25-го числа

St. Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop. of Constantinople Gregory himself tells us the news about his life in his writings. This ecumenical teacher and saint is a friend, peer and associate of St. Basil the Great, was born from noble, not poor and pious Christian parents - Gregory, who was the bishop of Nazianza, and Nonna, in Arianza - the city of Cappadocia, around 328. Pious Nonna, in her prayers, asked God to give her a son and promised to dedicate him to special service to the Lord, like the new Samuel. In the dream, the image and name of her future son Gregory were revealed to her. At birth, the blessed son received an excellent mind, a disposition to science and solitude, ripened under the influence of a pious mother, who, while engaged in his initial upbringing, repeatedly inspired the boy that he was the fruit of her prayers and vows. The good son composed in his heart the words of his mother, who, in time, hugging him and handing him the sacred books, said: “I, as I promised, offer you to God; fulfill my wish. You were born to me through my prayers, and now I pray for you to be perfect. I entrust to you, my son, this precious treasure; possess it throughout your entire life; and in the future you will receive even better benefits.” The son fulfilled his mother's will. “I was not captivated,” he says, “by the beautiful waves of silk clothes; I did not like long meals, I did not like to satiate my belly - this destructive mother of carnivory; did not like to live in huge and magnificent chambers; I did not relax my heart with musical sounds that gently shook the ears; I was not intoxicated by the luxurious evaporation of fragrant ointments. I provided silver and gold to others. For me, a piece of bread is pleasant; My sweet seasoning is salt, and my sober drink is water. My best wealth is Christ, Who continually lifts my mind to grief. I do not need honor, which passes faster than a spilling breath, and glory that soon perishes; It is not important for me to have power in cities or among citizens, to amuse myself with false dreams that one after another come and disappear. But Christ has made me worthy of preferential glory. First he gave me as a gift to his mother, who prayed from the depths of her heart, and he himself accepted me as a gift from his parents. And then with night visions he instilled in me a love for a chaste life.” With such an inclination of heart, St. Gregory, after home parental Christian instructions, studied science in Caesarea Cappadocia, studied in the anciently prosperous Caesarea of ​​Palestine, then in Alexandria and, finally, in Athens, where, sailing by ship in the month of November, he was extremely frightened by a sea storm, because he was afraid to die without baptism. “For twenty days and nights,” says Gregory, “I lay on the stern of the ship, praying to the merciful God for salvation, and in this danger I made a vow to devote myself to God, and by vow I was saved.” Gregory studied science diligently and for a long time. In Athens he became completely acquainted and became lifelong friends with Basil the Great; I personally recognized Julian, who surveyed Greece and its schools, and during meetings with whom he said: “what evil the Roman Empire harbors.” At the end of his studies around 358, as being distinguished by his knowledge and good behavior, Gregory, at the urgent requests of the Athenians, remained with them for a short time as a teacher of eloquence, in the hope of soon uniting with his only friend, Basil. The sciences, to which he devoted most of his life, showed him all the vanity of idolatry, confirmed him in the Christian faith and even more strongly disposed him to pious solitude. “All knowledge,” says Gregory, “having cast down, I laid at the feet of Christ, so that they yielded to the word of the great God, which overshadows every convolution and varied word of the human mind.” Gregory secretly left Athens, returned to his parents about 30 years old and, having received St. baptism, decided to retire into the silent desert. Only the intense requests of his fellow citizens, who hoped to have him as a teacher of eloquence, and even more his love for his elderly parents, for whom he wanted to be a comforter and helper, distracted him for a time from fulfilling his pious intention. Living in his parents' house, he completely devoted himself to the labors and hardships of an ascetic life; His food was black bread with salt, his drink was water, his bed was bare earth, his clothes were rough; His constant occupation was exercise in the word of God. “I confess,” Gregory wrote to Vasily in the desert, I did not keep my word, “to unite my life with yours, at the school of new philosophy, I did not keep the promise made back in Athens, where friendship, if my expression is sufficient, merged our souls into one. So I did not fulfill my promise, but not of my own free will. One duty imposes silence on another; the law of friendship must give way to the law of filial love.” However, life with his parents, which entrusted Gregory with the responsibilities of master and lord of the house, managing the household, which, says St. Gregory, they always harbor hatred for obstinate masters, they have no respect for the meek, they are not condescending towards the evil, and they are not submissive to the good, they breathe unreasonable anger at both of them, and on top of that, their concern for property, which forced Gregory to pay taxes, endure strong threats from the tax collector; spending time among the excitement of a large crowd, in front of high seats from which human disputes are decided, listening to the loud objections of the enemy or enduring sorrows in tangled networks, remarks, the advantages of the evil over the good, the extortion of the guardians of justice, which can be bought by either side; it is impossible with such people, without God’s help, to avoid extortion, lies and intricacies: all this showed Gregory in full light the vicissitudes and futility of earthly things and forever distracted his high spirit from earth to heaven. After various displeasures in the society of St. Gregory arrived in the desert to St. Vasily and delved into the saving contemplation of heavenly objects. In the desert, Vasily and Gregory