On August 6, 2026, on the border of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, a meeting of the annual XXII International Odigitrievsky procession took place, following from the city of Vitebsk to the city of Smolensk. Traditionally, on the eve of the Vigil celebrations, numerous pilgrims from the cities of the Union State come to the Smolensk Diocese from Vitebsk in a procession.
At the border, the pilgrims were met by Metropolitan Isidore of Smolensk and Dorogobuzhsky, Archbishop Dimitri of Vitebsk and Orsha, Minister of the Smolensk Region for Internal Policy P.Yu. Mukhin, Chairman of the Rudnyansky District Council of Deputies L.N. Divakova, Chairman of the Lioznensky District Council of Deputies of the Vitebsk Region of the Republic of Belarus S.N. Shlyadnev, Assistant to the Deputy Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee S.N. Fadeenkov, clergy of the Smolensk and Vitebsk dioceses.
Metropolitan Isidore addressed the participants of the meeting with a welcoming speech.
On this day, at noon, a procession arrived in Rudnya from Velizh in honor of the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the relics of St. Gerasim Boldinsky with the shrines of the Boldinsky monastery: the ark with the relics of St. Gerasim Boldinsky and St. Arkady Dorogobuzhsky and the icons of these saints. The participants of the prayer procession met in the Rudnyansky municipal district of the Smolensk region in the Kazan Temple for a joint prayer in front of the icon of the Mother of God "Odigitria" and the icon of Saints Gerasim Boldinsky and Arkady Dorogobuzhsky.