PETROZAVODSK, Russia, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Two highly regarded relics of the Russian Orthodox Church are completing their tour of the country this month, before being returned to Jerusalem.
The right hand of Grand Duchess Yelizaveta Fyodorovna and a bone from Sister Varvara arrived in Petrozavodsk Friday, Novosti reported. Each of them is considered a saint.
The relics will be moved to various Orthodox churches in the community as believers attend services commemorating the relics' arrival. The relics will be moved by train Sunday to Murmansk.
The relics were brought to Russia from Jerusalem in July and have traveled to many Russian Orthodox dioceses as well as various former Soviet republics.
In February, the relics will return to the Jerusalem Mary Magdalene convent, which is under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad.
Fyodorovna was the granddaughter of British Queen Victoria and the sister of the last Russian empress. In 1905, she took holy orders and founded a convent.
Communists killed her and Varvara in 1918, and two years later their coffins were taken to China, then to Egypt and finally Jerusalem.
