On the 19th and 21st of December our St. Nicholas parish celebrated its Feast Day.

 The Divine Liturgy was presided over by the parish rector, Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada, who was joined by the clergy of the cathedral and visiting Archdeacon Vasiliy Milonow from Ottawa.

During the reading of the Hours, His Grace elevated Anatoly Crepostnoi to the rank of sub-deacon.

Archbishop Gabriel in his sermon spoke of the life and deeds of St. Nicholas, noting how the veneration of the Saint of Myra is widespread throughout the Christian world.   "So why this attachment of Christians to St. Nicholas?   It stems from the fact that he is always close to us and that he hears our prayers.   Today he shares in our celebration and having been blessed in God’s heavenly abode, he calls upon us to imitate him just as he himself imitated Christ.” At the end of his sermon, Archbishop Gabriel called all to pray to St. Nicholas for all of life’s necessities: “Since St. Nicholas is the patron saint of all travelers, it would be good to memorize the troparion to the saint and to recite it every time we travel, be it by plane, by automobile, or by subway.”

At the end of the Liturgy, Many Years were proclaimed to His Holiness Kyrill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, to the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Metropolitan Hilarion, to His Eminence Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada, to the cathedral clergy, to the parishioners, and to all those who were celebrating their Name Day.

Completing the celebration of the patronal feast was a festive meal in the parish hall. During the meal Mr. Peter Paganuzzi, a long standing and active parishioner, gave a presentation marking the fifty years since the purchase of the present building. He recounted some happy as well as tragic events from the history of the parish (including the devastating fire), and gave an account of the restoration of the building.

The guests were treated to musical performances by the children of parishioners and students of our parish school, congratulating everyone on this festive day.

  There is really not all that much written about Saint Nicholas as he himself did not write anything. Nevertheless, this saint is known throughout the world as the Saint of God. His life was so full of great faith and good works, that he is known and praised not only by Orthodox believers, but also by Catholics, Protestants, and even Buddhists!                                                       
    Why is this so? It is because while even during his earthly life he continuously sought to help people. He stopped the poor father, who in desperation wanted to give his daughters away into bad marriages for the sake of money, and in so doing saved the family from the grave sin of fornication. He stilled a storm at sea and did not let the ship sink when the people on board cried out to Him, to St. Nicholas. Those who came to him included innocently convicted magistrates, and St. Nicholas saved them by appearing in a dream to the emperor. At the first Ecumenical Council out of zeal for God with great boldness, he struck the heretic Arius on the cheek, for which other bishops suspended him and removed his bishop’s Omophorion and took away his Holy Gospel. The same night, all the bishops who were at the council had the same dream where the Lord and the Mother of God handed to St. Nicholas the Holy Gospel and his omophorion as evidence that the Lord Himself was not angry with Saint Nicholas. There is not a house of believers where one will not find an icon of St. Nicholas. To him seek help students to pass exams, patients before surgery - and he manages to help everybody. This Friday, the 19^th of December our parish celebrates its feast day the importance of which is that of a second Pascha. According to our local tradition, and with the blessing of our Archpastor and rector Archbishop Gabriel, the feast day will be celebrated on the day and will then continue through to Sunday the 21^st of December concluding with a festive meal in our parish hall right after The Divine Liturgy. We kindly invite everyone to share together with us this joy of celebrating St Nicholas day and truly look forward to seeing everybody during these upcoming days.

BAKE SALE

From 12:20 to 2:30

Organized by the Sisterhood of the Cathedral
Proceeds of sales go towards the Rebuilding of the Cathedral

ATTENTION ! Vérifiez la cartes pour les rues fermées- check map for closed streets !

http://ca.competitor.com/montreal/parcours

Due to the major repairs at the cathedral, the Sisterhood's annual bazaar on September 20 and 

the Church Family BBQ on September 21 are 

CANCELED

Please Note: June 1st Tour de L’Ile.  Many of the roads leading to the church will be blocked from 8:00am in the morning until the afternoon.  You should check the Tour de L’Ile website for more details.

Click here to view list of street closures