The “Sacred Wonder-working Icon of Saint Nikola the Wonderworker” and some of the saint’s bones are currently on loan from Russia and are being displayed, in turn, in the four Russian Orthodox churches in Thailand.
Father Aleksey Golovin, who has been priest in Phuket since September said, “St Nikolai’s holy body parts will be transferred in a box from the Pattaya Orthodox Church and the Phuket Church will be open from 6 am till midnight.”
In Russia St Nikolai is the most revered of saints. There is a Russian saying, “If anything happens to God, we’ve always got St Nikola.” December 6 is the anniversary of his death 1,669 years ago.
The full name of the beautifully designed building that sits among the rubber plantations of Thalang is The Parish in the Name of Holy Life-Giving Trinity on Phuket Island (Orthodox Christian Church in Thailand, Moscow Patriarchate). It was dedicated in 2010.