Philadelphia. April 4, 2013. – On Tuesday evening, the Greek Orthodox community of Philadelphia was the recipient of several religious historic relics, straight from Jerusalem. Savvas Dahdal, a member of St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Philadelphia, with family ties to the city of Jerusalem traveled back home to the historic homeland on a mission of what he called ” his duty as a Greek Orthodox Christian, to help bring the community together.”
With him, he brought back two sacred tiny relics of the actual wooden cross, where Jesus Christ was crucified. In addition, bone fragments of Saint George, Saint John the Baptism and Saint Sava. These artifacts will be enshrined as part of St. George Greek Orthodox cathedral in center city Philadelphia, the historic starting point for much of the Greek-American community.
When asked about authentication, Savvas Dahdal, showed us two letters from the Archbishop of Jerusalem that were signed and dated. Dahdal also mentioned that Metropolitan Evangelos of New Jersey had been informed of and given approval for the wooden relics to be displayed and venerated this Sunday, the third Sunday of Lent, the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross.
Father Costa Christo of St. George, said the church is humbled and privileged to have a sacred relic of the actual “true cross upon which Christ shed his precious and life giving blood for the salvation and redemption of the cosmos.”