About pilgrimage and wandering. Holy places of the world
In which sentence is one of the words used incorrectly?
Choose an answer:
The old man groans in annoyance.
The theory is based on a series of experiments.
Your rudeness hurts those around you.
We saw how the squirrel deftly shells nuts!
All around is silence, and only the reeds sway slightly near the very edge of the water.
Task number 2:
Which statement in relation to this tongue twister is incorrect?
I met a hedgehog in the thicket.
How's the weather, hedgehog?
And went home trembling
Hunched over, huddled, two hedgehogs.
Choose an answer:
In this tongue twister, the consonant voiced solid sound [g] occurs 5 times.
In this tongue twister, a consonant voiced solid sound [v] occurs 2 times.
In this tongue twister, the consonant deaf solid sound [w] occurs 3 times.
In this tongue twister, the consonant voiced soft sound [th "] occurs 6 times.
In this tongue twister, the consonant deaf solid sound [f] occurs 2 times.
Task number 3:
Which statement about this text is incorrect?
The cat was sitting in a large basket,
lined with pillows,
And looked suspicious
On the rod in Serezha's hand.
(S.Ya. Marshak, excerpt from the poem "Adventure on the Road")
Choose an answer:
This poem uses one qualitative adjective and one possessive adjective.
In this poem, nouns are used, among which two are in the prepositional case and one is in the instrumental case.
This poem uses one passive participle of the past tense.
This poem uses two verbs of the 1st conjugation.
This poem uses nouns, among which one is in the nominative case and one is in the accusative case.
Task number 4:
In which sentence in the word stressed vowel is highlighted incorrectly?
Choose an answer:
A store has opened in our house that sells blinds.
Sherlock Holmes informed the inspector of Scotland Yard about the whereabouts of the criminal.
As soon as you turn on the computer, you are immediately transferred to another world.
I'm not jealous that everyone went on a tour, because I have an interesting book.
Sometimes girls tie amazing bows on their braids.
Task number 5:
How many times does a double consonant appear at the gap in this text?
Su (b, bb) in the afternoon, ko (l, ll) dra (m, mm) turgov and regime (s, ss) yorov arrived in the ha (l, ll) herey of modern and (s, ss) ku (s, ss) tva, located on those (r, rr) itories of the former arti (l, ll) eri warehouse.
At the entrance, the number of inte (l, ll) agent visitors checked the a (k, kk) urate a (s, ss) assistant of the guide and escorted the guests to ho (l, ll), where ko (l ,ll) a section of ka (r, rr) pictures and (s, ss) ku (s, ss) of an artist who destroyed with his works and (l, ll) the fusion of time. One of them - the image of kava(l,ll)erist in birch a(l,ll)ee - caused a storm of a(p,pp)lodisments.
Choose an answer:
16
13
17
15
14
worked out at the gym, went to the mall, and returned home by public transit. Write a business observation report briefly describing the person's activities. PLEASE HELP MAKE A JOB
Task 115.Control... for yourself!
Read the text, do the tasks
answer the questions.
Does nature speak to us?
Do you think the grasses of the forest are talking to us clouds?
Ancient man, for your information, would not hesitate to answer
Yes! Nature speaks to man, warns fright...t ’ or encourages...t. The sun friendly winks ... from (behind) the clouds sending4 1 ray of light.5 Thunder calls ... to the (disobedient) will of the gods.
Today (same) most people are sure ... that the language of nature is different from the conversation between people. You know that our conversations are always addressed to someone (something). Nature (still) (neither) (to) whom (does not) appeal. The clouds are not going to warn us of a thunderstorm, the trees are not going to warn us of the wind.
So it turns out that nature informs, and not “conversations”.
By L. Fedorenko
Tasks and questions
1) Write down the text: solve spelling problems in words, put the missing punctuation marks in the sentence of the 1st and 2nd paragraphs.
2) Do the indicated analysis of words and sentences.
3) What type is the text? Prove (make a diagram of the text; see an example in task 37 (4).
4) Underline in the text the phrases with which the author “makes” the reader * an interlocutor.
Language, to a greater extent than clothes, testifies to the taste of a person, his attitude to the world around him, to himself.
We notice a person's manner of behaving, his gait, his behavior, and we judge a person by them, sometimes, however, erroneously. A person's language is a much more accurate indicator of his personal qualities, the qualities of a person who uses the language of the people. By the way a person speaks, we can immediately and easily judge who we are dealing with.
Our speech is the most important part not only of our behavior, but also of our personality, our soul, mind. (According to D. Likhachev)
2. Determine the topic of the text.
3. Which sentence contains the main idea of the text? Write out this proposal.
Task II
1.What is text? Name the features of the text.
2. How does the topic of the text differ from its main idea?
3. Is there always a heading in the text?
culture
Religious tourism has become increasingly popular in recent years. Sacred places, where millions of believers flock every year, are charming in themselves, even regardless of the beliefs and religions that are promoted there. There are unique and majestic buildings and monuments with spiritual significance, people come to these places to get closer to God, gain faith or be cured of ailments. Learn about the most important sacred sites on the planet.
1) Ta Proom
Ta Prum is one of the temples of Angora, a temple complex dedicated to the god Vishnu in Cambodia. It was built at the end of the 12th century AD by the king of the Khmen Empire, Jayavarman VII. Isolated and deliberately left in the jungle like the rest of the temple complex, Ta Prum has been conquered by the wild. It is this aspect that attracts the most tourists - they dream of seeing an abandoned and overgrown temple of a thousand years ago.
2) Kaaba
The Kaaba is the most important sacred site in the Islamic world. The history of this place, as sacred, stretches long before the time of the Prophet Muhammad. Once there was a haven of statues of Arab gods. The Kaaba is located in the center of the courtyard of the Sacred Mosque in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
3) Borobudur
Borobudur was discovered in the 19th century in the jungles of Java, Indonesia. This sacred temple is an amazing structure that includes 504 Buddha statues and about 2,700 reliefs. The full history of this temple is a mystery, it is still not known who exactly built this temple and for what purpose. It is also not known why such a majestic temple was abandoned.
4) Las Lajas Church
One of the amazingly beautiful and important sacred places in the world - the Church of Las Lajas - was built just under a century ago - in 1916 - on the site where, according to legend, Holy Mary appeared to people. A woman with her sick deaf-mute daughter on her shoulders walked through these places. When she stopped to rest, her daughter suddenly began to speak for the first time in her life and spoke about a strange vision in a cave. This vision turned into a mysterious image, the origin of which has not been established even today after a detailed analysis. There were allegedly no paint pigments left on the surface of the stone, although it could have deeply ingrained into the stone. Despite the fact that the image has not been restored, it is very bright.
5) Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is a truly amazing place, it amazes everyone, even those who do not particularly believe in either God or Allah. This temple has an enviable history that began with the construction of a Christian church in the 4th century AD by the Byzantine emperor Constantine I. It was once the most important Christian temple until it was eclipsed by St. Peter's in Rome. The church ceased to exist after the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks led by Mehmet II in 1453, and a mosque settled in the building of the temple. Despite the fact that towers - minarets were added to Hagia Sophia, all the internal images of Christians were not destroyed, but only hidden under a layer of plaster.
6) St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica - one of the most amazing Catholic cathedrals in the world - is located in the Vatican. It is one of the holiest places for Christians, and the church itself was built in the 17th century. This is not only one of the most beautiful architectural structures, but also one of the largest and most spacious. Up to 60 thousand people can be in the cathedral at the same time! It is believed that under the altar is the tomb of St. Peter.
7) Sanctuary of Apollo
The Temple of Apollo was built no less than 3500 years ago and is still not forgotten. The Greeks considered it the "center of the world", they came here, like many pilgrims from different countries, in order to hear the prophecy of the Oracle of Delphi - a priestess who was high, through whose mouth God allegedly spoke with believers.
8) Mahabodhi Temple
Mahabodhi Temple is one of the most impressive holy places in the world and the most sacred place for Buddhists. Every year thousands of Buddhists and Indian pilgrims come here, as well as many tourists. People believe that this is the place where Siddhartha Gautama attained Enlightenment, becoming the Buddha.
9) Luxor Temple
The Luxor Temple is an amazing and magical place. It is so huge that its walls could contain an entire village. Built in the 14th century BC, the temple was dedicated to Amun (later Amon-Ra), the most important of all the gods of the Egyptians. At night, the temple is illuminated by hundreds of lights, offering tourists an unforgettable spectacle.
