His Holiness Patriarch Kirill visits Cathedral of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God in Baku

On 14 November 2019, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia visited the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God in Baku. Extensive repair and restoration work is carried out by order of the Azerbaijani President Ilhan Aliyev.

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church was accompanied by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR) and Bishop Alexander of Baku and Azerbaijan. Meeting His Holiness at the gates was rector of the cathedral, Archpriest Antony Dolinin, and many parishioners.

Patriarch Kirill took a close look at the restoration work, the construction of the parish building, and a temporary church, in which divine services are celebrated every day.

Archbishop Alexander told His Holiness that the repair and restoration work is planned to be completed next year.

His Holiness expressed his thanks to the archpastor, clerics and parishioners and wished them God’s aid.

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The Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God was built in 1896 on donation funds and had a parish school. Soon after the 1917 Revolution the church was closed; its building was used as a barrack.

In 1944 the church building was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and was granted the status of the Cathedral church of the Diocese of Stavropol and Baku. In 1946 a side-chapel of St. Sergius of Radonezh was attached.

The church has a library of Orthodox literature, a Sunday school for children, a school of catechization for adults, and a diet-kitchen.