Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) said that the icon "Trinity" by Andrei Rublev will be in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior for a year.
“Tomorrow I will not be able to be in this temple and in general in the Lavra precisely because in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior we will pray before the returned image of the Holy Trinity. Then, during the year, the miraculous image will be in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior so that Muscovites and guests of the capital can bow to this great shrine. And then this image will return here, to the holy temple to a historical place,” the patriarch said after the all-night vigil at the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra. He is quoted by RBC.
Earlier, the Ministry of Culture promised that the ancient icon would stay in the church for only two weeks. It was stated that after that it would be sent for restoration. The protective case in which it will be placed is still not suitable for storing the monument.
The decision to transfer the icon to the Russian Orthodox Church was announced on May 15 by Vladimir Putin. He said that this would be done "in response to the numerous requests of Orthodox believers."
On May 23, an expert meeting was held at the Tretyakov Gallery, during which experts came to the conclusion that it was impossible to transfer the icon to the Russian Orthodox Church.
“The icon “Holy Trinity” by Andrei Rublev is not subject to extradition outside the Tretyakov Gallery on the feast of the Trinity on June 4 this year due to the complex and unstable state, as well as the unpredictability of the ongoing process of negative changes. At the moment, the icon is in the restoration workshop in the process of urgent restoration of the monument.
Archpriest Leonid Kalinin, then head of the expert council of the Moscow Patriarchate on church art, architecture and restoration, said that the ROC was sympathetic to this decision. However, soon Patriarch Kirill removed Kalinin from office with the wording "for obstructing" the transfer of Rublev's "Trinity" to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. After that, Kalinin was hospitalized with a heart attack.
On May 24, members of the commission on the culture of ancient and medieval Russia of the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences "History of World Culture" in a letter to the Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova asked her not to allow the transfer of the icon, since the ancient monument would not withstand this transfer and would be destroyed. Experts emphasized that “masterpieces of Russian icon painting and national shrines should not be exposed to unjustified risk,” and the fate of the “Trinity” cannot be decided in a short time and without a balanced discussion with experts.
On May 26, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that the Trinity would be moved to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior by June 4. The Ministry of Culture, in turn, assured that "the safety of the icon during transportation and exhibition will be ensured by the most modern means."
