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New Year & Christmas

Holy Trinity icon delivered to Cathedral of Christ the Savior on the eve of Christmas

"The image of the Holy Trinity was placed in a special icon case and installed near the right choir of the temple," the Russian Orthodox Church adds

MOSCOW, January 6. /TASS/. Andrey Rublev’s Holy Trinity icon was delivered from the All-Russian art scientific and restoration center named after academician I. E. Grabar to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where it will be displayed during the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, the Russian Orthodox Church reported on its website.

"On the evening of January 5, 2024, an icon of the Holy Trinity, painted by Reverend Andrey Rublev, was brought to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. <...> On the days of the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, the famous image will be in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where His Holiness Patriarch Kirill will make festive divine services," the statement says.

"The image of the Holy Trinity was placed in a special icon case and installed near the right choir of the temple," the Russian Orthodox Church adds.

One of the most famous masterpieces of Russian icon painting, it is believed to be painted by Rublev for the Trinity Monastery (now the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius) at the request of Reverend Nikon of Radonezh (1350-1426), a disciple of St. Sergius of Radonezh and the second abbot of the monastery after him.

The icon was moved to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in 1929 to be displayed at a temporary exhibition of old Russian art, but the exhibition was never held and the icon has been kept at the Tretyakov Gallery ever since.

On May 15, 2023, it became known that Russian President Vladimir Putin had decided to return the miraculous Holy Trinity icon to the Russian Orthodox Church.

On July 12, 2023, Patriarch Kirill and Russian Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova approved an agreement on the transfer of the Trinity icon to the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius.

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