Ichalovo, Nizhny Novgorod Province, Russia, August 30, 2022
monasterium.ru
Since last year, the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church has been hard at work preserving and rebuilding its many ruined churches.
As previously reported, the Holy Transfiguration Church in the Nizhny Novgorod village of Kadnitsy saw its first service in nearly nine decades.
The latest church to be revived is the Holy Trinity Church in the village of Ichalovo. The work was undertaken by the Holy Trinity-St. Seraphim Diveyevo Convent, reports the Synodal Department for Monasteries and Monasticism.
Thanks to the piety and love of local residents, the crosses from the domes of the closed church were preserved and transferred to the monastery. Last year, the sisters of the convent restored and covered them with gilding, and on August 3, 2021, they were consecrated and placed back on the church dome and bell tower.
And yesterday, on the feast of the Translation of the Image Not-Made-by-Hands of Our Lord Jesus Christ from Edessa to Constantinople, the efforts of the convent, the diocese, and the local faithful were crowned with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy for the first time since the church was closed in 1937.
monasterium.ru
The Liturgy was served by His Eminence Metropolitan George of Nizhny Novgorod and his vicar His Grace Bishop Innokenty of Sormovo. Abbess Sergia and sisters from Diveyevo were in attendance together with the local faithful.
At the end of the Divine service, Vladyka George celebrated the rite of blessing bread and grain and invoked God’s blessing upon the harvest.
OrthoChristian has reported on the restoration of the liturgical life at a number of churches after the long years of Soviet persecution, including a church in the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin in 2018, a church at the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg in April 2021, a church in Moldova that May, another church in Tatarstan that August, an Old Rite church outside of Moscow that September, another Nizhny Novgorod church in February of this year, another church in Tatarstan last month, and a church in Moscow earlier this month, and another church in Tatarstan earlier this month.
Follow OrthoChristian on Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!
