Torzhok, Tver Province, Russia, January 16, 2024
Photo: tvereparhia.ru
By the grace of God, another church has seen the celebration of the Divine Liturgy after a century of closure by the godless Bolshevik authorities.
On January 3, His Eminence Metropolitan Ambrose of Tver and a host of clergy celebrated the Liturgy in the Church of the Lord’s Entrance into Jerusalem in the town of Torzhok in the Tver Province for the feast of the local holy Martyr Juliana of Novotorzhok. The faithful, guests, and benefactors attended the service, reports the Tver Diocese.
Petitions for peace were offered during the service.
Following the service, Met. Ambrose noted that the relics of St. Juliana were buried in a nearby church that is also being rebuilt after the long century of communist atheism.
Photo: tvereparhia.ru
He continued:
Today we’re celebrating here for the first time in the last 100 years. This is a real celebration of Orthodoxy in the city of Torzhok, which was, before the well-known events of the revolution that destroyed the foundations of our fatherland, destroyed millions of our compatriots, a pearl of Holy Rus’. There were so many churches, monasteries, priests, monastics, and believers who built these churches and went to them. And we still have a lot to work on ourselves in order to at least get closer to the conditions of life in Christ in which our ancestors lived.
The foundation of the Entrance into Jerusalem Church was laid on July 25, 1837. Its side altars were dedicated to St. Nikita and the Burning Bush Icon and to Sts. Nicholas and Mitrophan of Voronezh.
In 1929-1930 the church was closed to be used as a warehouse and later a bakery. During this time, the dome and bell tower were dismantled. In 1974, the church building was included in the state list of architectural monuments, and in 1977, the exterior was renovated.
In 2010, the bakery left the church and it sat empty. Restoration work finally began in 2020, and is scheduled to conclude this year.
On New Year’s Eve, a service was celebrated in a Perm church for the first time in 90 years.
Follow OrthoChristian on Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!
