Photo album "Secrets of Monasteries" presented in Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

The presentation of a photo album "Secrets of Monasteries" prepared by the daily newspaper "Segonya" ("Today") and the publishing house "Family Leisure Club" took place at the Assumption Cathedral of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, reports Foma (Thomas) in Ukraine.

The trilingual photo album contains information on the history of over 20 most famous monasteries and hermitages of Ukraine and Russia, including the five biggest monasteries with the Lavra status. Photos and reports made during a two-year press tour to the monasteries and published in abridged form in the newspaper "Segodnya" show modern life of the monasteries.

"All the pictures are taken in sequential shooting mode, rather than art, – said photographer Alexander Yaremchuk. – Photo artists typically spend a lot of time waiting for the weather and looking for the light. We arrived at the site, took photos and drove on. To shoot a huge monastery in half a day and convey your personal attitude to it is a hard job ... The first monastery – the Zimne Monastery in Volyn – left the most striking impression on us. With it miracles began. For example, while we were driving, it was pouring, and when we photographed – the sun came out and it was shining exactly as long as we worked. When we got in the car to go back, it started raining again. Such miracles happen all the time!"

"Of course, these two years have changed me. I have become calmer and dramatically changed my attitude to the Church, becoming more faithful," said the photographer.

According to the journalist Anastasia Belousova, at first there was a fear that all monasteries are alike, but it turned out that all monasteries looked different: "As nuns of the Kremenets Convent said: as there is no similar soul, so there is no similar monastery. That really is true, you know."