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Patriarch Kirill to officiate Orthodox festivities Wed

He will officiate Orthodox festivities dedicated to the memory of St Seraphim of Sarov in Diveyevo Village

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, August 1 (Itar-Tass) — Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia travels to Nizhny Novgorod for a one-day primatial visit on Wednesday. He will officiate Orthodox festivities dedicated to the memory of St Seraphim of Sarov in Diveyevo Village where he will offer a divine liturgy in honour of the Saint Elder.

About 15,000 pilgrims from all over Russia and from foreign countries are expected to take part in the Orthodox festivities. To accommodate them, a tent towna has been pitched up, with medical service arrangements. The tent town has available a chapel, and two dining-rooms with hot meals. An asphalt-surfaced road is leading to the tent town which is supplied with water.

Later in the day, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church will consecrate the Cathedral Bell which is installed in front of the St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The giant bell, with a diameter of four metres, 4.5 metres high and weighing 64 tonnes, has been made at the Baltic Shipyard for this year's quadricentennial of the feat of the volunteer army headed by by Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. The volunteer army was formded in Nizhny Novgorod and liberated Moscow grom Polish and Lithuanian invaders in the early 17th century. The mellow chimes of the Bell will be heard Wednesday at the confluence of the rivers Oka and Volga.