ZECO TRAVEL TALK

Solovetskiy Islands, White Sea to Norway

Today at Solovetskiy was totally unexpected —and so amazing that it’s hard to describe, but I am going to try. We ran a continuous zodiac shuttle for the passengers back and forth from the ship to the island where a ceremony was being held at the monastery to bless new bells that had been made and shipped over to the island.

The Archbishop of Russia, the second highest authority in the Russian Orthodox church flew out from Moscow for the blessing and to perform the ceremony in the Russian Transfiguration Church in the monastery’s Kremlin. Pilgrims from all over the country came to celebrate and pray, from old women in colorful babushkas (scarves) and skirts, to young people… all arriving en masse to take part in the ceremony. We were the only outside witnesses to this special event, and had to wait most of the morning, but it was really worth it. The pomp and ceremony was spectacular, with all the monks and priests carrying crosses and icons, dressed in long robes with huge hats, parading out of the church as they made their way to the bells. The Archbishop then got up on the bell platform and started flinging water around with large brush, blessing the bells with his holy water. Most of us got blessed as well! When we came back to the ship, everyone was so excited and some of the passengers even said that if they had to turn around and go home now, it was worth coming!

We ended the day with Olga Stone playing a Russian piece of music that was inspired by the ringing of church bells and Sergey did a toast with vodka with all our passengers. What a day… and we have pictures to prove it!