Icon of all the saints who shone in the Russian land. Cathedral of all the saints who shone in the Russian land

Every year, the Russian Orthodox Church commemorates “all-blessed and God-wise saints of God” — All the saints who shone with their lives and deeds in the Russian land and constantly pray for it (May, part 3, 308-352). The celebration of the Cathedral of All Saints, who shone in the Russian land, appeared in the 50s. 16th century and forgotten in the synodal era, was restored in 1918, and since 1946 it began to be celebrated solemnly on the 2nd Week after Pentecost.

The central moment of the holiday is, of course, the glorification by the Church of the saints who shone with their virtues in our Fatherland, and prayer appeal to them.

The saints of the Church are our helpers and intercessors before God throughout our earthly life, therefore frequent appeal to them is a natural need for every Christian; all the more, when addressing the Russian saints, we have even greater boldness, since we believe that “our holy relatives” never forget their descendants, who celebrate “their bright holiday with love” (, 495-496).

However, “in the Russian saints we honor not only the heavenly patrons of holy and sinful Russia: in them we seek revelations of our own spiritual path” (,), and, carefully peering into their exploits and “looking at the end of their lives”, we try, with with the help of God, “to imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7), so that the Lord would no longer leave our land with His grace and would show His saints in the Russian Church until the end of time.

From the rise of Christianity to the hierarchship of Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow (+1563)

The history of holiness in Russia begins, no doubt, with the preaching of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called (+ 62 or 70) 1 within the boundaries of our present Fatherland, in the future Azov-Black Sea Russia (, 42; for details see:, 133-142 and, vol. 1 , 11-54). The Apostle Andrew converted our direct ancestors, Sarmatians and Tauro-Scythians to Christianity (, 307; for details see:, v. 1, 54-140), laying the foundation for the Churches, which did not cease to exist until the Baptism of Russia (, 152). These Churches (Scythian, Kherson, Gothic, Sourozh and others), which were part of the Metropolis of Constantinople (and later the Patriarchy), and among other peoples who converted to Christianity, had Slavs in their fence (, vol. 1, 125-127) . The largest of these Churches, which by its historical continuity and spiritual influence was the foremother of the Russian Church, was the Church of Kherson.

Hieromartyr Clement, an apostle from the 70, a disciple of the apostle Peter, the third bishop of Rome, became the successor of the work of the Apostle Andrew in Chersonesos. Exiled there in 94 by Emperor Trajan for the conversion of many noble Romans to Christianity, Saint Clement “found about 2,000 Christians among many communities and churches of the Crimea as the spiritual heritage of the Apostle Andrew” (, 155-157; , 51). In Chersonesus, Saint Clement died as a martyr about the year 100 6 during the persecution of the same Trajan ( , vol. 1, 110; , 51).

Veneration of Hieromartyr Clement in Chersonesos in the II-IX centuries. ( , 158) passed into the tenth century. and Kievan Rus. His relics, miraculously surviving, were kept in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Chersonese. In 886 they were transferred by St. Cyril, the Enlightener of the Slavs, to Rome; part of them remained in place and later, during the Baptism of Russia, was laid by the Equal-to-the-Apostles Vladimir in the Church of the Tithes in Kyiv, where soon a chapel of St. Clement appeared (, 155,158; , 51; , v. 2, 50-51).

Of all the saints of the Kherson Church, those who arrived in the Crimea in the 4th century deserve the most attention. for the establishment and spread of Christianity, the bishops known as the "seven-numbered saints of Kherson": Basil (+ 309), Ephraim (+ c. 318), Eugene (+ 311), Elpidius (+ 311), Agafodor (+ 311), Etherius (+ c. 324) and Capito (+ after 325). The Church celebrates their memory on the same day - March 7th. This is the first conciliar memory of the saints who shone in the lands of our Fatherland, and therefore the day of their memory can be considered a prototype of the common church memory of All Russian Saints, which appeared only in the 16th century.

Of the ecumenical saints, now especially revered by the Russian Church and associated by their deeds with the Church of Kherson, the following should be mentioned:

Almost immediately after the Baptism of Russia, in 988, the newborn Church revealed to the entire Orthodox world its children, who became famous for their charitable life, as a kind of response to the preaching of the Gospel in Russia. The first saints canonized by the Russian Church were the sons of Prince Vladimir, the passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, who suffered a martyr's death from their brother Svyatopolk in 1015. Their popular veneration, as if "anticipating church canonization", began immediately after their murder (, 40). Already in 1020, their imperishable relics were found and transferred from Kyiv to Vyshgorod, where a temple was soon erected in their honor. After the construction of the temple, the Greek Metropolitan John I, who headed the Russian Church at that time, “with a council of clergy in the presence of the Grand Duke (the son of Equal-to-the-Apostles Vladimir - Yaroslav) and at the confluence of numerous people, solemnly consecrated it on July 24, on the day of the murder of Borisov, placed in it the relics of the newly-appeared miracle workers and established to celebrate this day annually in memory of them collectively ”(, book 2, 54-55). Around the same time, around 1020-1021, the same Metropolitan John I wrote a service to the martyrs Boris and Gleb, which became the first hymnographic creation of our domestic church writing (, kn. 2, 58, 67; , 40).

The second saint, solemnly canonized by the Russian Church, was the Monk Theodosius of Kiev-Pechersk, who died in 1074. Already in 1091, his relics were found and transferred to the Assumption Church of the Caves Monastery - local veneration of the saint began. And in 1108, at the request of the Grand Duke Svyatopolk, his general church glorification was performed (, 53).

However, even before the church glorification of Saints Boris, Gleb and Theodosius in Russia, they especially honored the holy first martyrs of Russia Theodore the Varangian and his son John (+ 983), the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duchess Olga (+ 969) and, a little later, the holy baptist of Russia - the Grand Duke Vladimir (+ 1015).

The early veneration of the holy martyrs Theodore and John is evidenced by the fact that the well-known Church of the Tithes, founded in 989 and consecrated in 996, was erected by the holy prince Vladimir precisely at the place of their murder (, book 2, 35; , 40). In 1007, the newfound relics of Princess Olga were solemnly laid in the Church of the Tithes. It is likely that from the same time it was established to celebrate her memory on July 11 - the day of her death; later, her canonization was also carried out (, book 2, 52-53).

The veneration of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir on the day of his death, July 15, undoubtedly began in the first quarter of the 11th century, for the commendable “Sermon” of St. Hilarion in his honor, containing a number of prayer addresses to Vladimir, “naturally suggests that his holiness was already recognized then Church” (, book 2, 55). All-church veneration of him, presumably, began shortly after the Battle of the Neva, won over the Swedes on the feast day of the holy prince (, 91). In the same XIII century, in some manuscripts, there is already a service to St. Vladimir (, book 2, 58 and 440).

Subsequently, already in the XI-XII centuries. The Russian Church revealed so many saints to the world that, perhaps, by the middle of the 12th century. could celebrate their common memory. However, despite the subsequent increase in the venerated saints in the 13th-15th centuries, until the beginning of the 16th century there could be no talk of such a holiday in the Russian Church for the following reasons:

1. Until the middle of the XV century. The Russian Church was only one of the metropolitanates of the Church of Constantinople, which, naturally, made it difficult to resolve a number of local church issues, such as, for example, the glorification of this or that saint and the establishment of a celebration for him throughout the Russian Church. Moreover, the proposal to annually celebrate the memory of All Russian Saints would hardly have found sympathy among the Greek metropolitans, who headed the Russian Church until the middle of the 13th century. Namely, the Kyiv Metropolitans had the right to solemnly establish new church holidays (, 35).

2. The Mongol-Tatar yoke, which lasted in Russia for about two and a half centuries, of course, set before our Church completely different tasks, far from the creative understanding by the Russian people of the foundations of national holiness.

