Часть III. Прославление памяти св. Димитрия
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Chapter I. Moral teaching of St. Dimitria 563
It is unlikely that in Russia we will find a book more popular and beloved by the common people than the works of St. Dimitri. What he wrote amazingly meets the religious needs of the Russian people and most satisfies him. For worldly people he has a clear teaching about Christian morality in public sermons; the highest ascetic ideal and its achievement are presented in the Lives of the Saints.
Demetrius's writings present a picture of Christian life, full of moral beauty and gracious sweetness. With the masterful brush of an artist, he depicts the human heart, full of good and bad aspirations, depicts courage and cowardice, which have always served as the subject of inspired creativity among writers, calling many of them to great poetic, lofty and comic works. But Demetrius is not interested in the theatrical, kaleidoscopic changes of spiritual downfalls, but in indicating the means of spiritual renewal of a person, how to restore the bright original dignity in order to reach his likeness to the Highest Beauty and Good (II, 376).
Like a skilled speaker, he draws a spark of moral need from the bottom of the listener's soul; the listener himself is ignited with the desire to fight against evil, perceiving a consciousness of duty, loyalty and holy zeal for good. At the same time, moral life is presented in a close, inextricable relationship with religiosity.
When describing the history of moral decline and the picture of man’s uprising, St. Demetrius assumes a high destiny for man. The doctrine of the essence and development of the moral law is closely connected with the origin of man and his nature. Human nature is dual. In body, he belongs to the world, has much in common with animals and other animals and birds of the air, and, especially, in sensations; in his soul he carries within himself the image of the Creator; he can become like Him. The image of God in the human soul is revealed and visible in its properties: just as the soul is an invisible being, so God is invisible, it is rational and the Creator of the world is the God of intelligences; God is in three persons, and the soul has three powers: mind, word and spirit; just as the soul is in the whole body, so God is everywhere in the world (I, 62, II, 223); the soul is living and God lives forever. The soul is a rational being that animates the flesh, is a reflection of the Divine (IV, 27), so that in man the image of God consists of the totality of his spiritual powers (IV, 39, 97) and the ability of these powers to have a union with their Creator (I, 105).
The first man had a natural attraction to his Prototype, but in the recreated man it is strengthened through struggle. In the desire of fallen man for good there are more elements of freedom and consciousness than in Adam or the angels, and there are more motives: the sinner is prompted to think about God not only by affinity with Him, but also by the severity of sin, the consciousness of guilt before Him, inevitable death due to sin and the idea of the ideal perfection of the Son of Man (IV, 39). The degree of perfection accessible to human efforts is the likeness of God. Thus, the image of God lies in the spiritual nature of man, and the likeness of God is acquired through the free effort of man.
The fall of man lies in the free will of the rational creature; but the reason for breaking the paradise commandment was given from the outside, from the tempter (IV, 292, IV, 38). A fallen angel brought sin into the world. The motives for the fall of man and angel are the same: they both wanted to establish themselves without God, but their fall is different. The devil consciously denies God, and man is deceived. The fall of the devil is deeper: he is completely imbued with evil - he will never repent, due to his bitterness (IV, 15; Cheti-Minea, January 17); whereas man has never denied the authority of the Creator (I, 56) and is prone to rebellion. Evil cannot be considered merely a deviation from good. Good and evil are two mutually fighting principles. Evil excludes good, strives to overthrow it in order to take its place. In this form, evil is alien to man: man has no denial of good, but only a lack of it. The tragedy of the human condition lies in the fact that, weakened by sin, it still has a double attraction to God (IV, 174): both natural and moral. On this path to Him, the choice of good and evil depends on the autocracy of man.
Man realizes that sin itself is the greatest evil in heaven and the greatest of all evils. Any calamity and suffering that befalls a person is an insignificant misfortune in comparison with sin: “sin torments forever.” Even if he is forgiven, then the sinner is tormented by the mere memory of him. Just as a spark causes a fire, sin does the same devastation in the spiritual house of virtues. It is as if he is transformed into nature itself (IV, 292–293). All spiritual forces weaken and incline toward evil; we no longer heed calls for good; Spiritual interest also declines and becomes carnal (IV, 319). Punishment for sins is only an addition to the wrath of God. When a person sins, he is deprived of the likeness of God, leaving him with only the image of God (IV, 25). There are three (main) consequences of sin: 1) the wrath of God (IV, 20), 2) deprivation of good, and 3) execution. God is angry when we cause Him annoyance, trouble and dishonor. Then, sin deadens a person’s soul, deprives it of grace, and his very body is weakened and weakened by sin 564.
The natural consequence of sin is death (IV, 40). Death is an abnormal phenomenon. This can be seen from the fact that a person does not rejoice at her, but fears her. Death has no purpose. It destroys the best creatures of nature in the blooming time of their lives. Earthquakes, pestilences, storms that destroy life, creatures, and human labor cannot be called a law of nature. Death breaks the natural union of soul and body: the deceased is no longer a person (IV, 198). She, invading from the outside, is an execution for the entire human race (IV, 205). Adam became a sinner by his own free will, and his descendants by inheritance (IV, 329, 331). Nature no longer tells them to instinctively turn away from evil, like Eve in Paradise. Passions live and manifest themselves even in children 565.
In damaged human nature, evil is perceived more quickly and easily than good, and with the skills to sin, it is more difficult to fight it. The sinner becomes a slave to passion 566 and is already heading towards destruction. If a person worked for a thousand years in repentance for sin, then even then he would not be able to satisfy the highest truth for him. The holy men of the Old Testament could not pay for Adam’s one sin either with their tears or bloody suffering (IV, 220). One Son of God could repay the debt to Divine justice (IV, 226, (I, 43). Demetrius considers the moral uprising and justification of man a miracle, higher than that which happened over the four-day Lazarus, but it is possible because the image of God is still preserved in man. Moral development and the achievement of perfection begin with the image of God. The image of God is manifested primarily in the ability to isolate oneself from the world and even from one’s body: “I am by the inner man has; the external ones are not me; it belongs only to me” (“Search”, 297).
Then, the image of God manifests itself in the ability of autocracy, when a person can freely navigate his actions. This is the idea of human personality. It is always inherent in a reasonable person, no matter what state he is in.
Rebellion is life in the likeness of God, the free striving for moral perfection. The entire value of the human personality lies in freedom of self-determination, in achieving the moral goal set by the Creator. The soul is blessed because it can transform from “the likeness of hell into the beauty of heaven” (IV, 415), because it itself is presented with the choice of good (III, 327). – The highest morality is to give all your strength to God (III, 359). According to Demetrius, there are three ranks of ascent to perfection. The first rank - if a person has fallen behind sin and does not fight against it - is infancy (II, 501); Such work without heartfelt desire is slavery to God. The second rank is the desire for perfection for the sake of self-interest, according to the feeling of a mercenary. The third rank is love of God.
The main properties of the soul: this is life, the thirst for it, as well as the desire for happiness. The highest happiness is not external goods, but God himself: “it is better to be in hell with God than on earth without God” (III, 359, I, 171). Deviation from God oppresses a person. The consciousness of evasion is the essence of conscience.
The gospel law comes to the aid of man's rebellion. It is necessary for the Christian and above, both natural and Mosaic. Just as Abraham has two sons, one from his wife, the other from a slave, the same attitude towards God of Christians and Jews: Jews are slaves, Christians are free, fulfilling the spiritual law. (“Wanted,” 369). The Law of Christ shows us the true attitude towards God, man and ourselves. In Christ the human personality reached its highest development. The preaching of Christ is only part of His work. The most important thing is His sacrifice for us. Our evil placed Him on the bed of the cross. He is sick with our wounds (V, 32); We sowed sin, He reaps disease (V, 41, V, 57). Through both teaching and atonement, Christ reconciled us with God and atoned for both our original and arbitrary sins. He, like the sun, drove away the darkness of sin (I, 187) and founded a blessed kingdom - His Church. Having created Adam's wife from a rib, now from Her rib she builds the Church, our Mother, redeemed by the blood, who gives birth to us (I, 192). Christ is constantly with us: by faith we see him everywhere. And among all people and especially with each one, Ps. 15 8 (II, 150).
He gave us a leader - the Holy Spirit (II, 128), who is poured out on us, as He communicated to the apostles. The Church, like a tree, is filled with gifts of grace and blossoms like leaves with righteous virgins, martyrs, confessors, saints and hermits (II:177, 175).
Under the name of grace, Demetrius means the special power of God. For the soul it is the same as the soul itself is for the body: a soul without grace is dead (II, 416); grace revives the soul, imparting to it both its action and its property (II, 178). Both the sinner and those standing on the path of salvation equally need it: it helps the first to rise (II, 236), the second assists and accompanies in the matter of salvation. She is like holy fire and like a cool cloud.
Demetrius shares moments of God's grace. “Prevenient” grace leads to the path of salvation and leads to success (II, 238). She comes, like the wind, into an earthly cave, into the human heart, shakes him and prompts him to repentance (II, 230). The “accompanying” grace inspires to endure and thank God in sorrows (II, 230) and thereby brings the repentant sinner into tenderness. “Consequent” - strengthens our will for good and supports the memory of both the Creator and our imperfection. "Establishing" grace helps against the lust of the flesh in order to remain in the service of God (II, 235, 236).
Grace is a necessary factor in the work of salvation. “Just as a ship on the sea, if it has everything prepared for sailing, but there is no wind, cannot sail, so we, flowing through the sea of this world towards eternity, need the breath of the Spirit” ... (II, 238). Without grace, a person is powerless to be saved; becomes bitter and no longer cares about his soul (IV, 384). However, it does not force the will of a person who is stuck in sins. The gracious light begins to shine in his heart only when the person himself comes to his senses and begins to repent of his sins (II, 347).
Thus, in addition to grace, human participation is necessary.
The character of Christian morality is freedom, namely, repentance and determination to do good. It is not the wisdom of God, not mercy, not omnipotence that resurrects the dead soul of a sinner, but the will of the person himself. As long as a person is completely satisfied, he is on the path to destruction. Just as a drunkard does not realize when he is beaten and does not remember it, so an inattentive, bitter sinner, like a stone, does not feel the death of his soul. He is wounded, but does not feel it in his conscience (II, 556, 557).
The first conditions of salvation are repentance and faith. Repentance reveals a remnant of primitive perfection - a vague memory of pleasures - being with God and the consciousness that there is still a source of happiness in us. Repentance covers the entire being of a person. David, in the consciousness of his sin, sprinkles ashes on his head (II, 25) without excuses or apologies, the repentant sees only his guilt: “my soul has died, lies, as in a tomb, in an evil custom, rolled over with a stone of bitterness” (II, 96, 97). Such sorrow is the condition for rebirth. This is the return of the dissolute son to his father, and not the calculated conversion of the Pharisee; “such a repentant person will be worthy of God’s mercy, even if he were very unworthy” (II, 85). Tears of repentance extinguish the flames of Gehenna. Repentance is the resurrection of the soul, often repeated (II, 132). It is accompanied by the correction of all life (II, 544, 548). During repentance, the gracious power of Divine forgiveness embraces the entire soul and renews it. Without striving for such happiness, without immersing the soul in the Divine, there is no point in living.
