This time we invite you to admire historical photos of the series “Official events”.

For centuries, representatives of the upper classes came to worship the relics of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra together with ordinary pilgrims. Many of them found their last refuge here. The ceremonial events associated with the visits of dignitaries to the monastery took place in a large crowd, accompanied by processions and liturgies. Worship services were usually led by the highest Kyiv hierarchs.

In the first photo you can see a group portrait of hierarchs and senior imperial officials who took part in the First All-Russian Missionary Congress, held in Kyiv on July 10-15, 1908. Among its participants there were three metropolitans, ten archbishops, twenty-three bishops, about five hundred parish priests, as well as missionaries, synodal ministers, and seminary teachers. The photo was taken near the southern facade of the metropolitan residence in the Lavra (now it is the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art).

On April 22, 1910, the relics of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk were solemnly translated from the Far Caves of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to the Savior-Euphrosyne Polotsk Monastery. On this day, the relics of the Saint were carried across the Lavra and after the liturgy were placed on a steamer, which went the same day to Polotsk. The photo captures the moment of the translation of relics from the territory of the Far Caves.

At the end of August 1911, the imperial family and high-ranking officials arrived in Kyiv on the occasion of the implementation of Zemstvo reform in six south-western provinces of the Russian Empire.  To recap, this visit to Kyiv was fatal for the Chairman of the Council of Ministers Petro Stolypin. On August 30, a monument to Tsar Alexander II was unveiled on Tsarska (now European) Square. And the day before, on August 29, a big Cross procession took place in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

Another photograph captures the founding of the church dedicated to the icon of the “Joy of all who Sorrow”. It was the church at the new Lavra Hospital (1911). Funds for the construction of the hospital, about 100 thousand rubles, were provided by Kyiv Metropolitan Flavian (Gorodetsky). It is him we see in the center of the apse of the future church.