3. In the Church of Constantinople itself, a feast in honor of All Saints was established only at the end of the 9th century. and at the beginning of its appearance was celebrated there with special solemnity. The Russian Church, which accepted after Baptism all the main holidays of the Church of Constantinople, also celebrated the celebration in honor of All Saints, which was quite enough in the presence of a small number of its national saints: their memory could be celebrated on this very day.

Some changes, however, began to occur after the Russian Church became autocephalous in 1448. Of particular importance in the historical process of establishing the Day of Remembrance of All Russian Saints belongs to the primates of the Novgorod cathedra of the Russian Church, many of whom were later glorified as hierarchs.

Veliky Novgorod, already since the establishment of the episcopal department there in 992, was known as the largest center of spiritual enlightenment in Russia. Moreover, the main concern of the Novgorod rulers (especially starting from the 15th century) was the collection of ancient manuscripts, mainly of a liturgical plan, as well as the creation of new hymnographic monuments, dedicated first to Novgorod saints, and later to many saints of the whole Russian land (, 31-33). Here we should especially single out Saint Euthymius (+ 1458), Saint Jonah (+ 1470) and Saint Gennady (+ 1505).

The first in 1439 established a celebration for the Novgorod hierarchs, and a little later he invited to Veliky Novgorod to compose services and lives of the newly canonized saint, a well-known spiritual writer of that time, the Athonite hieromonk Pachomius Serb (Logophet), who also worked there under St. Jonah. And if the main concern of St. Euthymius was the glorification of the saints of the Novgorod land, then his successor, St. Jonah, already glorified "Moscow, Kyiv and Eastern ascetics" and "under him, for the first time on Novgorod land, a church was built in honor of St. Sergius, hegumen of Radonezh" (, 91 -92).

Also, St. Gennady, thanks to whom the first Slavic handwritten Bible was brought together, “was an admirer of Russian saints, for example, St. Alexis” and “with his blessing the lives of St. Savvaty of Solovetsky and Blessed Michael of Klopsky were written” (, 90-91).

However, the first official church establishment of the Day of Remembrance of All Russian Saints is associated with the name of another Novgorod saint - Macarius, in 1542-1563. head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

From the hierarchship of Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow (+1563) to the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917-1918.

In 1528-1529. nephew of the Monk Joseph Volotsky, monk Dosifey Toporkov, while working on the correction of the Sinai Patericon, in the afterword he compiled, lamented that, although the Russian land has many holy men and wives worthy of no less reverence and glorification than the Eastern saints of the first centuries of Christianity, however, they “We are despised by our negligence and not betrayed by scripture, even if we ourselves are light” (, 74;, 275). Dositheus performed his work with the blessing of Archbishop Macarius of Novgorod, whose name is mainly associated with the elimination of that “neglect” towards the memory of Russian saints, which was felt by many children of the Russian Church at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries.

The main merit of Saint Macarius was his many years of painstaking and tireless work in collecting and systematizing the entire hagiographic, hymnographic and homiletic heritage of Orthodox Russia known by that time. For more than 12 years, from 1529 to 1541, Saint Macarius and his assistants worked on compiling a twelve-volume collection, which went down in history under the name of the Great Makarievsky Cheti Menaia (, 87-88; , 275-279). This collection includes the lives of many Russian saints who were revered in different parts of our state, but did not have a general church glorification. The publication of a new collection, compiled according to the calendar principle and containing the biographies of many Russian ascetics of piety, undoubtedly accelerated the process of preparing the first glorification in the history of the Russian Church for the universal veneration of a host of saints.

In 1547 and 1549, having already become the First Hierarch of the Russian Church, Saint Macarius convened Councils in Moscow, known as the Makarievsky Councils, at which only one question was decided: the glorification of Russian saints. Firstly, the issue of the principle of canonization for the future was resolved: the establishment of the memory of the generally revered saints was henceforth subject to the conciliar judgment of the entire Church (, 103). But the main act of the Councils was the solemn glorification of 30 (or 31) 18 new general church and 9 locally venerated saints (, 50).

At the Council of 154719 were canonized:

1) Saint Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia (+ 1461);
2) Saint John, Archbishop of Novgorod (+ 1186);
3) Saint Macarius of Kalyazinsky (+ 1483);
4) the Monk Pafnuty Borovsky (+ 1477);
5) the noble Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky (+ 1263);
6) Saint Nikon of Radonezh (+ 1426);
7) Saint Paul of Komel, Obnorsky (+ 1429);
8) Saint Michael of Clops (+ 1456);
9) Saint Savva Storozhevsky (+ 1406);
10-11) Saints Zosima (+ 1478) and Savvaty (+ 1435) of Solovetsky;
12) St. Dionysius of Glushitsky (+ 1437);
13) Saint Alexander of Svir (+ 1533).

The day of the feast was first established on July 17, as the closest day to the memory of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir (July 15). However, later the date of the celebration of the memory of All Russian Saints changed several times. It was performed both on the first Sunday after Elijah's day, and on one of the seven days before All Saints' Week.

In the very near future after the Moscow Makarievsky Councils in Russia, “many lives of Russian saints, or their new editions, services, words of praise appeared; Icons for Russian saints are being painted more intensively, temples are being built in their honor, and the relics of Russian saints are being uncovered” (, 279-289). Naturally, the establishment of a holiday in honor of all Russian saints also required the writing of a service for this holiday. This difficult task was carried out by the monk of the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev monastery Gregory, who left the Russian Church "a total of up to 14 hagiological works about individual saints, as well as summary works about all Russian saints" (, 50-51.54).

Very little historical information has been preserved about the personality of the Suzdal monk Gregory, and very diverging from each other. In modern church-scientific literature, it is believed that he was born around 1500, he began his hagiological activity in the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery around 1540, and in 1550 he wrote the “Service to All Russian Saints” and “Eulogy” to them (, 54 ; , 297).

The service to the “new wonderworkers” of Russia was “a new factor in Russian liturgical writing” and “the most ancient protographer of all later editions up to the “Service to All the Saints Who Resplendent in the Russian Land”, compiled at the Council of 1917-1918. and printed by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1946 with the necessary changes and additions” (, 228-229; 21, 54).

Lists of services and words of praise for All Russian Saints became widespread as early as the 16th century. However, they were first published in printed form only in the first half of the 18th century. ( , 296). In general, after a great spiritual upsurge in Russian society, caused by the Moscow Councils of 1547 and 1549, by the end of the 16th century. the feast of All Russian Saints began to be forgotten and celebrated only in certain parts of Russia. This sad trend in the XVII century. began to intensify, and as a result, during the Synodal period, the veneration of the feast of All Russian Saints in the Russian Church was finally forgotten and was preserved only among the Old Believers (, 50;, 296).

To clarify the reasons for such historical nonsense, a special historical and theological study is probably required.

Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church 1917-1918

The events of the restoration of the celebration of the Day of Remembrance of All Russian Saints historically coincided with the restoration of the Patriarchate in the Russian Church.

In the pre-conciliar period, the Holy Synod had no intention of resuming the celebration that appeared in the distant 16th century. On July 20, 1908, Nikolai Osipovich Gazukin, a peasant from the Sudogodsk district of the Vladimir province, sent a petition to the Holy Synod to establish an annual celebration of "To All the Saints of Russia, glorified from the beginning of Russia" with a request "to honor this day with a specially composed church service." The petition was soon rejected by a synodal decision on the grounds that the existing feast of All Saints also includes the memory of Russian saints (, 427).

Nevertheless, at the Local Council of the Russian Church in 1917-1918. holiday has been restored. The merit of the restoration and subsequent veneration of the day of memory of All Russian Saints mainly belongs to the professor of Petrograd University Boris Alexandrovich Turaev and the hieromonk of the Vladimir Nativity Monastery Athanasius (Sakharov).

On August 20, 1918, the report of Turaev approved by the department was considered by the Council, and finally, on August 26, on the name day of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, a historic resolution was adopted: “1. The celebration of the Day of Remembrance of All Russian Saints, which existed in the Russian Church, is being restored. 2. This celebration takes place on the first Sunday of Peter's fast "(, 427-428; , 7).

The Council decided to print the corrected and supplemented Service of Monk Gregory at the end of the Color Triodion. However, B.A. Turaev and Hieromonk Athanasius, who hastily took up this work, soon came to the conclusion that only the smallest part can be borrowed from the service of monk Gregory, while everything else needs to be composed anew, “partially compiling completely new hymns (this work took on himself mainly B.A. Turaev), partly choosing the most characteristic and best of the existing liturgical books, mainly from individual services to Russian saints (this work was done by Hieromonk Athanasius) ”(, 7-8).

The initiators of the restoration of the memory of All Russian Saints really wanted to “carry out the service they had compiled through the Cathedral”, which was about to close. Therefore, still incompletely finished, on September 8, 1918, at the penultimate meeting of the liturgical department of the Local Council, the new service was considered, approved and submitted for subsequent approval to His Holiness the Patriarch and the Holy Synod (, 9). On November 18, after the closing of the Local Council, Patriarch Tikhon and the Holy Synod blessed the printing of the new Service under the supervision of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Vladimir and Shuya, which was carried out until the end of 1918 in Moscow with great difficulty. Finally, on December 13 of the same year, a decree was sent to all diocesan bishops on the restoration of the day of memory of All Russian Saints, and on June 16, 1919, a typographically printed text of the service was sent with instructions to perform it on the next Sunday upon receipt (, 428-429).

Unfortunately, due to the events of the revolution of 1917, the holiday restored by the Cathedral was again almost quickly forgotten, as had happened before. This time it was connected mainly with the persecutions raised against the Russian Church in the 20th century. In addition, on July 23, 1920, B.A. Turaev died, who very much wanted to continue to work on supplementing and correcting the hastily composed service (, 9), and Archimandrite Athanasius, in his humility, did not dare to undertake such responsible work alone.

However, the restored holiday was not allowed by the Providence of God to be forgotten again. And the persecutions that were raised against the Russian Church, in an amazing way, only helped to spread it everywhere.

From the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917-1918. until now

Finally, in the same place, in prison, on November 10, 1922, on the day of the repose of St. Demetrius of Rostov, the writer of the lives of the saints, for the first time a celebration was celebrated by All Russian Saints, not on Sunday and after the corrected service (, 10).

On March 1, 1923, in the 121st solitary cell of the Taganskaya prison, where Vladyka Athanasius was awaiting exile to the Zyryansk region, he consecrated a marching antimension in honor of All Russian Saints for his private church ( , 68 and 75; , 10).

The above events further strengthened St. Athanasius in the idea that approved by the Council of 1917-1918. the service to All Russian saints needs to be further supplemented, “and at the same time there appeared” the idea of ​​the desirability and necessity of establishing one more day for the common celebration of all Russian saints, in addition to that established by the Council” (, 10). And indeed: the feast of All Russian Saints, in its significance for the Russian Church, fully deserves that the service for it be as full and festive as possible, which, according to the Church Charter, cannot be achieved if it is performed only once a year and only on Sunday. in the 2nd week after Pentecost. In addition, on this day in many places in Russia, celebrations are held in honor of local saints; The Russian monastery on Athos and its courtyards celebrate this day, together with the whole of Athos, the celebration of All Athos reverends; finally, on the same day, the memory of the saints of the Bulgarian Church and the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia is celebrated, which puts in a difficult position those Orthodox Russian people who, by Divine Providence, live in these Slavic countries and lead their church life in the bosom of the fraternal Local Churches. According to the Charter, it is impossible to combine the celebration of All Russian Saints with the above-mentioned local celebrations, which cannot be transferred to another day. Therefore, “with urgent necessity, the question arises of establishing a second, non-transitory feast of All Russian Saints, when in all Russian churches” only one full festive service could be performed, not embarrassed by any other” (, 11 and 17).

The time for the celebration of the second celebration of All Russian Saints by St. Athanasius was proposed on July 29 - the next day after the memory of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir, the Baptist of Russia. In this case, “the feast of our Equal-to-the-Apostles will be, as it were, a fore-feast to the feast of All Saints who flourished in the land into which he sowed the saving seeds of the Orthodox faith” (, 12). Saint Athanasius also suggested the next day after the feast to remember “a host of many names, although not yet glorified for church honoring, but great and marvelous ascetics of piety and the righteous, as well as the builders of Holy Russia and various church and state figures” , so that the second the celebration of All Russian Saints was solemnly celebrated throughout the Russian Church for three days (, 12).

Despite such grandiose plans of the hierarch-songwriter in relation to the holiday he reveres, until 1946 the Russian Church did not have the opportunity not only to celebrate the triumph of its saints twice a year, but in general could not honor this memory everywhere. The printed Patriarchal Service of 1918 "went through the hands of the participants in the Council ... and did not become widespread", becoming a rarity in a short time, and "manuscript lists (from it) were in very few churches", and the rest did not have it at all (, 86 ). It was only in 1946 that the “Service to All the Saints Who Resplendent in the Russian Land” was published by the Moscow Patriarchate, after which the universal celebration of the memory of All Russian Saints began in our Church.

Nevertheless, after the release of the service of the holiday, work on its correction and addition did not end. The author of most of the hymns, Saint Athanasius, continued to work on the service until his blessed death, which followed in 1962.

Today, the feast of All Saints, who shone forth in the land of Russia, is one of the most solemn days of the entire church year in the Russian Church. However, it seems that the service of the holiday could still be supplemented. Saint Athanasius at one time proposed to enrich it with three specially composed canons: “1) for a prayer service on the theme: Holy Russia was built by a miracle of God and the exploits of the saints, 2) to the Theotokos for matins on the theme: The Protection of the Mother of God over the Russian land, and 3) a special canon for a memorial service for the ascetics of piety, performed on the very feast after Vespers, on the eve of their commemoration" (, 15).

The main unfulfilled desire of St. Athanasius regarding the service of All Russian Saints still remains the absence in it of a special “Word of praise in memory of All the Saints who shone in the Russian land.” In 1955, Vladyka Athanasius wrote about this to his friend, Archimandrite Sergius (Golubtsov), a teacher at the Moscow Theological Academy: saints”, in which all Russian saints would be remembered by name (with the exception of the Caves, of which the more famous should be remembered). At the same time, praise to each saint from one, two, no more than three phrases should not be so much the fruit of the oratorical talent of the compiler. These praises should be composed of the characteristics of our saints, selected from chronicle reviews about them, from ancient lives and other monuments. Praises should be composed, as far as possible, of the exact expressions of the monuments. The “word of praise” should not be composed, but composed. Is there among the students of our academy a talented and reverent preacher (and a historian at the same time) who would take the topic as a candidate essay: “A word of praise for the Council of All the Saints Who Resplendent in the Russian Land”? If it were possible to implement my thought, I, for my part, would give some more advice and instructions ”(, 50-51). Saint Athanasius considered it appropriate to read this "Word" in five articles (parts) in different places of service: before the Six Psalms, after the sedals according to the 1st and 2nd verses, after the sedal according to the polyeleos and according to the 3rd song of the canon (, 108, 110-111, 115, 124). According to the 6th ode of the canon, Vladyka hoped later to read a synaxarion during the service “on the establishment and significance of this feast” (, 15 and 133). In the modern version of the service (see:, May, part 3, 308-352; , 495-549), these readings are absent.

