Yesterday, September 27.On the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, Ilyinskoye-Usovo again became not just a point on the map. Here, in the historical Imperial estate, the fifteenth – XV Elizabethan procession was held. And although the figure is round, the scale of it has not become less: thousands of believers, a long column along the Moskva River, a prayer that sounds not in the walls of the temple, but in the open air.
The procession took place with the blessing of Archbishop Odintsovo and Krasnogorsk Thomas. As always, the administrations of Odintsovo and Krasnogorsk districts helped – without them, such a route cannot be dragged: roads, cordon, logistics. But behind all this is one thing – people want to go, and come by themselves.
Why exactly this year
The organizers – the Foundation “Elizavetinsk-Sergievsk Enlightenment Society” – specifically timed the course to three dates. At first glance, they are different, but in fact they are connected by one thread.
129 years ago, in 1896, the sacred coronation of Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna took place. 135 years ago, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna accepted Orthodoxy, not formally, but as a profound personal choice that changed her whole life. And 135 years ago, Grand Duke Sergei Aleksandrovich became the Governor-General of Moscow, a man whose name is inextricably linked with Moscow and with the fate of Elizabeth.
Three dates, three turns, and all lead to one thing: the memory of people for whom faith and service were not words.
Like it was.
It all began with the Divine Liturgy in the temple of Elijah the Prophet in the village of Ilyinskoye. After the service, the column moved along the banks of the Moscow River, in places that are now included in the federal project “Imperial Route”. Someone walked for the first time, someone for the fifteenth time, but the atmosphere is different every time. This year, the weather has not failed.
In the course of the movement, a prayer song was performed by the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth. We prayed together with the clergy of the diocese, among which is the rector of our church, Archpriest Igor Smertin. When a priest recites a prayer and hundreds of voices pick it up around you, all on the move, in the middle of a field and a river, it’s not like a regular service. It’s something else.
White Flower and Real Things
The procession is not just a prayer. On the same day, the annual charity event “White Flower Day” was held. The funds raised will go to help soldiers and families of the fallen heroes. This is important: people did not just come to stand with icons and disperse, but made their contribution – someone with money, someone with participation. The tradition of mercy, which Elizaveta Fedorovna herself once founded, continues to work.
There was also a traveling exhibition of the ESPO Foundation: “History and traditions of the Holy Coronation of Russian Sovereigns”. Century XIX. To the anniversaries of the coronation celebrations of 1826, 1856, 1896. Stands, documents, photos — you could not just walk past, but stop and see how it was. How princes were crowned, what rank it was, what life stood behind it.
After
By evening, the column had returned. People dispersed slowly — someone to the buses, someone to the cars, someone on foot. Tired, but not depressed, but on the contrary, with that quiet inner peace that happens after something real.
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