Bartholomew I of Constantinople

thumb | right | Bartholomew I in 2018 Bartholomew I (Bartholomaĩos, Bartholomeos}; born 29 February 1940) is the 270th archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch, since 2 November 1991. In accordance with his title, he is regarded as the primus inter pares (first among equals) in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and as the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide. Quotes What is happening in Ukraine is a tragedy, it is a disgrace that will stigmatize for ever those who caused it, those who turned out to have no fear of God. We are convinced that the Russian people, at least our Christian Orthodox brothers, can not agree with what is happening to the detriment of their neighboring Ukrainian people Said about the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, quoted in "Bartholomew: What is happening in Ukraine is a disgrace that will stigmatize for ever those who caused it", Orthodox Times, 1 May 2022 The Church and the State leadership in Russia cooperated in the crime of aggression, and share the responsibility for the resulting crimes, like the shocking abduction of Ukrainian children. They have provoked enormous suffering not only to the Ukrainian people, but also to the Russians, who count more than 100,000 casualties, and the responsibility for terrible atrocities. "Russian Orthodox Church shares responsibility for Russia’s aggression – Ecumenical Patriarch", Euromaidan Press, 23 March 2023 Quotes about Bartholomew I On January 12, 2026, the press bureau of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) issued one of the more unusual wikt:communiqué communiqués ever to emanate from a state organ, lurid even by contemporary Russian standards, concerning His All Holiness Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. … The SVR’s allegation of schismatic activity on the part of Bartholomew I refers primarily to the “wikt:tomos tomos,” or decree, signed by the Ecumenical Patriarch on January 5, 2019, granting wikt:autocephaly autocephaly (self-governance) to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, a move which caused the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to break communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Yet the tomos was hardly without justification. … There could be no more complete repudiation of the Russkiy Mir than Patriarch Bartholomew’s pained reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine—“This is the theology that the sister Church of Russia began to teach, trying to justify an unjust, unholy, unprovoked, diabolical war against a sovereign and independent country”—and his tomos granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Matthew Omolesky, "Russia Calls Patriarch Bartholomew “Antichrist in a Cassock”", Bitter Winter (February 10, 2026) External links Category:Spiritual teachers Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:Mystics Category:Eastern Orthodox bishops