The content of faith is different and may be opposite. First of all, when a person recognizes the need for Divine help, he will see his helplessness before the Divine life that is ready to pour out on him. Secondary feelings are no longer the same: on the one hand, fear, humility or a feeling of sin may arise, and on the other hand, a feeling of mercy, the condescension of grace, ready to be poured out on us. Here a person can fall into lamentation about his weakness and, forgetting the mercy of God, plunge into one contemplation (pietism): such a faith is fruitless and harmful, like a dreamy one. But when a person is illuminated by revelation and feels the grace of forgiveness within himself, this is already active faith. She turns into a stable mood of active piety. Together with repentance, it determines our salvation. Saul repents, says a long prayer of repentance before Samuel, but is not rewarded with forgiveness, but only humiliation. David only said two words, and the Lord will take away his sin.
“Do not be surprised, Saul: your repentance is unpleasant to God, your prayer is rejected by him because you did not show labor and exploits” (II, 343, 344). John the Baptist also demands that the severity of sin be smoothed over by satisfactory works, just as a tree must have “satisfying fruits.” Repentance is learned not from the root of intentions, not from the leaves of confession, but from the very fruits of satisfaction. He who multiplies one repentance multiplies only the roots (II, 344, 345).
Grace brings also a model of holiness - Christ. Dimitri liked to dwell on the thought of imitation of Christ. There is no other path to eternal glory and honor other than much suffering, just as the Chief of Life Himself had to suffer (II, 114). Imitation of Christ must be complete, not partial: “Whoever keeps one of the Lord’s commandments and transgresses another is not perfect; whoever fasts and gets angry is not a real faster; gives alms, but robs someone else's property, he is not a perfect merciful person; He who speaks well and thinks evil is not perfect; I will say briefly: every Christian who lacks something in fulfilling the commandments cannot be called perfect (II, 502, 503). Perfection does not come to a person suddenly, but gradually (II, 502, II, 44). The imitator of Christ gradually embodies the image of Christ's life. The goal of imitation should be as close a union with God as God Himself was united with human flesh in His incarnation (II, 134). Christ will never leave her; Thus, a person should not part with God even in thought.
Besides faith, there is another way of knowing God and salvation. This is love. Love is higher than faith. “Both methods, faith and love are good,” says Demetrius, “but faith is a perfect and imperfect method, and love is completely perfect.” And the demons believe and tremble, but still remain rejected. Christ's contemporaries saw His miracles, could not reject the evidence of them, but were not saved, since they did not have love for Him (II, 285) as a motivation for moral life.
Love gives us knowledge about God - it also instills in us about “what He is like!” (II, 214). If, for example, we assimilate one thing that Christ did for us, embodying love in himself, at this head it is quite possible to strive for God-likeness (IV, 550). The sufferings of the Savior on the cross are arrows shot from the cross of Calvary into the human heart by the Catcher of souls (II, 434, 428, III, 304). Truly, love is the right way of knowledge, closely uniting us with God: just as the skin does not tolerate separation from the flesh (II, 18). If you love God, then you will never think of angering Him (Op. III, 72). If you know the good deeds of God, then the feeling of gratitude to Him will not allow you to offend Him. The one who calls love fire will not sin: it shines in the darkness, warms, burns iniquities; “The human heart melts from the warmth of love” (II, 322). Saint Demetrius has entire hymns of love that protects from sins (II, 329) and betrayals of the Lord (II, 321). Love and gratitude are pure motives for fulfilling the moral law. The sight of the cross and the Lord's plagues is a reliable means of preventing moral failures.
Another means of correction is the fear of death. “Imagine the coffin, your grave before your eyes... and thus you will defeat Fogor (the god of lust). If someone were like the devil in his deeds, even from the memory of death he can still be corrected (II, 184). No one can stop death, neither by force nor by art; therefore, just the memory of her can wean us from honors and pleasures (IV, 201). It guides a person to a good life, which is precious in death, and with which it is not scary to die.
One of the important means of renewal is self-knowledge, which the saint speaks about repeatedly in his writings. In one of his sermons he tells how he mentally traveled from Europe to Asia and from these present years to the past, ancient ones. Having reached Greece, he meets the philosopher Solon; “That philosopher, having come to his Hellenic chapel, writes on the doors in large letters, and I, says the preacher, stood from afar behind and read what was written: “Know yourself” (II, 59-60). The place is crowded, many people come every day. Everyone reads these words, reasons and understands, what power is in those words, what do these words teach?” According to the interpretation of the sage Plato, “to know myself” meant to discover what kind of animal I am? And from a Christian point of view, it means to judge who you are, where you are from and where you are going? (II, 61). Knowing myself leads to the conclusion that I am a corruptible being, subject to illness and death, “created from the dust of the earth, conceived from carnal lust, born from maternal illnesses, born from a dishonest place, going to the grave, decay in the grave.”
Self-knowledge curbs everyone: “Where does pride come from in people, if not because no one wants to know their own insignificance? (IV, 385) In addition, it leads to the knowledge of God: “knowledge of oneself and knowledge of God are concomitant” (IV, 385).
Self-knowledge breeds true self-respect and humility. Humility is the first step of virtue, “the foundation of everything,” and other virtues are like buildings on the foundation (III, 133, 489). Humility is the basis of both regeneration and virtue. It restores a person after the deepest falls (III, 133, II, 331), instilling in him the consciousness of his powerlessness to rise without the help of grace (III, 133).
The vices opposite to humility are pride and condemnation, “just as a dog barks not only at the evil, but also at the good who have not caused him any harm, so often the proud condemn” indiscriminately everyone. He who condemns another “is in fact the Antichrist”: he has stolen the dignity of Christ 567.
Speaking about the purity of the soul, the saint especially insists on the need for purity of the body. Prodigal lust prevents a person from seeing God, people and himself. Man then neglects the wrath of God, is not ashamed of people, as if he did not see them, even though he knew that they were laughing at him; does not realize what he is missing. Prodigal lust is especially harmful to his powers: from it the memory is exhausted, the mind is darkened, freedom is lost (IV, 402, 409); it offends God, since our bodies are the oud of Christ.
To combat lust, it is necessary to develop and strengthen chastity, abstinence and mercy. A person who is pure in body but defiled in soul is like a rotten apple, which is only beautiful on the outside. The Holy Spirit, like a bee, does not enter where it is not clean (III, 128, 129). Chastity is equally available to both those who are celibate and those who are married (III, 127). The sin of fornication is great, but adultery is even graver. If in the Old Testament there was no pardon for the adulterer, no purification sacrifice (adulterers were stoned), much less in the New Testament. They are due repentance, but they are granted the grace of forgiveness not because of their deeds (IV, 499 – 501).
Above marriage is celibacy, as the sun is above the moon (III, 127); repeating Isidore Pelusiot, Demetrius teaches that virginity can be likened to the sun, widowhood to the moon and honest marriage to the stars. According to the saint’s conclusion, at the beginning of the history of the human race it was not good for a person to be alone, but now, according to the Gospel, it is good for a person not to marry (IV, 32: ed. 1901). The saint calls virginity the desire to belong to God alone forever (I, 230) 568.
With the saint's passion for the ascetic life, his view of the world and life in it had to take on a rigoristic hue. Although in one place the saint says that man and woman are equal in origin and nature (Oc. II, 270), he likes to speak about a woman’s greater tolerance for sin. The Old Russian view in this regard formed the basis of the views of his woman. In the sermons and the Chronicler, Chapter IV of 2 Esdras is enthusiastically repeated, where the charms of a woman are presented as the most powerful in the world and destructive even for kings. The saint, as an experienced psychologist, advises the monk not to have even pious conversations with a woman, because after a short time, in her absence, a female image appears in the mind of the interlocutor and can haunt him. Perhaps, in view of this, he ordered the hieromonks in his letter not to accept anyone of lay people for confession; not otherwise than out of passion for monasticism, he paraphrased the one-sided text of the scriptures 569.
Apparently, the saint says, Eve’s origin (from Adam’s rib) is more honest than Adam’s (from the earth), but this obliges her even more to submit to her husband (Chronicle, 240). He does not want to recognize a woman’s mind as equal to a man’s: “It is not the great man who, being noble, has a woman’s mind and heart, but the one who is prudent and virtuous, even if he is from a simple family (Chronicle). The saint often speaks of female malice (IV, 539). “What kind of truth is found in wives, is it really a lie?” Who is as skilled at lying as wives? (III, 101). Mentions women painting their faces (IV, 440). “The face painted in this life to deceive others will then (in the future life) be blackened with tar and hot ash; where there were some black small patches on the face, called flies, terrible toads would later sit in those places, unbearably, incessantly gnawing" 570. The saint also noted the female sex’s tendency to be cunning: it is now more convenient to find the truth between wives than among nobles. He is inclined to explain the reason for the fall of the Apostle Peter by the fact that he started a speech in the courtyard of Caiaphas with a woman.
“Holy Peter did not become a pillar of fire when he began to talk with his wife, but who will not be extinguished by the conversations of women?” (III, 84).
Therefore, his talk about virginity is combined with the teaching about monastic vows. “God is pleased with the unmarried” (III, 322) The monks betrothed their souls to the Lord and no longer desire anything on earth. There is nothing surprising in living according to the flesh: not only Christians live this way, but also pagans, animals, and cattle, and living for God is a glorious thing. The saint set the biblical Lamech as a model of carnal intemperance: he also gave him the nickname “bigamist” (IV, 116) and this distinguished him from the other biblical Lamech: “Lamech is not the bigamist, but the tribe of Shem” (IV, 203).
To the question, “Is it good to live in marriage?”, the saint answers: “No, it only enslaves, binds hand and foot. It is worse than any torment. Children will not be born - for spouses - sadness; are born - double concern. Whether they will be good is a concern.” Nothing worries the monk. For a worldly person, trying to please God, “the image of God is similar to God,” and for a monk, living in labor and carnal abstinence, “the image of God is much more detailed to God than that of a layman” (III, 281).
The saint expresses a high opinion about the significance of the monastic title. Just as grapes grow on a dry trunk, so the world is based on monasticism. “Take away the monastic order from the Christian world, like a dry and barren trunk from a grape, and don’t judge what’s left of the world!” Two types of monastic life - active and contemplative. “But the most useful of them is a godly life” (IV, 571) rather than a hard-working one.
Virginity is maintained by abstinence from food (fasting) and “evil deeds” (repentance). Fasting was observed in the Old and New Testaments. He promotes both spiritual salvation and physical health (II, 38).
Love for God and neighbor are two sides of one Christian virtue, like two wings. Speaking about love for neighbors, Saint Demetrius dwells on love for enemies 571.
Love for the enemy is an exclusively Christian virtue, because it is above human nature. Nature suggests anger and revenge on the enemy, and we, according to the Gospel, do good to him; sometimes, it seems, it is better to die than to suffer an insult from someone (II, 457). Victory over such a feeling is the highest Christian feat. “He who loves the enemy is a miracle worker” (II, 456). The saint considers mercy towards everyone obligatory for everyone: “even if you are poor, do not be stingy, give a little” (I, 224).
Demetrius considers fear of God to be a necessary motivating reason for a virtuous life (IV, 45, 234); the fear of God is the guide to salvation, the beginning of love and salvation (IV, 235). He who does not have the fear of God considers murder as courage, theft as profit, adultery as a natural need, deceit as wisdom, and every sin is justified by custom. He who does not fear God does not think about his destruction and the future life (IV, 428 – 430). On the contrary, the fear of God is the reins and bridle that keeps one on the path of iniquity (IV, 235), motivating one to the highest selfless deeds - to sacrifice everything to God.
