Moscow: Savior Cathedral and Bone Fragments

moscow: Yet the queues stretching down the Moscow River embankment from Christ the Savior Cathedral are something of their own marvel, according to Brandon Sun. The massive turnout to see the saint's relics, which are on loan from their home in Bari, Italy for the first time, underline how strongly the Orthodox Church has become a part of Russians' sense of themselves a quarter-century after the collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union. Nicholas came to Moscow, more than 300,000 people have stood in huge lines for up to 10 hours to visit a gilded ark thought to carry his bone fragments. It was tough, but you got a chance to think about your life, all the problems and the sins you have committed, economist Svetlana Dzhuma, 24, said after exiting the cathedral in a state of elation. Although Russians remain predominantly secular and have opposed church-backed initiatives such as a ban on abortions or public school classes on Orthodox Church teachings, the overwhelming majority of them strongly identify as Russian Orthodox. President Vladimir Putin, who says he was secretly baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church as an infant, paid his respects to the relics on the day they arrived in Moscow, where photos of him kissing the ark were widely featured in Russian media. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.