On November 29, Ana Smith Iltis and family (USA) made a pilgrimage to the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery.

Ana Iltis is a Professor and Director at the Center for Bioethics, Health & Society, Wake Forest University, located in Winston Salem, NC, USA. She is a practicing Orthodox Christian and her medical bioethics studies are based on Christian faith. Her interests lie in the area of human subjects research and organ donation. Ana Iltis studied under Prof. Hermann Engelhardt, one of the most renowned American bioethicists. He was a practicing Orthodox as well and authored a textbook “The Foundations of Christian Bioethics.”

Ana Iltis visited Russia as a lecturer at the invitation by Prof. Natalia P. Schok from the Privolzhsky Medical Research University (Nizhny Novgorod).

Once in Nizhny Novgorod, Ana and her family have seen it as an opportunity to come to the Diveyevo monastery and venerate the relics of Venerable Seraphim of Sarov. While here, they prayed at the liturgy, took a tour of the monastery, venerated its relics and visited the holy springs.