Print This Post

On 3-7 December 2016, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia paid a pastoral visit to France and Switzerland.

His Holiness was accompanied by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR); Archbishop Sergy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat; Bishop Antony of Bogorodsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administration for Institutions Abroad; Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), DECR vice-chairman; Archimandrite Savva (Tutunov), deputy chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Archpriest Andrei Milkin, head of the Patriarchal Protocol Service, and Rev. Alexander Volkov, head of the Patriarchal Press Service.

At Le Bourget airport, His Holiness was welcomed by Bishop Nestor of Korsun;  Alexander Orlov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the French Republic; and Alexander Kuznetsov, Russian permanent representative to UNESCO.

On the first day of his visit His Holiness visited the Religious Cultural Centre in Paris and celebrated Matins at the Cathedral of the Three Hierarchs of the Korsun diocese.

On December 4, the feast day of the Presentation of the Holy Virgin in the Temple, His Holiness consecrated the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris at the Orthodox Religious and Cultural Centre on the embankment of the Seine River and celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the newly-consecrated church.

That same day the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church met with Paris Mayor Ms. Anne Hidalgo.

On December 5, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill met with the President of the French Republic Francois Hollande and with Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris.

That same day His Holiness celebrated Litiya at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery where our compatriots who had died far from home are buried.

Later His Holiness visited the Russian House and the Saint Geneviève Religious Education Centre.

In conclusion of his visit to France Patriarch Kirill answered questions from journalists.

On December 7, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated the Divine liturgy at the Church of the Resurrection in Zurich which marks its 80th anniversary.

In the evening His Holiness Patriarch Kirill departed for Moscow.