The day before Pentecost, Saturday, there is a special commemoration in the Church’s typicon for all of the Orthodox reposed.  Since the monastery has a very large cemetery, it has been the custom for many years to have the Divine Liturgy on this day in the cemetery’s chapel of the Dormition, which was built almost fifty years ago in memory of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, especially the Royal Martyrs.

            A priest an deacon are assigned to serve the Proskomedia in the chapel while in the cathedral the usual Saturday morning Midnight Office is served.  Thereupon the Divine Liturgy is served in the chapel to which many pilgrims and neighbors attend as part of the Pentecost feast.  At the end of the liturgy, His Grace Bishop Luke accompanied by the monastery clergy, served a general pannikhida in which all those buried in the cemetery and all those whose names we have in our commemoration books are prayed for.  During the pannikhida Vladyka censed all the gravesites.