The believer is afraid so as not to anger Him, so as not to lose the Father. Joy gives a person both to love God and to fear Him. The first stage of fear is when we please out of slavish fear of torment, as a servant of God, the second is the fear of not losing a reward for the sake of benefit, the third is filial fear (IV, 453).
And one should turn to him as to the Father with prayer. In prayer, a person unswervingly looks at God with fear and hope (I, 110), and strives towards Him with his whole being. Prayer closely connects us with the Creator and gives us joy (I, 105). The Lord ascended to the heights of heaven, so that from there, with the rays of grace, he could melt the ice of our frozen souls, warm our hearts and make them fruitful soil (II, 96). Prayer is the key to God's treasures. The Lord gives His gifts prepared for us through prayer, so that we may have greater sweetness: so a father with the intention of throwing money on the ground in front of the child, and not giving it into his hands; the son finds them and rejoices at his luck.
The most important thing for prayer is purity of heart and conscience (IV, 149). It is the lot of experienced ascetics. Only through long time and great labor, after the suppression of lusts, does true reason flourish and grow (I, 214).
In a land of ritualism, the saint’s teaching on external prayer is very important. Even if they sang to him with all their throats, but when the mind does not participate in prayer, such prayer will not bring any benefit (I, 108). Prayer without attention is a censer without fire and incense, a lamp without oil, a body without soul (IV, 147). But he also considers external mechanical bodily movements during prayer to be inevitable, due to the weakness and damage of the human spirit, just as crutches and a staff are needed for patients with legs. Just as those who are healed of a leg disease throw away their crutches, so the successful person rejects all appearance. Prayer that is short and frequent is more beneficial than prayer that is long and rare (I, 151). The same view is expressed on church prayer. “Not even a bell will raise a lazy person,” he used to say (III, 376). Many do not know that one can pray not with church prayers, but to talk with God in the heart and secretly (I, 143). How were Abraham and all the forefathers saved? There were no churches then (III, 187).
Church prayer, however, is necessary, as a tribute brought from all to the King of kings (I, 104), but it requires even more attention than home prayer. The saint is convinced about the power of prayer: “there is no such thing for which it would be impossible to ask God. Isn’t it also true that a son can ask his father for everything if what he asks is useful and necessary for him” (II, 202).
Christian life is possible in the church: there are grace-filled means of life - the sacraments, there are leaders - shepherds. (Search 120; III, 374; II, 384). The sacraments are necessary for a Christian, just as the soul is necessary for the body; the soul, without grace reviving it, is dead (II, 418). Then a person becomes “not like Blato, but like Gold”; such a person is no longer earthly, but heavenly; not perishable, but gifted with eternal incorruptibility 572.
These are the conditions and means for moral rebirth. Victory over one's immoral inclinations, mastery over them is the best of victories, achieved by brave knights (III, 163). This is a feat greater than martyrdom, although bloodless. By him sin is overcome and the image and likeness of God is restored in man. Victory over sin lies in the fact that thoughts about it no longer take possession of the soul, they are not united with the will and are no longer responsible. They arise in the soul, but do not harm it, just as the elders could not persuade the chaste Susanna to fall 573. Death is no longer scary, but is a transition from this disastrous life to a better state. The image and likeness is restored in man's dominion over sins, which, like a cobweb blown by a strong wind, are overcome by the perceived grace of Christ. Having in the preserved image of God the ability to “become like God” in the form of a weak desire for the highest Good, a Christian in his soul enters into close communion with God, becomes “a bride, eternally associated with God” (“Search,” 293).
From a religious point of view, morality is no longer presented in the form of simple human justice, but rises to forgiveness of offenses and love for enemies, which St. Demetrius calls phenomena in a sinful person a miracle. Thanks to the religious setting, his moral law receives strict unity.
He compares all virtues to harps. If only one string is out of tune, it spoils the playing; so it is with the commandments: if one of them is not fulfilled, then all those fulfilled are counted as nothing (“Irrigated Fleece” 50). Even if we talk about one virtue, for example, “about meekness, then humility and gentleness will respond little, just as if you remove one string from a harp, then the others will quietly make a sound” (III, 396). Moral life is nothing more than a person’s service to God (II, 235, 236), service that is completely free, placing him above the angels and likening him to Him. The saint asks the question: of two intelligent creatures, who can be called more like God - an angel or a human? “I know that you can name an angel who is disembodied and always stands before God! But delving into the Divine Scripture, one must recognize the human soul much closer to God. It is not written about the angels that God created in his own image and likeness, but we read this only about one human soul.” “They have memory and reason and will, but not equally.
If an angel has a will, but not an autocratic one”: there is nothing else that an angel does but the will of God. Man has a “free will,” which is also inherent in God (III, 359). Man, therefore, is more like God than an angel (II, 223; III, 327). Thus, Saint Demetrius places a high value on human morality: through free moral activity a person approaches God and becomes perfect. While angels are similar to God by natural gravity, like Adam before the fall, a Christian can have a more valuable likeness - a free moral one.
Demetrius's moral views are reminiscent of the views of the holy fathers of the Church. The doctrine of grace is presented in the same way as that of St. Augustine. His prayerful contrition and memory of death reminds him of Ephraim the Syrian. The comparison of the commandments of God with the harp and the thought contained in this comparison is reminiscent of the techniques of Gregory of Nyssa 574. The list of Christian virtues (I, 8; V, 23–24) was taken by him from the “Orthodox Confession of the Eastern Church” (III part, 4, 5 and 10 replies). In The Imitation of Christ he does not disagree with Thomas à Kempis.
Thanks to such aids, he did not need to make a dry analysis of mental life in the spirit of the Byzantine ascetics, but was given the opportunity to paint a picture of the kingdom of sin and the beauty of the grace-filled life according to Christ. For his continuous exhortations to the uprising, Saint Demetrius is called a preacher of repentance 575.
The Chet-Minea of St. Demetrius present a number of legends about Christian ascetics, about how they strove to fulfill the high evangelical councils. True life, according to the view of all ascetics, is eternal; earthly temporary life is not life, but death. They see life here as bonds, a prison, its days passing like a shadow, its joys having no price; it provides only the opportunity to prepare for eternity; become perfect and receive eternal benefits at the end of it.
The world is dangerous for the ascetic, because caring for it alienates him from God. It won’t take long to fall into “many woven worldly networks” and thereby deprive yourself of heavenly joys 576. Attachment to the world should be alien to a monk, “if a person does not renounce everything that exists in the world, he cannot be a monk” 577. Stories in Chetya-Minea about contempt for the world are common. So the Monk Evmenius “imputed all earthly joys to the knowledge of being, rejected everything, left everything in order to follow Christ, to find and acquire Him; He took off his possessions like a robe, dressed them for the poor, and he himself, abandoning all earthly attachments, walked the narrow path of poverty... leading to the kingdom of heaven" 578. Another ascetic does the same in order to be an imitator of Christ's poverty 579. Everyone is generally afraid of gold, like some kind of fire 580. They didn’t even accept him as a thank you for his healings. The Monk Agapit took the gold the merchant had given him out of his cell, threw it after him and disappeared 581.
Even more than earthly wealth, the monks avoided honors. Varlaam Pechersky took off his boyar clothes, refused service under the prince, family life, and all this for the sake of the monastic rank 582. When some monks expressed surprise at the splendor and luxury in the world, experienced ascetics admonished them: “Why are you surprised about this? Does the king’s pride and glory make him more righteous than others? Doesn't he die like one of the beggars? Will he not appear before the Righteous Judge?” 583. “Worldly cares prevent us from looking with bright eyes at the future, and the blessings of the Gospel are promised not to the rich, those who live in joy and every kindness, but to the poor, those who cry, those who hunger, and those who thirst... If in this century we live extensively in pleasures, then sorrow will befall us” 584 . The Monk Macarius reasoned like this: “See that you do not fall from heaven, where the angels, archangels, seraphim and their Creator God are; Stay there and don’t go to heaven.” Macarius remained in such a high contemplative mood for two days and two nights, forgetting about sleep and food 585.
Having chosen the monastic path, a person also broke off family relationships. The most tender human connections: marital, filial, brotherly were mercilessly violated by the monk. There are many stories in Chetii-Minea about how the monk’s relatives did not agree to let him leave home. Mothers begged their children to return home from the desert 586, sometimes severely punishing them to keep them from getting carried away by monasticism 587. But this only fueled the desire for desert life and strengthened the conviction: “Whoever loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” 588 . Thus, the Monk Luke of Greece, reproached by his parents for his mercy towards the poor, kindled by the flame of Divine love, left his family, his home in a troubled world and retired to a monastery 589. The Monk Varlaam even left his wife and parents 590. Many young men abandoned their brides and left to seek suffering and exploits 591. Having gone into the desert, the ascetics cut off all ties with home.
In the Chetya-Minea, Demetrius touchingly tells the story of how the Monk Pimen and his brothers ran away from their mother who came to them, closed the cell and did not open it, despite her plaintive requests. The mother’s grief turned into “good hope” when she finally saw her son, who asked her: where would she like to see her sons - here or in the Kingdom of Heaven? 592 Simeon the Stylite also did not want to see his mother 593.
But in case of need, the monks showed tender love to their relatives. The Monk Alypius persuaded his mother to take monastic vows 594. The Monk Anthony the Great arranges for his sister to protect her from bad influence. This means that the ascetics did not always despise their family relationships. “I run as if from a serpent from those who tell me to retreat from God’s path,” says the Monk Savva the Sanctified 595. Stories have been preserved of how mere memories of his wife and parents confused the monks: sometimes they saw them crying, sometimes feasting. The monks did not look for relative consolations, because “neither a mother’s tears, nor a father’s love, nor a wife can beg the Terrible Judge 596.
Choosing such “Chets” for Russian monks as a lesson and example for them, Saint Demetrius himself loved and revered his parents. He left the warmest memories of his mother 597. Proof of his filial respect for his father is the sermon delivered in the presence of Savva Tuptala, in which he speaks in front of everyone about the duty of a son to honor his father.
Breaking all external carnal ties, the ascetic must also mortify his own flesh. The goal of a monk is to achieve a living union with God, and from this carnal passions and lusts tear us away. They must be fought.
All such harshness in the depiction of the ascetic is blurred and receives a different light from Demetrius when he touches on inner life and, especially, when he goes deeper into it.
There are few such hagiographical narratives, when the ascetic is a person who spent his youth in sin and pleasure, as, for example, about Mary of Egypt 598, Peter the Publican, Moses Murin 599. Such stories are not frequent exceptions.
A typical monk is a person who willingly dedicated himself to God from a young age.
It is said about many saints that they wanted to take upon themselves the light cross of Christ (October 29), that the Lord chose them “from his mother’s womb,” such as Sergius of Radonezh 600, Daniel the Stylite 601. The birth of an ascetic is preceded by omens that predispose the reader to the attention of the Chety. Sometimes the glorious future of a spiritual ascetic is predicted to his parents, as, for example, at the birth of Macarius of Egypt, that he will live like an angel and will lead many to God 602. The parents themselves, by their piety, attract the grace of God to the future monk. The parents of Simeon the Stylite “decorated their lives with fasting, prayers, abstinence, trying to please God, and the mother promised her future son to serve God” 603.
