Serafimovka, Novgorod Province, Russia, June 30, 2023
Photo: vk.com
Another church has seen the light of Orthodox worship again after being closed under the godless communists.
On June 23, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the Church of the Great Martyr Paraskeva in the Novgorod village of Serafimovka for the first time in 85 years, reports the Diocese of Borovichi.
The last rector of the church, Fr. Theodore Velikoraisky, was shot in 1937. Nun Antonina Sergeevna, who had lived at the church since the 1920s, was arrested in 1937 and sentenced to 10 years in labor camps. In 1938, the church was closed, and the building was misused for many years and then abandoned.
Photo: vk.com
The Divine Liturgy on June 23 was celebrated by His Grace Bishop Ephraim of Borovichi with clergy from the Holy Spirit Monastery.
After the service, a procession was held around the church. Then a fair was held, organized by local Orthodox Christians.
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Photo: novgorod.ru
According to sobory.ru, the village of Serafimovka arouse near the site of the appearance of a wonderworking icon of St. Paraskeva, believed to have been brought to that place by the six-winged Seraphim.
St. Paraskeva was celebrated on the 10th Friday after Pascha, with a procession with the wonderworking icon from the nearby Church of St. Nicholas to the chapel built on the site of its appearance. The faithful would also drink water from the miraculous holy spring at the same site.
The three-altar stone Church of St. Paraskeva was built in 1855, becoming the new home of the wonderworking icon. However, after the closure of the church in 1938, the village was also deserted, and today, the location of the wonderworking icon is unknown.
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