Sunday, 22 September 2019, Metropolitan Vladimir of Chisinau and all Moldova, participated in the inauguration of a monument in the memory of the Church of Holy Prophet Elias demolished in 1960 during communist persecution of the Church.
Thus, immediately after the Divine Liturgy celebrated in the Metropolitan Cathedral, His Eminence Vladimir arrived at 26, Metropolitan Gavriil Banulescu-Bodoni, the place of the former church building.
Assisted by the Dean of Chisinau church circumscription No. 1, archpriest Vadim Cheibas, and the Cathedral clergy, the metropolitan officiated the service of blessing of a sculpture inaugurated in the memory of St. Elias church that existed in this place.
Parliament members from Moldova and Romania, representatives of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Pretor of Riscani sector of Chisinau, the General Prosecution Office, historians, professors, school-children, and members of non-commercial organizations participated in the event.
At the event closure, Metropolitan Vladimir addressed a greeting message to the audience, mentioning, among others:
We have all participated in a historical event, in the inauguration of a monument in the memory of the Church of Holy Prophet Elias. This is the place where the church was built, along with the metropolitan residence and other church properties.
When I came to the helm of the Orthodox Church in Moldova, many elderly persons talked to me about the tragic days when this Church was devastated and vandalized barbarically.
We thank Mr. Iulian Rusanovschi and all those who made considerable efforts to make this place significant, because this is the very site where the Church was, where our predecessors talked about God, prayed, were baptized, married, and were liturgically conducted on their last road.
The monument in the memory of the Church of St. Elias was created with the efforts of lawyer Iulian Rusanovschi and Colonel in reserve Ion Deli, who started the monument edification campaign in the autumn of 2017. The project was created by architect Mihail Andries and approved by the Commission of Public Monuments. The monument representing a miniature sculpture of the former church building, is worked in bronze and white marble.
Marble elements were sculpted by the popular artist Andrei Raileanu from Soimeni community, county of Cluj Napoca, Romania, and the bronze was worked by Chisinau sculptor Veaceslav Jiglitchi.
The monument is 4 metres tall and is located on the place of the church’s Altar.
Synodal Sector of Institutional Communication and Mass-Media Relations