His Holiness Patriarch Kirill congratulates His Beatitude Metropolitan Rastislav of the Czech Lands and Slovakia on his Nameday
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia sent the following congratulation to the Primate of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia on the commemoration day of his heavenly patron, the holy and right-believing Prince Rastislav:
Your Beatitude,
Beloved in the Lord Brother and Concelebrant at God’s Altar:
I wholeheartedly greet you with your Nameday.
Your heavenly patron, the holy and right-believing Prince Rastislav, incessantly intercedes before ‘the King of kings and Lord of lords’ (1 Tim 6:15) for granting welfare to the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, which, being a sacred fruit of his ascetic labours, continues to enlighten Great Moravia with the light of Orthodoxy.
May our Saviour Christ, through the prayers of this great saint, bestow physical strength on you, enrich you by the plenitude of spiritual good and grant your God-loving flock peace and prosperity so that ‘our countries live in Orthodoxy and have unity of mind’ (Canon to St.Rastislav, Ode 8).
With brotherly love in the Lord,
+ Kirill
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia