Department for External Church Relations
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Patriarchal Exarch of Western Europe leads pilgrimage to the Veil of the Mother of God in Chartres
DECR Communication Service, 13/10/2026
On 10th October 2026, on the eve of the Feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, Metropolitan Mark of Korsun and Western Europe, Patriarchal Exarch of Western Europe, led an annual Orthodox Christian pilgrimage to the city of Chartres in France.
While in Chartres, His Eminence celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the side chapel of the Chartres Cathedral, which is the home to a greatly revered shrine – the Veil of the Virgin Mary, website of the Korsun Diocese reports.
This great Christian shrine has been kept in the Chartres Cathedral since the middle of the 9th century, when King of West Francia Charles the Bald presented it to the city. Several decades earlier, it had been brought to the ancient Gaul on instructions from the Holy Empress Irene as a token of improved diplomatic relations between the Byzantine Empire and Emperor Charlemagne.
Concelebrating the Liturgy with Metropolitan Mark were Hieromonk Joseph (Pavlinciuc), Rector of the Parish of St. Paisios of Neamţ in Paris, and clerics of the diocese’s churches in Paris – Priest Gabriel Lacascade, Priest Euphrassiy Desanlis and Deacon Anthony Ivashin.
After the divine service, Metropolitan Mark greed numerous pilgrims on the coming Feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, saying in particular: “Today we have had a joyful opportunity to lift up our prayer in this place and kiss the garment of the Most Pure Mother of God. Through this shrine, according to our faith and hope we receive help, support and protection. Let us venerate this shrine with awe, invoking the blessing of the Mother of God upon all our works, upon our relatives and friends, upon all those people whom we commemorate in our prayers and for whom our Church prays.”
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