| Let us pray today and in all the days to come to St. Sergius, that he might raise our prayers to the Throne of the Almighty: for our people, for our entire historical Fatherland, for the Russian land, and for our Church, that he might preserve it in oneness and keep it from enemy forces. On July 16 a procession with thousands of people went from the Stavropegial Monastery of the Protection in Khotkovo, a suburb of Moscow, where the relics of Sts. Cyril and Maria– the parents of St. Sergius – reside to the Annunciation field in Sergiev Posad. Photo: http://www.patriarchia.ru/ Therewith began the main Church-wide celebrations dedicated to the 700 th anniversary of the birth of St. Sergius of Radonezh. The procession was preceded by a moleben [supplicatory service] in the St. Nicholas Cathedral in the Monastery of the Protection. The divine services and procession were led by His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. An area for celebrating the divine services has been set up near the tent city that has been deployed on the Annunciation field. The Primate of the Russian Church celebrated a moleben and read a prayer to St. Sergius of Radonezh. After the completion of the divine service, His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill, addressed the faithful with a primatial sermon: Your Eminences, Your Graces, Dear Vladykas! Revered Fathers, Brothers, and Sisters! Respected state officials! I would like to greet you all cordially following the seventeen-kilometer procession with which we have opened the jubilee celebrations on the holy land of Sergive Posad. For many today’s journey was something special, something they have never before experienced in life. This was not simply a march, not simply a walk by foot, not simply a trek – it was a procession, accompanied by unceasing prayer. I would like cordially to thank the choirs that continuously performed the great hymns of our Church, helping the mind to focus on prayer. And we believe that the prayer during this procession reaches and reached the Throne of God, and that St. Sergius, our abba, has heard it. |
| Sanctuary The sanctuary contains a number of important sacred treasures of the monastery. First among these is the icon of Our Lady Vimatarissa or Ktitorissa, which is in a marble shrine on the synthronon behind the altar. Opposite the icon and on the altar is the cross of Constantine the Great, and, on the right, the silver-overlaid candle, which St. Sabbas, the sacristan, hid together with the icon in the well of the sanctuary for seventy years. Some 200 other holy relics are contained in a host of extremely valuable silver reliquaries. Among these are the skulls of St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. lakovos the Persian and St. Mercurius, and parts of the skulls of Sts. Sergius, Florus, Pelagia, Theodosia, Arethas, Theodore the Warrior and St. Damian, the metopic bone of the Apostle Andrew, a part of the right hand of the martyr St. Catherine and of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, as well as relics of Sts. Parasceve, Marina, Artemius, Gregory of Decapolis, Procopius and Tryphon. Also preserved complete are the remains of St. Evdokimos of Vatopaidi, which were discovered in 1842 while the cemetery church was being restored. Also in the sanctuary are the skulls of the Patriarchs of Constantinople Maximus IV (1491-1497) and Cyprianus (1707-1714), and of the Patriarch of Antioch Gerasimus (1884-1891), who died and were buried at the monastery. Chapels In addition to its main church, the monastery has thirty-one chapels. The three towers of the monastery contain the chapels of the Transfiguration, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, and of St. John the Baptist. In the monastery’s various wings there are chapels dedicated to St. Andrew, St. George, Sts. Theodore, St. Menas, the Three Hierarchs, St. Thomas, St. John the Divine, St. John Chrysostom and St. Panteleimon (in the infirmary). Of particular interest are the chapels of Sts. Cosmas and Damian and of the Holy Girdle, which stand in the spacious courtyard. The former, according to tradition, was built by St. Sabbas, Archbishop of Serbia, for the liturgical needs of the monastery’s Serbian monks. The floor has old marble inlays and on its eastern columns, the figures of Christ and the Blessed Virgin survive from the original frescos. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation People of the XXI Century Walk After the Venerable One Source: Pravmir.ru Special buses brought people to the places of celebration. Pilgrims came from all over Russia: Kazakhstan, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Vologda, Penza, and the Moscow region. People arrived early to attend Liturgy and venerate the relics of Sts. Cyril and Maria of Radonezh, parents of the Venerable Sergius. Anna Galperina 18 July 2014 Khotkovo, a small town near Moscow, became a place of pilgrimage on July 16. The town has probably never welcomed such a large number of people. This is because the celebrations dedicated to the 700th anniversary of the birth of St. Sergius, one of the most revered of Russian saints, began here. Pilgrims waiting for the procession to begin At seven in the morning, traffic was blocked in the cities of Sergiev Posad and Khotkovo. Pilgrims from all over the country – Kazakhstan, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Vologda, Penza, and the Moscow region – were taken to the places of celebration on special buses. People arrived early to attend Liturgy and venerate the relics of Sts. Cyril and Maria of Radonezh, parents of the Venerable Sergius. Photo: http://www.patriarchia.ru At 12 o’clock the car with Patriarch Kirill arrived at the front gates of the Khotkovo Patriarchal Monastery. The Patriarch served a moleben in the St. Nicholas Cathedral at the relics, and then headed the procession. He walked under an umbrella, together with all the bishops and priests, for the entire fifteen kilometers. It took around forty minutes for all the people to exit the monastery’s gates, and the procession stretched for five kilometers. Photo: http://www.patriarchia.ru Photo: http://www.patriarchia.ru According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, about 36,000 people came to Khotkovo and Sergiev Posad. About 29,000 people participated in the procession. Together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Cossacks provided security service. 600 volunteers were also involved in the event. |