prayed, studied and worked together. The time spent here was so pleasant for Gregory that even afterward, with the greatest pleasure, he recalled his stay in the desert with Vasily. “From then on,” he says, “I died to the world, and the world to me. Oh, that in the early days of my life I had hidden myself in the abysses of the earth, or in dens, or in the mountains! Free from all the vain worries of everyday life, I would forever devote myself to the one Christ and, away from the noise of people, with a pure mind I would ascend to God, until, finally, death would open the door of heaven to my hope.” But two monk friends, called by the needs of the Church, outraged by false teachers, again separated for the good of the Church. Summoned by his elderly father and the inhabitants of Nazianz, Gregory returned to Nazianz. The father convinced and forced Gregory to accept the rank of presbyter (about 361), to which he agreed with extreme reluctance, both due to the importance of the rank, which requires high holiness and ability, and due to the difficult circumstances of the time, in which false teachers constantly disturbed the Church. In the rank of presbyter St. Gregory was engaged in instructing the catechumens and preaching the word. Weighed down by his election, Gregory soon retired to the Vasiliev desert. But consumed by love for his elderly father and his faithful people, embarrassed by the example of the prophet Jonah and fearing to become an enemy of God, he returns to the Easter holiday in Nazians around 362. On the day of this holiday, St. Gregory said in the church: “I was returned to you, firstly, by my commitment to you and the feeling of your mutual commitment to me: secondly, by my own care, my own business, by the gray hair and infirmity of my parents, who are sick more about me than about their years, - this Abraham the patriarch - a precious and equal-angelic head for me, and Sarah, who spiritually gives birth to us with the teaching of faith. For them, to be a rod in old age, a support in weakness, was the first vow I made, which I fulfilled as much as possible, so I decided to leave behind wisdom itself - this is the acquisition and name of everything that is most precious to me. These are the reasons by which I was defeated and became compliant.” Having come from the desert to the aid of the Church of Nazianza, Gregory stood vigilantly on guard for its peace. One of his main merits was the reconciliation of his father, the bishop, with the monks who separated from communion with him because, in his simplicity, he signed an ambiguous statement of faith. With his preaching, dissolved in the spirit of meekness and accompanied by unceasing prayers, St. Gregory managed to reconcile the Nazianzian flock with its bishop. Gregory's joy at the unification of the church was indescribable, and he publicly expressed his gratitude to the Lord. In 363, Julian, the persecutor of the Church, fell; with the general joy of Christians, Gregory in 363 depicted all the properties and actions of Julian in a nutshell on him on his own and Vasily’s behalf. Gregory also took an active part in the Church of Caesarea and with his participation managed to reconcile Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, with Basil, and thereby protected it from the attack of the Arians. In 370 St. Gregory mourned in his funeral words the death of his brother Caesarea, who shone at the royal court like the morning star and shared family concerns with Gregory, and the death of his sister Gorgon in the same year. In 371 St. Gregory, contrary to his expectations, was elected to the degree of bishop of St. Basil the Great, in agreement with Gregory's parent, on the newly discovered St. Basil in Cappadocia, the See of Sasim, the opening of which by St. Basil the Great wanted to protect the Cappadocia Church from divisions. But Bishop Anthimus, in whose district the Sasim See was located due to the new division of the Cappadocia Church, did not allow St. Gregory in Sasim. Gregory left Nazians and in 373 withdrew to one mountain and there he ministered to the sick and edified them with teachings. And this is what, by the way, Gregory wrote to justify his secret removal from the bishopric: “I was extremely,” he says, “I was struck by the suddenness, like a man struck by sudden thunder; I couldn’t gather my thoughts, and therefore violated the modesty to which I had taught myself all my life. Then an attachment to the blessings of silence and solitude took possession of me. Loving solitude from the very beginning, as hardly anyone who studies science loves, and having taken a vow of a silent life, I could not bear the coercion, did not allow myself to be plunged into unrest and forcibly distracted from such a life, as if from a sacred refuge. It seemed to me that the best thing to do is to close off the senses, renounce the flesh and the world, gather within oneself, without extreme need not touching anything human, conversing with oneself and with God, to live above the visible and to carry within oneself Divine images, always pure and not mixed with earthly and deceptive impressions, to be and continually become a truly pure mirror of God and the Divine, to acquire light to the light, to the less clear most radiant, with the hope of reaping the benefits of the next century, living in unity with the Angels and, while still on earth, leaving the earth and being lifted up by the Spirit. If any of you are embraced by such love, he will understand what I am saying and will forgive the then state of my spirit.” At the request of his elderly parent, Gregory returned to Nazians again and became his father’s assistant in the affairs of the bishopric of Nazians and St. Basil the Great; He was a feeder of the poor, a minister of the sick, a reposer of the strange, a comforter of the needy, and a protector of the unfortunate. After the death of his father, in 374, asked by the bishops, Gregory remained the guardian of the Church of Nazianza, only for a short time. Constantly harassed by ill-wishers and seeking solitude, St. Gregory retired from Nazianza to Seleucia, to the monastery of St. Thekla. Here he received news of the death of the universal lamp - St. Basil the Great, during whose burial St. Gregory could not be there due to his illness, but