Part of the relic of Saint Nicholas which is in Freiburg, Switzerland, will be donated this afternoon at 3 pm to the metropolitan bishop Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, the exarch of the Patriarchate of Moscow for Belarus. The transfer of the relics writes the Swiss agency Apic is a sign of friendship between the two Churches and was made possible by the work that for many years has been carried out by the Institute of Ecumenical Studies of the University of Freiburg and its director, Guido Vergauwen. The Swiss institute and the Orthoxod Theology Faculty of Minsk have been bonded these last few years by an agreement, whereby a group of Belarusian scholarship holders studied at the University of Freiburg and currently a graduate student from Freiburg is doing research at Minsk. Last January, the metropolitan bishop, Filaret, had written a letter to Claude Ducarroz, parish priest of the Cathedral of Freiburg, asking him "the gift of a little piece of the relics of Saint Nicholas, which belong to the Cathedral of Freiburg. These relics will find a honourable place in the Cathedral of Minsk, where they will be worshipped by our congregation". Saint Nicholas has been worshipped in Switzerland since the age of the crusades, after its body was transferred from Myre, in Asia Minor, to Bari in 1087. The founders of the town of Freiburg (1157) particularly loved the saint, under whose protection they put the parish church of the city. The current relics were taken away from Rome in 1420 and reached Freiburg in 1506.
