| Tweet Нравится The Kremlin " s Dormition Cathedral: Russia " s Sacred Crown William Brumfield Source: Russia Insider February 18, 2017 This article is from a series by the invaluable William Brumfield, ( Wikipedia ), Professor of Slavic Studies at Tulane University, New Orleans, USA. Brumfield is the world " s leading historian of Russian architecture. He makes frequent trips to Russia, often to her remote regions, and records the most unusual examples of surviving architecture with detailed, professional photography. His most recent book is a real treasure, Architecture At The End Of The Earth, Photographing The Russian North (2015). ( Amazon ). This truly beautiful book was made possible by the support of a US philanthropist, and its true cost is 3 times its retail price, and we can " t recommend it highly enough. Here is our 2015 review of it. Bravo to RBTH for making Brumfield " s work possible, and providing such a great platform for his beautiful photography. We recommend visiting the RBTH page , which has a slide show for each article with many more pictures than we can fit in here. Don " t believe in miracles? Well, we can assure you, Brumfield " s work is undoubtedly just that. You can find some of his other articles on RI here. Russia has many sacred sites, but none is more important to the country’s identity than the golden-domed Dormition (Uspensky) Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. For centuries, this cathedral was Russia’s most elevated monument — at the center of its history, its politics, its culture and its Orthodox faith. Even after the founding of St. Petersburg, the coronation ceremony of each ruler of Russia occurred in this cathedral, including the coronation of the last emperor, Nicholas II on May 26, 1896. As of 1991, it is once again the Patriarchal Cathedral of Russia. The Dormition Cathedral is dedicated to one of the most venerated and complex mysteries in Orthodox theology, the Dormition of the Mother of God, which refers to the transposition of Mary from this world to the heavenly sphere. Orthodox iconography portrays the recumbent Mother of God, surrounded by apostles, as falling asleep — hence the term “dormition” (in Russian “uspenie”) from the Latin verb dormire, “to sleep.” At this moment — in effect, Mary’s death — Christ accepts Mary’s soul into heaven three days before her “assumption,” in which her resurrected body is miraculously taken to heaven. |
