The great feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos Into the Temple was celebrated at the monastery with the usual solemnity that characterizes our divine services.  We were graced with what has become almost traditional, the presence of His Grace Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan for the All-Night Vigil. Vladyka is usually invited to serve in our parish in Syracuse, and so he breaks up his journey there from New York by staying in the monastery for the evening.  

On the weekend of November 3-4, 2018, the parish of St. John the Baptist in Washington, D.C. organized once again their annual pilgrimage to the monastery to honor the memory of Brother Jose Munoz, the ever-memorabel guardian of the Myrrh-Streaming icon of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God.   As is known, Brother Jose was murdered on October 31, 1997, and the icon was “lost,” its location being unknown until this day. Through God’s mercy, a copy of the icon from Hawaii streams great quantities of myrrh and for the past number of years has been taken around many Orthodox parishes around this country and others, for the spiritual consolation of the faithful.  And so, this weekend, also the icon was brought here by Fr. Athanasius Kone, our parish priest in Honolulu.

On September 26th the usual vigil for the great feast of the Exaltation of the Lord was served with its highlight being the service of the Exaltation or Elevation of the Cross.  Usually this service is performed by bishops in their cathedrals, but it can also be done by archimandrites.

From the Western American Diocese:

To My Eminent Brother Archpastors, Honorable Fathers, Dear Brothers and Sisters:

The 20th century was a difficult time for Orthodox Christians on the territory of the Russian Empire, which became the USSR after the Great War, the October Revolution and Civil War. But the more the Church endured persecution, the brighter the lanterns of faith and piety shone in the Russian land. From the Tsar and the members of the Royal Family close to him in spirit, from archpastors and simple monastics, priests, deacons to laypersons came forth a powerful spiritual army of the Church Militant. 

From the Western American Diocese: 

Standing before God in prayerful solidarity with our long-suffering brethren of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine, who, being revered and respected throughout the whole of the Orthodox world, is primate of the only recognised canonical Orthodox Church of Christ in Ukraine, we, the members of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, which carries out its ministry in the lands of North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other nations of the West, ministering to numerous emigres from the lands of historic Russia and their descendants, express our profound indignation at the blatant violation of the Holy Canons by the Orthodox Church of Constantinople.

From OrthoChristian.com:

On September 17, 2018, we published the news piece, “Greek Metropolitan Calls on Constantinople to Repent and Cease Communication with Ukrainian Schismatics,” presenting thoughts from Metropolitan Seraphim of Kythira and Antikythera on the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s ongoing dealings with Ukrainian schismatics, with the intention of granting a tomos of autocephaly and thereby creating a new Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Ecumenical Patriarchate announced on September 7 that he was sending two exarch bishops to Kiev to oversee and facilitate this process—an uncanonical action, as no blessing was sought from nor given by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In response, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church announced on September 14 that it was ceasing liturgical commemoration of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and episcopal concelebrations, and that the Russian Orthodox Church was withdrawing from any organizations or committees chaired or co-chaired by representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Synod was also clear that this is not a break in Eucharistic communion.

From back in the 1950’s, it has been the tradition of Holy Trinity Monastery to use the American civil holiday weekend of “Labor Day Weekend” as a convenient means for the monastery’s pilgrims to come to the monastery and commemorate the memory of the Venerable St. Job, abbot and wonderworker of Pochaev and also the miraculous icon of the Mother of God of Pochaev.

The great feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos was celebrated in the usual very solemn way in the monastery this year.  Especially noteworthy was that this was the first time the new Shroud of the Dormition, given to the monastery by his Grace, Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan, was used for the feast.  This greatly intensified the compunction felt by the monastery brotherhood and its numerous pilgrims, who found their way to the monastery for the feast. Many were moved to tears as they contemplated the beautiful depiction of the falling asleep of the Blessed Virgin.  

This weekend the monastery was blessed with the visit of our spiritual benefactor, His Eminence, Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada.  Vladyka is a firm supporter of his Alma Mater and whenever he is able, makes the five-hour trip to the monastery. This time was for the purpose of ordaining his hierodeacon, Fr. Sergiy Gusakov, to be a hieromonk.

On July 4/17, 2018, Holy Trinity Monastery celebrated the 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of Tsar Nicholas II and his august family and their loyal servants and attendants who were executed in Ekaterinburg early in the morning on this day in 1918.

On July 17^th, 2018, an exhibition commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the death of Tsar Nicholas II and his family opened at the Russian History Museum on the grounds of Holy Trinity Monastery.

The three-week Summer Youth Program completed its most successful year at Holy Trinity Monastery on July 15. Twenty high school students from 15 to 18 years of age, the largest group in the camp's history, gathered from across the United States and Canada to experience a unique schedule of daily liturgies, lectures, work alongside the monastics, nightly reflections, and recreational activities in beautiful, rural upstate New York.

The cathedral of the Holy Trinity Monastery is widely known and loved as the focal point of the prayer life of the monastery. Its unique frescoes, painted by the every-memorable Archimandrite Cyprian, are treasured throughout the Orthodox world, and its many holy icons and relics are greatly venerated by the countless number of pilgrims who stream to the monastery throughout the year for spiritual renewal.  The church is also used by the monks and the seminarians for the rich spiritual life of the monastery.

Since the monastery is dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity, our patronal feast day is Pentecost, or more correctly, the day of the Holy Spirit.  Since Pascha was very early this year, the feast coincided with the civil holiday of Memorial Day, thus facilitating the pilgrimage of hundreds of the faithful.  

Through the generous voluntary efforts of members of the greater Jordanville community, Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary has been blessed with bountiful springtime beauty.

The feast of the Great-Martyr and Trophy-bearer George is celebrated in the monastery as a full feast day.  This year, it fell on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman. As if this were not enough to make it especially solemn this year, adding to the joy of the feast was the visit of Bishop Nikolaj from Las Vegas, so we were able to have a pontifical service and also to celebrate the Slava of His Grace as well as two of our seminarians, the brothers Milosh and Negosh.

On May 2, the Orthodox Church commemorated the feast of Mid-Pentecost, the half-way point between Pascha and Pentecost.  This was a feast in the Old Testament Church.

This year in the monastery Holy Week and Pascha were celebrated with the usual solemnity, beautiful chants and with great efforts in the preparation thereof, both practical and spiritual.  Joined to this was the snowy, wintry weather, experienced as hardly every felt before. Early on Holy Saturday morning, towards the end of the Matins service, or as it is popularly called, “The Burial Service,” one of our father had to actually plow the snow around the church in order for the procession to take place.  A bit of snow fell on almost every day, including Pascha itself.

The Sunday before Pascha, known as Palm Sunday, is always celebrated with great joy in Holy Trinity Monastery.  The day before, Lazarus Saturday, is very joyous with a General Matins service served, and at the noon-day meal, traditionally an inexpensive form of caviar is served on bread, according to the typicon, the caviar, or fish eggs, symbolizing a foreshadowing of the Lord’s Resurrection, as in the event, the resurrection of St. Lazarus did.

Every since 1988 the monastery has conducted annual General Unction services for its members and also for the faithful and pilgrims.  Before it was felt that this service would interfere with the many-houred and solemn services of Great Lent and especially those of Holy Week.  However, due to the number of seriously ill fathers at the time, the service was held and has been ever since.

On March 23, 2018 , His Eminence, Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada arrived in the monastery for a few days of spiritual rest and also to celebrate the Divine Liturgy on the Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt, March 25, 2018, and in this way, to be able to partake of the special, Lenten atmosphere of the monastery during Great Lent and also to pray with the brotherhood, which is very close in heart to His Eminence, himself being one of our brethren.

In the evening, this same day as the 10th anniversary of the repose of Metropolitan Laurus, Fr. Archimandrite Luke, the Superior of the monastery, tonsured Novice Emilian to be a rassophore monk.  This was done at the end of the Small Compline service.

We congratulate Fr. Emilian, and wish him God’s mercy and strength to fulfill his desire for monasticism.  

On March 16, 2018, the Holy Trinity Monastery piously noted the memory of the 10th anniversary of the holy repose of Metropolitan Laurus, our former abbot for 32 years.  

This year, since Pascha is relatively early, the 8th of April, there was a very short period of time between the festal period of Holy Nativity and Holy Theophany and the beginning of Great Lent.  She just finished singing the festal hymns of the feast days, and then we commenced to sing the preparatory hymns of the time of repentance.

With God's grace, the help of our generous benefactors, and the diligence of our faculty and staff, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary was once again blessed to celebrate our patronal feast day of the Three Hierarchs: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. John Chrysostom. On February 11 and 12, His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, the monastic community, the seminarians, faculty, staff, and friends gathered to praise God the Holy Trinity, honor those great saints of the fourth century, and extol the virtues of the Seminary.

Deacon Michael Pavuk, HTOS Director of Development, brought the Jordanville Pochaev Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, with the blessing of Archimandrite Luke and at the invitation of Archpriest Serge Lukianov, Rector, to the parish of the New Martyrs & Confessors of Russia on 18th Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, for their patronal feast, which occurred this year on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son.

As in all other years, the Feast of the Theophany was celebrated in the monastery with special solemnity.  Liturgically it is a continuum of the feast of the Nativity and as is known, mimics the Nativity liturgically, as originally it was one feast, the Theophany, or the Appearance of Our Lord to the world.

The Nativity issue of Holy Trinity Monastery's Russian-language journal Pravoslavnaia Rus' for 2018 may be downloaded as a PDF directly from the publisher's website.

The last few days in the Holy Trinity Monastery have been one of preparation and the celebration of our Lord’s Holy Nativity. One the seminarians finished with their exams for the fall semester, they began to help the monastery brethren in the thorough cleaning of all of the monastery and seminary buildings, especially the church. This coincided with the Forefeast of the Nativity, which was the liturgical preparation.

Jordanville, NY - By God’s grace, 2017 was another fruitful year for Holy Trinity Publications, the missionary-publishing arm of Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY. With the blessing of H.E. Metropolitan Hilarion and under the direction of Archimandrite Luke, the monastery’s abbot, three new titles were released this year.