Russia’s most well-known icon handed over from museum to church regardless of protests

MOSCOW — Russian Orthodox believers celebrated Trinity Sunday with Russia’s most well-known icon transferred from a museum to Moscow’s predominant cathedral regardless of the keepers’ vociferous protests.

The Trinity icon by Andrei Rublev, which was stored in Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery because the Nineteen Twenties, was moved to Christ the Savior Cathedral earlier than the vacation on President Vladimir Putin‘s private order.

Putin‘s abrupt choice handy over the Fifteenth-century icon to the church got here regardless of a powerful opposition from the Tretyakov keepers, who warned that the icon was too fragile to maneuver and requires fixed care to keep away from a drastic deterioraton in its situation.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill responded by dismissing a senior priest who sided with the museum keepers in advising to maintain the icon on the Tretyakov Gallery.

Kirill led a liturgy within the cathedral on Sunday, which was attended by tons of of believers, together with some officers.

The controversy over the icon continued to swirl on Saturday, when Kirill declared that it will stay within the cathedral for a 12 months, whereas the Culture Ministry and the Tretyakov Gallery each stated that they anticipate the icon again after two weeks.

In July 2022, the Tretyakov Gallery loaned the icon to the Russian Orthodox Church for a number of days to be displayed on the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius monastery in Sergiev Posad the place it was initially stored. The museum later stated it discovered 61 unfavorable modifications in its situation after its return.

Observers noticed Putin‘s order to transfer the icon to the cathedral despite strong protests from museum workers as a reflection of his desire to strengthen ties with the church, which has strongly supported the Russian military campaign in Ukraine. Some also interpreted the move as a sign of Putin‘s apparent belief in the icon’s miraculous energy amid the setbacks within the preventing in Ukraine.