10) Notre Dame Cathedral
One of the most famous cathedrals in the world, as well as one of the most beautiful, is located in Paris. It was built between 1163 and 1250 and is considered one of the most important monuments of Gothic architecture. Being a witness of many historical events, the cathedral was often damaged and thoroughly restored several times. Today it is one of the symbols of France and an important tourist attraction, which flocks to see both believers and ordinary tourists.
“Two feelings are wonderfully close to us -
In them the heart finds food:
Love for the native ashes,
Love for fathers' coffins.
Based on them from the century
By the will of God himself
human self,
The pledge of his greatness...
The earth would be dead without them
Without them, our cramped world is a desert,
The soul is an altar without a deity."
A. S. Pushkin
Each nation has its own, which are some kind of pillars that allow it to maintain its individuality, not to lose touch with bygone generations, to take care of its historical and cultural memory. The origin of shrines is determined by the religious nature of the person himself, no matter how religious the consciousness of a particular person is (this is the madness of the fallen world - the lack of agreement, even enmity, between the nature of man and his consciousness). The presence of shrines in the life of peoples just proves the religious nature of man, his spiritual activity, which cannot but be based on certain ideals or shrines. The shrines display the most important manifestations of the historical life of a particular people, or even a specific person.
The shrines display the most important manifestations of the historical life of a particular people
Our world was created by the Truth, therefore the shrines must be distinguished into true and false. In the truest sense of the word, the holy things must have their origin from the truly Holy, and then we will not be deceived in our veneration of them. Although the word “holy” is muddied in our society, and people often use it out of place, true holiness is possible only where the Comforter breathes, who descended into the world to sanctify every true believer in Jesus Christ. For He is the source of holiness. The fruits of the work of the Holy Spirit are holy. The Russian Orthodox Church is alive and holy, for she revealed her holiness to the world through many of her children, who shone with the holy feat of faith. She has the Holy Spirit. This means that her shrines, imbued with the grace of the Spirit, are worthy of worship.
By objects of veneration, one can judge the degree of spiritual and moral perfection or degradation of a particular human society.
Of course, peoples who do not know the Truth also have their own shrines, if you can call that what the Holy Spirit did not touch. They had a need for their idols due to the same religiosity of human nature. But the demands of this nature turned out to be quite primitive, so these peoples were not able to accept the Wisdom of God. Hence, according to the objects of reverence, one can judge the degree of spiritual and moral perfection or degradation of a particular human society.
From time immemorial to the present day, people have not ceased to create idols and idols for themselves. Even seemingly completely irreligious people do this. After all, nature cannot be deceived, it needs to honor its Creator. Only people offer her surrogates of the lowest quality instead of God. With their idols (which can be considered artists, singers, athletes, politicians and their mausoleums, various passions, even children and women, and all the attributes that come from these objects of worship), they fence themselves off from Heaven. After all, idolatry does not oblige to anything, and the veneration of the True God requires a change in the whole former life to self-denial, difficult spiritual labor. The unfortunate nihilists would know that their nihilism is also religious in nature, testifying, however, only to their spiritual and moral degradation.
In order not to live earthly life in vain and to avoid the Last Judgment of one's own conscience in the future, a person must choose the main and only true one. He must approach this choice with all responsibility and thoroughness, not wasting his vital energies and not being distracted by fakes and mirages offered by the vain world. And they can help him make the right choice of the sacred object of the incarnated Truth - Jesus Christ. Shrines that help a person to keep in touch with his Creator, not to forget about Him.
The Church of Christ is the treasury of the holy things of God; it shines with their heavenly beauty. Happy is the person who receives from God access to them. Every Orthodox Christian should know that the true church life is based on the most important shrine, the great gift of God, on the Sacrifice of Christ, which is His Body and Blood, taught to the faithful at every Liturgy. Without this shrine, there would be no Church Itself, and our ancestors would not have had an incentive to build many magnificent temples.
And, which is a Divine Revelation for all mankind, revealing to him the secrets of the Providence of God about the world, the secrets of the Kingdom of God!? When reading the Gospel, a person, according to the words of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, walks through the Garden of Eden and converses with the Lord Himself. People who leave this world and have not tasted the sweetness of this gospel conversation, who did not want to open this holy book for themselves, are the most unfortunate people in the world who have lived their earthly life in vain.
The names of God, our holy prayers, amazing church hymns, Divine services and Church Sacraments, relics and shrines of saints, churches and monasteries, writings of the Holy Fathers - the Church of Christ is rich in shrines! These spiritual riches only once again prove the direct participation of the Providence of God in the history of mankind, they testify to the inexpressible love of God for people: “... behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age” (Matthew 28: 20).
Russian Orthodox people have always loved their shrines. Our noble princes and saints from different countries brought sacred things to Rus', among which were the relics of saints and miraculous icons. Our Orthodox ancestors had a pronounced love for spiritual beauty. What amazingly beautiful temples they erected, how carefully and reverently they decorated them! This is confirmed by the great inheritance that we received from them. Still, there was something to call Rus' Holy.
After many years of dominion in our Fatherland by the prince of this world, when the authorities tried to destroy everything that could remind of God, when temples and monasteries, necropolises, churchyards and relics of saints were destroyed, in Russia a lot of the amazing spiritual heritage of our ancestors was preserved. But even more were irretrievably lost. Although what has been preserved allows us to imagine the scale of the spiritual greatness of the former Russia, from which the majority of Russian people later renounced, even changing the name of their homeland, turning from Russians into Soviet ones.
The Soviet authorities in those days did not think at all about the foreign tourists of the future, who for some reason most often prefer to visit in Russia the temples and monasteries of old Russia that were not destroyed by the atheists. They, admiring the spiritual beauty of the departed Rus', begin to despise the aesthetic choice of Soviet society even more. But what can we say about foreigners, when in many regions of Central Russia the younger generations have nothing to show from the spiritual and cultural heritage of the past! There are only monuments of the Soviet era, so young people often conclude that the history of their small homeland dates back to the appearance of Soviet power in their places. If only these young people knew that once their native places were famous for their temples, of which there were more than a dozen, and from which, over time, they left no stone unturned.
It is amazing how, with that purposeful hellish hatred for everything God, the forces of evil ran out of steam, could not cope with the task set - to destroy any presence of the Russian Church before the eyes of the Soviet people! Truly, the words of Christ came true: “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
Many sacred things of Orthodoxy continue to be held captive by atheism and non-churchism, where they are subjected to mockery and insults.
Has modern Russian society learned any lessons from the events of the recent past? Indeed, a small part of the Russian people turned to their origins, softened their hearts for God. The attitude of the vast majority of the rest of the people to the heritage of their ancestors leaves much to be desired. Many people do not know their shrines, do not revere them, are indifferent to their fate. Moreover, many holy things of Orthodoxy continue to remain in captivity of atheism and non-churchism, where they are subjected to mockery and insults.
The Moscow Kremlin is the heart of Russia, the repository of many ancient shrines, dear to the heart of every real Russian person. Without exaggeration, we can say that the Kremlin is the most important monument of Russian history, because it was in the Kremlin that history was made. There are few people who would not consider it their duty to visit the Moscow Kremlin, which is why it is probably the most visited place in Russia.
But after visiting the shrines of the Kremlin, its holy cathedrals, the soul experiences not only feelings of joy and consolation. Unfortunately, after what he saw in the cathedrals of the Kremlin, a residue of bitterness, annoyance and disappointment also remains in the soul. The conclusion suggests itself that only Orthodox Christians know how to correctly relate to shrines, and, in general, to perceive shrines as, precisely, shrines that require a reverent attitude. The shrines of the Kremlin are literally put to shame! They are the object of a shameless spectacle, the subject of consumerism and profit, they let people into the cathedrals, who should not be allowed even close to the temples because of their vicious lifestyle. And all this is possible because the shrines are in the hands of others, it is not the Mother Church who takes care of her property, she is not the mistress of her shrines.
