Russian submarines do not sail without church blessing

Vilyuchinsk (the Kamchatka Territory), September 20, Interfax - Leaders of the Russian Pacific Fleet develop cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church.

"Today it is unthinkable to start a naval training for submariners or go out to the sea without a blessing of church representatives," the commander of the Joint Command and Forces in Russia's North East rear admiral Konstantin Maklov said on Sunday addressing Patriarch Kirill on the pier of the 16th Pacific submarine squadron in closed military town Vilyuchinsk not far from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

According to him, "participation of clerics in military marches of ships and submarines" witnesses to such cooperation.

Maklov also stated that submariners successfully interact with the local diocese and signed an agreement saying that the Russian Church would provide spiritual care for strategic submarine launch platform St. George the Victory-Bearer and diesel submarine St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

He reminded that acting Archbishop Ignaty of Petropavlovsk and Kamchatka first time in history of submarine fleet in Russia participated in the unprecedented passage of atomic submarine from the North Fleet to Kamchatka under Arctic ice

Source

Nice to see more evidence of the revival in Russia. On a side note, I am somewhat dubious about naming warships after saints.