The traditions and history of the Holy Trinity Monastery are very much connected with the famous Lavra of the Pochaev Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in Volynia, present-day Ukraine.  Although the monastery was started back in 1930 by Archimandrite Panteleimon, they were joined in 1946 by a group of fourteen monks from the St. Job of Pochaev Monastery in Ladomirovo, Slovakia, who had fled the onslaught of the area by the Red Army and eventually found their new home in Holy Trinity Monastery.  Thus began the intimate connection with the traditions of the Pochaev Lavra, one of the most famous of Russian monasteries.

To honor these traditions of the abbacy of St. Job and the heavenly protection afforded the fathers from the Pochaev icon of the Most Holy Theotoks, and taking advantage of the long civil holiday of Labor Day weekend, the fathers decided to have an “All-People’s Pilgrimage” during this weekend. 

Originally the Pochaev Icon, a gift from Pochaev to the brotherhood in Slovakia, was kept in the old cathedral in the Bronx, New York and brought to the monastery for this occasion.  However, the icon eventually found its home here in the monastery.  On the feast of the Dormition the icon is taken in procession at the end of the Divine Liturgy to the cemetery church of the Dormition and then, on the Saturday afternoon of this weekend, the icon is solemnly brought back to the cathedral in procession, the choir singing hymns of the Dormition.

Thereupon a moleben with Akathist are served to St. Job with hymns of the Pochaev Icon and the Dormition added in.  This is done as part of the Rule for Communion and thus starts the monastery celebration.