Going along with the usual excursion to the Assumption Cathedral, what can you see and feel? It already becomes unpleasant from the fact that among all the visitors who crossed the threshold of the cathedral, you alone make the sign of the cross with bows, while still attracting the surprised attention of the others - as if this is not the House of God! For them, probably, this is really not the House of God. Therefore, many in the cathedral behave too freely, especially foreigners (several men have to almost pull off their hats). They make a loud noise, talk, wave their arms, sitting cross-legged on the benches in the middle of the cathedral, directly opposite the shrine with the relics of the saints, the true owners of the cathedral. It is a pity that no one sees the tears of the saints, grieving over the madness of these people. Some foreigners in shorts and T-shirts, they can, because they bring income to the cashier, and, in general, they are foreigners - they can do everything. They are met at the entrance with a reassuring smile by women watchmen, who themselves annoy the Orthodox person with their appearance. They are in trousers, without headscarves, sitting, indifferently looking at what is happening. And here, a half-naked man came out of the altar, called another employee. He, without taking off his hat, entered the altar by the south side door, a nasty swear word was heard from inside.
And all this happens in a place that occupies a special place in the history of the Russian Church. This cathedral was called the first throne, ancient revered shrines from all over Rus' were brought into it. Here was the dear for every Orthodox shrine of Russia - the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. The greatest events in the church and public life of the Russian state are connected with this cathedral. Here our tsars were crowned kings, here they elected the first hierarchs - metropolitans, and then the Patriarchs of All Rus'. The Cathedral of the Assumption is of national significance. And such a scolding every day, a vulgar and mocking attitude! This is the same as if they desecrated the flag and coat of arms of Russia. Where is our state heading?
How will they look at a person who came to the cemetery half-naked, if at the same time he also swears, laughs, violates all decorum?
But is it okay that the Assumption Cathedral is also the tomb of great saints, many of whom are glorified by the Church as saints?! People come to such places only to bow and pray, and not to satisfy their curiosity, and even in an insulting way! How will they look at a person who came to the cemetery half-naked, if at the same time he also swears, makes noise, laughs, violates all decorum?
When visiting the Archangel Cathedral, one immediately notices the coldness and uncomfortableness of the interior, some kind of deadness, as if the soul was taken away from the cathedral. We have to explain this by the fact that the cathedral is not used for its intended purpose. It is, first of all, a museum, prayers and church hymns are an infrequent occurrence in it. But where, if not in it, should daily funeral services be performed! After all, this cathedral is the tomb of dozens of the most famous representatives of the history of Russia, its creators, grand dukes and tsars. The collectors of Russian lands, the founders of the Russian state, lie and wait for our prayers in this temple, humiliated and insulted daily by crowds of tourists.
And foreigners do not stand on ceremony with coffins dear to our hearts. They are cheerfully discussing something, laughing and pointing their fingers at the tombs. And statesmen lie and wait for protection from their Russian descendants. Will they wait? Or you will have to remember the eloquent words of Taras Shevchenko: “Great ancestors, filthy grandchildren!” After all, the last desire of these ancestors was treacherously violated - to lie under the daily prayer cover in a temple specially designed for this.
And the same melancholy arises when visiting other cathedrals of the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, where again you have to demand from men that they take off their hats in the church, many other churches in Russia, abandoned and homeless. What can we say about the fact that the liturgical vessels, which should not be touched by the hand of a layman, the altar Gospels and crosses, vestments and other church utensils, once taken from the Church, were never returned to her. They, too, are now just exhibits that delight the eyes of people who are far from understanding their spiritual value.
Orthodox people will always be grateful to historians, archaeologists, art historians, anthropologists, employees of the Kremlin Museums for saving the shrines, for their work in preserving the heritage of our ancestors. But this is not enough, because the shrines have their own purpose - to participate in the salvation of people's souls, to stimulate their spiritual life, to bring up high feelings in them. These shrines are deprived of such an opportunity, since they are treated as phenomena of material culture. It is understandable, because even an academician with carnal wisdom “does not accept what is from the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
From here, shrines often remain inaccessible for worship, divine services are rarely performed in cathedrals (the grace of a perfect Liturgy quickly fades after an irreverent crowd of tourists visits the cathedral). Our shrines are part of the tourism industry, a commercial project. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the Kremlin's cathedrals it is so cold to the soul, there is no prayerful comfort, which is common for active prayer churches.
Many of our shrines are part of the tourism industry. Did our Orthodox ancestors want such a fate for them, carefully collected and handed over to us as an inheritance?
Did our Orthodox ancestors, among whom were many famous and great people, kings, grand dukes and saints, want such a fate for their shrines, carefully collected and handed over to us as a legacy? What would they say now to our modern society, given the opportunity? And they would say this: “We built churches, collected shrines, made contributions and donations for the sake of the greatness of our Mother - the Russian Orthodox Church, this is all her property! How dared you put your hand on church property and dispose of it at your own discretion, without knowing how to deal with holy things! Return the church to the Church, so that the wrath of God does not come upon you as blasphemers and predators!”
By the way people treat their shrines, one can judge the spiritual and moral health of the people. In a healthy person, a shrine evokes a feeling of reverence and awe, a desire to glorify God. Such people are not afraid to confess their Lord, they behave in relation to the shrine sincerely and childishly directly. “Be like little children” (Matthew 18:3), Jesus Christ calls. And the veneration of the shrines of God just brings up in the soul of a person the best childlike qualities that are so dear to the Lord. “The soul is bright and joyful when it works for the Lord its God in the gladness of its heart, with hope and hope in the mercy and goodness of God” (St. George the Recluse). But are there many such healthy-hearted people in Russia?
Will we not suffer the sad fate of those peoples who neglected their sacred property, instead of reverence and reverence, showing insensitivity and cold indifference towards it, reaching a direct insult. Such phenomena are born out of forgetfulness of God. Let us remember the Old Testament Jews, also the Jews who were contemporaries of Jesus Christ, let us also remember the death of the Russian Empire in 1917.
“Do not give anything holy to dogs” (Mt 7:6) – this is what the Lord says about the unacceptable attitude towards God’s property. May these words not serve as His sentence to our society! After all, you can still fix it. Orthodox, free your holy things from captivity and return to a worthy use for them!
Hieromonk Seraphim (Paramanov)
History of pilgrimage and wandering
Wandering came from the feat of pilgrimage, from the desire to visit places sanctified by the feet of the Savior, the Mother of God and the saints, from the desire to partake of the holiness of the place. This desire to be sanctified by a place made many Christians, especially those who are sinners in some way and who want to atone for their sin, take those far away to holy places. Sin was expiated at the moment of completion of the feat. The feat, in fact, consisted in the rejection of comforts, in the fact that a person temporarily threw off all earthly fetters of wealth and joined in poverty. A person became a voluntary beggar and followed the testament of Christ: he did not sow, did not reap, completely surrendering himself to the will of God. So he went to the place where his faith led him, and there, seeing the shrine, touching it, he again became the same person, only an enlightened feat, accomplished by him.
The feat of wandering is given in the Old Testament: these are the days when the Jews went to worship at the Temple of Jerusalem. Jews chartered entire ships (even then "charter flights" were practiced) to get to the celebration of Easter in Jerusalem. The Holy Church also sings of the wanderings in the lines of the psalm of pilgrims approaching the temple of the Lord. The Lord, by His example, sanctified this feat, coming to Jerusalem on the days of holy Pascha.
Having established peace, Rome provided security by clearing the land of gangs of robbers, and the seas of pirates. The network of roads laid to all parts of the Empire for the transfer of Roman legions also served to transport travelers, pilgrims and merchants. For travelers, there were road maps indicating distances and places where they could change horses and find shelter for the night. The main Roman routes of communication passed through the Mediterranean Sea. Its waters washed all the provinces from East to West, thereby connecting and bringing them together, facilitating trade and establishing personal contacts. The ship on which the apostle Paul sailed carried 276 passengers. The historian Josephus went to Rome on a ship with 600 passengers on board. It was a motley audience: Syrians and Asians, Egyptians and Greeks, artists and philosophers, merchants and pilgrims, soldiers, slaves and ordinary tourists. All beliefs, ministers of all cults mixed up here. What a blessing for a Christian who is looking for an opportunity to preach the gospel! That is exactly what the apostle Paul did. The early Christians traveled unusually extensively. This was connected with personal or family affairs, trade, public or military service, flight to other lands during persecution and persecution. But to a much greater extent, the journeys of the first Christians were caused by the task of preaching the gospel of Christ's doctrine. Somewhat later, with the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire, believers, starting from the 2nd century, went on pilgrims to the Holy Land. Others traveled in order to learn more about the churches in the generally recognized centers of Christianity: Rome, Corinth, Alexandria, Antioch. The journey became an event for those who stayed at home: relatives and friends accompanied the departing to the very port, staying with him until the moment when a favorable wind drove the ship into the open sea. If the traveler was a Christian, he was accompanied by the community: he served as a messenger and a living link with other brothers and other churches.
