Archbishop Innokentii of Korsun Presented in Madrid the Devices for the Church’s Order of St. Olga, First Class, to Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna

On 7 November 2008, His Eminence Archbishop Innokentii of Korsun arrived in Madrid and, accompanied by Fr. Andrei Kordochkin, the rector of the Church of the Nativity of Christ in Madrid, visited the apartment of the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, where, with the blessing of His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and All Russia, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna was presented the diploma [gramota] and device of the Church’s Order of St. Olga, First Class. Her Imperial Highness received the award in recognition of her 60 years of service to the Russian Imperial House (which began on 13 August 1948, when she married the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich) and on the occasion of her 94-th birthday.

In the conversations that followed the presentation, the topics of Church life in Russia and abroad, and also the construction of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Madrid were raised. The Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, accepted the invitation to sit on the Board of Trustees of the cathedral.