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Co-sponsored by the Eurasia Research Cluster. This talk explores a national festival that was instated across the Russian Federation in 2008, the “Day of Family, Love and Fidelity” (День семьи, любви и верности). The celebration falls on July 8, which had long been the feast day of the married Orthodox saints Petr and Fevroniia. Both the saints and the festival have become a rallying point in Russia’s campaign for supposedly “traditional” family values and against supposedly “non-traditional sexual relations”. This talk explores how Orthodox culture is being harnessed to entrench a patriarchal view of “tradition” that extends beyond the confines of church walls to unite Russian citizens of different faiths.