How was daily life in the monastery. Monastery

Leo Moulin. Everyday life medieval monks of Western Europe (X-XV centuries)

Chapter VI White dress of monasteries
Monastery

A monastery is a complex organization, because in conditions of economic autonomy it must meet all the needs of a sufficient number of people, both spiritual and material. First of all, it is a temple and sacristy. Then, on the territory of the monastery, there are additional buildings intended for the daily life of monasticism: the monastery itself or its internal galleries as the center of monastic life (we will see this later), the chapter hall, separate bedrooms for monks, novices and converts, a refectory and a kitchen, always adjacent to each other, a warm room or winter waiting room, a washroom and steam room, a hospital, which in large abbeys, like Canterbury, could have its own chapel, internal galleries, its own kitchen and garden; further, a latrine next to the bedroom, connected to it by a narrow winding corridor for obvious reasons. Among other things, the monastery has a laundry, a bakery, a barn, stables, a grain barn, and food warehouses.

On the plan of the Priory of Christ Church in Canterbury, separate apartments for the archbishop and prior, administrative buildings, and guest rooms are visible. In Poble, houses for the elderly monks were provided. Other abbeys had hospitals that received pilgrims and guests. And always on the territory of the monastery near the church or hospital there were two cemeteries: one for monks, the other for lay brothers. Finally, each monastery had its own live-fish cages, its own vegetable garden, its own plantings of economic and medicinal herbs. In total, in the middle of the XII century, 150 monks lived in Canterbury, this abbey had three bedrooms, one hospital with an area of ​​250 square feet; the cloister galleries and refectory were 130 square feet each.

Even in monastic orders, where great strictness reigned, such a number of buildings required significant costs, special organizational skills, efforts, talent, ingenuity, deep knowledge in various fields. And the monks will soon turn to specialists: architects, masons, glaziers, jewelers, stonemasons. Abbot Hugh of Cluny decreed in 1009 that the workshops of the various craftsmen would occupy an area 125 feet long and 23 feet wide. There was a sewer. In dry stony soil (like the Carthusians of Dijon) underground pipes were laid to drain household water, for plumbing in monastic cells and next to the kitchen, as well as for "draining the basement, wet due to numerous underground sources" (1396).

The river, on the banks of which the monastery was built, also served the needs of the brethren: it turned the millstones, supplied water to the kitchen, the sewer system, carried away garbage from the almshouse, latrines, the kitchen and the hospital. And all this was so thorough, thoughtful and reasonable that the industry that was born at the beginning of the 19th century did not find anything better than to place its factories in the former monastery walls. So, in Belgium, in Ghent, a textile factory occupied the old premises of the Carthusians; in Drongen - Premonstratensians, and in the former Cistercian abbey of Val-Saint-Lambert, the Frenchman Lelièvre opened the production of crystal.

Inner monastic galleries

Initially, the French concept "cloitre" (from the Latin "claustrum") meant "fence", "enclosed space" and even "prison". It looks like St. Pachomius, who founded the first monastery in Egypt (4th century), followed the model of a military building for security purposes. Then such a building received a spiritual sanction as a "enclosed paradise" or "paradise behind a fence", a place of coolness, greenery, peace and quiet, shadow and light, elevated above the worldly bustle of a place of contemplation and prayer.

The main building of the monastery (claustrum) is the heart of the monastery, the geometric center of the monastic citadel and the center of community life. Monastic buildings - bedrooms, a refectory - all these are external, one might say, utility rooms of the brethren, as well as a kitchen, a bakery, a laundry, etc. Most of the monasteries have a quadrangular shape, but there are also triangular and trapezoid-shaped (as in Toron) , polygonal (in Westminster) or even in the form of a circle (Margam). The form has symbolic meaning: for example, a triangular monastery was erected in honor of the Holy Trinity. In fact, it often depended on the nature of the area. But whatever their forms, the monasteries were originally a series of galleries covered with shingles (Beck, Saint-Tron in Zwiefalten), tiles, or later with slate (Cluny, Subiaco, Canterbury, etc.).

In everyday life, the inner monastic galleries served as the main place of activity during the day: duties were distributed here, some work was carried out, a procession of monks passed here, heading from the church to the chapter hall, processions marched here on major holidays; ablutions were also performed here before eating (in each monastery there was a washroom where they washed their hands before eating); here they read, prayed, meditated... Everyone walked through the galleries along the walls. No one occupied the middle of the aisle. They walked in silence: the visitors of the monastery were embarrassed by the sound of their steps. A monk comes out of the library: at the most, a brief nod and a whispered question: "Do you need anything?" At the exact time, angelus* will ring out [Prayer to the Blessed Virgin among Catholics (Ed. note)]. Everyone will stop for a moment to make a prayer. "Everything here is order and beauty ... Splendor, peace, grace." How insignificant are all words here.

monastery fence

The fence is not only a physical obstacle that limits the freedom of a monk, for he cannot go beyond it without the permission of the abbot; it is also an enclosed space that reinforces the sense of community; and most importantly, the totality of church rules relating to this space and to the fence that keeps it.

It is quite understandable that no woman was allowed to enter the territory of the monastery. It is tempting, especially in our age, to take a quick look at the reasons that for centuries kept the monastery inaccessible to women: their carnal lust, the curiosity inherent in female frivolity, the reckless pursuit of pleasure, the pernicious desires through which evil works. One can recall Solomon, David, Samson, Lot, Adam himself, created directly by the hands of God, who could not avoid the seduction and deceit of women. It is appropriate to ask why not also remember Holofernes * [the military leader of the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar, was killed by Judith, who thus saved her city from destruction; This is told in the biblical book Judith. (Editor's note)]...

Chapter Hall

In this hall, all the monks of the monastery or the whole monastery gather (the word "monastery" in the meaning of "building" is a neologism that appeared in the 18th century) to listen to the reading of the chapter ("capitulum") from the charter; hence the name of this room. Here the monks discuss various issues, take important decisions, elect a rector after the death (or removal) of his predecessor, on occasion hear a message about a particular problem of spiritual life, confess their sins (accusatory chapter) and ... expose the sins of others.

The chapter hall is almost always rectangular, like the Parliament of England at Westminster. The round and polygonal shapes of this room are also known. In Thoron, such a hall is located in the eastern gallery of the monastery, "for the chapter meets in the morning" and it needs early sunlight.

Bedroom and bedding

Initially, there was one common bedroom (dormitory) for both the monks and the abbot. In large abbeys (Eberbach, Poble, Heiligenkreutz) it was a very spacious room, for example, in Poble - 66 by 12 meters. Anyone who has served in the military will agree that it is not an exaggeration to call the bedroom the main place of mortification. The Trappists shared with me that they had grown accustomed to their civic existence for years. Did the people of the Middle Ages, who did not know loneliness, not suffer from the fact that they slept at each other's feet all the time? It is possible to doubt. Otherwise, it will not be clear why the monks fought to abandon the common bedrooms. And only after the XIII century, partitions and curtains will appear in the bedroom, when, due to the sparsely populated monasteries, the novices will be able to achieve their goal. Starting from the 14th century, wooden sheathing and panels became a permanent part of the interiors of monasteries. In any case, in the reports of visitors there are numerous references to the fact that the monks want to abandon the common bedroom.

Pope Benedict XII (1334-1342), threatening with excommunication, ordered the destruction of all the cells built by the Cistercians.

In the hospital, there were only separate cells, and, most importantly, the beds were also designed for only one person, in contrast to the usual practice of the Middle Ages, when even in hospitals they usually slept in threes or fours.

St. Benedict believed that a mat, which served as bedding, a blanket, a rug for legs and a pillow, was enough. The monks of the Feuillants slept on boards; premonstrants - also on boards, but slightly covered with straw; minority brothers of a strict rule slept on bare ground or on boards, while mats were allowed for those "who were of a less strong warehouse." The Olivetans slept on the boardwalk without a blanket. The most pampered had a mattress (stuffed with straw or hay, sometimes dry leaves), which was rarely changed, as well as a pillow (with straw, hair or feathers), a woolen blanket, sometimes a sheepskin (like the Carthusians), but no sheets, at least at the beginning.

The visitors showed dissatisfaction: in such and such a monastery they found woolen or linen cloths; in the other, the skins of wild animals; one more multi-colored linens(which in those days was characteristic of people of the lower class). The monks of Fontevraud were entitled to twill sheets. In addition, the visitors noted that the monks hide individual items in bedding. The abbot of the monastery was obliged to make frequent "inspections" (which, incidentally, was provided for by the Charter of St. Benedict: LV, 33-34) and severely punish the guilty.

The monks slept without taking off their clothes, with the exception of a scapular and a knife, so as not to get hurt in a dream, as St. Benedict. The Trappists, even when ill, never undressed before going to bed, but in this case they could receive a "prickly straw mattress", a straw pillow and a blanket.

Room cleaning

"On Saturdays one must clean up," St. Benedict (Rite, XXXV, 13). At Beck Abbey, the gardener cleaned the refectory before the third hour, and the galleries after Compline. The secretary was cleaning the chapter hall and the church. He washed the altars first with water and then with wine, using hyssop or boxwood. The glazed windows were washed by the refectory clerk - once during the winter, he also monitored the cleanliness of the floors in the refectory itself. Hay or straw was laid on the floor. Already in those days, pigeons caused a lot of trouble. One bishop of the 10th century demanded that the roof be kept in good condition, since bird droppings could embarrass the flock and interfere with worship. The concern for cleanliness was so diligent that the Carthusians of Dijon bought 50 cubits of linen "to cover the alabaster stones, so that the flies do not sit in the said alabaster."

Heating

The people of the Middle Ages constantly suffered from the cold. The expression "keep your feet by the fire" was synonymous with the good life, but not everyone led such a life. The poor man cowered near his hearth, in which a few twigs of hemp or bark stripped from trees smoldered. Remember the picture sketched by Villon for the beautiful Helmiera about the coming old age:

Time burns in a hemp fire,

The time that was great

The old fools are sitting nearby,

Crying, wrapped in heaps of rags,

They squat down near the fire,

The fire will flare up, then it will go out ...

To the trials of cold, common to all in the Middle Ages, in the monastery was added the strong desire of the brethren to mortify the flesh. At first, not a single room of the monastery was heated (except for the kitchen). My Cartesian friend wrote to me (December 1969) that every night the temperature dropped to minus 10-15 degrees. And in April 1970, he reported the following:

"A record amount of snow fell this winter. Instead of our five meters ( we are talking o Grande Chartreuse, where the climate is particularly harsh. - L. M) we had 8.2 m, and even now, when I write this letter, it continues to snow ... The first floor of the fraternal building has been plunged into darkness for many months; we have to go out of the windows of the second floor and dig passages in order to go down and to let the daylight into the lower floor."

This happened in the 20th century. In the Carthusian's cell there was a wood-burning stove, and in winter, as my respected correspondent writes, this stove "murmured and hummed day and night." I will add on my own that the climate in Chartreuse is so severe that even during my summer visits to this monastery, the singing of the stove was heard there. “It does not break the loneliness,” my friend writes to me in another letter, “but, on the contrary, deepens the silence, because this singing is much wiser than human conversations.”

However, the medieval monk led a different way of life than today's Carthusians. Most of the monks of past centuries were familiar with the severe cold that could paralyze life in the monastery. In the church, sometimes it was so cold that it was impossible to start the service. In this case, the sacristan prepared a metal ball from two halves - a "fireball", in which there was either a "burning tree" or coal, and this ball served as a heating pad. Pope Alexander III (1159-1181), having taken pity, allowed the Benedictines of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, who fell ill from the cold, standing with their heads uncovered during canonical hours, to wear a felt skullcap.

In the end, it was necessary to resolve the issue either with a separate room that would be heated (in addition to the kitchen), or with hearths and stoves. At Fleury Abbey they drowned at Christmas; this was done in almost all the other monasteries, with the exception of the austere abbey of Beck, whose collection of customs in no way mentions heating. Over time, improvements and relaxations will come: in the St. Gallen monastery, the bedroom was located above the warm room; in other monasteries, bloodletting was performed in such a room or shoes were cleaned.

As usual, there were extremes: in 1291, strict visitors demanded that the monks be punished for excessively drowning in the monastery.

Lighting

How was the monastery illuminated? Stone or metal lamps, sometimes with numerous holes, filled with oil, olive or poppy (in Central Europe); lamb fat or beeswax. There were also "iron candelabra" for illumination at night. Probably, such candlesticks were intended to illuminate the temple, and in winter also the refectory, for the texts of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Pierre-de-Bez, dating from 1389, specify that the Grand Prior, like the Prevost, should go to bed every evening by the light of a lamp. But this did not apply to the rest of the brethren. The bedroom was lit by a weak light, in one text it is called "lucubrum" because "it shines in the darkness", and it is explained that this was the light from a burning piece of tow floating in wax. Another text cited by Monger refers to a "brazier" which seems to have been used to melt the wax used in lamps. The monastery did not skimp on the temple: the consumption of wax and oil there was huge, one might even say immoderate in comparison with the means of that time (but it is difficult for us to judge the energy consumption). Mention is made of a hundredweight of candles, which were distributed among all the monks (in the Carthusian monastery) before the feast of the Holy Trinity. The "Shining Crown", the chandelier in the abbey of Saint-Remy, in Reims, was 6 meters in diameter and was designed for 96 candles in memory of the number of years lived by St. Remigius, after whom the abbey is named.

But it also happened that there was nothing to illuminate the temple in order to serve matins, such a fact was noted by the visitors of the Order of Cluny in 1300.

Carthusian cell

The dimensions of the Grande Chartreuse monastery are monumental: 215 meters long and 23 meters wide, and 476 meters along the perimeter. There are 113 windows here. Such a scope is explained by the hermit vow of the monks of this order: each monk lives in his own cell, which actually consists of several rooms: a gallery for walks (including for winter time), a small garden (a monk works or does not work there at his own discretion) , a woodshed, a workshop - "laboratories" - with carpentry supplies. All this is the first floor, and on the second - two rooms that form the actual dwelling of the Carthusian: the smaller one, decorated with a statue of the Blessed Virgin, is called "Ave Maria", here the monk usually reads the prayer "Ave Maria" every time he returns to his cell; and a second room for prayer, study and reflection. Here the Carthusian eats and sleeps.

Thus, the Carthusian cell is actually a small rural house. Thirty-five cells surround the monastery galleries in Grande Chartreuse, and these cells are as Eremitian as they are fragrant, fragrant (we will use a pun that was so loved in the Middle Ages). Near the door there is a small window, it serves to transfer food to the recluse. If necessary, the monk leaves a note there and soon finds what he asked for. Sometimes a motto is inscribed on the wall of a library, a refectory, or a cell: "O blessed solitude, o lonely bliss," or "From the cell to heaven," or else: "Oh, kindness," - the words of St. Bruno.

Items in the monk's cell, preserved to this day, provide him with maximum loneliness and independence. First of all, "the essentials for making fire," as Monge writes about the Carthusians. These are blacksmith's bellows. "When the Carthusians fan the fire, they are not very good looking," according to Gio de Proven. The fact is that in Grande Chartreuse, the wind often carried soot. Another stand for firewood, an iron grate (the fire was open), a poker, a scoop, an ax, a crooked garden knife, a pickaxe. Other texts also mention flint, a planer (to cut the shavings), and some kind of flammable kindling material, which served, according to Du Cange, as a "starter of fire."

"Deserts" of barefoot Carmelites

The Carmelites differed from the Cinovite monks in that they constantly alternated a contemplative life with active work: they "worked for the salvation of souls ... if the church needed their service." The Carmelites owned not only houses in cities, but also monasteries with cells modeled on the Carthusians, which allowed them to lead an almost hermit life. These cells were called "deserts". Such a very severe way of life - silence, prayer, reading spiritual books, meager food, wakefulness, mortification of the flesh - was forbidden to "young, recently tonsured monks, sick, feeble-minded, melancholic and infirm, as well as those who have little inclination for spiritual exercises" .

The Carmelites could lead an even more severe life, for this purpose in the forests they had "separate cells, removed at a distance of three hundred to four hundred steps from the monastery, in which," as Elio writes, "the monks were allowed to part with each other for a while and live in complete seclusion and the strictest abstinence." From afar, they participated in monastic life, answering the bell ringing in the monastery with a small bell in order to “report that they also feel themselves together with all the brethren, pray to God at the same hours with them, meditate and participate in all other spiritual activities.” The duration of such seclusion was usually three weeks, with the exception of Great Lent, which such hermits spent entirely in a desert cell. On Sundays and holidays, the anchorites had to return to the monastery, and after Vespers they again went to their seclusion.

At first, the monasteries were covered with straw. Later, when Benedict of Anyansky banned red tiles, the roofing began to be covered with shingles, so to speak, from wooden "tiles". But the risk of fire remained too great. After a great fire in 1371, the Carthusians replaced the shingles with slate, and then, after the fire of 1509, they covered the roof with lead and iron sheets for greater safety. Not in all Carthusian monasteries slate was used. In Dijon, slate tiles were used for roofs (to cover the cells), as well as lead and tiles. Monger relates that the tiles were given a shine with the help of lead oxide or massicot: after passing through the oven, they acquired a brilliant yellow color. By adding copper, a green lacquer was obtained, and manganese - brown.

bells

It is difficult to imagine a monastery without bells and a belfry. Nevertheless, at Fonte-Avellan, the stern Peter of Damian condemned the "useless sounding of bells." And yet, in the end, he bought the bells "out of mercy for human weakness and for man, that fragile creature who cannot refuse the nostalgic sounds that cradled him in childhood." Dante describes the melancholy of the evening hours in one of the most beautiful passages in Purgatory (VIII, 5-6), saying that this is the moment when the wanderer, having set off on his journey, vividly feels love for everything and everyone in his homeland:

And a new wanderer on his way

Pierced by love, listening to the distant ringing,

Like weeping over a dead day...

So much the better if people experience just such weaknesses...

When the bell rings for the first time, it must be a very exciting moment. What will be the sound of the bell? Will it meet the expectations of the master who cast it, jealously guarding the secrets of his craftsmanship: 78% copper, 17% tin and 5% some other, secret metal...

The Cistercians forbade the use of bells weighing more than 50 pounds. Nor were they allowed to ring two bells at the same time. These prohibitions, all in the same spirit of Cistercian humility and simplicity, also applied to the construction of stone towers. In 1218, an abbot in Picardy was punished by the general chapter for building a tower contrary to established requirements. And in 1274, the minority brothers from the monastery in Valenciennes refused to go to another monastery, because that one was too rich. In the end, they nevertheless obeyed the order of their older brothers, but not without grumbling and on the condition that they demolish the bell tower, a symbol of pride (it was called donjon) and replace it with a new one, less tall and more modest. Black Benedictines distinguished between heavy bells, campanae, and lighter ones, tintinabula.

In the 12th century, the word "signum" (signal) or "classicum" (trumpet voice) in connection with the sound of the last short bell strike before mass meant "bell" (campana). Minimum signum is a bell, which was also called scilla. The abbot had such a bell at hand in the refectory. A smaller bell compared to the "campaign" announced the beginning of the meal. On certain occasions, a signal was given with the help of "symbalumi" - a gong, which was beaten with a hammer. A few days before Easter, the bells were replaced by "postis" rattles with a "more humble" sound than the copper voice. Rattles, wooden planks, according to a custom dating back at least to the 10th century, also announced the approach of the death of a monk and called the brethren to the bedside of the dying. It is understandable why in one medieval poem the mentioned wooden tablet says about itself: "When someone dies, they send for me", and also: "I am a bad omen, for I announce death."

In 1182, in Cito, a special decree forbade colored stained-glass windows in monasteries, in connection with which it was prescribed to replace those where they are, with plain glass. If this "decree" was not carried out, then the prior and the cellar were obliged to sit every Friday on bread and water until they had done what was required. There are abbeys in which there were no colored stained-glass windows: Aubazine and Bonlier in France, Heiligenkreuz in Austria, Val-Dieu in Belgium, Altenberg in Germany.

At first, it was also forbidden to have organs, carpets (1196), colored and painted parchments (1218), paintings (1203) in monasteries. It is difficult for us to imagine a medieval temple without stained-glass windows and an organ; however, the will to severe simplicity was very strong and inexorable among some orders. But the taste for beautiful things later prevailed over the desire for extreme simplicity. And in Cieto appeared bells, colored stained-glass windows with twisted patterns, arabesques and flowers, most often white on a red background, later with figures, and all this despite the repeated prohibitions of general chapters. Even the Carthusians had a taste for embellishment. Monge notes that in 1397-1398 "golden paper, fish fins (for melting glue), thin lead white, fine sinople (green paint), massicot, finrose (a product of sublimation of gold and mercury), litmus (blue-violet paint), thin minium...". True, it must be said that this is already Dijon of the era of Burgundy splendor.

Feeling of nature

On the one hand, the Middle Ages did not skimp on descriptions of "horrors" in those places where monasteries were founded, and on the other hand, they enthusiastically reported the bucolic charm of monastic life away from the noise and "contagion of big cities", both in moral and in physical sense... It should never be forgotten that Moses and David led the life of shepherds, which is also the dream of many of our contemporaries.

Obviously, some places were really "terrible" before they were ennobled by the life and work of the monks. But wasn't it exaggerated? Here, for example, is a text by Guillaume de Jumiège describing the founding of the Abbey of Bec by Gerluin in 1034. Gerluin left the area where he lived earlier, because "there were absolutely no resources necessary for life", and settled in places where "everything is there for human needs", opting for the village of Bek, "in which there are only three houses miller and another small hut." Thus, people still lived in this "sparsely inhabited settlement." In addition, it was one mile from the castle, so you can’t call it wild. However, the text clarifies: "There were many wild animals, partly because of the impenetrable thicket of the forest, and partly because of the beautiful stream", it was just called Beck.

“When St. Bernard,” writes J. Leclerc, “talked about the “Book of Nature” and about everything that can be learned “under the canopy of trees,” he thought, first of all, not about the beauty of the landscape, but about the hardships of the plowman, about prayer, about reflection, about asceticism, which helps in field work.

So, the Abbé of Clairvaux does not seem inclined to admire nature as such; when he speaks of "cool valleys" it is only to oppose the work of the farmer to "urban idle talk" where "clown schools" fight each other. He writes to the founding monks of Fountain: "Stones and trees will teach you more than any teacher in the school ... You think that you can not get honey from a rock, oil from a stone? But do not the mountains exude sweetness, and the valleys do not abound with milk? and honey, and the fields are not overflowing with grain?"

There is not a trace of admiring nature, but rather a purely utilitarian approach. However, not all monks thought like him. Even those who adhered to its severe severity will sooner or later change their point of view. Perhaps they have benefited from learning to "beware of the pleasantness of things" and not to be too zealous in praising Brother Sun and Sister Moon. Yet in the hearts of these sensitive and withdrawn people was alive the consciousness that nature contains beauty. Here is a text from the twelfth century which describes the arrival of the first Cistercian monks sent by St. Bernard, in the town of Rievo in England.

"High hills crown this area; they are covered with diverse vegetation and pleasantly frame a secluded valley, which the monks see as a second paradise, a forest delight. Waterfalls rush from the rocky peaks down into the valley, branching into many smaller streams, the gentle murmur of which mixes light sounds of an enchanting melody".

This rather free and mannered style frankly testifies to the admiration of nature. The author of the text adds: "And when the branches of the trees rustle and sing, and the leaves fall to the ground and rustle, then the happy listener allows himself to be carried away by the lightness of this harmony, so everything causes joy, music, each note of which is in tune with all the others."

Can this be considered a purely literary, conventional contemplation of nature? Bernard of Abbeville, the founder of the Cistercian congregation of Thoron, and therefore of strict rules, chose "a very pleasant place, surrounded by forests, where numerous streams rang, washing large meadows." Even the formidable Peter Damian vividly felt the beauty of the world. "In the garden," he wrote, "you can inhale the smells of herbs and the fragrance of the most beautiful flowers."

The beauty of the landscape

It may be worth asking the question: were the monks sensitive to the beauties of nature, and if so, to what extent? You can not deny them the understanding of beauty. This is evidenced by the choice of location for the monastery. Let's not fall into the mistake of the last century, when we insisted that the monks were guided only by intuition, and the place itself became beautiful over time thanks to the hard work of the monks, their intelligence and experience, a subtle understanding of functionality, which invariably manifested itself in the construction of majestic monastic buildings. Be that as it may, such an explanation is legitimate in many respects, and yet it calls for at least two remarks.

