Pilgrims from the Russian Federation reached the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Bari despite difficulties

Pilgrims from Russia, despite the difficulties with obtaining visas and the lack of direct flights, reached the Italian city of Bari, where the relics of one of the most revered saints in Russia, Nicholas the Wonderworker, are kept, in order to celebrate Easter there. As pilgrim Tatiana Zholonko told Izvestia on April 18, the difficulties lie in the fact that they have to fly through a third country.

She noted that there are a lot of people who want to get to Bari, but not everyone decides on such a difficult journey.

"The first difficulty is that we need to fly through a third country now. In other words, we fly to Italy either through Istanbul, Belgrade, or Yerevan. We arrived via Istanbul and flew for five and a half hours. Then we had a transfer for four hours, and then we flew here to Bari. There was a strong wind, the plane landed only from the third lap," Zholonko said.

The pilgrims were accommodated at the Russian Patriarchal compound, where everything is organized for this purpose. There they attended the liturgy of the presanctified gifts the day before, and on Friday they already received Communion, as it should be according to Orthodox tradition. The woman added that the financial costs of the trip had increased significantly.

"Financially, it has become much more expensive due to the fact that we now need to fly through a third country. And, of course, there are difficulties with the visa now. Sometimes it is given only for the duration of the trip, and not for a tourist trip for six months [as it was before]," she added.

The rector of the metochion, Archpriest Vyacheslav Bachin, commenting on the arrival of the Russian pilgrims, noted that they had done a great job.

"It's a tremendous effort to get here. Heroic deed. Absolutely," he said.

The rector stressed that the current situation is directly related to global events in the world. However, even in these conditions, believers continue to visit the relics of the saint, overcoming obstacles.

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On April 18, Izvestia correspondent Vitaly Chashchukhin told how preparations for Easter celebrations are underway in Bari. He noted that in this Italian city there is also a laboratory where they study the Shroud of Turin, a Christian artifact, presumably the cloth in which the body of Jesus Christ was wrapped after the crucifixion. A new technique based on X-rays has now been developed to study the Shroud of Turin, scientist Liberato De Caro told him.

Easter is established in honor of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is the center of the entire biblical history and the basis of all Christian teaching. This is a transitional holiday, and in 2025, Orthodox believers and Catholics will celebrate it on the same day — April 20.