Pilgrimage to the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius
I have been to this place many many times. It is a unique place: if you are a tourist interested in Russian medieval art • go there, if you are a pilgrim in search of inner balance • fo there too. I went there for both.
This time the purpose of my visit was the second, I think. I was geeting ready to go clubbing with my friends and was happy about it and I suddenly felt I need to go to this place again. No, it has nothing to do with Ivan the Terrible way of life • “first sin, than repent”, no I just felt I needed a kind of relief. So on Sunday morning I woke up (yes, it was still morning after a club night) and went to Sergiev Posad. It takes about 1 h 30 minutes to get there from Moscow, an easy destiantion.
I took off the train and headed to the Lavra.
Then I went downhills and passed St. Paraskeva’s church, went uphills and reached the entrance to the Lavra. Many people • tourists, pilgrims, beggars were on the square infront of it. Lavra is always a busy place and you can meet here all kind of people, it is very representative of the human world.
I entered, took some pictures and decided not to waste my time but to go to the Holy Trinity Cathedral directly. It was the right thing to do. I saw a long long line and just thought “Oh”.
A line in a monastery is a unique thing • you can learn more in a couple of hours than in many years, it is a kind of discussion club if we can call it like this. I heard many life stories: it is interesting how people are willing to share important things with strangers. Every person in the line had his or her own reason to be there but in general they all had a question, a request or a problem to be solved. I was listening to what people were saying and thought that I am a pretty happy person. A good outcome of the trip I should say.
After my visit to the Trinity Cathedral and the Saint Sergius’ relics I went and bought one more bell for my mom (she is collecting them) and took some pics.
I didn’t write anything about the Sacristy, the Lavra museum, which is great by the way, or Andrey Rublev’s art • you can read about it in many books and Internet resources but better to see. What I wanted to share with you is my feelings and impressions from a single visit to the most important Russian monastery.
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