Metropolitan Herman sends condolences on death of Metropolitan Nikolaj of the Czech Lands and Slovakia

Metropolitan Herman was the guest of Metropolitan Nikolaj [left] during an official visit to the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia in September, 2004.

SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications] — His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, sent condolences to the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia upon learning of the repose of the Church’s Primate, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Nikolaj, on Monday, January 30, 2006.

Metropolitan Nikolaj, 78, had been in declining health for several months.

According to the Very Rev. Dr. Stefan Sak, the Church’s secretary for foreign affairs, “His Beatitude has served the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia faithfull and all the members of the Church feel pain in his departure, which left the Church without its highest pastor.”

Metropolitan Nikolaj was elected and enthroned as Primate on June 4, 2000.

The Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia experienced major difficulties after the fall of communism in the early 1990s, especially with the division of the former Czechoslovakia into two independent states. The Church maintains two dioceses in the Czech Republic and an additional two dioceses in Slovakia.

Metropolitan Nikolaj’s funeral will be celebrated on Saturday, February 4, at Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Presov, Slovakia.

Further information will be released as it is received.

May Metropolitan Nikolaj’s memory be eternal!