Department for External Church Relations
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Patriarch Kirill prays at the grave of Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin)
November 12, 2012 – the Primate of the Russian Church visited the Convent of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. Patriarch Kirill said the Prayer for the Dead at the grave of Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) and commemorated the heads of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and bishops of the Russian Church Outside Russia buried there.
After the service, His Holiness was greeted by Mother Superior Moisea, who said in particular, ‘We rejoice at the fact that Father Antonin loved the Mount of Olives so much that he wished to be buried here. Thanks to his wish, we see a great number of pilgrims, first of all, in your person, and feel that we belong to the Russian Church’.
Addressing the bishops, nuns and pilgrims who assembled in the church, His Holiness Kirill said:
‘I would like to express special joy at the opportunity to pray in this holy place, at the grave of ever-remembered Archimandrite Antonin, who served in the Holy Land for almost 30 years and created ‘the Russian Palestine’ by opening the door for thousands and thousands of pilgrims and handed down a legacy of remarkable monuments of the Russian spirit and the Orthodox faith adopted by our people here, in the Holy Land.
‘It is not without Divine Providence that Father Antonin passed away here and was buried here. Associated with his name are the most important pages in the history of Russian pilgrimage and Russian presence in Palestine. Today is the time when thousands of pilgrims from all over Holy Russia can again come to this place to find here consolation and loving reception.
‘I know how joyful are people’s hearts, what a profound importance has the restoration of the unity of the Russian Church, which has happened by God’s will and providence and through the intercession of His new martyrs and confessors. It opens for us new opportunities and new prospects for the renewal of people’s spiritual life, for the strengthening of Orthodox faith and Orthodox witness in the world’.
Patriarch Kirill thanked Sister Moisea and her nuns for their work in the Holy Land, for the love and care with which they welcome pilgrims and for the prayer they lift up in the Holy Land for the united historical Russia and the Russian Church.
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