Participation in the Exhibition

Exhibition opening ceremony

In October of this year a trade display “The Orthodox Russia” organized with the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch Alexis II was held in St. Petersburg. This show was called to further cooperation between various church and secular institutions for the rebirth of Russia, its shrines, traditions, historic and cultural relics. It gathered synodal establishments, parishes and monasteries, theological schools and publishing houses, workshops and architects. The whole atmosphere was very friendly, and it was especially consolatory to observe such a multiplicity of sacred things that different participants brought with them: a chest with holy relics of St. Nicholas, an icon with a portion of relics of St. Ignatius (Bryanchyaninov), a chest with relics of St. Nectarius.

Diploma

During the exhibition there was a show of books nominated for the annual All-Russian Prize “The Orthodox book of Russia” organized. Several books of our monastery were put forth for a prize, one of them – a children’s book of prayer took the first prize in the nomination “The best Orthodox book for children”. The nomination attracted such well-known publishing houses as Publishing Council of the Orthodox Church of Russia, “Palomnik” (Pilgrim), “Otchy dom” (Father’s house), secular publishing house “Rosmen”. Besides the children’s book of prayer there were 22 more books displayed, and so our winning the prize was very surprising for us.

Pages of the children’s book of prayer

Starting the work on the “Children’s book of prayer”, we aimed at creating such a book that would enable a child to get a proper and clear idea of spiritual life: of a prayer, the Sacraments of Church, faith. From the very beginning we contemplated to illustrate our book based upon the traditions of the old Byzantine painting and book miniature, for it is Byzantine art that is most adequate in conveying the beauty of the Orthodox Church. And so, the book of prayer is provided mainly with Byzantine frescos, so that a child could have a chance to visually plunge into the world of evangelic characters and to percept a grace-giving might of the icon-painting work. The book of prayer also included icons painted by the sisters of our monastery.

The picture of the exhibiion opening is taken from site “RESTEC” Exhibition Company