The participants of the Simeonov procession walked 185 kilometers – this is exactly the middle of the way between Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye.
Over the next ten days, another 185 kilometers will have to be covered and on the day of the celebration of the transfer of the relics of the righteous Simeon of Verkhotursky, enter the spiritual capital of the Urals.
The prayer procession is held with the blessing of Metropolitan Eugene of Verkhotursky and Yekaterinburg.
This year is special for pilgrims. They began their journey through the Alapaevsky land with the Divine Liturgy in the new Alexander Nevsky Church, which was built with the support of the St. Catherine Foundation and the St. Elisabethan-Sergiev Educational Society. In the Tsarist days-2024, the revived church was consecrated by the Head of the Yekaterinburg Metropolis.
— Our way of the procession repeats the one that took place 110 years ago. That procession, entering Alapaevsk, had a population of 3,000 people, and their first point was the church of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky. We did not have such an opportunity for a long time, because the temple was destroyed. This year, the temple was reborn like a Phoenix from the ashes, and we, like our ancestors, celebrated evening worship there and held the Divine Liturgy," said Oleg Morozov, the organizer of the revived prayer procession.
The Simeonov procession is one of the longest and oldest in Russia. Its history began 320 years ago. St. Simeon of Verkhotursky was especially revered in the family of Emperor Nicholas II — in 1913, the august family gave the cathedral a silver canopy for the relics of St. Simeon.
In Alapaevsk, the crusaders also visited the Holy Trinity Cathedral and the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine.
The pilgrims still have nine days of travel ahead of them. They will have to pass through Verkhnyaya Sinyachikha, Bubchikovo, Mugai, Makhnevo, Merkushino, Ust-Salda and Krasnogorskoye.
You can join the Simeon procession, its organizers from the Society of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker emphasize, at any point along the route.