His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon presided at services Saturday and Sunday as the Seminary community celebrated the Feast of the Glorification of St. Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow, Enlightener of the Aleuts, and Apostle to the Americas (October 6).
The celebration began with festal All-Night Vigil at Three Hierarchs Chapel Saturday. At the Vigil, His Beatitude spoke about St. Innocent.
We give thanks to God for raising up this saint in our midst, St. Innocent, as a shepherd who tended his flock in our own times, and in our own lands. The history of all the Orthodox Churches sojourning through North America invites all to share in the celebration of this hierarch as one who valiantly and faithfully served the Church as a missionary and bishop, that is to say, one who both sowed the Word of God and served as one who harvested the bountiful crop. Additionally, his physical labors, literally constructing Church buildings, assured the presence of Orthodox Christianity on this continent to this very day. May his missionary zeal, his faith in Christ, his willingness to do hard work be not only the subject of our commemoration, but an inspiration for each of us in all that we do laboring for the most holy Church of Christ.
Read His Beatitude’s message in its entirety at OCA.org.
The following day, His Beatitude presided at celebration of the Divine Liturgy, joined by clergy from among the faculty and student body.
