Odesa hierarch and Bulgarian Ambassador honor memory of Cyril and Methodius

Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Sviatoslav Ivanov, Consul General of Bulgaria in Odesa. Photo: Screenshot from the YouTube channel of the Odesa Eparchy

The Consul General of the Republic of Bulgaria in Odesa, Sviatoslav Ivanov, visited the Divine Liturgy at the St. Nicholas Church of the UOC in the village of Kulevcha, Odesa region, on May 22, 2024. According to the press service of the Odesa Eparchy, the ambassador, together with Metropolitan Agafangel of Odesa and Izmail, laid flowers at the monument to the holy equal-to-apostles Cyril and Methodius in the central square of the village.

The event was also attended by the chairman of the Kulevcha territorial community and local deputies.

"We pray to the Lord God that through the prayers of the holy equal-to-apostles Cyril and Methodius, He will preserve us from all evil," the message says.

On May 24, the Orthodox Church will celebrate the memory of the holy equal-to-apostles Cyril and Methodius. The veneration of the "educators of the Bulgarians and all Slavic peoples, who created the Slavic-Bulgarian letters and accomplished great work, translating the Holy Scriptures from Greek into our native Slavic-Bulgarian language," was established in 1853 in Bulgaria. In Rus, the solemn celebration of the memory of the holy archbishops equal-to-apostles Cyril and Methodius was established in 1863 and acquired special significance: "Through them, the Divine Liturgy and all church services are performed in our native Slavic language, and through them, the inexhaustible wellspring of water flowing into eternal life was given to us."

As reported by the UOJ, a reliquary with the foot of Andrew the Apostle was brought from Odesa to Khmelnytskyi.

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