Dear Orthodox fellow citizens!

I heartily congratulate you on a wonderful, bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ.

The forty-day Christmas fast has ended, and in numerous Orthodox churches around the world, believers solemnly glorify the Newborn Christ. This holiday, with which the best aspirations and good hopes were originally associated, has no social, national and age boundaries.

For more than two millennia, Christians have been waiting with joy and spiritual awe for  coming of the Nativity of Christ. And today – after many centuries – millions of people just as sincerely and disinterestedly believe in sacred truths that open them the way to spiritual perfection, repentance and forgiveness. This holiday bears  an inexhaustible charge of goodness, love and optimism of life, which believers generously share with their neighbors, helping the weak and suffering people.

In Tatarstan, where Orthodoxy, along with Islam and other traditional religions, is one of the fundamental factors of spiritual and moral development, the celebration of the Nativity of Christ always takes place in an atmosphere of good neighborliness and mutual understanding.

The past year was marked in the republic by many important events in Orthodox life, culminating in the IV Forum of the Orthodox public of the Republic of Tatarstan, dedicated to the 440th anniversary of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. The regional stage of the XXVIII International Christmas Educational Readings “The Great Victory: Heritage and Heirs”, dedicated to the upcoming 75th anniversary of the nationwide Victory in the Great Patriotic War, was successfully held. The reconstruction of the All-Russian shrine is actively going on – the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God of the Bogoroditzky (Theotokos) Monastery.

I am sure that all this will further contribute to the spiritual revival of society, as well as strengthen spiritual ties between representatives of different nationalities and religions.

I sincerely wish you all a joyful Christmas mood, peace, happiness, kindness and prosperity!