My Pilgrimage to St. Herman of Alaska Monastery

I made a short pilgrimage to St. Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina, California this past weekend. This is a place I had wanted to visit for quite some time, as one of its founders (Fr. Seraphim Rose) played a very important role in my journey to Orthodoxy.

Some pictures from my trip:

Click on any of the pictures above to see the entire gallery of pictures that I took. God willing, I will be back to Platina soon.

Valaam: Step to the Skies

The Valaam Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior is a monastery located on Valaam island, in the far northwestern corner of Russia on Lake Ladoga.

The movie “Step to the Skies,” which is available in seven parts on YouTube, chronicles the lives of monks living at Valaam.  The movie is in Russian, but with (occasional) English subtitles; the subtitles do not appear to catch all of the text, but enough of it to get a fair idea of what is being said.

Each of these seven parts is linked below.

Part 1 of 7:

Part 2 of 7:

Part 3 of 7:

Part 4 of 7:

Part 5 of 7:

Part 6 of 7:

Part 7 of 7:

Image credit: Pauk