The monument to Alexy II will be unveiled on the Feast of the Annunciation in Vitebsk
The monument to Alexy II will be unveiled on April 7 in Vitebsk, the ideology department of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee informed a BELTA correspondent.
The grand opening and consecration of the monument to His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II will take place on the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary near the walls of the Holy Assumption Cathedral of Vitebsk. The bronze monument was erected at the request of believers and on the initiative of the public. The project authors are the renowned Belarusian sculptor Vladimir Slobodchikov, architecture professor Igor Morozov, and stone designer Igor Voyush.
The historical visit of His Holiness the Patriarch to the Vitebsk land in September 1998 largely contributed to the cooperation between the Church and the state, the department emphasized. Throughout the subsequent decade, His Holiness the Patriarch constantly took an interest in the construction progress of the Holy Assumption Cathedral and bestowed his Primatial blessing for the successful and prompt completion of the construction and interior decoration of the church.
More than a hundred guests from Russia and Belarus have been invited to the ceremony of opening and consecration of the monument, including Metropolitan Philaret of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, First Vicar of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Archbishop Arseny of Istra, and Bishop Isidore of Smolensk and Vyazma.