Relics of St Demetrios of Salonika
Source: Voices from Russia
The website of Novospassky Monastery noted that on 5 February, a Greek Orthodox Church delegation, headed by Metropolitan Panteleimon Kalpakidis of Veria and Naousa arrived in Moscow from Greece bringing a reliquary containing the hand of St Demetrios of Salonika the Great Martyr. At the airport, the superior of the Novospassky Stavropegial Monastery and the MP First Deputy Chancellor, Bishop Savva Mikheyev of Voskresensk met the delegation. From the airport, they took the reliquary to the Novospassky Monastery, where the clergy served a molieben at the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God. St Demetrios is the patron saint of soldiers, so, students of the Moscow M A Sholokhov Cossack Cadet Corps, pupils of the Aleksandr Nevsky Cadet Corps of the SK RF, and members of the Union of Paratroopers and the “Combat Brotherhood” came to venerate the relics. After the service, Bishop Savva thanked Metropolitan Panteleimon for giving believers the opportunity to venerate the holy relics of St Demetrios in the Novospassky Monastery, saying, “The coming to us of the reliquary with the relics of St Demetrios is a mercy and a grace from God. After all, the zeal of the Holy Warrior Demetrios was so great that people called him a ‘Second Apostle Paul’”. In his speech, Bishop Savva also noted that the relics arrived in Russia during the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory over Fascism.
[subscribe2]