On November 10-11, 2026, the Volgograd Diocese hosted for the first time church celebrations dedicated to the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Stalingrad on November 11, 1942, during one of the most difficult periods of the Battle of Stalingrad.
The main event of the celebration was the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Volgograd. The divine service was led by Metropolitan Theodore of Volgograd and Kamyshinsky, co-served by Bishop Elisey of Uryupinsk and Novoanninsk and Bishop John of Kalachev and Pallasov, as well as the clergy of the Volgograd Archdiocese.
An all-night vigil was held in the cathedral the day before.
Representatives of regional and city authorities, the Cossacks, the Sisters of Mercy of the St. Elizabeth Sisterhood, and numerous believers prayed during the Liturgy.
At the end of the service, Metropolitan Theodore addressed the audience with an archpastoral address.
Then the ceremony of awarding church awards took place. By decree of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Archpriest Vasily Zhelubov and Priest Anatoly Omelchenko were awarded the Orders of St. Seraphim of Sarov, III degree. A number of clergy and laity were also awarded by the Volgograd Diocese for their work for the benefit of the Church.
The celebrations ended with a communal meal organized next to the cathedral.
For the first time, the church celebration was an appeal to the spiritual memory of the Battle of Stalingrad, about the faith, courage and perseverance of people who survived the hardest trials of the Great Patriotic War.
Photo: Volgograd Diocese