Mutual Visits Continue: Russian Orthodox Monastics Arrive in Egypt for Coptic Orthodox Monastic Experience

OCP News Service and DECR – 12/05/2025

Cairo – Egypt: On May 11, 2025, with the blessing of His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, and at the invitation of His Holiness Tawadros II, Patriarch of the Coptic Church, a delegation of monastics of the Russian Orthodox Church, headed by Metropolitan Mitrofan of Gorlovka and Slavyansk, arrived in Egypt. The purpose of the visit was to make a pilgrimage to the holy places of the first centuries of the Christian era, including those associated with the history of the emergence and flourishing of Christian monasticism, as well as to get acquainted with the modern life of the male and female monasteries of the Coptic Church.

The trip is taking place in the context of the development of dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Coptic Church and is part of the program of mutual visits between representatives of Russian and Coptic monasticism that has been implemented in recent years.

The delegation also includes: Metropolitan Leonty of Voronezh and Liski; Bishop Dionysius of Rossoshan and Ostrogozhsk; Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), DECR secretary for inter-Christian relations; Hegumen Alexy (Sukachev), abbot of the Divnogorsk Dormition Monastery of the Voronezh Diocese; Hegumen Ilya (Zhdamirov), abbot of the Belogorsk Resurrection Monastery of the Rossoshan Diocese; Hegumen Tikhon (Komarov), abbot of the Seraphim-Sarov Monastery of the Borisoglebsk Diocese; Abbess Elizaveta (Pozdnyakova), abbess of the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy in Moscow; Abbess Anna (Morozova), abbess of the Dormition St. Nicholas Monastery of the Donetsk Diocese; Abbess Mikhaila (Shevchenko), abbess of the Iversky Monastery in Donetsk; Abbess Varvara (Sazhneva), abbess of the Alekseevo-Akatov Monastery in Voronezh; Abbess Elena (Zolotukhina), abbess of the Spassky Monastery of the Rossoshan Diocese; clergy of the Epiphany Cathedral in Gorlovka, Protodeacon Mikhail Ilchuk and Protodeacon Roman Stepin; employees of the Moscow Patriarchate nun Arsenia (Yakimenko), nun Alexandra (Vorobyeva) and nun Alexandra (Zubkova); DECR employee D.E. Arakelyan.

The trip will also include the representative of the Coptic Church in Russia, Hieromonk Daoud el-Antoni, the advisor to the Coptic Patriarch A. Milad, N.A. Kuskova and M.A. Motawaj.

At the Cairo airport, the delegation was met by representatives of the Coptic Church.

The members of the delegation visited the monastery of St. Macarius the Great in the Nitrian desert, where they made their first stop on Egyptian soil.

The visit, which will last until May 19, includes visits to the monasteries of the Nitrian Desert, the Lavra of St. Anthony the Great and St. Paul of Thebes in the Eastern Desert near the Red Sea, monasteries located in the vicinity of Alexandria, and the holy places of Christian Cairo.

Source: DECR