A major cross procession took place on Sunday outside Moscow during which pilgrims walked from the village of Ilyinskoye to Usovo.
The event is organized annually by the Elisabeth-Sergiy Educational Society. The path is largely confined to the territory of Ilyinskoye-Usovo, the only Romanov imperial family estate in Moscow Region.
Some 2,000 people were estimated to have taken part in the procession, which ended with a paraklesis (a smaller service dedicated to a specific saint) to the venerable martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, the wife of Grand Duke Sergey Alexandrovich of Russia, and Royal Martyrs at the Church of Image of Edessa in Usovo.
“Today is the day [as celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Church] of Saints Joachim and Anna – the parents of the Most Holy Theotokos, whom we greatly honor for their piety and desire to have children. Let us be the same, let us give birth to children and ask the Lord to give us as many as possible. This is a wonderful lesson from their lives, which we need to learn,” the chair of the Elisabeth-Sergiy Educational Society’s supervisory board, Anna Gromova, said upon the conclusion of the procession.
This year’s cross procession marks several anniversaries, including 160 years since the establishment of Ilyinskoye-Usovo itself, as well as the births of the martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna (born Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine), hieromartyr Sergey Makhayev, and others.
The event also marks the bicentennial of the birth of Russian Empress Maria Alexandrovna, a prominent champion of humanitarian causes and educator. On Saturday, a monument to the empress was unveiled at Ilyinskoye-Usovo.