Russian Cathedral In Washington Displays Relics Of Kiev Saints To Pray For Peace - Rector

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd April, 2022) The clergy and believers of the Russian Orthodox cathedral in Washington, DC decided in a rare move to put the relics of the Kiev Caves Monastery Saints in the middle of the church and pray for peace in Russia and Ukraine, St. John the Baptist parish rector Victor Potapov told Sputnik on Friday.

"We have made a solemn promise to serve a special prayer service every Sunday after each Divine Liturgy, in English and Old Church Slavonic, to pray for the Holy Saints of the Kiev Caves Monastery to intercede on behalf of Ukraine and Russia before God," Potapov said.

Displaying relics in the middle of the church is an unusual move, but people understand the reason and appreciated the idea, he said.

"We served the first services last Sunday and we intend to do this in the future until the war ends," Potapov said.

The Kiev Caves Lavra is the oldest Russian monastery that currently belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which is a fully autonomous church within the Moscow Patriarchate. The monastery is known for the more than 100 saints who lived mostly in the first several centuries of Orthodox Christianity in Kiev Rus.

The relics were delivered to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Washington in 2009 when Potapov, along with his wife and one of the deacons, decided to undertake a pilgrimage to Kiev and asked Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev, then primate of the UOC, to share the sanctuary with the faithful in the US capital.

"We received these relics, put them in a beautiful reliquary and now we decided to place them in the middle of the church so that they are visible to everyone and send a strong message for peace," Potapov said.

The clergy and the believers, most of whom are Russians, Ukrainians and Americans, started serving the special services since the very beginning of the conflict on February 24. After the service in front of the copy of the Kursk Root icon of the Mother of God, the second service was conducted before the image of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, the parish founder, who was born in the Donbas area when it was a part of the Russian Empire.

Potapov said the parish has organized a fundraiser to provide aid to refugees from Ukraine who have found shelter in different parts of the world as well as those who remain in the country.

"We will send this donation to the Fund for Assistance to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), which has already collected nearly $250,000," Potapov said.

The Fund will send the money to ROCOR's Metropolitan Mark of Berlin and Germany, who will provide them to Metropolitan Onufrii, the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, for further distribution at his discretion.

On February 24, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk requested help to defend them from attacks by Ukrainian troops amassed in large numbers in the Donbas region. The Russian Defense Ministry said its actions are directed against the Ukrainian military infrastructure and not civilians.