Many prominent figures from the hermit monks in Palestine participated in this holy jihad, including Saint Eufinius, Marmartius, Saba the Saint, Theodosius, and many others. The Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire rose to protect and assist the holy places and assist Christians until the seventh century, including Emperor Justinian, who built the Church of the Entry of Our Lady next to the destroyed Temple of Solomon in the year 543 AD, built the Monastery of Sina, and restored many shrines in the Holy Land. Emperor Heraclius continued the same approach with his influence against the Persians who occupied Jerusalem in 614 AD. He liberated the Holy City and returned the Holy Cross and Patriarch Zechariah in 629 AD. He and Patriarch Modethetos restored the shrines that had been destroyed by the Persians.
In the year 637 AD, the Patriarch of the Holy City, Saint Severdenius, handed over the keys of the Holy City to Caliph Omar bin Al-Khattab in exchange for the privileges mentioned in the Omar Document on the Mount of Olives.
During the period of Islamic rule, the prosperity of the Church stopped, except during the era of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs. During this period, Christians were subjected to intense pressure to change their religion, and the Arabic language was imposed on them, which led to the translation of all religious books into Arabic. During the reign of Omar II (711-720), the Church was subjected to persecution, and during the reign of the Caliph Hakim (996 - 1020) The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was burned with fire, which led to its destruction, and Patriarch John II was martyred in the year 966 AD. Despite all these difficulties, the Mother of the Churches defended the icons against the vandals, and the spiritual fathers, defending the icons, wrote books against the heretical anti-icon teaching, as did Saint John of Damascus, his adopted brother Cosmas, their teacher Cosmas and Michael Singelos, and the written brothers Theodros and Theophanes.
- He was born in 1952 in southern Greece in the Messinia region.
- He arrived in Jerusalem in 1964 and joined the Patriarchal Seminary School in Jerusalem, where he completed his studies in 1970.
- On June 28, 1970, he was ordained a monk by His Beatitude Patriarch Benedict, and on July 1, 1970, he was ordained a deacon by His Eminence Bishop Basilius, and entered the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulcher. Patriarch Benedict was his spiritual father.
In 1975, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Theodoros (former Patriarch). - In 1975, by decision of the Holy Synod. He studied theology at the University of Athens and obtained a theology degree with distinction.
- In 1978, he was given the title of Archimandrite, and after completing his academic studies in Athens, he was appointed clerk in the Office of the General Secretary in the Patriarchate in Jerusalem.
- عُيّن عضواً في لجنة تحرير مجلة البطريركية اللاهوتية “صهيون الجديدة” كما عُيّن أستاذاً في مدرسة البطريركية الأكليريكية الثانوية. ومن ثم مفتشاً عاماً للمدرسة.
- عام 1981 سافر الى العاصمة البريطانية لندن لمتابعة دراساته العليا، ودرس في جامعة دارهام موضوع “لاهوت الآباء”. ثم حصل على شهادة الماجيستير وكانت عن حياة الآباء “القديس كيرللس الاسكندري” و”القديس أغسطينوس”.
- He was appointed secretary at the Ecclesiastical Court.
- In 1986, he was appointed Secretary of the Holy Synod, responsible for external relations, director of the Patriarchate’s Information Office, and a member of the Patriarchal Schools Committee.
- In 1988, he represented the Patriarchate in the Central Office of the World Council of Churches.
- He represented the Patriarchate in many inter-church conferences on spiritual matters, and also represented the Patriarchate in many non-religious conferences.
- In 1991, he was appointed spiritual head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Kafr Kanna until 1996. He founded the Nour al-Masih Association there.
- After 1996, he became the first agent in the State of Qatar and representative of the Patriarchate, to organize the community and to lay the foundation stone for the construction of a new church in Doha.
- In 2001, he was appointed representative of the Patriarchate in Moscow until 2003.
- In 2003, he was sent to the State of Qatar to work again to build the church, and he even obtained legal residency with the approval of the State of Qatar.
- He participated with the accompanying delegation in the Seventh Islamic Summit in Doha.
- In 2004, he was appointed head of the Church of the Resurrection.
- On 2/14/2005 East 2/27 West, on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, he was elected Archbishop of Tabor, and was ordained in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with a solemn celebration.
- On Monday, August 22, 2005, the Archbishop of Mount Tabor was elected unanimously by the members of the Holy Synod, and he became Patriarch Kyrgios Kyrgios Theophilus III. Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem. It is worth noting that the new patriarch is the head of the Light of Christ Society, which he sponsored with all his intellectual ability to embody the teachings of fathers such as Saint John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Athanasius, Cyril, John of Damascus and the rest of the fathers, and by conveying the teachings and lives of the fathers in the bulletins and books of the Light of Christ Society. It leads the members of the Orthodox Church to know their heritage and belonging.
Sinai Church:
It is a source of attention in the Orthodox world, as it consists of one monastery, the Monastery of Saint Catherine, located at the foot of Mount Moses. The monks elect their president and the Patriarch of Jerusalem ordains him as their bishop. It is sad to note that there are now only less than twenty monks in the monastery (in 1960), and the Arabic Encyclopedia says that they are currently 100 monks.
In 1996, the Saint Catherine Foundation was launched in London to preserve the Monastery of Saint Catherine in Sinai and the icons and manuscripts that had been collected there since its founding, that is, 1,500 years ago. The collection of books and manuscripts in Sinai is considered the second in the world in terms of importance and quantity after the Vatican collection. As for the icons, some of them date back to the seventh century, that is, before the Icon Wars. The inauguration was attended by Prince Charles, who patronizes the foundation, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, and Bishop Demianos, Archbishop of Sinai and head of the monastery. The Foundation seeks to raise awareness among world public opinion about the necessity of preserving this valuable heritage. It also seeks to raise money to restore the monastery buildings and assist the twenty monks residing there. The Foundation contacted one of the most famous art institutes in Britain in order to develop a program for preserving books, manuscripts and icons, taking into account the desert climate of the region.
In 1997, the Holy Synod of Jerusalem announced the canonization of 62 monks and martyrs from Sinai, based on the proposal of Damianos, Archbishop of Sinai and Head of the Monastery of Saint Catherine, after a documented study of the written sources about the biographies of these saints and the approval of the monks of the monastery. Their feast was set in Easter week along with all the Saints of Sinai. The monastery was founded by Emperor Justinian in the sixth century, and monastic life has continued in it since that date. Some brothers from the See of Antioch became ascetics there.