Patriarch Kirill to make pastoral visit to Mordovia

MOSCOW, July 20 (Itar-Tass) - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All
Russia is to arrive in Saransk, the capital of the Republic of Mordovia,
on Wednesday for a pastoral visit. This will be the Patriarch's first
arrival in Mordovia, the land of his childhood years, in his capacity as
Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
The future patriarch repeatedly made official and unofficial visits to
Mordovia where his grandfather -- Reverend Father Vassily Gundyayev -- and
grandmother -- Paraskeva (Parasceva) had lived for long and were buried.
During the three-day tour, the Patriarch will honour the memory of the
relatives: on Thursday he will say a lity for the dead at the
grandmother's grave at the city cemetery and on Friday a lity in the small
village of Obrochnoye, Ichkalki District, where his grandfather lies
buried.
On Friday, Patriarch Kirill will also visit the Kazan Klyuchevaya
(water-springs) hermitage in Turgenevo Village, Ardatov District. The
hermitage is part of the recently established (on May 30, this year, by a
decision of the Holy Synod) Ardatov bishopric which encompasses the
parishes of the eastern territories of the Republic: Ardatov, Atyashevo,
Bolshiye Berezniki, Bolshoye Ignatovo, Dubenki, and Chamzinka Districts.
During a tour of the Kazan Klyuchevaya hermitage, the Patriarch is to
inaugurate a pilgim education center.
While in Saransk, the Patriarch is to attend festivities marking the
20th anniversary of the establishment of the Saransk and Mordovian
bishoprics, meet with the Head of the Republic, Nikolai Merkushkin, who
has been awarded four orders of the ROC over 16 years of his work at this
post.
A diocesan pilgrim center is to be ceremonially inaugurated in the St
John the Theologian Makarov Monastery, with the Patriarch attending.
Fragments of the relics of the reverend fathers of the Kiev Cave Laura are
kept at the monastery.
The Primate of the ROC will also visit holy water springs of the
Parasceva Ascension convent which is well known not only in Mordovia but
also far beyond it. In 2005 the Patriarch, who was then Metropolitan of
Smolensk and Kaliningrad, visited the convent, after which font basins
were built in the convent grounds in honour of Nicholas the
Miracle-Worker and Rev. Serafim of Sarov.
During the tour, Patriarch Kirill will also visit several churches:
the Kazan church in Romodanovo Township, Romodanovo District, the Church
of St Dimitrius of Rostov in Ulyanka Village, Ichkalki District, the
Church of St Michael of Arkhangelsk in the village of Ichkalki, and the
Church of Nativity in Kemlya Township, Ichkalki District. The Patriarhc is
to meet believers there and address them in a pastoral sermon. The
Patriarch will consecrate cathedral of one of churches in honour of the
Kazan icon of the Mother of God.