| Syrian Rebels Destroy Orthodox Church in Al-Thawrah August 9, 2013 (AINA) — The Antiochian Orthodox church of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus was a landmark of al-Thawrah (also known as al-Tabqah). It was an impressive, modern structure with a large yard, surrounded by a high wall and well-situated on a main street near the corniche — a well landscaped area hugging the southern bank of Lake Assad which was popular with locals going on an evening stroll. Its elegant dome, surmounted by a cross, could be seen from all parts of the Third Quarter (also known as Hayy al-Ishtirakiyah), where it was located. Spiritually, this church was under the jurisdiction of the archdiocese of Aleppo, the metropolitan of which, Boulos al-Yazigi, was kidnapped (and allegedly murdered) on April 22 of this year, along with the Syriac Orthodox metropolitan of the same city, Mor Gregorios Youhanna Ibrahim. It was built between 1985 and 1994, on land offered by the al-Thawrah‘s city council, and could accommodate up to 300 worshippers. Moreover, not only did this church serve more than 250 Orthodox families, but it was also used by local Christian denominations which did not have their own places of worship, including the small Syriac Orthodox congregation. This was also one of only two Christian places of worship in the town, the other being the small church of St. George, which belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East. Built around 1973, along with a community hall, this was located in the older part of al-Thawrah, known locally as al-Qaryah (the village). Around 2000, a plot of land in the Third Quarter was purchased by this community in order to build a new church, closer to the three quarters that housed those working in the Euphrates dam — and where the bulk of the Assyrians lived. Due to lack of funding, however, this project never materialised and, perhaps, for the better. On February 11, rebel fighters from the Islamist Jihadist “al-Nusra Front” — designated by the USA, UN, Australia and UK as a terrorist organisation — took control of the city and its strategic hydroelectric dam, the largest of its kind in the country. They also seized control of the three quarters that housed dam workers and in which, of course, stood the Orthodox Church of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, and in which most of the Christians were settled. |
| One of their number, Sergius Bulgakov, was instrumental in founding the Society of Sts. Alban and Sergius which did so much to open up friendly relations between the Anglican Church and the Russian Orthodox in exile. Bulgakov was a brilliant teacher and writer, a protege of Evlogy of Paris, who appointed him as a professor in the Theological Institute of St. Sergius which he had founded in 1925, and which remains as the most prestigious Orthodox theological academy in Western Europe. Bulgakov’s trial and condemnation for heretical teaching by the Karlovtzy Synod hierarchs was a cause celebre at this period, and further complicated relations among the Russians in exile. Today, the older disposition of Orthodoxy in Western Europe as a balance between Russians and Greeks is now triangulated as a result of the large, young, and relatively vigorous Romanian presence around the Mediterranean and in Germany. There are also smaller Orthodox communities of Bulgarians, Ukrainians, and Serbs in Germany, France, and Britain. Western European Orthodoxy has not seen any real rapprochement between the various ethnic jurisdictions, although a recent initiative in England has seen the establishment of a second theological institute (after St. Serge) based at Cambridge, and designed as a pan-Orthodox establishment to serve both clergy and laity (and function as an indigenous seminary course for Thyateiran ordinands). In France there is the well- known monastery of Bussy-en-Othe in Burgundy, and the largest in England is the Stavropegial foundation of St. John in Essex. In recent years a small Lavra of the Romanians has been established in England and a larger coenobitic hesychasterion in Nuremberg. The Orthodox presence in England owes a great deal to the generosity and warm hospitality of the Anglican Church, who welcomed and helped it considerably in its early stages of growth. SEE ALSO: Bulgaria, Patriarchal Orthodox Church of; Constantinople, Patriarchate of; Cyprus, Autocephalous Orthodox Church of; Romania, Patriarchal Orthodox Church of; Russia, Patriarchal Orthodox Church of; Serbia, Patriarchal Orthodox Church of; Ukraine, Orthodoxy in the |
