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Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad blessed the lower church of St Catherine in Rome

8.12.2007 · Архив 2005-2009, События  

On December 7, the commemoration day of St Catherine the Great Martyr of Alexandria, Metropolitan Kirill performed the Office of Blessing of the Church of Ss Constantine and Helen in Rome. It is located on the ground floor of the Church of St Catherine currently under construction.

Concelebrating were archbishop Vikenty of Yekaterinburg and Verkhnya Tura, abbot of St Daniel’s Monastery in Moscow archimandrite Alexei (Polikarpov), sacristan of the Christ of Christ the Saviour archpriest Mikhail Ryazantsev, rector if the parish of St Catherine in Rome hegumen Filipp (Vasiltsev) and other clergymen. Archbishop Innokenty of Korsun prayed in the sanctuary.

After the Office Metropolitan Kirill celebrated the Divine Liturgy and then greeted the clergymen and parishioners with the blessing and a new church and expressed his hope for its becoming a spiritual centre of the Russian community in Italy. He also noted that the construction of the Church of St Catherine the Martyr – the main church of the Moscow Patriarchate – is being completed. Metropolitan wished the benefactors and builders of the church God’s help in their work and presented the altar cross to the new church.

Hegumen Filipp (Vasiltsev) thanked Metropolitan Kirill on behalf of the clergymen and parishioners and presented him with a particle of relics of St Helen Equal-to-the-Apostles as a token of the Office of Blessing.

At noon Metropolitan Kirill met with Pope Benedict XVI in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican. Metropolitan Kirill was accompanied by hegumen Filipp (Vasiltsev) and a DECR staff member A. Sevryuk.

That same day Metropolitan Kirill attended a reception given on the occasion of the blessing of the Church of Ss Constantine and Helen. Among those invited were the former Russian foreign minister I. Ivanov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Italy A. Meshkov, representative of the RF in Vatican N. Sadchikov, archbishop Innokenty of Korsun, archbishop Vikenty of Yekaterinburg and Verkhnya Tura and other officials.

After the reception Metropolitan Kirill visited St Peter’s Cathedral and revered the relics of St Peter, Ss Gregory the Dialogist and Gregory of Nyssa.

Metropolitan Kirill also met with the students from the Moscow Patriarchate currently studying in Rome.