However, despite this, the service to All Russian Saints in its current state should be recognized as one of the most significant phenomena in the history of Russian church hymnography, because it has many obvious advantages. Firstly, in the service the feat of the Russian saints is revealed in all possible fullness and shown from various angles. Secondly, in terms of its musical content (the use of all eight voices, many similar ones, including very rare ones, etc.), the service surpasses even many of the twelfth holidays.

Thirdly, the liturgical innovations contained in the service do not seem superfluous and far-fetched, but, on the contrary, give it a restrained color and internal integrity, without which the service would be clearly incomplete and would not seem as festive as it is now. Finally, each hymn of the service contains the main thing: the sincere love and genuine reverence of its authors for the saints glorified in it, and this is the main thing not only in hymnography, but in general in the service of the Church of Christ, without which human life loses all meaning.

We should also recall the wish of St. Athanasius to celebrate the celebration of All Russian Saints at least twice a year, which he himself rigorously did until the end of his life (, 137-138). Indeed, such a Feast deserves to be celebrated by the Russian Church not only on the 2nd Week after Pentecost, but also on some specially chosen day. Here, too, in our opinion, it is worth taking advantage of the wishes of the hierarch-songwriter, and for the second time the celebration of All Russian Saints rule for three days: July 15 (commemoration day of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir as a prefeast), July 16 (the holiday itself) and July 17 ( celebration of the holiday and commemoration of the unglorified ascetics of piety and church and statesmen of Russia). Moreover, these days the Church does not celebrate the great saints, and the services of ordinary saints can be performed at Compline.

Summing up our work, I would like to quote the words of the Russian hagiologist of the 20th century. Georgy Fedotov: “All holiness in all its diverse manifestations in the history of all peoples expresses the following of Christ” history "The first and last impression that remains when studying this holiness is its bright regularity, the absence of radicalism, extreme and sharp deviations from the Christian ideal bequeathed by antiquity" (, 234, 236). In our opinion, the service to All the Saints who shone in the Russian land fully confirms this idea. Although, perhaps later, new lofty and full of love hymns in honor of our holy relatives will appear in it, which will only more clearly convey to future generations of Russian people a sense of reverent gratitude to our saints. And therefore we believe that this holiday will never again be forgotten by the Russian people and will be solemnly celebrated annually in the Russian Church until the end of time, since the saints of the Church, according to the Savior’s word, are the light for the whole world, and this light shines everywhere and to everyone, for the Source his is God Himself (Matthew 5:14-16).

Notes:

1) Different sources offer different dating (cf., for example, 143 and vol. 1, 368).

2) In addition to the Apostle Andrew, the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus (in Armenia) and Simon the Zealot (in Georgia) preached on the territory of future Russia (, 153-154).

3) The direct assistants of the Apostle Andrew were the apostles from 70: Stachy, Amplius, Urvan, Narcissus, Apellius and Aristobulus (, 144).

4) For a detailed history of these Churches, see vol. 1, 107,112-113,122-123.

5) According to other sources in 99 (, 157).

6) According to other sources in 101-102. ( , 157).

8) For a more complete list of saints who labored or died on the territory of our future Fatherland, see:, 307-309 and, book. 1, 368-369.

9) See the prayer on the lithium from the holiday service ( , 551-554).

10) See the troparion of the feast.

11) For more information about this temple, see:, book. 2, 35-37.

Feast of all Holy Russia

The celebration of the Council of All Saints Who Resplendent in the Russian Land was established in the 50s of the 16th century, but forgotten in the Synodal era, was restored in 1918, and since 1946 it began to be solemnly celebrated on the 2nd Week after Pentecost. In the current 2015 this day - June 14. On this day, the Church reminds us that holiness is not the lot of individuals, but the goal of the life of every Christian.

The Church glorifies the assembly of the righteous and martyrs,

both glorified and known to God alone

As soon as the Christian faith came to Russia, the life of the people was immediately reborn. Faith, the Orthodox Church united disparate tribes into one people, and the most essential property of the Russian people was faith in the Kingdom of God, the search for it, the search for truth.

And in the midst of this Orthodox Russian people, many saints of God were brought up and glorified: reverends, martyrs, saints, holy women, Christ for the sake of holy fools, whose names are known or have not reached us, who pleased God with words, deeds and life itself.

From their names, and Russia received namesake, began to be called "Holy"

These people put aside the vanity of life, overcame the attraction to passionate amusements, took up the Cross and followed Christ. They did not spare their souls in this world in order to keep it for eternal life (see John 12:25) . And at the time of the test of faith from the persecutors, they preferred to die in order to stay where the Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ are. The Russian land is saturated with their blood, keeps their bodies in itself, but the souls of God's saints now live in heaven.

Holiness is something that comes from God. God is holy(Rev. 4:8) He abides in holiness. Holy is His law and commandments, they are righteous and good, as the apostle Paul wrote(see Rom. 7:12) . Holy Jesus Christ, Son of God(Luke 1:35) , and from His Body - and the whole Church.

In the Church, the Holy Spirit communicates holiness to people and objects, which, passing through the earth, sanctify it with their presence. Where the holy people lived, even mountains, caves, islands and lakes were called “saints”.

The first Russian martyrs Boris and Gleb already at the beginning of the 11th century they showed an example of Russian holiness: it is better to give life into the hands of a brother than to enter into a fratricidal war. Their parents and grandparents Saint Vladimir and Princess Olga , after knowing the truth of the faith, they directed all the forces and wealth of the state to the enlightenment of the people, for the sake of the public good. And the saints Pechersk hermits , beginning with Anthony and Theodosius , the unpretentiousness of their life and the wisdom of the mind attracted not only the people of Kiev, but the inhabitants of the surrounding cities and Russian principalities.

The Orthodox faith brought up such great Russian saints as Rev. Sergius of Radonezh, Saint Seraphim of Sarov . The names of these saints of God are dear not only to the Orthodox Russian people, but they are revered with love far beyond the borders of Russian lands.

Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky during the Tatar yoke, he traveled many times to the Horde and, with his meekness and humility, propitiated, softened the Tatar Khan and asked for mercy for his people. Thanks to his intercession, the Tatars did not interfere in the affairs of the Orthodox faith, did not force the Russian people to worship idols.

Moscow has its patrons and prayer books in the person of the primates - with Saints Peter, Alexy, Jonah, Philip and Hermogenes .

In Orthodox ecclesiastical veneration, the earthly Fatherland is, as it were, losing its territorial boundaries. Therefore, in the host of Russian saints, we add St. Gregory, Enlightener of Armenia, Nina, Enlightener of Georgia, Apostle Simon the Zealot and John Chrysostom who ended their lives in Abkhazia, Hieromartyrs Clement and Martin, Popes of Rome . Not to mention that Cyril and Methodius, Slovenian teachers , and Apostle Andrew the First-Called are revered in the list of saints as primordially "Russian" saints.

And how many Russian saints went beyond the borders of their native land: righteous John the Russian , shone in Greece, Reverend Herman worked in the Alaskan Islands, Saint Innocent was an apostle of America, and St Nicholas became the founder of the Japanese Church. We still do not know exactly how many Russian ascetics in the twentieth century ended their holy lives in France, America, and even Australia.

In general, it is impossible to enumerate all the merits of the holy Russian people to their Fatherland and people, who showed true love for their brothers through their prayer, word and deed.

Holiness

According to the words of St. John of Shanghai, “the most precious, the greatest is holiness.” “Holiness” is something mysterious, alien to the world, requiring respect for a reverent distance. Anything that is dedicated to God, people or things, is called “holy” in the Bible (see Lev 27:9).

Holiness - one of the main properties of God, communicated by God to a person chosen by Him.

Holiness - not in sinlessness, but in a persistent and consistent aversion to sin.

