Pogost Vyshnevo, Tver Province, Russia, September 11, 2023
tvereparhia.ru
For the first time in nearly a century, prayers rung out in a ruined church in the middle of the forest in a village in the Tver Province of Russia earlier this month.
On September 3, following the Divine Liturgy, parishioners of the Church of St. John the Baptist in the city of Kimry made a pilgrimage to the Church of the Nativity of Christ in Pogost Vyshnevo, located in the forest near the village of Ilinskoye.
Archpriest Vladimir Kirilov served a moleben for the Preservation of God’s Creation in the church, after which the magnification of the feast of the Nativity of Christ was sung, reports the Metropolis of Tver.
The path to the church was quite difficult, through the forest and swampy terrain, the Metropolis writes. Eventually, the pilgrims came upon the walls of a once majestic church, where a couple of centuries ago “life was literally raging.”
Today, what’s left of the walls is surrounded by forest. Neither the vestibule nor altar have survived.
The original church on the spot dates to at least 1628. Eventually, the wooden church was replaced by a brick church, which was consecrated in 1817.
The authorities closed the church on January 23, 1930.
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