On September 12, St. Petersburg celebrates a citywide and ecclesiastical holiday - the Day of the Transfer of the relics of St. Alexander Nevsky. With the blessing of Metropolitan Varsonofy of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, a citywide procession is traditionally held on this holiday - a large procession along Nevsky Prospekt from Kazan Cathedral to the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where the relics of the holy prince have been kept for more than three centuries.
Prince Alexander became famous as an invincible commander, wise politician and just ruler who laid the foundations for the further development of Russia as a great state. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized him. In 1724, Emperor Peter the Great ordered the transfer of the relics of St. Prince Alexander from Vladimir to St. Petersburg. Thus, the city on the Neva found its heavenly patron, and the feast of the transfer of the relics of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky became one of the main ones for the Northern Capital.
The procession in honor of the patron saint of St. Petersburg was established by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in 1743, abolished after the revolutionary events of the early 20th century and revived in 2013. St. Petersburg residents, residents of the Leningrad Region and the Northwest, and pilgrims from other Russian cities participate in it. People of different ages and professions testify on St. Alexander Nevsky Memorial Day to their living faith, loyalty to our traditions, and love for the Fatherland.
One of the main shrines of St. Petersburg, the miraculous Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, will traditionally be carried at the head of the procession along Nevsky Prospekt. With her in the prayer procession this year, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the ark with a particle of the relics of the blessed Prince Dimitri Donskoy will be carried. The relics of the Grand Duke were found in August 2026 during restoration work in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill performed a prayer service at the newly found relics and blessed them to place several particles in the arks for the worship of the faithful.
Upon completion of the divine service in the Kazan Cathedral, a large citywide procession along Nevsky Prospekt to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra will begin at 11:00.
After the end of the Liturgy, a small procession with the relics of the Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky to the square in front of the monastery will begin in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra at 11:50. September 12 is the only day of the year when the relics of St. Prince Alexander are taken out of the Lavra in a small wooden ark.
For the third time, a water procession along the Neva River from the Oreshek Fortress to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra will be part of the celebration on September 12. His route will repeat the last stage of the transfer of the relics of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky in 1724. After the Liturgy, a prayer service will be held at the Oreshek Fortress in the Annunciation Cathedral of Schlisselburg, where a memorial plaque will be erected in memory of the relics of the holy prince. At the end of the prayer service, the participants of the water procession will go by boat to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Three prayer processions — the grand procession along Nevsky Prospekt, the small one from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and the water procession from the Oreshek Fortress - will meet on the square in front of the Lavra at about 12.00. Here, the Kazan Miraculous Icon and two arks with the relics of two great Russian princes Alexander Nevsky and Dimitri Donskoy will be installed on a special stage, before which a festive prayer service will be performed Congratulations from the spiritual and secular authorities of St. Petersburg will be heard, and the memory of the knights of the Order of Alexander Nevsky will be celebrated.
The celebration will end with the passage of the honor guard company and a concert program at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. According to tradition, the Governor's award "For services to strengthening national unity, preserving cultural and historical heritage" named after Alexander Nevsky" will be presented.
The motto of the Alexander Nevsky Procession is "Faith. Traditions. Unity."