2019 Moscow Trip -- Part 5

Thursday, February 28th

Optina

As I said in the previous post, the plan for this day was to get up early enough to drive out to the Optina monastery, and attend their morning service. Unfortunately, I made the mistake the night before of plugging my phone to be recharged right next to my bed, and so when my alarm went off in the wee hours of the morning, I turned it off without getting out of bed, and so went back to sleep. When I finally did wake up, and noticed that the sun was up, I quickly got out of bed, and then say Fr. Sergei relaxing on a couch in his living room with a Cheshire cat grin. I told him he could have woke me up, but he said he figured I must have needed the extra sleep.

So I quickly got ready, and we headed out of the "Batcave" and began heading down the highway to Optina. I noticed as we went, signs pointing the way to Kaluga, the town that our parish patron, St. Jonah or Manchuria, was born in... which helped explain his later connection to the Optina monastery.

Unlike the St. Sergius Trinity Lavra, the Optina monastery was closed during the Soviet period. It was closed after the revolution, but it was allowed to reopen in 1987, and today it is a thriving monastery. It does not have a town nearby, like Sergiev Posad, and so seems much more remote. February is not the prime tourist season, but the number of pilgrims is likewise much less, though there was a good number of them. In 1993, there were three monks who were martyred by a Satanist, and so there is a chapel built over the spot where they were killed on Pascha night, as they went out to ring the bells, which you can read about in Russian (or with Google Translate) here:

https://www.optina.ru/martyrs/

It was snowing on and off throughout the day that we were there.

Our parish has been getting vestments from Optina, and the quality has been exceptional, and the prices are very reasonable. One of the first stops we made was for me to get measured by a seamstress. I wanted to get a couple of cassocks, and a good riassa to go with them. Before we left the monastery, I picked up what I had requested, and these are now my favorites -- very well done, and very cool, which means a lot in Texas.

I brought with me an icon of St. Jonah, which we donated to the monastery. Some accounts say that he was a monk at Optina. I have seen some recent articles which say that he was not, but that his spiritual father was the Elder Gabriel of Optina. In any case, he had a connection, and when he was preparing for death, he read St. Andrew of Crete's prayers for the departure of the soul, while wearing an epitrachelion and cuffs which had belonged to St. Ambrose of Optina.

In the Church of the Mother of God of Kazan, they regularly do molebens to the Optina Elders, whose relics are found in various locations around the Church. The relics at the right of the above picture are those of St. Nectarios. The relics are housed in this church at present due to ongoing restoration work at the main Church of the Entry of the Theotokos, where these relics would normally be.

The very first Icon I was given after I was made a catechumen, was an icon of the Optina Elders, and ever since, I have been drawn to these saints. You certainly feel their presence everywhere in this monastery.

We took a walk out to the area where most monastics live, further back in Skete of St. John the Forerunner, which is a quick walk from the monastery, which one can only enter by invitation (and we had no such invitation).

By the way, you can take a 3-D tour of the Monastery by clicking the link on the left menu here:

https://www.optina.ru/history/skete/

Shamordino

After having Lunch, and picking up a few more things at their store, we headed to the Shamordino Convent, which was founded by St. Ambrose of Optina. Like Optina, it was closed during the Soviet period. The fate of the nuns after it was closed is a particularly moving story. They were told by their spiritual father that they should not cooperate with the Soviets or do any work for them at all. The Soviets then killed their spiritual father. The nuns then said "Now no one can release us from this obedience." Despite torture, they never ceased to keep this obedience. In fact, they were made to stand outside in sub-zero temperatures over a period of 3 days, and each day, they were made to stand their with less warm clothing than the preceding day. After three days, in which they stood their without giving, and without showing any signs of harm from the cold, the Soviets decided to leave them alone. Even atheists know a miracle when they see one. You can read one account here, and listen to a sermon about this here.

The main Church is huge, but you can tell from the mostly white walls that it still has a long way to go in terms of restoration. 