Jerusalem, returning the ancient sacred name, quickly became the Holy City: wonderful basilicas grew on the site of pagan temples and new ones were built everywhere. When “the whole of Jerusalem becomes a relic and in parallel with this a large hospice, a large hotel, a large hospital. The local population is lost in the world of pilgrims, and these pilgrims, led by Roman and Byzantine emperors, spare neither their strength nor their means ... the country is covered with hundreds of churches, dozens of monasteries ... it becomes a huge museum of religious art ”(M. I. Rostovtsev). Pilgrims in Palestine now reached small towns inhabited by pagans and Jews to pray at memorial sites. Christians rebuilt or adapted pagan temples, replacing consecration stones. Even such monuments as the pyramids were included in the circle of revered ones, and the ancient Memphis temples were simply turned into prayer houses. From the shrines of the Old Testament, Christians especially revered the graves, visiting the burials of the righteous of antiquity, the prophets, forefathers, King Solomon. The notes of an Italian pilgrim of the 6th century brought us a description of the worship of shrines in antiquity: “We arrived at the Basilica of Saint Sion (Church of the Holy Apostles in Sion), which contains many wonderful things, including the cornerstone, which, as the Bible tells us, was rejected by the builders ( ). The Lord Jesus Christ came to the temple that was the home of Saint James and found this stone that had been thrown out and was lying nearby. He took the stone and placed it in the corner. You can pick up the stone and hold it in your hands. If you put it to your ear, you can hear the noise of a crowded crowd. In this temple there is a pillar to which the Lord was tied, on which footprints were miraculously preserved. When He was tied, His body was firmly in contact with the stone, and you can see the prints of His hands, fingers and palms. They are so clear that you can make cloth copies that help with any illness - believers who wear them around their necks are healed.<…>Many of the stones with which St. Stephen was killed have been preserved, as well as the base of the cross from Rome, on which the holy Apostle Peter was crucified. There is a chalice that the holy apostles used to celebrate the Liturgy after the Resurrection of Christ, and many other wonderful things that are difficult to enumerate. In the women's monastery I saw a human head kept in a golden reliquary adorned with precious stones - they say that this is the head of the holy martyr Theodota. The reliquary is a cup from which many drink to receive blessings, and I also partake of this grace.
Traveling to the holy places, both by land and by sea, was very difficult, primarily because of the climate. From dry and dusty Anatolia, they fell into humid and sultry Cilicia. Following through Egypt, they had to cross the desert, which was not easy, especially for women. Pilgrimages made by land were less comfortable than by sea, and often less fast. Away from the main roads and in mountainous areas, it was also less safe. The common people traveled on foot, taking with them only the essentials and protecting themselves from the weather with a raincoat. The richer people rode a mule or a horse. The pedestrian covered up to thirty kilometers a day. To overcome the path, the pilgrims naturally needed rest, shelter, as well as the most important support for them that local “roadside” shrines could give. For the needs of pilgrims, that is, spiritual wanderers, the Church authorized the construction along the main routes of inns, shelters, hospice yards under the control of Christians, often at monasteries. On the main roads there were stations for changing horses and mules, inns where you could spend the night, as well as taverns that served food and drinks. The Acts of the Apostles mentions Three Hotels - a station for changing horses on the road from Puteoli to Rome, forty-seven kilometers from the Eternal City ().
It is necessary to bear in mind the conditions that those who embarked on a journey faced in those days, in order to understand the exhortations to hospitality, with which the epistles of the apostles and Christian writings abound. The Old Testament carefully preserved the memory of fathers and mothers who received strangers: Abraham, Lot, Rebekah, Job. The book of Job says: “The stranger did not spend the night on the street; I opened my doors to a passerby ”(). We find echoes of ancient examples in the letter of Clement to the Christians of Corinth, in which the bishop of Rome, in turn, urges them to be hospitable: Lord, that He does not leave those who trust in Him;<…>for faith and hospitality, Rahab the harlot was saved. The word of praise for hospitality is found in the Gospel (). The host who receives the stranger accepts Jesus Christ Himself, which serves as one of the grounds for acceptance into the Kingdom of Heaven: “For I was hungry, and you gave Me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you received me" (). The cordiality with which Christian communities usually received strangers was admired by the pagans. Aristides wrote in his "Apology": "When they see a wanderer, they receive him under their roof with such joy, as if they really met a brother." From the 2nd century, legislation on Christian hospitality began to take shape. The instructions of the "Didache, or Teachings of the Twelve Apostles", compiled around the year 150, when it comes to ordinary travelers walking from shelter to shelter, recommend: "Help them in any way you can." The wanderer was provided with lodging and food, if the wanderer appeared at the time of the festive feast, then he was immediately invited to the table. “Accept everyone who comes in the name of the Lord,” says the “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.” “Then, having checked him, find out, for you will have right and left understanding. If someone who comes to you is going to another place, help him as much as you can, but do not let him stay with you for more than two or three days, if necessary. If he wants to stay with you, being a craftsman, let him work and eat. If, however, he does not master a craft, take care, according to your own understanding, that a Christian does not live idle among you. If he does not want to do this, then he is a Christ-seller: beware of such.
Some documents, letters and descriptions of the travels of early Christian pilgrims have survived to our time. “And if after that I remain alive, then either I will tell your love personally, if the Lord deigns, about all the places that I see, or, if it is destined otherwise, then I will write about everything. But you, dear sisters, be merciful and remember me, whether I die or stay alive, ”the pilgrim of the 4th century writes in her letters.
Entering the path of pilgrimage, moving towards a holy goal, thousands of kilometers away from his place of residence, a person doomed himself to many months and years of life, full of hardships and dangers. The spiritual traveler proceeded to his intention as a voluntary bearing of the cross - relying entirely on the will of God. It is possible that he was to die without reaching the ultimate goal of his journey, to disappear unknown (not for the Lord, but for his relatives and friends) on a mountain path or in the depths of the sea, to be killed by robbers, to die of illness. Leaving his former life, from his family, native place, country, the spiritual wanderer, as it were, died for his relatives and embarked on the path led by the Lord alone. Pilgrimage in ancient times was no doubt a feat of faith - a person set off on the path already believing, but he had to carry his faith through the journey and purify it with suffering and patience.
“She gladly became a pilgrim here on earth,” writes a certain monk Valerius in 650 about the blessed Etheria from Bordeaux, “in order to receive her part of the inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven and be accepted into the company of virgins and the most glorious Queen of Heaven Mary, Mother of God.<…>In those days when the rays of the holy catholic (translated from Greek - catholic. - Ed.) faith shed their light over this country of the distant west, the blessed virgin Eteria, inflamed with a desire to achieve the grace of God, supported by God's help, with an imperturbable heart, undertook a journey almost through the whole world. Under the guidance of the Lord, she reached the holy and desired places - the birth, suffering and resurrection of the Lord, passing through various provinces and countries and visiting everywhere the numerous tombs of the holy martyrs for the sake of prayer and spiritual enlightenment.
Blessed Pavla, a noble and wealthy Roman matron, having heard the sermons of Blessed Jerome, who returned to Rome from the East, having distributed his property to the poor and left his family and habitual way of life, went to the far East to seek new values in life. After spending about two years on a pilgrimage to holy places, she organized a monastery in Bethlehem and, having lived there for about twenty years, died at the age of 56. In 386, she wrote a letter from Bethlehem to her friend, the nun Markella: “And how many places for prayer in the city, one day is not enough to get around them all! But there are no words and no voice to describe to you the cave of the Savior in the village of Christ, near the hotel of Mary.<…>But as I already wrote, in the village of Christ (Bethlehem) everything is simple, and there is silence, interrupted only by the singing of psalms. And wherever you look, you see a plowman working and singing Hallelujah; and the sowers and the vinedressers, working, sing psalms and songs of David. ... Oh, if the time had come when a breathless messenger would finally bring us the news that our Markella had already reached the shores of Palestine ... And when will the day come when we can enter together into the cave of our Savior? And cry with our sister and mother at the Holy Sepulcher? Kiss the Tree of the Cross and then on the Mount of Olives, together with the Ascension of Christ, lift up our hearts and fulfill our vows? And to see the resurrected Lazarus, to see the waters of the Jordan, cleansed by the Baptism of the Lord? And then go to the shepherds in the field and pray at the tomb of David? .. Go to Samaria to worship the ashes of John the Baptist, the prophet Elisha and Obadiah? To enter the caves where they were during the persecution and famine "...
