Department for External Church Relations
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Parishioners of St. Nicolas Cathedral in Nice make a pilgrimage to the relics of St.Martha
DECR Communication Service, 20.12.2023.
On December 9, clergymen and parishioners of the Cathedral of St. Nicolas in Nice, France, went on a pilgrimage to Tarascon to venerate the relics of St. Martha of Bethany, sister of Lazarus and Mary.
Rev. Michel Savailly, rector of the Church of St. Martha in Tarascon in Provence, welcomed the group of pilgrims and showed them into the crypt area that contains the relics and the tomb of St.Martha, one of the Myrrh-bearing women.
He told the guests about the legend of how St.Martha made her way to this place and about the history of the church. According to legend, the altar, which is a marble sarcophagus, dates back to the early 4th century, was built atop the tomb of the saint on the spot of the house where she used to live and where her disciples, the first Christians in the city, had buried her. Also, the first Christian services were celebrated here.
Website of the Diocese of Chersonesus reports that the Divine Liturgy was celebrated on the relics of St. Martha, a disciple of Christ, by archpriest Andrei Yeliseyev, rector of the Cathedral of St, Nicholas in Nice, and protodeacon Ioann Buzdugan. Singing during the Liturgy was the cathedral choir.
The parishioners from Nice were joined on the pilgrimage and at the Divine service by Orthodox residents of Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Lyon and Sanremo.
After the Liturgy, all the pilgrims venerated the tomb of St. Martha.
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