Pages

Pages

November 22, 2010

Patriarch Kyrill Brings Icon Which Belonged To St. Seraphim of Sarov To Ukraine


November 22, 2010
Interfax

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on Monday arrived in Kiev for a visit.

Several dozen priests led by Ukrainian Metropolitan Vladimir met Kirill at Kiev's airport.

To mark Metropolitan Vladimir's 75th birthday, the patriarch brought a Loving Kindness icon, a supposedly miracle-working icon showing the Virgin Mary caressing a Baby Jesus. The icon will be displayed in Kiev churches until December 6.

"It is a great holy item that St. Seraphim of Sarov had in his monastic cell. He prayed before this icon and died before this icon," Patriarch Kirill told reporters.

The icon was rescued when the Monastery of St. Seraphim in Diveyevo was ravaged and nuns from Diveyevo kept it in Murom, a town in Russia's Vladimir Region, after which a priest took it over and kept it before it was returned to the church.