Patriarch Kirill's Visit. Consecration of the Monument to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker

Kaliningrad • October 2nd, 2010

The Holy Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia consecrated the monument to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker installed in Kaliningrad at the Pregoly-river embankment.

The idea to put up the monuments to St. Nicholas and the other Russia’s heavenly protectors along the on borders of our Motherland was initiated by the Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker Charitable Foundation. The memorial in Kaliningrad is the 27th monument erected by our Foundation’s care. The project and place of the monument set up had the blessing of the Holy Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia during the Primatial visit to the Kaliningrad Oblast in March 2009. “Let the Lord bless this place”, said then the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

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In the evening on October 2nd, 2010, the Holy Patriarch Kirill has performed the rite of consecration of the monument, then addressed the public with the Prematial Word.

The Nickola of Mozhaisk iconographic version imaged in the statute, noted His Holiness, is symbolical for Kaliningrad, the city on Russia’s western borders, “In his right hand the Saint holds a sword as the symbol of protection, and the temple image in his left hand.”

“The city is located in the boundary area, and the frontier always demand attention. It is at the borders where people had more often to protect their Native Land”, stressed the Holy Hierarch. “Today, the Church is praying for all borders – not just in Europe, but also the world over – to become peaceful borders, for the people to be friendly, exchange knowledge, life experience, enter mutually advantageous and good relations. We believe that this what will come true, and Kaliningrad, being exclave, will be always surrounded by benevolent neighbors.”

“That is why we will pray to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker for Russia’s borders – in the east and in the west, in the north and in the south – to be peaceful always”, summed up the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. “We will also entreat the Saint for he who holds the temple in his left hand remember the inhabitants of Kaliningrad, their spiritual needs, and support all those who work on this land to create a peaceful life.”