"I am the Lord your God: sanctify yourself and be holy,

for I (the Lord your God) is holy..." (Lev. 11:44)

Following the example of the Holy One who called you

and be holy yourselves in all your deeds (1 Fri. 1:15)

In ancient times, all members of the Church were called "saints" (Ps 89:20; Rom 15:26) because everyone aspired to non-participation in evil and all impurity.

Holiness is a key concept of Orthodox spirituality. Holiness is not identical with moral perfection, although it denotes the highest moral state of a person. (cf. Lev 19:2; Mt 5:48; Luke 6:36). If you follow the Old and New Testaments, that person is called pious, morally pure and perfect, who is sanctified by God and belongs to God.

Holiness non-human origin. This is God's gift to man for his work, for his rejection of evil, for his choice. If a person chooses God in his life, then the Lord Himself purifies him, and Himself saves, and fills him with Divine life.

The concept of holiness differs from morality in that it is not autonomous. This is an expression of the relationship of two: God and man.

A person who is called a saint, as a rule, is already moral, but is distinguished by spiritual perfection and closeness to God.

Canonization of saints in the Russian Church before the Makariev Cathedrals

The first saints canonized by the Russian Church were the martyrs Boris and Gleb, who suffered martyrdom from their brother Svyatopolk in 1015. In 1020, their imperishable relics were found and transferred from Kyiv to Vyshgorod, where a temple was soon erected in their honor. Around the same time, around 1020-1021, the same Metropolitan John I wrote a service to Saints Boris and Gleb, which became the first hymnographic creation of Russian church writing.

Subsequently, already in the XI-XII centuries, the Russian Church revealed to the world so many saints that, perhaps, by the middle of the XII century, a day could be established from the common memory. Nevertheless, until the beginning of the 16th century, there was no such holiday in the Russian Church for various reasons: the lack of autocephaly in the Russian Orthodox Church, the Mongol-Tatar yoke, the late appearance of the holiday in the name of all saints in the Church of Constantinople itself (the end of the 9th century), finally, the presence of such a holiday in itself removed the issue of a separate holiday in honor of Russian saints from the agenda, especially considering the fact that there were few of them canonized.

In 1439, Archbishop Evfimy II of Novgorod established a celebration for the Novgorod saints, after which he invited the Athos hieromonk Pachomius Logothet to Veliky Novgorod to compose services and lives of the newly canonized saints. Archbishop Jonah went even further and glorified "Moscow, Kyiv and Eastern ascetics." Under him, for the first time on Novgorod land, a temple was built in honor of St. Sergius, hegumen of Radonezh. Archbishop Gennady of Novgorod, thanks to whom the first Slavonic manuscript Bible was brought together, was an admirer of Russian saints. With his blessing, the lives of St. Savvaty of Solovetsky and Blessed Michael of Klopsky were written.

In the years 1528-1529, the nephew of the Monk Joseph Volotsky, the monk Dositheus (Toporkov), while working on the correction of the Sinai Patericon, lamented in the afterword compiled by him that, although the Russian land has many holy men and wives worthy of no less reverence and glorification than the eastern the saints of the first centuries of Christianity, however, they are “despised by our negligence and not betrayed by scripture, even if we ourselves are light.” Dositheus performed his work with the blessing of Archbishop Macarius of Novgorod, who for many years was engaged in collecting and systematizing the hagiographic, hymnographic and homiletic heritage of Orthodox Russia, known by that time. From 1529 to 1541, Archbishop Macarius and his assistants worked on compiling a twelve-volume collection, which went down in history under the name Great Makarievsky Cheti Menei, which included the lives of many Russian saints who were revered in different parts of Russia, but did not have a general church glorification.

Makaryevsky cathedrals and subsequent years

The establishment of a holiday in honor of all Russian saints also required the writing of a service for this holiday. This difficult task was carried out by the monk of the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev monastery Gregory, who left the Russian Church "a total of up to 14 hagiological works, both about individual saints, and consolidated works about all Russian saints." However, the service compiled by monk Gregory was not included in the printed Monthly Books, and its text was distributed only in manuscripts and was not published.

Around 1643, the protosyncell of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Hieromonk Meletios (Sirig), at the request of Metropolitan Peter (Mohyla) of Kyiv, wrote a service in honor of all the venerable fathers on Cheesefare Saturday to “the venerable fathers of the Kiev Caves and all the saints who shone in Little Russia.”

In the late 1640s, Archimandrite of the Solovetsky Monastery Sergius (Shelonin), following the example of the service of Hieromonk Meletius, compiled “A word of praise to all the holy fathers who shone in Russia in fasting,” which mentions not only the venerable fathers, but also saints, holy fools, noble princes . The same author owns the "Canon to all the saints who shone in Great Russia in fasting", which included the names of 160 Russian saints and revered saints of God, belonging to different ranks of holiness.

Subsequently, the memory was transferred to the first Sunday after the celebration of the holy prophet Elijah (July 20 according to the Julian calendar). At the beginning of the 17th century, the days of memory of Russian Saints were celebrated during the week after Pentecost until All Saints' Week.

Oblivion and abolishment

By the end of the 16th century, the feast of All Russian Saints began to be forgotten and celebrated only in certain parts of Russia. This trend in the 17th century began to intensify. The reforms of Patriarch Nikon, which led to a break with the previous church tradition, had negative consequences in the matter of venerating the saints of the Russian Church. In connection with the decisions taken at the Moscow Council of 1666-1667, the historian Anton Kartashev wrote: “The [Eastern] Patriarchs, and behind them - alas! - and all the Russian fathers of the cathedral of 1667 put the entire Russian Moscow church history on the dock, condemned it in a council and canceled it.

It was in the process of these references that a significant number of liturgical memorials were excluded from the Typicon and Menaia, primarily to Russian saints. In the new Church Charter of 1682, memorable days associated with 21 Russian saints disappeared. In other cases, the liturgical status of Russian saints was significantly lowered. So, for example, the right-believing Prince Mikhail of Tverskoy, the husband of the already previously decanonized Anna Kashinskaya, who, before the split, had the service of the All-Night Vigil (of the highest degree) on the day of memory, was “lowered” to an ordinary service. Some services in honor of the icons of the Mother of God associated with Russian history, the protection of the Russian land (Signs, Kazanskaya, Tikhvinskaya, Feodorovskaya, etc.) were also demoted or deleted from the liturgical row. Academician Yevgeny Golubinsky pointed out: “The statutory record was kept by the deaners of the Assumption Cathedral between 1666-1743, remarkable for the extremely small number of Russian saints who were celebrated in the cathedral. There are only 11 of these saints in the record.

Revival of interest in Russian saints

Interest in Russian holiness required a historical understanding of this phenomenon. At the turn of the century, generalizing works dedicated to Russian saints appeared. First of all, the work of Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin) “Holy Russia, or information about all the saints and ascetics of piety in Russia” (1891) should be mentioned here; In the same years, interest in icon-painting images of Russian saints noticeably increased.

In May 1900, a decision of the Synod appeared on the preparation of a Russian translation of the "Lives of the Saints" by Dimitry of Rostov, and in 1903-1908 this edition went out of print.

A special place in the series of hagiographic works published at the turn of the century is occupied by the “Faithful Menologion of All Russian Saints Honored by Molebens and Solemn Liturgies both Churchwide and Locally, Compiled Based on Reports to the Holy Synod of the Right Reverends of All Dioceses in 1901-1902”, compiled by Archbishop Sergiy of Vladimir and Suzdal (Spassky), where for the first time in the Synodal period, the practice of fixing the real veneration of saints was consistently maintained without imposing this practice from above.

The issue of including new memories in the liturgical books was discussed in preparation for the convening of the Local Council. Thus, the Commission for the development of issues to be discussed by the Local Council, created by Bishop Privislinsky Jerome (Instance) believed that “that the celebration of the memory of Russian saints everywhere is very edifying and beneficial for the revival of the self-consciousness of the Russian people, it would be necessary to issue an order that all churches celebrate the memory of Russian saints in the numbers in which they are placed according to the Faithful Menology of the Russian Saints, published by the Holy Synod in 1903.

