On Monday, December 7, 2009, Archpriest George Larin, a graduate of Holy Trinity Seminary, co-celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the monastery’s Holy Trinity Cathedral.  The day marked the 40th anniversary of his priestly ordination, which took place in the same church on the day of Great-Martyr Catherine, in 1969.  Fr. George graduated seminary in 1967.  The next year, he was consecrated into the Diaconate in the Church of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos in Nyack, where he remains the rector to this day.

Following the Liturgy’s conclusion, Protodeacon Joseph Jarostchuk read warm words of congratulations to Archpriest George from Metropolitan Hilarion, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad.  After the service, the monastery’s abbot and rector of the Seminary, Archimandrite Luke, invited Fr. George and his close friends to celebrate the occasion with a festal meal in the abbot’s office.  At the conclusion of his memorable visit to the holy monastery, Fr. George served a Panikhida at the grave of the ever-memorable Metropolitan Laurus, who ordained him into the Priesthood, and also commemorated his spiritual father, Archimandrite Kyprian (Pyzhov), laid to rest nearby.

The brothers and residents of the monastery, along with the entire faculty and student body of the Seminary congratulate Fr. George with this noteworthy occasion and wish him further success and God’s help in his labors in Christ’s vineyard. Many Years!