PUTIN
PRESENTS
ICON TO CHURCH IN ST. PETERSBURG WHERE HE CELEBRATED CHRISTMAS
Russian
President
Vladimir Putin gave a gift of an icon to the church of the
righteous
saints Simeon the God-receiver and Anna the Prophetess on
Mokhovaya Street in
St. Petersburg, where he celebrated Christmas, the Kremlin press
service told
RIA Novosti.
It
was reported
earlier that Vladimir Putin arrived around midnight in order to
participate in
the holiday worship service at the church of St. Simeon, where
his father was
baptized.
Putin
presented
to the church an icon of the mid-nineteenth century in a
metallic frame with
the images of "The Nativity of the Most-Holy Mother of God,"
"The Resurrection of Christ," the holy prophets Elijah and Anna,
Saint Simeon, the Archangel Michael, and others.
A
RIA Novosti
correspondent reports that the president left the church at
about one o'clock.
The
church of
Saint Simeon is one of the oldest in St. Petersburg, having been
built in 1734
on orders from the Empress Anna Ioannovna.
In
his turn,
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attended the Christmas
service in the
church of Christ the Savior, where he arrived with his spouse,
Svetlana.
Several thousand persons gathered in the church and the service
was broadcast
live by central television channels.
The
evening
Christmas service was conducted by Patriarch of Moscow and
all-Rus Kirill.
The
holiday of
the Nativity of Christ is celebrated on 7 January (new style) by
the Russian
Orthodox Church along with four local churches—the Jerusalem,
Georgian,
Serbian, and Polish Orthodox churches—and also by the Mt. Athos
monastery and
Catholics of the Eastern rite and several protestants who
maintain the Julian
calendar. (tr. by PDS, posted 10 January 2018)
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