The same legend is about the parents of Daniel the Stylite, as well as about Xenophon and Mary, who had two sons of monks 604. It is clear that the Lord seals the ascetics with His election. Although election is based on foreknowledge of deeds, words, thoughts - the entire life of the future saint of God, all these deeds, words and thoughts are in our power: we can at any time make them so that they become either beneficial to ourselves and our neighbors, or to the detriment. The Lord has predetermined only that which only depends on Him, namely, reward for deeds: torment for the wicked and reward for the righteous. The loss of eternal salvation, like illness, depends on how we maintain the health of our soul.
The upbringing of many ascetics was favorable for their future career. It is said about the parents of many saints that they “taught good in goodness from the very cradle”; taught to know God and fear God. Even in childhood, the monks themselves showed a tendency towards solitude and fasting, while others, while still babies, turned away from their mother’s breasts on Wednesday and Friday. They note a love of reading Holy Scripture, for example, the Monk Macarius of Zheltovodsk 605, the Monk Anthony 606. The house did not satisfy them. They looked for teachers in distant monasteries. In a word, even in their youth, the ascetics manifested a monastic mood and an uncontrollable desire for perfection. This mood was resolved by visions, then voices from above, then the church reading of the Gospel words shook their soul and made a revolution in it. They distribute their property and choose their type of work and mentor. Some fled from family troubles to monastic peace, others were inspired by rumors about wondrous ascetics and went to them.
To the surprise of the world and the edification of sinners, representing a rare example of life, they abandoned their sinful life and became monks.
Despite the variety of reasons, motives and reasons, St. In such a life, Demetrius sees, in addition to the consciousness of the person himself about death from sin, the grace of God, leading a person to salvation. Ascetics, with the help of grace, display amazing strength of character. Ave. Simeon chained himself to a rock. One archbishop taught him that man has the will to control himself without the aid of shackles and iron. Ave. Simeon, on this advice, built a pillar and stood at the top for many years, exposing himself to heat, cold, storms and disease 607.
The grace of God was manifested in the monk’s complacent patience. The Monk Abraham 608, having refused to marry, left home, found a church and settled in it with a cheerful heart, because the light of God’s grace shone upon him as the highest consolation. Saint Demetrius loved to talk about the gracious warmth in the heart, filling everything with joy when a person’s heart melts like wax, and often touches on this joy in the Lives of the Saints.
God even honors sinners, when they repent, with His grace, and even more so the righteous. Christ appeared to the Monk Onuphrius, lifted him up as he bowed, and said that He was pleased with his exploits and for this he would do everything, no matter what he asked the Heavenly Father 609.
Most of the ascetics lived in the monastic rank. Those who were touched by the grace of election strove for monasticism from a young age, expressing impatience to take monastic vows. “I can’t stand it even for a year,” repeated the young man, who was being persuaded to wait until he was tonsured. Such people showed asceticism even in their youth, renouncing joys and pleasures.
The lives of the saints note the importance of monasticism. After tonsure, a person “is born and becomes pure, as if born by a mother and having received holy baptism. He receives a crown of bright glory and a radiance around his face, visible to those worthy of this.” Angels are present at the tonsure. The tonsured person is credited with an “angelic image.” He is given a lot, but strictly it will be exacted from him on the day of the Last Judgment. Therefore, even princes and kings respected ascetics who abandoned all cares in order to work in silence for the Kingdom of Heaven 610; and they themselves accept monasticism in order to work for the King of kings 611. The Lord surrounds them with angels and help. The gifts of insight, healing and prayerful boldness towards God await them. Even during their lifetime they anticipate heavenly blessings 612. Tsar Constantine worked hard for the holy faith, but he received royal joys on earth, but the monks despised them and endured all sorts of sorrows and hardships, not having the joy of this life; their merit is no less than that of the royal champions of the faith.
Monks have three main vows: 1) poverty, 2) chastity and 3) obedience.
The monk is non-covetous. He has nothing of his own. He renounced acquisitions forever, because acquisitions are disastrous for him. In order not to desire them, he retires to the desert. The lives of St. Theodore of Pechersk 613 and St. Andrew 614 say that the love of money is the root of evil. Through acquisitions, temptation and suffering are brought to a person. At the thought of acquiring earthly goods, the monk relaxes, he has a desire to leave the monastery, and the thought arises that he can be saved in the world 615. The covetous forgets God, His providence, and the hour of death, when nothing is needed; covetousness instills grumbling about fate and enmity between neighbors. “A monk, unless he renounces everything in the world, cannot be a monk” 616. “He who owns an estate is no longer a monk” 617 essentially. There should be nothing in the cell except the necessary things: icons, clothes, matting and a vessel with water. The Monk Cyril established that nothing should be called his own, but common; silver was not even named among the monks. The Monk Ephraim the Syrian “was non-covetous from his youth, loving poverty more than wealth” 618.
The wealth in the monasteries should be looked at as “thorns of other people’s sins” 619. Riches are snares, they are “heavy burdens” that block the path to the Kingdom 620. Many refused even to accept alms and refused inheritance 621. Non-covetousness stemmed from a deep, unshakable faith in God's providence. “If God does not protect me, then why would I live on earth,” says Arsenius the Great 622. The Monk Zosima of Solovetsky in the virtue of poverty was likened to the ethereal. He only thinks about God, “day and night he sighs with tears and wants to be freed from the body and go to the Lord.” God heard his servant. A place of settlement is indicated to him, an angel appears and his words, full of hope, come true: “I have a Master who can enrich the poor and satisfy the hungry” 623.
Another necessary virtue for monks is observing the vow of chastity, that is, purity of soul and body. Marriage is also honest, but virginity is incomparably higher than it. A virgin is like the sun, a chaste widower is like the moon, and honest spouses are like the stars 624. “We have one marriage—the desire for Christ,” says Martyr Eugenia. Marriage is “fading flowers” of pleasures leading to sorrows, but for a virgin, crying is temporary, but joy is eternal. The chaste is close to God and a partaker of the Holy Spirit 625. If bodily purity places a monk high above the world, then chastity of the heart is all the higher and more desirable. Through intense struggle, sometimes torture, as if voluntary martyrdom, the monks reached a state of complete dispassion and became like angels 626. The strong young body and strong build did not bring joy to the monk, but sorrow. A terrible struggle of the spirit with the “clumping” of the flesh lay ahead. John the Long-Suffering fought for 30 years against carnal lusts, buried himself in the ground, his body suffered, but he rejoiced in the pain.
By such measures he brought himself to complete dispassion. He himself became unshakable in his vow of virginity and gave practical advice to others 627. Others burned their bodies 628, or gave themselves over to insect stings 629.
The very appearance of the ascetic spoke of his modesty. With poor attire, with their noble deeds, treatment and words, they aroused the respect of both ordinary people and kings 630.
To maintain chastity, the monks did not leave the monastery, they sought solitude so as not to hear the voice of man 631; The Monk Paphnutius tried not to see the woman even from afar 632. The Monk Arseny once grieved that some wife touched his clothes 633. They kept themselves from temptations. Some did not wash themselves, others were afraid to even look at their own bodies. The danger of temptation was considered equally from the gaze and from the tongue. Therefore, they refrained from speaking. Women ascetics were especially instructed to “bridle their tongues,” not to condemn, not to reproach, and even to excommunicate them from the Church for intemperance of the tongue 634 . An exception was made only for conversation from Divine books and singing.
The whole goal of a monk is to enslave his body to the spirit. “I will do this to you, donkey, so that you will not become ferocious,” said Hilarion the Great, addressing his body and calling it a donkey, “I will feed you not with barley, but with dust, I will kill you with hunger and thirst, I will burden you with nights, so that, bent over, you will not think about unclean things!” All that was left from the killing of his flesh were bones covered with skin. The requirements of the flesh were limited to the highest degree both in food and clothing; ate so much as not to die of hunger 635. In the monasteries they ate bread and water 636, in the desert “potions and roots” 637. There were such ascetics that they ate this too every other day, and even every other week, so that they surprised the experienced: “Where does this disembodied man come from?” The brethren were perplexed at the extraordinary forty-day abstinence of the Monk Macarius 638. The Monk Vissarion often abstained from food for forty days. They ate at a common meal for show, so that others would not notice the abstinence 640. The monks kept such a fast out of the belief that it promoted purity and humility, that “fasting is the mother of chastity” 641.
You must take yourself by the throat, the desert dwellers said, and only then will you conquer your flesh, just as David killed the beasts by their throats 642.
Abstinence, intensifying, continued until the monk conquered his passions, and then he could support his body so as not to become exhausted from labor 643.
Saint Demetrius also describes the monk’s clothes, “thin, torn, much worn” 644, these are “hair rags, very sharp, thin scrolls” 645. Vigil was also considered a means of killing carnal desires. The dream fled from the monk. The Monk Simeon brought himself to such dispassion of his body that he commanded it as if it were a slave; I prayed for 9 hours, then read books for 9 hours and copied them, and finally prayed all night until dawn. Only at dawn did he forget himself into a light doze; I even asked God to completely take away my sleep 646. The ascetics stood guard, as it were, day and night, awaiting an attack by an insidious enemy. While some doused themselves with cold water to drive away sleep, 647 others castigated themselves: “I fed you, gave you something to drink,” said the Monk Niphon, turning to his flesh, “and you still want to sleep: here I will rest you with a rod!” “It is enough for a monk to sleep for one hour,” said Arseny the Great 648.
The monks had work against relaxation and idleness. The monks cultivated the land, wrote books, weaved baskets, and in order not to develop covetousness, they distributed what they had earned through labor to the poor 649 . Laziness, according to the Monk Khariton, is the beginning of the Fall 650. It was necessary for the monk to seethe in his work, so that temptations would not approach him, like flies to a boiling vessel 651.
The monk had no shelter, others considered it a relief for themselves to live in monasteries, and Saint Demetrius enthusiastically describes that for the sake of contemplation of God and silence they went to the mountains and deserts, huddled in caves, where snakes and wild animals gave them their homes. They were surrounded by “rapids and wilds” 652, where nothing grew on the dry rocky soil 653. If a monk lived in a cell, he did not take any care of it: there was no bed, no floor, sometimes it stood without a roof and, when the monk was not there, stood wide open 654.
While fulfilling the vows of non-covetousness and chastity, the monk had to fulfill a third vow, not so difficult, but more important, a vow directed against the primary sin - pride - this is the vow of obedience. Obedience is regulated not only by the instructions of the monastic charter, but also by the will of the abbot, who must be obeyed without controversy or grumbling. Obedience was valued insofar as it was voluntary, when it bore a moral principle and connotation 655. Even martyrdom cannot be sought without the consent of the abbot. Pachomius the Great admonished one brother, who wanted to join the martyrs and go with them to suffer, so that he would not arbitrarily seek the crown of martyrdom, and when the brother did not listen to the elder, he was punished: his spiritual strength left him during torture, and he renounced Christ 656. To the ambassador of God, the abbot replaced the monk's father and mother. Obedience to the obstinate abbot was also valuable. The elder tormented the Monk Akaki with reproaches, dishonor and even wounds, treating him like a purchased slave. Akaki endured everything.
When they asked him how he spent the day, he pointed to the bruises under his eyes, the marks of beatings on his head and neck, and said that he had a good time. He was advised only to endure in order to receive salvation.
