Posted on 09/28/2005 11:32:49 AM PDT by redgolum
MOSCOW (AFP) - Historic Russian admiral Fyodor Ushakov -- a hero of Russia's wars against Turkey and Napoleon Bonaparte -- was designated the patron saint of nuclear-armed, long-distance Russian bombers by the Orthodox Church.
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Russian Patriarch Alexei II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, carried a reliquary and an icon of the admiral, who was canonised in 2004, into the Moscow chapel of the Russian Air Force's 37th Air Army in Moscow, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency said Monday.
"I am sure he will become your intermediary as you fulfil your responsible duties to the fatherland in the long-range air force," the patriarch said.
"His strong faith helped Saint Fyodor Ushakov in all his battles," the religious leader said, reminding his audience that the famous admiral of the 18th and 19th centuries never lost a battle.
Fyodor Ushakov distinguished himself in numerous naval battles in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, most notably in the Russo-Turkish war between 1787 and 1791.
But his reforms of the navy were not popular in the upper echelons of the Russian imperial administration and Tsar Alexander I forced Ushakov to retire to Tambov province south-east of Moscow in 1807, where he died in 1817 aged 73.
Ushakov's canonisation as a saint in 2004 follows a strong tradition in Russia of close relations between the Orthodox Church and the state, which was revived after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Ping! Could this event have prophetic significance?
Is there a patron saint of clogged toilets?
No, no prophecy here, just a little humor
St. Vincent Ferrer is the patron saint of plumbers. I was not able to find anything to tell me why, though!
Why does that not surprise me. :O)
That we have a saint for plumbers (also other construction workers, such as bricklayers, roofers, tilers, etc.), or that I can't figure out why this one?
That there is a patron saint for just about everything. Someone should come out with a Rolidex of Patron Saints or perhaps have the appropriate saint printed on top of the yellow pages.
I always thought it was St. John of Loo.
The lists are online.
The Patriarchate that, in the name of peace, opposes the liberation of Iraq has named a patron saint of nuclear bombers? What if we Americans named a patron saint of ICBM's?
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