His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the relics of St Nicholas in Bari

On December 18-19 His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine visited Italy. On December 19, commemoration of the Holy Hierarch Nicholas, the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, the Primate of the UOC presided over the Divine Liturgy in the crypt of St Nicholas’ Basilica in Bari.

During the archpastoral visit the Archpastor elevated his secretary, Bishop Alexander of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyy, to the rank of archbishop.

It is in the Basilica of St Nicholas that the honorable relics of the Holy Hierarch rest. The basilica belongs to the monastery of Dominicans, but the administration allows celebrating the divine services there.

The saint’s relics are buried at the depth of approximately one meter, under the floor in the crypt, and are covered from all sides with reinforced concrete blocks. Above the place of burial an altar is installed. The holy relics have emitted a special liquid – the holy myrrh. That why the Holy Hierarch Nicholas is also called Myrrh-Bearing. On one of the plates, covering the relics, smalls door are made through which one can get the holy myhhr. Once a year (May 9) the abbot and monks of the monastery open the doors and get the myhhr accumulated during a year. This rite is performed in public and everyone willing can see it with his own eyes.

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