Divine Liturgy Held Amid Explosions at Iranian Cathedral

Photo: mospat.ru

TEHRAN, IRAN — On Sunday, the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral amid ongoing U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. A small but devoted group of parishioners attended, undeterred by nearby explosions heard throughout the service, according to the Department for External Church Relations. The Liturgy was led by cathedral cleric Igumen Varlaam (Dulsky), who delivered a festive sermon to conclude the service.

The cathedral, which celebrated its 80th anniversary in December, was originally constructed in the early 1940s through donations from Russian emigrants and officially opened on March 8, 1945, under the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. Its iconostasis was transferred from the former Alexander Nevsky embassy church, and a two-story church house was built alongside the cathedral for offices and the priest’s residence.

After falling into neglect in the 1980s, the parish was received into the Moscow Patriarchate in 1995 at the request of its faithful.

Previously, the UOJ reported that the Holy Sepulchre remained closed amid Middle East tensions.

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