In the instructions to the monks from the monks, first of all, they were charged not to have their own will, to observe obedience and humility 657.
Such is the life of a monk, as described by St. Demetrius, out of the world.
But, running away from worldly temptations, a person cannot run away from himself. He faces a struggle - a struggle with himself no less terrible than a battle with the seductions of the world. He who has conquered himself and his passions becomes a spiritual titan, inaccessible to any vicissitudes of the world 658.
The basis of this activity is the guarding of the heart and conscience. The ascetic has a clear self-awareness, a conviction of his weakness. His attention is directed to the heart - what is going on there: if what is happening inside you is pleasing to God, then by this you will overcome external sins. Drive away bad thoughts and you will cut off passions" 659.
The Monk Anthony the Great used special means against each passion: against sensuality - fasting and vigil, against carnal lusts - the memory of the flames of Gehenna 660, and he used these means, imitating the experienced hermits of the East. Conscience should be a guide when assessing one’s exploits and failures. She was ordered to be protected, she torments the faulty monk, she rewards him for his exploits, she checks his actions.
St. Demetrius, through all his writings, conveys, as his peculiarity, a bright thought about the need to develop the mind through science. A monk must despise everything, but there is a property of the world that he must adhere to: this is science. It opens the world to every person with his advantages and disadvantages. For an ascetic, it is necessary to read or listen to the word of God and the patristic works, as well as the lives of saints. This is food that warms his spirit 661. Dmitry notes that the Monk Stephen studied holy scripture day and night; in particular, he loved to read the works of John Chrysostom 662. Theodore the Studite loved to read the words of Basil the Great, and carefully kept his rules and regulations, so as not to violate even the slightest line of his instructions 663. And other monks were busy reading the lives of the saints in order to be jealous of their exploits 664. The Monk Kosmas went through all human wisdom, studying the laws of rotation of the heavenly bodies, and all this in order to transfer his attention from the creature to the Creator 665.
With complete non-covetousness, others did not have the strength to part with the Gospel and upon death left it as their only property. The hermits also used secular “external learning” to enlighten their minds, but they did not boast about it, that through it they supposedly understood everything. What bookishness gives was sometimes given by God to high ascetics of the spirit from above, so that they put philosophers to shame 666.
When Saint Demetrius, in describing monastic life, touches the hearts of monks, his lines sound with genuine sincerity. Being more or less objective in writing lives, here he puts his soul into the narrative. He shares the tenderness of the ascetics with the beauty of created things and the goodness of the Creator, he is carried away by their love for the Creator and Redeemer. “My Lord was crucified, was dishonored, suffered strangulation, but I will begin to eat oil!” exclaimed St. Pachomius the Great 667. The heart of an ascetic delights in nothing else but God alone.
It is the monk’s duty to fight against his passions, to tame passionate arguments: “It is better to die than to be seduced by passion,” said the Monk Martinian. A monk, overcome by passions, lives according to the will of the devil and goes into eternal torment 668. A monk is obliged to fight passions for the sole reason that the beginning of sin is not laid down by God or the devil, but rather he invents it himself. God only allows the devil’s temptations, and man bows to them “autocratically.” Experienced ascetics who freed themselves from the power of passions said that passions can be recognized by a person’s appearance; passions darken a person's appearance 669; Each passion, according to the Monk Hilarion, emits a sinful stench: from the smell of the body and the touch of clothing, he learned who was possessed by what passion 670. In particular, the passions of pride and anger are harmful. Humility and meekness are glorified in the lives of the saints. If you want to be saved, be as dead, says Macarius the Great: dishonored - do not be angry, revered - do not be exalted 671.
Ascetics are tormented by the consciousness that they are uttering an angry word under the influence of irritability; The Monk Dorotheos wept bitterly every time he had to say something unpleasant to those sick people for whom he cared for free 672.
The ascetic stands on guard not to fall into temptation from demons. He fights them firmly. In the life of the Venerable Abraham the recluse, the following words are given to the demon: “You have brought me down in every possible way, but I will not leave you until I overcome and humble you” 673. “Wherever you go, there I will go against you, and just as I drove you out of here, I will drive you out from everywhere where you want to live, and I will not leave you until I defeat you,” 674 said the demon to the Monk Martinian. Demons confuse a person by instilling fear, despondency, unclean thoughts and everything that can distract his thoughts and feelings from God. The weapons against demons are fasting, prayer, and the sign of the cross. Many ascetics survived the struggle against evil seducers. The Monk Macarius of Alexandria, exhausted from the struggle with vain thoughts that drew him from his cell to Rome to heal the sick, fell in a terrible strain of strength on the threshold of his cell and said: “Pull me if you can, but I won’t go with my feet” 675.
The soul must be cleansed of enemies in order for it to become pure for God; illumination enters into it when a person is full of consciousness about God, His omniscience, omnipresence and justice.
When renouncing the world, when self-absorbing into his soul, the ascetic is not freed from all connections with people. He is bound by love for his neighbors. The abbots prescribed not only to fulfill all the commandments, but also to have love, which is the mother of all virtues 676. Before entering the monastery, the monk distributes his property to the poor, and even then he is available to everyone, helps everyone: the Monk Savva, having met four Saracens in the desert who were hungry, gives them a supply of roots on which he himself ate 677. Having met a pagan priest, the Monk Macarius so impressed him with his good-natured treatment that he accepted holy baptism 678. Monk Vitaly, out of a desire to save harlots, visited them to persuade them not to sin, prayed with them and turned them away from sins 679. Another monk, out of a desire to save the heretic, sells himself into slavery to him and converts him to the true faith of Christ 680. At St. Macarius's cell, the thief took all the things that were there; The monk found him still in his cell, however, without saying a word, he began to help him put them to bed and sent them away in peace 681.
Many holy benefactors are secret, such as St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. All relationships with neighbors are imbued with delicacy, all-forgiveness and a fiery desire for their eternal salvation. If, apparently, an ascetic treats others angrily, it is only with the intention of reminding them of their injustice 682.
In this regard, the Monk Theophan shone like a star among fathers: he served everyone 683 and treated everyone as “a compassionate father, a dear friend, a slave and a zealous servant, showing great love to all who came, for everyone a refuge, a doctor’s clinic, a home, a feast..., and everyone enjoyed his generosity, love and alms” 684. The love of the elders for their monks was especially evident. Ave. Theodosius, being abbot, set an example of the work of his brethren in everything.
The monk felt even greater connections with St. Church. He was a member of it, one of those being saved in the church, and therefore he always informed her and ran to her. Others, hearing about the persecution of the church, wrote messages to monks, and often came out of the desert to help the needy. The grief of Anthony the Great, which brought tears from him, is the future disasters of the church that he foresees. He writes a letter to the Egyptian governor so as not to persecute the church, and threatens him with the wrath of God 685. The fighters for the church expelled from the cities by pagans and heretics are received with love by the hermits. They support the authority of ecumenical and local councils 686.
The leaders of the church in the monasteries are obedient. Some embittered brothers expelled St. Savva from the monastery he founded. The Patriarch tells him to return. Savva “could not disobey the patriarch” and settled down again in his monastery 687. In the Chetya-Minea of St. Demetrius carefully noted the humble obedience of the monks to the sacred order. Ave. Niphon asks Archbishop Athanasius to pray for him before the throne of God 688. Many people flocked to St. Luke of Greece to tell him about their grave sins, but he “was swept aside, sending to the priests, a monk himself, not sanctified” 689. Mary of Egypt, the great ascetic, before her death wished to receive the Holy Mysteries and be buried. She asks Zosima: “It is fitting for you to bless and say a prayer: you are honored with the rank of presbytery and standing before the holy altar, you bring gifts of the Divine Mysteries” 690.
Due to their vows of renunciation, the monks did not take part in public and political affairs, but showed ardent love for the earthly Motherland. The Monk Simeon, foreseeing the disasters that would come from drought, famine and death of people in the state, begins to beg God to turn away his righteous anger, and notifies the king of the impending disaster with his letter, threatening him for his sins with the wrath of God 691. St. John the Merciful takes church treasures to ransom the captives 692. Russian ascetics repeatedly reconciled quarreling princes and interceded for the people in the Horde before the khans 693. The Monk Isaac appears before the rulers, begging them to stop persecuting the innocent Church and to open the churches; At the same time, he does not pay attention to beatings and insults; exhorts the new king to preserve piety and peace among the people; then he settles in a monastery near the city and teaches worldly people 694. Procopius the Blessed denounces the inhabitants of the city of Ustyug for their sins. Walking with three sticks, he threatens three years of crop failure and, finally, a stone cloud.
And when this cloud hangs over the city, he fervently prays in front of the icon for the deliverance of the inhabitants from destruction, shedding tears: “Lord, forgive these people their sins, or if you do not forgive me, blot me out from the book of life” 695. Standing for the restoration of truth in human society, the saints were not afraid to denounce kings. Theodore the Studite reproaches the king for his unfair attitude towards the faith and boldly says: “It is not the king’s business to consider the commands of the church; your royal power knows about worldly things, but the holy fathers and church teachers need to discuss church affairs... Anyone who wants to stay in the church, let him listen to the patriarch and his council” 696. All the heavenly powers will not force me to fulfill the king’s demands - to renounce the right faith,” exclaims Maximus the Confessor 697.
The brightest of all the virtues manifested by ascetics is their piety, both internal and external.
Since the basis of both lies in the knowledge of God, the ascetics sought to know the highest goal of their life. Many of them were scientists and philosophers, but they also strived even more for higher philosophy - the knowledge of God. Gregory the Theologian spent day and night reading and thinking about God. Purity and obedience lead to the knowledge of God. He tells a vision that two virgins appeared to him, one was called “purity”, and the other “abstinence”; the virgins promised to take him to heaven and place him nearby without the immortal Trinity Light. Therefore, he strictly maintained chastity, observing abstinence 698. Many monks walked around monasteries and collected information from experienced ascetics on how to live. Having met a person skilled in spiritual philosophy, they “clung” to him 699. Those who acquired scientific knowledge could not be proud of it. Ave. John Kolov advised: to keep your mind from vain arrogance that you have known everything “to the end”; and inquired into the hidden secrets, recognizing his knowledge as sinful, and his mind as weak, and trying to receive enlightenment from God 700.
The basis of knowledge is faith, as set out in the Creed. The monk is charged with firmly keeping it “until his last breath” 701. Faith, as an internal mood, and as certain dogmas, is an essential sign of asceticism. She inspires the monk both to heroic deeds and to the readiness to suffer for her. Thus, the venerable hermits, expecting a beating from the barbarians, express firm and joyful hope: “we do not have strong walls, but instead of walls our Christ, to whom we have learned to sing”; “Be God our protector; we do not have helmets and shields, but we have spiritual weapons—love and hope—the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation.” They encouraged themselves in view of the danger, “being not like a reed shaken by the wind, but like pillars of stone” 702. In the hope of God's providence, the monks did not think about earthly things 703; in their suffering they hoped that “the door of heaven would be taken to them” 704. However, strong hope did not turn into excessive, when a person, as if testing God, forces him to perform miracles.
Thus, one elder persuades a monk who wanted to travel to holy places so that he does not plunge himself into untimely misfortune.
