Preparations for the 17th pilgrimage to Holy Trinity Monastery, sponsored annually by Washington’s Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, began well before the actual event. Registration for the pilgrimage opened right after the cathedral’s patronal feast, the Beheading of St. John the Baptist on September 11. Groceries had to be purchased and food prepared to feed the multitude of pilgrims and the monks of Holy Trinity Monastery. This has been the established practice since these annual pilgrimages began, a practice instituted at the request of Holy Trinity Monastery’s abbot the ever-memorable Metropolitan Laurus (+2008).

Preparations for the 17th pilgrimage to Holy Trinity Monastery, sponsored annually by Washington’s Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, began well before the actual event. Registration for the pilgrimage opened right after the cathedral’s patronal feast, the Beheading of St. John the Baptist on September 11. Groceries had to be purchased and food prepared to feed the multitude of pilgrims and the monks of Holy Trinity Monastery. This has been the established practice since these annual pilgrimages began, a practice instituted at the request of Holy Trinity Monastery’s abbot, the ever-memorable Metropolitan Laurus (+2008).

On Friday, October 30, the day we were to set out on our pilgrimage, pilgrims who lived far from Washington arrived at the nation’s capital. They took the opportunity to go to confession, to take part in pilgrimage preparations, and to stay the night in our parish hall. At 5:00 AM the next morning, Saturday, October 31, 80people gathered at the church. An enormous store of provisions and the pilgrims’ personal effects were loaded into the bus, the pilgrims were seated and the bus soon set off. Following the bus were the church van and several private cars filled with pilgrims. The trip entered the history of our parish community as the 17th annual pilgrimage to the "Lavra" of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. The purpose of the pilgrimage was to pray at the grave of Brother Jose Muñoz-Cortes, custodian of the myrrh-streaming Montreal-Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, who was murdered in Athens in 1997. Accompanying the pilgrims was an exact copy of the Montreal-IveronIcon, painted by the Athonite Archimandrite Chrysostom for our church in 1998, the first anniversary of Jose’s murder. The Montreal-Iveron Icon had been given to Jose there, on Mt. Athos, by Schema-Abbot Clement of the Holy Nativity Skete.

The road from the capital to Jordanville is long, with the journey taking seven hours, but thanks to prayers, fraternal fellowship, and religious discussions about the history of the monastery and about Brother Jose’s martyric struggles, the time quickly flew by.

By 3:00 PM, the pilgrims had arrived at the women’s Skete of St. Elizabeth, not far from Holy Trinity Monastery. On the site where the Church of the Montreal-Iveron Icon of the Mother of God is to be erected on a hill granted to the sisters by Archimandrite Luke (Murianka), abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery, a memorial Cross was solemnly blessed. Awaiting the arrival of the Washingtonians were the nuns of the skete, as well as local and visiting faithful. The copy of the Montreal Icon that had been brought by the pilgrims was placed against the stones forming a small Golgotha at the base of the Cross. Soon thereafter, Fr.Luke joined us for the Rite of Blessing of the Memorial Cross. The assembled faithful greeted Fr. Luke with his namesday, as it was the day of celebration of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, his Heavenly patron. Fr. Luke warmly greeted the pilgrims, and proceeded with the short Rite of Blessing of a Memorial Cross.

After prayers and fraternal fellowship, we went to the monastery cemetery for a panihida for Brother Jose, faithful custodian of the Montreal-Iveron Icon, who was tortured to death in 1997. The weather was excellent, and many noticed an unusual "playing" of the sun, ringed by several circles of light. Candles were distributed to everyone, and the requiem prayers, led by Archpriest Victor Potapov rector of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, with three priests concelebrating, began. The service was chanted by the faithful. At the panihida, there were commemorations not only of Brother Jose, but also of Schema-abbot Clement (who in 1982 had given Jose the Iveron Icon, which soon began to stream myrrh) and Archbishop Leonty of Chile (who had brought Jose into the Orthodox Faith), as well as the 244 Russian airline passengers tragically killed in a plane crash on the Sinai Peninsula that same day. After the panihida, Fr. Victor gave a homily in which he called to mind Brother Jose’s 15-year long ascetic struggle, crowned in 1997 by martyric death. He thanked those assembled for their dedication in support of veneration of Brother Jose, and for remembering his amazing service to Christ ’s Church. Fr. Victor likewise noted that during this pilgrimage, a Memorial Cross had been blessed on the site of a church to be erected and dedicated to the wonderworking Montreal Icon, and he called on everyone to prayerfully and materially support this God-pleasing project. He further noted that the sign of the Hawaiian myrrh-streaming Icon was a direct continuation of the miracle of the Montreal icon.

All in attendance were anointed with myrrh from the Hawaiian-Iveron Icon, and everyone who wanted was given a vial of oil from the vigil lamp on Brother Jose’s grave, a bit of earth from the grave, a photograph of the murdered chosen one of the Mother of God, and a booklet containing the canon and akathist to the Montreal Icon. Likewise, the pilgrims partook of blessed at the grave.

After the Saturday panihida, the copy of the Iveron Icon was taken to the monastery cathedral. For quite some time, most of the pilgrims did not disperse. Many continued to pray at Brother Jose’s grave, others spoke with resident monastics and with seminarians, and some visited the graves of friends and relatives.

Following the evening meal, the pilgrimage participants gathered in the monastery cathedral for the festal three-hour-long monastic Vigil service. Throughout the evening services, Fr. Victor Potapov and Priest Damian Dantinne (cathedral cleric) heard the confessions of those who intended to commune of Christ’s Holy Mysteries the following day.

On Sunday, November 1, Fr. Luke led the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, with a number of monastics of priestly rank concelebrating. The faithful were deeply impressed by the touching chanting of the seminary choir. After the Prayer beyond the Ambo, Reader Vitaly Permyakov, an instructor at the Jordanville Seminary, gave a homily in Russian and English on the Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt, on the occasion of the day of his glorification.

After lunch, a group of pilgrims went to the "Word Image" exhibition in the new monastery museum, which included rare exhibits reflecting Russian life and culture throughout the three centuries of Romanov rule and the post-Empire era. Our guide was the museum’s young curator, Michael P. Perekrestov. One cannot help but note that the museum was established and functions at a highly professional level.

While one group of pilgrims was at the museum, Fr. Victor and Deacon Andrei Psarev, aseminary instructor, described to other pilgrims the monastic way of life, visited the crypts of a number of First Hierarchs of ROCOR, visited the baptistery and the bell-tower, and took a walk to the little house/skete in which ever-memorable Metropolitan Laurus reposed in 2008. They also went to the picturesque stone Church of St. John of Rila.

At 3:30 PM, we once again gathered together at Brother Jose’s grave for a final panihida. As always, the well-tended grave was covered with a multitude of candles placed there by the faithful.

Before setting off for home, we once again visited the women’s Skete of Holy New-Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth, and spent some time in fellowship with the nuns.        

Spiritually enriched by our visit to Holy Trinity Monastery and by warm fraternal fellowship, the pilgrims did not even notice how quickly the time flew on our seven-hour-long journey home.

God grant that ever more people might now and ever visit and support the Holy Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity and the resting place of the chosen one of the Mother of God.

Archpriest Victor Potapov