CONSTANTINOPLE – On Thursday January 28^th shortly before midday, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was administered the COVID-19 vaccine at the University Medical Center CAPA in Constantinople. His All Holiness thanked the doctors and staff of the Medical Center, and through them, all frontline healthcare workers throughout the world for their self-sacrifice as they care for the infected and their loved ones.

It was reported that it is “His All Holiness’ fervent prayer that everyone gets vaccinated as soon as possible to contain this global and deadly virus.”

His All Holiness had issued many messages since the start of the pandemic praising the physicians the researchers and the nurses. In one of those messages last March he wrote: “We sincerely thank all those who struggle with self-sacrifice, even neglecting themselves and their families, including:

– Medical and nursing professionals at the front lines, beside our brothers and sisters who are suffering,

– Researchers and scientists searching for proper medication and vaccination to deliver us from this virus, but also

– All those actively working hard to address this pandemic.

Your contribution is invaluable. It is an offering to all of society. It is a sacrifice that deserves every honor and gratitude. All of us thank you and applaud you, not only from the windows of our homes, but everywhere and at all times. Our thoughts and our prayers are with you.

In this struggle, our appointed states, governments and appropriate health authorities have the primary responsibility for planning, confronting and overcoming this crisis. We might describe them as Commanders on the battlefield against an invisible, but now well-known, enemy. An enemy that has turned against humanity.

The burden of the responsibility, that they bear on their shoulders, by necessity demands the cooperation of us all. Now is the time of personal and social responsibility.

Therefore, our dear children, we entreat you as your spiritual father to respond faithfully and patiently to all the difficult but necessary measures proposed by our health authorities and nations. Everything is being done for our protection, for our common good, in order to contain the spread of this virus. Our liberation from this distress depends entirely on our own cooperation.”