Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We sat here last week, and I was delighted to go home to my electorate for a number of events. One of them is a particularly important event in the Menzies calendar and for the Greek community in our electorate. The Greek Orthodox Parish of St Haralambos Doncaster and Templestowe is in my electorate. It is a focal point for the Greek community. It is named after Saint Haralambos, and 10 February is the Feast Day of Saint Haralambos. This is the church's key day, and it was an honour to join the priests of the church, the volunteers and the community there on the weekend. The parish priests are the Very Reverend Father Elias Kentrotis and Father Menelaos. They serve our community, they serve their parish, and I'm very grateful for what they do and the community leaders that they are. I was joined also by Matthew Guy, the member for Bulleen; Michelle Kleinert from Manningham Council; and Carli Lange, the mayor of Manningham Council.

I would like to say a few things about Saint Haralambos. We often acknowledge these saints days but don't actually look into who they are and what they did. Saint Haralambos was a priest in the city of Magnesia in Asia Minor. He was killed in about 198 AD. At the time, the emperor of the Roman Empire had appointed Lucius to govern Asia Minor, and Christians were persecuted throughout the period and throughout the region. When Lucius discovered that Saint Haralambos—he wasn't a saint at the time—had openly taught the Christian religion, he sought to have him punished, tortured and killed. He commanded that Haralambos was to be sacrificed to the gods unless he forsook Christ, which he didn't do. So he was tortured, and throughout that torture he refused to deny his beliefs. At one stage he was stripped of his clothing and his flesh was ripped with an iron claw. He withstood this torture with courage; he still didn't yield. One of the dukes became enraged, took the iron claw and began to aggressively rip into his flesh, and even then he didn't yield. The accounts have that the duke who was conducting this torture had a distortion to his face and then begged for Saint Haralambos to pray for him, which he did. He forgave those who were torturing him. It's a great lesson in forgiveness, even in the most brutal and torturous circumstances.

I acknowledge the Feast Day of Saint Haralambos. I thank everyone who put that beautiful festival on with the most amazing food. It's a festival I was really proud to be a part of.