On Great Saturday, April 15, when the Orthodox Church commemorates the bodily burial of Jesus Christ and His descent into Hades, Metropolitan Nicholas of Eastern America & New York celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York City, co-served by cathedral dean Archpriest Andrei Sommer, Archpriest Seraphim Chemodakov (cleric of Our Lady of Kazan Church in Newark, NJ),  Protodeacon Nicolas Mokhoff (cathedral cleric), and Hierodeacon Panteleimon (Jigalin; diocesan cleric).

The faithful made their confessions, in order to worthily partake of Christ’s Holy Mysteries at the final Liturgy of Passion Week, and on Pascha itself.

Upon completion of the Liturgy, the clergy blessed traditional Pascha foods: cheese paschas, kulich, colored eggs, and Pascha baskets with other foods for the breaking of the fast.

Great Saturday, which in the Old Testament marked the completion of the creation of the world, in the New Testament serves as the beginning of a new life in Christ, a life in which we can partake only through repentance and baptism for the remission of sins.