First, labor itself is not necessarily the creator of beauty, as our industrial landscapes, the concrete of our cities, and the ugliness of our suburbs testify eloquently. Secondly, not every place, even after the investment of human labor in it, turns into a worthy abode of the soul. And if the monks, choosing a "construction site" for the future monastery, really sought to settle only in a "terrible place" - in a thicket, in a swamp, in a forest teeming with wild animals - as this is usually narrated in the chronicles and lives of saints, then it is difficult to assume that every time they found for themselves just such a corner that was suitable for a miraculous transformation. Grande Chartreuse, Carcerie nad Assisi, Saint-Martin-en-Cani-gou, Poblet, Rievo, Torone, Senanque, Saint-Michel-aux-Peril-de-la-Mer, Einsiedeln and a hundred other places - that, Are they all randomly chosen? Out of a desire to dwell precisely on what seems impossible to make civilized and ennobled? And every time a miracle happened? Why, then, did the monks so often give these places where they settled, "in order to mortify the flesh," names that glorify the joy of life, if they themselves did not experience this feeling? This in itself can be considered a miracle.

builder monks

Such a miracle always happened when under the sky of Europe in the most diverse places the monks erected their buildings, the beauty, perfection and spiritual aspiration of which still do not cease to amaze us.

How to explain their continued success? And can it be explained at all? I re-read Georges Duby's excellent book on Cistercian art, as well as Christopher Brooke's excellent Monasteries, 1000-1300, in which the author examines all the mediaeval art forms of monks. What can be added to this? And can you say it better? Perhaps one can still recall only the penetrating pages of Regine Pernu* about the problems of artistic creativity in the same era

In this regard, one should think first of all about the paramount importance of the requirements of faith, living faith, or, as we would say today, about the undivided acceptance of ideology, and far from the world, away from people, as in the case of St. Bernard. Georges Duby was the first to recognize this: "The Cistercian temple is the expression of the dream of moral perfection." Let's also say that "the ideological motivation of each order, with its deep "linguistic" differences and features in time and space, merges with architectural forms (spatial, structural, ornamental), dictating their own laws and worldview to them.

The spiritual creative infrastructure dominates here. It is she who decides, designs, concentrates the necessary resources for the construction of buildings so numerous that it is impossible to depict them all on a map of Europe. But if the age is waiting for the embodied word, if the entire civilization is permeated with faith, then the first impetus to action is the spiritual factor.

St. Bernard did not write anything that would indicate his interest in works of art, and he did not build anything himself. But, nevertheless, it was he who was the father of Cistercian art, "the patron of this extensive construction" (350 buildings over several decades), which will cover the whole of Europe (J. Duby). Faith, the denunciation of this world, or, more precisely, its true assessment, high moral requirements - these are the motives for the acts of St. Bernard. And this will be the case when the typical monastic flight from the world takes the form of a (obviously controversial) renunciation of social life, secular hierarchy, money, security, well-being, a renunciation characteristic of mendicant orders. Even as if directly responding to the spiritual needs of the "bourgeois" society of their time, the mendicant monks could not have done anything without responding to the call of the great divinely inspired personalities of their age.

The wealth of the abbeys alone cannot explain the fact that they were able to build all these "Cities of God", confirming their viability (the same applies to the construction of cathedrals by communities of small cities). And even more so, it is impossible to explain how the monks managed to create a wide network of "daughter monasteries" (in particular, the Cistercian order) so quickly. To achieve such success, you need to have something more than money. To do this, you need to have a soul capable of self-sacrifice. "Medieval art is ingenuity" (R. Pernu). In vain they tried to find in him a more or less deft desire to imitate the Roman or Eastern past. The Middle Ages were not going to blindly copy the life of the ancients, except only fleetingly. No, the era of the Middle Ages expressed in art what she felt in the very depths of her soul, and this is how masterpieces of art appeared.

This art (fortunately) was also driven by practical necessity. The plan for building an abbey was never the product of an architect's imagination. The abbey, large or small, in essence, included a certain set of buildings: monastic galleries, a temple, a refectory, a dormitory, and others, the arrangement of which had to meet the requirements of a special type of cenobitic life - the dictates of spirituality and the peculiarities of worship. At first glance, this was an obstacle to the search for a new one. As a result, the desire to do something new, unusual was simply absent (at least consciously). The ideal was to stick to a tried and tested plan, to build in a spirit of respect for the lessons of the past. To some extent, it can be recognized that the architects of Sito and even more of Grandmont were inspired by the same spirit that is present in the construction of quarters of some large cities: rationality, modular building materials, organicity, clarity. But the results are incomparable.

The fact is that in addition to this basis, which dictated its laws to the monks, there was also a “language” that manifested itself in the charter, decrees, collections of customs, and written prescriptions for spiritual life. This "language" fit into the functional and transformed it. We even dare to say that "throughout the entire Middle Ages ... art did not break away from its origins ... it expressed the Holy ... Above in this secondary language, which is Art in all its manifestations" (R. Pernu). This presence alone can explain the inexpressible beauty that exudes even the most modest monastic buildings: the kitchen at Alcobaça in Portugal or at Fontevraud, the refectory at Fossanova, the warm room at Senanque or Sylvacan, the washroom at Maulbronn, the hospital at Much Wenlock in England, the chapter hall at Everbach in Germany or at Lacock in England. I leave aside such structures as temples, crypts (underground churches), monastic galleries, where the faith that creates such beauty naturally appears in all its splendor. It is she who makes us feel bitter when looking at the tragic ruins of Cluny, Rievo or Ville-la-Ville. It is the lack of faith that is so inexorably found in most modern buildings, even if they are church buildings. For centuries, monks built temples to the Glory of God and built dwellings for people who were devoted to Him to the end, thanks to which beauty was created in abundance. With one success or another, earthly religiosity penetrated everything, and not only architecture.

No matter how striving to build according to similar, if not identical, plans and norms, differences were still inevitable. Of course, they are connected with the diversity of spiritual life, inclinations and vision of the world (for example, differences between Cistercians and Franciscans, or Cistercians and Dominicans, or even differences within the same order, such as the Benedictine, where there were branches of the Olivetines, Camaldolians and Wallombrosans).

These differences are due to history, private experience, a variety of building materials, terrain and climate, the influence of the external environment, subtle but obvious development sensory perception, as well as the very personality of the master, who, however, was careful not to show originality. The three related abbeys of Torone, Sylvacan and Senac, all of the Cistercian order and all of the same time (1136, 1147 and 1148) and built in the same locality, and two of them descended directly from Citeaux. Nevertheless, they have such individual characteristics that they cannot be confused with one another. The same applies to many other "Nativity" and "Crucifixion", the authors of which, according to Raymond Radiguet, showing their individuality, "strived with all their might ... to be like others, never reaching this goal."

Monastic art (which does not completely coincide with religious art in the understanding of secular people or laity) is a readable art. Or, to put it better, it is a book and a reading, an accessible spectacle, a moral and ecclesiastical lesson, a symbol and a model. Neither the temple nor the monastery are esoteric creations. The monastery clearly demonstrates exactly what needs it meets, what it is for everyone who comes to it, what it expects from them for one day and many years.

These "monads", which are the monasteries, speak to the heart and mind. No matter how far they are from the world, no matter how sometimes they are protected by the “shield of wild nature” (J. Duby) that surrounded them, they have never been closed, inaccessible to the uninitiated, intended only for the elite, mute for the world. out of a desire to speak only in their own language. Abbeys and chapels, temples and monasteries speak to people about God, no matter how insignificant and despicable these people may be.

These buildings, similar and different, changing according to the will of the centuries and yet responding to the same deep needs, humble relics, ruins, ruins or magnificent and living testimonies of the past, speak of the irresistible desire of monasticism to live in accordance with their destiny, vision of the world and according to their faith, despite the barbarian times and customs, unfair reproaches from any renaissances and classicisms.

Pomp or severity?

Note that all this does not depend on the style of the church or monastery or utilitarian purpose - whether it be a kitchen or a bedroom, a solid Romanesque style of Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire, or a flaming gothic of Canterbury Priory Cathedral, or a Cluny style, where in each the details express praise to the Glory of God, "transforming, - as Suterius, the abbot of Saint-Denis (1122) said, - the visible into the invisible"; and in numerous precious stones cancer of holy relics, chandeliers and candlesticks lurks an impulse to "meditate on the diversity of virtue", to "remote from the world with the help of the splendor of the house of God," in the words of Elio. Or Cistercian architecture, which was a reaction to the luxury of refinement of the Benedictines, it is humane and harmonious already by the arrangement of volumes, their size and perfection of constructions.

Admire the not valuable portal board,

But the beauty of the work is considerable -

Suterius ordered this inscription to be made on the door to his basilica. Indeed, such a work "does not shine, full of vanity, this beauty shines only in order to allow the blind, sinful, perishing soul of a person to achieve true splendor, true light," for the 12th century understood Beauty as purity and light, and a work of art as the fruit of deliverance from darkness, the victory of man over darkness.

In a world ravaged and devastated by barbarian raids, pomp and splendor had social significance and influence, because they gave people a certain sense of confidence in life, provided that this life was based on an all-consuming faith in God. Only later, when the cities, generated by a purely economic vision of social life, establish themselves as centers of association of people and sources of power, the splendor and wealth of monasteries (especially Cluniac and Cistercian), the splendor and splendor of buildings, in particular temples, will be condemned. Very often - from other monks. In addition, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries abounded in religious movements; Let us remember the Cathars, the Waldensians, the Catholic poor, the Humilates, the Bogardes, the Guillaumes, and many other forerunners of mendicant orders with their ideals of ascetic poverty. Since then, Benedictine luxury has been perceived as a scandalous privilege.

In any case, one thing is certain: art, both magnificent and strict, was recognized by everyone as one of the direct paths leading to God. But the word "art" referred to many different manifestations of creativity, which changed in different societies and in different centuries in accordance with the spirit that inspired this or that group of people or an individual master. How to express the triumph of faith? Architectural splendor? The rise of the columns? Great stained glass windows? Or poverty, austerity, immobility of lines? Cluny or Sieve? This can be argued ad infinitum. As well as about strict, very strict and strict observance of the charter.

I understand that the Cistercians, Carthusians, Premonstrants, Wallombrosans, or Granmontans were inspired by extreme austerity in architecture (and I readily share their tastes, because, I think, this is what I personally love most in the 12th century). But is this a reason for not accepting Gothic cathedrals, these "sermons in stone", this "aesthetics of light" (A. Dimier)? In this sense, the Templars wisely practiced "simplicity for the sake of economy and solidity in taste", resorting in various provinces to the Romanesque style, then to the Gothic, then to local styles - Charente, champagne, bosses, etc. Like them, we are in this plan - ecumenists ...

Generally speaking, it seems to me that St. Bernard, with his ascetic impulse, did not take into account either human weakness or the diversity of temperaments. But, after all, where is the evil here, if for some of the faithful, as for the "woman ... poor and old ... dark" who was the mother of François Villon, the only way to feel illuminated by the light of faith (today we would say - "culture") was to see with your own eyes some richly decorated shrine, a magnificent candlestick, statues, this "Bible for the illiterate", "a painted paradise with harps and lutes"?

St. Bernard considered "manure" everything that enchants sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, that is, all carnal pleasures (in this he is close to Savonarola). But was this condemnation of "ugly beauties and beautiful deformities" thrown down upon Moissac with all its might? Moreover, the “construction fever” eventually captured the Cistercians themselves, who, “changing the ancient honor of the order”, began to build stone bell towers and such large and magnificent monasteries that the abbots took out a loan in order to complete the construction.

That's what violence against human nature is worth...

What was the life of monks in medieval Scotland in brief? As in all Catholic monasteries, the day was divided into seven parts, each of which began with the ringing of a bell.

The first part is the second matins (Prime), which began at six o'clock. The monks rose, read prayers, held a mass in honor of the founder and benefactors of the monastery. This was followed by breakfast, after which a monastic assembly sometimes met, at which brothers who had transgressed the monastery rules or committed other sins were discussed and they were given a punishment corresponding to their misconduct. The violator, for example, could be flogged. Moreover, such a punishment was also carried out with varying degrees of zeal, depending on the severity of the offense. There were rules that regulated the number of straps in the whip, the number and strength of blows. Or the offender could be put in an old bag, or forced to walk barefoot in the same underpants, or walk around the territory of the monastery with a lantern of penance. Although, it is unlikely that this really seriously served in order to raise the piety of the brethren.

At nine o'clock the second part (Tierce) began, which cannot be characterized by anything special. The monks spent this time, as a rule, in accordance with their taste - some studied, others translated and copied manuscripts with the writings of the holy fathers, or decorated breviaries, which they did with special skill and accuracy.

At noon came the third part - Sext. The monks threw away books and pens and gathered in the refectory for lunch, where everyone sat at one large table. They dined in silence while one of the brothers recited prayers.

Nones, the ninth hour of the service, took place from two to three in the afternoon, when the monks, after having dinner, walked around the monastery garden, talking to each other, or went outside the monastery to talk with their lay neighbors.

Vespers began at four o'clock or later.

At seven o'clock everyone was supposed to take part in the last service of the day - Compline, followed by dinner, after which the monks went to the bedroom, dormitory, or cells and laid down to sleep on mattresses made of straw or chopped hay, covered with one veil, with burning over them all night with a candle, so that the impure would not dare to disturb their sleep.

At midnight, the ringing of the bells raised the monks to the first matins and the hymn of praise, after which everyone again went to bed together until the second matins.

And so it went every day, year after year.

Who made up the monastic community?

In the first place was abbot who was king in his own little kingdom. He was essentially an autocratic leader of the community, to whom everyone had to obey unquestioningly. When he left the monastery, everyone had to show him deep respect. In front of him, the chaplain usually carried the symbols of his Eminence. When he visited a church or a monastery, the bells were rung, and the priests and monks went outside and lined up for the solemn reception of the abbot. Some abbots had episcopal rank, which further raised their significance and greatness. The position of abbot, according to the law, was joined by a position of nobility - a temporary barony. Therefore, it is not surprising that the abbots sat in parliament, put on armor to participate in battles, participated in hunting with a falcon on their mittens, and sat in court. The abbot could receive the title of knight, and sometimes was the godfather of royal children.

Next was rector, who was the same in the monastery as the abbot in the abbey. Of course, in the abbey the abbot was subordinate to the abbot, was his deputy, performing abbot's functions during the latter's absence, but in the monastery he was the sovereign master. The abbot was a very revered person, who was given signs of attention corresponding to his piety. He had horses and servants at his disposal. And when he went out into the world, his retinue was only slightly inferior to the abbey's. He had the right to imprison guilty canons.

Next in rank was church choir director. This position could only be held by a monk who had been brought up in a monastery since childhood. He was responsible for the singing of psalms, a very important task, given that the monastic worship consisted mostly of choral services. In addition to singing, the regent was also responsible for other things, for example, he was the custodian of church clothes, he was responsible for the robes of monks during church events. He was the custodian of the archives, or, in modern parlance, the head librarian.

Next in rank cellarer, who was responsible for the appropriate subsistence of the brothers. His duties included preventing the impoverishment of the monastic table and the constant replenishment of the monastery cellars and barns. He kept order at the table, the monks were not supposed to sit down before the abbot or abbot. And when the meal was over, he collected dishes, spoons and took them to the kitchen, where they were under his supervision. Special honor was given to the abbot's spoon, which the cellarer carried in right hand, while the spoons of other monks are in the left.

Behind them in rank was treasurer. He collected rents from the monastic estates, gave out money for the work of servants and hired workers.

Sacristan opened the altar during the service, carried a lantern in front of the priest when he walked from the altar to the lectern. He was in charge of sacred robes, bells, banners, bowls, candles, and communion covers. He had the privilege of sleeping in the church, which no one else was allowed to.

Another position was "alms-bearer", he was responsible for the distribution of donations. Among his duties was to buy clothes and shoes and distribute them to widows and orphans at Christmas. He also collected the wine left on the table and included it in these donations.

Cook, of course, was in charge of the kitchen. He had assistants. He has always been a master of his craft.

hospital worker He was responsible for the sick, their feeding, the bed, which he sprinkled with holy water every day after the service. But he also had to see to it that the healthy did not pretend to be sick. At night, he went around the cells to make sure who was really sick and who was pretending. In the event of the death of a monk, he listened to the confession of the dying and gave him remission of sins.

Gatekeeper responsible for the security of the monastery. Usually it was a middle-aged monk with a firm, well-established character. He slept at the monastery gates, and when the bell announced the end of the last service, he locked the gate and took the keys to the abbot.

Such was internal organization monastery. From the abbot seated in his richly furnished apartments, to the hospital keeper and porter who guarded the gates and admitted the pilgrims, everyone had their place and their job, everything functioned like a well-oiled machine that worked steadily day after day, year after year.

Well, a little kina about medieval monasticism, their customs and customs ...

History is generally not known to anyone, except for specialists, and even then, provided that they are able to master the area of ​​their research. We know even less about the history of the Church. As for the history of monasticism, with the exception of Gregorian chant and architecture, as well as a few not particularly ancient comic and folklore stories, this is a real "terra incognita" on the mainland of the history of the Middle Ages.

A LONG DAY OF A MONK
routine

The bell marked midnight. In prayer-sounding twilight, people rush to the choirs, silently stepping on the floor. The monk's long day begins. Hour after hour, it will proceed in the rhythm of Matins and Morning Services, the first, third, sixth and ninth canonical hours, Vespers and Compline.

It is impossible to establish exactly how the monk used the time. First of all, because information about the Middle Ages in this regard is very approximate, and the era itself, in comparison with ours, was less sensitive to the passage of time and did not attach much importance to it. Then, because the daily routine was different in different monastic orders and congregations, both in time and space. And, finally, because in the same monastery the time of day varied depending on the time of year and the church cycle of worship. You can bring a lot different examples, but we will confine ourselves to following the book of Father Cousin, we will consider the routine typical of the Cluniac order during the equinox, that is, in the first half of April - the beginning of Easter time, as well as the daily routine for the second half of September.

Approximately half of the first night (on average) - Vespers (from matins).
Around 2.30 - Go to bed again.
Around 4:00 - Matins and services after matins.
Around 4.30 - Go to bed again.
Around 5.45 to 6 o'clock - Final rise (with sunrise), toilet.
Around 6 pm - Individual prayer (from September 23 to November 1).
Around 6.30 - First canonical hour.
Chapter (collection of the monastery):
1) the liturgical part: prayers, the second part of the first hour, the reading of a chapter from the charter or the Gospel for today with comments by the abbot, or, in the absence of the latter, by the prior;
2) the administrative part: the report of the officials of the monastery, the report of the abbot on current affairs;
3) the disciplinary part: the accusation of the monks who violated discipline once a week: they repent themselves, and their brothers accuse them - this is the accusatory chapter.
Around 7.30 - Morning mass, at which the monastic brethren are present in full force.
8.15 am to 9 am - Individual prayers are the usual times from All Saints to Easter and from Easter to 13 September.
9 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. - Third hour followed by monastic mass.
From 10.45 to 11.30 - Work.
Around 11.30 - Six o'clock.
Around 12.00 - Meal.
From 12.45 to 13.45 - Midday rest.
From 2 pm to 2.30 pm - Ninth hour.
From 14.30 to 16.15 - Work in the garden in summer, in winter, as well as in bad weather- in the premises of the monastery, in particular, in the scriptorium.
From 16.30 to 17.15 - Vespers.
From 17.30 to 17.50 - Light dinner, except for fast days.
Around 6 pm - Compline.
Around 18.45 - Go to bed.

After Compline in winter, one monk had to walk around the premises with a burning lantern in his hands in order to be recognized. He had to sequentially check all the buildings, the reception room, the choirs, the pantry, the refectory, the infirmary and close the entrance gates to prevent arson and the penetration of thieves, and also so that the brothers would not go anywhere ...

SLEEP, DAY REST, WAKE UP

In addition to the desire to mortify one's flesh, there are other reasons that undoubtedly affect the daily routine of the monks. In the Middle Ages, people woke up at sunrise and even earlier. Whoever wanted to lead a right life had to get up very early, at the hour when everyone else was still sleeping. In addition, the monks have always experienced a special disposition towards the night hours and the first dawn - the predawn twilight. St. Bernard praises the hours of wakefulness in coolness and silence, when pure and free prayer easily ascends to Heaven, when the spirit is bright, and perfect peace reigns in the world.

In the monastery, sources of artificial lighting were rare. Like the peasants, the monks preferred to work in daylight.

Monks are supposed to pray at a time when no one else is praying, they must sing eternal glory, thereby protecting the world with a true spiritual shield. Once the ship of King Philip Augustus was caught at sea by a storm, and the king ordered everyone to pray, saying: “If we manage to hold out until the hour when matins begin in the monasteries, we will be saved, for the monks will begin worship and replace us in prayer.”

Another feature of monastic life that can amaze our contemporaries is the time of the meal: it is allowed to eat food not earlier than noon. And some options for the daily routine of the Benedictine monks of the 10th century provided for one single meal during the day: in winter - at 3 pm, and during Great Lent - at 6 pm. It is not difficult to imagine what a test this is for people who have been on their feet since two in the morning. It becomes clear why the French words "diner" - "lunch, supper", "dejeuner" - "breakfast" literally mean "break the fast" - "rompre le jeune".

In the summer, the schedule includes two meals: lunch at noon and a light dinner around 5–6 pm, which is canceled on fasting days.

Another characteristic feature of the routine of monastic life is that the whole day is busy, there is not a single free minute, although the monks wisely alternate hours of great stress and hours of rest. The unstable spirit simply did not have time for idle dreams and despondency.

In all old statutes it is allowed day rest. This is due to the brevity of the nightly sleep of the monks, the tiring wakefulness and labor, as well as the heat (we must not forget that the Benedictine rule was drawn up in Italy). "Siesta" in the summer lasted an average of one to one and a half and even two hours. It was different in different monasteries.

Initially, the Carthusians rested on benches in the interior of the monastery. Daytime rest was provided mainly for the elderly and sickly monks. Then it was decided that "siesta" was allowed "out of compassion for human weakness," as one Cartesian text says. It was prescribed to go to bed at a strictly fixed time - immediately after Compline; it was not allowed to stay awake without the special permission of the elder (for fear of going too far in the mortification of one's flesh). After Matins, the fathers did not go to bed again, except for the days of bloodletting, which we will talk about later. They were required to wear a belt, not removing it even during sleep. This belt served as a reminder of the gospel call: "Let your loins be girded" and testified to the readiness of the monks at any moment to rise according to the word of God, on the one hand, and on the other hand, hinted at the observance of the monastic vow of chastity. Those who did not want to rest in the afternoon could read, edit manuscripts, or even practice monastic chanting, but on condition that they did not interfere with others.

If a monk did not get out of bed at the first sound of the bell (“without delay”, as St. Benedict wrote), this was considered a misdemeanor, which was considered at the accusatory chapter. Sleeping again was out of the question! The monk had to constantly move, with a lantern in his hands, looking for someone who, in violation of the order, continued to sleep. When there was one, a lantern was placed at his feet, and, finally, the awakened lover of sleep, in turn, was obliged, with a lantern in his hands, to go around the entire monastery until he found another delinquent. So, it was necessary to get up quickly and in no case be late for matins. It was said that one night Peter Nolansky, the founder of the Order of the Mercedarians, overslept. Hastily dressing himself, he made his way down the dark corridors to the choir stalls. And what was his surprise when he saw a bright light there, and instead of the monks who did not wake up with the sound of a bell, angels in white sitting on the pews. The place of the general master of the order was occupied by the Blessed Virgin herself with an open book in her hands ”(D. Aime-Azam).

Gyg, the wise teacher of the Carthusians, said that before lying down, one should choose for oneself some object for reflection and, thinking about it, fall asleep in order to avoid unnecessary dreams. “Thus,” he adds, “your night will be bright as day, and this night, its illumination that will overshadow you, will be your consolation. You will fall asleep peacefully, you will rest in peace and quiet, you will wake up without difficulty, you will get up easily and easily return to the subject of your thoughts, from which you did not have time to move away during the night "...

CHASTITY

The concepts of "life in holiness" and "chastity" are synonymous. Canonical sources say little about him, since this is an obvious thing. Sometimes we are talking about the "chaste", about the "virtue of temperance", about purity. Actually, the vow of chastity appears during the period of monastic reforms of the XI-XII centuries, and the theory of three vows - only in the XIII century.

Was the vow of chastity observed by everyone and always? One can believe that this was the case only if one forgets that we are talking about living men and women, although when reading the chronicles one gets the impression that violations of this vow occurred much less often than outbreaks of violence, cases of flight from the monastery, manifestations of greed, neglect of everyday responsibilities.

It is not so much about the struggle with temptation, because the outcome of this struggle is always unclear, but about how to move away from the cause of temptation, because, according to the Granmontans, even if the skillful David, the wise Solomon and the mighty Samson fell into the net of women, which of the mere mortals resist their charms? Not without reason, in the absence of a woman, the evil one uses her image to tempt a man, who can resist when she is around? In order to maintain integrity, the wise man flees. Napoleon used to say that it was out of love.

According to Einsham's collection of customs, a monk can get rid of the lusts of the flesh by calling on the following "spiritual blessings": tiredness, silence, fasting, seclusion in a monastery, modest behavior, brotherly love and compassion, respect for elders, diligent reading and prayer, remembrance of the past. mistakes, death, fear of the fire of purgatory and hell. Without respect for these "multiple and strong ties" monastic life loses purity. Silence "buries" empty and idle words, fasting humbles bad desires, and seclusion keeps people from talking on city streets. Remembering the mistakes made in the past to a certain extent prevents future mistakes, the fear of purgatory eliminates petty sins, and the fear of hell eliminates "criminal" sins.

