New York, December 15, 2025
Photo: eadiocese.org
Following the Divine Liturgy on Wednesday, December 10, for the feast of the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God, His Eminence Metropolitan Saba of North America (Antiochian Archdiocese) presented His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas of Eastern America and New York (ROCOR) with a leather belt worn by St. Raphael of Brooklyn.
Inscribed with the funerary Psalm 90 in Slavonic, the belt was exhumed when St. Raphael’s relics were uncovered at the Antiochian Village in July 2024. Met. Saba also presented all other participating hierarchs with an epigonation vestment piece with an embroidered icon of St. Raphael, the Antiochian Archdiocese reports.
In turn, Met. Nicholas presented Met. Saba with an icon of Christ the Savior.
Concelebrating with Mets. Nicholas and Saba were hierarchs and clergy from five Orthodox jurisdictions, including several ROCOR bishops who were in New York for a Synod meeting and. Participating from other jurisdictions were His Grace Bishop Irinej of Eastern America (Serbian Orthodox Church), and His Grace Bishop Kliment of Levski (Bulgarian Orthodox Church), along with ROCOR, Antiochian, and Romanian clergy.
During the celebrations, numerous believers from various churches around the country prayed in the cathedral. Almost all those present communed of Christ’s Holy Mysteries.
Upon conclusion of the Liturgy, the hierarchs and clergy served a short moleben before the Kursk Icon.
Photo: eadiocese.org
His Eminence Metropolitan Mark of Berlin spoke about the life and works of the Holy Hieroconfessor Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, who also labored in America.
Met. Nicholas spoke about the prayerful help of the Most Holy Theotokos:
In these difficult days, we strive to preserve our faithfulness, truth, and our love, but around us there is clamor and sin, and we need the help of the Most Holy Theotokos. She invites us with open arms to be with her. Just as she loved the Lord and became the Mother of God, so we too have the opportunity to love our God with all our hearts. Whatever may be around us, let us set aside all things worldly, all things wrong, all things ugly, all things heterodox, and be near her, stand at Golgotha, where our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. And we can, together with her, contemplate this Cross, this love from our Savior. And today we have the opportunity to gather together, to pray for each other, for all those who suffer, for the sick, for our loved ones, and we know that the Mother of God—a loving mother—will hear our prayer, will see this celebration, and will pray for us, cover us with her omophorion, and ask her Son—our Lord Jesus Christ—for help and blessings for this flock.
Met. Nicholas congratulated Bishops Jerome and Job on the anniversary of their hierarchal consecration, thanked the archpastors and clergy gathered for the celebration for their joint prayers at God’s altar, as well as the faithful who came to the cathedral to pray to the Most Holy Theotokos and venerate her wonderworking icon.
A festal banquet was held in the cathedral hall, during which the chancellor of the Synod of Bishops, Archpriest Serafim Gan, spoke about the veneration of the Holy Hierarch Jonah of Hankou, wonderworker of Manchuria, in the Russian Diaspora, which led to his glorification in 1996.
Follow OrthoChristian on Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, and MeWe!
