ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses Russian Orthodox monasteries as popular destinations for pilgrimage. Seen as nomadic forms of religious participation ‘beyond the walls of the church’, pilgrimages take various forms and appeal to diverse types of Orthodox Christians. Monasteries are popular pilgrimage destinations because they are multipurpose locations that can accommodate diverse forms of religious life in Russia. They appeal to pilgrims for various reasons: practising parishioners can find ‘their parish’ within the monastery; ‘flashmobbers’ occasionally gather in churches or monasteries to venerate miracle-working travelling shrines; ‘networkers’ travel to ask advice from monastery elders, their spiritual counsellors; Orthodox tourists seek ‘fast Orthodoxy’ on bus pilgrimages; alternative Orthodox believers settle around monasteries as places of refuge and non-Orthodox believers see them as places of power. Finally, numerous individual pilgrims come as trudniki to assist in the work of monasteries and temporarily immerse themselves within the monastic setting. Pilgrimages strengthen participants’ sense of belonging to both real and imagined communities of the Orthodox faithful. Monasteries are seen as a resource for pilgrims which provides them with an opportunity to be Orthodox in many different ways; this interaction, however, transforms monastic life and the larger community around them. This chapter draws on the author’s fieldwork undertaken since 2012 in Russian Orthodox monasteries in the regions of Leningrad, Yaroslavl, Kaluga, Ivanovo, Moscow and in the village of Diveyevo, Nishny Novgorod, Russia.
