We invite you to join us on our Pilgrimage to the Monasteries of Moldavia, August 26 – September 5. The total cost for the 11-day pilgrimage is 1900 GBP and it includes accommodation in my home Monastery, all meals, transport during the pilgrimage, all entries and guided tours. As always when we go to Moldavia, I shall be your main guide.
Moldavia is my home. When we go on pilgrimage to the Monasteries of Moldavia, we stay at my old Monastery, in the middle of the forest. We pray with my monastic brothers. We receive our blessing each morning from my Abbot. This is not a tour, but a pilgrimage and the opportunity to experience the inner life of these monasteries. They are completely rooted in Tradition and the living proof of that is the love with which they welcome us.
We shall visit the famous painted Monasteries, some of the most beautiful Monasteries in the Orthodox world. They were completely covered in iconography (inside and outside) in the fifteenth century, during the horrific time of the Ottoman invasions, out of the desire to spread the beauty of the Heavens outside the churches, to reflect the Divine Light onto the painful reality of a nation fighting for survival. My own Monastery is one of the painted ones and it is covered with some of the oldest iconographic compositions in Moldavia. These icons are a wealth of visual theology and we shall be introduced in their deep meanings by the monastics who live in these monasteries and who know them better than anyone else.
We shall also pray in the cell of St Daniil the Hermit (which he dug himself in a huge rock). We shall go to the cave of St Theodora of Sihla (who struggled for God alone in the forest for decades until she was discovered by monks from the monastery at the base of the mountain). We’ll go and pray at the graves of contemporary Elders who have survived the horrors of Communism and have kept the faith of the nation alive by their example – Elder Paisie (Olaru), Elder Cleopa (Ilie), Elder Justin (from Petu Voda), Father George (Calciu) and many others.
We’ll see huge monasteries, entire villages completely occupied by monastics, as well as small sketes and hermitages hidden in the forest. We shall experience all of it in the embrace of the spirit of love and humility of these monastics, daily supported by prayer and even with the amazing gift of being allowed to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in English, just for our group. By the grace of God, we hope that our entire monastic community will join you, as we have done in the past, so we may get to spend time together and share with you this amazing experience.