Markella, to whom this letter was addressed, is also a woman from a very noble Roman family. She was greatly impressed by the sermons of St. , and she was the first Roman woman to take a vow of monasticism. After the return of Blessed Jerome from the East, her house became a meeting place for the study of the Holy Scriptures, for prayer and psalmody. But, despite the eloquent letter of Paula, Markella remained in Rome, where she devoted herself to helping the poor, and died there from the wounds inflicted on her by the soldiers of Alaric during the capture and fall of Rome.
“But pilgrims went to Jerusalem not only to worship the holy place. All those who were attracted by the ways of the Lord, all those who heard His call, but had not yet chosen a certain path to God, went to the holy city. There goes Mary of Egypt, the harlot, following a crowd of pilgrims rushing to venerate the honest tree of the Cross of the Lord. And outside the threshold of the Church of the Resurrection, he recognizes his sinfulness and washes his filth with tears of repentance. Here is how the Life of St. Mary of Egypt: “And then one day I saw a crowd of people from Egypt and Libya, heading towards the sea. I asked someone where they were in a hurry. He answered me that they were sailing to Jerusalem for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. I went with them, having nothing with which I could pay for travel and subsistence. I was sure that my debauchery would bring me everything I needed, and therefore, with shamelessness, I attached myself to the young people and went on board with them. I drowned in abominations on the way and did the same, if not more, in Jerusalem. The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross has arrived. Everyone went to church. I also went with the others and entered the porch. But when I reached the door, the invisible power of God threw me away from the entrance. Everyone entered, and no one interfered, but I tried three, four times to enter the temple, and each time an invisible hand did not allow me, and I remained in the porch. In confusion, I stood in the corner of the narthex and thought about what fault I could not enter the temple of God. The saving power of God finally illuminated my spiritual eyes, and I understood everything when I cast a glance at the abomination of my past life. Weeping, I hit myself in the chest and moaned bitterly. Finally, sobbing, I raised my eyes and saw an icon of the Mother of God on the wall. For a long time I prayed to the Lady of Heaven that she would have mercy on me, a great sinner, and open the entrance to the holy temple for me. Then, with trepidation and hope, I went to the door of the church, and no force held me back, so that I could enter with others and bow to the Life-Giving Cross. From this I was clearly convinced that God does not reject the penitent, no matter how sinful he may be.
Bishop John goes to Jerusalem in the 5th century, embarrassed by the pomp of the bishopric and longing for the quiet humility of the desert before he became a humble novice in one of the Bethlehem monasteries. There, dressed in thin clothes, the great Arseny flees from the magnificent city, before retiring to the desert and tasting the feat of complete silence. They know the way to Jerusalem before the exploits and Theodosius the Great, and, and Epiphanius, and, and Mikhail Chernorizets. This path was consecrated by the miracle worker Nicholas, and, and Chrysostom in the days of their search for God, in the days of their hesitation.
Blessed Jerome creates a whole community of Jerusalem pilgrims, calling them seekers of the path of God. This community is made up of doubters and waverers who study the holy places under his guidance. Often, the ascetics who had already found their way to God went to holy places to partake of their shrines to strengthen in him. The hermit of the Nitrian desert, John, told his disciples: "Holy places with their grace strengthen me." The lives of the saints convey a number of amazing stories about pilgrims who received the grace of holy places. Particularly noteworthy is the story of the famous Simeon and John (beginning of the 6th century), which tells how, after a number of journeys to Jerusalem, Saint Simeon is granted the highest gift of grace - Christ for the sake of foolishness. After 30 years spent in the house of his parents, he came to Jerusalem to bow to the "honest tree of the cross" and from there went to Jordan, to the monastery of St. Gerasimos, where the abbot "clothe him in the holy great angelic image." A year later, he left the monastery and retired to silence in the desert, where he labored for about 30 years. In 582, at the age of 60, St. Simeon withdrew from the desert "to swear at the world." But before taking upon himself the feat of foolishness, he again arrived in Jerusalem to bow again to the Cross and the Holy Sepulcher, and then went to Emessa, where he began his Christ for the sake of foolishness.
Equally remarkable is the story of the Georgian Saint David of Gareji. After many years of exploits in Iberia, he had a burning desire to see the holy city of Jerusalem. He went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but after a difficult journey, seeing Jerusalem from afar, St. David fell to the ground with tears and said to his companions: “I cannot go further from here, because I consider myself unworthy to approach the holy places. Therefore, go there alone and offer prayers for me, a sinner, at the Holy Sepulcher of the Lord. The brethren, having kissed Saint David, left him and went off to worship the shrines. David took a stone at the place where he stopped outside the walls of the city, as if he had taken it from the Holy Sepulcher, put it in a basket and went back to his monastery, to Iberia. As his life tells further: “The all-good God, seeing such his humility of wisdom, was pleased to show people his holiness and faith. When the monk returned to the monastery and laid a stone there, miracles began to appear from him: kissing him with faith, many weak and suffering were healed.
“Feat teaches,” writes priest Sergei Sidorov, shot in 1937, “that there are places in the world where the grace of God is especially visible. These places are consecrated, and just as we feel the temple as an earthly sky, so the fathers who visited the Holy Land know it to be attached to another world. “Prayer has the power to open heaven and connect the earth to heaven,” he says. And those places where the Lord prayed, those places where His blood was shed, where the mystery of the Redemption took place, are especially holy, especially fanned with eternity, and, touching these places, the pilgrims touched, as it were, the sky, were sanctified by the prayers that once sounded there.
The wanderings of the pilgrims were also directed towards resolving perplexities, meeting with more experienced people, and seeking leaders. Pilgrims of antiquity were especially drawn to Egypt, to the Thebaid. They went there not only to pray, but also to learn the holy life. And the great Athanasius and Chrysostom learned true Christianity from the pillars. Pilgrims came from all over the Christian universe to see the great ascetics of that time. Near the place of the feat of some saints, for example, St. Simeon the Stylite, entire settlements were formed with hotels, shops, merchants and, of course, believers flocking from everywhere, seeking healing from illnesses and sorrows. “Wonderful pictures of the life of the holy hermits were left to us by these pilgrims. Suffice it to recall Rufinus, John, St. Paphnutius, who revealed to us the secrets of the solitary prayers of the holy men of the desert. The faces of these men sparkle like the sun, rays emanate from their eyes... Some of the hermits who labored in the oases of the Sahara had special vineyards for pilgrims, such as the Monk Kopriy, whose feat was to support tired travelers with grapes. The great elders themselves sometimes went to each other for advice, and these paths were for several years. So, the life of Methodius of Phrygia conveys that he and Serapion went together to<одному>great old man, and four years passed.<…>
Pilgrimage, as Christianity expanded, and with it the fertile places illuminated by the Holy Spirit, expanded, and the paths of pilgrims lead to Byzantium and Rome, lead to Holy Athos, go to all those cities and villages where the blood of a martyr was shed, or the wise word of the saint is heard.
Features of the Orthodox pilgrimage
By historical origin, the word “pilgrim” is based on a derivative of the Latin palma “palm tree” and means “palm bearer”, or, in other words, a traveler to the Holy Sepulcher, carrying a palm branch from his journey, in memory of those palm branches - vay, with which he met Lord's people at the entrance to Jerusalem. In everyday folk speech, "pilgrimage" was often replaced by another, more understandable word - "pilgrimage".
Pilgrimage, as a modern researcher writes, "is a specially undertaken journey for a more complete and deeper contact with the shrine than in everyday life" . A certain spiritual and moral reason inspires a person to embark on a difficult and long path to meet with the shrine and acquire grace. The traveler is attracted by the desire to get closer to the source of holiness, but the approach is impossible without doing the work of the way, road, wandering. Before the moment of achieving the goal comes, there will be a difficult test on the road. The road for a pilgrim is important not only, and even not so much, in terms of physical deprivation, just as a church fast pursues, first of all, not physiological, but spiritual goals. The path of the pilgrim to the shrine is like the spiritual warfare of the ascetic. Like a spiritual warrior, the pilgrim sets out on his journey, full of determination and hope in the Lord. Ahead of him is a meeting with a holy relic, a miraculous icon, the relics of God's saint. But between the shrine and the spiritual wanderer lies the journey itself, full of labors and hardships, patience and sorrows, dangers and hardships. The pilgrim's path winds geographically between cities and villages, but in the spiritual sense it represents an ascent uphill (in Slavic - mountain), up, to heaven - in overcoming one's own infirmities and worldly temptations, in acquiring humility, in testing and purifying faith.
