The Academy performed the rite of carrying out the Shroud

“My people, what have I done to you? How did I offend you? I healed your blind ones, cleansed your lepers, raised the paralytics. My people, what have I done to you? How are you paying me back? You have nailed me to the Cross…” — the Verse of Holy Friday recalls some words that the Lord might have said to the Jews. 

Christ dies on the Cross for His creation, and only a few people could comprehend this Sacrifice or want to give Jesus honors and the last kiss. Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Christ, together with Nicodemus and myrrh-bearing women remove the Body from the Cross and puts it in a tomb. 

This Shroud, which is an image of the Son of God wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a coffin surrounded by Angels, is carried out today to the middle of the church for the veneration. 

On April 14, Bishop Kirill co-served by the academic clergy, officiated the Vespers with the rite of bringing out a shrine. The priesthood, teachers and students of the Academy, like the righteous Joseph and Nicodemus, gathered to venerate the Body of our Lord.

At the end of the Vespers, they read a canon "On the Crucifixion of the Lord and the Lamentation of the Virgin". The text conveys deep sorrow of the Mother of God for Her Son: 

“I strive, My Heart, to receive You from the Tree in my arms, as I held You as a Child. But, alas, to Me, no one gives You to Me.

Background information:

Chanting performed by the first academic choir under the conduct of E.V. Borovinsky and the second mixed choir led by K.A. Alekseeva. 

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