The spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians headed to the Vatican on Friday to retrieve the relics of two saints seized by Crusaders 800 years ago,
Pope John Paul II will give the relics of Patriarchs John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I at a ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica on Saturday in a gesture aimed at reconciliation between the two churches.
"This is a very important event for us. The Orthodox Church gives great importance to these relics and we appreciate this gesture by the pope," Turkey's Anatolia news agency quoted Bartholomew as saying at Istanbul's airport. "This is a symbol of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches developing good relations. Therefore, we're happy and thankful to the pope."
A religious service attended by Orthodox and Catholic clerics will also be held in Istanbul later Saturday to mark the relics' return to the city that was formerly the Greek Orthodox Byzantine capital, Constantinople.
Bartholomew and John Paul have both emphasized reconciliation between their churches, which split in 1054 over the growing power of the papacy.
The relics disappeared from Constantinople, today's Istanbul, when Crusaders sacked the city in 1204. They have been kept in St. Peter's Basilica until Vatican officials recently announced that they would be returned to the Orthodox Church.
In 2001, John Paul apologized for Roman Catholic involvement in the siege. Bartholomew asked the pope to return the relics during a June visit to the Vatican.
The Greek Orthodox Byzantine Empire ultimately collapsed when the Muslim Ottoman Turks conquered the city in 1453, but the Ecumenical Patriarchate remained in the city.
Bartholomew is considered "first among equals" among Orthodox patriarchs and directly controls several Greek Orthodox churches around the world.