St. Petersburg, July 13, 2023
Photo: patriarchia.ru
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia formally approved and signed the agreement on the transfer of the famous Holy Trinity Icon of St. Andrei Rublev from the state-run Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow to the Russian Orthodox Church.
The signing ceremony was held in the building of the St. Petersburg Metropolia at the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The Patriarch signed on behalf of the Church, while Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova signed on behalf of the state, reports Patriarchia.ru.
For centuries, the icon found its home on the iconostasis of the Holy Trinity Cathedral at the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra outside Moscow. When the godless communists seized control of Russia, they moved the icon to a museum, where it remained for a century. But in May, President Putin ordered the revered icon to be returned to the Church.
The Icon was taken to Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow in time for Pentecost. It is scheduled to return to the Lavra on July 18.
The ceremony was also attended by a number of other hierarchs and civil authorities.
Addressing the audience, the Patriarch said:
A historic event has taken place. Today we symbolically testify that the country lives in a different time, in a different era. The time has passed—we hope irrevocably—when sacred items were taken from the Church, and the time has come when sacred items, even those of great cultural and historical value, are returned to the Church. And the document that we signed today clearly shows that that terrible era has irrevocably faded into the past, when the holy places of the Russian land were seized under the guise of the seizure of Church values and our people were deprived of the opportunity to offer their prayers to them. I sincerely thank you and in your person the entire Ministry of Culture, the entire government of the Russian Federation. God grant that the Church-state dialogue continue to develop in this way, and not otherwise, for the benefit of our fatherland and for the benefit of our people.
Follow OrthoChristian on Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!
