On September 1, the 10th Sunday after Pentecost, a joyous series of events took place in the Church of the Nativity of Christ and St. Nicholas in Florence, Italy. The hierarchical services that weekend were officiated by the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, His Eminence Nicholas, Metropolitan of Eastern America & New York; the diocese’s ruling bishop, His Grace Irenei, Bishop of London & Western Europe; and His Grace Job, Bishop of Stuttgart, whom Bishop Irenei warmly invited to the parish. Serving alongside the hierarchs were the local clergy of the Florentine parish: Archpriest George Blatynski, Priest Oleg Turcan, and Deacon Rusticus Prisacaru.
On Friday, Bishop Irenei warmly welcomed the First Hierarch back to the Florence community, where His Eminence had visited for the clergy convocation in 2023. The two hierarchs were in turn welcomed by the local community, meeting with parishioners in the afternoon and spending the evening with the parish clergy, discussing its spiritual life and that of the Orthodox Church more broadly. Discussions were also begun on plans for the First Hierarch’s first formal visit to the Diocese of Great Britain & Western Europe as a whole, toward which all the faithful and clergy look with great anticipation.
Prior to the All-Night Vigil on Saturday evening, Bishop Irenei invited the community to gather in remembrance of the ever-memorable First Hierarch of the Church Abroad, Metropolitan Laurus (Škurla; +2008), whose Heavenly patron’s memory was kept on this day. The current First Hierarch, Metropolitan Nicholas, thus served a panihida for Metropolitan Laurus and offered heartfelt words in his remembrance.
Sunday Divine Liturgy, presided over by the First Hierarch of ROCOR, was celebrated in the beautiful lower church of the parish, dedicated to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, where the divine services are customarily held during the exceedingly hot summer months. With particular beauty, the parish choir sang Liturgy, celebrated by three hierarchs, at which many faithful came forward to receive Christ’s Holy Mysteries and receive spiritual instruction from the Metropolitan.
On Sunday afternoon, two weddings were celebrated in the temple: that of Priest Oleg and Matushka Nona’s eldest son, Sergei, which the whole parish celebrated with great joy, as a beloved child of the community entered into a new richness of life with his bride. The second wedding, the same afternoon, was of two spiritual children of Metropolitan Nicholas with connections to the church in Florence, for which occasion His Eminence had travelled to the city, in order to wed them in the temple so dear to them.
Throughout the coming week, Bishop Job will remain in Florence at the invitation of Bishop Irenei, in order to film a documentary about the history and life of the Florentine community, as part of a series of films about the legacy of the Church Abroad’s historic temples in the Western European and German Dioceses.
