Icons of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child and of Saint Demetrius were installed in the new laboratory of the St. Kliment of Ohrid Research Base on Livingston Island.
The icons were donated by Patriarch Daniel of Bulgaria and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Professor Hristo Pimpirev, head of the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition, stated:
“The icon of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child was donated during a ceremony at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, presided over by His Holiness Patriarch Daniel of Bulgaria. It was donated to protect our Bulgarian settlement.”
The icon was installed in the base’s new laboratory building, which opened last year and has been operational and inhabited since this year. The building includes dormitories for 14 people, as well as biology and geology laboratories and a shared laboratory space.
“We also installed an icon of Saint Demetrius, which was donated to us during a visit by a Bulgarian Antarctic Institute delegation to Constantinople to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The Patriarch donated it as well so that it may also safeguard the Bulgarian base,” added Professor Pimpirev.
He explained that the icons were officially placed in the new building on Tuesday as “guardians of future generations” of polar researchers.
Translated by Ioanna Georgakopoulou
