December 7, 2018 in Yekaterinburg hosted the celebrations on the occasion of day of memory of the Holy Martyr Catherine of Alexandria — patroness of the Ural capital, reports patriarhiei.
The Metropolitan of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye Kirill celebrated the divine Liturgy at the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Ekaterinburg. His Eminence was assisted by Bishop Kamensky and Alapaevsk Methodius, Bishop of Nizhny Tagil and Nevyansky Eugene, Bishop of Valentin Serov and Krasnoturyinsk Alex, host of clergy of the Ekaterinburg Archdiocese.
During the Liturgy, the archpastors, clergymen and laymen prayed before the revered image of St. Catherine, written by the Athonite monks and consecrated at the tomb of the blessed virgin Mary in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The icon was donated to the diocese of Yekaterinburg in 1998.
After the service was made the traditional town procession from Holy Trinity Cathedral to the chapel of St. Catherine, built on the site of the first temple, built at the base of the city.
The procession with the revered icon of the great Martyr Catherine and the relics of the Holy was led by Metropolitan Kirill of Yekaterinburg, Kamensk Bishop Methodius, Bishop Yevgeny of Nizhny Tagil and Serov Bishop Alexis. In the procession was attended by numerous representatives of the clergy of the Ekaterinburg Archdiocese, the parishioners, the Cossacks of the Orenburg Cossack troops, the students of St. Simeon Orthodox gymnasiums and Sunday schools of the diocese, seminarians, students of the Missionary Institute, pupils of military-Patriotic clubs and associations, representatives of the youth movement of the Yekaterinburg diocese of the Orthodox brotherhoods and sisterhoods of mercy — a total of about 3 500 people.
The chapel of St. Catherine, Metropolitan Kirill led a prayer patroness of the Ural capital. After the service the head of the Ekaterinburg Archdiocese congratulated those present on the occasion and gave his archpastoral blessing. Metropolitan Kirill also donated to the Urals a thousand Bibles — gift of the Bishop of edinetsky and Bryanskkholod.
On the same day at the residence of the Governor of the Sverdlovsk region took place the ceremony of awarding the order of St. Catherine, which was attended by Governor of Sverdlovsk region Evgeny Kuyvashev, the Foundation of St. Catherine — General Director of “Ural mining and metallurgical company” Andrey Kozitsyn, Chairman of the Board of Directors of “Russian copper company” Igor Altushkin, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Tatiana Altushkin, the owner of the trading company “SIM-land” Andrey Simanovsky, Director of CJSC “Taganskiy Ryad” Anatoly Nikiforov. The honorary guest of the ceremony was Metropolitan Kirill of Yekaterinburg. A special award was established by the Saint Catherine Foundation in 2017 to promote socially active citizens who are dedicated to daily life and for those who showed heroism and courage in an emergency. Petitions for rewarding by the award are submitted by public organizations, Executive authorities, private individuals. The decision on awarding the order accepted a permanent ad hoc working group, organized under the Fund, which includes the founders of the Foundation, members of the clergy and the public.
The Governor of the Sverdlovsk region, congratulated the citizens with the day of the patroness of the city. In turn, Metropolitan Kirill in his welcome speech noted: “the St Catherine’s Day is a day of thanksgiving: we thank those people who did a lot for our city and our lives here. The old order of St. Catherine was the motto “For love and Fatherland”, and on the new restored, For charity. These three words — love, the Fatherland, and mercy are joined together, because without love we cannot do anything good in this life.”
Honorary awards were awarded to ten of the Urals. Among them, medical brother TSGB № 2. A. A. mislavskogo Gennady Byzov, providing palliative care to patients with incurable progressive disease; Hope Kupriyanova raising a child with limited possibilities of health and is a foster parent, students Zabolotnikova Oleg and Vitaly Ivanov, who saved from the fire of a family of pensioners; Colonel in the reserve Oleg Savin, who led in the summer of 2012 a group of volunteers in flood-affected Krymsk; the Ekaterinburg taxi driver Anton Savchuk, in his spare time free of charge repair apartments for the elderly. Order of St. Catherine was also awarded the stewardess of airline “Ural airlines” Tatyana bulayeva, who took delivery of one of the passengers during the flight, and the sisters of charity of the Orthodox service mercy Irina Sychev and Valentin Bryukhanov.
A minute of silence in memory of Viktor Kurochkin was awarded the order of St. Catherine posthumously. He died 24 Jun 1983, rescuing people during the disaster nuclear submarine K-429.
December 7 in the Sverdlovsk state academic Philharmonic held a solemn evening dedicated to the celebration of the Day of St. Catherine. The evening was held the award ceremony of the head of the Ekaterinburg Archdiocese in the field of culture and art, headed by Metropolitan Kirill.
The winners of the award in 2018, become a children’s writer Vladislav Krapivin, music and theatre critic L. V. Barykina, novelist, poet, essayist V. A. Blinov, author and presenter of musical and educational programs of the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic of I. I. Nesterov, graphic artist V. N. Pankratev, people’s artist of Russia V. N. Smolin, film Director, animator, O. L. Cherkasova. In a special nomination “the Royal year” prize was awarded to the authors of the songs “the king’s prayer.”
According to the website of the Ekaterinburg Archdiocese