SINGING

The Cistercians were careful not to sing the psalms too hastily. Others fell into the opposite extreme and sang, hastily swallowing the words. Guy de Cherlier, student of St. Bernard, compiled a treatise "On Singing", in which he advised the monks to sing "energetically and clearly, at the top of their voice, as befits both in sound and in expression." At the same time, he recommends that the newly elected abbot sing Veni Creator * [Come, Creator (lat.)] in remembrance of his predecessor with "moderate" voices, "that would exude remorse and contrition of heart", rather than the beauty of singing.

MORTIFICATION OF THE FLESH

Some examples of both individual and collective practice of mortification, made obligatory by the charter and customs, still continue to be of interest. And the example of the feat of some ascetics, for all their heroism, or perhaps precisely because of this heroism, is always worthy of imitation.

And this example, as it should be noted, especially struck the imagination of the minds of the rude, distrustful and simple. He was followed by people whose body and soul were accustomed from childhood to fasting, to patiently overcoming adversity, to cold and hunger, to incurable diseases, to the countless vicissitudes of social life.

That is why the devout faith of the monks often led to extremes of piety, to the behavior of dervishes, to actions in which masochism was partly visible.

Let's not dwell on the rods with spikes or hot coals, on which they lay down in order to conquer the "passions". Or at the reading by heart of the entire Psalter with arms outstretched crosswise (crucis vigilia), so that among the Irish monks who practiced this, the very word "figill" eventually came to mean "prayer." But what can be said about the grave pit, where every day after the canonical third hour the abbot and the monks of the Brigitte order throw a handful of earth in order to always remember the approach of death? Or about the coffin, which for the same purpose is placed at the entrance to their temple? This order had something to rely on. Its founder, St. Bridget of Sweden (XIV century) - the only Swedish saint - "drop by drop she poured hot wax on her body in order to thus remember the suffering of the Son of God" (Elio). Of course, it must be admitted that there is no small difference between drops of hot wax and Golgotha. For us, the main thing is to understand what strange exercises people can lead to the desire to mortify their flesh.

The Wallombrosans have novices * [those who are preparing to take the tonsure. (Ed. note)] had to clean out the pigsty with their bare hands. Giving a vow, they lay prostrate on the floor for three days in vestments, motionless and keeping "pure silence." This is precisely the charter, the fruit of collective experience, and not individual imagination. But the result is the same.

Another aspect of the monastic faith and that scrupulous observance of the rules generated by it: in the abbey of Beck, if the transubstantiated wine, the blood of Jesus Christ, was spilled on a stone or on a tree, then it was necessary to scrape off this stain, wash it off, and drink this water. Similarly, one should drink water after washing clothes that got this wine.

Belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ on Divine Liturgy was unusually strong. Calmet talks about a custom that existed in the church even in his time: parishioners who took communion were given a piece of bread and a sip of wine so that not a single particle of Holy Communion fell out of their mouths and was washed down.

CONFESSION

By the middle of the 11th century, confession still retained some features of the ancient sacrament, namely, openness to the spiritual father, a form of public repentance, a ritual of reconciliation with neighbors and with oneself without the intervention of a priest.

In the 12th century, confession was enriched by the fact that religious life became more internal, connected with the flourishing of the individual personality. Confession meant the eschatological anticipation of the Last Judgment and at the same time the glorification of God, the confession of one's sins before Him - before the One Sinless One. In the second half of the 12th century and in the 13th century, confession became obligatory, which gave rise to a formal attitude towards it. At the same time, a speculative doctrine of the sacrament of confession was developed, which determined the subject of the confession itself, the frequency of its performance, the procedure for conducting it, the priest who could receive this or that confession, etc. In monastic orders, confession was considered an obligation. Visitors and chapters supervised the strict observance of its rules.

What is most surprising when you look at the surviving ensembles of Russian medieval monasteries? Probably the contrast of architectural proportions. The monastery is firmly rooted in the earth, and its spirit, visibly embodied in the architecture of towers, temples and bell towers, ascends to Heaven. The monastery unites the two Fatherlands of each person: earthly and heavenly.

The beauty of our cloisters is reminiscent of a long-lost harmony. The world of a medieval Russian monastery was destroyed in the 18th century by successive reforms. The decrees of Peter I forbade everyone to be tonsured monks, except for the disabled and the elderly. Those who violated this ban were forcibly cut off and sent to the soldiers. The monasteries were depopulated, the living tradition of the spiritual succession of different generations was interrupted. The decree on the states of 1764 by Empress Catherine II divided all the monasteries into three categories (states), according to which they received state salaries. The monastic lands were confiscated. Some of the monasteries were taken out of state, they had to find a livelihood on their own, having no land. The remaining monasteries (more than half of the previous number) were completely liquidated. Historians have yet to assess the spiritual and moral consequences of these reforms. Then Russia lost one of its pillars, and probably the most important, for the monasteries have always been, in the words of St. Philaret (Drozdov), a pillar of the Orthodox faith. The 20th century completed the "reforms" with the desecration of the shrine. To this day, and even then in some places, only the walls of the former cloisters have survived. But what kind of life flowed several centuries ago within these walls, what constituted the soul and content of this visible image, we almost do not know.

Arseny the Great, a truly great ascetic of the Egyptian desert, said that silence preserves the human soul. A real monk, like the apple of his eye, always kept his inner world from extraneous curiosity and unnecessary communication. The monasteries also sacredly guarded their secret. The Christian law of hospitality forced the cloisters to open their gates to a hungry and suffering world. But this was a forced concession, a sacrifice in the name of love for one's neighbor. Communication with the world, as a rule, broke the silence, brought vanity and temptation to monastic life. Therefore, the monastery, responding to the petitions and prayers of the world, nevertheless always tried to maintain a saving distance. Hospice and hospitals were usually set up outside the monastery walls, and women were not allowed at all in many monasteries. The elders taught young monks never to wash dirty linen in public - not to discuss with worldly people monastic affairs and disturbances.

The intentional isolation of the monastery from the world makes it a secret with seven seals, especially if we are talking about a medieval monastery five or six centuries away from us in time. But there are narrow slit-like windows in the wall between the world and the monastery. These are the lives of the saints. They allow us not only to consider the daily life of the monastery, but also let through the thickness of time that bright spiritual light that the first “heads” of Russian monasteries radiated.

Lives are a complex source. Before any researcher who undertakes to study them, the question inevitably arises of the reliability of the information reported by the hagiographer. For many years, the historical literature was dominated by a rather skeptical attitude towards hagiographies. The tone was set by the historian V. O. Klyuchevsky, who was a remarkable connoisseur of Russian history and hagiography. But in this case, his high authority in the scientific world played a cruel joke. In fact, he pronounced a negative verdict on the Old Russian hagiographies as a historical source. Researchers unanimously said that almost all lives repeat each other, because they are written within the framework of a rigid canon, filled with fiction, absurdities and historical errors.

I. Yakhontov, recounting the details, amazing in their reality, from the lives of the northern Russian ascetics, nevertheless also issued them a negative verdict. N. I. Serebryansky, the author of a remarkable study on the history of Pskov monasticism, also did not rate the lives highly. However, he wrote the most inspired pages of his work on the basis of the Life of St. Euphrosynus of Pskov, and a few years after the publication of the work he published the Life itself.

But most of the hagiographic texts still remain unpublished. Some of them, known in a single list at the time of V. O. Klyuchevsky or the tireless collector of ancient Russian hagiographic literature E. E. Barsov, are now lost, although they may someday be found on the shelves of storages. Fortunately, modern science has realized the long-term delusion of its predecessors. Now the lives of the saints have again become interesting for researchers. The result of which was this book - the result of the author's many years of work on the study of Russian hagiography.

To study the daily life of Russian monks, we deliberately chose the simple “artless” lives of northern ascetics. And that's why. The lives compiled by famous hagiographers are written in excellent language and are beautifully arranged in composition. But they have one significant drawback for the historian of everyday life. Their authors, as a rule, were well aware of hagiographic tradition and generously embellished their works with comparisons, and even direct insertions from the works of their predecessors. Therefore, reality is sometimes difficult to distinguish in them from direct adherence to the hagiographic canon. Lives written by modest monastic writers, on the contrary, are not so captivating with the beauty of the style and the depth of reasoning about the meaning of being. Their authors equally casually describe both the miracle and the simple realities of everyday life, sometimes even overstepping the boundaries of what is permitted by the canon. Their horizon does not extend beyond the walls of their native abode. But this is just what we need.

In addition to precious historical evidence, the lives contain everything that we value so much in the works of great masters. Hagiographers were able to show the intertwining of the tragic and the comic in human life, the clash of a heroic, noble character with greed and meanness. In the lives you can find subtle humor and beautiful landscape sketches. But the unique difference between a life and a literary work is that any life bears the stamp of authenticity, and the greatest literature is always fiction.

Rereading the lives, one never ceases to wonder how it was possible not to notice the delightful beauty, sincerity, and most importantly, the historical reality of these texts. Apparently, stereotypes and the spirit of the times are sometimes stronger than scientific knowledge and intuition.

It is true that hagiographies often contain errors and contradictions, but it is difficult to blame hagiographers for them. Indeed, sometimes they wrote many years or centuries after the death of those whose lives they tried to tell posterity. They had to put together fragmentary stories that were passed down in the monasteries by word of mouth. But we also cherish these stories, which are not always exhaustive, because "dead history writes, but living history speaks."

In addition to the hagiographies, a variety of documents from the monastic archives were used to describe the daily life of Russian monasteries: income and expense books and inventories of property. An invaluable source is also the monastic daily routine, which describes the everyday life (that is, ordinary life) of the monastery. In Kelar obikhodniks we find detailed instructions about the meal for each day of the year, and in liturgical obikhodniks - the order of worship for each festive service. In our work, we used obikhodniks of the Kirillo-Belozersky, Joseph-Volokolamsky, Trinity-Sergius, Anthony-Siya, Nilo-Sorsky monasteries. The picture was supplemented by monastic letters and acts. It also happened that the text of the official letter was confirmed by some kind of “miracle” from the text of the life. We will talk about these happy coincidences later in the book.

Of course, you can not embrace the immensity. There were thousands of monasteries in Russia: large and small, great and lost in the wilderness. A boundless sea of ​​documents confronts the researcher of this topic. But a selective cut of individual facts is also a reliable method of research, because they are constituent elements of the overall picture. The main characters of our book are the monks of cenobitic monasteries, for it is precisely these cloisters, according to St. Philaret (Drozdov), that constituted and still constitute the “pillar of monasticism.” We hope that after this book, the distant and unfamiliar world of the Russian medieval monastery will become closer and more understandable to the reader, just as it has become closer and more understandable to the author of the book.

And in conclusion, a few remarks about the principles of presentation. Some complex and lengthy quotations from Old Russian texts are given in modern Russian translation to facilitate their understanding. If the life is not published, then the reference (cipher) to the repository where the cited manuscript is located is indicated in brackets, if it is published, the edition is indicated. All dates of church holidays are given according to the old style.

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worship

The word "worship" is literally revealed as service to God. All monastic life was nothing more than a constant, every minute service to God, and church worship has always been the core and main meaning of monastic life. The monk spent most of his time at prayer in a temple or in a cell, but church prayer was revered by the holy fathers immeasurably higher than cell prayer. The Monk Euphrosynus of Pskov said this: “If you stand all night in your cell at prayer, this cannot be compared to one common “Lord have mercy” (Serebryansky, vol. 4, p. 522). And the Monk Joseph Volotsky added: “It is possible to pray at home, but to pray as in a church, where there are many fathers, where singing unanimously ascends to God, where like-mindedness, and consent, and the union of love, is impossible. At this time ... not only people cry out with a trembling voice, but angels also fall down to the Lord, and the archangels pray ”(Illuminator, p. 202).

Until the end of the 14th century, divine services in Russian monasteries were performed exclusively according to the Studian Rule, which was drawn up in the second quarter of the 11th century. Patriarch of Constantinople Alexis Studit. The charter was based on the tradition of the famous Studian monastery in Constantinople. At the beginning of the 15th century, the Jerusalem liturgical charter became widespread in Russia (its origin is connected with the Lavra of Savva the Sanctified, located near Jerusalem), which gradually supplanted the Studian. Since this replacement did not take place simultaneously everywhere, the divine services of Russian monasteries in the 15th-16th centuries were distinguished by great diversity. Even in the 16th century, there were still monasteries in which services were performed according to the Studian Rule, and monasteries (for example, Kirillo-Belozersky), where both layers of liturgical culture coexisted.

In most monasteries, services were daily, that is, they were performed every day. Three circles of worship were formed from them: daily, weekly and annual. The center of these three peculiar orbits was the main sacred event of world history - the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Savior. It was the events of Good Friday that determined the meaning and order of daily services. The time of the taking of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane and His condemnation by the bishops and elders to suffering and death was marked by the Church with the service of Matins; the time of leading the Savior to trial before Pilate - the divine service of the first hour; the time of the condemnation of Christ at the trial by Pilate - by the celebration of the third hour; the time of Christ's suffering on the cross - at the sixth hour; and the removal of the body of Christ from the cross by the service of the ninth hour and the evening service (Debolsky, vol. 2, p. 146).

Daily circle of worship

The monasteries usually held seven services a day. They were divided into three times: evening worship (they begin a new day, since at the creation of the world (Gen. 1, 5) the evening preceded the day), morning and afternoon.

The composition of the evening service includes: the ninth hour, Vespers and Compline. The time of each divine service in the monastery was determined by the hours set by nature itself. The first hour of the day came with sunrise, the last - with sunset, after sunset, the countdown of night time began, but in the day it was necessarily considered, as now, 24 hours. The service of the ninth hour roughly corresponded to the fourth, fifth or sixth hour of the day according to our calculation of time, since the ninth hour was considered from sunrise. However, it is clear that at different times of the year the beginning of the ninth hour, like all other services, varied. The ninth hour is usually sung before Vespers, although the order may vary.

Vespers began in the monasteries at sunset. Explaining the meaning of this divine service, St. Basil the Great wrote: “Our fathers did not want to receive the grace of the evening light in silence, but as soon as it came, they brought thanksgiving” (Skaballanovich, issue 2, p. 134). Since ancient times, Christians have expressed their gratitude to God for the lived day and the wondrous evening light in the words of one of the Vespers hymns - “Quiet Light”. According to Church tradition, its author was the Jerusalem Patriarch Sophrony (634–644), who once, admiring the sunset, sang from the depths of his loving heart: “Light of the quiet saint of the glory of the immortal Heavenly Father, holy, blessed. Those who have come to the west of the sun, who have seen the evening light, let us sing to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit of God” [“You, Christ, are the quiet light (in view of the evening) of the holy glory of the immortal Heavenly Father, holy, blessed. Having lived until sunset, we, in gratitude for this, sing the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit ”(Ibid., p. 132)]. Historians dispute that this song belonged to Patriarch Sofroniy, but it is absolutely certain that during the time of this patriarch the Church already knew the prayer “Quiet Light.”

When the sun began to set, the sexton came to the abbot, and if he was not there, then to the ecclesiarch, and asked for blessings for the service. Having received it and bowed to the abbot, he went to inform the brethren about the service, slowly, at intervals, rang the bell or beat (“beat” - from the word “beat” - a wooden or metal board). In ancient times, beaters were preferred in monasteries, considering bells to be a “Latin” (Catholic) invention. In the Novgorod Khutynsky monastery in different occasions two beaters were used: wooden or iron. Calling the brethren to vespers, the sexton first struck a wooden beater, while he read twelve times the 50th psalm "Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy and according to the multitude of Thy bounties, cleanse my iniquity ..." (Gorsky. S. 289) . Then he went to the church, prepared the censer and placed a lit candle in front of the Royal Doors. After that, he left the temple and again struck the beater, now an iron one, more urgently calling the brethren to the service. In the Pskov monastery of St. Euphrosynus, the bells rang only on holidays, and on ordinary days they rang the beat.

Having heard the gospel, the monks had to leave everything, as if they were bitten by a snake or there was a fire, and go to the church. Instructing the novice monks, the elders said this: “If a brother or even a cellarer comes to you, and at that time they announced to the service, leave the conversation and other things, not being afraid to offend anyone.” Developing this teaching, the Monk Joseph Volotsky wrote: one must rush to the church as to the distribution of royal mercy. After all, if the king distributes gifts, then the one who came earlier will receive more. Also, if someone comes to the temple earlier, he will be more enriched, but not with earthly, but with Heavenly wealth. Therefore, one should never think: I’ll come earlier and I’ll wait a long time and sit uselessly (VMCh. September. Stb. 504).

Dressing for the service, the monk put on a mantle and a hood, kissing him "on the porch." At the same time, he said prayers: “It is worthy to eat” with a bow to the ground, “Glory now”, “Lord, have mercy” twice and dismissed with three bows to the ground. They went to the church with concentration, covering themselves with a hood, not looking around and not stopping to talk with the brethren. The hands were held pressed to the chest, the monastic gait, as the elders taught, should be "neither harsh nor lazy." They entered the church with fear and trembling, as if they were entering the earthly Heaven. Each monk in the temple had his own place, determined by the abbot, it was forbidden to stand on someone else's. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, the abbot stood at the right pillar of the Assumption Cathedral, the cathedral elders and priests were not far from him, and the ordinary brethren were located on the left side of the temple.

Standing in his place, the monk made five prostrations (if they were due on that day) with prayers: “God, be merciful to me a sinner”, “God, cleanse me a sinner and have mercy on me”, “I have sinned without a number, Lord, forgive me "," We bow to Your Cross, Vladyka, and holy resurrection We praise yours”, “It is worthy”, “Glory and Now”, “Lord have mercy” twice, “Lord bless” and let go. During the dismissal, the monk bowed three times from the waist to the Royal Doors, once to the abbot with a bow to the ground (if there was no abbot, then to the place where he usually stood), then to the brethren on both sides and asked for blessings from the monks standing nearby. Bowing and blessing, the monk was not supposed to step out of his place. These bows were called entrance or initial. So they prayed before the start of any divine service and before proceeding to cell prayer.

When Vespers began, the sacristan would come out of the altar with a candle and say: "Arise!" After him, a priest came out with a censer and proclaimed: “Glory to the Holy Consubstantial and Life-Giving Trinity” and censed the temple and the brethren. The right kliros answered: "Amen", and the initial prayers of Vespers followed. If for some reason a monk was late for a service in the temple, he did not perform the initial prayers and prostrations. The latecomer bowed to the abbot, asking for forgiveness, and to both sides - to the kliros, where kliros monks stood (who sang and read during the service). If for some reason the monk did not have time to receive forgiveness for being late, then he could not take prosphora, holy antidoron or “Pure bread” - the Mother of God prosphora at this service.

Returning to his cell after the service, he read out all the prayers that he missed (“say what you passed,” the charter says). In the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, for being late for worship due to their own negligence, a penance (punishment) of 50 prostrations was appointed, which could be replaced by one day of dry eating (dry eating in monasteries meant bread and water).

The external monastic charter, as well as the spiritual instructions of the elders, demanded that a monk in the temple stand as he would stand in front of an earthly king: concentrated, reverently, not looking around, not coughing or blowing his nose. “Close your hands and join your legs, and close your eyes and gather your mind, take your thought and heart to Heaven,” says the spiritual letter of the Monk Joseph Volotsky (VMCh. September. Stb. 505). The one who walked around the temple during the service, the Monk Joseph and the Monk Kornily Komelsky was punished with one day of dry eating or prostrations, 50 in number. And those who laughed or talked, and also left the temple during the service, with a hundred prostrations. The elder, who oversaw church deanery (order), warned violators, and upon repeated remark, he completely expelled them from the church. It was strictly forbidden to leave your seat or talk even about some important, urgent matter while reading the Holy Gospel, singing the Cherubic Hymn, the Theotokos hymn “My soul magnifies the Lord”, while reading the “Symbol of Faith” and praying “It is worthy to eat ”, and also when the priest censed the temple or the brethren made prostrations. Even the weak were not recommended then to lean against a wall or choir, lie on a staff, or simply hold it in their hands.

However, the elders always warned the monks that standing in the service alone was not enough. One can follow all external rules, they said, but if the mind is occupied with thoughts about one's own or monastic affairs, such a monk will not receive any benefit from his presence in the temple. On the contrary, he will be condemned, for the Lord sees the heart of every person. It would be better for him then not to come to church at all.

The prayer state of the monks largely depended on how clearly and reverently the prayers were read, on the singing of the choir. Therefore, the rector and the ecclesiarch have always been especially concerned about the beauty and decorum of worship. The Monk Euphrosynus of Pskov demanded that the brethren sing “with quietness and intelligence, and not with goat-voicing” (Serebryansky, vol. 4, p. 522), and that the Six Psalms be read in a quiet voice, with attention, as if they were conversing with Christ Himself (Ibid. S. 385). The Monk Pafnuty of Borovsky, if he happened to miss the stichera or only one word in the verse, commanded the canonarch to return and repeat this verse several times in order to fully understand its meaning.

The lighting in the temple also set the monks up for concentrated prayer. The temple was usually in twilight. When Vespers or Matins were served, it was dark outside the window. Even in the daytime, narrow slit-like windows let in a little light (it is no coincidence that in the 18th century, when they were striving for external splendor, such windows were hewn and cut through new ones). The sun's rays penetrated from above and illuminated the iconostasis, and not the monks standing in the temple. Most of the lamps (chandeliers and candles) were also placed in front of the iconostasis. In the Assumption Cathedral of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, opposite the deesis, three copper chandeliers hung, and a little to the west three more: two wooden and one copper. Opposite the local icons, in the lower tier of the iconostasis, there were twelve set candles (their candlesticks were clay, and the candlesticks where the candles were inserted were copper). Burning chandelier bushes and the flickering of individual candles illuminated the wondrous beauty of the iconostasis. “This focused the eyes of those praying on the sacred images, gathered their strength for mental prayer, alienating them from everything earthly” (Nikolsky, vol. 1, issue 1, p. 138). Znamenny chant sounded in the temple - solemn, calmly concentrated prayer singing, supplanted in the 18th century by arias of partes singing. This synthesis of various arts turned the temple into a real earthly Heaven.

During the service, in order not to be distracted, the monks recited the Jesus Prayer quietly to themselves (however, these prayers were not included in the number that the monk had to recite in the cell). “In a single word,” that is, not lagging behind the choir, the monk uttered together with the brethren: “Lord, have mercy.” It was also allowed to repeat the psalms after the reader, but only in such a way that it was audible to oneself. The monk was not supposed to hold books in his hands in the temple, look into the charter and study it, but only heed the common prayer.

There was a strict order in the service. All the monks knew when, how much and what bows to make, when to be baptized. The elders explained this order to the beginners. At Vespers, three bows to the earth were supposed to be done when they read the prayer "Holy God", "Alleluia", "Come let us worship"; after the prayer "The most honest cherub" they made one bow. However, earthly prostrations were not always performed. The charter marks the days on which prostrations were not allowed either in the church or in the cells. These days included: Saturdays (except for Great Saturday on Holy Week) and Sundays (bows on Sunday were done only at Compline), Twelfth feasts, the feasts of the Nativity and the Beheading of the Honorable Head of St. , days from the Nativity of Christ to the celebration of the feast of Baptism, the time from Easter to Trinity (Pentecost), the week of the publican and the Pharisee (before Great Lent). On the days of remembrance of the great “holy bells” (that is, when before the service they rang all the bells to the saint and served Matins with a great doxology), instead of earthly bows, they bowed to the earth, and only after the prayer “It is worthy to eat.”

Special rules also existed for the veneration of holy icons. On the 10th feasts and on “peepings”, the monks went around the temple and kissed (one at a time) the icons. Before kissing, it was necessary to bow to the image twice. The image of the Savior was supposed to be kissed “on the leg”, the “Not Made by Hands” and the icon of St. John the Baptist - “in the braid”, the images of the Virgin, saints and saints - “in the hands”, and the martyrs - in the heart (Serebryansky. T. 4. S. 566).

On ordinary days, an hour and a half after Vespers, the brethren gathered in the temple and for Compline (mephimon, from the Greek words - “with us”, because at Compline the words are pronounced: “God is with us, understand the tongues”). Summing up the past day and preparing for the day to come, the monks always confessed their sins at the evening service (at the all-night vigil or Vespers). “Let not a single evening pass without a confession of fear for the sake of death,” says the spiritual letter of the Monk Joseph Volotsky (VMCh. September. Stb. 528). After Compline, the monks usually went to "say goodbye" (bless) to the tomb of the founder of the monastery. Here at the shrine they read the initial prayers, the troparion to the main temple feast of the monastery (in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery - the Assumption, in Pavlo-Obnorsky - the Trinity) and the reverend, then after "Glory" - kontakion to the saint and on "Now" - kontakion to the holiday. Approaching the tomb of the saint, they made three earthly bows with a prayer: “Forgive me, Holy Father [Kirill], bless and pray for me a sinner,” and applied to the cancer. Stepping back from her, they again read the same prayer, bowed to the ground as much as they wanted, and in silence dispersed to their cells.

