“Pray, father, I ran.” How seminarians pray to Sergius of Radonezhtranslated

For a pilgrim, the opportunity to venerate the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh can be the main event of a trip to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. For students of the Moscow Theological Academy, Trinity Cathedral is literally on the way to study. What is it like to live next to a shrine every day, to realize that St. Sergius is very close? Second-year master’s student Pyotr Chumerin told “Foma” about student traditions, prayer before exams and cases that are difficult to explain by mere coincidence.

“I didn’t believe it until recently”

My own story with St. Sergius began when I entered the Moscow Theological Academy. I studied at the Varnitsa gymnasium, many of its graduates were going to enter the seminary. But we were 16–17 years old, what did we know about it then? I was rather thinking about some kind of linguistic university, although I also considered a seminary.

However, in the end, of all the educational institutions I visited, I was most impressed by the Moscow Theological Seminary and Academy. I really wanted to go there, but how? This was during Covid. I didn’t pass the Unified State Exam very well, there was a lot of competition for admission to the academy, and in addition there were problems with the documents. At some point I decided:...