Egypt’s Copts’ leader Pope Tawadros II and the accompanying delegation visited on Monday the Novojerusalemskiy, or New Jerusalem, monastery in Moscow.
Tawadros expressed happiness toward visiting the monastery. He explained that the main reason behind his visit to Moscow was meeting Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The visit comes 26 years after the deceased Pope Shenouda III, predecessor of Tawadros, came to attend celebration of 1,000 years of Russian Christianity.
According to Tawadros, he visited monasteries, met with priests, bishops and nuns. He also met up with several students studying at theological institutes.
“We will return back to our country carrying many blessings,” he said describing the visit as ‘special’.
The monastery was established by Patriarch Nikon in 1956. Its architectural construction is similar to holy Christian places in Jerusalem, as the Istra river represents Jordan. It has the resurrection church similar to that in Jerusalem. Nikon was keen that the monastery includes many priests from several nationalities to represent the Orthodox sect through several races, which is the case in Jerusalem.
