This year, the St. Irenarch cross procession took place under the hot sun. Everyday, the temperature was between 30 and 35 degrees Celsius. Thanks to the dry roads it was relatively easy to walk, which made it possible for everyone to participate, including children and breastfeeding mothers—who all turned out in great numbers.
The St. Irenarch cross procession takes place yearly at this time of the year, from the monastery of Sts. Boris and Gleb near Rostov the Great, where St. Irenarch once labored in monasticism, to the place of his birth in the village of Kondakovo, Yaroslavl province.
As we neared the village of Kuchery, a blue cloud suddenly appeared over the procession and poured no less than two or three buckets of rain over everyone, so that the water had to be pumped out of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross currently under construction. An All-Night Vigil and Liturgy were served for the first time within the walls of the church being built on the site of a terrible tragedy that took the lives of three Orthodox children. On Christmas Eve, 2022, a fire broke out in a house here as the family was preparing to go to church, and the children perished in the flames.
For the first time since the renewal of the St. Irenarch procession, a moleben was served from start to finish in the St. George Church not outside, but in the beautifully restored church. Thanks to the dry weather, everyone was able to come to Zubarevo, and there the choir sang using Znameny chant.
