Icon and relic of St Innocent
With the blessing of His Eminence, Archbishop Vadim of Irkutsk and Angarsk, a particle of the relics of St. Innocent of Irkutsk were given as a gift to the Orthodox community of Beijing. On October 11 the congregation and clergy, assembled before Sunday's liturgy in the temple of St. Innocent of Irkutsk in the Russia Embassy in Beijing (Red Fangzi) to greet the relics of St. Innocent with a festive prayer service (molieben).
St. Innocent was the first Orthodox bishop who was appointed to serve in Beijing, as head of the Russian Spiritual Mission. Due to the circumstances of the time, his arrival in Beijing proved impossible, and the prelate headed the Irkutsk Diocese, putting much work into educating the Orthodox peoples of Eastern Siberia and the neighboring lands. After his glorification in the choir of saints, he began to be revered as the heavenly protector of China. In 1902 a stavropighial temple, in memory of St. Innocent, was consecrated on the territory of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Beijing. Daily divine services were conducted primarily in Chinese. The temple's very architecture, the Chinese style used to decorate the church building, embodied the idea of serving the Orthodox Church in the Chinese world, the idea of creating a Chinese Orthodox culture.
Today, following the restoration of the Dormition Church on the territory of the Embassy of Russia, repairs will begin in the St. Innocent's temple and the saint's relics and other holy objects of Beijing's Orthodox community will be available for prayerful veneration in the revived Dormition Church.