“We really live in a time when the Orthodox faith has triumphed in our country”translated

On September 1, 2026, on the feast of the Don Icon of the Mother of God, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Don Stavropegic Monastery in Moscow. At the end of the Liturgy, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed the believers with the Primate’s word.

Thank you, Vladyka, for your kind words, for this wonderful gift, for the management of this monastery and, in general, for your attention to the monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church!

God grant that all those who can help restore and develop monastic communities do so with boldness, with love for the Lord and for monastic feats.

The Russian Orthodox Church today is almost the only Orthodox Church in the world where new monastic communities are being created and monasteries are being opened. The dynamics of the development of modern civilization in the West excludes attention to genuine spiritual life: everything is focused on earthly, bodily life. We know that modern people have achieved a lot in self-pleasure, comfort, and entertainment. If we add up all the efforts aimed at relaxing the spiritual principle in a person, then it becomes clear that enormous force was applied.

Thinkers, theologians,...