Patriarch Aleksy celebrates Liturgy for patronal feast at OCA representation church of St. Catherine in Moscow

On December 7, 2005, His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksy of Moscow and All Russia is greeted with flowers by a representative of the parish youth as he arrives at St. Catherine the Great Martyr Church in Moscow, Russia.

MOSCOW, RUSSIA [OCA Communications] — On December 7, 2005, His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksy II of Moscow and All Rus celebrated the Divine Liturgy on the occasion of the parish feastday of the Orthodox Church in America’s Representation Church of the Great Martyr Catherine here.

Concelebrating with Patriarch Aleksy were His Eminence, Archbishop John of Belgorod and His Grace, Bishop Alexander of Dmitrov. Also concelebrating were Archimandrite Zacchaeus [Wood], dean of the church and OCA representative in Moscow, and Archimandrite Anthony [Pantelich], the dean of the Representation Church of the Patriarchate of Serbia.

During the Little Entrance, Patriarch Aleksy awarded a pectoral cross to the Rev. Vadim Leonov, an associate priest at the parish.

At the conclusion of the Liturgy, Patriarch Aleksy was formally greeted by Archimandrite Zacchaeus, who noted that it has become a tradition for the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church to serve at Saint Catherine’s on the parish’s feastday, bringing much joy to the clergy and faithful of the parish.

Archimandrite Zacchaeus also shared the parish’s joy over receiving full use of the parish property through a recent agreement with the Grabar Art Restoration Institute which had occupied a portion of the facility. The institute recently returned its portion of the property, which will be restored to liturgical use in the future, to the parish.

Patriarch Aleksy censes the icon of St. Catherine the Great Martyr during the Divine Liturgy.

In commemoration of the event, Archimandrite Zacchaeus presented an icon of the Great Martyr Catherine to Patriarch Aleksy.

Archimandrite Zacchaeus also read the greetings of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, which also referred to the recent return of the parish’s property.

Representing the US Embassy in Moscow was Mr. William Burns, who also addressed the hierarchs, clergy, and faithful.

A festive dinner followed in the church hall, during which Patriarch Aleksy spoke of the progress being made at the parish and prospects for expanded ministry made possible by the return of the entire church complex.

Located in central Moscow, Saint Catherine’s Church was closed after the Russian Revolution and used for secular purposes, most recently by the Grabar Institute. While the property was returned to the Church in the early 1990s and designated as the OCA’s representation church, the institute continued to occupy a significant portion of the parish’s property. In recent years, the parish’s property has undergone a number of impressive improvements. Most recently, frescoes in the main church building that were whitewashed in Soviet times were uncovered and restored.

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