88 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC • AUGUST 2017
VISSARION’S
FOLLOWERS
These disciples, all
vegetarians, share a
communal Christmas
lunch in Cheremshanka,
one of the community’s
five villages. Christmas
here falls on January 14—
Vissarion’s birthday.
Celebrations start on the
12th, with a daylong pil-
grimage through all of
the villages. On Christ-
mas Day thousands of
followers gather and as-
cend to a mountain altar
above Obitel Rassveta,
after which Vissarion
greets the crowd and
delivers a short sermon.