On Sunday, February 16, His Holiness Kyrill, Patriarch of Moscow & All Russia, congratulated the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan of Eastern America & New York, on the occasion of his namesday:

To His Eminence, the Very Most Reverend Nicholas
Metropolitan of Eastern America & New York
First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad

Your Eminence, beloved in the Lord Vladyka!

I sincerely congratulate you on your namesday – the feast of the Holy Equal-of-the-Apostles Nicholas, Archbishop of Japan.

Fulfilling the weighty service of First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, evincing fatherly care for the clergy and flock, and manifesting exceptional concern for the strengthening of the Orthodox presence in America, you strive, just as did your Heavenly patron, to be "a faithful and divinely wise servant of Christ" (troparion to the saint).

May the All-Merciful Lord renew your physical and spiritual strengths, and grant peace and His unfailing aid in your further archpastoral labors, and in the working of salvation.

With love in Christ Jesus,

+KYRILL
Patriarch of Moscow & All Russia

www.patriarchia.ru
Translation by the Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese.