Vologda, Russia, June 9, 2020
Photo: fedmp.ru
A joyous event was held at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in the Vologda Metropolia recently, as an episcopal service was held in the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit for the first time in more than a century since the monastery was closed by the godless soviets.
The monastery was closed in 1918 and used as a military garage, and later housed the provincial department of the NKVD and KGB. The surviving cells and the rebuilt cathedral belonged to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs until October 2018, when the cathedral was returned to the Church. The liturgical life is now reviving in the cathedral.
Photo: fedmp.ru
In particular, His Eminence Metropolitan Ignaty of Vologda served a moleben with the blessing of waters and the reading of an akathist to the Holy Spirit, reports the Financial Department of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Metropolitan was concelebrated by a number of local and diocesan clergy.
At the end of the moleben, His Eminence addressed the faithful with an archpastoral address, congratulating them with the feast of Pentecost and expressed hope that the first Divine Liturgy will soon be celebrated in the cathedral.
Photo: fedmp.ru
He also emphasized that while the church was abused and desecrated by soviet authorities, it has not been purified once again by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Likewise, we must all be attentive to our souls, so they might not become like ruined churches, but what would be pure abodes of the Holy Spirit, His Eminence exhorted.
