UOC Primate performs rite of burial of Holy Theotokos' Shroud

The rite of burial of the Shroud of the Most Holy Theotokos. Photo: Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC

On the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry led the concelebrated evening service with the rite of burial of the Shroud of the Mother of God at the St. Agapitus Church of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, reports the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC.

The Primate was concelebrated by the UOC Chancellor, Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary; Metropolitan Clement of Nizhyn and Pryluky, head of the UOC Information and Education Department; Metropolitan Philaret of Lviv and Halych; Archbishop Spyridon of Dobropillia; Archbishop Spyridon of Vyshneve; Archbishop Mark of Borodianka; Bishop Panteleimon of Baturyn; and the monastery clergy.

Liturgical sources date the emergence of the burial rite to approximately the fifteenth or sixteenth century. An abbreviated form of this rite, known as the "Praises" (the singing of troparia and the reading of the seventeenth kathisma), was performed by the clergy of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra together with the festal service.

During the contemporary service, the clergy bring the Shroud of the Mother of God to the center of the church and sing troparia of the Jerusalem order over it, after which the Shroud is carried in a cross procession around the church.

As the UOJ reported, the Sviatohirsk Lavra celebrated the patronal feast of the monastery.

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