Moscow, February 2, 2017
The St. Petersburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church has not blessed the holding of a cross procession in support of transferring the St. Isaac’s Cathedral-museum to the custody of the Church. Religious processions should not be instruments for responding to protests, diocesan representative Natalia Rodomanova told RIA-Novosti.
The issue of the cathedral’s ownership has been very tense lately. Despite protests, the St. Petersburg Diocese recently decided to transfer St. Isaac’s to the Russian Orthodox Church for forty-nine years, on the condition that it continues to function as a museum. The Church has pledged to expand such functions and to introduce free entrance into the cathedral-museum.
State Duma Deputy Vitaly Milonov earlier filed a request to hold a procession from the Kazan Cathedral to St. Isaac’s Cathedral on February 11 in support of the transfer and in response to protests against it.
“Cross processions have always been an expression of the unity of believers, unified by the idea of creation, loyalty to God, and love for the Fatherland. The historical cross procession along Nevsky Prospect in the northern capital the last four years on the day of the translation of St. Alexander Nevsky’s relics bears witness to this. It gathers between 50 and 100,000 people—this is a well-known fact. In our current agitated atmosphere in St. Petersburg, a cross procession should not be seen as an instrument of response to a few protests,” Rodomanova explained.
She continued, “The Church has historically been and remains a unifying force which calls all believing citizens to preserve peace and unity.”
St. Isaac's Cathedral was built over a period of forty years from 1818 to 1858 by order of Tsar Alexander I. In 1931 the communist authorities turned the church into the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. With the fall of communism, worship resumed in the left chapel, the main alter being used only on feast days.
