SPIRITUAL RELATIONSHIP OF FRATERNAL PEOPLES
BSTU students from Serbia continue their Easter holidays. Last weekend, they together with friends and colleagues, visited the Bishop's Metochion in the village of Shopino, Yakovlevsky city district. The trip was organized by Gubkin spiritual and educational center “Transfiguration”.
The place and day were not chosen by chance: on May 18, representatives of the Gubkin diocese, parishioners of the Temple of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God and pilgrims greeted a relic and sacred image which had arrived from Serbia - an icon with a piece of the holy relics of St. Nicholas of Serbia.
Bishop Sophrony, Bishop of Gubkin and Grayvoron, consecrated a house church in honor of St. Nicholas (Velimirovich), after which a religious procession took place and an akathistos to the saint was read. In Belgorod region this is the only temple consecrated in the name of a Serbian saint. The icon will remain there for permanent storage, and this place will become a new pilgrimage center.
Director of the Institute of Serbian Language and Communications Victoria Ryapukhina, who accompanied the Serbian delegation, noted that St. Nicholas of Serbia is a significant historical figure of the 20th century. He contributed to the political, academic and cultural ties of the fraternal Russian and Serbian peoples, his spiritual connection with Russia was very strong, the saint spoke tirelessly about his love for our country and about our Orthodox unity.