Strengthened by faith, inspired by hope, the ascetic had such love for God that he burned with it even in bodily exhaustion, “weary in body, withered from illness” 705. The heart of St. Kirill of Belozersky “was inflamed with Divine love, like fire,” even in the midst of his studies in managing the monastery 706. Out of love for God they endured hardship, torment, suffering and death 707. Theodore the Studite said: “I go to where my God and Lord are, Whom my soul loved, Whom I desired with all my heart, Whom I called myself a servant” 708.
When compiling the lives of the saints, St. Demetrius carefully selected and placed in the Chetia such manifestations of the monk’s love for God. To express a person’s heartfelt impulses towards God, he does not find expressions in ordinary human language, but resorts to the help of the Word of God, borrowing them from the psalms, especially from the “Song of Songs”. If fear led a person to the ascetic path of correction, then the engine of his life was selfless love for God. She encouraged him to draw closer to God and be jealous of His glory. The monks were kindled by Divine zeal for God 709, suffering for him was considered “like a golden monastery and like an adornment” 710. The Monk Paphnutius, out of jealousy, expelled from his monastery everyone who spoke contrary to Divine Scripture 711. Isaiah of Rostov trembled in his heart that he would give an answer for his spiritual sheep, not established in the faith, and took up pastoral labors, visiting cities and villages 712.
So, internal piety embraces all the powers of a person: the mind, the will, and the heart; everything should be in the soul as on the altar; Scientific knowledge, talent for art, and a natural disposition for good are brought to God.
Internal piety does not hide in the depths of the heart, is not limited to “smart work,” but is accompanied by “external piety: psalmody, rituals,” and so on.
The Monk Anthony asked God how he could be saved, and he had a vision of an angel in the form of a monk, “weaving a basket and rising to prayer, and again working, and again praying” 713. St. Gregory saw monks “living like angels, constantly praising, shedding tears like rivers and standing day and night in prayer 714. The Monk Theodosius “stays awake in prayer all night,” forgetting sleep at night, and during the day “spun wool, reading the psalter with his lips” 715. The Monk Luke of Greece worked until his body was exhausted, but he did not faint in spirit 716. A monk should always use prayer as a weapon: at the beginning of a task, at the end, in sorrows and temptations; without it, as without a weapon, he is helpless 717. In pure prayer, without the admixture of worldly cares, all the forces of the soul are concentrated, faith, hope, sincerity, perseverance, etc. - The Monk Niphon saw a monk “walking and whispering a prayer: from his lips came a flame and rushed to heaven; his angel accompanied him with a spear and drove away demons" 718.
The purpose of writing the “Lives of the Saints” by Saint Demetrius was to expound the ascetic teaching common to all Christianity; and in his hands was the ascetic literature of both the East and the West 719 . The direction of his views is not always in favor of Eastern asceticism alone. For example, he was not satisfied with the chronology of Eastern writers. During the reduction and replenishment of the Lives, he seemed to be less attentive to the Eastern writers and in their main provisions than to the Western ones, which he had studied during his struggle with the Uniates. In the Chetya-Minea, the features of Eastern asceticism, which consist in a psychological analysis of how a person develops and grows skills, are not clear. And the means of combating skills indicated by him are passive: patience, immobility to sin, etc., which do not at all exhaust the “smart doing” that characterizes Eastern asceticism. Instead of concentrated tension of the mind on thoughts, Saint Demetrius puts forward practical activity and feeling.
As an artist by nature, he noted in his book the beauty of goodness and spiritual courage. The ideas of Nil Sorsky (†1508) did not master him; it is aligned with that practical view of monasticism that was established among us after the fight against non-covetous people.
Chapter III. Discovery of the relics of St. Demetrius
On September 18, 1752, Rostov Metropolitan Arseny was informed from the economic office of the Rostov bishop's house that in the attached Yakovlevsky monastery in the Church of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for an unknown reason, such irregularities had formed on the floor that could be dangerous in a crowd of people. The floor, made of cast iron slabs, shakes as people walk and sinks towards the southwest corner of the church.
The Bishop then ordered his steward, Abbot Gennady, to inspect the damage.
We started work. They moved the wooden tomb that stood above the burial place of the former Metropolitan of Rostov Demetrius from the floor, dismantled the floor slabs and removed a thick layer of sand, earth, and rubble. Beneath it was a wooden frame, covered with thick wooden beams instead of a ceiling. The wooden beams had already rotted over time and, breaking under the weight of the cast-iron floor slabs and the mass of construction debris, broke and fell into the log house, where, according to the monks, stood the coffin of the deceased metropolitan.
They immediately informed Arseny that the damage was caused by the absence of a stone vault over the grave.
The Bishop ordered the removal of the rotten frame.
Along with the removal of the log house and debris, the Saint’s coffin was also freed from under the pile of rubble. He stood right next to the wall. Several logs that had fallen from above lay on it. The lid of the coffin partly rotted, partly it was destroyed by them, so that the cover, hat and robe of the deceased were visible in it.
The wall of the church also began to be damaged by loose earth and timber; Crevices appeared on it and in order to prevent danger it was necessary to attach a stone “fix” to it. When on September 21 the bishop was informed about the condition of the coffin and the damage to the church wall, he, first of all, had the assumption that the body of M. Demetrius was incorruptible, who is known for his holy life and the grace-filled anointing of his writings. He himself, together with the housekeeper, confessor and other clergy, came to the Yakovlevsky Monastery and examined the coffin. They collected the completely rotten lid of the coffin and removed the earth that had fallen from above. The head of the coffin had completely fallen off, so that the hardened yellow silk upholstery was visible. Under the yellow cover was the same hat on the head of the deceased, with images pasted on; the attire was full of a bishop: sakkos, omophorion, etc.; on the chest there is a copper cross with a silk ribbon, a red velvet robe and a rosary.
Only the pages of the Gospel and the handwritten books under the title have faded, and the nails are completely rusted.
The brown hair with gray on the head and brad is all intact, the face is blackened and damaged: the eyes are sunken, there is no nasal cartilage, the upper lip is also missing, all other parts of the face are unharmed.
In order to remove loose earth from the damaged wall and more thoroughly examine the body of the deceased, by order of the bishop, the coffin was raised upstairs with possible precautions and here, in the church, the archimandrite of the Spaso-Yaroslavl Monastery, Bartholomew, and the clergy examined it again.
When they took out all the soil from the coffin and carefully examined it, much more appeared. It became obvious that a minor part of the body was damaged by the collapsed logs. The rest is all intact and incorruptible. The left hand was separated at the elbow joint, and 4 fingers of the right hand were separated.
There could be no doubt that the body of the deceased, amid the general grave decay and destruction of objects, was preserved incorrupt only by a miracle. He was placed in a new oak coffin in the same form and position as found, and placed behind the right choir. When examining the body, they made a detailed inventory of everything and presented it to the bishop. All this took more than a week of time (from September 21 to 29).
Meanwhile, the damage to the stone wall was quickly repaired. The entire room of the log house was covered with bricks from top to bottom and on such a solid foundation, already on top of the church floor, they made a special stone tomb for the relics. By October 8, the work was completed, and the next day, the Metropolitan himself, with the same archimandrite and the clergy, arrived and began checking the inventory. After this, a memorial service was performed over the found body of the saint. At the end, her coffin was taken from the right choir and placed in a stone tomb built in the same southwestern corner of the church.
Both the oak coffin and the stone tomb were covered with lids on top, and the Metropolitan himself locked the upper one, sealed it with his bishop’s seal, and gave the keys to the steward, Archimandrite Gennady, for safekeeping.
On October 10, a report was sent to the Holy Synod about the discovery of the saint’s incorruptible body; here it is already called relics.
The report was sent with the bishop's groom Ivan Feodorov, who in Moscow handed it over to the solicitor, Pyotr Khukhorev, to be sent by mail to St. Petersburg.
There was no response from the Synod in Rostov. According to the traditions of Orthodoxy, the guardian of which has been the Holy Synod since the time of Peter the Great, an incorruptible body in itself could not be evidence of the glorification of the deceased. Moreover, during the entire synodal period this was the first case of the discovery of relics.
There are no such stories preserved about the modest late Metropolitan Dimitri during his lifetime, where the greatness of his soul was revealed - faith and humility. His creations, now so beloved among the people, were then almost all in manuscripts.
The glorification of the memory of the saint of God by the Church was facilitated by the strength of the people's religious feeling and the participation of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.
Almost immediately after the discovery of the relics, rumors spread about healings from them. This rumor grew and spread. Metropolitan Arseny, while still in Chernigov, more than 20 years ago, heard about them. He knew that the people did not cease to diligently visit the burial place of the deceased metropolitan. Rumors also reached St. Petersburg. In 1753 (June), Moscow Archbishop Platon (Malinovsky), a member of the Holy Synod, came to Rostov. Having visited the tomb of St. Demetrius, he began to talk about rumors that many here were being healed of fever and asked whether such miracles were recorded? Arseny confirmed that healings happen, but admitted that there are no records of them. But from that time on, they were given orders by the housekeeper Joachim to start a special notebook and invite those healed to write down their own healing from the relics.
The discovery of the incorruptible remains had the earliest and most beneficial effect on the spiritual life of the masses. Rumors about new relics went inextricably with confidence about their miraculous healing properties. The thoughts and dreams of the unfortunate rested on them. Visions were born. Many sick people saw the saint in a dream, as if he was blessing them, hugging them, or ordering them to go to his tomb. As such stories intensified, the influx of pilgrims to Rostov also increased. At the tomb there were funeral services for the deceased saint. Many were immediately healed, and some received relief from their illness at home simply by faith in the saint. Healed from 20-year-old chronic diseases. Particularly striking were the healings from aches and pains, the dumb and deaf, insanity and epilepsy. “I don’t dare say, I can’t keep silent,” one of those healed confesses, “what a great miracle the saint showed me.” The patient suffered from stone disease for 22 years, as if from some kind of execution. In December 1752, he received from Moscow a copy of the legend about the discovery of the relics. Then he “begged” to the saint and received complete relief.
Healing aid from the relics was given to the sick not only to Christians, but also to non-Christians. Persians and Tatars alike asked for it. This is how one Mohammedan, who was also his mullah among the Tatars, received healing from his illness. Therefore, at the coffin one could see people from the most distant places, the outskirts of Russia, distant Siberia, Verkhoturye, Tobolsk, etc. Not all those healed recorded their miracles: such records survived from 1753 to 1862, 20–38 per year. Among them were serfs, noble gentlemen who lived in St. Petersburg (for example, Count Tatishchev, Adam Olsufiev, etc.), so rumors about miracles in Rostov reached Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Her confessor, Archpriest F.Ya. Dubyansky, 1756 On September 25, he conveyed in writing to the Metropolitan of Rostov that the empress wanted to know from him - were the rumors about miracles and healings confirmed? The Metropolitan sent Dubyansky a note about some apparent miraculous healings from the relics of St. Dimitri.
The empress herself read this note and was “very pleased” with its sending. Two cases of healing were described here: Princess Vyazemskaya in 1754 and the widow Markova in 1753, who received complete healing from fever from the relics.
Following this, on November 20 of that year, from the Empress’s Cabinet, a request was received from the Synod about the relics in Rostov, in order to answer “according to his sworn position”, why has there not been a notification from him to this day to the Empress about the miracles taking place there, does he finally know about the rumors spread everywhere? The Synod was ordered to send a decree to the Metropolitan of Rostov so that he would immediately report when the deceased Saint was buried and by whom the burial was performed?
