BOSTON – On Tuesday, January 2, 2023 the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at Ground Zero in New York received 1,155 visitors, according to the security firm at the entrance that counts every visitor.

It is reminded here that St. Nicholas was given ‘to the total liturgical life and use as a church’ in which the name of God is glorified just three weeks ago, on December 5, with a Great Vespers service, and on the Feast Day of St. Nicholas December 6 with a Divine Liturgy.

Auxiliary Bishop Apostolos of Medeia officiated at the Sacred Services because Archbishop Elpidophoros was on a pilgrimage trip to Jerusalem and Amman, Jordan.

The ‘Thyranoixia’ or ‘Opening of the Doors’ ceremony was performed by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on November 2, 2021 during his Apostolic visit to the United States. The ‘engenia’ or consecration of the nave was done on July 4, 2022 by Archbishop Elpidophoros and coincided with the beginning of 46^th Clergy-Laity Congress of the Archdiocese.

The original nave of St. Nicholas was completely destroyed during the terrorist   attack of September 11, 2001. Since then, 21 years passed due to various obstacles and difficulties and the Shrine was completed only recently at a cost more than ninety million dollars.

It is emphasized here that the new St. Nicholas was completed because of the initiatives and hard work of the organization The Friends of St. Nicholas led by Michael Psaros, Dennis Mehiel, and Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Fr. Alexander Karloutsos. It was designed by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava and the iconography by priest-monk Loukas of the Monastery of Xenophontos on Mount Athos.