Metropolitan Cleopas blesses three infants at St. George Cathedral in Stockholm

A particularly moving occasion took place at St. George Cathedral in Stockholm on Sunday, October 4, 2026, as three infants received the traditional forty-day blessing of the Orthodox Church.

The service was celebrated by Metropolitan Cleopas of Sweden, assisted by Protopresbyter Georgios Arvanitidis, parish priest of the Church of Saints Demetrios and Nestor in Örebro.

The parents brought their children to the Cathedral to present them to God and receive the blessing of the Church, in accordance with the tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The presence of the three youngest members of the Cathedral’s spiritual family was welcomed as a blessing from God and a sign of the continued growth and renewal of the Orthodox Church in Scandinavia.

The Cathedral community expressed the hope that the children would remain connected to the Church beyond their forty-day blessing and Baptism, growing up within its liturgical and spiritual life.

The occasion also served as a reminder of the responsibility of the faithful to support the spiritual formation of younger generations with love and dedication, recalling Christ’s words: “Let the little children come to Me!”