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St. Innocent Monastic Community
Redford, Michigan

IV. VIDEOS in Russian

wpeD.jpg (2467 bytes)       VR-27.  ST. XENIA'S TOMB & SMOLENSK CHURCH
                                at the Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery in St. Petersburg
                                                          VHS Videotape     10 mins.    Made in Russia in 1992.   
                                                                                  ISBN 1-881211-38-X     
                                                                     PRICE: $9.95
 
                                                                                THIS VIDEO IS AVAILABLE ON DVD IN ENGLISH.
                                                                                 VE-26. ST. XENIA'S TOMB & SMOLENSK CHURCH

DESCRIPTION:

This video provides a brief look at the Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery, located at the northwestern edge of St. Petersburg, where Blessed St. Xenia of St. Petersburg (ca.1719-ca.1803) spent most of her nights during her 45 years of wandering the streets of St. Petersburg as a 'fool-for-Christ,' and the video strikingly conveys the sense of her presence at the cemetery yet today.  Here she secretly helped in the building of the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Birth-Giver of God, by carrying bricks up to the top of the scaffolding every night.  This church and its sacred namesake icon are shown. 

It was at this cemetery where Blessed St. Xenia was buried, and eventually a chapel was built over her tomb.  This chapel continues today to be a major place of pilgrimage in St. Petersburg, always busy with people who come to pray and venerate the saint's tomb and to ask her for help.

Included in the video are small excerpts of processions and molebens, the interiors and exteriors of both buildings, and a visit by Patriarch Aleksei II to venerate Blessed Mother Xenia's tomb.                                

[Russian production.]