From February 22 to March 1, 2026, a group of students from the Moscow Theological Academy, consisting of international scholarship students from the Foundation for the Support of Christian Culture and Heritage, as well as icon painters and graduate students, visited the Sochi Diocese.
During the Week of the Celebration of Orthodoxy, students prayed for the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Sochi. After the service, a meeting of clergy and parishioners took place, where the guests talked about studying at the Academy and about the life of Orthodox communities abroad.
After the meeting and a shared meal, the rector of the church, Archpriest Leonid Vlasov, conducted a tour of the parish for the students. The participants of the trip visited the chapel of St. Simeon Stylites, where the Sochi elder Archimandrite Simeon (Nesterenko) is buried, the students heard a story about his life and prayed for his repose.
Then the group went to the Cathedral of Archangel Michael, where they were met by the head of the youth department of the Sochi Diocese, Priest Bogdan Zhurbenko. After that, a tour of the diocesan spiritual and educational center "Arkhangelsk" took place.
There was also a meeting of students with the singers of the youth choir of the Sochi Diocese. The choir members learned about studying at the Academy, as well as about the life of Orthodox communities in Canada, Korea, Turkey, and Sweden, the countries from which international students came to study at the MD.
At the end of the day, the students went to the Vladimir Cathedral, where they took part in the episcopal service — Vespers with the rite of forgiveness. After that, a meeting was held with Bishop Herman of Sochi and Tuapse, where the students talked with the archpastor, received his blessing and took a memorable photo.
Then the participants of the trip went to the monasteries where they spent the first week of Great Lent: the students went to the Trinity-St. George Convent in the village of Lesnoye, and the students went to the Krestovaya Pustyn Monastery in the village of Solokh-aul.
In the monasteries, students attended divine services and performed obediences. The girls helped at the services in the choir, worked in the monastery gardens and in the kitchen, and also helped the sisters in their daily duties.
International students sang in the choir, worked in the monastery kitchen, in the garden, in the cattle yard, did household chores, and prayed in English outside of the main services.
In conclusion, the pilgrims from the Academy prayed at the Sunday Liturgy in the Krestovaya Desert, where, after the service, they had a conversation with the abbot of the monastery.
Russian Russian monastic community The trip gave students the opportunity to spend the first week of Great Lent in a remote monastery, combining prayer with physical labor, to get acquainted with the traditions of Southern Russian monasticism, and to gain additional practice of communication in Russian for foreign students.