13-е

Renovation of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem Equal to the Apostles Tsar Constantine the Great, reverent for Christ the Savior and wishing to make the most sacred place of His saving resurrection a glorious monument of universal Christian worship, built in Jerusalem, where our salvation, sealed by the resurrection of Christ, took place, a church in honor of this great event, marking the Savior’s victory over death. This New Testament Temple of Jerusalem, as well as Jerusalem itself, was solemnly renewed and consecrated in 335 by the fathers of the 1st Council of Tire, who, at the end of the council, were invited by Emperor Constantine to Jerusalem to celebrate the consecration of the New Testament Church. On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the reign of Constantine, the consecration took place with special triumph and joy on September 13, at the time when the ancient temple of Jerusalem, desecrated by Antiochus, was consecrated. Those who were present at the consecration of St. In memory of this, the fathers established an annual Christian holiday on September 13, according to the pious desire of the emperor. “From that time on, the Jerusalem Church,” says Sozomen, celebrates this holiday every year and very solemnly, so that then even the sacrament of baptism is taught, and church meetings, like the Old Testament feast of the consecration of the church, last eight days. On the occasion of this celebration, to Jerusalem to visit St. Many places flock, almost from all over the sunflower industry.” In the 5th century, Anatoly of Constantinople, in the 8th century, John of Damascus, betrayed to the Church many of the sacred hymns now sung on the day of renovation of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. On this day, the Orthodox Church prays to the Lord that He, having shown both the splendor of the upper firmament and the lower beauty of the holy village of His glory, would establish this village in the age of the century,” and with the renovation of the church would grant “renewal of the spirit in the hearts and conduct of the inner.” Hieromartyr Cornelius the Centurion In the miraculous conversion of Cornelius, a pagan, to the faith of Christ, the beginning of the fulfillment of the Divine prediction about the worldwide conversion of pagans to the faith of Christ was laid: “I tell you that many will come from the East and West and will lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven...” (Matthew 8:11), and the will of God was expressed to accept pagans into the Church of God, contrary to belief The Jews, who considered themselves the only people chosen to participate in the Kingdom of the Messiah, a conviction to which the closest disciples of Jesus Christ had been involved until then. St. tells about this event. Evangelist Luke (in the tenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles): “In Caesarea (Palestine) there was a certain man named Cornelius, a centurion from a regiment called Italian, pious and fearing God with all his household, who did much alms to the people and always prayed to God.” Such and such a pagan, close to Christianity in his life, although he did not know Christ, could be chosen to visually testify to the words of Jesus Christ. In a vision, he clearly saw at about the ninth hour of the day an Angel of God who came to him and said to him: Cornelius! Cornelius, looking at him and being frightened, said: What, Lord? The angel answered him: “Your prayers and your alms have come as a memorial before the Lord. So send people to Joppa and call Simon, who is called Peter. He is visiting a certain Simon, a tanner, whose house is located by the sea. He will tell you words by which you and your whole house will be saved.” When the angel who spoke with Cornelius departed, he called two of his servants and a pious warrior from those who were with him and, having told them everything, sent them to Joppa. The next day, as they walked and approached the city, Peter, at about the sixth hour, went up to the top of the house to pray. And he felt hungry and wanted to eat. While they were preparing, he went into a frenzy and saw the sky opened and a certain vessel descending towards it, like a large canvas, tied at the four corners and lowered to the ground. In it were all four-legged creatures of the earth, animals, reptiles and birds of the air. - And a voice came to him: Arise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said: No, Lord, I have never eaten anything bad or unclean. “Then another time a voice came to him: what God has cleansed, do not consider unclean.” This happened three times, and the vessel again rose to heaven. When Peter wondered within himself what the vision he saw meant, behold, the men sent by Cornelius, having inquired about Simon's house, stopped at the gate and, shouting, asked: Is Simon, who is called Peter, here? While Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him: Behold, three men are looking for you: get up, get down and go with them, not doubting in the least, for I have sent them. Peter, going down to the people sent to him from Cornelius, said: I am the one you are looking for, what business have you come for? They said: Cornelius the centurion, a virtuous man who fears the Lord, approved by all the Jewish people, received a command from the holy angel to call you to his house and listen to your speeches. “Then Peter invited them and gave them a treat, and the next day he got up and went with them, and some of the brethren of Joppa went with him. The next day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them, having called his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered, Cornelius met him and bowed down at his feet. Peter lifted him up, saying: Arise, I too am a man. And, talking with him, he entered the house and found many gathered. And he said to them: you know that it is forbidden for a Jew to communicate or become close to a foreigner; but God revealed to me that I should not consider any person base or unclean. Therefore, when I was called, I came without question. So I ask: for what work have you called me? Cornelius said: On the fourth day I fasted until the present hour, and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in light clothes and said: Cornelius! Your prayer is heard and your alms are remembered before God. So, go to Joppa and call Simon, who is called Peter; he is visiting the house of the tanner Simon by the sea; he will come and tell you. I immediately sent an envoy to you, and you did well to come. Now we all stand before God to listen to everything that God has commanded you. Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him! - and began to preach about Christ to the house of Cornelius. Before the Apostle Peter had time to finish his sermon, the Holy Spirit descended on those listening. And the believers from the circumcision who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out also on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and magnifying God. Then Peter said: Who can forbid those who, like us, have received the Holy Spirit, to be baptized with water? And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. When Peter returned to Jerusalem, the Jewish believers reproached him because he went to the uncircumcised and ate with them. He recounted to them in order everything that had happened, and then they calmed down and glorified God, saying: “It is clear that God has given repentance to the pagans as a result of life...” Subsequently, Cornelius was appointed bishop of Caesarea in Palestine by the Apostle Peter and worked hard preaching Christ to the pagans. In Skepsia, a city in Asia Minor, he suffered for confessing Christ to the pagans. He died peacefully and was buried in Skepsia. After almost 400 years, when the place of his burial was forgotten, St. Cornelius himself discovered it, appearing in a night vision to the Troasian bishop Silouan, who was in Scepsia (subordinate to Troas in the 5th century in church administration); - as a result of which a church was erected in honor of St. Cornelius, through the zeal of the bishop and the support of one rich citizen, where the uncovered relics of St. Cornelia, as the legend says, spontaneously took a place on the right side near the altar during the consecration of the church during the singing of the Trisagion. 126 Holy Great Martyr Queen Ketevani Glory and adornment of her country, blessed Ketevan, daughter of the sovereign prince Bagration of Mukhrani and great-granddaughter of the Kartali king Constantine III, was prepared from childhood by the Christian education she received from pious parents for the high exploits that marked her life, crowned by martyrdom for the faith of Christ. After a short-term marriage with David of Kakheti (also from the Bagratid family), who died after a six-month reign over Kakheti, Ketevan, left a widow and completely alone, since she, due to vague circumstances of the time, sent her young son Teimuraz as a hostage to the court of the Persian Shah Abbas I, settled in one secluded place and spent time in godly studies and reading scripture. At this time, she suffered a new ordeal: Constantine, her husband’s younger brother, who was also a hostage of the Persian Shah, surrendered to him to such an extent that even, having renounced the faith of Christ according to the teachings of the Shah, who wanted to make him an instrument for subjugating the Kakheti kingdom, he insidiously killed his elderly father and brother - in order to remain the only heir to the kingdom, and, having ascended the throne, demanded from Ketevan, so that she would become his wife. Having conveyed through the ambassadors of Constantine a decisive refusal to his proposal, Ketevan turned to the noble Kakhetians, asking for their protection against the violence of Constantine, warning them about the danger that this murderer threatens the entire reigning house and all the inhabitants whom he intends to convert to Mohammedanism, and said at the same time that if they do not help her defend herself from the lawless demands of Constantine, then she will leave Kakheti and return to her family. Hearing this from Ketevan, in whose person the people honored the wise assistant of their husband in ruling the country, since, even in the short time of his reign, she managed to do a lot for the well-being of Kakheti, pacified the nobility, put upset affairs in order, brought peace and prosperity to the Church, built several churches, hospitals, shelters for the poor and orphans, protected the kingdom even from external enemies - the highest representatives of the Kakheti people promised her protection and actually came out with their soldiers against Constantine and killed him, but the Persian army, which Constantine called to fight the Christian Georgians, was all exterminated. Then Ketevan decided to take over the kingdom again and settled in the city of Gremi - the ancient capital of Kakheti, located at the foot of the mountains separating Kakheti from Dagestan. 127 Soon, however, Ketevan, whose thoughts had long been focused on serving God alone, felt unable to be at the head of the kingdom, especially in such a difficult state of affairs as it was at that time; not having anyone to transfer control to, since from the entire royal house there was no one left alive except her son, the youth Teimuraz, who was a hostage at the Persian court, she decided to arrange his return and, having sent an honorary embassy with rich gifts to Shah Abbas 1st, wrote to him that if he did not return her son Teimuraz to her, then Kakheti would be separated from his dependence. Fearing that Kakheti would not join Turkey or Russia, Shah Abbas allowed Teimuraz to return to his kingdom. – Great was the joy of Queen Ketevani when she met her son. She was especially consoled by the fact that, despite his long stay at the Persian court, he had not lost the faith of his fathers. Soon after his arrival, she handed over to him, as the rightful heir, control of the entire country, but she herself calmed down in solitude, now distractedly indulging in the main concern of preparing for eternal life. But Ketevani’s joy at the occasion of uniting with her son was short-lived, and her peace at the opportunity to live as she liked was short-lived. Shah Abbas did not abandon the thought of subjugating Kakheti to him and, in an insidious way, looking for a plausible pretext, threatened to attack the kingdom of Teimuraz. The frightened Kakhetians then turned to their king and asked him to send his mother and his son Alexander to the Shah, so that the wise Ketevan “tamed the anger of the Shah with her request and begged him to abandon his idea of ​​​​destroying them.” With tears, Teimuraz conveyed to his mother the request of his nobles and people. Not foreseeing any benefit from the fulfillment of this desire, the experienced queen answered her son: “You know, my child, that many times I took upon myself the plight of Kakheti and did not spare myself for the country, but it will be useless to undertake a journey to the Shah, because no prayers will stop his decision to devastate our country...” Despite these words of Ketevani, the people did not stop begging her to go to the Shah for the sake of saving the country and, always ready To sacrifice herself, she decided to fulfill the common desire and at the end of 1615 she went to the Shah, taking with her her youngest grandson, Tsarevich Alexander. The treacherous Abbas received them kindly, but demanded that Teimuraz send his eldest son Leon to him, promising to raise both children as befits their high family... In vain Ketevan warned her son not to fulfill this demand of the Shah; Forced by the people, who saw his death in refusing to yield to the wishes of the Shah, Teimuraz sent his eldest son Leon to the Shah. Despite this, he soon became convinced that his mother’s warnings were not in vain and that no sacrifices could avert the disasters that Abbas was preparing for him. Soon all these disasters struck Kakheti. “The Shah moved against it with a huge army,” writes Arakil, an Armenian historian, “and after the invasion of the Persians, terrible disasters befell Iberia: the corruption of virginity, the death of elders who could not be resettled in Persia, the death of militant youth who refused to be resettled from their fatherland among the prisoners, the death of priests and deacons, and even bishops and monastic ranks of both sexes and their taking into captivity, the killing of minors, the ripping up of holy graves and the burning of holy churches and the rich city of Gremi and all the cities and villages of Kakheti.” 128 King Teimuraz found refuge at this time with King George of Imereti. Meanwhile, his sons Leon and Alexander, together with their grandmother, Queen Ketevan, were languishing in prison in Shiraz at that time, by order of the fierce Abbas. Both princes were mutilated, the eldest of them, unable to overcome the test, died. With Christian humility, blessed Ketevan endured the difficult trials that befell her, and with all her feelings and thoughts she was more and more transferred to another world; the prison in which she was kept for ten years became for her a place of highest spiritual exploits, with which she prepared for the transition to eternal life. With incessant prayers and night vigils, she quenched her soul, detached from all earthly hopes. Her only consolation was the opportunity to build a small church in her dungeon, in which her confessor celebrated the liturgy every day. Finally, the last and highest test came for Queen Ketevan: the Shah had long insisted that she renounce the faith of Christ, pleasing her with all sorts of brilliant promises, and sent him to finally declare his will to her, so that she would either renounce the Christian faith, or prepare to accept cruel torture and death. The prepared servant of Christ was not embarrassed by the words of the messenger from the Shah: “Tell the one who sent you,” she answered him, “that neither death, nor life, nor anything can separate me from Christ my God, and it is impossible for me to leave my Orthodox faith, for which I am ready to sacrifice myself,” and in silence, having listened to the further convictions of the mayor, she asked him to leave her alone for a while, while she herself, having retired to her prison church , poured out before God in a fiery prayer to forgive her, strengthen her, to be an assistant to her son Teimuraz and “always gave heartfelt consolation to those who commemorate her...” Then, having received the Mysteries of the Saints and making the sign of the cross, she went out to her tormentors and told them: “Do what you plan, I am ready for all the torments.” And then the terrible torture of the martyr queen began, the mere sight of which was difficult to bear, so that the mayor himself, amazed to the point of tears, hastened to leave. The queen’s servants wavered in their souls and begged her to spare her life... The priest himself, Ketevan’s confessor, was embarrassed at the sight of torture with red-hot instruments, and when he was brought to the square where the fire was burning for Christ’s confessors, he was ready to give in to the insistence of the Persians... - Why are you embarrassed, Imeretin? - Ketevan, unshakable in her firmness, loudly and commandingly addressed him, - the time has come to testify to the name of Christ! Did any of those who renounced Christ remain to live forever on earth? Isn’t it better to hurry to leave this world to where there is eternal peace and eternal joy?... Let us partake of the sufferings of Christ in order to partake of His resurrection! These words of the martyr of Christ instantly, like fire, burned cowardice in hearts ready to deviate from holy beliefs, and everyone rose up as confessors of the truth and firmly accepted martyrdom. Ketevani’s torture continued, her whole body was torn to pieces, blood flowed in abundance from the wounds, these wounds were burned with a red-hot chain and her head was covered with a red-hot cauldron, after which she died, until the last minute, in a barely audible voice calling on the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It was September 13, 1624. Latin missionaries secretly took the body of St. Great Martyr and, after the death of the Shah, brought part of the saint. her relics in the city of Tifliss, where with triumph and indescribable joy her remains were received by all the people and laid in the cathedral of the great martyr. George, called Alaverdi, under the throne - into a new establishment of the Church and the Georgian people. The life of Queen Ketevani was described by an eyewitness to her suffering, and after him by others, including - in poetry - by her gifted son Teimuraz I. “Monthly. East." archim. Sergius, vol. II, part 2, p. 284. The ruins of Gremi, of whose ancient monuments only the Church of St. Archangels, are located in Telavi district (see geogr. Georgia and Vakhushta, p. 316). “Lifeop. Holy Cargo. Churches”, Sabinina, part II, p. 14.