From January 20 to 30, 2025, with the blessing of Metropolitan Rostislav of Tomsk and Asinovo and with the active participation of the Foundation for the Support of Christian Culture and Heritage, a group of international students from Tomsk Theological Seminary led by Vice Rector for Academic Affairs, Priest Vitaly Kollantai, and head of the Educational and Methodological Department, Yu.S. Gubanova, made a pilgrimage to the shrines of Central Russia.
The trip consisted of several parts. In the first of them, the children visited the Vvedensky Stavropol monastery Optina Pustyn. A group of pilgrims from the Tomsk Theological Seminary stayed in the monastery for several days. By attending morning and evening services daily, the students had an unforgettable experience of prayer, worshiped the relics of the holy elders of Optina, and toured not only the temples of the monastery, but also the courtyard, the hermitage, and other iconic places associated with the monastery. Peter Saisi, one of the 2nd year students, especially liked the Midnight Mass and fraternal prayer services, which were held at 5:30 a.m. with the lights completely off and only a few lamps. The boys themselves, as noted by Priest Vitaly Kollantai, confessed daily and received communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. They also managed to visit the Kazan Ambrosievsky Stavropol Women's Monastery in Shamordino and the Monastery of the Savior Not Made with Hands in the village of Klykovo.
During the pilgrimage, the students met and talked with Bishop Joseph of Mozhaisk, vicar of Optina Pustyn, as well as Abbot Lavrenty (Balaev), the confessor of the monastery's brethren. The meetings were useful, as they discussed issues related to the life and ministry of the pastor of the Church of Christ.
The second point of the pilgrimage was the ancient Russian city located on the "Golden Ring", Pereslavl-Zalessky. The boys stayed in this city for only one day, but they managed to visit all the holy monasteries: the convent of St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, the Wonderworker; the monastery of the Holy Martyr Nikita of Gotfa; the Holy Trinity Danilov Monastery for men, as well as the Feodorovsky Monastery for women.
The next morning, the pilgrims celebrated the Cathedral Divine Liturgy in the Church of St. John Chrysostom (St. Nicholas Monastery compound) in the village of Godenovo. After the Liturgy, a moleben with an akathist was served at the miraculous Godenovsky cross. With the blessing of the abbess of the monastery, Abbess Evstolia (Afonina), the children were given an excursion.
The journey to the third point of the pilgrimage was not as long as the previous one. This point was the city of Moscow, where the children participated in the XXXIII International Christmas Educational Readings "80th Anniversary of the Great Victory: memory and spiritual experience of generations." As part of the readings, a number of sites were visited dedicated to the mission of the Church, as well as some aspects of bioethics. During a few days in Moscow, students visited the Tretyakov Gallery and the Andrei Rublev Central Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art, where they touched the most famous and revered holy images of the Virgin Mary, as well as saw icons of Byzantium and ancient Russia. According to 2nd year student Efrem Richard, "I especially remember the icons of the famous icon painters, St. Andrew Rublev, Theophanes the Greek, Dionysius and Simon Ushakov."
During their visit to Moscow, the seminarians also took part in guided tours of magnificent churches, including the oldest stone church in the capital, the Church of the Image of the Savior Not Made with Hands in the Spaso–Andronikov Monastery, the only church in Russia in honor of St. Pimen the Great, the church of St. Nicholas Archbishop of Myra of Lycia in Tolmachi and the church of St. Nicholas Archbishop of Myra of Lycia in Kuznetsov, which include to the churches of Zamoskvorechye. In total, during the pilgrimage in Moscow, Tomsk students managed to worship the holy miraculous icons of the Virgin of Vladimir, Donskoy, Tolgskaya, Joy to All who mourn, Assuage my sorrows.
This pilgrimage trip was not the first, but every time, coming into contact with holiness in various parts of Russia, foreign students gain not only knowledge, but also prayer experience, as well as an idea of the peculiarities of the Russian Orthodox tradition.