Before sleep, they no longer ate or drank, not even water; an exception was made only for the sick and infirm. The monastic charter strictly forbade gathering together in a cell after Compline or “standing at the monastery” and talking, for “the Vespers is the key and fulfillment (total. - E.R.) of the whole day.” After Compline, the Monk Pafnutiy Borovsky did not even light a candle in his cell, but he always prayed without light. Often he fell asleep like this - sitting, holding a rosary in his hands, with the Jesus Prayer on his lips. St. Sergius of Radonezh, Cyril of Belozersky, Joseph of Volotsk and other saints had a custom to go around the monastery after Compline. And if the holy fathers heard that the monks were talking in the cell, then they hit the window with their finger, announcing their visit, and left (VMCh. September. Stb. 470). Once, a certain brother from the monastery of St. Daniel of Pereyaslavsky had a chance to talk with another monk. The conversation took place in a bakery where the said brother was doing his obedience. The monks talked "secretly", in full confidence that no one could hear them. Maybe it was so, but the next morning Abbot Daniel called the monk and said to him: “It’s not nice, brother, it’s not nice to destroy silence after the evening rule. You were talking with your brother in the bakery last night, leave these habits, brother!” The convicted monk fell at the feet of the saint and asked his forgiveness (Smirnov, p. 46).

In addition, the order in the night monastery at the Monk Joseph Volotsky was monitored by a "church overseer." He carefully watched so that none of the monks walked around the cells and did not go beyond the fence of the monastery. If he noticed something like that, he would definitely inform the rector or the cellarer. He also checked whether the monastery gates were closed, so that a big sin would not happen from a small negligence (VMCh. September. Stb. 528-529).

After midnight, a series of morning services began: Midnight Office, Matins, and the First Hour. It should be noted that the midnight of the monastery did not correspond to the modern calculation of time, since it was considered from sunset, and if on December 9 in the Kirillo-Belozersk monastery the night lasted 17 hours, and the sun set at about four in the evening, then midnight came at about one in the morning, and during the year her times were constantly changing. A church service celebrated at midnight or any hour of the night before sunrise is called Midnight Office. The monks, depending on the charter, performed the Midnight Office in the temple or in cells. This service calls to imitate the angels who glorify God at night, and also recalls the Savior's nightly prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and the coming Second Coming of Christ, which, according to the interpretation of the Church, will occur at midnight.

Matins (matins) began in the monasteries before sunrise. We find confirmation of this not only in the monastic charters, but also in the lives. Once in the Goritsky monastery of St. Daniel of Pereyaslavsky, monk Jonah, who was ill with his legs, heard a bell ringing at night and saw a light in the temple. Jonah decided that matins had begun, and crawled to the church. Imagine his surprise when he saw that the temple was closed and there was no one there. On the way back, Jonah met the monastery watchman and asked him: “Has the morning singing really passed?” He answered: “Father, the roosters have not yet crowed, and nowhere in the kennels there was no ringing for the morning doxology.” It turned out that the light that Jonah saw came from the shrine of St. Daniel (Smirnov, p. 93).

If the ringing for matins found the monk still in bed, then he, “rising from his bed”, had to say “My soul, rise, that you sleep” and other morning prayers. And when he heard the gospel, the monk read the prayer "The Voice of Joy and Salvation." When he got dressed, he used to say prayers in the same way. Girdling himself, he said: “I gird my unclean loins in images: the image of the Most Pure Ty (Yours. - E.R.) Mother and Peter, and Paul, and other apostles; protect me (me. - E.R.), Lord, with their prayers and lift up the thought from earthly sweets, instruct me to seek heaven and love those and bow to You now and ever and forever and ever. Amen "(Nikolsky. Community and private life. S. 898-899).

Matins lasted four or four and a half hours. Depending on what holiday fell on that day, Matins could be performed with a great doxology or a polyeleos (translated from Greek, the word "polyeles" means "great mercy"). On weekdays, matins were served without the polyeleos and the great doxology (it was read at such matins, not sung). If divine services were performed in the monastery according to the Studian Rule, then Vespers and Matins were served separately. If the monastery adhered to the Jerusalem Rule, then on the eve of Sunday and great feasts, Great Vespers was combined with Matins and an All-Night Vigil was served (in the Studite Rule, there is no such service as an All-night Vigil). So, for example, in the Volokolamsky Monastery in the 16th century, an all-night vigil was served on all the Twelfth and Great Feasts, and in the Kirillo-Belozersk Monastery on the Twelfth Feasts (except the Annunciation, if it coincided with Sunday), on the days of the Beheading of the head of the prophet John the Baptist, the saints Apostles Peter and Paul served Vespers and Matins, and on other great and great feasts - an all-night vigil.

The all-night vigil could last about seven hours. St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), assessing the spiritual impact of this long and difficult service on a monk, said that “one who has spent a significant part of the night in prayer with due reverence and attention, feels the next day a special lightness, freshness, purity of mind, the ability to contemplate” ( Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), vol. 2, p. 179).

One of the most sacred and solemn moments of worship, especially the festive Matins, is the reading of the Holy Gospel. When the choir sang “Praise the name of the Lord” before the gospel was taken out, the ecclesiarch distributed candles to everyone. The abbot and all the clergy ("sobor") dressed in festive robes. During the singing of praise and the reading of the Gospel, all the monks stood with lighted candles. The Holy Gospel, like the cross that the priest takes out of the altar, symbolizes the Savior Risen from the tomb (the throne in the altar symbolizes the Savior's tomb). Therefore, the kissing of the Gospel marks the joyful greeting of the Savior with His Resurrection (Skaballanovich, issue 2, p. 251). First, the abbot approached the kissing of the Gospel, then the monks in pairs, according to seniority (“by rank”). Before the Gospel, it was supposed to bow three times with a bow from the waist and say a prayer: “With fear and love, we approach Thee, Christ, and we believe in your words; fear for the sake of sin (with fear, because they are sinners. - E.R.), but for the sake of love for salvation (with love because they are saved by You. - E.R.) ”. After the kiss, stepping back from the lectern and making a bow, they said: “We believe, Lord, in your holy Gospel, Christ God, help (help) us and save our souls. And then the monks asked for forgiveness from the kliros, bowing to the ground.

Since the all-night vigil was an extremely long service, in order to strengthen the strength of the brethren, after the psalm “I will bless the Lord at all times,” when the priest said: “The blessing of the Lord is upon all,” the monks were given blessed bread and wine consecrated at Vespers (in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery to the monks two cups of wine were supposed (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 130)).

The service of Matins was structured in such a way that with the first glimpse of the morning dawn, the priest, turning his face to the altar, solemnly proclaimed: “Glory to Thee, who showed us the light.” The “Great Doxology” began, the most ancient, like “Quiet Light”, Christian song. “The sight of the morning light born from the darkness of the night set the prayers to the contemplation of God as uncreated light (“in Your light we will see the light”)” (Skaballanovich, p. 305). “In this glorification ... the thought is already ... completely immersed in the grateful contemplation of all the heights of God and all our insignificance and unworthiness before Him.” The great doxology is the zenith of Matins; during its singing, all the monks, as during the reading of the Gospel, stood with lighted candles and extinguished them when the song ended.

At the end of the first hour of Matins, the anointing with oil was performed, which was preceded by a special process of preparing consecrated oil. In front of the icon of the holiday, which took place on this day, they put a lamp (candilla), poured oil into it and lit it before reading the Gospel. After the Gospel, the oil was extinguished and lit again on the ninth canon of Matins, now it was already burning until the very end of Matins. They approached the anointing with oil in the same order as now: first they kissed the festive icon, then they anointed themselves - a cross was drawn with holy oil on the forehead (on the forehead). In monasteries, the serving priest was the first to anoint the abbot, then the abbot anointed the priest and the rest of the brethren, after a while the priest changed the abbot. Anointing the monks, the abbot called their names and said a prayer: “Blessing of the Lord God and Our Savior Jesus Christ, on the servant of God (name) for health and salvation, for the remission of sins” (Church of the Church of the Joseph Monastery // Gorsky, p. 324) .

In some cenobitic monasteries, an all-night vigil was served according to the skete custom, for example, in the monastery of St. Euphrosynus of Pskov. The monk apparently chose this order of service in order to aggravate the feat carried by his monks. The skete vigil differed from the services of cenobitic monasteries in its composition and duration. It began after the evening meal, at the first or second hour of the night (counting from sunset), and continued all night until dawn. After the usual initial prayers, three kathismas (from the Psalter) were read at once in a row, the canon of the Most Holy Theotokos. After the prayer “It is worthy to eat,” everyone sat down and listened to the divine scriptures. The reading lasted an hour or two (at the discretion of the rector). They read clearly, without haste, as if telling, so that everything was clear. If one of the monks did not understand something, he asked and listened to the explanations. At this time there was a confession.

Then again they read three kathismas, the canon to Jesus Christ or the one that the rector will command. And again three kathismas, stichera for the feast, on the eve of which the brethren gathered. If it was a Sunday service, then the canon of the Holy Trinity was read. After the canon, they sang the prayer “It is worthy to eat”, served a litia (“nationwide prayer”, a common prayer performed in the porch of the temple), followed by the prayers “Now let go of your servant, Vladyka”, “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice” (three times), “ Be the name of the Lord" (three times) and again the reading of the divine scriptures followed. Then they called in the morning. They read the Trisagion, the troparion "Save, O Lord, thy people", the Six Psalms, the troparion to the Resurrection or the upcoming feast and the 17th kathisma (thus, ten kathismas were read at the Skete Vigil). After the troparia "Angelic Cathedral" an exit was made with the Gospel. Then followed the reading of the canon, on the seventh ode of the canon they read the Prologue, at which time it was possible to sit. Then followed the “Song of the Virgin”: “My soul magnifies the Lord” (they did not sing it, but said it at the skete service), the canon, “The Great Doxology” (according to the rule of the skete service, all prayers, troparia, kontakions were read, they sang only “It is worthy to eat ” and “Great doxology”), prayers and dismissal, then prayers of the first hour of the day and dismissal, after which everyone was blessed by the rector and dispersed to their cells. The monks of the skete read Compline and Midnight Office in their cells.

It is easy to guess that such a service was far from being possible for everyone and required a certain skill. Once a certain priest from Veliky Novgorod came to the monastery of St. Euphrosynus. He considered himself a spiritual ascetic and deep down he was even proud of it. The priest heard a lot about the exploits of the monks of the Eleazar Monastery and decided to compare them with his own. The Monk Euphrosynus received him with joy and even gave him a separate cell for spiritual and physical rest. All day the priest worked together with the brethren, and as soon as the sun set, he went to the service. It was already deep after midnight when almost half of the psalter and canons were read, and the “great reading” (apparently, the reading of divine scriptures) and half of the “other singing” (that is, other prayers) ended.

This enumeration of the composition of the service in the Life of St. Euphrosynus indicates that it was precisely the skete vigil that was served. Besides, if a regular service had been served, it would not have surprised the priest. And here he, not understanding the composition of the strange service and tired of day's work, began to fall into cowardice. Sleep knocked him down, he staggered like a drunkard, leaned against the wall, often nodded his head, which fell on his chest; eyes closed on their own. Finally, having managed to get some sleep and not seeing either the end or the end of the service, he went up to one of the clergy and asked him: “It is already well past midnight. And what kind of singing is this (that is, a service. - E.R.): either a psalter, then canons, then continued reading. And will this end or will the end come to me? (PDPI. T. 173. S. 73). Again, from the listed composition of the service, it is clear that the priest only lasted until the end of Vespers. The cleric replied: “When the hour of the day begins (that is, at the seventh hour of the morning. - E.R.), then the service will end.”

Without saying anything to this, the priest took out a lenteon (towel), girded himself with it, tied the ends together and threw them on a knitting needle sticking out of the wall, because he could no longer stand, and in the church, apparently, there were not even benches to sit while reading patristic writings. The priest hung on the towel until the end of the vigil. In the monastery of the monk, he lived another ten days, "barely passing" them. When he returned to Novgorod, family and acquaintances gathered to him and asked him what impression the monks of the monastery of St. Euphrosynus had made on him. After a pause, he replied: “Do you see this tree? It requires no sleep, no slumber, no rest. So he (Euphrosyn) is there with the brethren: iron with iron. They, having heard such an answer, asked him: “Will you still go to the place where so many spiritual works are performed?” He answered them: “I, a carnal person, cannot stand the tree and surpass the incorporeal in labors” (Ibid., p. 75).

When the service of the first hour of the day ended, the cycle of daily worship began, consisting of the third hour, the sixth hour and the liturgy. The third hour corresponds to our tenth, eleventh, and twelfth hours of the day; the sixth corresponds to the first, second and third hours in the afternoon. The daily service ended with mass, during which they served the liturgy - the most important Christian service, for the sacrament of the Eucharist is performed at the liturgy - the offering to God of the mysterious sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ under the guise of bread and wine in remembrance of the redemption of the world by Him.

Mass on ordinary days began two and a half to three and a half hours after matins. When they called for mass, the sexton lit a candle on the throne, in front of the Royal Doors and "in front of the Most Pure" (the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos). The order of the liturgy in the 15th-16th centuries did not differ much from the current one, with the exception of some liturgical features - the proskomidia was performed on three and five prosphora. With the exclamation “Let us love each other,” the priest said a special “Prayer in love, if there is peace”: “Lord Jesus Christ, creator of love and giver of good things, give us your servants to love each other, like us (us. - E.R. ) You love, but with the same love of solitude, we approach You God and praise You and partake of Your Holy Mysteries ”(Gorsky. S. 21-22).

At the liturgy, as at any monastic service, a clear rule was observed about bowing and lighting candles. The monks bowed to the ground at the exit with the Gospel, on litanies and on special (special) litanies for the king - three bows each, on the Cherubic Hymn - two bows from the waist, one earthly. During the reading of the “Symbol of Faith” (“Symbol” used to be read, and not sung, as it is now), each person, as the charter says, must cross himself. After the prayer "Our Father" followed by prostration. Before Holy Communion, when the priest said: “With the fear of God,” and at the thanksgiving prayer after Communion, “Let our lips be filled,” the monks made one prostration. At the end of the liturgy, at the prayer "Be the name of the Lord," and at the end of the hours, three bows followed.

Before reading the Gospel, a candle was lit at the icon of the Savior in the local row of the iconostasis. When, after the Gospel, prayers were read for the dead (in the monasteries at that time synodics were read), the candle was extinguished. During various sacred rites at the liturgy - at the beginning of the Great Entrance, when the Holy Gifts were brought into the altar, and when the priest proclaimed "With the fear of God" before communion - the monks had to say special prayers to themselves. The prayer “I believe, Lord, and I confess that You are the Son of God,” which is now read before Holy Communion, was previously said by monks at the beginning of the Great Entrance, and it was slightly different from the modern one (Nikolsky. Community and private life. S. 906) .

During communion, strict deanery was observed. When they were expecting communion, the brethren, in twos, approached the rector or priest (if there was no abbot) and asked forgiveness from him, then from the kliros and from the rest of the brethren, after which they kissed the images of the Savior and the Most Holy Theotokos. They went to the shrine one at a time, having made three bows to the earth and kissed the festive icon. Schemas took communion in schemas, the monks of the small schema - with their heads uncovered, taking off their klobuk and skuf and putting them in their bosoms. After communion, they ate prosphora, washing it down with "dill" - warm water, after which they washed their mouths over the tub. The monks always prepared especially carefully for the day of communion: they fasted for several days, strengthened their prayer rule.

The Monk Pafnutiy Borovsky, for example, when he wanted to take communion, he did not talk to anyone for a whole week the day before: not only with the laity and brethren, but also with his cell-attendants, even about urgent matters. The Monk Paphnutius did not leave fasting before communion even during his illness. Tale of last days x Paphnutia, written by his cell-attendant Innocent, tells how, anticipating his repose, the saint began to prepare for the last communion. The monk was already very weak, and the brethren persuaded him to eat, moreover, the festive Saturday came on the eve of the day of the Holy Trinity. But to all persuasions, the saint replied: “I myself know that it is Saturday and Pentecost, but it is written in the rules: although it will be very difficult, for the sick person to fast for three days for the sake of communion of the Holy Mysteries.” Hearing such an answer, the monks were surprised at the great precaution of the saint and no longer bothered him (Klyuchevsky, p. 443).

Previously, it was not allowed to leave the church during holidays, except in cases of illness or emergency. Moreover, the monk, who was under the guidance of the elder, could leave only with his blessing and telling him about the reason. One old monk of the Volokolamsk Monastery told Bishop Savva Cherny of Krutitsa, the author of the Life of the Monk Joseph of Volotsk, that in the time of the Monk the monks never dared to leave the church before the holidays. At that time there was no warm church in the monastery yet, services even in winter were held in the only unheated church of the monastery. None of the monks had fur coats, “and those valiant sufferers of Christ in one robe stood at mass,” not grumbling, but remembering the hellish cold that awaits sinners. The winter was so cold that the birds froze on the fly (VMCh. September. Stb. 467-468).

Chin of Panagia

After the Liturgy, the brethren always waited for the Panagia to be carried out. “And until the panagia is endured, and you can’t step out of your place,” says the charter of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery (Nikolsky. Community and private life. P. 907. Note 2). This rank the monk should not have left even during the journey. The word "Panagia" in Greek means "All-holy", the Mother of God is usually called this, but in the rank of Panagia this name refers to the prosphora, from which a particle in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos was removed at the liturgy. At the end of the liturgy, this prosphora is transferred from the temple to the monastery meal, where it is placed on a special dish in a “arranged place” - on a lectern under the icons; next to it are placed the icons of the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin, necessary for the performance of the rite. The rite of the Panagia connects the meal with the liturgy that has just ended, so much so that the liturgy transfers its grace to the meal. Thanks to the rite of the Panagia, the monastic dinner turns into a real divine service (Skaballanovich, issue 2, p. 51).

The history of this monastic rank goes back to apostolic times. According to church tradition, the apostles, after the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon them, lived together and usually left an unoccupied place at the table for Christ, laying “ukruh” (a piece) of bread there. At the end of the dinner and prayers of thanksgiving, they raised this ukrukh with the words: “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee. Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Great is the name of the Holy Trinity. Lord Jesus Christ help us." They also performed this rite separately, when they dispersed to preach the Gospel throughout the world. Collected miraculously for the Dormition Mother of God and having performed her burial, on the third day they sat together at a meal. When, after dinner, the apostles, as usual, raised their ukrukh and said: "Great is the name ...", they saw in the air Holy Mother of God surrounded by angels. She promised to be with them always. Then the apostles involuntarily exclaimed instead of “Lord Jesus Christ, help us” - “Most Holy Theotokos, help us” (Ibid., p. 58).

In the 15th-16th centuries, the rite of the Panagia in a Russian monastery took place as the first to go from the church to the refectory, the priest who served the liturgy, he carried the Panagia on a special dish; he was followed by the abbot and all the brethren strictly one at a time (“one by one”) with the singing of the 144th psalm (those who could not read and write read the Jesus Prayer to themselves). The psalm was sung in such a way that it could end with the entrance to the refectory. Entering the refectory, the priest stood on the right side and read the prayer "Lord, our God, heavenly, life-giving ...". At the end of the prayer, the priest bowed to the abbot and took out a particle from the Panagia, which was called “The Most Pure Bread” (in the 16th century, not all the prosphora was offered up in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, but the part that was taken out before the meal), saying the troparion to the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos: “Today our salvation begun." The removed particle was placed on the panagiara and placed in the refectory on the lectern. Then prayers were read before eating food, and the meal began.

At the end of dinner, a short thanksgiving for the meal followed, everyone got up and prayed, asking for blessings to perform the rite of Panagia. The offering could be performed by a deacon, a reader, a cellarer, or one of the monks. In the Kirillov Monastery, the abbot passed the “Bread” to the deacon. He asked for forgiveness from the abbot, preparing himself for the priesthood: "Forgive me, holy father ..." And the abbot answered: "God forgive and have mercy on His Grace." The deacon, having removed the cockle, took the prosphora with three fingers (two from the right hand and one from the left), and with the rest he made a canopy over the prosphora and raised it a little above the icon of the Holy Trinity, loudly saying: "Great is the name." And the abbot answered: "Holy Trinity." Further, the deacon transferred the prosphora and marked the icon of the Mother of God with a cross, saying: “Most Holy Lady Theotokos, help us.” And the choir monks answered: “Toya (Her. - E.R.) with prayers, Christ God, have mercy and save our soul”, “Bless Thee, Blessed Virgin Mary.” Further, the choir sang: “Bless you all give birth, Virgin Mother of God, blessed and immaculate and Mother of our God. To you, Mother of God, we give birth to all, for you pray for us Christ our God. Then they sang the prayer "It is worthy to eat." The abbot said a prayer: “The Lord is merciful and generous, He gave food to those who fear Him.” The choir repeated the same. After that, the abbot would break up the “Bread of the Most Pure” and distribute it to the brethren. Then they read the Trisagion, and after the prayer “Our Father” a kontakion to the feast or thanksgiving troparia and prayers (“The Order of the Panagia” publ.: Shablova. About the meal. S. 35-36).

After the final thanksgiving prayers, the abbot said: “God be blessed, merciful ...” and thanked everyone who served at the meal. Thus ended the meal and the Chin of Panagia.

Annual cycle of worship

Daily services are not performed separately from weekly or yearly services. Their diverse composition is determined by the fact that the same service: vespers, matins and liturgy are joined by readings and singing related to the memories of a certain day of the week or holiday of the year.

Each monastery had a special calendar, which listed in detail all the services for each day of the year. All holidays, according to the Jerusalem Charter, adopted by the Russian Church in the 15th century, were divided into several degrees: great, medium and small. Great holidays in the calendar were indicated by a cross in a circle. They had additional days of celebration: prefeasts and afterfeasts. The great feasts included not only the Twelve Feasts (the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Nativity of Christ, the Baptism of the Lord, the Presentation of the Lord, the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, the Ascension of the Lord, Pentecost or the Trinity, the Transfiguration , Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos), but also the days of the great saints, the apostles John the Theologian, Peter and Paul, Christmas and the Beheading of the honest head of the holy prophet John the Baptist.

According to the order of the great holidays, the days of memory of local saints were celebrated in the monasteries. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, the day of the death of St. Sergius of Radonezh (September 25), the day of memory of the Apostle John the Theologian (September 26), the day of St. Varlaam of Khutynsky (November 6), St. Demetrius of Prilutsky (February 11) , the Monk Zosima of Solovetsky (April 16), although the charter on the meal these days was still a rank lower than on the Twelfth and Great Feasts. On great holidays, the services of the hours, bows and work for the monastery were canceled throughout the day. On middle holidays, the brethren were exempted from the service of hours, bows, and from work until dinner. On smaller holidays, hours and bows were canceled, but obediences were not cancelled. In each monastery, different holidays (except for the main great ones) could fall into different categories, depending on the established tradition and the will of the abbot.

The fixed circle of holidays

The church year - "New Year" began on September 1, on this day the memory of St. Simeon the Stylite is also celebrated. On the eve of the feast, a great vespers was served. They rang for the service with a chime, but without a big bell. On the very day of the holiday, matins were served with great doxology and liturgy, at the end of which a special ancient rite, borrowed from Byzantium, was performed in some monasteries - “the rite of the summer”. The past year - summer - was seen off with a prayer that the Lord would bless his "crown" (end). In the temple, a prayer service and litiya were performed, and then they went around the monastery with the procession, completing the “rite of summertime” with a prayer service. At the prayer service, the priest or abbot offered litanies “On our pious tsar, on all his chamber and army, and on Christ-loving people” and on the whole Russian land: “O hedgehog I am not moved and not burned and not stained, our city and every city and country will be preserved” . After the litany, the priest three times marked the people with a cross on all four sides, and a reading from the Gospel of Luke about the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ in Nazareth followed (Luke 4:16-22). At the end of the prayer service, the priest congratulated everyone on the "New Year" - Happy New Year. The procession returned to the temple with the singing of stichera already on the new summer (Nikolsky K.S. 112).

September 8 approached the first twelfth holiday of the year - the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On the eve of the holiday, all the bells rang. In the Volokolamsk Monastery, an all-night vigil was performed, as was required by the Jerusalem Rule. And in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, Vespers, Compline and Matins were served, which was preceded by the Midnight Office. Matins began with the Six Psalms at the end of the fifth hour of the night (that is, about three in the morning according to our calculation). The abbot served with a large censer, while celebrating, he and the priests dressed in damask vestments (from damask - colored silk fabric with different patterns and divorces), and at the liturgy - in pearl ones. At Matins, at the beginning of the first hour, an anointing with consecrated oil (anointing with oil) was performed.

