Prešov, Slovakia, November 5, 2025
Fresco of St. Olga of Alaska in a Slovakian church. Photo: oca.org
The veneration of St. Olga of Alaska is spreading rapidly throughout the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
Archpriest Alessandro Margheritino, Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America, heard about and experienced this fact during a recent visit to Slovakia, the OCA reports.
Fr. Alessandro arrived in Slovakia on October 28, spending the next two days with His Eminence Archbishop Juraj of Košice and Michalovce. On Thursday, October 30, they traveled to Prešov to visit the primate of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, His Beatitude Metropolitan Rastislav. Fr. Alessandro conveyed the greetings of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, primate of the OCA, and presented Met. Rastislav with relics of the recently canonized St. Olga of Alaska, “whose veneration is spreading rapidly throughout the Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia.”
Fr. Alessandro gifted relics of St. Olga to Met. Rastislav of Prešov. Photo: oca.org
The Czech-Slovak primate expressed deep gratitude for the gift and emphasized the importance of continued fraternal relations and mutual visits between the two Churches. Their discussion touched on topics of common concern, developments in world Orthodoxy, possible future pilgrimages, and the shared history linking the two Churches.
Following the audience, Fr. Alessandro visited the Primatial Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky, the Theological Faculty of the University of Prešov, and the Seminary.
Fr. Alessandro’s visit to Slovakia was preceded by a trip to Romania, where he attended the consecration of the iconography of the National Cathedral in Bucharest on October 24-26, accompanied by Dr. Ionuț-Alexandru Tudorie, Dean of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary.
The Holy Synod of the OCA canonized St. Olga on November 8, 2023. Her relics were uncovered in November 2024, and on June 19 of this year, Met. Tikhon led the rite of canonization at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Kwethluk, Alaska.
At its session on October 30, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church formally added St. Olga to its own liturgical calendar.
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