Patriarch Filaret Opens Spiritual and Educational Center in Poltava

Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate opened a new educational center in Poltava. The event took place on 27 November within the framework of his visit to the region on the occasion of the day of remembrance of St. Paisii Velychkovskyi.

According to our Poltava correspondent, Serhii Yevtushenko, a visit of the spiritual leader is always an extraordinary event and, therefore, hundreds of believers came to the Cathedral of the Holy Assumption. Patriarch Filaret visited the new exhibition hall of the newly created center and spoke to journalists there.

The patriarch described the role of the Kyivan Patriarchate in the social life of Ukraine in the following way: “The Kyivan Patriarchate is the spiritual foundation of the Ukrainian state because the Christian religion, primarily Orthodoxy, has always been our spiritual foundation and the ideological foundation. And the Kyivan Patriarchate has become now the largest Church in Ukraine as far as the number of believers is concerned. There are more than 15 million of us. The growth of the Kyivan Patriarchate is the strengthening of the Ukrainian state,” noted the patriarch.

According to him the Poltava Eparchy, in particular, also shows rapid growth. “As recently as ten years ago we had only a few small parishes. Today, there are more then a hundred of them. Late Metropolitan Yevsevii contributed a lot of effort in this work and the baton was picked up by Archbishop Fedir. But we do not forget about our main task which is not only to strengthen the church on Earth. Our main goal is to get people prepared for eternal life. Archbishop Fedir of Poltava and Kremenchuk acquainted those present with the biography of St. Paisii Velychkovskyi and told them about the activity of a newly established charitable society and the educational Center.”

The first event held in the center has been an exhibition of ancient icons. The exposition contains over 40 icons from private collections of Poltava residents. The oldest ones date back to the 18th century.  “However, each of the icons undoubtedly is of interest for art critics, a few of them are family treasures passed on as inheritance,” said the director of the Charitable Center, Serhii Kozlov.

During the ceremony of the opening of the exhibition hall, Patriarch Filaret consecrated an icon of St. Paisii. It is a copy of his portrait of the 18th century by an outstanding Poltava painter, Kim Salatskyi. The icon contains a fragment of relics of the saint.

“I hope that this new icon of Saint Paisii will become the protection for the Poltava community,” said the patriarch.

On Wednesday, Patrirach Filaret conducted two services for the occasion.