Sergei Chapnin
A Blog of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University
In early April 2026, two of the most revered icons in Russian Orthodoxy—Our Lady of Vladimir and Our Lady of the Don—were removed from the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and delivered to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. For decades, they had been in the museum’s care, under conditions the state itself had sponsored. Yet not a single state official—not even the minister of culture—said a word. Word came from Patriarch Kirill, who declared on the eve of Palm Sunday:
“My appeal to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, our Orthodox President, led him to decide to return these holy sites to the Church.”
In this brief sermon, the Patriarch did not merely mention the president—he invoked him six times.
The transfer follows a pattern. In 2023, over the protests of conservators, and at Kirill’s insistent urging, Putin ordered the transfer of Rublev’s Trinity to the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius. The icon traveled first to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and then to the Lavra, where it began to deteriorate. Now the same logic has been applied to two more masterpieces, both historically associated with Russia’s military victories—a symbolism hard to miss in the fifth year of the full-scale war in Ukraine.
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