On Holy Week Thursday, April 24, 2025, the venerated image of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, located in the Trinity Cathedral of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, was solemnly transferred to the Gornensky Convent in Ein Karem.
With the blessing of His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilus III of Jerusalem, the festive prayer service at Trinity Cathedral and the procession from Jerusalem to the source of the Blessed Virgin in Ein Karem were led by Archbishop Theophan of Gerasim, hierarch of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church, who was co-served by Archimandrite Vassian (Zmeev), head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Jerusalem Patriarchate. The prayer service was performed in Church Slavonic and Greek, according to the website of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Abbess Ekaterina (Chernysheva), abbess of the Gornensky Convent, met the icon of the Annunciation near the spring with the clergy and sisters of the monastery. Here, the procession led by the venerated icon ascended the mountain road and proceeded to the monastery church in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, where Bishop Theophan and the clergy who served him worshiped the venerated shrine.
The all-night vigil in the Kazan Church was held by the hierarchs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Gabriel of Lovcana and Bishop Michael of Constantinople, who are visiting the Holy Land these Easter days with a group of pilgrims from Bulgaria. The Bulgarian bishops were concelebrated by the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The solemn divine service on this day was performed by the Easter rite according to the statute of the feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, which falls on Bright Week.
At the litiya, the clergy, sisters and pilgrims of the monastery made a procession around the Kazan Temple. The evening service was followed by the Easter Matins.
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The annual celebration of the "Kissing" — the Presentation of the Most Holy Theotokos with the Righteous Elizabeth and the transfer of the venerated image of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos from the Trinity Cathedral in Jerusalem to the Gornensky Convent shortly after the celebration of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos — is a special liturgical tradition, founded in the 19th century by Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) in memory of the procession "to the Mountain, to the city Judas" (Luke 1:39), which the Most Pure Virgin performed in order to visit the righteous Elizabeth, the mother of John's Forerunner, and share with her the joy of the imminent birth of the Savior of the world from Her.
The image of the Annunciation is placed on the central festive lectern in the Kazan monastery church, and the abbot's staff is placed next to it: according to tradition, during the icon's stay in the Gornenskaya monastery, the Most Pure Herself is the Abbess here.