Inside the Church, I noticed yet again how popular the devotion to the Royal Martyrs and the New Martyr Elizabeth was.

As the sun began to set, we headed back to the Moscow suburbs, because Fr. Sergei needed to pick up his daughters from the Metro station nearest to their home. We had dinner at a nearby shopping center, where we went to a somewhat upscale hamburger restaurant. I had a beacon cheeseburger, with Jack Daniel sauce... and it was in fact a pretty good hamburger. 

The following morning I caught my flight back to Houston. The flight from Moscow to Frankfurt was again on Lufthansa, and was once again an excellent experience. At the Frankfurt airport, I had to go through security again, and I had a large Slavonic Gospel in my briefcase, that apparently looked suspicious to the agent watching the scan. I wish I could paint a picture with words to adequately convey the look on his face, when I took "the box" as he described out, opened it, and showed him that there where no explosives in the Gospel, beyond the message printed in the text.

The flight from Frankfurt to Houston was farmed out by Lufthansa to United Airlines, and while it was not horrible, it was a huge step down. What was most irritating is that I had been lugging around several books which I had intended to read on this flight, but I was in the middle row, and when they turned out the lights 2 hours into the flight, I had no ability to turn on a light, or to open up a window to read by the sunlight -- and because we were flying from the east to the west, the entire flight was in the daylight, and would have provided very good light, had I been better situated. It never occurred to me when I booked the flight that there were any planes still in use in which this kind of thing might happen. And so instead of knocking out a couple of books on the way, I was left with very little productive to do.

At long last, I made it home, very tired, but very much edified by the trip, and all the people I had been able to get to know, and all of the holy places and relics I had been able to see and venerate. There is a lot just in Moscow I still have yet to see, not to mention the rest of Russia -- and so I hope I will have opportunity to go again.

2019 Moscow Trip -- Part 1

2019 Moscow Trip -- Part 2

2019 Moscow Trip -- Part 3

2019 Moscow Trip -- Part 4

2019 Moscow Trip -- Part 4

Wednesday, February 27th

The Lavra

We headed out on foot, early, to make our way to the St. Sergius Holy Trinity Lavra -- one of the most holy places in the Russian Church. I had to take my luggage with me, and so we had to swing by the St. Nicholas Church, were Fr. Paul Ermilov allowed us to stash them for the day, and then we went to the nearby Metro station to catch the subway to the train station. Unlike when I took the Metro on Sunday, it was packed, and people were scurrying hither and thither in all directions. It was a mass of humanity, all on their various ways to get to work or school, and it made me feel a little claustrophobic. I had the song, don't fence me in playing in my head.

I don't remember if I have ever ridden a proper train before, but that's what we took to get to the town of Sergiev Posad, which surrounds the famous Lavra. The train we took there was very modern and comfortable, complete with free Wi-Fi. We had got our breakfast from some food carts that came by. When we arrived at our train station in Sergiev Posad, Fr. Sergei quickly called for a cab via Yandex, and we were dropped off just outside the entrance to the Lavra.

Before we entered the Lavra, we visited their restrooms. In Moscow, all of the bathrooms I encountered were very similar to what you would expect in the US, but these restrooms had the kind of hole in the floor toilet that me made glad I was not in need of figuring out how to properly do the "Asian squat".

I had visited the Lavra back in 2007, but we only had about 2 hours there, and so it was a bit rushed, and there was a lot that I didn't get to see. Upon entering the Lavra the first stop had to be to venerate the relics of St. Sergius of Rodonezh, who along with his brother, came to the place when it was nothing but a vast forest, and established the monastery that developed into the most important monastic community in Russia.

I was only able to take one picture in the church in which St. Sergius' relics are, before I was told that was against the rules.

Icon of the Trinity near the relics of St. Sergius

One of the big differences between visiting the Lavra in 2007 and doing so in 2019 was the huge number of Chinese tourists there. There were several tour groups that even had something like regimental banners to help the people keep track of their group. The reason for this uptick in Chinese tourism is that the value of the Ruble is low right now due to the sanctions imposed by the US and EU, and so Chinese people realize that they can get a lot more for their money by vacationing in Russia.

