Victory Day

VICTORY DAY

On May 8, 1998, the eve of the Victory Day, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and all Russia together with the representatives of episcopate, clergy, the religious and laity laid a wreath on the grave of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin wall. After the ceremony His Holiness said: ‘Our people forged the great victory and was not divided neither along national belonging, nor political or religious convictions. I congratulate all Russians on this great feast which is also a day of grief as we remember the warriors who fell on the field of battle and the non-combatants who died during the siege of Leningrad and elsewhere. We have sang ‘Memory Eternal’ to them’. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church called for preserving peace and loyalty to the Fatherland and for remembering the unprecedented exploit committed by people during hard years of the war trials. He expressed special gratitude to the veterans of war and labour and wished them good health, strength and prosperity.

The Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church which took place on November 29- December 2 1994, established a special annual remembrance on May 9 of the warriors who gave their lives for the faith, the Fatherland and the nation and of all people who died at the hand of the enemy, were tortured to death in captivity and in concentration camps and who died in suffering during the Great Patriotic war. Requiem services were conducted in all churches of the Russian Church.