The Church of St Nicholas in Bari was given to the Russian Orthodox Church

Bari, Italy • January, 23, 2012

In the Russian St Nicholas Church in Bari the architectural complex of the Church of St Nicholas the Wonderworker which for many years had been shared with one of the local administration’s departments, was officially finally transferred to the possession of the Russian Orthodox Church in the end of this January.

The ceremony was participated by the mayor of Bari Michele Emiliano, the Ambassador of Russia to the Italian Republic Aleksey Meshkov, the head of the Directorate of foreign institutions of the Moscow Eparchy archbishop Mark (Golovkov), dean of the Russian Church of St Nicholas in Bari archpriest Andrey Boitsov.

The mayor of Bari mentioned with pride that Bari is “the most Russian” city in Italy and the only city in the world where the Moscow Eparchy and the Catholic Church of Rome jointly own the Church of St Nicholas.

The mayor of Bari speaks at the ceremony of transferring the architectural complex of the church to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The mayor concluded his speech by expressing his hope that this event was a good sign and in the city of St Nicholas the Pope and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch would finally meet each other in a theological dialogue.

The picture shows one of the ceremonial moments: mayor of Bari Michele Emiliano presents archbishop Mark with a silver carvel which symbolizes the boat that delivered St Nicholas’s relics from Myra to Bari and became the symbol of Bari with time.