Two thousand attend service held by Patriarch Bartholomew in Mikulčice

Some 2,000 worshippers attended a service held by the Orthodox Church Patriarch Bartholomew in Mikulčice, Moravia, on Saturday. The site is linked to the medieval Christian missionaries SS Cyril and Methodius. Organisers had expected up to 10,000 visitors to come but some were evidently deterred by adverse weather conditions. The liturgy, in which a dozen of Orthodox Church dignitaries took part, was held to mark the 1,150th anniversary of the arrival of SS Cyril and Methodius in Greater Moravia from Thessaloniki, then the Byzantine Empire. Pilgrimages to Mikulčice take place annually in honour of the two saints who created a special script for Slavs and translated basic Christian texts into the Slavic language.

Author: Jan Velinger