On the 13th Week after Pentecost, the feast of the Cathedral of Moscow Saints, on September 7, 2025, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. 
After the Liturgy, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed the flock with a Primatial address dedicated to the beginning of the Moscow-wide procession from the cathedral to the Novodevichy Stavropol Monastery.
Then His Holiness the Patriarch led the procession with prayer singing to the Moscow saints. 
Bishops and clergy, monastics, members of public organizations, and numerous believers walked along the historical route with His Holiness. In total, several tens of thousands of people took part in the procession with the Primate. 
The prayer service was attended by bishops and clergy who served His Holiness at the Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
Among the participants of the procession were: Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation A.Y. Kuznetsova; Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation A.A. Alikhanov; Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, head of the LDPR faction in the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs L.E. Slutsky; Chairman of the State Duma Committee of the Russian Federation on property, land and property relations S.A. Gavrilov; First Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Budget and Financial Markets A.V. Shenderyuk-Zhidkov; Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations and the Media V.R. Legoyda; Head of the Department of National Policy and Interregional Relations of Moscow V.I. Suchkov; Director of the Department of Health of the Government of the Russian Federation I.N. Kagramanyan; Deputy Director of the Federal Russian National Guard Troops, Lieutenant General A.O. Vorobyov; Deputy Head of the World Russian People's Council, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the All-Russian public movement "Russia Orthodox" M.M. Ivanov; editor-in-chief of the TV channel "Russia-24" E.V. Bekasov.
Prayer hymns were performed by the combined youth choir conducted by Anna Golik. It included members of the following choirs of the capital: the choir of the Patriarchal Volunteers movement; the Singing Conscience youth choir at the church of the Icon of the Mother of God "Recovery of the Dead" on the Entuziastov Highway; the youth choir of the Northeastern Vicariate; the choir of the Sretensky Theological Academy; the youth choir of the Sretensky Monastery; the choir "Facetiya" of Sretensky the monastery.
Upon the arrival of the procession to the walls of the Novodevichy Monastery, the prayer service to the Moscow Saints was completed.
At the end of the service, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill addressed the faithful with a Primatial address:
"My dear ones, I cordially congratulate you on a wonderful Moscow and All Russia holiday! Through the prayers of St. Tikhon and the prayers of many ascetics of our land, who suffered especially in the twentieth century, may the Orthodox faith be strengthened among our people.
I am glad to see a lot of people today, a large number of young people, representatives of Orthodox public organizations. All this shows that we have already gone a long way towards the revival and renewal of church life.
May God grant us, in the same way, with humility, with hope in the will of God, through the prayers of the saints who have shone forth in the Russian land, and continue to follow this path of salvation for the good of ourselves — because salvation is the greatest good — and for the good of the Church and our Fatherland. Happy holidays to all of you!"
***
The Moscow-wide procession to the Novodevichy Monastery is one of the oldest and most significant in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. The history of the procession from the Kremlin to the Novodevichy Monastery is connected with the transfer of the Smolensk Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The ancient image was moved to Moscow at the end of the 14th century and placed in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kremlin, from where it was later returned to Smolensk at the request of its residents. The icon was solemnly escorted out of the city, and an accurate list of the icon remained in the Kremlin Cathedral.
On May 13/26, 1524, Grand Duke Vasily III, in honor of the capture of Smolensk in 1514, founded the Novodevichy Monastery on the site of parting with the miraculous icon on the banks of the Moskva River.
On July 28 / August 10, 1525, by his command, the image of the Mother of God "Hodegetria of Smolensk" was solemnly transferred from the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin to the monastery. The procession was led by Basil III himself and Metropolitan Daniel. In memory of this event, an annual holiday was established with a procession from the Kremlin to the Novodevichy Monastery.
In 1612, the monastery was almost completely devastated when the troops of the Russian militia besieged the last Polish invaders in it. The monastery was restored by the first Romanovs and became a place of royal pilgrimage. Tsars Mikhail Fedorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich came here from the Kremlin, and since the monastery was located outside the city, they set up tents near its walls and spent the night in them, staying for the morning service, and after it they treated the pilgrims. Hence the custom of folk festivals near Novodevichy (later they were moved to Devichye Pole and Presnya).
The tradition of making the Smolensk March on July 28 / August 10 has not been interrupted for almost four centuries. Until the era of Peter the Great, the procession was invariably led by Russian sovereigns and patriarchs, and then, until 1917, by Moscow metropolitans. This event was of particular importance to Muscovites, who combined religious celebrations with folk festivals on Devichy Pole.
Thanks to the Novodevichy Monastery, Prechistenka Street appeared. The street itself existed before, but the name was given to it by personal royal decree in 1658 — in honor of the icon of the Virgin Mary, to which they marched along this street from the Kremlin to the Novodevichy Monastery.