NEW YORK, October 16 (Itar-Tass) — Presentation of a best-selling book of the abbot of a Moscow monastery, Archimandrite Tikhon /Shevkunov/, was held Monday in New York.

The ceremony was timed for the fifth anniversary since the unification of the Russian Orthodox Church reporting to Moscow Patriarchate /ROC/ and the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia /ROCOR/.

The English translation of the book titled ‘Everyday Saints and Other Stories’ were held in the Diplomatic Receptions Hall at Russia’s Consulate General on Manhattan. It brought together U.S. cultural personalities, philologists, activists of local public organizations, fellow-Russians living abroad, diplomats, and reporters.

The gathering was blessed by the Metropolitan of Ryazan and Mikhailov Paul, the supervisor of the Moscow Patriarchate’s parishes in the U.S, Archbishop Justin, and Metropolitan Hillarion, ROCOR’s Supreme Hierarch.

“It was an easy job to write this book because I told only absolute truth in it,” Archimandrite Tikhon said. “It consists of stories about living faith and the Church, about man’s communication with God, about everyday life of normal people who are trying to decipher its essence and to grasp the meaning of their predestination.

At the request of the American audiences, Father Tikhon spoke about the details of the scandal that members of the now notorious Pussy Riot punk group, who staged an outrageous ‘punk prayer’ in Moscow’s Cathedral of the Savior in February.

‘The women who participated in that action had an important job of destroying culture and respect for the Church and the sad fact is this tradition can make itself manifest in the U.S. and/or other countries,” Father Tikhon said.

“The Russian Orthodox Church didn’t insist on putting these women to custody and the only thing we sincerely wish these crazy women to attain normality and calm, to find their place in secular life and to restore peace and harmony in their souls.”

In his discourse about the pathway of faith, Tikhon underlined the fact that more than 60% Americans visit one or another church every Sunday.

“That’s something really difficult for us to imagine but I’m glad to note an ever-growing number of people in Russia who visit churches at least once a week for moral purification.”

Father Tikhon’s book that has been translated into twelve languages and has become a global bestseller, said Julian Lowenfeld, a leading American researcher of Russian literature who has translated the works of Pushkin and Lermontov in the past.

He told Itar-Tass that the stories recounted by Father Tikhon, an abbot of one of the oldest monasteries in Moscow, captured the soul and the mind.

Julian said he was really glad to receive a proposal to translate Father Tikhon’s book into English. He believes this work was one of the most successful in his career.