On
October 23, a church was consecrated in the name of St. John (Maximovitch) of
Shanghai and San Francisco in the Belgian city of Antwerp. The consecration was
celebrated by Archbishop Simon of Brussels and Belgium. The event attracted
public attention. The ceremony was attended by the representatives of various
churches, city administration officials, and the Russian ambassador to Belgium,
Alexander Tokovinin.
An
icon of St. John was painted in Russia especially for the new church, in which
a particle of his relics, brought from San Francisco, was mounted. It was there
that the Holy Hierarch labored in the final years of his life. And there, in
the Holy Virgin-Joy of All Who Sorrow Cathedral, they preserve his relics.
As
Archbishop Simon said, the consecration of the church was already postponed
several times due to the coronavirus pandemic, but then they decided that it
couldn’t be put off anymore. According to Vladyka, the decision to consecrate
the church in the name of St. John was made by the faithful themselves. A
survey was conducted in the diocese about a year ago, and the absolute majority
supported the idea of consecrating the altar in honor of St. John.
The choice
of patron saint was no accident. Seventy years ago, in 1951, Vladyka John was
appointed Archbishop of Paris and Western Europe, and in 1952—Archbishop of
Brussels and Western Europe. That year he also became the rector of the
Memorial Church of St. Job the Much-Suffering in Brussels, where he served for
twelve years. Having his official residence in Versailles, near Paris, the
Archbishop often traveled to Brussels and served in the Church of the
Resurrection of Christ or in the memorial church. During his stays in Belgium,
he would stay in an annex to the Church of St. Job, on the second floor, right
under the bell tower. They still keep his episcopal staff on the solea in the
church, bringing it out to the center of the church on his feast days.
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου