Mikhail Piotrovsky
In the St. Petersburg diocese commented on the letter of the President of the Union of museums of Russia, Director of the Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky to Patriarch Kirill devoted to the transfer of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Russian Orthodox Church. The head of the diocesan Department for cooperation of Church and society Archpriest Alexander Pelin said to “Interfax” that Piotrovsky would have to think about the Hermitage instead of Isaac.
“Actually, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, if he called for St. Isaac’s Cathedral as a historical monument, maybe it makes more sense to do the historical traditions of the Hermitage as one of the best museums in the world, and not to make it provocative exhibitions such as the exhibition of Jan Fabre? (We are talking about exposure of an artist with stuffed animals, opened in the New Hermitage October 21 — approx. “Of the tape.ru”) Maybe we should attend to this?” asked Pelin, noting that the exhibition, according to believers, promotes the cult of death.
In this regard, the priest advised the Director of the Hermitage “is to learn to listen to the public, and then to act on behalf of the public with some request.” “It’s time to close the period of the twentieth century, to complete the confrontation of “white” and “red”. In this sense, the transfer of the Saint Isaac’s Cathedral, the faithful will be an important symbolic act of spiritual reconciliation, consensus in society,” concluded FR.
25 Jan Piotrowski sent to the Patriarch a letter in which he called on to consider temporary withdrawal of the petition for transfer of the Cathedral to the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church. This measure, according to the President of the Union of museums of Russia “will stop public confrontation and find the most wise and just decision.”
On 10 January the government of St. Petersburg has agreed to transfer the St. Isaac Cathedral, the Russian Orthodox Church. The Governor Georgy Poltavchenko promised that the Museum’s function is fully preserved. For the first time, the St. Petersburg diocese has requested the transfer of Isaac in 2015, but was refused.