A request was sent to Arseny from the Holy Synod: why does he not report miracles to the Synod if they exist in his diocese, since now there was therefore nothing to report to the Empress from the Synod? Where are the relics now? Were there any miraculous healings from them? Have they been subjected to inspection and what did the inspection turn out to be? Is there a record of healings and why was all this not reported to the Synod in a timely manner?
Arseny, in response to such a decree, informs the Synod on November 29 that the body of the Right Reverend was buried in the ground in October 1709, and in 1752, upon discovery of its incorruptibility, it was raised from the ground and is in the church. After the opening there were miraculous healings at the tomb; some of them are recorded by the housekeeper of the bishop's house, Abbot Joachim. Since the reality of miracles must be clearly substantiated, what he, the Metropolitan, had neither health nor time to do, did not report them to the Synod, but only informed the empress through her confessor. However, this alone must be recognized as a miracle, that the body of the saint “after lying for 43 years, did not decay and the vestment did not turn to dust and ashes, and such a miracle is not to recognize as a miracle the danger of my conscience, so as not to fight against God and the extreme exhaustion of my mind, how to answer against schismatics and atheists.”
The Metropolitan attached to his report to the Synod a notebook in which 22 miraculous healings were listed. Information about them formed the basis of the work of glorifying the memory of the Wonderworker.
While the Synod formally began the matter of the Rostov events that excited the people, the Empress herself wanted to hear about this from Metropolitan Arseny, in whom she was accustomed to trust.
When Princess Natalya Grigorievna Beloselskaya went from St. Petersburg to Rostov to venerate the recently discovered relics, the Empress instructed her to convey her order to Arseny, so that he would inform her in good conscience about everything concerning the relics. And he confirms to her that the miracles performed at the saint’s tomb are obvious and amazing; it is necessary,” he writes on December 14, “to thank God for the fact that during the current reign He has shown such His contempt for His Church to the shame of all enemies and detractors. After his news of the relics to the Synod through the courier, there was nothing new yet, and what would happen, he would not leave the empress without news; now he refers to his reports to the Synod of 1752–1756, in which, according to his position, he already notified the Synod both about the discovery of the relics and about the miracles occurring from them.
Thus, the Empress aroused the attention of the Holy Synod to the Rostov events; She also encouraged the Metropolitan of Rostov with her trust. The work of glorifying the memory of St. Demetrius moved quickly.
Guided by the example of the discovery of the Akhtyrskaya miraculous icon of the Mother of God in 1744, when a special commission was appointed to study miracles, and now, on December 13, the Synod formed the same commission of clergy to examine the body of the Right Reverend Demetrius, to investigate both its incorruptibility and the reality of miraculous healings from it. The commission had to present its opinion about all this to the Synod. The commission included the Rostov Metropolitan himself, Sylvester, Metropolitan of Suzdal, and Gabriel (Krasnopolsky), Archimandrite of the Simonov Monastery, who sat in the Moscow Synodal Office.
On January 15, the inspection of the coffin and body of St. Demetrius began. The coffin was found flabby, and, as Arseny reported to the Synod, without a top board, the clothes on the saint were faded, the head was almost separated from the neck, “the face was taken by the earth,” there were not only the bones of the deceased, but also part of the body on them. With noticeable caution on the part of the commission, it almost repeated Arseny’s 1752 report to the Synod.
Then the commission began an investigation into the miraculous phenomena at the tomb.
Those healed were soon found; some of them themselves appeared on the commission. Of all the healed people indicated in Arseny’s notebook, the commission interrogated only those locals and those living nearby, and it was forbidden to call from distant cities. During interrogation, witnesses were forced to testify according to their conscience, under pain of being fined and punished according to sacred rules and civil laws for incorrect testimony. All healed, confirming the healing help to themselves from the relics of St. Demetrius, they talked about this in detail. There were also witnesses to their previous illnesses, often old and incurable. The members of the testing commission could not remain in doubt about the healing properties of the saint’s remains when, before their very eyes, cases of sudden healings occurred at his tomb.
In view of such evidence, they expressed their opinion before the Synod that although not all the bones of the saint’s body are covered with flesh, for the sake of the manifestation of false miracles from them, he must be considered worthy of veneration as holy relics, and Saint Demetrius as the Pleasant of God, glorified by God.
On January 28, the investigators left Rostov, instructing Arseny to complete the interrogations of those witnesses and those healed who were not found by them, such as Princess Vyazemskaya, who had left for Moscow. Soon they were interrogated and confirmed the healings.
On March 10, the Synod made the following determination: in view of the proven incorruptibility of the body of St. Demetrius and the many miraculous healings occurring from him, to ask the Empress to read out such perfect holy relics and transfer them to a new shrine, and for the Most Reverend Demetrius to commemorate as the Pleasant of God, on September 21, the day of the opening of his relics, to serve an all-night vigil and prayer services before his relics, and also compose a service.
The Empress was presented with an extract from the record of miraculous healings; several cases of healing of the blind, demoniac and feverish people were mentioned.
On the day of Holy Easter, April 1, after mass, the Synod in its entirety brought its congratulations to the empress in the palace and presented her with its report on the glorification of the memory of the Saint.
The report was approved by her, but regarding the transfer of the relics to a new mycelium, she ordered to wait for a special decree. The empress, always in a reverent mood, now had a special desire to be in Rostov herself at the celebration of the transfer of the relics. On April 9, a decree about this was sent to all dioceses. On April 15 it was received in Rostov. It was read in the Rostov Cathedral in front of a crowd of people and a prayer service was immediately held. The decree was read at a gathering of people and in the Yakovlevsky Monastery.
In view of the importance of the upcoming celebration, the Synod took measures to compile a service, the life of St. Demetrius and an announcement to the people about the glorification of his memory.
Little information has been preserved about the modest Saint Demetrius of Rostov during his lifetime. Ambrose Zertis-Kamensky, a member of the Holy Synod and Bishop of Pereyaslavl, managed to find the speech of St. Demetrius upon his entry into the Rostov flock, a spiritual testament and a few lines of his biography. With such insufficient written material to compile his life, the Synod made a request to the Rostov Spiritual Consistory to see if there was any news about the former local metropolitan. But nothing was found in Rostov either.
However, from the available material, they hastily compiled the life of St. Demetrius in the following form: about his past it is only said that he is the son of a simple Cossack Savva Tuptalenko, he underwent various monastic obediences; Having been appointed metropolitan in Siberia, he did not see her. Then, his works in Rostov were listed and his spiritual testament was written out in full. But the discovery of his relics is described in detail, as Metropolitan Arseny described it in his report to the Synod of 1752. From the life of St. Demetrius there is not a single story about events in which the greatness of the saint’s spirit was expressed: about humility and love for the poor (“Declaration of the opening of relics” in the State Archive).
In view of such insufficiency of information about the saint and the need for church services for him, the Synod, in a decree on April 9, 1757, instructed Metropolitan Arseny to compile a service “together with the life,” and took upon himself to take measures to notify the people about the glorification of the memory of the newly-minted Wonderworker. In the old days of the patriarchate and earlier, as soon as miraculous signs appeared from the relics, the lord or abbot of the monastery himself gave the order to immediately “ring all the bells throughout the city.” In the same Rostov diocese, as soon as miracles began to occur from the relics of Prince Theodore and his children, David and Constantine in 1463, then the abbot of the Spassky Yaroslavl Monastery, where the relics lay, and the priests, and the Yaroslavl prince “began to call and preach their wondrous miracles everywhere.” Now times have come different. The Synod, adapting to Peter's orders, asked the Senate to publicly announce the empress's order to glorify the memory of the newly-minted Pleasant of God 720.
Meanwhile, Rostov was reviving. The wondrous remains of the saint exuded the grace-filled power of healing, which flowed over the sick and attracted more and more crowds of pilgrims from all sides. Whole trains traveled from St. Petersburg in several dozen carts. Due to the absence of postal stations, they used waterways and headed with rowers through Uglich. So, in the summer of 1758, the court ladies-in-waiting Budakova, Chulkova, Neronov and other courtiers arrived: men, women, children and even a blind bandura player, accompanied by a military escort and servants in such numbers that one tableware for the camp table was carried on 9 horses. During the passage of the great nobility, the population suffered insults, so much so that the Senate asked for a ban on the gentlemen traveling to Rostov, so that they would not demand carts, food supplies, and other things from the peasants 721. At the level of such a popular movement it was necessary to stand as an energetic person, able to vigilantly monitor and cope with all matters of economic, church and administrative order. Metropolitan Arseny was such a manager.
His merit at this time was that he had the courage to suspend the application of formal rules to living church affairs.
Soon after the announcement of the celebration of the memory of St. Demetrius (April 28, 1757), the Synod received notification of a new amazing miracle of the healing of Major Pronchishchev from stone disease, as well as other miracles.
The Synod ordered Arseny to check the miracles entered in the notebooks and report not on all of them, but only on those confirmed by a special investigation.
Absorbed in worries about preparations for the day of glorification of the relics, Bishop of Rostov did not agree to new obedience, pointing out the inapplicability of the rules of spiritual regulation to the developing events in Rostov. He answers the Synod that he does not have the strength to investigate the uninterrupted series of miracles, especially since he has neither free time nor health. The abbot of the Yakovlevsky monastery is entrusted with overseeing miraculous healings, and he fully relies on him. Further, Arseny states that the production of new investigations is painful for the people. If we begin to take all those healed into the consistory, then we will thereby give rise to doubts about the authenticity of the miracles, and for those taken into the consistory those healed and witnesses of healings will be burdened, the unbearable loss of living for a few extra days, since now in Rostov, on the occasion of an unprecedented gathering of people, everything has risen in price: grub, hay, oats, etc. Other healed people, seeing such exhaustion in those caught in the consistory, will not rush home and announce their healings, so as not to fall under investigation.
Therefore, are you dissatisfied with those miracles that were witnessed already in 1757 and for which the Synod recognized the saint as a wondrous Wonderworker? There is no need to carry out an inquiry for pilgrims: “he who can accommodate, let him accommodate, that is, he who wants to believe, let him believe.”
The Synod on August 8, 1757 agreed not to order new investigations into the miracles taking place, but to make things easier for Arseny by having him report on them not for a third of the year, but for the whole year.
From that time on, the Synod received annual notebooks about miracles, of which there were from 30 to 38 annually. The largest number of miraculous healings (38) was recorded in 1761, when Hieromonk Luke was made hegumen of the Yakovlevsky Monastery. The recording was stopped in 1762, when Empress Catherine II ascended the throne. Arseny entrusted the compilation of the “service” to Archimandrite Bonifatius Boretsky of the Tolga Monastery, who was distinguished by his preaching when he was at the Moscow Academy. Boniface wrote two services in the summer of 1757; but none of them satisfied the ruler. Bishop Ambrose Zertis-Kamensky also wrote a “service” to the saint. But the Synod was not happy with any of them. The chants in these services are full of thoughts about the grave, about the vanity of our lives and the corruption of everything in the world.
Although such thoughts were characteristic of everything in the 18th century, the Synod noted the narrowness of such a view of the hymn singers on a joyful Christian event that showed a glorious victory over corruption; In addition, the powerful popular religious feeling, which, in fact, was the engine of real events and which alone could give life to the chants themselves, did not find expression in the chants.
On September 21, 1757, a solemn service was held in Rostov for the general Menaion; The glorification of the new Ugodnik was also celebrated throughout Russia.
