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| 19.05.2010 |
MINSK, 19 May (BelTA) – The Zhirovichi Assumption Monastery will mark the day of the Saint Mary Icon of Zhirovichi on 20 May. The celebrations will be led by Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch for All Belarus Filaret, BelTA learned from Archimandrite Alexis, spokesman of the Belarusian Exarchate.
Many eparches of the Belarusian Orthodox Church will take part in the celebrations. In addition, multiple guests from CIS and non-CIS states are expected to arrive, said Father Alexis.
On 19 May His Eminence Filaret will perform an all-night vigil in the Assumption Temple of the monastery. An acathistos in Old Church Slavonic will be recited in honor of the Saint Mary Icon of Zhirovichi. On 20 May the Patriarchal Exarch will perform a divine liturgy in the same temple. It will be followed by a sacred procession carrying the Zhirovichi icon from the Assumption Temple to the Epiphany Temple that was built where the wonder-working icon was found initially.
More than 1,000 pilgrims from Belarus, Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltic states are supposed to attend the celebrations.
The wonder-working Zhirovichi icon of Saint Mary is one of the most treasured Christian relics in Belarus. It is a stone oval as large as a child’s hand with a three-dimensional image of the Blessed Virgin and the Pre-Eternal Child on her hands. The relic is kept in a silver and gilded icon case in the iconostasis of the Assumption cathedral.
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