Letter #129, 2022 Wed Dec 14: Farewell, Frank insidethevatican.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from insidethevatican.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Letter #23, 2021, Tuesday, May 4: Pivot Letter #23, 2021, Tuesday, May 4: Pivot
On April 29, I received a note from the widow of my late friend,
Dmitry Khafizov. (
Dmitry died on April 21 in Kazan, Russia, at the age of 57.
He was well-known in Kazan and throughout Russia as a man who had spent many years researching the history of what is arguably the most venerated of all Russian icons: the Icon of the Blessed Mother of Kazan. This icon, found in Kazan in 1579, came to be called the “Protection of Russia.” It was venerated by Tsars and simple people for almost 350 years, but it was lost to the country just before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, evidently stolen from a church where it was kept.
Letter #18, 2021, Friday, April 23: Farewell Dmitry Letter #18, 2021, Friday, April 23: Farewell Dmitry
Today I write to tell you about
Dmitry Khafizov.
Dmitry was a man with a large heart, and a larger soul.
A mighty bear of a man… a good and noble man… from the very heart of Russia, from Kazan in Tartarstan… a Christian believer of Russian Orthodox faith… a man who, at the young age of 57, has now gone to his final rest.
Dmitry died on Wednesday, April 21, in his home city of Kazan, the capital of Tartarstan. It is said that his death may have been due to the Covid virus.