BARTHOLOMEW, BY GRACE OF GOD ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, NEW ROME AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH To the readers of this edition and dear to my Humbleness children of the Mother Holy Great Church of Christ, grace and peace from God. The value of the holy icons and especially of those of the brilliant Byzantine era, wherever these are treasured, is well known to all and witnessed by both our Holy Orthodox Church, the art of icon painting constitutes, through the centuries, a functional expression of the faith that flourished particularly among the Greek Orthodox people. The preservation and study of the holy icons always forms a remarkable offering to both the Church and the art, and in this sense we greet with great joy and honour from the part of the Mother Holy Great Church of Christ and personally of our Humbleness the presentation of the seventy two holy icons of the post-Byzantine period of the Velimezi Collection. We particularly greet, on the other hand, the initiative of the Benaki Museum to materialize the "circumnavigation of the icons" of the Velimezi Collection in the European cities, beginning with the city of Thessaloniki, in the framework of the cultural events performed therein as Cultural Capital of Europe for the year 1997. Reiterating the heart-felt congratulations to each one of the many eminent contributors to this new and in every respect commendable initiative and offering of the Benaki Museum, which particularly promotes the orthodox ecclesiastical blessing, and express our certitude that this exhibition will meet with the due response of the orthodox people and, more broadly, of the admirers of this specific wealth of the Orthodoxy, and of all the art loving scholars, Greek and foreign. May the grace of our incarnated Lord Jesus, the peace and infinite mercy, be with you all. December 29, 1996 Your fervent supplicant before God, B(artholomew)