The museum houses a pilgrim vial (bottle) made of transparent colorless glass for church oil from the Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God of Sarov in the early 20th century. On the front side of the bottle, there is an inscription, “Oil from the lamp before the relics of Saint Seraphim.” On the back side, there are the words, “From the Sarov Monastery.“
In 1887, a shop was opened in the monastery hospital building for the sale of icons, books, lamp oil, and other goods for pilgrims. The income from the shop in 1899 amounted to 3,452 rubles and 80 kopecks.
In their desire to preserve the memories of the events accompanying their stay in the holy monastery, Orthodox believers sought to bring back special commemorative pilgrimage souvenirs — eulogias. The term eulogia has been applied in ecclesiastical usage to “a blessed object”. In the Christian tradition, eulogia is one of the possible names for blessed bread, water, oil, and, in some cases, the vessels containing them or other relics given in memory of visiting monasteries or undertaking pilgrimages.
Oil, or holy oil, symbolizes God’s mercy and human compassion. In ancient times, natural olive oil was used as a medicine — it was poured on wounds and used to soften the skin in hot southern climates.
The Apostle James wrote in his epistle,
