View source for Velikoretsky crucession

'''Velikoretsky crucession''' ({{lang-ru|Великорецкий крестный ход}}) or "cross-procession" is procession, which takes place every year in Vyatka [[diocese]] of the [[Church of Russia]] from the city of Kirov to Velikoretskoye settlement and back.
 
In 1383 on the bank of the Velikaya river a peasant named Semyon Agalakov discovered an [[icon]] of Saint [[Nicholas of Myra|Nicholas]]. When many people were cured from illnesses by praying before the sacred image, the glory of the wonder-making icon spread all over the Vyatka land and beyond its borders. Even before the time when the icon was first taken to Moscow - on the order of [[Ivan IV of Russia |Ivan the Terrible]] in 1555 - the wonder-making image of St. Nicholas was well-known and honored in Russia. 

Due to the glory of the wonder-making icon in the fifteenth the settlement Velikoretskoye was founded. The architectural ensemble of the settlement is a unique sightseeing attraction of the Vyatka land. 

The town-dwellers of Khlynov (old name of Kirov) - the capital city of the Vyatka country - took the sacred image of St. Nicholas to the town [[church]] having made a promise to bring the icon back to the banks of the Velikaya every year. Since those times, for more than 600 years from [[June 3]] to [[June 8]], the crucession (the religious procession) to Velikoretskoye has taken place in Vyatka. Nowadays on the day of celebrating the anniversary of the icon thousands of [[Pilgrimage|pilgrims]] not only from Russia but also from abroad gather in Velikoretskoye to pray to the wonder-making image at the holy place where the icon first appeared, to drink water from the holy spring, to bathe in the waters of the Velikaya river.