On September 12 the Nikola-Uleyma convent was visited by the delegation from Italy led by the president of the European cultural route and official representative of the municipal of Rome Monia Franceschini. The goal of the visit was the acquaintance with the history of the monastery, founded by venerable Varlaam of Uleyma.
The Italian delegation also included a spiritual mentor on behalf of Vatican Germano Marani, members of the scholarly committee: advisor of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, writer, director and artist Svetlana Nesterova, the president of the Russian Space Society Ivan Venerucci, Italian film and television director Donatella Baglivo.
The guests were welcomed in the convent by the Right Reverend Vikentiy (Novozhilov), bishop of Yaroslavl and Kostroma and the abbess of the convent Hegumenia Olympias (Konstantinova). They conducted an excursion around the convent, told the guests about the tragic events of 1610 and the invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian intervention.
During the excursion the guests acquainted themselves with the church architecture of the convent, with the present condition and material-technical state of the convent. Honored artist of Russia Oleg Molchanov and member of the Union of journalists of Russia and International Federation of journalists Vitaliy Vakhrushev also arrived to greet the Italian delegation.
The Right Reverend bishop Vikentiy expressed his gratitude to the foreign guests and drew their attention to the necessity of getting financial help for the restoration of the convent as an architectural gem of the 17th century.