Despite this, the issue of returning the feast of all Russian saints before the revolution was never resolved. So it is known that on July 20 (August 2) - on the day of memory of the Prophet Elijah, the year, the peasant of the Sudogodsky district of the Vladimir province Nikolai Osipovich Gazukin sent a petition to the Holy Synod to establish an annual celebration of "To all the saints of Russia, glorified from the beginning of Russia" with a request "to honor this day with a specially composed church service. The petition was soon rejected by a synodal decision on the grounds that the existing feast of All Saints also includes the memory of Russian saints.

Restoration of the holiday at the Local Council in 1918

The initiator of the recreation of the holiday was the historian and orientalist professor of Petrograd University Boris Aleksandrovich Turaev, an employee of the Liturgical Department of the Holy Local Council of the Orthodox Russian Church in 1917-1918. On March 15, 1918, he spoke at a meeting of the Department on worship, preaching and the temple with a report, in the preparation of which Hieromonk of the Vladimir Nativity Monastery Athanasius (Sakharov) took part. The report contained a historical overview of the rites for Russian saints and a proposal to restore the undeservedly forgotten feast in honor of the Cathedral of Saints of the Russian Land:

the service compiled in Great Russia found particular distribution on the periphery of the Russian Church, on its western outskirts and even beyond its borders at the time of the division of Russia, when the loss of national and political unity was especially acutely felt.<…>In our mournful time, when united Russia has become torn apart, when our sinful generation has trampled upon the fruits of the exploits of the Saints who worked in the caves of Kyiv, and in Moscow, and in the Thebaid of the North, and in Western Russia on the creation of a single Orthodox Russian Church, it would seem timely to restore this forgotten holiday, may it remind us and our rejected brethren from generation to generation of the One Orthodox Russian Church, and may it be a small tribute to our sinful generation and a small atonement for our sin.

On August 20, 1918, the report of Turaev approved by the department was considered by the Council, and finally, on August 26, on the name day of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, a historic resolution was adopted: “1. The celebration of the Day of Remembrance of All Russian Saints, which existed in the Russian Church, is being restored. 2. This celebration takes place on the first Sunday of Petrovsky Lent.

The council assumed that this holiday should become a kind of second temple holiday for all Orthodox churches in Russia. Its content, as suggested by Boris Turaev, has become more universal: it is no longer just a celebration of Russian saints, but the triumph of all Holy Russia, at the same time - not triumphal, but repentant, forcing us to evaluate the past and learn from it lessons for building the Orthodox Church in new conditions .

The Council decided to print the corrected and supplemented Service of Monk Gregory at the end of the Colored Triodion. However, Boris Turaev and another participant in the Council, Hieromonk Athanasius (Sakharov), who hastily embarked on this work, soon came to the conclusion that the service, in fact, had to be composed anew: “The ancient service, compiled by the famous creator of several services, monk Gregory, was difficult to correct. Therefore, it was decided to borrow only a little from it, and compose everything else anew, partly compiling completely new hymns, partly choosing the most characteristic and best of the existing liturgical books, mainly from individual services to Russian saints. B. A. Turaev took upon himself mainly the compilation of new chants, his collaborator - the selection of appropriate places from the finished material and their adaptation to this service.

Boris Turaev and Hieromonk Afanasy very much wanted to “carry out the service they had compiled through the Cathedral”, which was about to close. On September 8, 1918, at the penultimate meeting of the liturgical department of the Local Council, the still incomplete service was reviewed, approved and submitted for further approval to His Holiness the Patriarch and the Holy Synod.

On November 18 of the same year, after the closing of the Council, Patriarch Tikhon and the Holy Synod blessed the printing of the new Service under the supervision of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Vladimir and Shuya, which was carried out in Moscow at the end of that year. Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), who was considering the new one, introduced into it the troparion composed by himself, “Like a red fruit ...”. The prepared first version of the service was then considered by Patriarch Tikhon.

On December 13 of the same year, a decree was sent to all diocesan bishops on the restoration of the Day of Remembrance of All Russian Saints, and on June 16, 1919, a typographically printed text of the service was sent, indicating that it should be performed on the next Sunday upon receipt. As noted in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1946: “This service was printed in limited quantities, went from hand to hand with the participants in the Council, was not sent to the dioceses and was not widely distributed. It soon became a rarity. The handwritten lists distributed from it abounded with a number of errors, insertions, omissions, and even these handwritten lists were in very few churches. The vast majority of churches had nothing."

On July 23, 1920, Boris Turaev died, very much desiring to continue to work on supplementing and correcting the hastily compiled service, and Archimandrite Athanasius (Sakharov) did not dare to undertake such responsible work alone.

The first church consecrated in honor of All Russian Saints was the house church of Petrograd University. Priest Vladimir Lozina-Lozinsky was its rector from 1920 until its closure in 1924.

In the autumn of 1922, Bishop Athanasius (Sakharov), during his first arrest in the 17th cell of the Vladimir prison, met with a number of admirers of the newly restored holiday who were of the same mind with him. These were: Archbishop Nikandr of Krutitsy (Phenomenov), Archbishop Thaddeus (Uspensky) of Astrakhan, Bishop Korniliy (Sobolev) of Vyaznikovsky, Bishop Vasily (Zummer) of Suzdal, Abbot of the Chudov Monastery Filaret (Volchan), Moscow archpriests Sergius Glagolevsky and Nikolai Schastnev, priest Sergei Durylin , ruler of the affairs of the Higher Church Administration Pyotr Viktorovich Guryev, Moscow missionary Sergei Vasilyevich Kasatkin and subdeacon of Archbishop Thaddeus Nikolai Alexandrovich Davydov. The "Dates and stages of my life" also indicate the priest Nikolai Dulov and Archpriest Alexy Blagoveshchensky. As Bishop Athanasius recalled: “And then, after repeated conversations about this holiday, about the service, about the icon, about the temple in the name of this holiday, the beginning of a new revision, correction and addition of the service, published in 1918, was laid. By the way, the idea was expressed about the desirability of supplementing the service so that it could be performed not only on the 2nd week after Pentecost, but at will and at other times and not necessarily on Sunday.

On November 10, 1922, in the same prison, on the day of memory of St. Demetrius of Rostov, Bishop Athanasius (Sakharov), together with the aforementioned bishops and priests, served All Russian Saints.

All this strengthened Bishop Athanasius in the idea that the service approved by the Council of 1917-1918 should be supplemented further, “and at the same time, the idea arose of the desirability and necessity of establishing one more day for the common celebration of all Russian saints, beyond established by the Council", in connection with which Bishop Athanasius proposed to establish a second, non-transferable feast in honor of All Russian Saints, when in all Russian churches "only one full festive service could be performed, not embarrassed by any other." Bishop Athanasius (Sakharov) explained this in the preface to the service to All the Saints who shone in the Russian land: “At the same time, it would seem most appropriate to celebrate the celebration of All the Saints who shone in the Russian land on July 16 (29) immediately after the feast of the Enlightener of the Russian land, the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir. Then the feast of our Equal-to-the-Apostle will be, as it were, a fore-feast to the feast of All Saints who flourished in the land into which he sowed the saving seeds of the Orthodox faith. And the very feast of All Russian Saints will then begin with the glorification of Prince Vladimir at the 9th hour before the festive small vespers. The feast of All Russian Saints is the feast of all holy Russia.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the icon painter Maria Sokolova, with the blessing of Bishop Athanasius (Sakharov), worked on the icon "All the Saints Who Resplendent in the Russian Land." To this end, she looked for the "likeness" of the face of each saint in the sources, studying in detail the hagiographic material. In 1934, in the home church of Hieromonk the Trinity-Sergius Lavra Hieraks (Bocharov) in the city of Losinoostrovsky, the first icon of the new version was consecrated by Bishop Athanasius on the eve of the Week of All Saints Who Resplendent in the Russian Land. This image became the cell icon of Bishop Athanasius, which he bequeathed to be transferred to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

The edition, adapted to serve not in conjunction with the Sunday service, but as an independent three-day festive service (July 15-17), was not published during the life of the author, and for a long time this service was distributed in lists, until it was published in full in 1995.

