In a sermon at the Transfiguration Cathedral in Murom, about 200 miles southeast of Moscow, Patriarch Alexy II spoke of Orthodox Christian saints Peter and Fevronia as the patrons to whom Russian married couples should turn for help and guidance, rather than seeking support from Catholic or Protestant patron saints.
"It is they we must revere as a role model of marriage, not [the saints] being imposed on us from the outside, such as St. Valentin," he said, in an apparent reference to the ever-growing popularity of Valentine's Day in Russia.
Many pilgrims visit the Holy Trinity convent in Murom to venerate the holy relics of Peter and Fevronia, who lived in the late 12th-early 13th centuries.
As legend has it, Prince Peter married Fevronia, a beekeeper's daughter, after she cured him of leprosy. They lived a life of love and piety, took monastic vows together and died on the same day. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized the couple 300 years later.
