On Monday, May 26, the American holiday of Memorial Day, parishioners of St. Pantelemon Church in Hartford, CT, made a pilgrimage to the OCA Monastery of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk in South Canaan, PA. This year, the monastery is celebrating the centennial of the blessed repose of Patriarch Tikhon (Bellavin) of Moscow & All Russia, the Confessor, the founder in 1888 of this first Orthodox monastery in America. Annual pilgrimages to the monastery began in 1905.

Divine Liturgy was celebrated by His Beatitude Tikhon, Metropolitan of All America & Canada, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, co-served by Archbishop Michael of New York & New Jersey, Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, and a large number of clergy from various parishes of the OCA dioceses.

The church was filled to capacity with worshippers. Two choirs sang at Liturgy. The service was held in the presence of the myrrh-streaming Hawaiian-Iveron Icon of the Mother of God.

The parishioners of St. Panteleimon Church venerated the myrrh-streaming icon of the Theotokos and prayed before the holy relics of Patriarch-Confessor Tikhon and the Holy Hierarch Tikhon of Zadonsk.

In his sermon, Metropolitan Tikhon thanked all those who came to the celebration, and especially the clergy who came to prayerfully support this pilgrimage tradition that has now been going on for 120 years.

In the seminary building at the monastery, the pilgrims prayed in the room where the Holy Hierarch Nikolaj (Velimirović) spent his last years and died, and venerated a piece of his holy relics. They visited the monastery museum, which contains a large number of exhibits related to the history of Orthodoxy in America.

The celebration ended with public festivities, with live music, food, and refreshments.