The journey begins outside the city limits of St. Petersburg and gradually moves to the center, connecting the ancient monastic complexes with the temples of the imperial capital.
The Tikhvin Theotokos of the Assumption Monastery preserves the miraculous image of Odigitria. An ancient belief is connected with this shrine: when a pestilence simultaneously engulfed Tikhvin and Staraya Russa, a certain citizen was instructed in a dream to exchange icons of the Virgin between the two settlements. After the transfer of the Old Russian list to the Tikhvin monastery and sending the Tikhvin image to Staraya Russa, the wind began to decline. Since then, a special remote icon has been brought to the processions.
Further, the road leads to the Holy Trinity Alexandro-Svir Monastery. Its founder, the Monk Alexander, settled in the remote Olonets forests at the end of the fifteenth century. During the life of the ascetic, two separate wings of the monastery were formed: Trinity with cells for the brethren and Preobrazhenskoe near the churchyard. Both ensembles are connected by a lake trail. The earliest stone building is the refectory Church of the Intercession, built in 1533 with funds granted by Grand Duke Vasily III. Here pilgrims are attached to the relics of St. Alexander.
Nearby there is the Entered Oyatsky convent, whose appearance is lost at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. Written evidence of him appears in the life of Alexander Svirsky, recorded by the monk Herodion in 1545. The monastery acquired its modern stone appearance in the first half of the XIX century; the cathedral Vvedensky temple with a warm Tikhvin chapel was laid in 1817.
Within the borders of St. Petersburg, the attention of pilgrims is turned to the Church of the Resurrection of Christ on Blood. The nine-headed building rose on the very spot where the People’s Volunteers bomb on March 1, 1881, ended the life of Emperor Alexander the Liberator. The building reaches eighty-one meters in height. On the facades there are texts telling about the reforms and achievements of the reign. The interior is completely covered with mosaics — a collection, which is not equal in area in Europe. Compositions were collected in the workshop of Vladimir Frolov; sketches were prepared by more than thirty painters of the first magnitude.
Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospect was erected by the architect Andrei Voronikhin from 1801 to 1811. The original purpose is to store the revered list of the Kazan icon. After the expulsion of Napoleon, the temple turned into a pantheon of military valor: captured keys from enemy strongholds were placed here, and in 1813 Field Marshal Kutuzov was buried under the vaults. Cathedral status returned to the cathedral in 2000.
The Alexander Nevsky Lavra is the first monastery of the Northern capital, awarded the highest monastic title in 1797. The ensemble includes famous necropolises with burials of outstanding sons of the fatherland. The resumption of monastic life took place in 1996. The Trinity Cathedral keeps the main relic — a raku with the remains of Prince Alexander. In 1988, from the vaults of the Russian Museum, the image of the Great Martyr Paraskeva Friday came from the village of Ilyesha. At the monastery there are icon-painting and jewelry workshops.
The Smolensk Pogost on Vasilievsky Island traces its history back to the Senate decree of 1756. Here stands the stone chapel of Xenia the Blessed, built in 1902 according to the drawings of the architect Vseslavin. Under the bush rest the relics of the St. Petersburg intercessor. On the Nikolsky cemetery of the Lavra, opened in 1861, stands the church of St. Nicholas, built in 1868-1871 on the capital of the merchant Rusanov by the architect Karpov. In the basement of the temple there is a family tomb of the donor.
The next day is dedicated to Stavropegian women’s monastery on Karpovka. It was established by the pastor John of Kronstadt, consecrated in the name of his heavenly patron, St. John of Ryl. In the temple, the tomb under the bushel are the relics of the founder himself.
Country exit leads to Tsarskoye Selo — a palace and park ensemble, turned into a museum-reserve after nationalization in the spring of 1918. On the Academic Prospect near the Farm Park stands the Feodorovsky Sovereign Cathedral, where believers worship the revered list of the Feodorov Icon of the Mother of God.
The end point of the route is the temple of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Vyritsa. In its lower tier is consecrated the chapel of Seraphim of Sarov and Alexis, a man of God. Near the church in 2001, according to the project of the architect Pavlov, a wooden cage chapel was cut down over the grave of St. Seraphim Vyritsky. Beside her, the schemamonachine Seraphim is buried, in the world — the wife of the ascetic.
