St. Petersburg, September 14, 2022
mitropolia.spb.ru
The Orthodox faithful of St. Petersburg, Russia, celebrated the feast of their beloved St. Alexander Nevsky with a festive procession down the main city street on Monday.
St. Alexander’s relics have been treasured at St. Petersburg’s St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra since August 30/September 12, 1724, after Emperor Peter I decided to transfer them to his new capital from the city of Vladimir.
The celebration began with two hierarchical Divine Liturgies. The local hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Barsanuphius, celebrated the service in the Kazan Cathedral together with His Eminence Metropolitan Timothy of Bostra of the Jerusalem Patriarchate and four other hierarchs of the Russian Church, reports the Metropolis of St. Petersburg.
And at the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated before the relics of the saint himself by His Grace Bishop Nazary of Kronstadt, the abbot of the monastery, together with His Grace Bishop Gideon of Georgievsk.
After the Liturgy in the Kazan Cathedral, one procession began down Nevsky Prospekt with the wonderworking Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, while another small procession left from the Lavra after the Liturgy there.
The processions met at the monument to St. Alexander, where a moleben to the Heavenly patron of St. Petersburg was served.
The traditional procession on the feast of the Transfer of the Relics of St. Alexander Nevsky was established by Empress Elizabeth and continued uninterrupted until Soviet times. It was resumed in 2013 with the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
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