On the morning of January 7, President Vladimir Putin congratulated Orthodox Christians and all Russians celebrating Christmas on the holiday. In his address, the head of state said that “Christmas has a special moral meaning” as it unites people “around high spiritual ideals and values” and thus “fills hearts with joy and bright hopes.”
Christmas is associated with family traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation, Putin added.
In his statement, he also noted the “enormous creative, truly selfless contribution” of the ROC to the preservation of the “historical, patriotic, cultural heritage” of the country, as well as to the education of the younger generation and the strengthening of the institution of the family.
Yesterday RIA Novosti reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated Christmas in the Church of the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, which is located on the territory of his residence near Moscow in Novo-Ogaryovo.
The head of state came to the festive service in a suit, but without a tie. He put candles in front of the icon of the Nativity of Christ.
Last year, Putin celebrated one of the most important holidays for Orthodox Christians at the St. Nicholas Church on Lipno Island in the Novgorod Region. He had already been there in 2016. The head of state also celebrated Christmas more than once at the Transfiguration Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
The villages of Ogarevo and Usovo appeared in the middle of the 15th century. By the end of the 17th century, they practically merged. After that, another name for the villages periodically appears in the documents – “Spasskoye”, after the name of the wooden church of the Savior Not Made by Hands, built in 1627. In 1765, a stone church was erected on the same site, consecrated under the same name. It was seriously rebuilt in the 1940s.
Until now, on the territory of Novo-Ogaryovo, the Church of the Savior of the Image of the Savior, erected in 1765, a park with landscape design and ponds have been preserved.
In 2004, the temple was restored with elements of reconstruction. Now it is the home church of the Novo-Ogarevo residence.