| Battling with Blasphemous Thoughts and Despair One evening, while standing in the Church of Sts. Zosima and Savvaty during the Vigil, terrible, horrible thoughts of disbelief, doubt, and blasphemy suddenly and unexpectedly appeared in my head like lightening. This happened so quickly and suddenly that they, like lightening, burnt me with hellfire. The Holy New Hieromartyr Kronid (in the world Konstantin Petrovich Liubimov) was born in 1859 in the village of Levkievo, Volokolamsk uyezd, Moscow province. In 1915 Archimandrite Kronid was appointed superior of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, remaining in that position until 1920, when it was closed by the Bolsheviks. Archimandrite Kronid then lived for seventeen years in Zagorsk (known before and after the Communist period as Sergiev Posad, the town surrounding the Lavra), during which he continued to serve as de facto superior of the monastic brotherhood. Archimandrite Kronid was arrested in November 1937, by which point he had gone blind, and imprisoned in the Taganka prison in Moscow. He was tried with fifteen people, ten of whom were monks of the Lavra. Accused of “counter-revolutionary activities,” eleven were shot and four were sentenced to ten years of hard labor. To the question of how he related to the Soviet power, he replied: “I am by conviction a monarchist, a follower of the True Orthodox Church, and I recognize the existing Soviet power as a believer: it was sent to the people as a test of faith in God’s Providence.” Fr. Kronid was sentenced as the “leader of a counter-revolutionary monarchical group of monks and clergy.” He was shot in Butovo and buried in a mass grave. Archimandrite Kronid was glorified as a saint among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by the Moscow Patriarchate in August of 2000. The following is a remarkable, inspiring, and courageous first-hand account by St. Kronid about his battles with blasphemous thoughts and the despair that came with them: One evening, while standing in the Church of Sts. Zosima and Savvaty during the Vigil, terrible, horrible thoughts of disbelief, doubt, and blasphemy suddenly and unexpectedly appeared in my head like lightening. This happened so quickly and suddenly that they, like lightening, burnt me with hellfire. Then such thoughts poured like a river through my consciousness. I was dumb from fear and horror. Something indescribable and inscrutable, horrible and strange, took place in my soul. These thoughts did not leave me after I went from church to my cell. These sufferings were indeed nothing of this earth, but of hell. I was deprived of food and sleep. Then days, weeks, months passed; a year, two, three, four passed, but these hellish thoughts continued to flow involuntarily, continuing to haunt me. I could find not a place of relief from the anguish and sorrow; I, the sinner, in my despair, even asked the Lord for death. |
| On the other hand, St Nilus of Sora had lived the ascetic life for a number of years on Mt. Athos, and he brought from there the teaching about the contemplative life and “the Jesus Prayer” as a means of a hesychastic service of monks to the world, as a constant spiritual activity, in connection with the physical work necessary for sustaining one’s life. But spiritual work and physical work are but two aspects of the same Christian vocation: a vital continuation of the creative activity of God in the world, encompassing as much the ideal as well as the material spheres. In this regard Sts Joseph and Nilus are spiritual brothers, varied in continuing the Church Tradition of the holy Fathers, and are heirs to the precepts of St Sergius of Radonezh. St Joseph highly regarded the spiritual experience of St Nilus and sent his own disciples to him to study inner prayer. St Joseph was also an active proponent of a strong centralized Moscow realm. He was one of the originators of the teaching about the Russian Church as the recipient and bearer of the piety of the Byzantine Empire, “the Russian land has now surpassed all in piety.” The ideas of St Joseph, possessing tremendous historical significance, were further developed later by his disciples and followers. From them came the Pskov Spaso-Eleazarov monastery Elder Philotheus with his own teaching about Moscow as the Third Rome. He declared, “Two Romes have fallen, Moscow is the third, and a fourth there shall not be.” These views of the Josephites on the significance of monasteries possessing properties for church building, and the participation of the Church in social life, were set amidst the conditions of the struggle for centralized power by the Moscow prince. His opponents were separatists who tried to disparage these views for their own political ends, surreptitiously using the teaching of St Nilus of Sora about “non-acquisitiveness,” the withdrawal of monastics from worldly matters and possessions. This supposed opposition engendered a false view on the hostility between the trends of Sts Joseph and Nilus. In actuality, both trends legitimately coexisted within the Russian monastic Tradition, complementing each other. As is evidenced from the Rule of St Joseph, its basis was complete non-acquisitiveness, and renunciation of the very concepts of “yours-mine.” |
