Saint Xenia Chapel in Saint Petersburg, Orthodox chapel at Smolensk Cemetery, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Saint Xenia Chapel is a brick chapel painted pale green on the Smolensk Cemetery, built in Russian Revival style. Each facade has three pointed arched windows with column-like struts and stained-glass icons, and the front and rear cornices carry a semicircular kokoshnik with mosaic images of Christ and Xenia of Petersburg. A scaly tent roof rises to a gilded onion dome and cross, and inside stands a marble iconostasis with a mosaic of the Crucified Christ.
Xenia of Petersburg, who died in the late 18th or early 19th century, was buried at Smolensk Cemetery. Believers repeatedly took soil from her grave mound and later chipped away a stone slab placed there. A small chapel was built on the spot in the third quarter of the 19th century; the present brick chapel, designed by Alexander Vseslavin, was consecrated on 12 October 1902.
Visitors come to ask for help with marriage and work matters through prayer at this chapel. The site draws people seeking guidance during challenging moments in their personal lives.
The chapel stands on the Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery in the Vasileostrovsky district and is open daily from 8:00 to 19:00. It belongs to the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, so services and feast days bring more people. The relics of Saint Xenia lie beneath the floor, not in a visible tomb.
The grave's earth was carried away by pilgrims so often that the mound had to be rebuilt several times; a stone slab later laid there was likewise broken up and taken away piece by piece. This is why a small chapel was first raised on the spot in the third quarter of the 19th century.
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