MINSK, 24 September (BelTA) - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia is set to visit Belarus on 25-28 September. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church will meet with the clergy, general public and the youth, conduct church services, BelTA learnt from the Belarusian Exarchate. His Holiness will arrive in the Minsk airport at 11.15 a.m on 25 September. Patriarch Kirill will visit Minsk Holy Spirit Cathedral to bow to the Icon of the Mother of God of Minsk and the relics of Saint Sophia of Slutsk, will conduct a service. On the same day the Patriarch will visit a temple-monument in honor of all Saints and Innocently Killed in our Fatherland (in Kalinovskogo Street). Then he is scheduled to meet with representatives of scientific and artistic communities, clergy and general public in the Palace of the Republic. On 26 September His Holiness is set to visit the Minsk eparchial department of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, conduct a service in Holy Cross Church in honor of the Assembly of Belarusian Saints. Then His Holiness will head for Sts. Cyril and Methodius Theology Institute of the Belarusian State University. The Patriarch will lay a wreath at the Victory Monument in Victory Square and visit the House of Charity. On the same day the Patriarch will head for Polotsk to visit the Convent of the Savior of St Euphrosyne for the exaltation of the Cross of St Euphrosyne of Polotsk. On 27 September Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia will hold a service in the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Polotsk, make a tour of the Church of the Transfiguration of Christ and St Sophia Cathedral. The Patriarch will also travel to Vitebsk where he will place a wreath to the Memorial Cross on the site of the former concentration camp where 180,000 people were killed. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church will pay a visit to the Church of the Patronage of the Mother of God to attend a ceremony of opening Victory Square, the biggest in Belarus. On 28 September Patriarch Kirill will meet with students and the youth in the Summer Amphitheatre. After that Patriarch Kirill will leave for Moscow. Several presents have been prepared Patriarch Kirill. The major of them is a facsimile publication of the Gospel of Slutsk. The present will become a symbol of the spiritual revival of the Belarusian nation. According to the Commissioner’s Office for Religions and Nationalities, the amount of the Orthodox believers in Belarus makes up nearly 80% of the total. The first Orthodox eparchy – in Polotsk – was founded in 992. Today eleven Orthodox eparchies (in Brest, Minsk, Polotsk, Mogilev, Pinsk, Gomel, Grodno, Novogrudok, Vitebsk, Turov and Bobruisk) make part to the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Oorthodox Church founded in 1989. The Belarusian Orthodox Church is the other official name of the Belarusian Exarchate. It is led by the Synod headed by Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus. БЕЛТА
Written by belta.by
