UFA, RUSSIA: October 15, 2015
The Delegation of the Russian Church Abroad Visits “Holy Shrubs” Uspensky-Georgievsky Monastery

On the feast day of the Protection of the Most-Holy Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, His Eminence Metropolitan Nikon of Ufa and Sterlitamaksk and His Grace Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan, heading the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia accompanying the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God "of the Sign,” celebrated Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the city of Ufa, Russia, after which they visited “Holy Shrubs” Uspensky-Georgievsky Monastery. The abbot, Archimandrite Varlaam (Maksakov) and the monastery brethren welcomed the guests.

Fr Varlaam gave the visitors a tour of the monastery grounds and its relics. Among them were Uspensky Cathedral, a chapel dedicated to the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God on the site of the miraculous finding of a chapel of the beginning of the 10 th century, which had been erected on the site of “holy shrubs.” The guests were also shown the monastic cells and pilgrims’ hostel.

[Translator’s note: the “holy bushes” refers to three birches and two willows which had once grown together on a hillock on this site, their branches intertwining, where miracles were often witnessed.]

At the end of their visit, a commemorative litiya was performed for the abbesses of the pre-Revolutionary convent located here who were executed and buried at the base of the wall of Uspensky Cathedral.

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