Patriarch Kirill awarded Strategic Missile Forces to St. Barbara Pennant
Holy Great Martyr Barbara
Moscow, December 8, Interfax – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia awarded the Special Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) to a pennant with the image of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara, the heavenly protector of the branch.
The Patriarch conveyed the award to Lieutenant General Andrey Shvaichenko, RVSN Commander, at the Peter the Great Strategic Missile Forces Academy in Moscow on Tuesday when opening the conference dedicated the Academy’s jubilee.
The Strategic Missiles Forces were set up on December 17, 1959. On the day, the Church commemorates the Holy Great Martyr Barbara.
In his greeting, Patriarch Kirill said it was “difficult to overestimate” significance of the Strategic Missile Force for the country’s life. “Today when the state for various reasons can’t reward those who guard its security, this service is carried out at the highest level,” the Patriarch said.
He is convinced “such dangerous weapon can be given only to clean hands –hands of people with clear mind, ardent love to Motherland, responsibility for their work before God and people.”
He believes it is not by chance that systematic cooperation of the Russian Church with the Russian Armed Forces started with the Strategic Missile Forces in early 1990s. According to the Patriarch, it is due to the strategic importance of these troops for the country’s defense capacity. Patriarch Kirill reminded that a faculty of Orthodox culture had existed in the Academy for 13 years and over 1600 officers and members of their families had become its graduates.
The Patriarch also pointed out that in last ten years many garrison churches and Sunday schools opened in secret military towns of Russia.
He wished all soldiers of the Missile Forces “courage, strength and spiritual power,” and stressed that importance of Church spiritual care for servicemen was growing.
Patriarch Kirill gifted the Academy’s library a book about life and work of 16 Moscow Patriarchs, a unique edition printed in ten copies.
