The Lavra (Sergeev-Posad)

Went today to the Lavra with some friends to venerate the relics of St. Sergei. As it was a holiday there were many people there for the same reason so we had to stand in line (most of the time in the snowy weather) for about 40 minutes. After I had venerated the relics my friends were leaving out another exit and I didn't know what that meant but it turned out that they were letting us into another reliquary. So in this lower church and reliquary there were more relics of St. Sergei and relics of other saints of the Lavra as well as a whole part of the arm of St. Stephen the first martyr and many other relics (I simply can't remember all of them). These were the biggest relics that I've ever seen as usually they are the tiny particles in cases. (Of course God can work miracles through all alike...) We had a dinner in the monastery trapeza and then found out that a friend who works at the monastery was having a birthday party at the moment so we joined and spent some time singing songs and conversing.

The pilgrims in the wonderful snow.





We celebrated a birthday under this icon of St. Sergei.
The monastery trapeza's very own cup.