Department for External Church Relations
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Naval commander Nikolay Kuznetsov and Arctic Convoys’ sailors prayerfully commemorated in Iceland
DECR Communication Service, 29/07/2024
On July 28, the Day of the Russian Navy, Archpriest Timofey Zolotusky, rector of St. Nicholas Stavropegic Parish of the Moscow Patriarchate in Reykjavík, Iceland, celebrated the memorial litiya for the Arctic Convoys’ sailors who had died during World War II. Staff members of Russia’s Embassy in Iceland, Russian citizens and parishioners of St. Nicholas Church gathered together to commemorate the sailors who had died performing their military duty.
Father Timofey addressed those present, pointing out that in 2024, the Russian Navy Day coincided with the commemoration day of the Holy Great Prince Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, and the Feast of the Baptism of Russia. In his speech, he dwelt on the missionary labours of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called who had preached the Gospel on the banks of the Dnieper, reaching the northern frontier of the future Holy Rus’, and on the symbolic meaning of St. Andrew’s Flag of the Russian Navy.
On the same day, St. Nicholas Parish traditionally commemorated naval commander and USSR Admiral Nikolay Kuznetsov. It was thanks to his organizational talent that the USSR Navy did not lose any ships during the first days of war. July 24, 2024, marked the 120th anniversary of the birth of the great naval commander.
As the parish website reports, the ceremony took place at the “Hope” Memorial in the Fossvogur Cemetery in Reykjavík. At the foot of the monument, there are two granite slabs forming a semicircle. Inscribed on them are the names of the Soviet, Icelandic, British, American, Norwegian and other ships and vessels that sank during the Arctic Сonvoys. The participants in the ceremony laid a wreath and flowers at the “Hope” Memorial and celebrated the litiya in the Church Slavonic and English languages.
The parishioners sang Memory Eternal to the Soviet sailor Alexander Malley who had died in an Icelandic hospital during the war, as well as to the Great Patriotic War veteran Maria Mitrofanova, who had died in 2019, naval commander Nikolay Kuznetsov and to all those soldiers who had laid down their lives for their faith, their Homeland and their people.
The “Hope” Memorial designed by a known Russian sculptor, Vladimir Surovtsev, was unveiled in 2005, on the initiative of Russia’s Ambassador to Iceland Alexander Rannikh, marking the 60th anniversary of the Great Victory.
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