The Icon of the Virgin Mary Has Flown Over the Earth With the Sacred Procession
Moscow, 25 November 2009, Interfax - Unusual sacred procession round the Earth is made with the icon of Virgin Mary "The Sign".
On September 30 the spaceship Soyuz TMA 16 which had a mission to bring the icon to the International Space Station war driven from the Baikonur cosmodrome, the representative of the Galaxy studying centre initiated the project told Interfax-Religion on Wednesday.
The sacred procession was finished on October 11. The icon has made 176 coils round the Earth and it was delivered back on the "Soyz TMA 14 spaceship.
The icon of the Virgin Mary "The Sign" will be presented on December 8-14 at the Orthodox exhibition at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre. It will be possible for everybody to get acquainted with video and picture stories about the sacred procession.
The project was carried out on blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and with the support of the Center of National Glory of Russia, the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation and the Energy space-rocket corporation.
Four years ago the icon from the Transfiguration Monastery of the Valaam island has also been sent to the space. For two months of staying at the station, it was flown round the Earth with cosmonaut Sergey Krikalev for about thousand times.