The sign, which has a small Russian text, and a very large Chinese text, repeated 3 times near the entrance of a church, says "Keep Quiet".

One of the many Chinese tour groups.

What a missionary opportunity! I hope the Russian Church is working to make the most of it. I know the book "Every Day Saints" was just published in Chinese, and so hopefully, this is so.

Among the many saints whose relics we were able to venerate was St. Maxim the Greek.

There are more churches in the Lavra than we could visit, but the main church is the church of the Dormition.

While at the Lavra, I had a list of things I needed to get for my parish, and so we went on a bit of shopping spree. There is no better place to buy quality liturgical items at an amazing price than in Russia.

We had a very nice lunch, at one of the cafes there, and then went to see the Moscow Theological Academy. Fr. Sergei is working on a doctorate from Oxford, but in his spare time, he is working on a seminary degree from Kursk Theological Seminary, and his thesis adviser there was Fr. Pavel Lizgunov, who recently was made the vice rector (or provost) of Moscow Theological Academy. Fortunately, he was allowed to continue to be his thesis adviser, despite the transfer. So we met with Fr. Pavel, and then he arranged for a seminarian to give us a tour of the Academy, including its very substantial museum.

Myself, Fr. Sergei Baranov, and Fr. Pavel Lizgunov. The portrait is of St. Philaret of Moscow

 The Seminary Church

One of the halls of the Seminary

After the tour, we came back and had tea with Fr. Pavel, and had a very nice visit.

After this we headed back to the train station. We decided to walk it this time. The weather was nice, tough there was still plenty of snow, ice, and slush to contend with. As we trudged up a fairly steep hill, I was a bit embarrassed to see some young woman walk past us, as if it was no big deal.

When we got to the train station, Fr. Sergei pointed out an adult bookstore near the station, which goes to show that Russia is not a spiritual never-never land. The Church certainly is getting stronger, but there remain many who are indifferent to the Church, unfortunately.

The train we took back was nearly as new or as nice as the one we took in the morning, but it was comfortable enough. When we got to Moscow, we picked up my luggage, picked up Fr. Sergei's two daughters, and caught a cab for Fr. Sergei's home. We dropped them off there, and then headed further south to Fr. Sergei's country home.

While on the way we stopped to visit a fairly recently built parish, the Parish of the Life Giving Trinity, in Troitsk, which is in the newly developed suburbs of Moscow. This Church remains until midnight, and has a very active outreach to those living in the areas nearby. They have an upper and lower Church, and a large adult baptistery, which would suggest they are meeting with some success in their efforts.

Then we stopped by a supermarket to pick up some food for dinner, as well as food for our trip to Optina the next day. This supermarket had everything any American supermarket might have, and a few things they do not have have, such as equipment for a home still.

Fr. Sergei's country home was in the direction of Optina, which would put us beyond the traffic in the morning. It was designed by Fr. Sergei himself, and it was a bit like the Batman's Batcave, in terms of its automation. Since he is not there most of the time, he designed it such that he can check on it and make adjustments to heating from anywhere in the world. It was truly amazing. So after dinner, and a very pleasant evening of conversation, we settled down for the night, with the plan of getting up very early the next day, so we could catch the morning services at the Optina Monastery.

To be continued...

2019 Moscow Trip -- Part 1

2019 Moscow Trip -- Part 2

2019 Moscow Trip -- Part 3

2019 Moscow Trip -- Part 3

The Church of St. Nicholas in Kuznetsy

A Weekday Parish Liturgy

Tuesday, February 26th

The plan that morning was for me to serve at a nearby parish, where Fr. Paul Ermilov would also be serving, and then to catch a ride with him to the second and final day of the conference.

