This morning I bought a new Metro (subway) pass for the month of October. This time I made sure that it covered the 4 forms of transportation: Metro, bus, trolleybus (bus with tires but hitched to electric wires overhead), and trolleycar.
Tonight, I walked a while from the Metro station towards home, but then a bus came pulling up and I decided to try out my new bus-capabilities. As I got on the bus, I asked the driver if she was going to Pokrovsky (Holy Protection) Monastery (up the street further, very near my apartment building, where I would have to get off). She said yes, so I started to put my pass through the ticket-spitter-outer. Moscow busses have turnstiles and ticket processors, just like at the entrance to a Metro station. She quickly stopped me: "Zhenschina! Ma'am! We're very close... You want Matrona? --just stand here at the front of the bus." In a minute we were right in front of Pokrovsky Monastery and she motioned to me to get out at the front, without punching the ticket. So highly is St. Matrona venerated in Moscow and all of Russia!
(More later on St. Matrona... If you look closely at the side of the Monastery wall, you will see that there are two large icons on it: on the left is the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God, and on the right is St Matrona. These are clearly visible from the street.)
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