Posted on 10/14/2017 5:15:44 PM PDT by marshmallow
Cross processions in Russia have a vibrant history and are hugely popular. So much so that 60,000 Russians are willing to walk 100 miles to honor religious occurrences
On holidays and special occasions, Russian believers will all suddenly empty out of the church and proceed outside, whether it’s swelteringly hot or snowing, and follow the cross and the priests... sometimes for a walk around the church, other times for hundred-mile hikes.
Cross processions are a traditional and very popular part of Russian Christianity. The tradition dates back to the Byzantine empire in 400 AD when saints organized night processions around Constantinople to help protect the city from the heretics of the day.
The clergy leads the procession with a cross, a Bible, and religious banners. Behind them, the crowd follows, singing religious hymns and sometimes carrying candles. The procession makes frequent stops to pray (and sometimes get sprayed with holy water).
Russians love the tradition. Sometimes cross processions are held to celebrate church holidays, such as Easter when the procession occurs at midnight. Everyone in the church files out and walks around the church three times, singing resurrection hymns. The empty church symbolizes the empty tomb of Christ.
Some monasteries have daily processions in the evenings. Monks walk around the perimeter of their monastery with candles. After they return to the gates of the monastery and re-enter it, the monastery is locked for the night. This procession is believed to protect the monastery from all evil and turmoil for the night.
There is another, especially popular, type of cross processions that reenacts spiritual journeys of saints or miracle-working icons. One of the most famous ones is a 92-mile walk to the place where..... 
(Excerpt) Read more at russian-faith.com ...
So who will save the Christian West from radical Islam?
Well, it sure won’t be the idiots in London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, or Stockholm. If anyone, it will be the believers in Budapest, Prague, and Moscow.
Bump
Hail Putin! Putin For President!!
> Hail Putin! Putin For President!! <
I think you’re stretching it a bit.
A vote of confidence in the Russian Orthodox Church does not equate to endorsing Putin for President. (And by the way, President of what? Russia? The US? The EU? The world? The Taylor Swift Fan Club?)
So you place your hopes on these superstitious cult members? Unwise. They prey very different god.
I won’t pretend to be an expert on theology. But I will say this. Back in 1453 the Christian city of Constantinople fell to the Islamic Ottoman Turks. That was one of the greatest disasters of all times.
One reason the city fell is because the Western princes preferred to squabble among themselves instead of uniting against the common Islamic enemy.
Bishop A called Bishop B a heretic. Bishop B called Bishop A a heretic. Etc. As they debated, the walls of Constantinople were breached.
Is that terrible mistake being repeated today? I think so. And Russia is not innocent in that. Putin has not exactly been a great friend to Western Europe. Putin provokes us. We provoke Putin. And Islam marches on (as does China, by the way).
a dark day that was in 1453
> a dark day that was in 1453 <
Another dark day was 1923. The Ottoman Turks were on the losing side of WW I, and in 1918 Constantinople was occupied by the Allies. The map should have been redrawn to give the city to Greece. As it was, the Turks resisted any such change. So in 1923 the Allies gave up the city. Another Islamic victory over the West.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Constantinople#End_of_the_occupation
Aha. Such a “grate communicator”!
Yes indeed, you “prey to a different god.”
Religious marches are an excellent practice. A friend from Poland who I met quite a few years after she came to the US had her life change after attending some kind of youth march in Poland when the Polish pope was there.
Religious marches are also very tradition in Hinduism. Not just one specific days or anniversaries, but also personal treks in holy places and so on.
Any practice that helps a person “do” their faith and increase their devotion to God is a very good thing.
Nonsense. You don’t know what you are talking about.
These are called processions, not marches.
I believe until 1915 or so Constainopole was a majority Christian City
never trust the english
Your bigotry is showing.
The West has precisely the wrong Pope at the wrong time. It needs a Pope willing to call and lead a modern Crusade against Satan and his soldiers.
Your post shows us more about you than it does about our brothers and sisters in the Russian Orthodox Christians.
Unfortunately.
He’s already got the US and Russia, so it must be The World.
Although, as he’s clearly Russian, he may have at least a bit of information on the subject. Samogon is Russian moonshine. We should invite him to Tennessee.
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