Pilgrimage to the Holy Sites of Great Britain

From Edinburgh to the Southern Coast of England

Coming to know the living Orthodox heritage of the British Isles

Amongst the elders of Optina arose the spiritual counsel that the Church of Christ will rise in force again in the west once the Orthodox Christians there begin fully to revere their local saints. The pilgrimage organised by the Diocese through various sites in England and Scotland aims to encourage just this, by visiting and praying at a host of sites associated with Orthodox saints of these islands. We also organise a separate pilgrimage to Ireland.

Beginning in Edinburgh and working gradually southwards over the course of seven days, pilgrims are brought to holy places associated with spirtiual giants of Holy Orthodoxy: St Bede and St Cuthbert, St Chad of Lichfield, St Augustine of Canterbury, St Gregory the Great, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Constantine the Great and his mother, St Helena, St Margaret, St Alban the Protomartyr of Britain — as well as equally important Orthodox saints of the regions that might be less well-known to some, but whose veneration will become heightened by learning of their lives and visiting the sites of their spiritual contests: St Frideswide of Oxford, St Alphege, St Ethelred, and others.