On September 8, 2026, an icon of Christ (104 × 70 × 3.5 cm) arrived from Mount Athos as a gift to our Church in Korea. It is the work of the Holy Cell of St. Nicholas Bourazeris.
On Sunday, September 20, 2026, before the Dismissal of the Divine Liturgy, the icon was formally received at the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Seoul. Led by the altar boys carrying the Holy Cross, the ripidia, the dikirotrikira and the censer, the clergy went out to the courtyard of the church to receive the icon. There the choir began to chant the apolytikion of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, “We venerate Thy immaculate image, O Good One…”, and the procession entered the church with the icon. The icon was placed in the center of the solea, and a special service began, with the offering of incense, a litany, the reading by the hierarch of the special “Prayer for a Newly Painted Icon,” and the anointing of the icon with the Holy Chrism.
At the end of the service, Metropolitan Ambrosios of Korea and Exarch of Japan presented the icon to the faithful and explained its theological significance. He then thanked Elder Arsenios and his Brotherhood on behalf of everyone for the precious gift, which they had so kindly offered to the Church of Christ in Korea, and expressed the wish that we may one day have the blessing of seeing them in person among us. He also thanked Mr. Konstantinos Daskalopoulos, who took on the task of safely transporting the icon from Greece to Korea.
