On Monday, August 31, and Tuesday, September 1, His Eminence Hilarion, Metropolitan of Eastern America & New York, paid an archpastoral visit to St. Andrew’s Church in St. Petersburg, FL and led the divine services on the patronal feast day of the parish, dedicated to the Holy Martyr Andrew Stratelates. The First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad was co-served by parish rector Archpriest Igor Chitikov, Deacon Igor Tarasov (parish cleric), Deacon Vladimir Trushin (cleric of the Mid-American Diocese), and clergy of the Florida parishes.

The Orthodox community in St. Petersburg, FL was founded in 1948 by refugees from Russia. In the 1950s-70s, St. Petersburg was a unique spiritual and cultural center of the first wave of the Russian emigration. From the 1970s on, Russian émigrés of the second wave began to fill the parish. The parish began to grow quickly, thanks primarily to retirees from the northern U.S. and Canada moving to Florida. In the middle of the 1980s, the church was damaged by a fire. With time, the Russian community obtained a new church building, to which the altar table from the old church was transferred in January 2010, just before the feast of Christ’s Nativity. This year, the parish reopened its children’s Sunday school.

Roughly 100 parishioners prayed at the festal Liturgy, many of whom communed of Christ’s Holy Mysteries. Metropolitan Hilarion addressed worshippers with a sermon, in which he spoke on the life and ascetical labors of the Holy Martyr Andrew Stratelates, and called on the faithful to become better acquainted with the lives of the saints, who through their struggles give us an example of service to God, and are a beacon on the path to salvation.

Upon completion of the Liturgy, a procession was held around the church. The St. Xenia Sisterhood prepared a festal luncheon for the clergy and parishioners. The parish choir performed a concert, including Russian and Ukrainian folk songs. This year, in addition to singing songs, several parishioners, who work as circus artists, included several numbers from their repertoire.

Their interaction proceeded in an upbeat and familial spirit; the clergy and parishioners had much to speak about with His Eminence and with one another. Many of those present noted that the tropical storm expected in that region of Florida benevolently bypassed St. Petersburg just in time for Metropolitan Hilarion’s arrival, giving the clergy and faithful an opportunity to joyously celebrate the church’s patronal feast.