Print This Post


On December 3, 2016, the eve of the Feast of the Presentation of the Most Holy Mother of God to the Temple, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated the All-Night Vigil Matins at the church of the Three Hierarchs in Paris, the cathedral church of the Russian Orthodox Church diocese of Chersonese.

Worshipping in the sanctuary were Metropolitan Innocent of Vilnius and Lithuania; Metropolitan Mark of Ryazan and Mikhailovsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate financial and economic office; Archbishop Michael of Geneva and Western Europe; Archbishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate administrative secretariat; Bishop Nestor of Chersonese; Bishop Antoniy of Bogorodsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate office for institutions abroad.

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church was assisted by Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations; Archpriest Nicholas Rebinder, rector of the cathedral church of the Three Hierarchs; Archpriest Nikolay Ozolin of the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe (Patriarchate of Constantinople), and clergy of the diocese of Chersonese.

The liturgical singing was performed by the choir of the St. Genevieve of Paris Spiritual and Educational Center and the choir of the church of the Three Hierarchs. They sang in Church Slavonic and French.

His Holiness anointed the faithful with holy myrrh.

After All-Night Vigil, His Holiness addressed himself to the congregation with a primatial homily.

He presented the church with a Tabyn Icon of the Mother of God.

Bishop Nestor of Chersonese greeted His Holiness on behalf of all the parishioners and presented him with a painting by modern artist Sergey Tutunov depicting the church of the Holy Trinity in Paris. This cathedral is an architectural dominant of the Orthodox Spiritual and Cultural Center to be consecrated on December 4, the Feast of the Presentation of the Most Holy Mother of God to the Temple.

Every worshipper received a small image of the icon of Our Lady of Tikhvin with a Patriarchal blessing inscribed on it.

DECR Communication Service

Photos by Patriarchal Press Service