Fr. Sergei had walked me past the Holy Trinity Church on Sunday, to make sure I knew how to get there, and I pulled it up on Yandex (the Russian version of Google Maps), and hoped to find a short cut Fr. Sergei and I had taken. The temperature was just above freezing, and it was raining, though not very heavily. The sidewalks we still icy, however, and I almost slipped, which caused me to do something to the Yandex map, and when I tried to reload it, my very spotty internet access failed to deliver. So I ended up going a slightly longer route, but one that I knew would get me there.

The Holy Trinity Church

When I entered the Church, I saw that they had a altar on the right side of the Church, and they seemed to be well into a service, but I knew I was arriving well before the time I was told to be there (the service was supposed to start at 8:00 a.m.). The rest of the Church appeared dark, and so I thought perhaps they were doing a moleben or something before the Liturgy. I poked my head into the altar, and could tell that they were well into a liturgy, and so I was obviously in the wrong place... and so I poked back out. The priest who was serving came after me, to see what I was looking for, and when I told him I was supposed to serve with Fr. Paul Ermilov, he told me it that this service would be at the St. Nicholas parish, just about a block down the road. 

I messaged Fr. Paul via Whats App to let him know of my mistake, but that I was on my way. He offered to send someone to get me, but the directions seemed straight forward enough, and so I walked over to St. Nicholas.

The Iconostasis of St. Nicholas

When I entered the altar I was a little surprised to see how many clergy would be serving. There were about eight priest serving, plus a deacon or two, and this was not a part of the conference, just a Tuesday morning Liturgy at this parish Church.

Fr. Paul pointed me to the vestments set aside for me, and then once again tried to find a kamilavka that was large enough for my head -- but once again, there were none big enough. They must not do ten-gallon kamilavkas in Russia. Fr. Vladimir Vorobyov, the dean of the University and rector of the parish, presided over the service.

The "Quench my Sorrows" Icon, a miraculous icon at St. Nicholas

There were a few things that were very striking to me. One was that the choir sang the entire Liturgy in Byzantine chant (in Slavonic). Fr. Paul assured me that that was not the norm, but that the music professor who was conducting the choir liked to change things up. Byzantine chant is easily done badly, but this choir did it amazingly well, and it was very beautiful. I was also impressed by how full the choir was, as well as how many people were there for the service. I also couldn't help but notice the loving interactions among the clergy. They seemed to not just be serving together, but to really have a strong bond with each other. It was a joy to be part of it.

The Altar of St. Nicholas

At one point, Fr. Paul showed me around the Church a bit, and opened up a cabinet that had rows and rows of chalices, diskoi, Crosses, and other Church items, and he said that this parish was one of only a handful of parishes in Moscow that were never closed by the Soviets, nor did it ever fall into the hands of the "Living Church." Consequently, as other parishes were closed, these items were brought here for safe keeping.

St. Seraphim (Sobolev)

At the end of the Liturgy we did a short moleben to St. Seraphim (Sobolev) of Boguchar (Bulgaria), whose feast day it happened to be. He had been a bishop of the Russian Church Abroad before World War II, but after the war, since he did not attempt to evacuate ahead of the Soviet advance, he became part of the Moscow Patriarchate. He was glorified by the Church of Bulgaria in 2016.

As it turned out, St. Seraphim had a very important connection with this community.

After the Liturgy we went to the parish hall for breakfast. On the wall I noticed a picture, which I though looked a little bit like Fr. Vladimir Vorobyov, but it looked older, and so I asked who it was. It turned out to be the founder of the community that eventually founded St. Tikhon University -- Fr. Vsevolod Shpiller.

Fr. Vsevolod Shpiller

Fr. Vsevolod had been an officer in the White Army during the Russian Civil War. He was among those who evacuated to Constantinople when that war was lost, and then settled in Bulgaria, where he became a spiritual child of St. Seraphim. He was ordained a priest in 1934, and then in 1950 he was given a blessing by St. Seraphim to return to Russia, where he became the rector of St. Nicholas. He was evidently both a very charismatic man, and deeply spiritual. He gathered together a thriving community which included many intellectuals. He reposed in 1984, and so long before his worked blossomed to the extent that it has in our time, but this community would not be what it is today without him having done the difficult work he had done during the Soviet period.

