Daniil Semikopov: "The queue to the relics of Spyridon has become a public acknowledgment that a person is not all-powerful."

      On August 29, 2026, at 14:55 Society This week, a giant queue formed at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Nizhny Novgorod — believers came to venerate the right hand of St. Spyridon of Trimythous, which was brought to Russia from the Greek island of Corfu. Over two days, 70,600 people approached the relics. On the topic of why people stood in line to the right hand of St. Spyridon, Daniil Semikopov, an associate professor of philosophy and theology at Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University named after K. Minin, PhD in Philosophy, reflected:

      “People want to believe: their everyday pain is not too small for God. Because they need not only a solution to their problems but also a testimony that they are not abandoned. Because faith requires not just mental agreement but action — sometimes the simplest: to leave home, stand in line, and patiently walk a few hundred meters. At the confluence of the Oka and Volga rivers, two more streams met these days: human need and Christian hope. The queue to the relics became a public acknowledgment that a person is not self-sufficient, not all-powerful, and cannot arrange their life solely through calculation, technology, and administrative procedures. People are not just standing in line for an ancient relic. They are standing in line for hope — for the possibility of being heard, for the experience of presence, for the conviction that death does not destroy personality, and our story extends into eternity. However, the queue at the cathedral is not just a sum of individual requests. Something important for the entire people is happening here. People of different ages, education, wealth, and levels of church involvement find themselves next to each other. Some regularly participate in services, some come to the church only in the most difficult moments, some accompany an elderly mother, while others are just trying to understand if they believe at all. But for a few hours, they all enter a unified space of expectation and common prayer. Before the shrine, familiar social differences weaken. The rich and the poor, the boss and the subordinate, the scholar and the person without special education stand in the same line. Each has their own problems, of different scales, but no one has an advantage over the saint. This reflects a deeply Orthodox understanding of equality: not an abstract leveling of people, but the recognition that everyone equally needs God's mercy. Thus, sobornost is born. It does not mean faceless unanimity and does not require people to have identical characters, views, and biographies. Sobornost arises when many individual human destinies unite around a common shrine, common memory, and common hope. People cease to be a random crowd and, at least for a short time, feel themselves as a people. For Nizhny Novgorod, this theme has a special resonance. The historical memory of the city is inseparable from the images of Kuzma Minin, the people's militia, and overcoming the Time of Troubles. Of course, one cannot draw a direct analogy between the events of 1612 and today's queue at the cathedral. But in both cases, an important pattern of Russian history is revealed: popular unity arises not only from political calculation or external discipline. It requires a common shrine, moral responsibility, and a person's readiness to go beyond private interest." NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" has channels on Telegram and MAX. Subscribe to stay updated on major events, exclusive materials, and operational information. Copyright © 1999—2025 NIA "Nizhny Novgorod". When reprinting, a hyperlink to NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" is mandatory. This resource may contain materials 18+