On March 10, 1964, the Cathedral of the Rostov-Yaroslavl Saints was established by the decision of the Holy Synod. Beginning in the late 1970s, with the blessing of Patriarch Pimen, the liturgical calendar of the Russian Church included the days of commemoration of local cathedrals of saints: Tver (1979), Novgorod (1981), Radonezh (1981), Kostroma (1981), Vladimir (1982), Smolensk (1983), Belarusian (1984), Siberian (1984), Kazan (1984), Kostroma (1981), Ryazan (1987), Pskov (1987) and Crimean (1988). Hegumen Andronik (Trubachev) noted in 1988: “During the Patriarchate of His Holiness Patriarch Pimen since 1971, 11 Russian cathedral commemorations were established and 2 cathedral celebrations established in other Orthodox Churches were adopted. This statistics quite definitely indicates that now in the Russian Church there is a comprehension and collection of the spiritual experience of the saints of the Russian land.

The local council of 1988 glorified 9 saints who lived in the 14th-19th centuries for general church veneration. For the feast of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia, the Liturgical Commission prepared the “Ordinances for the Feast of the Baptism of Russia”. According to the Charter, the service to the Lord God in memory of the Baptism of Russia should precede and be combined with the service to all the saints who shone in the Russian land. Thus, the testament of the Council of 1917-1918 was finally fulfilled after 70 years. In the same year, the Temple was consecrated in honor of all the saints who shone in the Russian land at the Residence of the Holy Synod and the Patriarch in the Moscow Danilov Monastery.

The newest era

On May 29, 2013, the Holy Synod, relying on the decision of the Council of Bishops on February 2-5, 2013, on the advisability of using the name "Cathedral of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church" (instead of the "Cathedral of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia") due to the fact that the canonical responsibility of the Russian Orthodox Church extends to many states, decreed:

Approve the following names for use in official church documents and publications, including liturgical ones:

On May 14, 2018, the Holy Synod approved for use at divine services and in home prayer a new edition of the text of the Akathist to All the Saints Who Resplendent in the Russian Land.

Iconography

The icons of the Cathedral of All Saints, who shone in the Russian land, that currently exist in the Russian Orthodox Church, go back to the image created by the icon painter Juliania (Sokolova), whose instructions were given by Bishop Athanasius (Sakharov). The icon is unusual in that the earth on it occupies almost the entire icon-painting space, rising vertically upwards. The saints depicted on the icon are united in groups according to the place of the feat, and then, as it were, merging into a single stream.

In the center of the icon is the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, at the foot of which are Moscow saints.

This icon formed the basis of the iconography created in the Russian Church Abroad, where it was supplemented by the image of the holy royal martyrs and Russian New Martyrs, visited. After the canonization by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000, the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, the image of their cathedral was added to the icons painted in Russia.

June 3, 2016. 2nd week after Pentecost
All the saints who shone in the Russian land.

Sermon by Archpriest Vyacheslav Perevezentsev.
Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (Makarovo village).

Sunday of all the saints who shone in the Russian land.

O I really love this day. This holiday dates back to the middle of the 16th century, but then it was lost and restored at the Local Council in the spring of 1918, when it became obvious that the Russian people in their vast mass succumbed to the terrible temptation and wants to build their lives on other grounds than they did. predecessors. For centuries, Russian people believed that the measure of life, its meaning, could only be the Truth of God, the Gospel commandments. Yes, these commandments were violated, the truth was distorted, but no one dared to proclaim a different truth and other commandments. And then those who dared came, announced and followed them ... This holiday, as if a call to the Russian people: "You are either with Russian saints, which means with Christ or with those who rape Him ...". Strange as it may seem, but then and now, this obvious choice is not obvious to many. I would like to rejoice together with the Russian Church, glorifying its saints and with perseverance, worthy of a better use, to defend those who exterminated these saints.

H then to say? It's sad and scary. One consolation - the words of ap. Paul: "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked" (Gal. 6:7) .

Troparion to all the saints who shone in the Russian land, voice 1
Like the red fruit of Your saving sowing, the Russian land brings Thee, Lord, and all the saints who shone in that. With those prayers in the world, keep the Church and the country of our Mother of God, O Many-Merciful.

Kontakion To all the saints who shone in the Russian land, voice 3
Today, the face of the saints in our land who pleased God is in the church and invisibly prays to God for us; Angels will glorify him and all the saints of the Church of Christ will celebrate him: for us all pray to the Eternal God.

Magnification to all the saints who shone in the Russian land
We bless you, our wonderworkers of glory, the Russian land with your virtues illumined and the image of salvation luminously shown to us.

Prayer to all the saints who shone in the Russian land
About all-blessing and God-wisdom, the saints of God, with your deeds sanctified the Russian land and your bodies, like the seed of faith, left in it, with your souls standing before the Throne of God and praying unceasingly for her! Now, on the day of your common triumph, we, sinners, your lesser brethren, dare to bring you this laudatory singing. We magnify your great deeds, spiritual warriors of Christ, with patience and courage to the end of the enemy, who overthrew us from the charms and wiles of his deliverance. We bless your holy life, luminaries of the Divine, shining with the light of faith and virtues and illuminating our minds and hearts with divine wisdom. We glorify your great miracles, bloom raistia, in our country to the north, beautifully flourishing and the aromas of talents and miracles are fragrant everywhere. We praise your God-imitating love, our intercessors and patrons, and, relying on your help, we fall down to you and cry out: all the saints of our relatives, who shone from the ancient years and in the last days labored, appearing and not appearing, knowing and not knowing! Remember our weakness and humiliation and with your prayers ask Christ our God, and we, having comfortably sailed through the abyss of life and unharmedly keeping the treasure of faith, will reach the haven of eternal salvation and in the blessed monasteries of the Mountainous Fatherland, together with you and with all the saints who have pleased Him from the ages Let us dwell in the grace and love of mankind of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, to Him, with the Eternal Father and with the Most Holy Spirit, befits unceasing praise and worship from all creatures forever and ever. Amen.

The second Sunday after Pentecost is Week of All Saints, who shone in the Russian land”- The Church glorifies the host of the righteous and martyrs, both glorified and known only to God. This is the holiday of all Holy Russia.

There were not as many saints as the people who lived on our land gave anywhere else. The Gospel says: "The sower went out to sow." The Lord sowed the word of God in all nations, and each of them reacted to it in their own way. Holiness is man's answer to the call of God.

God came to earth to call everyone. He said thus: “Many are called.” We live in an age when there is not a single person left on earth, with the exception of small children, who has not heard about Jesus Christ. The very sound of His name already gives rise to certain associations. In any case, everyone knows that This Man said about Himself that He is the Son of God, descended from Heaven. And everyone knows that He was crucified on the Cross.

But the reaction of the human heart to this event is completely different. Most people don't care at all. They do not even bother to find out what Christ said while living on earth; what He did when He walked two thousand years ago in Palestine; how it happened that, although everything shows that he was a good man, he was crucified. The life of Jesus is of no interest to the majority of those living on earth - that is, although the call reaches their ears, people do not give an answer to it.
The Lord has come to all. Of course, He began with His chosen, beloved people.

But this people in their mass rejected Him, just as now our people in their mass completely rejected Christ - and, by the way, for the same reason. This, apparently, is the lot of mankind in general - to reject God. But there were people who responded to this call. How did their response to God come about? In the example of the apostles, those first saints of the New Testament, we see how this happens.

The Gospel of Matthew, which we read today, tells how the Lord called the apostles Andrew, Peter, James and John. He approached the Sea of ​​Galilee, saw two brothers throwing nets into the sea, and said to them: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him. So are the sons of Zebedee.

Imagine a picture - fishermen catch fish. This is the source of their existence: from this fish they feed, from this fish they dress and maintain their homes. And so He calls them - they give it up, completely, forever leave and follow Him. And James and John even left their father, and Peter left his wife at home and began to follow Christ. That's something few people can do, that's how to give up everything for Christ's sake. Therefore, few can be an apostle ...

instructive history of the holiday. Since the 16th century, there has been a celebration of the memory of “All Saints New Russian Wonderworkers” in our Church. It was performed on July 17 (according to the old style), that is, on the third day of the memory of the Baptist of Russia - St. Prince Vladimir.

The traditional author of the service for this holiday is considered to be the monk Gregory from the Suzdal Savior-Evfimiev Monastery (he compiled its text, obviously, in the middle of the 16th century). Two of its editions are known under the title "Service to all Russian miracle workers" (Grodno and Suprasl, in the same 1786).

But in central Russia, for some reason, this holiday did not become widespread, was actually forgotten and was not included in the printed Monthly Books, and its text was not published. Obviously, the trials sent by God to a powerful country and the state Church seemed to many to be overcome on their own. Only the catastrophe of 1917 made me seriously turn to help from Above.

It is significant that the initiator of the recreation of the holiday was the brilliant historian and orientalist prof. Petrograd University (now St. Petersburg State University) acad. Boris Alexandrovich Turaev (†1920), an employee of the Liturgical Department of the Holy Local Council of the Orthodox Russian Church in 1917-1918.

In his report, he specifically noted the fact that “the service compiled in Great Russia found particular distribution on the periphery of the Russian Church, on its western outskirts and even beyond its borders at the time of the division of Russia, when the loss of national and political unity was especially acutely felt.<…>

In our mournful time, when united Russia has become torn apart, when our sinful generation has trampled on the fruits of the exploits of the Saints who worked in the caves of Kyiv, and in Moscow, and in the Thebaid of the North, and in Western Russia on the creation of a single Orthodox Russian Church, it would seem timely restore this forgotten holiday, may it remind us and our exiled brethren from generation to generation of the One Orthodox Russian Church, and may it be a small tribute to our sinful generation and a small atonement for our sin.

The Holy Council, in its meeting on August 13/26, 1918, on the name day of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, heard the report of B. Turaev and, after discussing it, adopted the following resolution:
"one. The celebration of the Day of Remembrance of All Russian Saints, which existed in the Russian Church, is being restored.
2. This celebration takes place on the first Sunday of Petrovsky Lent.

The Council assumed that this holiday, which has a special meaning for us, should become, as it were, a temple for all Orthodox churches in Russia.
Thus, it is no coincidence that this holiday was restored (and actually re-introduced) at the beginning of the period of the most severe persecution of Christianity in its entire 19th century history.

It is characteristic that its content, as suggested by B. Turaev, has become more universal: it is no longer just a celebration of Russian saints, but the triumph of all Holy Russia, not triumphal, but repentant, forcing us to evaluate our past and draw lessons from it for the creation of the Church in new conditions.

The compilers of the texts of the service were B. Turaev himself, a member of the Council and an employee of its Liturgical Commission, and a priest. Athanasius (Sakharov) (later Bishop of Kovrov, †1962; now canonized as a confessor, commemorated October 15/28).

The original version of the service was published as a separate brochure in the same 1918. Later, the text was supplemented; The work was also attended by Mr. Sergius (Stragorodsky) (he owns the troparion), Fr. Sergiy Durylin and others.

The first church in honor of All Russian Saints was the house church of Petrograd University. From 1920 until its closure in 1924, its rector was priest Vladimir Lozina-Lozinsky, who was shot in 1937.

After the cessation of direct persecution of the Church in the 40s of the XX century. the text of the service was printed with censorial distortions that destroyed all indications of the new martyrs (on the instructions of the Soviet authorities, this “correction” was zealously carried out by LDA inspector Prof. L. N. Pariyskiy).

Only in 1995 was it published as a separate book “Service to All the Saints, Who Resplendent in the Russian Land”. Although this holiday actually continues the theme of the last celebration of the Color Triodi (“All Saints”), they did not begin to supplement this Greek book at its core. In 2002, the text of the service to All Russian Saints was included in the May Menaion (part 3).

Prayer to all the Saints who shone in the Russian land

About all-blessing and God-wisdom, the saints of God, with your deeds sanctified the Russian Land and your bodies, like the seed of faith, left in it, with your souls standing before the Throne of God and praying unceasingly for her!

Behold, now on the day of your common triumph, we, your lesser brethren, dare to bring you laudatory singing. We magnify your great deeds, the spiritual warriors of Christ, with patience and courage to the end of the enemy, who overthrew us from the charms and intrigues of his deliverance.

We bless your holy life, divine shrines, shining with the light of faith and virtues and illuminating our minds and hearts with divine wisdom. We glorify your great miracles, bloom raistia, in our country to the north, beautifully flourishing and the aromas of gifts and miracles are fragrant everywhere.

We praise your God-imitating love, our intercessor and patron, and, relying on your help, we fall down to you and cry out: our enlighteners are equal to the apostles! Help the people of the Russian Land firmly hold the Orthodox faith that you have betrayed, so that the saving seed, planted by you, will not be dried up by the heat of unbelief, but drunk with the rain of God's haste, and bear abundant fruit.

Saints of Christ! Establish the Russian Church with your prayers, consume heresies, schisms and disorder in it, gather the wasted sheep together and protect from all kinds of wolves, in the clothes of sheep entering the flock of Christ.

Reverend fathers! Save us from the charms of this evil world, but rejecting ourselves and taking up our cross, let us follow Christ, crucifying our flesh with passions and lusts, bearing each other's burdens.

Blessed Prince! Look graciously at your earthly fatherland and all the wickedness and temptations that currently exist in it, use the weapons of your prayers, yes, as of old, so now, and in the coming time, the name of the Lord is glorified in Holy Russia.

Passion-bearers of Russia of glorification! Strengthen us in prayerful standing even to the point of blood for the Orthodox faith and the customs of the fatherland, so that neither sorrow, nor tightness, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor misfortune, nor a sword can separate us from the love of God, even in Christ Jesus.

Blessed, Christ for the sake of the holy fool and the righteous! Confound the wisdom of this age, which ascends into the Mind of God. Help us, having been established by the saving riot of the Cross of Christ, the temptations of the wisdom of the worldly unshakable being, more heavenly, and not earthly thinking.

God-wise wives, in a weak nature who showed great deeds! Pray that the spirit of your love for the Lord and zeal for pleasing and for your own and near salvation do not become impoverished in us.

All our holy relatives, who shone from the ancient years and labored in the last days, appearance and non-appearance, knowledge and ignorance! Remember our weakness and humiliation and ask with your prayers from Christ our God, and we, having comfortably sailed through the abyss of life and unharmedly kept the treasure of faith, will reach the haven of eternal salvation and in the blessed monasteries of the mountainous Fatherland, together with you and with all the saints who have pleased Him from time immemorial let us dwell, by the grace and love of mankind of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, unceasing praise and worship from all creatures forever and ever befits Him with the Eternal Father and the Most Holy Spirit. Amen.

We magnify Thee, Trinitarian Lord, by the faith of the Orthodox land of Russia illumined and glorified the holy relatives of our host of greats in it!