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On 14 November 2019, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated a prayer service at the remains of the chapel of St. Bartholomew in the capital of Azerbaijan.

Church tradition holds that St. Bartholomew, one of Christ’s twelve apostles, suffered and died for the Saviour here. A Christian church was built on the site, and in 1892 the chapel of St. Bartholomew was built here on private donations. It was demolished in the 20th century in the years of the persecution of faith.

Praying at the service were Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan; Metropolitan Kirill of Yekaterinburg and Verkhnyay Tura; Archbishop Alexander of Baku and Azerbaijan; members of the delegation accompanying His Holiness; clerics of the diocese and many Orthodox residents of Baku.