Primate of Russian Orthodox Church congratulates His Beatitude Metropolitan Rastislav of the Czech Lands and Slovakia on his 40th birthday
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia sent a message of greetings to the Primate of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia on his 40th birthday.
His Beatitude Rastislav
Archbishop of Prešov
Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia
Your Beatitude,
Beloved Brother and Concelebrant at God’s Altar,
Please accept my cordial greetings with your 40th birthday.
Having set your heart in your youth to devoting your whole life to Our Lord Jesus Christ, you prepared yourself to be a steward in His vineyard, striving, according to St. Paul, to be fruitful in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God (cf. Col 1:10). By the All-Wise Dispensation of the Heavenly King you were elevated to a lofty candlestick of the archpastoral and later Primatial ministry, and you are celebrating this life’s milestone that marks the reaching of maturity, standing at the helm of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
Through the prayers of the Holy Prince Rastislav and the Holy Martyr Princess Ludmila, as well as of the Hieromartyr Gorazd and all the saints who pleased God in the lands where Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, had preached, may the Lord grant Your Beatitude the longevity and blessed success in your Primatial service and strengthen you by His almighty power, guiding and supporting you in your responsible labours.
With brotherly love in Christ,
+KIRILL
PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA