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March 15, 2011
Perth Amboy, NJ: The Kursk Root Icon visited St. John the Baptist Church on the day of repose of Metropolitan Nicholas of Amissos

 

With the blessing of His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, on Sunday, March 13, the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God visited St. John the Baptist Carpatho-Russian Cathedral in Perth Amboy, NJ. The Icon was greeted in procession, and after its triumphal entry into the church, the Vespers service commenced. Services were led by parish rector Archpriest Michael Rosco, co-served by Eastern American Diocesan secretary Archpriest Serge Lukianov, who was accompanying the Icon, and a multitude of Carpatho-Russian, Ukrainian, Greek, and OCA clergy.

 

The visit of the wonderworking Icon was especially significant for the parish: that same day, Metropolitan Nicholas (Smisko) of Amissos, ruling bishop of the American Carpatho-Russian Diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, reposed in the Lord at 75 years of age. His Eminence had grown up a parishioner of St. John the Baptist Church, and was ordained to the priesthood in that church in 1959. Upon completion of Vespers, Fr. Serge addressed the gathered faithful with a sermon about Metropolitan Nicholas of blessed repose, whom the Kursk Icon had visited in January, only months prior, and then presented Fr. Michael a copy of the Kursk Root Icon – a blessing from the First Hierarch of ROCOR, Metropolitan Hilarion. Fr. Michael answered by expressing his sincere gratitude to Metropolitan Hilarion for the chance to receive the holy Icon, and for the opportunity to raise up their prayers before it for the repose of the newly departed Metropolitan.

 

Click here for the schedule of memorial services in honor of Metropolitan Nicholas.

 

Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese