In this house lived the first-wave emigrant Pavel Vladimirovich Ulyantsev. His story deserves special attention. Pavel's mother, born Kolchitskaya, who had Saint Innocent of Irkutsk in her lineage, met her future husband, a participant in the Volunteer Army, on a steamer departing from Novorossiysk. She was a sister of mercy.
The young family settled in Serbia, where Vladimir Ulyantsev took holy orders and became the spiritual father of the cadet corps in which Pavel was raised. After World War II, the Ulyantsevs moved to France, then to Latin America, and later to the USA. Father Vladimir served as a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in California, while Pavel ended up in Panama.
When Father Vladimir came to visit his son in Panama at an advanced age, he fell ill and passed away. Pavel buried him on his property in the mountains, built a chapel over the grave, and appealed to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy for a blessing.
In 1991, a delegation led by Protopresbyter Matfei, the rector of the Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow, arrived in Panama. This was the first step towards the spread of Russian Orthodoxy in Panama.
The Russian church in Panama City is located in the former American zone, in a regular residential building. One part of the single-story structure is designated for the church, while the other houses the priest's apartment.
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