September 14 - Exaltation of the Holy Cross. On the eve of the feast of the Exaltation, the sacristan laid the cross on the altar. When the bells began to ring for Vespers, the priest would put on robes and, together with the deacon, would incense the cross. At Vespers, after singing the troparion and kontakion to the Cross, the priest laid the cross on his head and transferred it to the throne, to the gospel place, and the Gospel was transferred to the High Place. A lit candle was placed in front of the cross for the whole night. This custom has its own historical explanation. The lamp, lit in front of the cross all night on the eve of the Exaltation, recalls the radiant light, among which the cross appeared in Heaven to the Byzantine Emperor Constantine the Great (Debolsky, Ch. 1, p. 90).

The court historian of the emperor, Eusebius of Caesarea, tells about this miracle as follows. Constantine the Great was going to fight Maxentius, but his forces were much weaker than the enemy's army. The emperor, realizing that he needed help from above, pondered which God to call for his help. And then one day at midday, Konstantin and his army saw “a sign of the cross made up of light and lying in the sun with the inscription: this (this. - E.R.) win. This spectacle filled with horror both himself and the whole army, which, not knowing where, followed him and continued to contemplate the miracle that had appeared ”(Eusebius Pamphilus, p. 44).

The Feast of the Exaltation itself is associated with the finding in 326 by Empress Helen (the mother of Emperor Constantine) of the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. The Empress, the Jerusalem Patriarch Macarius and many people worshiped the acquired cross on Golgotha, but due to the large gathering of people, not everyone could see the Life-Giving Cross. And then Patriarch Macarius, taking the cross, began to erect (raise) it, showing it to the people. And Christians, seeing the cross, prayed with reverence: “Lord, have mercy!”

The rite of the Exaltation of the Cross in the monasteries was performed by the hegumen or the priest who served Matins. When the choir sang the great doxology, the abbot put on robes, and during the last chant, “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us!” put a dish with a cross on his head and left the altar through the northern doors. Two lamps were solemnly carried in front of him. At this time, the Royal Doors were opened. The abbot laid the cross on a lectern, arranged in the middle of the church in front of the Royal Doors, and, taking the censer from the deacon, censed the cross in the form of a cross, then bowed to the cross three times to the ground. The deacon exclaimed: “Forgive me wisdom,” and the choir sang the troparion to the Cross three times: “Save, O Lord, your people,” the deacon proclaimed the litany, after which the abbot, standing with the cross in front of the lectern, facing the east, loudly said: “Have mercy on us, O God "And erected a cross on the four cardinal directions: first to the east, then to the south, to the west, to the north and again to the east. The rite of exaltation was accompanied by the singing of "Lord have mercy." This rank had an interesting feature in the Antoniev-Siysky Monastery. When the priest erected the cross, the deacons, putting a towel under his bosoms, held it by the ends (Dmitrievsky, p. 150).

After five times the erection of the cross while singing the kontakion to the holiday “Ascended to the Cross by Will”, he relied on the diskos lying on the lectern. The abbot and the priests kissed the cross and asked for forgiveness with a bow to the ground at the kliros and left through the Royal Doors to the altar. Further, the brethren approached the kissing of the cross in twos: having kissed the cross, the monks also asked for forgiveness from the kliros. And the fraternal choir sang the troparion to the Cross all the time until the end of the kiss. On the very day of the feast, the abbot served the liturgy in pearl robes. The cross lay on the lectern until the holiday was over - until September 21, on this day, after mass, the priest and deacon carried the cross to the altar (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 48v. - 50v.).

The great holiday, as mentioned above, in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery was the day of the repose of St. Sergius of Radonezh - September 25th. The rite of worship on this day was performed in the same way as on the great feast: an all-night vigil with anointing with oil was served, all the bells were rung for the service. In the morning they performed a “monastic prayer service” (more solemn than an ordinary one), and the abbot served the liturgy with the entire “cathedral”. The brethren on the feast of St. Sergius relied on a lot of food, as on the twelfth feasts.

The Feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos (October 1) has always been a great and beloved holiday in Russia. The Greek Church did not know him. On the eve of Vespers in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, all the bells rang, and Matins was served with a polyeleos. On the day of the feast, a monastery prayer service was performed, but the liturgy was performed not by a “council” with the abbot, but by a “profitable priest” - from those whom the monastery sometimes hired to perform divine services.

On the eve of the feast of the Presentation of the Most Holy Theotokos, which took place on November 20, only two bells rang in the evening, the brethren did not eat anything that day until vespers, except for one prosphora, and they did not drink kvass before mephimon ("the cellar does not call to the cellar"). The next day, on the eve of the feast itself, Vespers were served. All monks wore “long” (long) mantles for service. At nine o'clock in the morning, that is, about four in the morning, after waking up all the bells were rung for Midnight Office, then Matins and Mass were served.

Then came the turn of the greatest holiday - the Nativity of Christ (December 25). On the last day before the holiday, the eve of the Nativity of Christ is celebrated, testifying to the special importance of the upcoming celebration. On the evening of eve, the hours called Tsar's are performed, because in ancient times during this divine service they sang many years to the kings (Debolsky. T. 1. C 32). The ancient custom of the Greek Church was also adopted in Russia, in some monasteries longevity - "Ordinary many years" was performed at the Royal Hours, in others - at the end of Vespers. The sexton, while reading the 33rd psalm, placed a lighted candle in front of the Royal Doors. At the end of the psalm, the deacon proclaimed: "Wisdom." The right choir sang: “It is worthy to eat”, the left one: “Glory now”, “Lord have mercy” (twice), “Lord bless”. After the dismissal, the left kliros sang the troparion to the feast, the right kliros sang the kontakion, and then the left kliros sang many years: “God will arrange for many years our noble, Christ-loving, God-chosen princes for many years.” Then followed the Metropolitan's many years: "O God, arrange for many years, our Grace, the Metropolitan of Kiev of All Russia, for many years." And at the end, the wish for many years was addressed to the hegumen and the brethren: “Save, Christ God, our reverend father (name), with all his brethren in Christ” (Dmitrievsky, p. 159).

The Royal Hours are performed at the open Royal Doors, in the midst of the temple, in front of the Gospel laid on the lectern, as if as a sign that the Savior is no longer hidden, as once in the darkness of the den, but shines on all peoples. An hour before the evening, that is, about four in the evening, they served the Liturgy of Basil the Great and Vespers (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 59). Such a late celebration of the liturgy on Christmas Eve is a feature of the ancient monastic services; at present, the liturgy is never served so late. After Liturgy and Vespers "at the third hour of the night", that is, at the seventh hour of the evening according to our calculation, a meal was served "by candlelight" (Volokolamsky obikhodnik, p. 11). According to the monastery charter, such a meal was supposed only on the eve of Christmas and Epiphany (Epiphany). It is clear that any evening meal was held by candlelight. But this special indication of the typikon emphasizes the solemnity of the atmosphere of the meal, during which, apparently, many candles were lit. Since a meal in a monastery is always closely connected with divine services, such a character of the meal had its own theological meaning. The theme of light literally permeates the hymns of the Christmas service: "Your Christmas, Christ our God, the rise of the world, the light of reason."

After the meal, the brethren dispersed to their cells. On the feast of Christmas itself, an all-night vigil was held in the Volokolamsk Monastery: before reading the Gospel, the abbot with the entire cathedral put on “large fathoms,” and the ecclesiarch distributed candles to the brethren and laity. And in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery they served great vespers and at the end of the ninth hour of the night (about four in the morning) matins. Prayer service and mass were served at the first hour of the day (that is, at the sixth or seventh hour in the morning according to our calculation).

The service on Epiphany (January 6) was performed in the same order as on Christmas, for these two holidays are inextricably linked and form, as it were, one celebration. In the stichera of the service for the feast of Epiphany, the Church says so: “Let us pass from Bethlehem to the Jordan” (Debolsky, Book 1, p. 58). In ancient times, the Epiphany was also called the "feast of lights", "holy lights" or "enlightenment". If in His Nativity the Son of God appeared still “in secret” (the words of the blessed Jerome), then on the day of Baptism this Divine light became revealed to everyone. When the Savior was baptized in the waters of the Jordan, a phenomenon occurred Holy Trinity. “God the Father appeared from the open heavens, testifying with a voice about Christ who was baptized: “This is my beloved Son, and I am well pleased with him” (Matt. 3, 17). And confirming the voice of God the Father, the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove. The Divine nature of the Savior, who “entered into his open ministry for the redemption of the world” (Debolsky, vol. 1, p. 54), was revealed especially solemnly on that day. Therefore, the theme of light, which seemed to just flare up in Christmas hymns, becomes dominant in the service to the feast of the Epiphany.

Baptism is preceded by the celebration of the Eve, called Epiphany Christmas Eve. They rang for Liturgy two hours before evening, that is, about three o'clock in the afternoon, and for Vespers - one hour before evening (about four o'clock). After the liturgy and vespers in the temple, the abbot, dressed in festive vestments, blessed the water. Having laid a dish with a cross on his head, he went out through the northern doors of the altar into the church, in front were the deacons with candles, and behind the priests and deacons without skufei. During the consecration of water, priests and kliros monks stood with lighted candles. After the great consecration of the water, the cross was placed next to the Gospel on the lectern. After kissing the cross, the brethren took communion with holy water and ate antidoron. In the Volokolamsk monastery, all the brethren, having consecrated the water, went to the refectory. Here one priest "marked" the monks with a cross, and another sprinkled them with water. Then the monks ate antidor (particles of prosphora, from which the Lamb is taken out on the proskomedia) and blessed water, after which the dismissal of the service was pronounced.

On the eve of the holiday itself, an all-night vigil was performed in the Volokolamsky Monastery. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, matins began at half past eight in the morning (that is, at half past three in the morning). Emphasizing the theological meaning of the holiday, all the lamps were lit during the service. So, for example, in the obikhodnik of the Volokolamsk monastery, it is specifically stipulated that all chandeliers should burn in the church during the service of the Epiphany, and not only the brethren, but also the laity should stand with lit candles (Volokolamsky obikhodnik, p. 12).

After the vigil or matins at the second hour of the day (that is, at the seventh or eighth hour of the morning according to our calculation), the brethren marched in the procession (“from the cross”) with bells ringing, the light of lamps and the singing of festive hymns to the Jordan - a hole in the river, carved crosswise . Here a great consecration of water was performed in remembrance of the Baptism of Jesus Christ "in the waters of the Jordan." The priest, reading the prayer "Great be the Lord," blessed the water three times with his hand. Deacons with three lit candles in their hands stood at the “Jordan”, when the priest said a petition: “Yourself and now, Lord, sanctify this water with your Holy Spirit and fire”, burning candles were immersed in water (Gorsky. S. 77-78). This action symbolized the descent into the water of the Holy Spirit, which descended on the apostles on the day of Pentecost in the form of fiery tongues (Odintsov, p. 291–292).

At the end of the rite, the Cross was immersed in water three times with the prayer “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” as a sign that the Lord, accepting baptism, plunged into the Jordan three times. At the end of the great consecration of the water, they sang troparia to the Cross. Returning from the Jordan to the temple, the brethren, led by the hegumen, served the whole cathedral with a festive prayer service. After the prayer service, the priest sprinkled the monks and laity with Epiphany water. This was followed by mass, which was performed by the abbot with the cathedral. The blessed water was usually sent to the sovereign.

The Feast of the Presentation (February 2) was established by the Church in remembrance of the meeting (candlemas) righteous old man Simeon and the infant Christ, whom, after the completion of forty days from the Nativity, the Virgin Mary and Joseph brought to the temple for dedication to God. On the day of the Meeting, taking the Christ Child in his arms, the elder Simeon (who was called the God-bearer) testified before everyone that the Child he holds in his arms is the Lord himself. According to church tradition, the feast of the Candlemas began to be solemnly celebrated under the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (527-565) after the tragic events that shook the empire. First, a terrible ten-day earthquake occurred in Antioch, a few years later a pestilence spread in Constantinople and its environs, which claimed thousands of lives. By revelation from above, an all-night vigil was performed for the feast of the Presentation and the procession, after which the disasters ceased (Debolsky, Part 1, p. 52). In Russian monasteries (for example, in Volokolamsk, Kirillo-Belozersky), the custom was preserved after all-night vigil or matins to make a procession around the monastery with the singing of the litia and the canon of the holiday, at the statues (stops) litanies (petitions) were read for the bestowal of health, salvation and peace on the right-believing princes and princesses, the brethren of the monastery and all Orthodox Christians. The solemnity of the Candlemas Procession was emphasized by the fact that all the monks who had previously served in short robes changed into long robes for the Procession, which were not even worn for every twelfth feast. After the procession, everyone returned to the temple and performed Mass.

The Feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos usually falls on Great Lent (in rare cases it may coincide with Easter). On the eve of the holiday, an all-night vigil was served in the Volokolamsky Monastery, the abbot dressed in white robes, all the priests - in “kamchatka”. Matins in Kirillo-Belozersky began with an angelic doxology, sung at the Nativity of the Savior: “Glory to God on high and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). After the kathisma, the most solemn part of matins began - polyeleos. Before singing the magnificence of the feast, the brethren handed out candles. The great doxology was not sung at this service, as on other holidays. After the service, at the second hour of the day (that is, at eight o'clock in the morning according to our calculation), as on the feast of the Presentation, the brethren made a procession around the monastery, they offered litanies at the statues, after the procession everyone returned to the church for mass. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, the abbot and priests served mass in pearl robes.

Movable holiday circle

The movable circle of holidays (triode circle) begins with three preparatory weeks for Great Lent. This is followed by six weeks of Great Lent, Holy Week, seven weeks of Pentecost, and the circle ends with the week after Pentecost. Now in service preparatory weeks penitential verses are sung: “Open the doors of repentance, Giver of Life.” In former times, only one stichera was sung at this time: "Many misdeeds." The last, called Syrny, week before the Holy Fortecost ends with a Sunday dedicated to the memory of the expulsion of the forefathers - Adam and Eve from paradise. At the liturgy, with the words of the Gospel, the Church teaches everyone that in order to receive forgiveness from God for your sins, you must first of all forgive your neighbors: “For if you forgive a man their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matt. 6:14-20).

Vespers on Sunday of Cheese Week was already celebrated in black Lenten vestments. In ancient times, the Egyptian hermits gathered on Cheese Week for the last time for a common service and, asking forgiveness from each other, went into the wilderness to perform the feat of Forty in prayer and silence. In the week of Vaii they returned to the monastery. This custom of forgiveness before Great Lent was preserved in the subsequent history of the Church. The rite of forgiveness had interesting features in Russian monasteries. In the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, it was performed like this. After the dismissal of Vespers, an image of the Most Holy Theotokos was placed on the lectern. The archimandrite kissed the shrine of St. Sergius and the lectern icon, then asked for forgiveness, bowing down to the ground, to the monks on kliros. The archimandrite was followed by priests in twos and brethren in twos. Having kissed the reliquary and the icon, they asked for forgiveness from the archimandrite (he blessed them with his hand) and from the kliros. During the rank, the images were only applied, but not kissed. Then the monks asked for forgiveness from the cellar, the treasurer, and from each other. All this time the choir sang penitential stichera. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, the rite of forgiveness was performed at the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, which, after the funeral litia, was taken out to the middle of the temple for kissing. The brethren walked in pairs and said goodbye at the kliros. If someone, due to illness, could not be present in the temple, then the abbot went to say goodbye to him in his cell.

Grievances for the year really accumulated a lot. In one manuscript of the 16th century, which belonged to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, among the texts of the services there are very unusual verses set to music. The verses are called “I live and how I endure” (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 649/906. L. 142–144). This is a lamentable complaint of a kliros monk against the abbot, the cellar, the podkelarniks and chashniki, that is, against the entire monastic authorities. The monk complains that they live in a foreign land. The abbot, the cellarer and the podkelarniki reproach and reproach them for any trifle, and themselves, having fallen into the sins of self-love, stinginess and fraternal hatred, do indecent deeds: they do not eat various dishes at the appointed time, but they don’t give the monks even the thin ones, they themselves drink wine, and they they do not receive a single cup, they boast of the wealth of clothes, but the poor and strangers are not merciful and offended. The verses end with a prayer: “Lord, the King of Heaven, Christ our God, give us patience against their insult and deliver them from violence and save us, Lord, as a lover of mankind” (Ibid. L. 144). Murmuring against the hegumen and the cathedral elders was a grave sin for the monk, and it is also clear that the author of the poems is a monk clearly not of an ascetic mentality. But different people came to the monasteries, there were also faint-hearted ones. Like any human collective, the monastery did not avoid contradictions and clashes of interests and characters. AND the best way their solution was repentance and forgiveness of each other.

At the evening meal, after the rite of forgiveness, the Trinity Archimandrite treated all the brethren, servants and servants of the monastery with honey, as if as a sign that no bitterness of resentment remained in the hearts of the monks before Great Lent. This meal was performed very solemnly. The monks sat at the table during the meal, the choir sang verses, the deacon held a large lighted candle, and the archimandrite went around everyone: first the priests, then the choir monks and the rest of the brethren. Each he served two ladles of honey: "scalded" and molasses. Then he sat down on a bench covered with a carpet, servants approached him and also received a ladle of honey (Gorsky, p. 383).

In the Volokolamsk Monastery, after Vespers, the abbot visited in the cells of all the weak and sick who could not come to the temple. On the same day, the hegumen made sure to visit all the suffering and elderly elders in the Bogoradny Monastery. “This bo is our urgent duty,” it is said in the daily routine of the monastery, “the most necessary of all other affairs. For the sake of this, we ourselves will be pardoned” (Gorsky, p. 393).

The monastic feat, the meaning of which is the labors of repentance and the salvation of one's own soul, is even more aggravated during Great Lent. “My soul, my soul, wake up, that you are sleeping, the end is approaching” - in these heartfelt and bitter words there is an appeal and hope that the soul will be able to shake off sleepy slumber in sins and the labors of repentance will be crowned with success: Christ God."

On the first week of Great Lent, all the gates of the monastery, large and small, were closed until Friday. None of the monastery servants or guests entered the monastery. On Monday of the first week at nine o'clock in the morning (about five o'clock in the morning according to our calculation) they called for morning, then the hours followed. The services of the first week were performed in the same order as now. Four days - on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - according to the charter, they served Great Compline with the Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. On Wednesday and Friday, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was served. Mass began at four o'clock in the afternoon (that is, about ten in the morning). The trapeznik “stored” dill for the service, and the image of the Most Holy Theotokos was placed for kissing in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. After the kiss, the brethren asked for forgiveness from the serving priest, but on the mephimons of the first week of Lent (until Friday) they did not ask for forgiveness, as was usually the case in monasteries. On Friday, at mass, the same rite of forgiveness was performed as on Forgiveness Sunday; confession on this day was also performed on mephimon.

On Friday, after the liturgy, which began half an hour earlier than on Wednesday, they sang a canon to the Great Martyr Theodore Stratilates and the priest consecrated “kutya” (kolivo, sochivo - wheat boiled with honey). After the consecration, the priest distributed antidor and kutya to the monks. The custom of eating coliva Orthodox Church is an expression of faith in the resurrection from the dead, likened to a seed, which, being thrown into the ground, although it undergoes corruption, but then grows and bears perfect fruit. In some monasteries, while eating the koliva, they read the psalm “I will bless the Lord at all times” (in the Cyril Monastery it was read immediately after the liturgy, even before the consecration of the koliva).

The first week (week) of Great Lent is called Fedorova in honor of St. Theodore Tyrone in the everyday life of Russian monasteries. The Sunday of this week is called the Triumph of Orthodoxy. The service on this day recalls the dramatic events of the struggle for holy icons in the Byzantine Empire. In 727, Emperor Leo the Isaurian issued a decree forbidding the veneration of icons. A terrible era of iconoclasm began in the empire, which continued intermittently for more than a hundred years. Holy icons and relics were thrown into swamps, into the sea and into all sorts of unclean places, chopped with axes, frescoes and mosaics were destroyed, icon worshipers were tortured, killed and exiled. Byzantine monasteries were deserted, the monks were forced to flee to the hinterland of the empire.

The last of the persecutors of holy icons was Emperor Theophilus. At the end of his life, he suffered a cruel illness, from which his mouth opened up to the very larynx. Theophilus' wife, the pious Empress Theodora, saw in a dream the Most Holy Theotokos surrounded by a host of angels who inflicted numerous wounds on Theophilus. Theophilus kept nodding his head and shouting: “Woe to me, poor man! They beat me for not worshiping icons, they torture me for disrespect for them” (Debolsky, Part 2, p. 86). In 842, after the death of the emperor, Theodora ordered the release of all prisoners who had suffered for the veneration of icons. Having restored icon veneration, the empress asked Patriarch Methodius of Constantinople to pray for her husband, so that the Lord would forgive him the sin of iconoclasm. Since then, according to the charter of the Church, during the Fortecost after hours in the porch of the temples, litias are performed for the departed. Saturday is a special memorial day. So, in the Volokolamsk Monastery, as in other Russian monasteries, every Saturday of Great Lent (except Great Lent), before mass, the abbot served a memorial service with the whole cathedral.

The restoration of icon veneration in Byzantium was marked by a solemn procession with icons on the first Sunday of Great Lent, after which an anathema was pronounced against the persecutors of holy icons with a large gathering of people. Since then, according to the charter of the Church, on the eve of the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, an all-night vigil is performed. At a festive service in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, they read the "Word" about the appearance of the Most Pure Mother of God to Queen Theodora, which was called this: "If anyone does not bow to the image written on the icon, let him be damned." It was read to the end on Monday morning (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 88–88 v.).

Every Sunday of Great Lent, according to the church charter, the liturgy of St. Basil the Great is served. At this liturgy, it is supposed to sing the meritorious “For you rejoice, rejoiced, every creature, the angelic cathedral and the human race.” Once, during the performance of this hymn, the Monk Eleazar of Anzersk was rewarded with a vision of the Most Holy Theotokos. First, She stood at the left kliros facing the temple. When they sang “Rejoices in you”, the Mother of God moved to the center of the temple and stood like that until the end of the verse. Having sung a prayer, the monks, as usual, bowed to the altar, the Blessed Virgin bowed to the monks and became invisible (Krushelnitskaya, p. 332).

Especially solemnly in the monasteries, the third week of Great Lent - the Adoration of the Cross - was always celebrated. On the eve of the Week of the Cross, as on the Feast of the Exaltation, the cross was left on the throne all night, and a lit candle was placed in front of it. On the morning of the festive service, during the singing of the Great Doxology, the abbot, dressed in "large Lenten" vestments, carried the cross to the lectern and incense with a large censer, after which all the brethren venerated the cross. On Monday of the fourth week of Lent, the priest with the deacon brought out the cross for veneration at the meal. The priest censed the cross and sang the troparion to the cross three times with the whole sacred cathedral, after which the choir also sang the troparion three times, then the stichera and again the troparion, during which the brethren approached the cross to kiss. After kissing, the cross was taken to the temple. The same rite was performed on Tuesday. On Friday of the fourth week, the cross was carried out at the beginning of the service of the hours. At the sixth hour, the deacon censed the cross, the abbot sang the troparion to the cross three times, the choir repeated the troparion three times, the stichera and again the troparion, the brethren approached the kissing of the cross, and the psalmist began to read the ninth hour, after kissing the cross was taken to the altar (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 89-89v.).

At Matins on Thursday of the fifth week of Lent, according to the Rule, the Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete and the Life of St. Mary of Egypt are read in full. Vespers in the Volokolamsk and Kirillo-Belozersky monasteries began at four in the morning (that is, at eleven or twelve in the morning according to our calculation). Four bells rang for the service. After Vespers, "without spending on the cells," they served Matins. Before the canon in all monasteries they read the "word" from the works of St. Ephraim the Syrian. In the Nilo-Sorsky skete, the service of the Great Canon was held in the refectory church. The brother, standing in the middle of the meal, read the canon placed on the lectern, and all the rest in silence made prostrations (RNL. Soph. No. 1519. L. 74-74v.). In large monasteries, the canonarch read the canon. Before each song of the canon, the refrain was sung: “Lord, hear the prayer of your servant,” and on each verse of the canon, three prostrations were supposed to be made. The life of St. Mary of Egypt was divided into two parts: the first was read after the third ode of the canon, and the second after the sixth. On the seventh ode of the canon, the prologue and synaxarium were read. After Matins, for the sake of "vigilant labour," the liturgy of the presanctified gifts was served.

On Saturday of the fifth week of Great Lent, the Church celebrates the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos, and an akathist to the Mother of God is sung at the festive service, which is why the holiday is also called the Saturday of the Akathist. On the eve served mephimon lesser. All the bells, except for the big one, rang for the vigil at the end of the fifth hour (about one in the morning). Akathist in the morning is not sung all at once, but is divided into four exits, each exit begins with the first kontakion of the Chosen Governor. Before reading the akathist, in the middle of the temple, a lit candle was placed on a candlestick, on which a censer with lit incense and incense still hung. The canon was read in front of the lectern, on which lay the Gospel. During the first ikos, the abbot or priest would put on vestments, and a carpet was spread under the feet of the abbot, on which he and the priests stood while reading the akathist. The songs of the canon of Matins were sung, but not spoken, while singing the initial kontakion “The Chosen Governor”, ​​the ecclesiarch censed the entire church (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 92 ob-93). In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, the words: “Rejoice, Unbrided Bride” were first sung by the right kliros, and “Hallelujah” by the left, then vice versa. The kontakion to "The Chosen Governor" was repeated by both kliros in the middle of the temple. At the end of the Akathist service, the Gospel was taken to the altar, and the brethren said goodbye at the kliros.

On Friday of the sixth week on the eve of Lazarus Saturday, many readings were offered at the monastery services from the patericon, the "Ladder" of St. Saint Ephraim Sirin, who among the Fathers of the Church is called the "teacher of repentance." Passion Week was approaching, and the heartfelt words of the holy fathers were to once again remind the monastics of repentance before the great and terrible events of the last week of Great Lent.

the day before Holy Week The Church celebrates the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. On this day, the Church remembers how the Lord entered Jerusalem into His suffering and death, and the people met Him as the conqueror of hell and death, because before the Entrance to Jerusalem, the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead. The Gospel tells how in front of Christ, meekly walking on a young colt, people spread their clothes, cut the branches of date palms and joyfully exclaimed: “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, king of Israel, hosanna in the highest." In ancient times, the date was a symbol of victory, the branches of date palms greeted the kings who returned with victory. In the 4th-5th centuries, a tradition appeared in the worship of the Church to celebrate the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem with palm branches and candles, so the holiday was called the “Week of Vay”, or “Flower-bearing Week”. St. Cyril of Alexandria, in his word for the week of Vaii, says this about this custom: “We will take our candles of light, we will change the clothes of our souls; we will carry the branches like victorious ones ”(Debolsky. T. 2. P. 125).

In Russia, palm branches and flowers were replaced by willow, and the holiday itself was colloquially called Palm Sunday. On the eve of the holiday, an all-night vigil was served in the Volokolamsky Monastery, and in Kirillo-Belozersky - Vespers and Matins with Midnight Office. At Matins, during the magnificence, the rector censed the temple, the deacon walked in front with a candle in his right hand and with a “silver palm” in his left. The sexton at that time spread carpets on the kliros, on which the abbot and priests sat during the “readings” from the works of the holy fathers. Before the Gospel in the Volokolamsk monastery, the brethren of the monastery and the laity were handed out candles, they burned to a great doxology, they were extinguished only during the "readings".

After kissing the Gospel, the abbot distributed to all the priests, brethren and laity the previously consecrated willow, with which everyone standing in the church, as it were, went out to meet the Lord, glorified in the hymns of the canon of Matins. Such a tradition apparently existed in all monasteries, even in sketes; it is described, for example, in the rule of the all-night vigil of the Nilo-Sorsky skete. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, the abbot handed out candles not in magnificence, but along with willow after the Gospel before the canon. After Matins, at the seventh or eighth hour of the morning (according to our calculation), in the monasteries, as on the holidays of the Presentation and the Annunciation, the procession was performed, all its participants carried willows in their hands (Dmitrievsky, p. 207). Mass on this day was also served in white vestments.

was advancing Holy Week. After the Entrance to Jerusalem, according to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus Christ visited the Jerusalem temple every day, working miracles and teaching the people. To listen to him, people gathered from the very morning (Lk. 21, 37-38). At this time, among other teachings, he said: “Take heed to yourselves, but not when your hearts are burdened with gluttony and drunkenness and the sorrows of life” (Lk. 21, 34-36). Therefore, during Holy Week, according to the charter of the Church, a special fast is established. In ancient times, the monastery gates were closed, and none of the laity entered the monastery until Great Saturday, so that no anxieties and cares of life would disturb the monks.

On Great Monday and Great Wednesday, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was served. On Great Wednesday, when the Church commemorates the betrayal of Christ by Judas, during the Divine Liturgy of the ninth hour in monasteries (for example, in the Nilo-Sorsky skete, the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery) they read the word of St. Ephraim the Syrian about Joseph the Beautiful. The life of Joseph (Gen. 37, 39-50), sold into slavery by his own brothers, foreshadowed, according to the interpretation of St. Ephraim, the first coming of Christ, betrayed and crucified, and His Second Coming in glory for the Last Judgment on mankind (The Creations of St. Ephraim the Syrian pp. 29).

On Maundy Thursday the Church remembers last supper when the sacrament of Holy Communion was established by Jesus Christ. The day before, on Great Wednesday, as on Forgiveness Sunday, the monks asked for forgiveness from each other. After the dismissal of the service of the ninth hour, the turn of the usual “earthly forgiveness” began: the brethren with an earthly bow “parted” to each other. After that, the abbot offered litanies for all Orthodox Christians and asked for forgiveness from the brethren, and they, in turn, answered him: “God forgive and have mercy on all of us.” Then the monks, two by two, said goodbye to the hegumen, saying this: “Forgive me, holy father, and bless the sinner, who (for the fact that. - E.R.) have sinned all the days of my stomach and in the night, and all the holy Forty days in word and deed, and in thought, in mind and ignorance (ignorance. - E.R.), and all my feelings (feelings. - E.R.) ”(RNB. Sof. No. 1519. L. 82–82 vol. ). Before the upcoming service of Maundy Thursday, the bookkeeper prepared some kind of “lists”, apparently, they listed all those who took communion (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 100v.).

On Wednesday evening, a large mephimon served, behind which they prayed for all the departed Orthodox Christians. So, having prayed for everyone and forgiving everyone, living and dead, their sins, the brethren entered the day of the Last Supper, fulfilling the covenant of the Savior, who said: "("But if you do not forgive, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses") (Mark 11:26). In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, by morning, ordinary bells rang at six o'clock in the morning (about three in the morning according to our calculation). Matins began with the Six Psalms, after which they read a troparion, restrained in their grief, about the apostles who communed at the Last Supper and Judas, who at that time was plotting his terrible betrayal. After the troparion, everyone attentively listened to the reading from the words of St. John Chrysostom: “May there not be a single Judas here, not a single lover of money. If anyone is not a disciple of Christ, let him depart; the meal does not admit those who are not from among the disciples. For Christ says: “I will make Easter with My disciples” (Matt. 26:18)” (Debolsky, Part 2, p. 143).

After Matins, they read the rule for communicants and rang small bells for confession. At two o'clock in the afternoon (about nine in the morning), deaf blows on the beat called the brethren to the service of the clock, who spoke simply, without reading "Blessed" and without the Apostle. At the end of the fifth hour of the day (about twelve in the afternoon) they called for mass. On this day, the abbot himself served mass, and all the brethren took communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Before mass in the Volokolamsk monastery they still served a memorial service. The memory of the Last Supper was such a significant event for every monk that on this day the Solovetsky hermits, who lived in secret seclusion on the islands, gathered in a monastery to partake of the Holy Mysteries. The life of St. Zosima of Solovetsky tells how the hermit Herman, who came to the monastery church on Maundy Thursday, was surprised to see the long-dead St. Zosima standing among the brethren. The monk said to Herman: "Go and take communion." After the end of communion, the saint became invisible (Yakhontov, pp. 271–272).

On Maundy Thursday, the Church also commemorates the washing of the feet of the apostles performed by Jesus Christ. “Inspiring that in the Kingdom of God, which is not of this world, not earthly greatness and glory, but love, humility and purity of spirit distinguish true members, the Lord, having risen from supper, washed the feet of his disciples” (Debolsky. T. 2. C .141). In some monasteries, after the liturgy, during the reading of the Gospel, a special rite of sacred washing of the feet was performed; in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, it was performed by the archimandrite.

On Vedic Friday morning they "sang the passions", that is, they read twelve gospel readings called the Passion Gospels - "the gospel of the suffering and death of the God-man." On the eve of the service in the Volokolamsk monastery, all the bells rang, in the Kirillov - two bells. Matins began at five in the morning (about two in the morning). After the Six Psalms, the troparion was read three times and candles were distributed to the brethren. The hegumen and the priests put on “lenten damask” vestments and, each time leaving one by one, read the Gospel (the hegumen necessarily read the first and last Gospel). The deacons censed the kliros and all the brethren. Before each reading of the Gospel and after it, they sang "Glory to Thy passion, Lord." Listening to the words of the Gospel, the monks held lit candles in their hands, which symbolized “the triumph and glory that accompanied the Son of God and during His extreme humiliation amidst reproach and suffering and testified to His highest holiness and Divinity” (Debolsky. T. 2. P. 141 ). After the seventh gospel, the prologue and synaxarion were read.

In the Nilo-Sorsky skete, at the sixth hour of the night (at the first hour of the night, according to our calculation), the sexton rang the bell, put a lectern covered with pavolok in the middle of the church. The priest, holding a candle in his hand, rang the bell, calling the brethren to service. When the monks were going to the temple, the priest put on himself an epitrachelion, handrails and vestments and, taking the Holy Gospel, carried it to the meal. A sexton walked ahead with a candle, behind all the brethren. The gospel relied on the lectern, the priest censed the gospel, and matins began (RNB, Soph. No. 1519.L. 85-85v.).

On Good Friday at five o'clock in the afternoon (that is, at the twelfth hour of the day according to our calculation) in the Volokolamsk monastery, blows were heard on a wooden beater, first in a small one, then in a large one. The brethren were summoned to church for the Royal Hours, which comprise the Divine Liturgy of the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours. When all the monks gathered in the temple, the abbot with the priests, taking the relics of the saints from the Assumption Cathedral, carried them on silver dishes on their heads to the meal. At this time, all the bells were ringing in the monastery. At the meal, tables were prepared, on both sides of which two twisted candles burned, in the center between the tables stood a large Crucifix, in front of it a third twisted candle burned. Silver dishes with relics were placed on the tables. Here, in the meal, the whole cathedral sang the Royal Hours. At the end of the service of the ninth hour, the monks first kissed the Crucifix, then the relics. During the kiss, the choir sang the verse "Come, let us all please", then they performed the leave of the ninth hour. The relics were carried to the Assumption Cathedral, the deacon proclaimed the litany here, and followed the holidays.

In the Nilo-Sorsky skete, for the Royal Hours, the brethren, having heard blows on the “board” (beat), gathered at three o’clock in the afternoon (at ten in the morning according to our calculation). During the divine service of the ninth hour in the monasteries, the word of St. Ephraim the Syrian "On the great passions of the Lord" was read (RNL. Sof. No. 1519. L. 88).

The Church sanctifies the time of the removal from the Cross of the Body of Christ on Good Friday with Great Vespers, which consists of prophetic, apostolic and gospel readings about the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. In the Nilo-Sorsky skete, it began two hours before night (that is, around eight in the evening). In the Volokolamsk Monastery, Vespers were performed in the Assumption Cathedral, all the bells called the brethren to the service. Vespers was served at the open Royal Doors. The priest, standing at the gate, read the Gospel, which was held before him by the deacon. In our time, on Good Friday, the Holy Shroud is taken out of the altar for veneration by believers. In former times, the Shroud remained in the altar on this day. Great Compline, at which the canon called "Lamentations of the Most Holy Theotokos" is read, was read by the monks in their cells.

V Great Saturday The Church remembers the bodily burial of Jesus Christ and His descent into hell. On the morning of Great Saturday, the image of the burial of Christ is performed. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, matins began at six o'clock in the morning (about two in the morning). Compline and the beginning of Matins in the Volokolamsk and Cyril monasteries were served at a meal. After the Six Psalms, the sexton distributed candles to the brethren. In the middle of the meal, the choir sang the 17th - funerary kathisma, divided into three articles (parts), the psalms were supplemented with stichera and readings from the works of Saints George of Nicomedia and Gregory of Antioch. During the singing of the kathisma, the abbot with the priests came out in the middle of the meal and stood in front of the lectern, on which lay the icon of the Entombment. During the singing of the magnification, the abbot censed the meal, and the brethren lit candles (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 103-103v.).

On the ninth ode of the canon, the abbot and brethren with candles went to the cathedral, where the service continued. After a great doxology, the priests, reverently taking the “Holy Air” (the Shroud) and laying it on their heads, with the tomb singing “Holy God”, carried the Shroud from the altar to the altar, and then to the temple. Deacons walked in front, censing the Shroud, and sexton with large twisted candles. The abbot brought the Holy Gospel to the rear of the procession. The Shroud was carried slowly - "stiffly", while the singing of "Holy God" continued. The lit candles literally illustrated the words of the church hymns of Great Saturday, which call the tomb of Christ the brightest, for it is the source of our Resurrection (Debolsky, vol. 2, p. 168).

When another kliros began to sing "Holy God", the whole procession entered the altar through the Royal Doors. In some monasteries, the air and the Gospel were placed in the center of the temple for kissing by the brethren, and then carried away to the altar. Here the Shroud and the Gospel were relied upon on the altar, the air covered the altar throughout Paschal week until Saturday (Dmitrievsky, p. 222). The burial rite was followed by the reading of proverbs, the Apostle, and the Gospel. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, after the dismissal of Matins, the abbot, priests and deacons, dressed in robes, approached the altar to kiss the Shroud. At this time, the choir sang "Come, let us please all." The rest of the brethren, two by two, approached the kissing of the icon "The Entombment" (the Cyril monks did not kiss the Shroud), near which the tomb canon was performed. Then priests, deacons and abbots came out to kiss the icon.

At ten o'clock in the afternoon (that is, about four o'clock in the afternoon) all the bells were rung in the monastery, Vespers and the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great were served. At the same time (four hours before nightfall - at four days) Vespers and Liturgy were served in the Nilo-Sorsky Skete. At Vespers, 15 proverbs are read, containing prophecies about the humiliation of the Lord and about His Divine glorification. The liturgy on Holy Saturday is celebrated later than the liturgies of all days of the year. She announces to everyone about the approaching time of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The abbot and priests at the very beginning of Vespers dressed in festive white robes, which symbolized the eve of Paschal joy. Now the priests begin the service in black Lenten robes, and only after reading the Apostle, while singing “Rise, O God, judge the earth,” they put on white robes. The liturgy ended at about eight o'clock in the evening. Since fasting on Good Saturday is as strict as on Good Friday (those who could afford it did not eat anything), the Church decided at the end of the Liturgy to bless five loaves of bread for bodily reinforcement of the faithful. In the monastery of St. Joseph Volotsky, after the dismissal of the liturgy, the priest performed a prayer over five loaves, illuminating the rolls and kvass brought in, which were placed in the middle of the temple. Then kalachi and kvass were carried to the refectory, here the brethren in silence (at this meal, as usual, they did not read the lives and teachings of the holy fathers), sitting down in their places, they received from the trapezians each half-kalach and “a small measure of honey kvass” and, having tasted them dispersed to their cells. In the Nilo-Sorsky skete and on Solovki, the brethren ate “ukrukha”. This was the only food for the monks during the last two days of Holy Week.

At one in the morning (about nine in the evening) the sexton struck the bell three times. The brethren again gathered in the church for the pre-Easter vigil, which emphasized the high importance of waiting for the upcoming event. The Acts of the Holy Apostles were read on the kliros. After the reading, a wooden beater was struck, and the pre-holiday midnight office began, during which the funerary canon was repeated, constituting the continuation and end of the Great Saturday service. After the canon, the "Word" of St. Epiphanius of Cyprus was read, the deacon proclaimed the litany. After the dismissal, everyone dispersed for half an hour to their cells. In the Nilo-Sorsky skete, the monks, after the end of the vigil, before Paschal matins, performed cell bows.

At the seventh hour of the night (that is, about two in the morning) Easter matins began. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, even before the Easter Annunciation, a lamp was placed in front of the image of the Most Holy Theotokos and kindled incense in it (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 105–105 v.). In other monasteries, the canonarch placed two vessels with hot coals in the middle of the temple and at the Royal Doors, and a censer with a lit incense was placed in the altar. This was done in order to fill the whole church with fragrant aromas (Dmitrievsky, pp. 224–225). All the candles in the chandeliers and near the local icons were lit. After the blagovest, the abbot put on festive robes. The sexton distributed candles to all the monks.

To the sound of all the bells, priests with lighted candles, the abbot with a censer and all the brethren with crosses, icons, candles came out onto the porch of the church. Two sextons with candlesticks walked in front, followed by a deacon with a lamp. No one remained in the church (in the everyday life it is specifically said: “And not one will remain in the church”) (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 105v.). After everyone went out to the porch, the church doors were closed. The abbot began the matins: "Glory to the Holy Ones." The rector sang the Paschal troparion twice, which then was pronounced a little differently: “Christ is risen from the dead, stepping on death by death, and the belly of the grave is a gift” (RNB. Sof. No. 1519. L. 91v.). The third time he sang it only up to half, the ending was sung by the kliros. After that, the hegumen spoke the verses of the Paschal greeting, and the choir answered him three times: "Christ is risen." In conclusion, the abbot again sang the Paschal troparion, and when the kliros and brethren finished singing, he opened the doors to the temple.

The deacon in the church proclaimed the litany, and the abbot with the priests censed the temple. All the songs of the Paschal canon began to be sung in the altar by the abbot. During the singing of the canon, everyone stood with lighted candles and extinguished them only during the reading of the prologue and other "words". After the Paschal stichera, while singing the troparion “Christ is risen”, all the priests left the altar with icons, the Gospel and the cross and greeted with all the brethren. After that, as now, "The catechumen of St. John Chrysostom on the day of Easter" was read. The Paschal joy of the Lay has not faded over many centuries: in the churches and monasteries of medieval Russia, it was listened to in the time of the saint himself; and in exactly the same way, in anticipation of his joyful greeting, we are already standing in our days at the Paschal Liturgy. The reading of the "Word" of John Chrysostom ended with a general joyful exclamation: "Many years, Vladyka!"

The Paschal liturgy began at the second hour of the day (that is, at eight in the morning). The Gospel was read more solemnly than usual at the Paschal liturgy. The abbot stood with east side throne facing the west, in front of him two monks held the Gospel, and in the center of the temple, facing the altar, stood the deacon with the Gospel. The abbot proclaimed: “Forgive wisdom. Let us hear the reading of the Holy Gospel.” As usual, the deacon answered him. The abbot read the Gospel of John, turning, as it were, to the west, and after the abbot, the deacon read the Gospel, turning already to the east (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 106v. - 107). The custom of alternating reading of the Paschal Gospel by a priest and a deacon has been known in Russia since the 11th-12th centuries and is borrowed from the practice of worship of Sophia of Constantinople, the main church of the entire Orthodox East (“ Great Church”) (Service of the Russian Orthodox Church, p. 489). After each gospel reading at the Paschal service, they hit “the candilla” that hung in the temple, and the ecclesiarch struck “the great beater”; completing the reading, they again struck “the great beater” (Dmitrievsky, p. 230).

After the reading, the brethren approached the kissing of the Gospel one by one. First they kissed the cross, then the Gospel, the icon of the Resurrection and the priest, greeting him with Paschal: "Christ is Risen," and the priest answered: "Truly Risen."

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the Bright or Holy, as it is called in the daily routine of the Volokolamsk Monastery, the week following Easter, they served Easter matins. At one o'clock in the afternoon (about eight in the morning), the Easter procession around the monastery was performed with the singing of a prayer service.

On Saturday of the Holy Week, at the liturgy, artos is blessed and crushed - consecrated bread ("whole prosphora"). Throughout Bright Week, the artos lies on a lectern in front of the holy iconostasis, reminding the faithful of the presence of the Resurrected Savior with them. The procession of the Cross is also performed with the artos after the liturgy. After the end of the Procession in the monasteries, the artos is brought to a meal and placed on a special table, as a reminder to the monks that among them, as once among the apostles, the Lord himself, the true bread of life, is invisibly present. During Bright Week, after the meal, instead of the offering of the Panagia, the rite of the offering of the artos was performed. Every day after mass, the brethren, one at a time, followed from the temple to the refectory. The choir walked ahead, followed by the priest, who served the liturgy, with the image of the "Resurrection of the Lord", followed by the deacon with the artos, then the abbot and the rest of the brethren. After Easter meal the monks sang the Paschal troparion three times, then “Glory and Now”, “Lord have mercy”, “Lord bless”, after which the deacon raised the artos three times with the words: “Christ is risen” and concluded with the words: “We bow to his three-day Resurrection”. All the monks kissed the artos, sang Easter prayers and went to their places (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 107v. - 108). Artos did not eat until Saturday, because all the days of the Holy Week personify one thing - Easter.

The abbot thanked for the meal: "Blessed be God, have mercy on us and feed us." The deacon answered him: “For the prayers (prayers. - E.R.) of our holy fathers, Lord have mercy on us,” and everyone returned to the church in the same order with the singing of the Paschal troparion and the ninth irmos of the song of the canon. In the temple, the deacon gave the artos through the Royal Doors to the altar to the priest and said dismissal. On Saturday, after the liturgy, the priest read a prayer over the artos, and the sexton crushed it. Then the brethren followed into the refectory, in front was the cellar with the artos, followed by the kliros, then the priest with the icon of the Resurrection, and behind him another priest with the Panagia, then the hegumen and the brethren. Kelar carried the artos to the shegnusha. And when before dinner they took out the "Bread of the Most Pure", the cellarer brought the artos from the shegnushi to the refectory and distributed it to the brethren. Standing, the monks ate artos, while the choir sang “Christ is Risen” and “Our Father”.

On Saturday and before Easter, the rite of Panagia was held in a special way: after the meal, the choir sang the Easter troparion, “Glory and Now”, “Lord have mercy” (thrice), “Lord bless”. The deacon twice raised the Mother of God prosphora and said: "Christ is risen", the brethren answered him: "Truly, Christ is risen." For the third time, the deacon said: “Most Holy Lady Theotokos, help us,” and the monks answered: “Through the prayers of Christ God, have mercy on us and save us,” “Bless you all give birth to a simple one.” After a prayer of thanksgiving for the meal, “The Lord is merciful and generous, Thou hast given food to those who fear Him,” everyone dispersed (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60 / 1137. L. 108v. - 109v.).

On the fortieth day after Easter, the Church celebrates the twelfth feast of the Ascension of the Lord. On the eve of the feast, the icons in the temple were decorated with shrouds, Vespers and Mephimon were served, at two o'clock in the morning (around midnight) Matins began, before which the brethren were summoned to Midnight Office with beats on the beater. On the magnificence, the brethren handed out candles, and the abbot dressed in damask vestments. The hegumen served as a liturgy for the cathedral in pearl robes.

Fifty feast days from Easter to Trinity received in the Church the solemn name of Pentecost. “Just as in the succession of annual times and changes, one time follows another,” wrote St. John Chrysostom in a conversation on the feast of Pentecost, “so in the Church, feast follows feast, and one refers us to another. We recently celebrated the Cross, suffering, the Resurrection, then the Ascension of the Lord into heaven, and today we have finally reached the very edge of blessings, entered the very metropolis of holidays, reached the very fruit of the Lord’s Promise ”(Quoted from the book: Debolsky. Part 2. C 257). St. John Chrysostom called the day of the Holy Trinity and the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit following it, the "Metropolis of the feasts". The Holy Spirit, descending on the apostles in the form of fiery tongues on the day of Pentecost, gave them grace to preach the Gospel throughout the universe and became evidence of the reconciliation of man with God. Perhaps as a sign of this reconciliation, on the feast of Pentecost, there is a long-standing custom to decorate temples with branches, herbs and flowers. There is no strict theological explanation for this tradition. Perhaps it is based on the memory of the Old Testament Church about the appearance of the Holy Trinity in the form of three angels to the forefather Abraham in the oak forest of Mamre.

On the eve of the Trinity, an all-night vigil was performed in the Volokolamsk Monastery. In the morning on the very day of the holiday - mass. After the liturgy, without going to a meal, all the brethren went "one leaf at a time into the grove." When they returned, they announced Vespers and rang all the bells. The abbot served Vespers. The composition of the Trinity Vespers included, in addition to kneeling prayers, a special litany, consisting of twenty-six petitions (Dmitrievsky, p. 239). Vespers prayers were said by the abbot, kneeling in the Royal Doors facing the worshipers. After Vespers, a meal was served (Volokolamsk obikhodnik, p. 88).

In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, on the eve of the holiday, the temple was decorated with large shrouds, which were not removed until the very end of the holiday. Matins began when it was one and a half in the morning (about half past twelve). At the magnificence, the brethren handed out candles; after the Gospel, anointing with oil was not supposed; during the service of the first hour, the monks were offered a reading from the works of St. Theodore the Studite (“The Studite is honored”). Mass, which was served by the abbot in pearl robes, rang at two o'clock in the afternoon (about eight in the morning). After mass, the brethren handed out “prosphora kusie” (particles of prosphora) and everyone dispersed. After the “hour of battle” (when the clock strikes the next hour), they again gathered in the temple for Vespers. After Vespers, a supper was supposed to be called, to which they rang with a festive bell, the monks put on short robes for worship.

Fixed circle (continued)

A week after the feast of the Holy Trinity, Peter's fast begins, which ends with the celebration of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul (June 29). On the eve of the holiday, an all-night vigil with candles was performed in the Volokolamsk monastery. For the service, which began at two in the morning, all the bells rang, the church was solemnly decorated, and embroidered shrouds were applied to the icons. After the Vespers, when the service of the first hour was served, the brethren and the pilgrims were anointed with oil. Mass was served by the abbot with the whole cathedral.

On August 1, the Feast of the Origin (wearing) of the precious trees of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord begins the Dormition Fast. On the eve of the feast, the priest, dressed in robes and shaking the cross, carried it from the altar to the throne, and the Gospel was placed on the High Place. A lit candle was left in front of the throne all night. Vespers were served, as on the Exaltation. By morning they called three hours before dawn. After the great doxology at the last Trisagion, the abbot, dressed in robes, solemnly carried a cross on his head. Deacons walked ahead with candles, and a large deacon with a censer. The hegumen placed the cross on a lectern in front of the opened Royal Doors, and the deacon at that time proclaimed: “Wisdom”, the hegumen answered: “Peace be thee” and, taking the censer from the deacon, censed the holy cross to the singing of the troparion to the cross: “Save, O Lord, your people ".

Having shaken the cross, the abbot again laid it on his head and walked along with the procession to the Jordan - a river or lake. Deacons walked ahead with candles, and the choir sang irmos to the feast. Arriving at the water, the deacon censed the Jordan, and the canonarch proclaimed the stichera to the cross. Then the troparion was sung three times, and after reading the Apostle, the abbot, speaking the troparion, plunged the cross into the lake three times. Having consecrated the water, which was called "August", they went back to the temple, where everyone kissed the cross. The canonarch read stichera “for kissing”, the abbot sprinkled the whole church and the altar with holy water, and the brethren approached the cross in twos. Before kissing, they made two bows to the earth and one bow after kissing. Then the abbot sprinkled the brethren with water. The service ended with morning prayers and the first hour. "August water" used to be very revered. She consecrated new churches, dwellings, monastic cattle at prayer services. On August 1, the priests went to all the cells and monastic services and sprinkled them with holy water. By the festive mass in the monastery, all the bells rang, after Communion everyone drank the blessed water. The cross was taken to the altar on the same day, after mass, during the reading of the hours (RNL. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 72–74 v.).

On August 6, the twelfth feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord was celebrated with an all-night vigil with candles in the Volokolamsk Monastery. Great Vespers and Matins were served at the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. By morning they called at three o'clock in the morning (about twelve at night, according to our calculation). Mass was served by the abbot with a cathedral in pearl robes. As you know, on the feast of the Transfiguration, it is customary to consecrate the fruits. Now consecrate grapes and apples. What was consecrated in the Russian northern monasteries? Sometimes apples, sometimes cucumbers, depending on what the monastery had. In the Siysky monastery, after the liturgy, the ninth hour was performed, at the end of which a prayer was read "over the bunch": "a dish from fresh cucumbers." After the consecration, the cellarer distributed cucumbers to all the monks (Dmitrievsky, p. 190).

August 15 - on the day of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Dormition fast ended. For many Russian monasteries that were dedicated to the Assumption, this day became a double celebration, so that some features of the celebration resembled Easter ones (at the meal, for example, they served Easter cakes - “perepechi”). In different monasteries, the celebration of the Assumption had its own characteristics. On the feast of the Assumption, the abbot of the neighboring Ferapontov Monastery and the brethren visited the St. Cyril Monastery. On the eve of the feast of the Dormition (August 13 in the evening), three bells were rung and vespers were served. On the morning of August 14, a prayer service was served for all Orthodox Christians; at the end of the second hour of the day (around nine in the morning), mass was served. After her, the brethren received prosphora each, and the cellarer invited everyone to the "sytnya" to drink kvass. The meal on this day was supposed to be once - after vespers, even if the prefeast fell on Sunday.

By the morning of the Assumption, they called at the end of the third hour of the night (about one in the morning). Before the service, as on Easter, the sexton placed a lamp with coal in front of the image of the Most Pure Virgin and burned incense in it. All the chandeliers were burning in the temple, the icons were decorated with expensive shrouds. At midnight all the bells rang. The serving priest and the deacon were dressed in pearl robes. In the morning, after the reading of the second kathisma, “Funeral singing” to the Most Holy Theotokos was performed, similar to the funeral singing of the Savior on Holy Saturday. This rite is now called the "Order of the Burial of the Most Holy Theotokos."

A lectern with a festive icon was placed in the middle of the temple. The abbot, priests and deacons came out of the altar with candles in their hands and stood in front of the lectern. All the worshipers also stood with lighted candles. The troparion "Bless Thee give birth to all" began the funeral singing. After the troparion, they sang the 17th kathisma, divided into three articles. After the first, second and third articles, a small litany was pronounced. The second litany began with the singing of "It is worthy to eat," the third - with the hymn "Birth all the songs of the one blessed Mother of God." After the end of the “Tombstone Singing”, the works of the Holy Fathers dedicated to the holiday were read (RNL. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 76–78; Dmitrievsky. S. 190–191). After Matins, a prayer service was served for the sovereign in pearl robes.

In the Volokolamsky Monastery on August 14, on the eve of the holiday, they rang the chime for the great Vespers. In the temple, all the candles were lit in chandeliers, near local images, and in front of the festive icon on the lectern, a triple twisted candle burned in the lamp. Before the service, the Assumption Cathedral was covered with a “leaf” (in the Pskov-Caves Monastery, the path to the temple is still cleaned with grass and flowers). The abbot dressed in "large fathoms".

After Vespers, without leaving the church, the whole cathedral sang a moleben to the Most Holy Theotokos. In the evening of that day, all the poor were fed in the monastery, as in memory of the founder of the monastery. The brethren baked 3,300 loaves of bread especially for the poor that day; each was given a quarter of bread, porridge and kvass. Outside the monastery gates, everyone was given bread and money. After vespers, if the rector blessed, a meal was arranged. On the night of the feast, an all-night vigil with candles was served. At the end of the festive morning in the Volokolamsk and Trinity-Sergius monasteries, as well as in Kirillov, "Tomb Singing" was performed.

In the morning mass was celebrated in all the temples of the Volokolamsk monastery and in the villages. After mass, all the poor, but only males, were allowed into the monastery, fed with bread and given alms. Monks on the feast of the Assumption received money as a consolation, laity at noon, and also priests and deacons in the villages of the monastic patrimony were provided with money.

On August 29, the Church celebrates the Beheading of the Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John. On the eve of the Volokolamsk Monastery served an all-night vigil with candles. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, in the church in honor of the Beheading of John the Baptist, a great vespers was performed, after which supper was supposed to be served. Matins were served with a polyeleos, and a prayer service and Mass at the second hour of the day (that is, at eight o'clock in the morning) was performed by the abbot with the cathedral in large "damask" vestments. This was the last great celebration in the annual cycle of worship, from September 1, the year began anew.

local holidays

The days of temple holidays and the days of memory of local ascetics were celebrated especially solemnly in the monasteries. As a rule, many pilgrims from neighboring villages and monasteries gathered for these celebrations. A description of such a holiday is in the Life of St. Euphrosynus of Pskov.

The main temple in the Eleazar monastery was dedicated to three saints - Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. The Life of St. Euphrosynus tells that on this day the Spaso-Eleazarov monastery was visited by monks from the Verkhneostrovsky monastery with their abbot. Once, only one deacon, Zacchaeus, remained in the Ostrovsky Monastery, who was seriously ill. Left without a feast and being in great sorrow about this, Zacchaeus began to tearfully pray to the Monk Euphrosynus and was healed by him. After this miracle, Zacchaeus went to live in the Eleazarovsky Monastery (PDPI. T. 173. P. 81). From the end of the 15th century, pilgrimages of the inhabitants of Pskov began on the feast of the Assumption of the Mother of God in the Pskov-Caves Monastery. “How great was the confluence of people, it is impossible to count (calculate. - E.R.)”, - it is said in the chronicler of the monastery. And on other holidays in honor of the Mother of God, a huge number of people flocked to the monastery, not only Orthodox, but “and from non-believers” from the “German land” (Serebryansky, vol. 4, p. 370).

November 21 - on the Introduction of the Most Holy Theotokos, which was the main holiday for the Bogoradny Monastery, created as an almshouse, a "small monastery" at the monastery of St. Joseph, the hegumen served in the Bogoradny Monastery a great vespers and an all-night vigil.

The biggest holiday of the Kirillo-Belozersky and Volokolamsky monasteries, as mentioned above, was the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On July 13, the temple feast of the Cathedral of the Archangel Gabriel was especially celebrated in the Cyril Convent. On this day, "they rang for all", and in the church of the Archangel Gabriel, a prayer service and mass were served. At the meal, the brethren were supposed to have a cup of wine. A day later, on July 15, in memory of Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir, matins with a polyeleos and a cathedral liturgy were served in the church dedicated to St. Vladimir. Priests dressed in "princely robes".

No less solemnly than temple holidays, the days of the founders of monasteries were celebrated in the cloisters. In memory of the Monk Nikodim of Kozheozersky, many pilgrims gathered in his monastery, and at the festive meal everyone was offered to read the Life of the saint (Yakhontov, p. 209). At first, when the “head” of the monastery had not yet been canonized, his memory was celebrated with requiems and the poor were generously fed.

September 9 - the day of the repose of the Monk Joseph Volotsky. On the eve of the holiday in the Volokolamsk monastery, the abbot performed vespers, dressed in large “damask” vestments. All the bells rang for the service. At the end of Vespers, the candles at the local images and the chandelier in the temple and in its aisles were not extinguished, as was usually done. The abbot, all the priests and brethren served a memorial service at the shrine of the founder of the monastery. There were two candles burning here. At the shrine, Vespers were served, after which they sang the eternal memory of Elder Joseph. At dinner, if the day was non-fasting, the brethren served kvass “sychen”. All the poor were allowed into the monastery, each was given a quarter of bread, porridge and kvass "barley" (barley). "Big feed" (big treat) was the next day - September 9th. By morning and mass all the bells rang. After the prayer service, the whole cathedral sang a memorial service for the "head" of the monastery. The priest and choristers stood with candles. Mass was served by the abbot in expensive "damask sazhen" vestments. Panikhidas and masses were performed in all churches of the monastery, in neighboring monasteries and villages. The dismissal of Mass, like Vespers, was celebrated at the tomb of the Monk Joseph.

On this holiday, each monk received money from the monastery treasury. Alms were distributed in all the villages of the monastic patrimony: the priests received an altyn, the deacons - four money each, sexton and mallow - money, and all the poor, "wherever there are as many as they are," - at noon. No one remained inconsolable and deprived.

In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, June 9 - the day of memory of the founder of the monastery - was especially joyful and festive for the whole area. As we know from the Life of St. Alexander Oshevensky, pilgrims flocked to the monastery from all villages. The Monk Cyril was a beloved and revered saint, many in their lives had a chance to experience his miraculous help and intercession. On the eve of the holiday of June 8, before mass, a prayer service was served for all Orthodox Christians. Priests and deacons put on "coarse" robes (from coarse calico). And at mass they dressed in "ringing" robes. By mass, they took three or four rolls to the altar, cut them into pieces, consecrated them, and after the service they distributed them to the people, and prosphora was supposed to be “pleasant” (participants). They also served mass on the very day of the holiday - June 9th. On the eve of the holiday, the monks had one meal - after Vespers (Utility of the Kirillov Monastery // Gorsky, p. 389).

After dinner, everyone returned to the temple and served mephimon. By midnight all the bells were rung, as on great holidays. Matins were served with polyeleos. Before mass, a prayer service was served for the sovereign and the water was blessed, with which the brethren and all the people were sprinkled (RNB. Kir. - Bel. No. 60/1137. L. 67–67 v.). The water consecrated at the festive prayer service and the "Kirillov rolls" were usually carried by the abbot or one of the priests to the sovereign. Even in 1622, despite the fact that after the Time of Troubles the roads were still unsafe, hegumen Matthew and Elder Philaret Vladimirets went to Moscow with the "miraculous shrine." Between Pereyaslavl and the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, they were attacked by "thieves' people", the abbot himself was "smashed" (beaten), and the servants were injured and robbed.

On September 25 - to commemorate the repose of St. Sergius of Radonezh - the Tsar and Tsarina came to the Trinity Monastery. This day is always especially beautiful in the monastery. Autumn foliage gives it a solemn and festive look. The paths of the monastery are covered with a motley carpet of foliage, the dome of the white-stone Trinity Cathedral is gilded in the sun. On the eve of the holiday, two vespers were served - small and great, for three hours the ringing of bells did not stop. After vespers, the archimandrite, with priests and brethren in festive vestments, went to the Holy Doors to meet the sovereign. At this time, the gospel was announced in a big bell. The archimandrite blessed the sovereign with a large cross and escorted him to the Trinity Cathedral to the monk. The deacon in the temple recited the litany, and the sovereign kissed the shrine of St. Sergius and temple icons. After the dismissal, the archimandrite brought the staff to the sovereign, and they went to the chapel of St. Nikon of Radonezh, and then to the Assumption Cathedral. Everywhere the deacon recited litanies. Having visited the shrines, the sovereign went to his cells, here they brought him "drink".

Then came the time for the all-night vigil. At the vigil, the archimandrite distributed staves to all the boyars and nobles. Before the Gospel, when they began to sing “Praise the name of the Lord,” he brought candles first to the sovereign, and then to the boyars and nobles, and censed the church. When they sang the magnificence, everyone stood with lighted candles, the priests held twisted monastery candles, and the choir monks held smooth ones. At the end of the service, the emperor venerated the reliquary and the festive icon. Then he approached the archimandrite for blessing. He blessed him with his hand and bowed low to him with his “brow”. After the first hour and the dismissal, the archimandrite accompanied the sovereign to the cells and invited him to a monastic meal. The emperor, at his request, dined at his place or at a fraternal meal.

July 5 - the memory of finding the relics of St. Sergius. The evening before, small and large vespers were served, in the morning - a festive moleben to the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius and Mass. The emperor no longer came, a priest was sent to him with holy water, consecrated at a prayer service.

The big holidays in the monasteries were the days miraculous icons. In the Arkhangelsk forests on the Northern Dvina there was a little-known Montenegrin monastery. He stood on a mountain overgrown with dense forest and nicknamed Black for its gloomy appearance. On August 22, 1629, the Yaroslavl merchant Yegor Lytkin brought the Georgian Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos to the monastery. His clerk Stefan Lazarev bought the icon in Persia, and Lytkin was instructed in a dream to send this icon to Black Mountain. In the monastery the icon was greeted solemnly. At night, when the festive matins were served in the monastery, the blind and deaf monk Pitirim went to the front of his cell to pray. Suddenly a wonderful light dawned on him. The frightened monk crossed himself and at the same moment saw the sunlight shining over the Black Mountain. Since that time he began to see and hear. The enlightened monk came to the church to tell the brethren about the miracle (RGB. Volog. No. 104. L. 23).

Yegor Lytkin, who was there, was so shocked by his story that he ordered the construction of a church in Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos and remained a generous benefactor of the monastery until the end of his life. Soon, people began to heal from serious illnesses near the icon. In 1630, Metropolitan Cyprian of Novgorod ordered the brethren of the Montenegrin monastery to sing a prayer service every Tuesday before the image of the Blessed Virgin (Description of the Krasnogorsk Monastery, p. 13). And in 1650, another Metropolitan of Novgorod, Nikon, having received a detailed description of miracles from the monastery, ordered to celebrate the day of the Georgian Icon every year on August 22 in all the churches of the Kholmogory district. After the appearance of the icon, the monastery literally changed, numerous pilgrims flowed to the miraculous image, funds appeared for the construction of temples and plowing the land. And soon the monastery was called Krasnogorsk for its beautiful picturesque view. In 1698, with the blessing of Archbishop Athanasius of Kholmogory and Vazhsky, the icon was brought to Arkhangelsk "for the sake of consecrating the city." And then every year, after August 22, the Georgian icon was sent from the Krasnogorsk monastery to Arkhangelsk and returned back on the fourth week of Great Lent. On Saturday of the fifth week of Lent, when the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos is celebrated, in the monastery, with the confluence of numerous pilgrims, a great celebration took place at the icon.

Many holidays in the monasteries were associated with the consecration of agricultural work. The celebration of the day of the twelve apostles - June 30 - in the St. Cyril Monastery had interesting features. On this day, they walked around the monastery in procession and blessed the water in the lake, “riding in a ship” (on a boat). After the consecration of the water, the procession followed to the stable, which was located in the household yards to the left of the Holy Gates of the monastery. Here they read the Gospel and sprinkled the horses with holy water. Thus, the procession completed its circle around the monastery.

Saints Flor and Laurus have long been revered as patrons of shepherds and domestic animals. On August 18, on the day of Saints Florus and Laurus in the Kirillov, Volokolamsk and Siysk monasteries, the priest was sent "to the herd", he served a prayer service and sprinkled the animals with holy water (only horses were blessed in the Volokolamsk monastery). According to the charter of the Siysk monastery, a prayer service was served right in the boat when they went to the herd. Water for prayer was taken, of course, from the river. And in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery consecrated water brought to the prayer service from the monastery (Dmitrievsky, pp. 192–193).

Remembrance

An important part of the monastic daily worship was the commemoration of the monks and benefactors of the monastery. In his testament, the Monk Euphrosynus of Pskov commanded to serve magpies (40 liturgies) for the dead monks and laity who labored in the monastery for two or three years (AAE. Vol. 1. No. 108). The testament of the Monk Nil of Sorsk has been preserved, in which he asks the brethren of the skete to serve magpie for him. Such wills have always been sacredly observed. On the fortieth day after the death, according to the monastic custom, they arranged food for the remembrance of the soul of the deceased abbot or monk. It was not only a special treat for the brethren, different from ordinary, ordinary food, but also a special prayer follow-up. After the meal, as usual, the hegumen struck the “candea”, everyone got up, performed the rite of the “Ascension of the Panagia”, and then prayers over the kutia “for the forgiveness of sins” of all the deceased kings, queens, princes and princesses, the founders and brethren of the monastery and all Orthodox Christians. The following ended with the singing of eternal memory “to the ever-remembered and blessed brother monk or holy monk (name)” (Chin publ.: Shablova. The practice of commemoration. S. 66–67). This monastic order is described not only in the monastic daily routine, but also in lives, for example, in the Life of St. Irinarch of Solovetsky.

After the repose of the Monk Irinarkh, the monk Vitaly found such “great sorrow and mulberry” that the monk wept for the hegumen for many days in a row. He grieved that the abbot, who had always loved him and was sympathetic to all his needs and infirmities, was gone. The fortieth day came after the death of the saint. The day of commemoration intensified the grief of the monk even more. During the singing of the memorial service, he stood near the edge of the bench, at the very abbot's table, bowing his head and covering himself with a hood so that no one could see the tears that covered his eyes. From crying, the monk fell into oblivion and saw Abbot Irinarkh "with a fair face", in epitrachelion and with a censer in his hand: the deceased abbot walked around the refectory and censed the brethren. Vitaly was very happy, but, opening his eyes and looking around, he found only monks standing in their places in the refectory. However, the appearance of the saint consoled him, from that day he ceased to be sad and discouraged (RNB. Soph. No. 452. L. 327-327v.).

The commemoration of the dead is the most important duty of the living, the violation of this sacred duty has always been perceived as a grave sin. In the Pechenga Monastery, there was a pious custom to serve requiems in the desert of St. Tryphon, where the relics of the saint and the bodies of the monks tortured by the Swedes lay. Once, a Pechenga monk, Jonah (Sorokoumov), had to pass near that desert. He forgot about the commandment and, not paying tribute to the departed brethren, continued on his way. But as soon as Jonah moved a little from the desert, he was overtaken by a “paralytic disease” (that is, paralyzed): Jonah lost half of his head and half of his body. Almost alive, he was brought to the Pechenga monastery. On the fourth day of his illness, Saint Tryphon and the murdered monk Jonah appeared to Jonah Sorokoumov, whom he did not want to remember in his prayers. They healed the patient (RNB. Sol. No. 188/188. L. 22-22v.).

The obligatory commemoration of the dead is based on the unshakable faith that the Church, through her prayer, can change the posthumous fate of the deceased. The preface to the Synod of the Pskov Mirozh Monastery says: “When a priest serves the Divine Liturgy and takes out particles from the prosphora, saying: about the memory and forgiving of the sins of the departed servants of God, listing them by name, then the angel of the Lord invisibly inscribes these names in the books of life and lifts them up on sky” (Serebryansky, Book 4, p. 382). In the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery there were “forty-mouthed lists”, which were kept in the “church under the bells”, where magpies were served every day.

In addition, the monastery steward wrote down the deceased brother in other lists: for three years - in "lesson notebooks" for everyday commemoration, and for eternal commemoration - in the monastery synodic and in a special hegumen notebook. If one of the monks or relatives contributed to the monastery, then the "lesson years" for such monks were extended. Each new year in the lesson list cost one ruble. The contribution was given not only in money, but also in clothes and bread. All this was carefully recorded. After consulting with the cathedral elders, the abbot could add “lesson years” to some elders even without a contribution, for special labors for the monastery. After the “lesson years” had passed, the usher had to cross out the name of the monk from the list, but it remained in the eternal synod. Everyday commemoration was considered the most important, because it was read on all the days when the liturgy was served, not excluding the great holidays. The priest or deacon read the daily lists aloud or secretly at the liturgy twice: during the proskomedia and after the reading of the Gospel. In addition, they were read at matins, at the funeral litia, which served after vespers and matins, at the memorial service and over the funeral kutya after mass.

The Eternal Synod was not always read: during Great Lent it was read only on Saturdays; from Lazarus Saturday to Fomina's week and on all Sundays, great and big holidays, they did not read it with an all-night vigil. The reading of the synodique was performed not by priests, but by simple monks in this order: they began at the clock before the liturgy, and if they did not have time to read at the liturgy, then they continued at vespers and a memorial service. Sometimes the reading of the Synod was finished already at the midnight office (Shablova. The practice of commemoration. P. 56).

Three times a week in the Volokolamsk and Kirillo-Belozersky monasteries, large cathedral memorial services were sung - in the evening (before Mephimon) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (if this day did not happen a holiday with a vigil, a polyeleos and a great doxology, the feast of the Vladyka feasts or the eve of that day when the service was performed by the cathedral). In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, during royal memorial services, four candles were placed on the table, kutya and honey on a dish in greater quantities than at ordinary memorial services. And on the canon they put kvass in a bowl. At ordinary funeral services, one candle was lit on the table, kutya and honey were also placed, and ordinary kvass was placed on the canon. On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, funeral litias were served after vespers and matins, half of the lists were read aloud, and half to oneself, in order to speed up the service (Obikhodnik of the Joseph Monastery. XVI century // Gorsky, pp. 396–397).

In addition, in the Orthodox Church there are days of special commemoration of the dead: Dmitrov Saturday (Saturday before October 26), meat-fare (before Great Lent), all Saturdays of Great Lent (except Lazarus and Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos), Trinity (before the Trinity). On Saturday, meat-fare in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, two “boxes” of bundles with memorial notes were brought to the kliros, the monks read them at Vespers, Morning and Mass, and the rest - at the Panikhida (Consolidated Charter of Kirillov and Trinity Monasteries. XVII century. // Gorsky 383). And every Friday of Great Lent they sang a memorial service before Compline (Ibid., p. 384). In the Volokolamsk Monastery, panikhidas were served during Great Lent on Saturdays before Mass. On Friday, on the eve of Trinity Parental Saturday, the litanies were read first from the monastery synodik, and then from the “fodder synodik” (where the names of all the benefactors of the monastery who ordered “to feed” the brethren of the monastery after their death) were recorded. After Vespers, a memorial service was served during which the brethren read the memorial lists from all the monastery churches. Their reading continued on Saturday morning.

Dmitrov Saturday has always been a special day in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The ecumenical memorial service on the eve of the feast of the holy warrior Demetrius of Thessalonica was established under the Grand Duke Dimitri Donskoy in memory of the soldiers killed on the Kulikovo field. From the Life of St. Sergius of Radonezh it is known that during the battle the monk prayed at the altar and called the names of those who fell in the battle. On Dmitrov Saturday in the monastery, they prayed “for the remission of sins and the blessed memory of the departed monks of the monastery, soldiers killed on the battlefield, and Orthodox Christians everywhere” (Gorsky, p. 380).

The monks and pilgrims of the monastery could submit for a fee and for a certain period of remembrance (notes with names) for their relatives and friends. The formula of these notes has not changed to this day. On the cover of the binding of the Apostle, which belonged to the church, a commemoration of the 16th century has been preserved: “Fetenyu, Matruna, Selifontey the baby, Kostka” (Serebryaisky, Book 4, p. 383). The commemoration of one name for a layman cost "a quarter" of a ruble in the Volokolamsk monastery, and for a monk - two hryvnias. To write down one name for a year in the daily lists for a monk and a layman cost the same - one ruble. Whoever wanted his name, as well as the whole family to be remembered forever, had to give the monastery a contribution of 100 or 200 rubles, or a village, or a village for the same price. In this case, the name of this person and his entire family were recorded in the daily list, in the synodik and in the “stern books”. For the remembrance of his soul, every year a "food" was arranged in the monastery for the brethren. Exactly the same tariff existed in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery.

Who gave 200 rubles, for that in the Volokolamsk monastery two meals were arranged, and who 300 - three large meals and three names were recorded in the daily list. Donating 50 rubles to the monastery received the right to write down only his name in the daily list and in the eternal synodic, but he was not satisfied with the feed for him (Gorsky, pp. 396-397). According to the rules of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, he who donated less than fifty rubles was recorded after his death in the daily synodik for as many years as rubles were given, and in the eternal - “without smoothing”, but feed was not arranged for him.

Records of monastic fodder about the repose were located in the month-book (that is, in the calendar), it indicated how much the contribution was given, when to make fodder. So, in the feed books of the Volokolamsk Monastery, on May 21, food is recorded for the Blessed Princess Elena, the wife of Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich, it says here: “Feed until the monastery of the Most Pure stands” (Gorsky, p. 400). On December 4, on the feast of the Great Martyr Barbara, there was a large meal in the monastery for Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich, the monk Varlaam (d. 1533). The requiem service was served by the abbot in large "damask" vestments. The significance of the service was emphasized by the fact that it was held in the main church of the monastery. All the brethren stood with lighted candles, and the abbot censed the church with a silver censer (Volokolamsk obikhodnik, p. 10). On this day, the brethren at the meal were served fresh fried fish in pans, two fish dishes (from good fish) with mustard or horseradish, two types of pies: one with elm and pepper, the other with peas, pancakes with honey and treacle kvass.

Feed was arranged not only for peace, but also for health. The feed for the health of the sovereign was called "For the tide for the health of the sovereign." It was also performed at a meal, after the rite of the Panagia. First, a prayer service was served for the health of the sovereign, the queen, their noble children, noble princes and boyars, the Christ-loving army and all Orthodox Christians, which ended with the singing of many years. Then all the brethren were given "healthy bowls" or "healthy ladles." The abbot raised the goblet and proclaimed a congratulatory speech: “Give, Lord, our sovereign chosen by God and crowned by God, the faithful and noble and Christ-loving tsar and great prince (the name was called. - E.R.) of all Russia, the autocrat was healthy for many years with his the faithful and Christ-loving tsarina and with the Grand Duchess (name), and with her noble children (names), and with her father and pilgrimage, the most holy (name) Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, with metropolitans and archbishops and bishops, with archimandrites (archimandrites. - E.R.) and abbots, and with the whole sacred cathedral, and with their faithful princes and boyars, and with the Christ-loving army, and out of goodwill, and with all Orthodox Christians ”(Shablova. The practice of remembrance. S. 65–66) . To this the brethren answered their igumen: "Be according to your word, honest father." After that, health was proclaimed to the hegumen and all the brethren. The rite “For a tide for the health of the sovereign” was performed from the end of the 16th century in all major monasteries on the days of great holidays, on the name day of the king and queen, as well as on the day of memory of the saint, in whose name the temple was in the monastery, and “if the rector rises ".

In addition, prayers were served for health. In the monastery of St. Euphrosynus of Pskov, prayers were sung three times a week: on Monday - to the Holy Trinity and three saints, on Wednesday - to the icon of Hodegetria and the Monk Onuphrius of Egypt, on Friday - a canon with an akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos and a prayer service to St. Euphrosynus. At the prayer service, the sexton lit a candle in the temple, in front of the icon of the Mother of God and in front of the image of the saint to whom the prayer service was served. After the prayer service, the candles were extinguished (Serebryansky, No. 4, p. 385).

In the Volokolamsk Monastery, prayers were served every day, unless a great holiday happened on that day: on Sunday (except for Easter and the Twelfth Feasts) - the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, on Wednesday - the icon of Hodegetria, on Thursday - temple holidays: the Assumption and Theophany (alternating by weeks ), on Friday - a canon with an akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos, on Saturday - the same holiday as on Thursday (Gorsky, p. 394–395).

The commemoration of health varied depending on the size of the "cottage" of the monastery. If someone gave 100 rubles, his name was remembered at all prayer services, they sang “Many Years” to him and fed the brethren on Sunday or on the day that the donor himself chooses. If someone gave 200 or 300 rubles, they also prayed for him at all prayer services, and fed the brethren when the abbot blesses. For a donor who gave 50 rubles, they prayed at one prayer service a week, but they did not arrange food (Gorsky, p. 398). If desired, it was possible to apply for one-time food for the brethren. A large feed cost 12 rubles, a medium one cost 6 or 7 rubles, and a smaller one cost 5 rubles. There were also “kvass” sterns, for two rubles the brethren were given “good” kvass “for the health of the giver”, and they gave “full” kvass for a ruble or 20 altyns (Gorsky, p. 398).

Secret rule

Once, the Monk Martinian of Belozersky, while still a young monk of the Kirillov Monastery, went after a meal to a certain brother. Seeing that Martinian had turned to another cell, Saint Cyril called him to him and asked: “Where are you going?” He replied: "I have business with a brother who lives there, and therefore I wanted to go to him." The saint, as if reproaching, said to him: “Do you observe the monastic order like that? Can't you first go to your cell and read the prescribed prayers there, and then, if you need to, go to your brother? And Martinian, with a slight smile, answered: "When I come to the cell, I can no longer leave it." The saint told him: “Always do this: first of all, go to your cell, and the cell will teach you everything” (Prokhorov, p. 89).

The prayers and bows that the monk did in his cell were not accidentally called the rule, for it was they, according to the elders, who taught the monk to live correctly. The cell rule was different for everyone, just as all people differ from each other in their strength and structure. In monasteries, they usually said: “The cell does not have a charter (does not have. - E.R.)”, that is, the charter did not determine the cell rule, the measure and image of the rule was given to each monk by the rector or spiritual mentor, the elder. So, the Monk Joseph Volotsky blessed one of his monks to wear a “shell” on his naked body under a scroll, others to wear heavy iron chains and lay prostrations in them: for some - 1000, for some - 2000, and for others - 3000; the other monks slept sitting, each had his own personal feat, known only to the abbot and God (VMCh. September. Stb. 467).

According to the cell custom of the elders of the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery, the monk had to read four kathismas a day in order to complete the entire Psalter in five days (from Sunday evening to Thursday evening). In addition to the Psalter, 1900 Jesus prayers and 100 Mother of God prayers were supposed to be per day: “ Holy Lady Mother of God, have mercy on me and help me a sinner”, Small Compline, two Canons and Midnight Office (on Sunday, instead of Midnight Office, the canon of the Holy Trinity was read). Of the two canons of the day, one was unchanged - to Jesus the Sweetest, and the second - determined for each day: on Sunday - the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, on Monday - the guardian angel, on Tuesday - the holy prophet John the Baptist, on Wednesday - the Hodegetria icon, on Thursday - to the holy apostles and Nicholas the Wonderworker, on Friday - to the Holy Cross, on Saturday - an akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos. On Saturday and Sunday, hours were counted in the cell. During Lent, the cell rule changed: the canons were not sung, two Psalters were performed in five days, and not one, as on ordinary days. Compline was served in the cell (on the night from Friday to Saturday, the big mephimon, the canon and the midnight office were “spoken”, and on Saturday and Sunday - the “smaller” mephimon) (GIM. Shchuk. No. 212. L. 207v. - 208).

Based on such a cell rule and the daily cycle of services, it is not difficult to understand that there was little time left for sleep. In the Life of the Monk Irinarch of Solovetsky, the usual cell prayer of the worker John, who worked for the monastery in the blacksmith service, is described. He prayed at night in the cold closet of his cell, lit a candle in front of the large image of the Savior and read the Jesus Prayer, made prostrations; John went to bed at the seventh hour of the night (if you count from sunset). The cell rule of the monks of the Nilo-Sorsky skete says that you can sleep five to six hours at night and one hour during the day. Probably the monks in the kennels did not sleep longer either.

The Life of St. Martyry Zelenetsky tells how he lived for seven years in obedience to the elder Bogolep in the Sergius Monastery in Velikiye Luki. Returning to the cell after vespers, the elder and disciple read Compline, then four (not two) canons, sometimes two more were added to them, at their own request. Then followed 1000 prayers of Jesus and 200 of the Theotokos, 600 bows and “prayers of salvation”, which were in the rule of some especially strong ascetics (the Life does not explain which ones). After making such a rule, the elder Bogolep allowed the student to fall asleep for a while. But it happened, when the elder wanted to aggravate the feat of the Monk Martyrius, he placed millstones in front of him and ordered to grind wheat, barley or tares with the words: “As you grind, so you will receive” (Krushelnitskaya, p. 300).

While Martyrius slept, the elder read an additional rule. Then he woke up the student and, having ordered him to subtract the same rule, lay down to rest a little. Rising from sleep after a short time, he blessed Martyrius to sleep, while he himself read the Midnight Office. Then the elder woke up the disciple again. Now he read the Midnight Office, and the elder kindled the censer and censed the cell. So it was time for the morning conciliar prayer. Elder Bogolep blessed the Monk Martyrius, who was the “Key Keeper” (keeper of the keys, possibly the ecclesiarch) of the church, to ring (“rive”) for matins, while he himself went to the temple. After matins, the elder and the disciple sang the hours in the cell, each separately, alternating, as at night. Then Elder Bogolep read the prayers for Holy Communion, and Martyrius rang for the Divine Liturgy. After the liturgy, the monks ate food (the elder ate bread and some vegetables once a day, drank only water) and dispersed to monastic obediences. And is it possible to say that such an everyday life was not a feat?

No less severe cell rule was performed by the Monk Kirill Belozersky. Almost until the very morning riveting, he prayed every night, and his disciple - the Monk Martinian - made prostrations at this time, and only for a short time did the Monk Cyril allow him to fall asleep. From the Life of St. Cyril, it is known that his cell rule had one peculiarity - every day he incessantly sang an akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos and during prayers he could not refrain from tears.

In the lives of the ancient saints there are stories about how an angel who appeared from heaven gave the holy ascetics a charter or rule of prayer. There is such an episode in the Life of the Russian saint - the Monk Eleazar, the founder of the skete on the Anzersky Island of the Solovetsky Archipelago. One day the monk was sitting in his cell and pondering what kind of prayer he could please his Creator most of all: “by singing psalms or red prayer"? And he heard a voice commanding him every day to pronounce the “great doxology”: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will towards men” (until the end), “Lord be our refuge” (until the end) and “Vouch, Lord, in this day" (also to the end). And the next night, the Monk Eleazar heard that the “great doxology” should be performed every day, for “this is a common song to God - angelic and human” (Krushelnitskaya, pp. 333–334).

Cell prayer for monks who lived alone often became a real feat. Lives often tell of demonic fears and ghosts who visited the monk during solitary prayer. As soon as the monk got up to pray, strange sounds were heard, the walls of the cell shook and other incomprehensible phenomena occurred. Once, the Solovetsky worker John, already mentioned, was praying in a closet and saw a black cat come to the door. The cat meowed, and John wanted to let him into his cell, but he did not go into the cell and turned into a big dog. Frightened, John began to pray to God more earnestly. The dog disappeared, but John, unable to bear the internal struggle with fear, went to his cell and went to bed. In a dream, the Monk Irinarkh appeared to him and began to wake him up: “Get up, John!” John stood up, bowed and received the blessing from the monk. “Why are you,” said Irinarkh, “did you fear the demonic ghost that night and, leaving prayer, went to your cell? Pray to God, and do not be afraid of the enemy's dreams! (RNB. Sof. No. 452. L. 335). At this time, awakened people began to slam the doors, and John also awoke from his vision.

Another time, when John was praying, he heard that under the window of his cell someone was doing a prayer, but only in a kind of unclear and unintelligible way. At first, John did not attach any importance to this, but a voice was heard outside the window: “Why don’t you answer me, Ivan?” Then the unknown person began to hit the wall hard, so that the window frame fell to the floor. John was horrified, left the closet for his cell and began to pray again. But the fear experienced was so great that John could not stand on his feet, he was trembling, and he went to bed. The next morning the window in the closet was intact. Two days later Saint Irinarchus appeared to John and encouraged him. “Why, John,” said the monk, “was he afraid of the third day and left the closet? For the enemy has put a burden on you; you do not run away from now on, trust in God and pray to him diligently, and the Lord will not leave those who fear Him, do not be afraid of the enemy's dream ”(RNB. Sof. No. 452. L. 334v. - 335). During night fears, the elders advised the monks to stand still, and, raising their hands crosswise, read the Jesus and other prayers: “Have mercy on me, Lord, your creation”, “Have mercy on me, Your indispensable servant”, “Our Father” (RSL. Und. No. 52. L. 367v.).

However, not only temptation and insurance accompanied private prayer monks, but also grace-filled revelations unknown to the world. Their joy covered all the labors and sorrows that the monks bore in the monasteries. Saint Isaac the Syrian said: “The sweetness given to ascetics during the day exudes from the light of night prayers” (St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), vol. 2, p. 179). The life of St. Alexander Svirsky, like no other, is full of descriptions of mysterious and incomprehensible phenomena: the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him; The disciple of the monk saw in a dream an image of paradise, the description of which is placed in the Life.

Once the Monk Alexander read his usual rule in front of the image of the Savior, but often, as the cell-attendant noted, he looked at the icon of the Mother of God, because he sang an akathist to Her. Having finished singing, the monk sat down to rest, but ordered his disciple to stay awake, foreseeing the coming miracle. After some time, the monk went to the front of his cell and saw a wondrous light illuminating the monastery. It was especially bright where the foundation of a new church under construction was located. Saint Alexander wanted to dedicate a new temple to the Feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. Looking at the temple, the saint saw that the Mother of God Herself was sitting in the place of the altar with the Infant Jesus in her arms, and a large angelic army was around.

The monk fell to the ground in fear, but the Mother of God said to him: "Get up and be not horrified," promising that from now on She would take care of his monastery. And then the Monk Alexander saw his monks, who were carrying stones, bricks, and lime to the foundation of the church. At the same time, he heard a voice addressed to him: “Alexander, if anyone brings at least one brick to the construction of My church in the name of Jesus Christ the Son and My God, I will deliver him from eternal torment.” After these words, the Mother of God became invisible, and the monastery again plunged into darkness. But for the Monk Alexander this night was like a day, he called his spiritual father Isaiah to him, told him about the vision and for joy did not fall asleep until the morning (RSL. Und. No. 1253. L. 183v - 186).

Finding relics

The most important event in the history of any monastery was the canonization of its founder. Sometimes, though by no means always, the glorification of a saint was accompanied or followed by the acquisition of his relics (the incorruptible remains of the body).

The veneration of holy relics in the Orthodox Church is based on the teachings of the holy apostles. The Apostle Paul in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, without asking, but affirming, says: “Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you!” (1 Cor. 6:19). The bodies of the saints, even during their lifetime, became the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, because they “washed” them “with tears, lined them with laborious prayers, adorned them with virtue, shook them with sacrificial sighs” (Zlatostruy, p. 206), and after the repose of the saints, the Holy Spirit did not depart from them. “And just as the Lord vouchsafed them spiritual gifts and strength and the ability to work miracles during their lifetime, so after the separation of their souls from their bodies, he does not deprive them of these gifts.” “These bones seem like dust and earth, but they are terrible for demons, give insight to the blind, heal lepers and the paralyzed, and all sorts of diseases ...” (Illuminator, p. 181). The day of finding the relics, like the day of the repose of the saint, became a holiday for the entire Russian Church. The uncovering of the relics was compared with a small Easter, for it became clear that, contrary to the laws of life, many years or centuries after the burial, the body of the saint did not undergo corruption.

Sometimes the uncovering of relics happened as if by chance: they built a new temple instead of the dilapidated church where the saint was buried, and found his relics. It happened that the acquisition was preceded by some miracle or miraculous omen. But if there was no Divine indication from above, the tombs of the saints were not touched, and if they dared, then the punishment was inevitable. Twenty-one years after the repose of St. Therapont of Monza, the abbot of the Monzen Monastery, St. Adrian, decided to acquire the relics of the monk. On the eve of the Petrovsky Lent, he called Abbot Anthony of Soligalich and another Anthony, Abbot of the Arseniyevo-Komel Monastery, the monastery elders Nazarius, Leonty, Theodosius and Nikander for advice and commanded them to strictly fast.

A week of fasting passed, Abbot Adrian, with all the aforementioned abbots and elders, went to St. Nicholas Church and prayed for a long time, then opened the platform (floor) and ordered to dig the ground, but the coffin turned out to be almost level with the floor, although, as St. Adrian remembered, St. Ferapont was buried deep in the ground. The Monk Adrian wanted to make a shrine for the relics of Ferapont, but he decided to wait a little to make sure of the correctness of his decision. The coffin was covered with a veil and dispersed to the cells. When the time came for Vespers, the abbots and elders again came to the church and saw with amazement that the coffin was in the depths of the earth, and the cover remained on the surface. The Monk Ferapont, as it were, showed them that he wanted to remain under a bushel. But the elders thought that they were to blame for the fact that they hesitated and did not get the relics. They jumped into the hole to bring the coffin to the surface. And the Monk Adrian called one of the elders to him and, moving a little aside the boards of the coffin, showed him the relics of Saint Ferapont: it turned out that they were intact and exuded a fragrance.

But in vain the elders tried to move the coffin from its place. Then Elder Adrian, having decided to help them, took the lead, but then an invisible force threw him into the corner of the pit. Horror seized everyone. The half-dead old man Adrian, who could not move either hand or foot, was brought to his cell. Here it occurred to him to pray to the Monk Ferapont and ask for forgiveness. After the prayer, the elder became healthy again. Then he went to the church, overlaid the coffin with new boards and, having finished the memorial service, buried him again. After this failed attempt After gaining the relics, the elders served for another forty days for the repose of Elder Ferapont, asking him for forgiveness for their impudence.

The discovery of relics is always a hidden secret, into which few are initiated, therefore the authors of the lives usually left all the details associated with this event outside the narrative. But sometimes the hagiographer lifts the veil over the mystery. And that is why the miracle, described in its everyday details and earthly realities, becomes even more poignant. Such a rare story is found in The Tale of the Finding of the Relics of St. Adrian of Poshekhonsky, whose tragic life story has already been retold above. The monks of the Adrianov Monastery tried unsuccessfully for many years to find the body of their abbot, but in vain. Over time, the inhabitants of the surrounding villages began to tell each other about the miraculous mountain ash, which grew near the abandoned church in the name of Elijah the Prophet and St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa on the Ukhra River. The church site itself had long been leveled with the ground, and hay was mowed here, but once a year priests, merchants and peasants gathered here, brought the icon of St. Paraskeva and served prayers. Believing in the miraculous power of the mountain ash that grew nearby, people dragged their sick children through the branches of the tree. Therefore, the church clerk Ivan Prokopiev from the neighboring village of Gusev decided to put an icon on the mountain ash, so that the peasants would not worship the tree, like pagans, but the holy image. He put a lot of work to renew the church, and in 1619 a monastery arose here, the rector of which was Abbot Lavrenty.

Once a peasant from the village of Ivanikov, Beloselsky volost, came to the monastery - John. He took the tonsure with the name Jonah and became the spiritual son of Abbot Lavrentiy. On April 1, 1626, Jonah, having a premonition of death, called the hegumen to him and told him what he had never told him even in confession. This secret was told to Jonah before his death by his own father Isidore. When the robbers abandoned the body of the Monk Adrian on the banks of the Ushloma River, Isidore and his neighbors took him secretly to the Ilyinsky church and buried him hastily, without a service, without performing a memorial service and without a funeral service. Apparently, Isidore and his neighbors were themselves participants in the attack, as they were afraid of persecution by the headmen who were investigating the attack on the monastery. Hegumen Lavrenty, having heard this story, ordered the priest Lukian Kozmin to write down his word for word and assured this “memory” with his own signature.

Then he sent Elder Isaiah to the Hadrian Monastery with a letter. Hegumen Lavrenty knew that the monks in the Adrian Monastery had long been living intemperately, indulging in drunkenness. Seeing no other way to correct them, he decided to put a condition on them. Elder Isaiah was to assemble a cathedral in the monastery headed by Abbot Porfiry and read to them a letter with the following content: “If you want to know about the father of your boss, Abbot Adrian, where his relics rest to this day, then, for God’s sake, leave intoxicating drink in the monastery until give up drunkenness at the end, and then our father hegumen of the new desert (Ilyinsky. - E.R.) Lavrenty will tell you in detail about such a great spiritual deed. If you don’t listen to his spiritual advice and don’t leave the drunken custom to the end, then Abbot Lavrenty will never have any advice and affairs on this great occasion with you, from now on and forever” (RSL. Und. No. 273. L. 30– 31).

Hearing such news, hegumen Porfiry and all the monks raised their hands to heaven and promised to renounce the drunken life, calling the Monk Adrian of Poshekhonsky and the Most Holy Theotokos as witnesses to their repentance. Then Elder Isaiah commanded Hegumen Porfiry to go to Abbot Lavrenty for advice in Ilyinsky Hermitage. Joyfully meeting Porfiry, hegumen Lavrenty gave him a brief edification: “Our fathers, the chiefs, hegumen Adrian (Poshekhonsky. - E.R.) and the elder Leonid did not eat various sweet dishes and intoxicating drinks, building the house of the Most Pure Mother of God (that is, a monastery. - E. R.). But they were saturated with the words of the divine scripture, all-night stands, unceasing fasting and prayers. And their food was of the past and a little bread and water, and even then at the appointed time. And if they had not performed such a feat of fasting and prayer, then their abode would not have spread.” After such a just teaching, hegumen Lavrenty handed over to Porfiry the spiritual “memory” (story) of Elder Jonah. Having learned about everything, Abbot Porfiry went to Moscow to beat Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich with his brow for permission to acquire the relics of the Monk Martyr Adrian.

Patriarch Filaret, having consulted with the tsar and with all church cathedral, gave the hegumen a hierarchal letter with a blessing to look for the relics of St. Adrian. In the meantime, in the Ilyinsky Hermitage, Abbot Lavrenty was wondering where the holy relics were buried, because the grave of the monk had long been equal to the stubble (mowing). Bowing to the cross on the dome of the temple and reading the prayer “It is worthy to eat,” he drew a proposed excavation site with his staff one and a half fathoms on the south side of the tree, but before the patriarchal letter he did not dare to make them. When hegumen Porfiry returned to his monastery, he convened a council, to which he invited another hegumen - Serapion from the Nikolsky Troysky Monastery. At the cathedral, they decided to start excavations. On December 16, on the second day of Philip's fast, hegumen Porfiry with the brethren, priests and deacons came to the river Ukhra. Hegumen Lavrentiy was then away.

Having served a panikhida under a mountain ash, hegumen Porfiry ordered to dig where hegumen Lavrenty had previously marked the place. The ground was frozen and hardly yielded. As soon as they removed the first layer of earth a span (palm) thick and set to work on the second, the earth went down with the remains of a rotten tree three fingers thick. Having removed a span of earth under the wood rot, the monks discovered the relics. But they stood and doubted whether they had found it, because they were not digging under the very mountain ash. At that moment Abbot Lavrenty returned. Seeing the relics lying openly and uncovered on the ground, he ordered that a “bread bowl” (a bowl in which bread was served) be brought from the bakery and placed the relics in it. Having covered them with a veil, he took them to a warm refectory and said to the monks: “Do not grieve, for God's sake, brethren. According to your faith, may God show us the authentic relics of the reverend father of our chief Adrian” (Ibid. L. 37v.).

Just in case, the abbot ordered to continue excavations near the tree itself. The monks dug a one and a half sazhen trench from the north and south sides of the mountain ash, and a sazhen from the east and west sides. And they did not find anything but the untouched "mother earth". The next morning Abbot Lavrentiy went to church for matins. Here he prayed to the holy icons and decided to go into the refectory. Taking a candle, he removed the cover over the relics and began to examine them. The frozen earth all melted and exposed the relics. The abbot saw that on the head of the relics there was a crown of hair three fingers wide and long. The hair was black, as it was depicted on the icon of the Monk Adrian, painted according to the stories of people who knew the monk during his lifetime. There are also remains of the hair shirt and other garments of the saint, made of either golden satin or patterned velvet.

The abbot's heart "rejoiced with great joy" at the very moment when he saw the relics. Now he had irrefutable evidence that the desired treasure had been found. He called the brethren and said that the Lord had revealed to them the relics of the monk. The monks, placing the relics in a shrine and covering them with a veil, carried them on their heads to the Hadrian Monastery. Five miles from the monastery they were met by the brethren of Hadrian's Hermitage and the inhabitants of the surrounding villages with their wives and children. After the funeral service, the shrine with the relics was placed on the right side of the Dormition Cathedral of the Adrianov Monastery. So the monk, having endured a martyr's death, many years later returned to his monastery and was glorified as a saint and miracle worker. It turned out that not the mountain ash, but the relics of the saint, laid in the ground like “heavenly baked bread”, healed the people who came to them.