The goal of the pilgrim is a shrine, or, in other words, some object of spiritual worship. The general concept of "shrine" means everything that in Orthodoxy is customary to give honor to veneration: holy relics - particles of the chiton of the Lord, or the Life-Giving Cross; items related to the veneration of the Mother of God; holy and miraculous icons; relics of saints; places related to the life and exploits of the saints, their personal belongings; holy springs; cloisters; the graves of holy people revered by the Church... All the various objects related to holiness and consecrated by this belonging, possessing grace, located in many places in our country, became the goal of pilgrimages. Thus, the entire territory of Russia by the beginning of the 20th century turned out to be a dotted network of pilgrimage routes. Believers, pilgrims went on long journeys, bypassing many provinces, to worship ancient and new shrines; stretched to one or another famous monastery; visited God's people, elders and ascetics of piety...
Types of pilgrimage can be classified as 1) one-day; 2) near and 3) distant.
A one-day pilgrimage can be to some nearby object - a nearby monastery, temple, holy spring, etc. Such walks are associated with a stable tradition that exists in the area. Such a pilgrimage, as a rule, does not take more than one day.
Close pilgrimages can be made within one or more of the nearest dioceses. “If we talk about monasteries as the purpose of visiting in such pilgrimages, then it should be noted that, as a rule, there are monasteries in dioceses that are more visited by pilgrims and less visited by them. Most often (pilgrims - Ed.) are attracted by the presence of a shrine known in the diocese and beyond (an icon, relics, a holy spring, etc.), as well as the presence in the monastery of some respected person leading a high spiritual life. Important is the position of the monastery, convenient for visiting, as well as its good reputation, which is in connection with the religious and historical memory of the population of the area. Such a pilgrimage can last two or more days, depending on the goals set by the worshiper and the distance.
Distant pilgrimages are performed to shrines or ascetics known throughout Russia and located outside the given diocese. Heading to the most famous monasteries or abroad, Russian pilgrims entered other monasteries along the way, and sometimes deliberately chose not the closest route. Today, like centuries ago, distant pilgrimages are performed to the Holy Land, to Athos, to the relics of St. Nicholas the Pleasant in Bari, to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, to the caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, to Optina Pustyn, to Sarov and many other saints places.
Praying mantis differed not only in distance, but also in reason or purpose. A person embarking on a journey was driven by the desire to resolve any issue related to the choice of a future life, to receive the ascetic's instruction, advice, admonition, strengthening in faith. On the pilgrimage, he could be moved by the falling away from God and the Church of someone close and the desire to beg him for faith. Serious sins and mistakes of youth were also the reason for committing pilgrimage. We know many examples when the purpose of the pilgrimage was to beg for health and healing for oneself or one's relatives. There were also so-called votive (by vow) pilgrimages, when a person in a mortal illness or in extreme danger, for example, in a war, made a promise to the Lord, if he was destined to stay alive, to make a long pilgrimage journey.
The first pilgrimages in Rus' to distant lands and holy places were usually undertaken by monks. In the same cases, when the ancient Russian ascetic did not leave the borders of his land, he retired to a secluded place, the “desert”, for spiritual exploits and “imagined the holy city of Jerusalem and the tomb of the Lord, and all the sacred places where the Redeemer God and the Savior of the whole world endured torment for the sake of our salvation, and all the holy places, and deserts of the venerable fathers, where they accomplished a feat and labor, ”as the life of St. Avraamy Smolensky. But for the laity, the pilgrimage has always been an opportunity to temporarily put aside everyday household chores and become like monastics for a while. The spiritual journey presupposed, in its basis, a temporary communion with the angelic rank, firstly, in the denial of earthly worldly blessings and comforts; secondly, in spiritual warfare and the enduring of temptations, which necessarily accompany the pilgrim on the way. Wanderers and pilgrims in pre-revolutionary Russia sometimes, having embarked on the path of pilgrimage, were no longer able to return to their former way of life. Some turned the pilgrimage into a trade, into a craft for profit. Others ascended to spiritual heights and communed with holiness. Many wanderers became elders and mentors, often under the guise of simplicity and foolishness.
“Rus', together with Christianity, accepted the feat of pilgrimage. Anthony of Novgorod told about a Russian pilgrim of the pre-Mongolian period, buried in Constantinople, a certain Leonty, who was also in Jerusalem. The first known Russian pilgrim was St. Anthony of the Caves. Life of St. Anthony narrates that “the Lord God inspired him to go to the Greek country and take tonsure there. St. Anthony immediately set off on his journey (let us note that this was back in the 11th century. - Ed.), reached the city of Constantinople, and after him the Holy Mount Athos. Here Anthony walked around the holy monasteries, where he saw many monks imitating the life of an angel. After this, Saint Anthony was inflamed with even greater love for Christ and, wanting to imitate the life of the holy monks himself, he came to one of the monasteries and began to beg the abbot to tonsure him. The abbot, foreseeing the future holy life of Anthony and his virtues, heeded the request and tonsured him a monk. “In the life of St. Theodosius, we see an attempt by this saint to join the pilgrims going to Jerusalem, which indicates the existence of a Russian pilgrimage at the end of the 11th century. It is known about two ascetics of the Caves, who were in the East. This is the Monk Barlaam, who reposed on the way from Constantinople to Jerusalem, and the Monk Ephraim the eunuch, who was more than once in Constantinople and joined in the feat of wandering.
At the beginning of the 12th century, hegumen Daniel, a famous pilgrim who left us a description of his journey, speaks of a large squad that was with him in Jerusalem. ... The pilgrimage was mainly directed to the East, to the places consecrated by the Lord, as well as to the Greek shrines, from where Orthodoxy came.<.::>We even know a whole institution in Ancient Rus' that has its own legal rights - "kalik passers-by", professional pilgrims who have devoted their whole lives to walking with the worship of holy places. They were, as it were, intermediaries between Russia and the shrine of the East and West, they collected evidence of the latest miracles; they brought relics from holy places, particles of the wood of the Cross of Christ, stones from the Holy Sepulcher. And they arranged special feasts for this, they had places of honor at weddings and burials. The pilgrimage developed as the religious significance of Rus' increased. The time came when they began to look at Rus' as a saint, as the heiress of Byzantium, and pilgrims from other countries began to come to Russia, which excited Russian pilgrims to new exploits and travels. But as the spirituality of Rus' grew, this feat became more internal. Russian people began to visit their native shrines, began to strive to Kyiv, Moscow, Solovki, where the holy Russians labored, where the grace of God is especially visible. Almost all Russian saints, from the ancients to the ascetics of our day, were pilgrims, almost all of them<…>they went to worship holy places, they went in order to borrow strength and holiness from there.
In 1849, Russia established the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem to protect Orthodoxy and help Russian pilgrims. In 1871, the mission bought one of the relics of Palestine - the Mamre oak, ascending to the oak tree under which the righteous Abraham received the Holy Trinity in the form of three angels. The tree was very beautiful: its trunk was divided into three - and stood among the vineyards, next to the source. Thus, the Orthodox got their own sanctuary "Mamvrian Oak".
In 1882, the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society was established in Russia to maintain Orthodoxy and to make it easier for Orthodox pilgrims to travel to the Holy Land. To facilitate the travel of pilgrims, the Society entered into agreements with railroads and steamboat companies, which significantly lowered the fare for poor wanderers.
In one of the issues of the Russian Pilgrim magazine for 1903, the details of the then pilgrimage life are described: Jordan on foot, in small groups; this well-founded prohibition is sometimes violated by pilgrims who do not have the means to bear the expenses. And here it is told about a certain blind Agafya, who lived in a shelter of the Palestinian society, who lost her sight after she, lagging behind a group of pilgrims, was mutilated by Bedouin nomads.
Russian farmsteads in Jerusalem in the 19th century served as a shelter for 2,000 pilgrims. By 1911-1914. there were up to 10,000 of them a year, and by 1914 - 10-12 thousand. The First World War and the revolution that followed in 1917 in Russia interrupted for a long time the long and firmly rooted folk tradition of worshiping the Holy Sepulcher and other Palestinian shrines. Now this tradition is being actively revived.