Perhaps the attendance was higher than a normal weekday Liturgy because it was the feast of St. Seraphim, but it was very impressive to me that on an otherwise normal Tuesday, there were two Liturgies held within a block of each other, and staggered so that those who wanted to attend liturgy before going to work or school would be able to do so.

After the meal, we caught a cab back to St. Tikhon University for the second day of the conference.

The Sretensky Monastery

Unfortunately, I didn't have Fr. Sergei with me to provide a live translation of the talks presented. I hope that they will eventually make their way into English translations, because from what I could make of them, they all sounded very interesting. Since my ability to follow the conference was limited, Fr. Sergei had suggested taking me to the Sretensky Monastery at around 2:00 p.m., and so he came by to pick me up, and we walked in that direction.

On our way, we stopped at the Vysokopetrovsky Monastery, which would have been worthy of a visit all unto itself. I think you could stand just about anywhere in Moscow, throw a stone in any direction, and find yourself near an important Church or Monastery.

We were planning on meeting Jesse Dominick, and we had hoped with Mother Cornelia (Rees) -- but unfortunately, it did not work out to meet them both. They both make the English website OrthoChristian.com possible (which is one of the best Orthodox websites in English), and over the years I have corresponded a lot with both of them. At least we got to meet with Jesse.

We had a very nice meal at a cafe run by the monastery, and then headed to their administrative building to meet with the person in charge of their extensive publications, to discuss the possibility of having some English liturgical texts printed in Russia.

I had visited this monastery in 2007, and found it to be very impressive back then, but since that time, it has expanded tremendously, both in terms of its complex, and the ministries that it provides.

One thing that was new is the Cathedral, which Jesse gave us a tour of.

It was nice to once again be able to venerate the relics of the Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky).

It was also nice to see further evidence (as I also saw in many other Churches) of how popular the veneration of St. John of Shanghai is in Russia.

And evidence of the popular veneration of the New-Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth was also evident in almost every Church.

The new Cathedral also has a chapel with an adult baptistery. This is something that was not needed often before the Bolshevik Revolution, because most Russians were baptized as infants, but as Russia has been returning to Orthodoxy, this has become very necessary.

Fr. Sergei had to return to his secular job, but Jesse promised to walk me back to St. Tikhon University, and so I was able to hang out longer.

While there, he interviewed me for OrthoChristian.com, and the text of the interview is posted here:

"The Waters have been Muddied" An Interview with Fr. John Whiteford on the Ukrainian Crisis and the Judgment of God

I made it back to the Conference in time to catch the tail-end of their panel discussion, and then had some time to visit with several of the clergy while we waited for our rides to take us home. During this time I learned that Fr. Paul Ermilov had seven children, and had another on the way, but that his family was not one of the larger families in their community. He talked about how the Russian government provides subsidies for large families to get into adequate housing. What a contrast with the anti-child attitude so often found in America.

Another Part of Fr. Vsevolod Shpiller's Vision

I once again was given a ride by Fr. Dimitri. and rode this time along with Fr. Darko. Fr. Dimitri asked us if we would like to see the school that is associated with the University, and we both said we would be happy to do so.

St. Peter's Orthodox School which is named for the Hieromartyr Peter of Krutitsa

The vision, which traces back to Fr. Vsevolod Shpiller, is to provide an Orthodox education that goes all the way from the earliest grades, through the university level, and they now have all of those basic pieces in place, though they continue to work on expanding and perfecting that vision.

The school building was, I believe, four stories, and includes a beautiful chapel. Fr. Dimitri showed us several of the class rooms, and it all looked like it must be a wonderful school.

Finally, I arrived back at my apartment, overlooking the Ss. Martha and Mary Convent, for one final night. The plan for the next day was to visit the St. Sergius Trinity Lavra in the morning.

To be continued...

2019 Moscow Trip -- Part 1

2019 Moscow Trip -- Part 2