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On September 18, 2011, the 14 Sunday after Pentecost, His Beatitude Jonah, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, visited the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Nicholas in New York, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and on the invitation of Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk, administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA. In celebrating the Divine Liturgy, he was assisted by Archbishop Justinian and clergy of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA and the Orthodox Church in America.

After the liturgy, Archbishop Justinian thanked His Beatitude for the joy of communion. He also said that on the previous day, September 17th, all the saints who shown forth in the land of Voronezh were remembered, among them St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. ‘It was in his honour that the future Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and All Russia, the builder of this church, was named during his monastic tonsure. In the beginning of the last century, when serving in the American land, St. Tikhon (Belavin) founded a monastery dedicated to this heavenly patron saint, Bishop Tikhon of Zadonsk. It is not accidental that we see his icon among the holy images in the cathedral’s iconostasis created by the future Patriarch’.

Archbishop Justinian presented His Beatitude Jonah with a pectoral icon with an image of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, the website of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA has reported.

The Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, in his turn, thanked Patriarch Kirill for the blessing he gave upon the opportunity to celebrate in St. Nicholas’s and expressed gratitude to Archbishop Justinian for the cordial welcome.

DECR Communication Service

Photos from the website of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA