Metropolitan Hilarion celebrates Divine Liturgy on the commemoration day of St Sergius of Radonezh

On 18 July 2015, the commemoration day of St Sergius of Radonezh, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, officiated at the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St Sergius with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

Serbian Patriarch Irinej received in audience Dr. Efraim Zuroff

Serbian Patriarch Irinej received in audience Dr. Efraim Zuroff
Serbian Patriarch Irinej received in audience Dr. Efraim Zuroff
Serbian Patriarch Irinej received in audience Dr. Efraim Zuroff
Serbian Patriarch Irinej received in audience Dr. Efraim Zuroff

His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej received dr Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, at the Serbian Patriarchate in Belgrade on 14 July 2015.

The audience was attended by His Grace Bishop Jovan of Slavonia, president of the Holy Assembly of Bishops'  Committee for Jasenovac Concentration Camp, and president of the Committee for Memorial Complex Staro Sajmiste; priest Vladimir Vranic, Secretary of the Office of the Serbian Patriarch as well as Mr. Nenad Kuzmanovic.

60,000 Mark Royal Days in Ekaterinburg

On the evening of 16/17 July, to honour the memory of the murdered Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family, more than 60,000 Orthodox faithful took part in the 20-km royal procession pilgrimage from the Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land in Ekaterinburg to the Monastery of the Royal Martyrs at Ganina Yama. The procession passed without incident, said "the regional newspaper" the press service of the Ekaterinburg diocese.

Feast Day of Saint Elizabeth the New Martyr at Mary Magdalene Convent of Gethsemane

  July 18th, 2015, Gethsemane, Mary Magdalene convent of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. The feast day of Saint Elizabeth Fyodorovna, born Princess Elisabeth Hesse of the Rhine, later married to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Imperial Russia. Her sister was Tsaritsa Alexandra, wife of Tsar Nicholas II. Following the assassination of her husband in 1905, Elizabeth became a Russian Orthodox nun, founding the convent of Mary and Martha in Moscow.  She was martyred in 1918 with Saint Barbara, also commemorated on July 18th, through a violent murder by Bolsheviks.

The feast of Sts Peter and Paul, Heads of the Apostles

The feast of Sts Peter and Paul, Heads of the Apostles
The feast of Sts Peter and Paul, Heads of the Apostles
The feast of Sts Peter and Paul, Heads of the Apostles
The feast of Sts Peter and Paul, Heads of the Apostles

On Sunday, the 29th of June/12th of July 2015, the feast of the glorious Heads of the Apostles, Sts Peter and Paul, was celebrated at the Church dedicated to them in Capernaum, on the north-western shores of the Tiberian Sea.