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President's wife attends religious service in Petersburg cathedral

Hundreds of citizens came to mark the Orthodox holiday celebrated together with National Unity Day

ST. PETERSBURG, November 4 (Itar-Tass) —— The Holiday of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, one of the most honoured sacred objects, is marked in Russia this Friday.

A religious service was held in the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg on Friday morning. It was attended by the Russian president's wife Svetlana Medvedeva. Together with her, Governor Georgy Poltavchenko and city government officials came to attend the holiday service.

Hundreds of citizens came to mark the Orthodox holiday celebrated together with National Unity Day.

The Kazan Cathedral was built in St. Petersburg according to the project of architect Andrei Voronikhin. It was built in ten years from 1801 to 1811. After the 1812 Patriotic War, trophies were brought to the church. Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov was buried there.

During the Soviet years, the building was occupied by a religion and atheism history museum for almost 60 years. In 2000, the status of a cathedral was returned to it, and its main sacred object -- the wonder-working copy of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God -- was placed in its historic place there in 2002.

It is believed that the people who liberated Moscow from Polish invaders on November 4, 1612 had the wonder-working icon with them.

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