“The church is the place where we take a breath of the ‘oxygen of eternity’.”translated

On September 21, 2026, on the feast of the Nativity of our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos of the revived Annunciation Monastery in Astrakhan. At the end of the service, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed the believers with the First Hierarch’s word.

Your Eminences, Vladyka, dear Igor Yurievich! Dear rulers, fathers, brothers and sisters!

Every time I take part in the consecration or foundation of a church, my heart rejoices. He is happy because what is happening today on Russian soil is a historical phenomenon if we evaluate it in the context of the development of human civilization.

The country, which at the beginning of the 20th century was a powerful state force, was plunged into the abyss of godlessness: churches were not simply closed or repurposed, as is happening today in Western Europe, but were blown up and destroyed so that there would be no memory, no visible signs of the Church’s presence in Russia. It seemed that nothing, no human power could stop this evil force.

Although there were various political contradictions...