News Release Concerning the Delivery by Hand of a Letter of Thanks from H.I.H. Dowager Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna, to His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and All Russia, on the Occasion of the Awarding to Her Imperial Highness the Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga

On 12 January 2005, His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and All Russia received at his residence at Chistyi Pereulok, a delegation from the Russian Nobility Association, headed by Prince A. S. Obolenskii, and A. N. Zakatov, the director of the Chancellery of the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna. At the beginning of the audience with the Patriarch, the director of the Chancellery delivered to His Holiness a letter from H.I.H. Dowager Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna, expressing Her gratitude for the recent bestowal upon Her of the Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga, which took place in the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in Madrid on 9 January 2005. In the course of the discussions, the director of H.I.H.’s Chancellery, on instructions from the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, updated His Holiness of the recent activities of the Imperial Family, and in the name of Her Imperial Highness, requested His Holiness’s blessing for the transference to the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in Madrid (under the omophorion of the Russian Patriarchate) of Altar Utensils and the Antiminsion from the former private chapel of the Imperial family. The delegates also requested, again on behalf of Her Imperial Highness, that His Holiness approve the request of His Eminence, Metropolitan Kornilii (Iakobos) that his grandchildren, P. V. Seliverstov and N.G. Kirillov bear the surname Iakobsov, and be permitted to bear the heraldic devices of the Iakobsov noble family. His Holiness the Patriarch blessed these actions and decisions taken by the Head of the Russian Imperial House, and expressed his thanks to H.I.H. Dowager Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna for her letter and gave his wishes for a blessed New Year to the members of the Imperial Family.

A.N. Zakatov
Personal secretary of the Imperial Family
Director of the Chancellery of H.I.H.