Pilgrimage to Dzhvari: A Woman's Journey of Spiritual Awakening

by Valeria Alfeyeva

Book Overview

Pilgrimage to Dzhvari is set in the last days of the Communist regime when people from all levels of Soviet society are searching for ways to reconnect with their memories of goodness and truth. A writer leaves her work in Moscow and with her teenage son sets out to visit the few remaining monasteries in the Georgian Caucasus in order to discover the mystical teachings of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In particular, they seek instruction in the Prayer...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517591944
• ISBN13: 9780517591949
• Release Date: June 1993
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 4.8" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Orthodox spiritual reading meets travelogue

Sometimes people have a hard time with spiritual reading, feeling like every Orthodox book they try to read is too removed from their life to really connect with. On that note I have a recommendation. I am just finishing "Pilgrimage to Dzhvari" by Valeria Alfeyeva. The author is the mother of Bp Hilarion (Alfeyev) of the Russian Orthodox Church. The book is a loosely autobiographical account of a Russian woman's coming to faith in the waning days of the Soviet Union and particularly of her pilgrimage to two Orthodox monasteries in Georgia. It contains a lot of wisdom from the Orthodox tradition but is written more like a memoir or a narrative than most books you might consider spiritual reading.