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PARMA, Ohio — Sixteen pilgrims began their Russian pilgrimage with overnight travel, departing July 24 from New York and arriving in Moscow the next day.
The Russian capital is named after the Moskva River, on the banks of which it was founded.
The July 24-Aug. 3 pilgrimage included Eastern- and Western-rite Catholics, though emphasis was on breathing with the Eastern lung of the church. On this pilgrimage, faith was first and foremost. Monasteries and churches were the highlights of this pilgrimage.
Father Michael Nolan of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee, and I alternated in celebrating daily liturgy. Pilgrims prayed the Byzantine Divine Liturgy one day and the Roman Catholic Mass the next. Fellow pilgrim Deacon John Petrus, who traveled with his wife and two daughters, assisted at the liturgies. Father Joseph Boznar of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland also attended.
My first trip to Russia was in 1987. Russia today is not the Russia of 30 years ago, and Moscow today is not the Moscow of 30 years ago.
Moscow is a booming metropolis. Well over 14 million people, not counting tourists, live in and around Moscow. Churches are open, but not all. The world-famous Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat at one end of Red Square stands in all its majestic grandeur. More commonly known as St. Basil’s Cathedral for the Orthodox saint buried within, it has been a state museum since 1928. On the opposite end of Red Square sits the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, an active church.
Within the walls of the Moscow Kremlin is the seat of the Russian government, three cathedrals, dedicated to the Annunciation, the Dormition and Archangel Michael, the Armory Museum, numerous bell towers, and historic artifacts.
There are a few statues around of former communist leader Vladimir Lenin, though no soldiers attend to Lenin’s mausoleum, located in Red Square. Rather, they attend to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier nearby.
The GUM, Moscow’s main department store, is located across from the Kremlin. One can purchase whatever with rubles (Russian currency) or a credit card. I mean anything, including delicious Russian-made ice cream. My choice of food, all of it delicious, focused on what was local, such as borscht, or beet soup, fish, breads, bakery and, of course, vodka.
Traffic is horrible with many delays due to road construction. The Metro, or subway, is best for travel in the city with its many beautiful stations. The city is very clean and crime is low.
We visited the female Novodevichy Monastery in Moscow, which translates to New Maidens Monastery. It is beautiful and most memorable for the lake in which swans used to swim, which inspired Peter Tchaikovsky in writing the music for Swan Lake.
Monasteries and churches then became the focus of the next three days in the magnificent tour of Russia’s Golden Ring.
Leaving Moscow, the first city was Zagorsk. Founded in the 14th century, it was a religious capital and remains a place of pilgrimage. Within the walls of the old city stand the gold and blue domes of the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius Monastery, founded by St. Sergius Radonezhsky. St. Sergius is among the most revered saints in Orthodoxy and his monastery is among the most important spiritual centers in the Russian Orthodox Church.
The next stop was Rostov Veliky, where St. Sergius was born.
Kostroma was ahead by at least 120 miles. The city hosts the male Ipatievsky Monastery and an open-air museum of Russian life in the 18th and 19th centuries. A visit was made to the Convent of the Epiphany, currently the residence of the archbishop of Kostroma, where many Orthodox saints repose.
On to Suzdal, the smallest town in the Golden Ring and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its white stone kremlin and the Savior Monastery of St. Euthymius. I discovered that one of the archbishops of Suzdal became a Russian Orthodox saint, St. Denis.
The next stop was the City of Vladimir, one of the oldest Russian communities, which for almost two centuries served as the capital of Ancient Rus. Its Golden Gate, which served as an entrance to the city, still stands, and Dormition Cathedral is part of a World Heritage Site.
Next, a stop was made in Bogolyubovo at the most memorable 12th-century Church of the Intercession of the Hoy Virgin, reached by walking one kilometer on a plain, alongside the River Nerla. The Golden Ring tour ended in Moscow with the Divine Liturgy in the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
The last four days of the tour were spent in St. Petersburg, located northwest of Moscow and just a four -hour high-speed train ride away. With more than 100 islands connected by more than 600 bridges over and around the Neva River, the city founded by Peter the Great in 1703, is also known as the Venice of the North.
The sites of St. Petersburg included St. Isaac’s Cathedral, currently a museum but soon to become an active church, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, modelled on the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, in which all the emperors from Peter I are entombed.
Other sites included the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Pushkin Museum, and the State Hermitage Museum, a complex of six buildings, which served as the residence of Russian emperors. Five of these buildings are open to the public with impressive collections of art and historic artifacts. The buildings were converted into a museum by Empress Catherine the Great in 1764.
Our last evening in St. Petersburg included a Russian folk show, a farewell dinner, and a cruise on the canals of St. Petersburg.
An unforgettable experience.
Caption: Father Dennis Hrubiak poses for a photo in front of the world famous Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos in Red Square, Moscow. (Photo courtesy of Father Dennis Hrubiak)
As published in Horizons, Sept. 10, 2017.
