Patriarch Kirill comes to Pechenga
«The Russian Arctic has always played an important role in the fate of our motherland», says the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church as he heads to Pechenga, the municipality on the border to Norway and Finland.
In the style of a superstar, the Russian Patriarch today landed in the Murmansk Airport and was greeted by the top brass in the northern Russian region.
«For a long time, I have wanted do visit the Murmansk diocese», Kirill said. «I am coming here to pray with the people, to talk with them and to experience life in this heroic region», he added, a press release from the Patriarchy reads.
«The Russian Arctic has always played an important role in the fate of our motherland».
The church leader will start his visit in Pechenga, where an ancient monastery has been rebuilt over the last years. It is part of the diocese of Severomorsk, one of two dioceses in Murmansk Oblast.
Kirill will also visit Murmansk City, Severomorsk and Kirovsk.
The Trifon Pechenga Monastery was founded in year 1533 and ruined in an attack by Swedish soldiers in 1590. It was rebuilt in the late 19th century and continued to operated during the mid-war period when the Pechenga area was under Finnish sovereignty.
