Got up at 5.00 today and headed into Moscow to meet Katya and her friend. We headed about 2.5 hours outside of Moscow to a small city called Сергиево-Посад (Sergiev-Posad) directly to the north west. There is a church here that is one of the oldest (maybe the oldest, not positive) in the Moscow area and was constructed by Saint Sergius, as you may have guessed from the name of the city. The formal name is The Holy Trinity - St. Sergius Lavra. The addition of the word "Lavra" is incredibly important in the Eastern Orthodox church and denotes those churches which are the largest and most important, as judged my the patriarch of the church. In Russia, only 5 churches have been given this esteemed distinction, so it was a great honor to get to visit this monastery.
The entire church is surrounded by a compound wall and there are a total of 10 churches inside the walls (I think that's right, I might be off by 1 or 2). The church as originally constructed by St. Sergius was built of wood and after witnessing some miracles became famous and many people made pilgrimages on foot for incredibly extensive distances to seek healing there. The church was burned by Tartars, but was rebuilt in stone and fortified against further attack, and hundreds moved and settled near the monastery, taking refuge inside during sieges.
The cloister also includes a seminary academy and a home for visiting Tsars and a residence for the Patriarch. All that aside, the entire experience was beautiful, and monks were praying in each of the different churches. They take shifts of two hours, and prayer is a constant in each of the chapels. I got a good number of pictures, although only of the outsides of the buildings. Again, I'll try to get them uploaded as soon as possible. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to find time, but it may have to wait until Saturday.
We stayed at the church from 9.30 until about 13.00 or so, and then headed to a toy museum nearby to se different toys from around the world from the past several centuries. There were an incredibly number of hand-made dolls and there were a fair number of them that had been painstakingly detailed and were incredibly impressive... I can't imagine giving some of these to kids to play with. By about 14.30 or so we left and had a quick lunch before heading to a small village-turned-museum from the 1700's that was home to many famous painters, writers, and other various artists.
There was an incredibly number of beautiful pieces of art that they had made just for they homes, and I would have loved to have seen these peoples' real masterpieces. We stayed there until 18.00 wandering around the expansive grounds, down to the lake, up to the church, and around to the kitchen and hospital; all residential buildings modified to suit whatever need was required, excepting the church which was built by the people living in the village, and the icons on the iconostasis were painted by the artists there in the village. It was incredibly impressive to imagine that every detail of this church had been crafted solely by the residents of this small settlement and I found myself wondering what it must have been like to have lived among so many amazingly talented artists of so many different types.
On the car ride home I passed out and got about 2.5 hours of sleep, and awoke as Katya pulled up to Prince Plaza. I thanks them for the amazing day and made my way inside to buy a quick dinner and then headed home for the evening, making it back about 22.00. That has to have been the longest day I've had in a good long while, but it was worth every minute, and I had an excellent time. Now, I'm exhausted to the point that I may not be able to get up tomorrow, and I'm going to lay down before I pass out. I hope everyone had an awesome day, and I'll make sure to get these pictures up by the weekend! Take care, All!
The entire church is surrounded by a compound wall and there are a total of 10 churches inside the walls (I think that's right, I might be off by 1 or 2). The church as originally constructed by St. Sergius was built of wood and after witnessing some miracles became famous and many people made pilgrimages on foot for incredibly extensive distances to seek healing there. The church was burned by Tartars, but was rebuilt in stone and fortified against further attack, and hundreds moved and settled near the monastery, taking refuge inside during sieges.
The cloister also includes a seminary academy and a home for visiting Tsars and a residence for the Patriarch. All that aside, the entire experience was beautiful, and monks were praying in each of the different churches. They take shifts of two hours, and prayer is a constant in each of the chapels. I got a good number of pictures, although only of the outsides of the buildings. Again, I'll try to get them uploaded as soon as possible. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to find time, but it may have to wait until Saturday.
We stayed at the church from 9.30 until about 13.00 or so, and then headed to a toy museum nearby to se different toys from around the world from the past several centuries. There were an incredibly number of hand-made dolls and there were a fair number of them that had been painstakingly detailed and were incredibly impressive... I can't imagine giving some of these to kids to play with. By about 14.30 or so we left and had a quick lunch before heading to a small village-turned-museum from the 1700's that was home to many famous painters, writers, and other various artists.
There was an incredibly number of beautiful pieces of art that they had made just for they homes, and I would have loved to have seen these peoples' real masterpieces. We stayed there until 18.00 wandering around the expansive grounds, down to the lake, up to the church, and around to the kitchen and hospital; all residential buildings modified to suit whatever need was required, excepting the church which was built by the people living in the village, and the icons on the iconostasis were painted by the artists there in the village. It was incredibly impressive to imagine that every detail of this church had been crafted solely by the residents of this small settlement and I found myself wondering what it must have been like to have lived among so many amazingly talented artists of so many different types.
On the car ride home I passed out and got about 2.5 hours of sleep, and awoke as Katya pulled up to Prince Plaza. I thanks them for the amazing day and made my way inside to buy a quick dinner and then headed home for the evening, making it back about 22.00. That has to have been the longest day I've had in a good long while, but it was worth every minute, and I had an excellent time. Now, I'm exhausted to the point that I may not be able to get up tomorrow, and I'm going to lay down before I pass out. I hope everyone had an awesome day, and I'll make sure to get these pictures up by the weekend! Take care, All!
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