“For deep prayer, a Russian person traditionally went to a monastery, on a pilgrimage. There, in deep prayerful rest, among the monastic brethren, in front of the relics of the great Russian saints, the true meaning of the life of an Orthodox Christian was especially illuminated - “acquisition of the Holy Spirit,” in the words of the reverend.<…>The Trinity-Sergius Lavra was a common and widespread place of worship (especially for Muscovites). They went to bow to St. Sergius, without fail stopping by the Khotkov Monastery to worship the graves of his parents - schemniks Cyril and Mary.<…>They got to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra either by carriage, or, which is also not uncommon, on foot. The Russian empresses Anna Ioannovna, Elizaveta Petrovna also undertook pilgrimage on foot to the relics of the reverend.<…>Pilgrim noblemen made their pilgrimages in different ways. If the trip was undertaken for pure prayer and was accompanied by preparation, fasting and a desire to take communion, then “workers on God’s path” did not go to bow to the relics, but to their spiritual father, to one of the monasteries of a strict life. In this case, they tried not to be distracted by something else - spectacular. They seriously prepared for trips to holy places and the holy relics of the saints of God, they confessed, they took communion. So, retired Major General Sergei Ivanovich Mosolov, during a serious illness, preparing for death, confessed and made a vow at confession: if he recovers, then he descends on foot to the relics of St. Sergius to bow to him. Having taken communion, he soon went on the mend. After his recovery, he hurried to fulfill his vow... People came to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra to solve the most important spiritual issues of their lives. Knowing that there were perspicacious elders in the monastery, they turned to them to find out the will of God about themselves, to find a spiritual father, to find out what kind of life to choose after retirement from service, and other important questions.
In documents of a personal nature, one can find examples of votive prayers to Kyiv. ... For example, the Gryaznovs, some time after the birth of their daughter, in fulfillment of their vow, went in July 1752 to the Lavra to venerate the relics. A month or more was spent on such a pilgrimage. ... A peasant who wished to bow to the Kiev-Pechersk miracle workers and "please God", the God-loving landowner did not hold back. As D.N. Sverbeev reports in his notes, the pilgrim who was released by the Tver landowner was the head of a prosperous family (out of 40 people), an elderly peasant Arkhip Efimovich. On a pilgrimage, he brought the master as a blessing from Kyiv "an icon, a prosphora and a ring from the martyr Barbara." The landowner questioned in detail God's laborer, who walked "in the name of Christ," and wrote down the peasant's story in detail.
“The Vyatka correspondent of the Ethnographic Bureau writes at the end of the 19th century that “the pilgrimage beggars constitute a special kind of beggars, the most respected among the peasantry,” and cites a characteristic dialogue: “Give Christ for the sake of the wanderer,” says such a beggar; the hostess asks: “Where is God going?” - "God brings you to Kyiv, mother, for the third time." Here questions begin, the wanderer is asked to tell about the holy places, while they are treated. Seeing him off, they give him a “hryvnia or nickel” with an order: “Light a candle for me, a sinner,” or “Take out a prosphora for the late Alexei,” etc. ... In addition to the usual alms, the beggar also receives a sacrifice to holy places (a candle, commemoration, etc.). They like to leave such wanderers at home for the night in order to ask “what good they saw in Russ, what saints they visited and what wonderful places they saw.” They ask the way to the holy places, in case of their own pilgrimage: “But how can you get there approximately to Kyiv?” Such conversations are considered by the peasants (especially women) to be soul-saving, and at the same time arouse general interest. ... In support of their words, pilgrims show (and sometimes sell) things brought from there to local residents - holiness, among which are mentioned: icons, pictures of church content, crosses, prosphora, pebbles brought from holy places, vials with holy water or oil, chips “from the tomb of the Lord” or particles “from holy relics”. Very often, both before and now, a feature of people living on a pilgrimage from monastery to monastery, from shrine to shrine, is the spread of all kinds of rumors and rumors, a large proportion of which are prophecies, supported by various kinds of omens, interpretations of dreams and notable events ...
Not without irony, A. I. Kuprin describes in one of his essays the type of “professional pilgrimage” observed in pre-revolutionary Kyiv, aptly called “prudish.” “These persons serve as mediators and conductors between the most popular fathers and hermits, on the one hand, and the public, looking for grace, on the other. For pilgrim merchants who have arrived from somewhere in Perm or Arkhangelsk, they replace the most complete guidebooks, being tireless and talkative guides, having an acquaintance or a loophole everywhere. In the monasteries they are tolerated partly as a necessary evil, partly as a walking advertisement... They, of course, are impeccably aware of all thrones and feasts, and especially solemn services. They know the days and hours of receptions at the holy fathers, distinguished either by a strict life, or by the ability to see a person “through and through” ... A lot of trifles enter into the circle of their everyday activities. They unravel dreams, heal from the evil eye, rub the sore spots of benefactors with consecrated oil from Mount Athos "...
For a poor pilgrim-peasant, the only form of sustenance on the road is to beg for alms, or alms "for Christ's sake", just as professional beggars, fire victims and other deprived beggars, or beggars, did. Beggar travelers walked around in monastic clothes (in the descriptions of the 19th century, skullcaps, cassocks for men and women constantly appear), often obtained while staying in monasteries. Approaching the house, they dragged out the prayer, and the blind wanderers were famous for singing spiritual verses, which they sang already on the way to the village. The "divine" beggars were clearly separated from the ordinary vagrants by the peasants. The usual form of begging for alms is: "For the mercy of Christ for the sake of remembering your parents in the Kingdom of Heaven." Professional beggars - blind and crippled - sing a special verse at the same time: “Lord remember you in the Kingdom of Heaven, Lord write you down on bright eve, in church records, open the doors of paradise to you, Lord, give you a bright paradise.”
Taking a penny from a beggar is not just violence, but a sin, sacrilege, for which, according to popular belief, a terrible punishment befell. There are many legends about how a thief, who encroached on a beggarly piece, withered his hand, he was overtaken by premature death, etc. Before, and partly even now, stories about saints and Jesus Christ Himself, wandering in the guise of beggars, were widespread among the people. One story, recorded by an eyewitness, tells how a wealthy peasant in his village “gave the wanderer still good boots. A wanderer in their own village sold his boots and drank away the money.” “I sinned then, a sinner,” said the peasant afterward. - I thought: you should not give such vagabonds. And once I see a dream; in a dream, Nicholas the Wonderworker appeared to me in those boots that I gave to the wanderer.
Wandering in Russia was often combined with the feat of foolishness. The blessed wanderer Xenia of Petersburg was foolish. The blessed Pelageya Ivanovna, the blessed wanderer Daryushka, the Kiev foolish wanderer Ivan Grigorievich Bosyy wandered as a fool. Once, in the presence of John Grigorievich, a monk said: “It is hard for a person to wander in need, to endure misfortune with grief.” And Ivan Barefoot as he jumps up, but right to that. - A thin, immoral and weak-hearted person can never taste true happiness. But a reasonable, kind and strong-hearted person cannot be killed by deprivation and want. He looks directly into her eyes and, reluctantly and not timidly, comes out with misfortunes in the fight ...
“That’s right,” says that monk, “but where can one gain strength of heart?”
And Ivan Grigorievich brings them the opened Gospel and points to the words: Thirst let him come to me and let him drink" .
Here we have a portrait of one of the blessed wanderers of the middle of the 20th century - Andryusha: “Small in stature, with a knapsack behind his shoulders and a metal staff, he walked without documents, without means of subsistence, often having neither shelter nor a piece of bread. What good people gave him, Andryusha distributed to the needy, while covering himself with foolishness. ... Having an extraordinary meekness and love for his neighbors, Andryusha encouraged in those around him mutual love, joy and tenderness. ... It used to happen that if he wants to make friends with someone, he will ask one for a shirt or pants - he will give it to another, and taking something from this one, he will give it to the first. He liked to give bags, sewn by himself ... Andryusha made the impression of an adult child on those around him. But behind this was far from childish wisdom, vast life experience and grace-filled gifts from God. He was perspicacious, predicted a lot, sometimes healed from illnesses with his prayers. Once, visiting a pious family of people close to him, he miraculously healed a rickets child born to them. This miracle happened before everyone's eyes. Andryusha hit the boy hard with his iron cane, after which the baby began to recover, gain strength and grew up completely healthy.
