Thousands in Russia make pilgrimage to relic of saint’s hand
FEATURE |
MOSCOW — Pilgrims stood patiently in line to kiss the silver-clasped fingers of Saint Spyridon, and to pray for the fourth-century saint to lend a divine hand in their family and money worries.
A queue outside Moscow’s Danilovsky monastery stretched back several kilometres this week as thousands waited to see the relic of the Greek saint’s right hand, which is briefly on loan to the Russian Orthodox Church.
But Russian believers said it was well worth the wait.
“Something happens to your soul that can’t be put in words. It’s some kind of warmth inside,” Tatyana Makhmutova, a 40-year-old civil servant, told AFP, with tears in her eyes.
“His spirit is present here. It is as if he comes closer to us with his right hand. He blesses us,” pensioner Inna Svezhentseva, 72, told AFP..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101007com6.html
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