Relic of St. Arsenius the Great arrives at Sviatohirsk Lavra

St. Arsenius is a patron saint of the monastery, where a skete and a stone church were built in his honor in the 19th century.

On September 15, 2023, a fragment of the holy relics of St. Arsenius the Great arrived at the Holy Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra, the UOC Information and Education Department reports, citing the monastery's press service.

The relic was brought to Ukraine from the United States and donated to Sviatohirsk Lavra by the Poluektov family, who live in California.

In 2020, Illia Poluektov acquired the fragment of St. Arsenius the Great's relics in Italy. Its authenticity is attested by a 19th-century certificate written in Latin. The document bears the letterhead, signature, and seal of Archbishop Placido Maria Tadini of Genoa.

Illia and his brother Ivan had long planned to visit the Holy Mountains and present the relic to the monastery. However, Russia's invasion of Ukraine prevented them from making the trip.

The difficulty of transporting the relic was eventually resolved when Olena Hrushchyna, an Orthodox Christian living in the United States, undertook the mission of delivering it to Sviatohirsk Lavra.

The solemn reception of the relic took place at 12:30 p.m. in the Dormition Cathedral, where the monastery's brotherhood had gathered alongside the sisters of the Skete of the Icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow" in the village of Bohorodychne and the sisters of the Skete of St. John of Shanghai, who were residing at the Lavra.

Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk, the monastery's abbot, received the relic at the cathedral's western entrance.

After placing the reliquary containing the fragment of St. Arsenius the Great's relics in the center of the cathedral beside the saint's icon, Metropolitan Arseniy addressed those gathered. He reminded them that St. Arsenius is a patron saint of the monastery, as a skete was established and a stone church built in his honor at the Sviatohirsk Hermitage in the 19th century.

The metropolitan also spoke about the saint's protection of the monastery in recent times.

During artillery shelling in 2022, the windows of the abbot's cell were shattered. An icon of St. Arsenius the Great sustained only a hole in the glass directly over the saint's heart, while the icon itself remained undamaged. The same icon was later placed beside the saint's relics in the Dormition Cathedral.

Metropolitan Arseniy also invited Olena Hrushchyna to speak. She congratulated everyone on the occasion and recounted how she had experienced the help of St. Arsenius during her journey to Ukraine.

A prayer service for the blessing of water was then celebrated, accompanied by an akathist to St. Arsenius the Great. At the conclusion of the service, Metropolitan Arseniy sprinkled everyone present with holy water.

Following the abbot's closing remarks, all those gathered were anointed with oil from the lamp burning beside the relics of St. Arsenius the Great.

As the UOJ previously reported, preparations had been made to bring fragments of the relics of St. Arsenius the Great from the United States to Sviatohirsk Lavra.