The Head of the House of Romanoff Attends the Consecration of the Cross and Dome of the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Madrid
On February 7, 2013, His Grace Bishop Nestor of Korsun officiated at the consecration of the first dome and cross of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, which is currently under construction in Madrid.
Among those attending the service were: the Russian Ambassador to Spain, Iu. P. Korchagin; the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria of Russia; the President of the publicly traded company “Russian Railways,” V. I. Iakunin; the Director of the Charitable Foundation “Transsoiuz,” V. V. Chernyshov; and the President of the Spanish company “Talgo,” Carlos de Palacio de Oriol, who reaffirmed his company’s commitment to support the construction of the church. Mr. Carlos de Palacio de Oriol is a relative of Loyola de Palacio, who was a childhood friend of Grand Duchess Maria of Russiaand haddeep feelings of friendship for Russia and for its Orthodox believers. (For more information on Loyola de Palacio, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyola_de_Palacio.)
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In 1761, during the reign of Empress Elizabeth I, the St. Mary Magdalene Russian Orthodox parish was established in Madrid and existed until 1882.
After the Second World War, a house church of the Holy Martyr Alexandra was founded in Madrid in the home of members of the Russian Imperial House, who were living at that time in Spain. The parish was founded by the most august father-in-law of Grand Duke WladimirKirillovich, the Head of the Georgian Royal House, Prince George AlexandrovichBagration-Mukhranskii. (For more information, see: http://imperialhouse.ru/eng/allnews/news/2007/759.html.)
Subsequently, the Orthodox faithful of all nationalities attended for many years the Church of Ss. Andrew and Demetrius, which was constructed in 1973 and was under the omophorion of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Its rector was Archpriest Demetrius Tsiamparlis, who was Grand Duchess Maria of Russia’s father-confessor.
In 2001, the Russian Orthodox parish of the Nativity of Christ was founded, conducting services in a former furniture factory.
The need to build a new church for the Russian Orthodox community had been discussed for a long time, but the decision to build a new church came only after the visit to Spain of the President of Russia, Dmitrii Medvedev in March 2009.
On March 1, 2009, President Medvedev’s wife visited the Nativity of Christ parish. During her visit, the mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallard?n Jim?nez, promised to resolve the problem of finding an appropriate construction site for the new Russian Orthodox church.
With the blessing of His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow and All Russia, a new Nativity of Christ ChurchConstruction Fundwas registered in the Spanish Ministry of Culture, and is chaired by the rector of the parish, Fr. Andrei Kordochkin. Among the members of the Board of Trustees of the Fund are His Eminence, Archbishop Mark of Egorievsk, the head of the Secretariat of Foreign Institutions of the Moscow Patriarchate; and His Grace, Bishop Nestor of Korsun. The Board of Trustees also includes the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Wladimirovna.
Official permission for construction of the new Church was granted on October 5, 2011.
On December 6, at the construction site of the new church, His Eminence, Archbishop Mark of Egorievsk, and His Grace, Bishop Nestor of Korsun, along with Archpriest Andrei Kordochkin, the parish priest, consecrated the corner stone of the church. Attending the service was the wife of then President Dmitrii Medvedev, Svetlana VladimirovnaMedvedeva; the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria of Russia; and H.I.H., the Heir, Tsesarevich and Grand Duke Georgii of Russia. With the cornerstone consecrated, construction of the church quickly began. (For more information, see: http://imperialhouse.ru/eng/allnews/news/2012/2866.html.)
In the fall of 2012, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill I gave his blessing for the consecration of a new church dedicated to the Heavenly patron of the Head of the Russian Imperial House, the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, reestablishing a link with the first Orthodox parish ever in Spain, which had existed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (For more on the life of St. Mary Magdalene, see, in Russian: http://imperialhouse.ru/rus/imperialhouse/orthodox/guardians/2/2106.html.)
It is projected that construction will be completed in April 2013. Besides the church itself, the complex of new buildings will include an office, a church hall and refectory, classrooms for religious instruction, and a rectory.