Patriarch Kirill blessed the Olympic athletes to win

On Wednesday, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' headed a prayer service on Wednesday in the recently built temple of the Savior’s miraculous image in Sochi and blessed the Olympic athletes to win.

“I wanted to meet with you in order to pray for your successes, about your well -being, that the Lord at the difficult moment of the competition gives you the strength of the spirit. And when you go to starts, remember my words, concentrate, gain the internal strength of the spirit, which will be the key to your success,” the interfax -religion of the Words of the ROC, with whom he is in front The service turned to athletes from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova.

The head of the Russian Church expressed a wish that the podiums of Honor be filled with "representatives of our fraternal peoples."

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"I believe that the Lord will help many of you with dignity go through this Olympic field," he said.

Sport, the Patriarch believes, not only contributes to the physical improvement of a person, but affects both the internal state and "solves a very important task that has a direct connection with such a concept as human happiness."

A man, he noted, cannot be truly happy if he does not have inner strength and inner rich life.

“Athletes, straining all their forces and wanting to win in competitions, know well that not only technical training, the necessary equipment, but the internal state of spirit largely determines the ability of a person to win,” the Patriarch emphasized.

Today, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church also examined the sports facilities of the coastal cluster of the Olympics in the Olympic Park and met with volunteers sent to the Olympics with church organizations.

The temple of the miraculous image of Christ the Savior in the Imereti lowland, where the prayer was committed, was consecrated on February 2 of this year. As noted in the publication of the Sochi Blog , the church was erected at the entrance to the Olympic Park - in the web of new overpasses and the power supply networks of the railway.

According to church legend, somewhere nearby are the ruins of the Byzantine temple of the 9th century. During the excavations carried out on the site of the ruins, the imperishable relics of the saint were acquired near the altar, whose name has not yet been established. In the new temple, they will be stored in huge cancer under the altar. The stone of the ancient Byzantine temple was laid on the basis of the construction of the Metropolitan of Yekaterinodar and Kuban Isidore on August 29, 2012. The walls of the Church are painted by graduates of the Russian Academy of Painting and Sculpture by Ilya Glazunov. They completed their work in three months, since the temple was built in a hurry, like an Olympic object.