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Patriarch Kirill leads liturgy at Christ the Savior Cathedral housing Rublev’s Trinity

On Saturday, Andrey Rublev’s celebrated ‘Holy Trinity’ icon was delivered to the cathedral, where it will be on display for two weeks, until June 18

MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. The Divine Liturgy led by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia is in progress in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on Trinity Sunday, TASS reports from the site.

On Saturday, Andrey Rublev’s celebrated ‘Holy Trinity’ icon was delivered to the cathedral, where it will be on display for two weeks, until June 18. It is expected that after the service it will be available for veneration.

Hundreds of believers flocked to the church on Sunday morning, including several Russian officials.

Russian believers celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity on Orthodox Pentecost Sunday, which falls on June 4 this year.

The Trinity was painted by Rublev in the first quarter of the XV century. It is one of the masterpieces of Russian icon-painting art. In 1929, the authorities transferred the icon to the State Tretyakov Gallery. On May 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his decision to transfer the icon from the Tretyakov Gallery to the Russian Orthodox Church. Then, the Russian Culture Ministry said that the icon will be accessible to the faithful at the Christ the Savior Cathedral from June 4 to June 18. It will be supervised by the Tretyakov Gallery’s staff, with strict control of the temperature and humidity observed. The State Tretyakov Gallery then said that the icon must be returned to the museum’s depository no later than June 19, 2023. The patriarch, however, expects that the icon will remain in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral for a year, and then it will be returned to its historical place in the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity Lavra (Monastery) of St. Sergius, located outside Moscow.

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