Russian Orthodox Church Signed Agreement on the Transfer of Holy Trinity Icon to the Church

OCP News Service – 14/07/2023

Moscow – Russia: Russian Orthodox Church signed an agreement with the government on the transfer of Saint Andrei Rublev’s Holy Trinity Icon from the state-run Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow to the Russian Orthodox Church on 12th July 2023.  The agreement was signed by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill on behalf of the church and Minister of Culture, O.B. Lyubimov for the state.  The ceremony was held at the  St. Petersburg Metropolis in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. 

The icon was moved to the museum by the Communist government from the Holy Trinity Cathedral at the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra outside Moscow. President Putin on May 2023 decided to return the icon to the church and took it to Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow during the feast of Pentecost in June.  As per the decision taken the icon will be returned to Lavra on 18th July 2023.

After the signing of the agreement in his address Patriarch said “A historic event has taken place. Today we are symbolically testifying that the country lives in a different time, in a different era. The time has passed – we hope, irrevocably – the time when sacred objects were withdrawn from the Church, and the time has come when sacred objects are returned to the Church, even those of great cultural and historical value. And the document that we signed today clearly shows that that terrible era has irrevocably gone into the past when, under the guise of confiscating church valuables, the shrines of the Russian land were confiscated and our people were deprived of the opportunity to offer up their prayers before them. I sincerely thank you and, through you, the entire Ministry of Culture, and the entire Government of the Russian Federation. God grant that it is so”.

Source: Moscow Patriarchate

OCP News Service