MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. The return of Andrey Rublev’s Holy Trinity icon and the silver reliquary that once held the relics of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky, as well as the transfer of the Our Lady of Kazan icon to its namesake cathedral on Red Square are among the major events of the outgoing year, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said at the annual Moscow Diocesan Assembly.
"The return of the Holy Trinity icon painted by the Venerable Andrey Rublev and the historic shrine of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky is a milestone in the development of good relations between the church and the state in Russia. This was made possible by the position of Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin who supports the process of giving the Church back its sacred relics and who kindly and promptly responded to my request," the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said.
The Patriarch mentioned another noteworthy event of the outgoing year, namely the transfer of the oldest copy of the Our Lady of Kazan icon to the Church’s key worship site in Moscow on November 4, which is celebrated as National Unity Day in Russia. On that day, the patriarch declared that the icon, which was believed lost, had been found. The Russian Orthodox Church head brought the icon to the Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral on Red Square, where it was kept until disappearing in the early 20th century.
On May 15, it was announced that Andrey Rublev’s Holy Trinity icon would be returned to the custody of the Russian Orthodox Church by an order from President Vladimir Putin. Dating back to the early 15th century, the Holy Trinity icon is regarded as Rublev’s crowning masterpiece. It was painted for the iconostasis of the Holy Trinity Monastery (now the Holy Trinity - St. Sergius Lavra), located in Sergiyev Posad outside Moscow. In 1929, the icon was moved to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and was on display there since. Patriarch Kirill and Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova approved an agreement for the formal donation of the Holy Trinity icon to the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra monastery.
On September 8, the State Hermitage Museum began the process of transferring the silver shrine to St. Alexander Nevsky, which had been on display in the Winter Palace for 100 years, to the Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra (monastery). Under the agreement with the St. Petersburg Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, the museum grants it the right to have the reliquary in the monastery for the next 49 years.