ORTHODOX PILGRIMS COME TO MOSCOW TO MARK RELIGIOUS HOLIDAY

MOSCOW, June 8 (Itar-Tass) - Patriarch Alexey II for Moscow and All Russia will on Sunday hold a service at the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Saviour to mark the 125th anniversary of its sanctification. A thousand pilgrims have come to Moscow together with eight religious processions to highlight the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church. They will march from the Kolomenskoye estate in the southeast of Moscow to the embankment of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The original Cathedral of Christ the Saviour built to commemorate Russia's victory in the 1812 war against Napoleon was sanctified on June 8 (May 26 according to the old calendar) 1883. It was timed to coincide with a state holiday - the coronation of Emperor Alexander III. Representatives of all Russian lands were present at the ceremony. A religious procession had been held prior to the service. It marched to the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin and back to the Christ the Saviour Cathedral. The religious procession was greeted by troops who took part in the celebrations (companies of 45 regiments, 14 squadrons, 14 choirs of army music and the pupils of all Moscow cadet schools). Seven batteries were firing salvos. Tchaikovsky's overture "1812" was played to greet the approaching imperial couple. The overture was written specially for the date of sanctification of the Christ the Saviour's Cathedral. Veterans of the 1812 Patriotic War - though there were very fewof them - were present at the first service held in the cathedral.