The paucity of information about the life of Saint Demetrius was reflected in their services to him. Without knowing the events of his earthly life, of course, it was impossible to make edifying use of them for the person praying. The compilers had to artificially compensate for this. To the people he seemed “out of this world.”
That is why the need for a detailed life of the saint was especially passionately felt.
Meanwhile, at the discovery of the relics of St. Demetrius, the people did not yet know such information from the life of the Pleasant, despite the understandable desire to have something similar 722. In response to this popular need, since 1757, lists of miraculous healings at his relics began to appear. They were greedily bought up and distributed. Likewise, images of the Wonderworker appeared from somewhere, depicting both the Pleasant himself and his miracles. Despite the fact that they were not of skillful writing, they were successfully sold in Moscow on the Spassky Bridge, in St. Petersburg and other places. When the Synod learned about such lists and images, which could create temptation among the people and among foreigners, they were ordered to be taken away from sellers and buyers. Rumors spread that all this was distributed by some monks in Rostov. The Synod feared that “schismatic inventions” might creep into the notebooks. They made a request to the Metropolitan of Rostov to investigate “with whose permission, by whom and for how long have such notebooks been distributed” to pilgrims.
He was ordered to prohibit the distribution of any records of miracles without the approval of the Holy Synod. Arseny replied that at the tomb of St. Demetrius nothing is distributed to the pilgrims. Such notebooks, in his opinion, were written by eyewitnesses of miracles themselves, but could have been copied from his notebooks submitted to the Synod and, therefore, inquiry about them should be carried out not in Rostov, but in the Holy Synod. However, there is no need to prohibit such lists, so as not to give schismatics a reason to “invent blasphemies against the Wonderworker,” Arseny wrote to the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod.
It was clear, however, that something had to be done for the people in this regard. The empress herself took measures to promote such fiery popular zeal; she became concerned about acquiring the correct image of St. Demetrius. It was not possible to borrow the face of the saint from the relics, because the characteristic features of the Pleasant’s face had disappeared: the nasal cartilage and upper lip were missing - “the earth took them,” as stated in the report of the commission that testified to his relics. But the empress learned that the former Archbishop Arseny of Pereyaslavl kept a portrait of St. Demetrius from the age when the latter was still an archimandrite. According to a certificate from the Synod, it turned out that the owner of the portrait lives in retirement in the Novgorod-Seversky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. The Empress sent a letter to the bishop on August 5, 1757, asking him to immediately forward the portrait to her. The courier Yazykov sent there caused the queen a lot of agonizing anxiety. On the way back he fell ill in Moscow.
The anxiety subsided only when a letter from the bishop was received in St. Petersburg stating that the portrait, even before the arrival of the courier, on July 15, was sent to St. Petersburg in the name of the confessor of the empress. In September, the image of the saint was already in her hands. The painting of an icon from it was entrusted to the best artist Rathori.
The transfer of the relics to the new tomb had to be postponed for some time, because the empress wanted to make a rich silver shrine for the day of such a celebration. By the highest rescript on December 7, 1757, its construction was entrusted to the general-feldtzeichmeister, senator, Count Pyotr Ivanovich Shuvalov, who was charged with the duty of using all his “art and excellent diligence” for such an important task, so that the rich grace of the shrine would express the feelings of the queen.
By August 19, 1758, the shrine was built. It received 10 poods of silver 24 pounds 31 spools; in addition, in the silver iconostasis around the image there were 8 pounds 19 pounds 8 gold. Total spent on it: on materials, wastage of silver with allotment money - 16,384 rubles. 82 ½ kop. (then).
The Empress thought of going to Rostov soon and sending the cancer directly there. But there was another delay. Before the arrival of the empress, it was necessary to bring the church itself, where the relics rested, into proper shape, cover it with an iron roof and surround it with a fence.
According to M. Arseny, there were no local funds for repairs. The Empress ordered the release of 3,000 pounds of iron from the treasury to repair the roof.
They reported from Rostov that miraculous healings from the relics were happening continuously. The empress's desire to be in Rostov also increased. But in 1761 she died without having time to fulfill her cherished desire to be at the celebration of the transposition of the relics.
The new emperor approved the order of the deceased to release iron to the Conception Monastery.
Only with the accession to the throne of Empress Catherine II was the repair of the church completed, and Shlyater received from Moscow from Adam Vas. Olsufiev’s order dated October 14, 1762, to bring the crayfish to Moscow along the first winter route, guarded by a convoy of 12 soldiers.
In Rostov everyone was eagerly awaiting the empress. Everything was ready for the great celebration.
The transfer of the relics took place in May 1763. Metropolitan Arseny was no longer in Rostov. For his bold protest against the secularization of church estates, he was put on trial, sentenced to be cut and, as a simple monk, exiled to the St. Nicholas Korelsky Monastery on the shores of the White Sea.
The Empress was in an extremely cheerful mood throughout the Rostov festivities. The ceremony was led by Metropolitan Dimitri Sechenov, according to her instructions. From Rostov she writes to Panin: “tomorrow there will be a transfer of the relics of St. Demetrius, and the day after tomorrow I will continue on my journey; Yesterday there were still miracles, a woman was healed, and His Eminence Sechenov wants to seal the shrine so that the relics are not stolen. However, I asked, so that the vile people would not think that the relics had hidden from me, to leave them outside for a little while longer” 723.
On Sunday, May 25, 1653, they walked with a religious procession from all Rostov churches to the Yakovlevsky Monastery. It was attended by the arriving bishops: Metropolitan of Novgorod Dmitry Sechenov, Archbishop of St. Petersburg Gabriel Kremenitsky and Archbishop of Krutitsky Ambrose Zertis-Kamensky and many clergy. The empress also walked with the religious procession with the most distinguished persons who had just entered the public sphere.
Persons of the highest clergy, having entered the Conception Church, lifted the relics of St. Demetrius and carried them out to walk around the church.
When the relics appeared from the church, the queen bowed to the ground and joined the bishops, carrying the relics with them around the entire church. They were brought into the church and placed in a new silver shrine, placed at the burial site of Demetrius. After this, the Liturgy was celebrated with a prayer service to the newly-minted Wonderworker. The celebration ended with cannon fire.
This is how the church canonized Metropolitan Demetrius of Rostov.
His glorification was of great importance for the Russian people. The illustrious saint of Rostov became the favorite mentor of the Russian people. Demetrius’s works were read with special love, presenting spiritual food that is still inimitable in its accessibility. He himself appears as a model in life and a prayer book for everyone. For the church during its struggle with schism, this event was extremely important. It was a direct defeat of the opponents of the Church. All his life, the Pleasant admonished bitter schismatics, and now the miraculous power of his relics and the incorruptibility of his body clearly indicated the rightness of the fighter for Orthodoxy and the unreasonable stand of the Old Believers for the letter. The opponents of the Church felt this and, having no means against the obvious victory over them, attempted to destroy the relics of the holy Saint.
The glorification of the Pleasant, who enjoyed the favor of the great transformer of Russia, Emperor Peter the Great, indicated, on the contrary, new paths for Russia - that the life of our fatherland is not in blind attachment to antiquity, but in a reasonable zeal for enlightenment, which alone can illuminate the vital principles of the Russian people.
Throughout Russia, pilgrims carried spiritual consolation from the ancient city of Rostov, stirring up hearts to glorify the name of the new Wonderworker, St. Demetrius.
Draw up a system of moral teachings of St. Demetrius’s work on his writings is difficult, because some moral treatises were expressed by him randomly and fragmentarily. He had to deal with the main points of moral teaching, for example, about the image and likeness of God in man, during the fight against the schism, at the end of his life. The upbeat preachy tone of his speech makes it difficult to determine the role and significance of moral feelings: he considers humility, repentance, finally, faith, love, etc., as the basis of moral activity, depending on the topic of the sermon and the subject of speech.
The saint also explains the disproportionate structure of the body as a consequence of sin. As sin developed after Adam, people began to be born “not according to measure, but giants, like trees and monsters (IV, 34), and then degenerates, half-animals - half-humans, satyrs, centaurs ... (IV, 301). Sin deprives a woman of her beauty, and she is forced to use paint.
St. Demetrius, contrary to the teachings of Eastern ascetics, distinguishes passion from mortal sin. Mortal sin is voluntary, and passions, in his opinion, grow within a person from the very conception of a person and live with him relentlessly (III, 239).
Diogenes, according to Demetrius, calls sin “the queen of kings” (IV, 397). Agreeing with him, Demetrius refers in support to the story of Artaxerxes and his concubine, from the book of 2 Ezra IV, 25. In the “Pyramid” he himself calls sins kings, because “sin leads those it saddles by the nose.”
Regarding condemnation, that it is vile in the eyes of people, St. Demetrius says: “a courteous person chooses a place or corner, so as not to cause infamy in the eyes of men,” and we spit on the face of Christ when we revile and mock our neighbor (V, 46).
Demetrius’s favorite sacred book was the book “Song of Songs.”
For example, the well-known text: “I died by the law,” he read: “The world died” (Oc. III, 317. Publ. K. 1903).
Word for the Week of the Last Judgment.
“Do not think, listener, that I am talking about those enemies who fight against our fatherland and are hostile to our pious faith”: not only do you not have to love such enemies, but you must fight them for your property (II, 455). This was said by Demetrius in Moscow when declaring war with the Swedes.
Demetrius has a whole treatise on thoughts, the content of which is borrowed from the works of eastern ascetics (Works I, 115–155, “Spiritual Medicine for Confused Thoughts”).
If we recognize the “Spiritual Alphabet” as the creation of St. Demetrius, then we must recognize his dependence on St. Gregory of Nyssa is even larger. In the “Alphabet” the idea of Gregory of Nyssa is developed that death is given for the benefit of man, so that he does not endure evil forever. (Gr. Nyssa I, 144–146). However, the “Alphabet” is attributed to Isaiah Kopinsky (1631–1633). Stroev - “Description of the manuscript. Tsarsky", No. 229.
Innocent of Kherson († 1857).
"Cheti-Minea" of St. Demetrius for March, 12 days, 101 sheets.
Jan., life of St. Makaria Jan 18
April, 22, Theodore Sinaite Ave.
May, 3, Theodosius Pechersky Ave. and December 11.
January, 15, September, 28.
November, 23, September, 29.
Hagiographic material from St. Demetrius gathered so much that Met. Timofey (Shcherbatsky) retreated before the difficulty of revising it (Petrov “Material for the history of Kiev. Acad.”)
The Senate, however, did not fulfill the wishes of the Synod, responding to the fact that secular publications among the people are made at fairs and crowded squares with shouts and drumming, which method of announcement is hardly decent for the memory of the saint.
The printing of the “Life” took a long time, but the service to the saint was printed and was in such demand that within a year (from December 1759) there were 4 stereotypical editions (found in the Imperial Publ. Bibl.). An akathist to him soon appeared. (1861).
Collection of R.I.O. VII vol., 288 pages. The reason for this was the following circumstance: Archimandrite Larion, assigned to monitor order at the relics, reported that the pilgrims demanded that the shrine of St. the relics were opened for the whole day; if this was not done according to their desire, then they grumbled and became angry. Metropolitan Arseny on this occasion ordered that the shrine be opened only at a certain time, namely, from morning to noon; He ordered the pilgrims to kiss the relics, having previously completely abstained from food and drink.