| On the 10th Anniversary of Sretensky Theological Seminary. Priest Vadim Leonov: “At Seminary, you receive the leaven which will enliven the rest of your life.” In 1999 in Moscow’s Sretensky Monastery, a theological school was opened — Sretensky Orthodox High School, which was later reorganized as Sretensky Theological Seminary (STS). Instructors and students at STS talk about the choice of their life’s path and about their years within the walls of the seminary. Here we talk with Father Vadim Leonov, priest and instructor of Dogmatic Theology: Father Vadim, where did you receive your (educational) [ The usual word for “education” in Russian is “ obraz ovanie”, literally meaning “ image -formation” — trans ] I still haven’t received my formation, but I would very much like to. “Educational formation ” [literally “ image-ation ”] means the re-creation of the image of God in man. This goal is realizable, but is difficult to attain; or more precisely, is attainable in eternity with God. But you were probably not asking about that. You’re right; I wanted to know where you did your studies. Like everyone else, I first finished high school. Then, in 1984, I entered Moscow Machine-Tooling Institute; after the fourth year, I was sent for studies to the Budapest Engineering University, where I completed my training, receiving a degree from both institutions. I remember with gratitude this time of training; especially because, besides the specialty which I assimilated, there was always the possibility to travel around the world; during this time, I also managed to complete a three-year hitch in the navy. After finishing these studies, in 1993 I entered Moscow Theological Seminary; and then Moscow Theological which I finished in 2000. are at Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra in Sergiev Pasad. A “lavra” is a large monastery-trans.] And how did the desire to enter seminary take shape? When I was younger, it never would have entered my head to study in a seminary because I grew as an honest, self-respecting atheist, the product of Soviet ideology. Religion seemed to me to be the outmoded product of human foolishness. Nevertheless, there was something mysteriously attractive in it, and I hoped to come to grips with it in my spare time. |
| July 21, 2015. PRAVMIR. An icon of St. Sergius of Radonezh printed on paper gushed forth myrrh on his feast day at the Church of the Apostles Paul and Peter in the town of Novopavlovsk. Photo: kp.ru According to the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, thousands of parishioners have come to pray before this icon. A special committee of the Russian Orthodox Church has travelled to Stavropol to examine the icon, question witnesses, and to draw conclusions. “It is so far too early to speak about a holy miracle,” said Fr. Vladislav (Tsapko), Rector of the Sts. Paul and Peter Church. “We are waiting for the experts’ conclusion. However, the event testifies to the fact that this is a sacred place, although the church is young, and that the purity of Orthodox traditions is preserved here. Perhaps, this myrrh-streaming is a good sign of the redemption of the parishioners’ sins. Or, perhaps, it foreshadows painful news. No one can ever say.” Icons stream myrrh in various places in Russia. Thus, in early 2015 an icon of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ became myrrh-streaming in the Orlov region; the Kazan Icon of the Theotokos “wept” in the Altai Republic; all icons of the Archangel Michael Church in Tula gushed forth myrrh at the same time; and a similar miracle occurred in the middle of an Orthodox exhibition in Ulyanovsk. An icon of Jesus Christ bled in a village church in the Rahachow district in Belarus. Similar events have taken place in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic. Red spots were found on an icon of the First Martyr Stephan. Code for blog Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir. If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life " s purpose, family and society. Also by this author Today " s Articles Most viewed articles Functionality is temporarily unavailable. Most popular authors Functionality is temporarily unavailable. © 2008-2024 Pravmir.com |
| In 1478, after the death of St Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, the new Metropolitan, St Cyprian (September 16) arrived in Moscow. But Great Prince Demetrius of the Don wanted to establish his own priest and colleague Michael [Mitaya] as metropolitan, and he would not accept Metropolitan Cyprian. Instead, he expelled him from Moscow. St Cyprian was in a difficult position. But he found support and sympathy among the pillars of Russian monasticism, Sts Sergius of Radonezh and Athanasius of Vysotsk. From the very beginning, they saw the canonical legitimacy of the Metropolitan in his dispute with the Great Prince and they supported him in the prolonged struggle (1478-1490) for the restoration of canonical order and unity in the Russian Church. St Cyprian had to journey several times during these years to Constantinople to participate in council deliberations concerning the governace of the Russian Church. On one of these journeys, with the blessing of holy Abba Sergius, St Athanasius of Vysotsk went to Constantinople with his friend the Metropolitan, leaving his own disciple, St Athanasius the Younger as the igumen of the Vysotsk monastery. At Constantinople St Athanasius settled into the monastery of the holy Forerunner and Baptist John (Studion), where he found a cell for himself and for several disciples who had come with him. St Athanasius occupied himself with prayer and salvific theological books. The monk spent about twenty years in the capital of Church culture, working to translate books from the Greek language and copying Church books, which he then sent off to Rus. Thereby, he transmitted to the Russian Church not only a legacy of great Orthodox thought, but also the traditions of Constantinople’s masters of manuscript illumination, with their elegant penmanship and artistry of textual miniatures, achieving a harmony of content and form. A continuing creative connection was established between St Athanasius’s skillful copying of books at Constantinople and the calligraphic and iconographic school of the Vysotsk monastery at Serpukhov. |
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