Автореферат диссертации

submitted for the academic degree of candidate of theology 1 The study of hagiography and religious phenomenology is now one of the urgent tasks of the Christian and national revival of our people. A huge role in Orthodox piety belongs to the veneration of the holy saints of God. Saints are those who, through the feat of their virgin faith and active love, realized in themselves the likeness of God, revealed in power the image of God, and thereby acquired the grace of the Holy Spirit. In the acquisition of the Holy Spirit through the purification of the heart by the feat of soul and body lies the salvation of every person in whom Christ appears: “... it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). The ways to acquire grace are different, diverse and unique, just as every person is unique. The life feat of every saint has a character unique to him. The Church knows different ranks of holiness, or spiritual images of salvation: prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints, universal teachers, saints, unmercenaries... This list, of course, is not complete: not all saints are known to the world; there are those whom the Lord has imprisoned in obscurity, and the Church honors their memory on the Feast of All Saints. The righteous, having achieved holiness, conquer sin within themselves and become stronger in goodness. Their spiritual strength is freed for active and prayerful love. Such spiritual freedom, which they received while still on earth, becomes complete after they move into the heavenly abodes. The holy saints of God also help us because of the spiritual freedom they receive and the love that is achieved by their feat. They are the “hands of God” with which God accomplishes His works. It is given to saints even beyond death to do deeds of love for the sake of the salvation of their earthly brethren. The measure of the active participation of saints in the life of mankind corresponds to the measure of the spirit and the greatness of their exploits, “for star differs from star in glory” (1 Cor. 15:41). In Russian saints we honor not only the heavenly patrons of our sinful land: in them we see revelations of our own spiritual path. We believe that every people has its own religious calling, and, of course, it is most fully realized by its saints. Their ideal has nourished the life of the people for centuries; from their fire all of Rus' lit its lamps. In different historical eras, seeing the spiritual state of people, the Lord sent true shepherds to the Church of Christ to give true spiritual guidelines in the darkness of moral degradation and spiritual blindness, pointing the way to truth and eternal life. The 18th century was marked by Peter's reforms, transformations associated with the destruction of ancient foundations, the destruction of the centuries-old way of life to which the Russian people were accustomed. Truly, in this difficult time, a lamp was needed to light a ray of faith in a spiritually impoverished people. And the Lord, in His ineffable mercy, for the healing of human souls, erected such a lamp on the candlestick of the Church of Christ - St. Demetrius of Rostov. Saint Demetrius, in the world Daniel Tuptalo, was brought up in a pious Christian family, where the seeds of a godly life were sown in his soul. The education he received at the Kiev-Mohyla Collegium and the teachings of the elders of the Kyiv St. Cyril Monastery awakened a love of science in the heart of the future saint, which allowed the young monk to enter the circle of the most educated and progressive people of his time, who stood at the origins of the development of the socio-cultural, political and religious life of Ukraine in the second half of the 17th century. With his ordination in 1675, the young hieromonk Demetrius began his preaching work. First he was a preacher in Chernigov under Archbishop Lazar Baranovich, whom he called “the great pillar of the church,” and then in Vilna and Slutsk. In Little Russia, Demetrius was abbot in various monasteries, where he saw with his own eyes the sad situation of the Ukrainian people, who suffered double oppression: social - from the Polish gentry, magnates, and spiritual - from the Catholic Church. But the abbot's service of Saint Demetrius did not last long. Having a natural inclination towards a contemplative life and the thought of God, he was burdened by his troublesome obedience. In 1864, with the blessing of Metropolitan of Kyiv Varlaam Yasinsky, Demetrius moved to the Lavra, where he began compiling the Menaions, or Lives of the Saints, the favorite reading of pious Christians. Saint Demetrius, along with Nestor the Chronicler Epiphanius the Wise and Pachomius Logothetes, made a feasible contribution to hagiographic literature. Of course, his predecessors, such as Metropolitan Macarius, St. Peter Mogila, and contemporaries - Innocent Gisel, Varlaam Yasinsky, etc., helped him in this difficult work. Around 1689, Saint Demetrius visited Moscow on church business, where he was introduced to Patriarch Joachim and the young Tsar Peter. In 1701 in Moscow he was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan of Siberia and Tobolsk, but poor health prevented him from occupying this chair, and he could continue his work only where enlightenment was concentrated. In 1702, after the death of Joasaph Lazarevich, Saint Demetrius became Metropolitan of Rostov, and in 1705 he completed the Chetya-Minea. He also worked hard to organize the life of his flock. The morals of the diocesan clergy were extremely low: even the children of priests almost never received communion. The works written during this period tell about the difficulties Saint Demetrius had to face in his diocese. As the ruling bishop, he was forced to take measures to streamline diocesan affairs. First of all, at his house he opened a school for the children of the clergy, and he himself oversaw their education. In his district epistles, he constantly instructed the priests on how to carry out their ministry with dignity, how to preach to schismatics, etc. The archpastoral concern of the saint for the Church of God was expressed not only in taking practical measures against error and evil, but also in accusatory writings, such as “On the image and likeness of God in men,” in sermons, as well as in the polemical work “Search for the schismatic Bryn faith...”. All the saint’s labors were a great success, rumors of which reached the king. But more than with his messages, the saint taught the priests the worthy example of his pious life: meek and gentle in governance, he was an example of kindness and mercy; His sermons were distinguished by simplicity and liveliness. He was deeply revered by all Orthodox Rus' - from commoners to the royal family. The saint was blessed with many spiritual gifts, including the gift of prophecy. Thus, he predicted the time of his death and his arrival in Rostov for the holiday in honor of the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God of Queen Praskovya Fedorovna. “Here come two guests - the Queen of Heaven and the Queen of Earth,” he told his treasurer Filaret. “But I won’t be able to see them, but you, treasurer, must be ready to receive them.” Soon he fell ill, and on the day of his namesake he could no longer deliver a sermon. Throughout his illness, the saint indulged in fiery prayer, and a day later, on the morning of October 28, 1709, he was found dead on his knees. Saint Demetrius of Rostov left believers a creative legacy amounting to about 20 volumes of works. His incorrupt relics were found in 1752, 43 years after his death, during the renovation of the monastery cathedral. In 1757, Saint Demetrius was canonized by the Church. In his numerous writings and sermons, Saint Demetrius always emphasized that the highest and most important goal of shepherding is concern for the restoration of the image of God in fallen human nature, in tirelessly reminding man of his great calling - to be a joint heir of eternal life and glory in the Kingdom of Heaven. Man, according to the teachings of St. Demetrius, can overcome his sensual nature, rise above the laws of the material world, can achieve immortality, true freedom from sin, since he is able to respond to the love of God with his love for Him. According to him, the image of God is also in the soul of an unfaithful person, but there is a likeness only in a virtuous Christian, and if a Christian commits a mortal sin, then he “is deprived of the likeness of God, but not the image...”. About freedom, the saint writes: “...God says to the sinner this way: I could create you without you, but I cannot save you without you... If you yourself do not want salvation, if you yourself are running away from eternal life, if you love your destruction more than salvation, then neither My wisdom, nor My mercy, nor My omnipotence will help you.” God, having created man rational and free, does not save him by force. After all, everything has been given to man so that he can realize his real position in the world, believe God, respond to His love, most fully manifested in the fact that He gave His Son for the sake of people: “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16), and build a life in accordance with his calling to salvation and eternal life. Sin is a great evil, resistance and disobedience to the will of God; it removes a person from the Creator, deprives him of sonship and grace. Sin has taken such hold of human nature that no one except God is able to restore man to his primitive purity. One Son of God could repay the debt to Divine justice and give “satisfaction to God the Father through His voluntary suffering for universal sin and through the cross open the entrance to heaven.” The priceless human soul was redeemed at the price of the blood of the Son of God. Thus, Saint Demetrius considers the spiritual and moral uprising and justification of man a miracle higher than the one that the Lord performed over the four-day Lazarus and, most importantly, that this miracle is possible for every repentant sinner who resorts to the feet of the Savior due to the fact that the image of God is still preserved in man. The rise from death to a God-like life leads a person to moral rebirth and perfection, for the value of the human personality lies precisely in its free choice and active striving for the high calling of the Creator. The saint writes that it is impossible for a person to be saved without the grace of God. Man is saved only in Christ, and the grace of God in this salvation is the main active force. She enlightens the soul, she revives it, “communicates to it both its action and its properties.” Preaching in the spirit of Eastern theology, he teaches that salvation is an unceasing action of God’s grace: “Salvation is created by the grace of God, and without it, virtue will not help a person to be saved.” Thus, efforts alone are not enough for salvation, but they are necessary to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit, which brings us closer to the Prototype. God contributes to the salvation of man with his grace, strengthens him in good deeds, and man, in turn, strives to correct his sins, change his thoughts, purify his feelings and achieve unity with the Creator: “Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord! Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). From these words it is clear that in the matter of saving a person, constant feat is required. Speaking about man's path to God, Dimitri Rostovsky focuses our attention on three great Christian virtues: faith, hope and love. He says that “faith is something that your fleshly eyes do not see, nor your hands touch, but your heart, your mind, undoubtedly affirms within itself that it is so and not otherwise.” Faith is the basis of man’s saving activity, the beginning and engine of his spiritual life in God: “Faith is youth without old age, for Enoch, delighted with it, still lives and has not grown old. Faith is a living, bloodless sacrifice, for by faith Abraham offered his son Isaac as a living sacrifice.” The path of Abraham was completed and fulfilled in the path of Jesus Christ, which the believer is called to follow. Christ’s obedience to the Heavenly Father led Him to the Cross, where He cried out in the hopeless night of God-forsakenness: “My God! My God! Why did you leave me?” (Mark 15:34). He, who “trained obedience through sufferings” (Heb. 5:8), became “the author and perfecter of faith” (Heb. 12:2). Thus, in the New Testament, faith is called obedient, trusting adherence to the will of God. The saint, continuing this thought, says: faith consoles in sorrows, helps in illnesses, strengthens in trials; Faith is the primary virtue and the path to Christ, since without faith in Christ, human salvation is impossible. Faith is the driving force behind the spiritual and moral renewal of a person, the basis on which many other Christian virtues grow. So, faith is the path, but one should set out on the path with hope in order to achieve the goal. And hope, “given to the human heart by God’s inspiration and enlightenment,” provides effective assistance in achieving personal salvation and Christian achievement. The strength and inviolability of hope depends on a person’s faith and his spiritual and moral state. True Christians base their hope on unfeigned reverence for God by living righteous and godly lives. The crown of all virtues is love. “God is love” (1 John 4:8) - this is how the Lord revealed Himself in the incarnate “for our salvation” Son of God, whose earthly feat is a feat of love. Only love can lead a Christian to moral perfection, to unity with God. She is the gift of the Holy Spirit, inflaming the hearts of Christians with reciprocal love for the Creator and for their neighbor. What wings are to a bird in flight, so is perfect love to a Christian on the path to God. Love is the foundation on which the entire world created by the Lord stands, and on which our path to the life of the next century, to eternal salvation is based. The true sign of love for God is disgust from the world (which lies in evil) and everything sinful in it. Speaking about the meaning of love in the life of a Christian, Saint Demetrius quotes the words of the holy Apostle Paul: “Love is long-suffering, merciful, love does not envy, love does not exalt itself, is not proud, does not act outrageously, does not seek its own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love will never cease, although prophecy will cease, and tongues will be silent, and knowledge will be abolished” (1 Cor. 13:4-8), and further explains what our love for each other should be: “Love cultivates patience in a Christian, teaches us to endure insults, and be condescending towards the imperfections of our neighbors. And the highest perfection in love is the virtue of love for enemies, because it is higher than human nature. Nature, distorted by sin, demands retribution, and love is ready to forgive everything, thereby healing the infirmity of one’s neighbor, and defeats evil with good.” In the name of this Divine law, the law of love, all of us, who seek forgiveness from the Lord, must tear out all the tares of insults and sins against each other that are rooted in our hearts, and the Lord, the Knower of the Heart, will forgive us our countless sins. Saint Demetrius characterizes Christian morality as the highest level of human perfection, which comes from faith, love and God-given sources of grace and sanctification. The main place in his works is occupied by moral and edifying teachings for shepherds: “The order of the priesthood,” notes Saint Demetrius, “was instituted by the Lord on earth not for the sake of peace and coolness, but also for the greatest labor, the Saint was concerned about the salvation of all.” He compares the meaning and height of the priesthood with the heavenly luminaries: just as the sky is illuminated by the sun and stars, “so the Church shines with its luminaries - its shepherds and teachers... each according to rank and honor and title and according to the degree of perfection in a virtuous life and spiritual wisdom.” The Lord Jesus Christ commanded us the ideal of boundless moral perfection: “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Achieving this ideal has not so much an ethical, but a religious-aesthetic character: a person cannot change morally if he does not first see the intelligent beauty of the heavenly world, and does not strive for it as the highest and dominant value in life. In his sermons, especially addressed to shepherds, St. Demetrius focuses on examples from the lives of saints - the Apostle Paul, St. Tikhon of Amathus, etc. A true shepherd, following the example of the ministry of the Chief Shepherd, Our Lord Jesus Christ, “enters the sheepfold through the doors, and the sheep hear the voice of their shepherd and follow him.” The saint emphasizes the qualities of a good shepherd: “he must preach, teach spiritual wisdom,” “he must serve as an example for the sheep, and not the sheep for him.” The shepherd needs to follow the path of spiritual and moral improvement and, through his life example, teach others, “to be not only reasonable, skillful and teaching in the Divine Scripture, but virtuous and holy in life, for it is appropriate to teach the verbal sheep not only with words, but also with the image of a good life in God.” And if the shepherd’s deeds and life do not diverge from his words, then his teaching and labors will be successful and bear worthy fruits. I would like to draw attention to how the saint teaches shepherds to love God: “When God said that shepherds would be after His own heart, He also indicated that they would love him with all their hearts, keeping His commandments. And if such were the shepherds in the Old Testament, then, even more so, now in the new grace shepherds must be after God’s heart, keeping the commandments out of heartfelt love for Him.” Love must occupy a central place in pastoral ministry. As the highest manifestation of the pastoral spirit, it is expressed in sacrificial love for neighbors, because without the latter there can be no true love for God. The saint repeatedly warns against temptations on the path of pastoral service, saying that he who has taken the good yoke of Christ must devote all his strength, all his thoughts to this great work. Like an angel standing before the throne of God in unceasing praise and prayer, the shepherd must perform his service with great attention and with all reverence, firmly remembering that God invisibly receives every word from his mouth, like some valuable beads. In pastoral service, constant vigilance, constant strengthening of one’s inner spiritual strength, and readiness to protect the flock from attacking “wolves” are also necessary. Pastoral activity is the totality of everything that is done for the eternal salvation of the flock, this is the provision of all saving means to them: the Sacraments, worship, preaching, counseling, attracting to God with a living word and an example of an exalted and worthy Christian life. Saint Demetrius devotes a significant place in his writings to pastoral counseling, i.e. guiding a person’s spiritual life and helping him in his fight against sin and evil. The saint draws attention to repentance as the greatest work of salvation, the beginning of all types of Christian achievement. In his opinion, repentance is the door to resurrection, “for when a person sins, he dies in soul, and when he repents, he is resurrected.” Most of the sermons of the Rostov saint are a continuous call to repentance in the deepest sense of the word, i.e. to rebirth, a complete revaluation of life values, to a new vision and understanding of all life in the light of the commandments of Christ. To receive forgiveness of sins, you need regret, contrition for them, consciousness of your guilt and your unworthiness before God. The main fruit of repentance is the correction of one’s life, reconciliation with everyone and hope in God’s mercy. A person who performs a real feat of repentance becomes an heir to eternal life, receives a reward and is awarded the crown of holiness. On the path of holiness, the saving virtue of a Christian is the fear of God, which awakens and strengthens in the human heart from the knowledge of the truth of God and spiritual laws, from reflection on the destinies of mankind and the posthumous fate of the righteous and sinners. A person who has thought about all this at least once in his life and has begun to realize that life as a whole can be given only to God has already taken the path of repentance, and this consciousness, in itself, carries the power of renewal, conversion, and the return of the lost paradise. Due to sinfulness, human spiritual nature is upset, and its spiritual powers are weakened to the point that a person cannot control himself and his feelings, often following sinful habits. The saint teaches that the most powerful and effective means for liberation from sin and returning a person to the true path is the fear of God, which “one must... obey and obey as God’s builder.” In the process of spiritual and moral rebirth of a person, fasting and prayer are also important. Fasting, according to St. Demetrius, must be accompanied not only by physical abstinence, but also by spiritual abstinence, consisting of removing oneself from all evil and mortifying passions in order to create favorable conditions for the planting and growth of high spiritual qualities. Prayer is evidence of God’s great mercy and love for humanity, for the Lord has endowed intelligent creatures with the ability to turn in prayer to their Creator. It is an urgent necessity in a person’s spiritual life, an expression of faith and hope in God, evidence of a Christian’s striving for perfection and holiness, and an indicator of his spiritual and moral state. Great is the power of prayer. “Prayer,” says the saint, “not only defeats the laws of nature, but even restrains the hand of the omnipotent God Himself, raised to defeat sinners.” Let us at least remember the Savior’s answer to a Canaanite woman who begged Him for the healing of her sick daughter: “Oh, woman! Great is your faith; let it be done to you according to your desire” (Matthew 15:21–28). Therefore, the power of prayer depends on the faith of the person asking. Therefore, a Christian must with great diligence and zeal ask with faith, seek with hope, knock with love. “And you all ask by prayer, seek by good conduct and knock with great diligence,” the saint teaches. Showing concern for his flock, Saint Demetrius left behind a memory as a gifted preacher and teacher who worked zealously in the field of education throughout his life. His edifying sermons, containing both moral and dogmatic truths, are relevant for any time, for they are aimed at lifting up the Christian’s grief and preparing him for eternal life. In every word of the saint one can feel the pastoral love for his flock and for God. As a teacher, he cared about the education of not only the upper classes of society, but also the lower ones, and for this purpose he established a public school, thereby giving the opportunity to study to everyone who strived for knowledge. And the last thing I would like to draw attention to when talking about the pastoral activity of St. Demetrius is his painstaking work in compiling the “Lives of the Saints,” which were composed on the basis of Greek rhetorically developed hagiography (in particular, Symeon Metaphrastus) and raised Russian hagiographic literature to a new stage of development. Over the centuries of its existence, Russian hagiography has known different forms and styles. And if the lives of the holy saints of God, compiled in the pre-Mongol period, were brief, insufficient from a rhetorical and factual point of view, representing, rather, only a outline for future legends, then the Lives of Demetrius of Rostov were written in artistic form using rhetorical techniques and contain rich factual material. And today, reading “The Lives of the Saints” by Demetrius of Rostov, no one can remain indifferent and not fall in love with this truly greatest pearl in the boundless sea of ​​Christian literature. After all, here a pious layman will find the necessary advice and teachings, a priest - abundant material for preaching and spiritual guidance of his flock, a scientist - theologian - important historical and dogmatic information. Saint Demetrius is an exceptional and extraordinary phenomenon: he embodied devotion to Orthodoxy and the simplicity of a child’s faith, great teaching talent and truly apostolic non-covetousness. He was a conscious unmercenary who gave all his modest means to the poor - a beggar metropolitan. Here it would be appropriate to quote a few words from the will of the saint, in which he asks not to look for the property left after him, for “from my youth until approaching the tomb, (I) did not acquire property or wealth...” However, he left behind immeasurably more than material wealth, a priceless treasure - a huge spiritual heritage, showing pastors and Christians of all generations a worthy example to follow. In this world the saint was a guest. Studying his life, we begin to understand what great suffering was caused to the Rostov archpastor by immersion in the world, and we are imbued with great love for this humble worker, because, burdened by the world, he so easily bore the yoke of his archpastoral service. An unchanging champion of Orthodoxy and preacher of the dogmatic teaching of the Orthodox Church, Saint Demetrius of Rostov always firmly adhered to the tradition of the holy fathers and teachers of the Church. Their sayings acquired exceptional power in his mouth, since they were deeply felt by the hierarch in his personal spiritual and ascetic experience. For modern shepherding, what is important, first of all, is the example of the personality of the saint - an inspired shepherd - a preacher and a demanding administrator, a scholar-theologian and spiritual poet, a fatherly caring teacher of youth and a zealous apologist for the Orthodox faith. The saint did not teach his flock anything new and unusual, but only conveyed, based on his own spiritual experience, the teaching of the holy fathers. Thus, he cultivated in his spiritual children inner conviction and confidence in the real possibility of overcoming evil and taming passions, which made everyone morally purer and kinder, turned them away from slavery to sin and captivated them into obedience to Christ. Truly, “to those who love God... all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28), and the example of the Rostov saint shows that impartiality and uncompromisingness in matters of spiritual life only strengthen the authority of the shepherd, and not only among his contemporaries, but leave a good memory of him for centuries. Likewise, Saint Demetrius of Rostov was not only a worthy example to follow in his time, but also became a bright lamp of spiritual activity and a teacher of piety for us, his descendants. The defense of the dissertation took place at the Kyiv Theological Academy on March 26, 1998. By vote and resolution of the Academic Council of the Academy, approved by His Beatitude Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, Bishop Anthony was awarded the academic degree of candidate of theology.