"Holiness", or pilgrimage shrines brought by pilgrims from the places of their wanderings, are known from the earliest Christian antiquity. By the 19th century, the industry of spiritual souvenirs, memorable signs of visiting a holy place, numbered many dozens of items. In our time, in many monasteries, at revered shrines, in the centers of national pilgrimage, the production of the most diverse souvenir products of spiritual content has been again established. Crosses, icons, prayers, amulets, ceramic images of holy places, vials with oil and water from springs are household relics of many modern dwellings. Believers have a particularly reverent attitude towards objects from the Holy Land - Jordanian water, oak particles from the Mamre grove, etc.
In the biography of the lay elder Fyodor Stepanovich Sokolov, a miracle is cited with one of these pilgrimage shrines - a cross from Jerusalem, which wonderfully bloomed with flowers. The elder had a cross given by a pilgrim who was walking to Jerusalem. An eyewitness describes: “This cross was not damaged; little flowers grew there, he was full of flowers. And then he treated it carelessly, one crossbar broke off at the cross, the mica was damaged below, and all the flowers disappeared. Many years later, he realized this sin, began to ask the Lord for forgiveness and for the Lord to grow flowers again. And so, in one year - from 1961 to 1963 - I came to him four times, approximately every time after three months - I came to him in November, and he shows me this cross, very pleased and joyful that the Lord heard him : on the crossbar of the cross, a blade of grass grew like a sedge. Three months later I come, such a blade of grass has grown on the tablets. I’m still coming - a second blade of grass has grown on the crossbar, smaller than the first. And three months later, a second blade of grass grew on the tablets. The flowers were the same. The elder said to me: “I am already very pleased that the Lord heard me.” And I didn’t ask him about it anymore, and when many years passed and he died, I had to see this cross again: he let out many branches, and in both places they became large.
spiritual wandering
(According to the work of the priest Sergius Sidorov "On the Wanderers of the Russian Land"
and articles by archimandrite)
Since the 18th century, a special feat appeared in Rus' - the feat of wandering. From a certain moment, the Russian Church turns to a new feat - to leaving this world, to wandering. The main feature of the feat of wandering is the rejection of a certain place, the denial of comfort to the end. Taking its beginning from the feat of pilgrimage to holy places, the feat of wandering proclaimed the holiness of the whole world. Wanderers do not know within this life the purpose of their journey. So, if the pilgrims in the feat of ancient Israel strive for the promised land, then the pilgrims know the paths of the disciples of the Lord, following Him along the roads of Galilee.
The feat of the wanderer was part of the first feats of the Church. Wanderers of the first centuries of Christianity carried certain tasks to church communities. It was their duty to notify various church communities about new orders in the Church, about councils. They spread the messages of the apostles and the men of the apostles, they helped the exiles and those imprisoned in dungeons. Their deed was bound by a vow. A number of works of ancient Christian literature have preserved these vows. They indicate what a true pilgrim should be like and warn against false pilgrims. The apostolic epistles tell a lot about the wanderers of the first centuries. Thus, the Apostle Paul in his epistles drew images of wanderers, and a number of Church Fathers speak of them. Wandering feats are reduced to constant walking, to obedience to one's confessor, to complete non-acquisitiveness. Wanderers know only a staff, a bag, sometimes the Gospel or the Bible, and they have no other riches. “Beware, wanderer, an extra penny! She will burn you on the day of judgment,” said one wanderer.
The feat of wandering, which arose in the first centuries, consecrated by the men of Thebaid, was revived in Russia and, taking on somewhat peculiar forms, brought its achievements into the treasury of the Church. From a certain moment in history, the Russian Church has turned to wandering. It seems to me that this moment comes at the beginning of the 18th century, that is, when for the first time a rationalistic culture began to supplant the most expensive external and internal shrines of Orthodoxy. Then they began to talk about the uselessness of the monasteries, there were decrees of Peter I on the transformation of monasteries into almshouses for crippled soldiers. Then began the severe persecution of the ascetics wandering in the forests and dens.
The entire history of the Church in the 18th and 19th centuries, almost all the lives of the ascetics of that time, know the mournful lines of persecution. The famous wanderer Damian ends his life in hard labor, doused with cold water in the cold because he refused to give information about his permanent place of residence, which the wanderer did not have. The wanderer Vera Alekseevna is beaten for lack of a passport in prison. The head of Sarov, John, dies in prison in St. Petersburg because, without the permission of his superiors, he began to build himself a hut in the forest.
A whole series of wanderers who do not know certain paths, going from road to road, have been passing through Rus' for the past two centuries. Here is the old man Fyodor Kuzmich, who wandered all his life in the taiga of Siberia. Here is the wanderer Daniel, a tall, slender old man in a linen shirt with a sadly stern look in his dark eyes, as Kiprensky depicted him. Here is the famous Filippushka, who combined two feats - foolishness and wandering, one of the wanderers of the Zosima Desert. Here is Nikolai Matveyevich Rymin, a humble wanderer of the end of the 18th century, who voluntarily distributed his estate to the poor, for which he ended up in a lunatic asylum. His image retained the features of good nature and cheerfulness. He is shown cheerful, almost bald, with a long staff, with a cross, dressed in a torn zipun and an old jacket. Xenia also passes, an ancient wanderer, a hundred and three years old, more than a hundred churches have been erected by her labors. And the cheerful Dasha the wanderer, and the stern wanderer Foma. All of them, as it were, bury dens and wilds, they all talk about the fact that the desert is leaving our homeland and that only the roads are still free from the bustle of the triumphant world.
In the eighties of the 19th century, the book “Frank stories of a wanderer to his spiritual father” was published in Kazan. This is the only book where the principles of the feat of a wanderer are revealed, where the achievements of the Jesus Prayer are revealed in detail and its connection with wandering is indicated. Here it is described how one man, shocked by various family hardships, decides to embark on the path of a wanderer. He falls into the hands of the "Philokalia", and, looking for an explanation of the Jesus Prayer, he turns to various people with a request to explain its meaning to him.
Much more important than this outer side is the inner content of the book. This is the path of a wanderer along endless roads, highways and country roads of St. Rus'; one of the representatives of that "wandering in Christ" Russia, which we knew so well then, long, long ago .. - Russia, which now does not exist and which, probably, will never be again. These are those who from St. Sergius went to Sarov and Valaam, to Optina and to the Kyiv saints; they went to Tikhon and Mitrophaniy, visited St. Innokenty in Irkutsk, reached both Athos and the Holy Land. They, "having no abiding city, were looking for a future one." These are those who were attracted by the distance and the carefree ease of a homeless life. Leaving their home, they found it in monastic cloisters. They preferred the sweets of family comfort to the edifying conversation of the elders and hermits. They contrasted the rhythm of the monastic year with its holidays and church memoirs against the strong way of life of centuries...
And this “by the grace of God, a Christian man, a great sinner by deeds, a homeless wanderer by rank”, sleeping either with a woodworking peasant, or with a merchant or in a remote Siberian monastery, or with a pious landowner or priest, leads his artless story about your travels. The rhythm of his melody easily captures the reader, subdues him and makes him listen and learn. To be enriched by that priceless treasure that this poor man owns, who has nothing with him except a bag of crackers, a Bible in his bosom and the “Philokalia” in his bag. This treasure is prayer. That gift and that element, with which those who acquired it are immensely rich. This is the spiritual wealth that the ascetic fathers called “intelligent doing”, or “spiritual sobriety”, which was inherited from the ascetics of Egypt, Sinai and Athos and whose roots go back to the hoary antiquity of Christianity.
The Gospel introduces features of humility into the feat of wandering. Like the holy fools for Christ, wanderers not only humbly endure sorrows and insults, but even seek them, considering themselves the worst of the whole world. The wanderer who labors in our days likes to say: “If they don’t reproach me, the demons will rejoice, if they scold me, the angels will rejoice.” The wanderer Nikolai Matveyevich Rymin, who labored at the end of XVIII] Belyaev L.A. Christian Antiquities: An Introduction to Comparative Studies. M., 1998. S. 19-20. ] Ibid. S. 53.I)
Day of the angel (name day) of Arseny according to the Orthodox church calendar
Gregory the Wonderworker of Neo-Caesarean Prayer St. Gregory the Wonderworker
History of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire