A RIA Novosti photo reportage chronicles Mid-Lent Wednesday in one of the best-known holy places in Moscow, the Sretensky Monastery on Bolshaya Lubyanka Street
A RIA Novosti photo reportage chronicles Mid-Lent Wednesday in one of the best-known holy places in Moscow, the Sretensky Monastery on Bolshaya Lubyanka Street. Photo: The Cathedral of the Meeting of the Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, the Chapel of the Nativity of St John the Baptist at the Sretensky Monastery
The abbot at Sretensky Monastery, Father Tikhon (Shevkunov), is a leading light in today’s Russian Orthodox Church, and one of the best-known priests in Moscow, who serves as a spiritual guide for hundreds of people
“A monk is a monk,” Father Tikhon says. “Nothing should matter more to him than prayer in church and in his room. And it does not matter how stormy ‘the sea of life’ might be all around him.” Photo: A Sretensky Seminary student in class
“We were tempted once to request for the transfer of the monastery to the Ryazan Region or the Moscow environs, where the Sretensky has a priory (skete). We might have left only an office and the seminary in the city centre. But later we understood that was not God’s will,” Father Tikhon says. People come here, for Vespers, from all over Moscow
Monastic vows remain unchanged although there are many more temptations in Moscow. Consequently monastic life requires even more discipline to overcome them. That is why fasting and the other monastery rules are especially strict. Photo: Prayer before a meal at the Sretensky Patriarchal Monastery’s refectory
“Fasting is not a struggle with the flesh, and even less is it a struggle against one’s own health. It is a battle with life’s overwhelming passions,” the abbot says. Photo: Prayer before a meal at the Sretensky Patriarchal Monastery’s refectory
Monastic life is not limited to prayer, service and fasting. For example, the monastery has a gym
Perhaps not everyone knows that the seminary’s teaching staff includes women
Father Tikhon pays particular attention to the monastery choir. Guests come to the Sretensky Patriarchal Monastery from other dioceses and other Orthodox countries to hear it. Admittance to most of its concerts is free
