Serbian Patriarch in Dusseldorf
On Sunday, December 1st, 2013 after the visit to the church of Saint Luke in Dortmund and the parish of Saint Stephen in Essen, His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch visited the church of Saint Sava in Dusseldorf.
Before the arrival to the church, Serbian Patriarch visited a city cemetery in Dusseldorf. After the decision of the city authorities, a special part of this cemetery where Orthodox Serbs, Russians and Greeks are being buried has been determined recently. The church and courtyard were full of children and pious Serbs from Dusseldorf and surrounding area who waited for His Holiness.
After the solemn welcome in the church of Saint Sava a doxology was served by the head of the church Danilo Radmilovic and protodeacon Damjan Bozic.
Patriarch Irinej thanked for the warm welcome and expressed joy because of the meeting with lots of childrena and parishioners, reminding that the only way of our survival was the preservation of the Orthodox faith, Cyrillic alphabet and the Serbian language.
In the courtyard of the church there is a chapel of Saint George of Kratovac, in liturgical use since 2007. Besides the church and the chapel there is a magnificent Parish house built in an old Serbian architectural style. The parish was founded on 11 September 1960. But before the official founding of the Church-school congregation the parish duty was performed by hieromonk Simeon Grozdanovic still in 1946. Protopresbyter-stavrophor Dobrivoje Cilerdzic also left a great spiritual trace there.
