Novo-Tikhvin women's monastery: The Visit of Bishop Mikhail

The Visit of Bishop Mikhail

The visit of Bishop Mikahil
The visit of Bishop Mikhail

All guests arriving at the hermitage of our monastery, traditionally visit the chanting class, iconographic and sewing workshops, acquaint themselves with the obediences performed by the sisters of the abode. But it does not happen often that a guest feels himself so much at home and so naturally that he knows immediately what we, the hosts, do and say. For instance, could the sisters at chanting class expect Bishop Mikhail to sing along as they started singing the dogmatic in the fifth tone: "In the Red sea." As it turned out, the Bishop is quite familiar with Znamenny chant. The words "drone", "hieronomic sign" and others are no mystery to him. And not only in the chanting class, but at other obediences the sisters after meeting Bishop Mikhail would note with amazement and joy: "We are speaking one language!"

Bishop in the orphanage
Bishop in the orphanage

Afterwards the Bishop visited the orphanage of our abode where, movingly, he inquired about all the details in the life of the foster children: where they study, how they rest. Here the Bishop, looking at the children with fatherly concern, is asking one of the girls: "Show me how you can knit." And with her yet clumsy little fingers she moves the bobbins, making an ornament.

With the chanters
With the chanters

Seeing a drawing on the wall of the orphanage -- a pre-revolutionary panorama of our monastery (six churches in the same architectural style had been built on the territory of the abode), Bishop Mikhail immediately expressed a desire to go and see how this place looks today. This way, in addition to the planned trips, he also visited our churches in Zelenaya Roshcha (now two out of six churches were returned to the abode). Somewhat later, on October 7th and 8th, the Bishop will make a pilgrimage to the relics of the Verkhotursky region and, among them, will visit the metochions of our abode in Merkushino and Kostylyovo villages.


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Photoalbum