Theotokos

They are thought to have been lost in 1917 when Bulgarian combatants are said to have plundered nearly 900 items from the Theotokos Eikosiphoinissa Patriarchal and Stavropegial Monastery, often called Kosinitza, in northern Greece.

“It is a blessing for the monastic sisterhood at the monastery of Theotokos Eikosiphoinissa to see the contents of their former library slowly being returned to them,” Archbishop Elpidophoros said in a statement.

The Good Friday service was at the Church of the Annunciation of the Theotokos, which was also attended by Greece’s Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.

Father Andre Agostino Theotokos was at a nearby conference when he witnessed the disaster unfolding on television.

Another image at the bottom of the grouping shows the mother of Christ, called the Theotokos, or God-bearer, in the Orthodox Church, holding the young Jesus while flanked by two angels.