Transfiguration Cathedral (Saint Petersburg) - Relics and Holy Objects

Relics and Holy Objects

By the north wall of the church in the left side-chapel is a hinged icon with depictions of the Transfiguration of Christ, the martyr Pantaleon, and the emperor Saint Constantine. The icon was given to the regiment's field hospital in 1900 by the commander of the regiment at the time, the general-major Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich. On a lectern (bookstand) in the right kliros of the church is an icon of the Image of Edessa, brought there in 1938 from the Trinity Church on Stremyannaya Street. It was painted by the famous Moscow icon-painter Simon Ushakov for Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and was the favorite icon of Peter the Great: it was with him at the founding of Saint Petersburg, at the Battle of Poltava, on his deathbed and at his funeral. On the lectern in the left kliros is another celebrated icon, that of the Mother Mary, Joy of All Sinners. It is a copy of a miracle-working icon from the Church of Christ's Transfiguration on Bolshaya Ordynka Street, made in 1711 by the order of the sister of Peter the Great, the tsarevna Natalya Alekseyevna to commemorate the saving of the Russian army during the Prutskiy campaign in the Russo-Turkish War of 1710-1711. It was brought to the Transfiguration Cathedral in 1932 from the closed Church of Christ's Resurrection on Shalyernaya Street.

In the cathedral are kept the regimental relics and war trophies, and on the walls are bronze plaques with the names of officers of the Preobrazhensky regiment fallen in battle. Under glass in separate cases are the Preobrazhensky uniforms of Alexander I, Nicholas I, and Alexander II, as well as a saber that Alexander II was wearing during an attempt on his life on March 13, 1881 (March 1, O.S.), which still has some of his blood on it.