whom he later honored with his funeral oration. In 379, the Orthodox Church, encouraged by the death of Valens, the patron of the Arians, and embarrassed by the newly emerged false teaching of Macedon, called Gregory to Constantinople to defend the oppressed Orthodoxy. Of all the Churches of the East, Constantinople was especially enslaved by false teachers. In addition to the Arians, many other heresies appeared in it, and the Orthodox, of whom there were many, lived without a shepherd or a church. Evagrius, an Orthodox bishop, was expelled from Constantinople by Valens. The Arians took over all the churches. Nobody more than St. Gregory was not able to restore the Church of Constantinople. He was a most pious man and his piety surpassed all his contemporaries. His virtues, teaching, and eloquence gained him great respect. Moreover, he was a bishop without a church; He was not in charge of either Sasima, for which he was ordained, or Nazians, for which he served in the absence of his own bishop and from which he had retired for about 10 years. The Orthodox laity of Constantinople and the bishops called on him to take care of the abandoned Church. He yielded to general ideas, considering it the best virtue to devote the rest of his strength and life to the benefit of the Church. Gregory's appearance was unattractive. His figure was bent from old age, his head was devoid of hair, his face was withered in his tears and exploits. He was poor, poorly dressed, and his speech seemed somewhat rude to the residents of the capital. He came from a distant country, and the place of his birth was hardly known. At first he was very poorly received in Constantinople; the Arians could not imagine that he had come to combat their heresy, which had long been triumphant in the capital. St. Gregory opened his meetings in the small house of his relatives, who showed him hospitality. “This house was subsequently joined by an extensive church, which was confessed by the confessors of the consubstantial Trinity, of one mind with St. Gregory and Christians who believed like him were converted to the church. Between the city churches it became famous, and now, historians said in the 5th century, it is famous not only for the beauty and grandeur of the buildings, but also for the beneficence of the amazing Epiphanies; for here the Divine power appears, often giving help to the sick and those in misfortune. They believe that this is the help of the Mother of God. And they call that church the Resurrection (Αναστασία), because the teaching of the Council of Nicaea, due to the strengthening of heretics, had already fallen in Constantinople and, so to speak, died, was revived again by the action of Gregory’s sermon. It was also said as an undoubted truth that during a church meeting here, a pregnant woman fell from the upper gallery and died. But when everyone offered a common prayer for her, she came to life and was saved along with her child. On the occasion of such and such a miracle revealed by God here, this church received its name from that time.” St. Gregory soon became a surprise to everyone in Constantinople - with his deep knowledge of scripture, his correct and authoritative judgment, his fruitful and brilliant imagination, his extraordinary ease of explanation, his precise and concise speech. The sermons he preached in the Church of Anastasia attracted numerous listeners to him, not only Orthodox, but also Christians of different minds and even pagans. The listeners worried around his pulpit, like a stormy sea, loudly expressed signs of approval with applause and exclamations and wrote down his words. For his high theological teaching about the Holy Trinity, which Christians were deprived of for so long, and in contrast to other Gregory, Saint of Nazianza was called the Theologian, like the most ancient Theologian, St. Evangelist John. St. Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov, depicting the power of the word of St. Gregory, in the fight against the Arians and other false teachers, says: “having shone through a strong struggle against the heretics, he was known by everyone, and his wisdom was glorified everywhere, and he was nicknamed by all the saints. Right The Church the Theologian, as a sign of his triumph and victory over the numerous heretics: and from then on everyone began to call him the Theologian.” Edifying the Orthodox and subduing those who differ with the power of his word, St. Gregory edified and admonished them with the holiness of his life and his patience. His life was so moderate that he did not in the least burden his masters; his food was plants. He rarely left his house; he was not seen either in public or in the more pleasant places of the great city. He did not make visits, but spent time at home, thinking and talking with God. And this simplicity and purity of behavior and philosophy attracted the love of the people to Gregory. Concerned about the restoration of justice and improvement between the Orthodox, shocked by the false teachers, the saint strongly argued against them and made them his personal enemies. They persecuted him with ridicule, slander, encroached on his life, broke into his small church, armed with sticks and stones, dragged him before the court as a troublemaker, and threw stones at him. Gregory responded to all insults with silence and patience in the name of Jesus Christ. The saint could have hoped for outside help, but with his great patience he did not enter into competition with heretics about alienating their churches and church property, which they forcibly took possession of to the detriment of the Orthodox. Meletius of Antioch and many other bishops provided St. Gregory's primacy in the Church of Constantinople, in accordance with the wishes of the pious Emperor Theodosius. The Orthodox Emperor, having learned that all the churches up to Macedonia honor God the Word and the Holy Spirit on an equal basis with the Father, and that the regions to the east are agitated, so that the people are divided into various heresies, and especially in Constantinople, declared that the Church of only those Christians who recognize the Holy Trinity as equal in honor should be called catholic, and that those who think otherwise should bear the name of heretics. St. Gregory, hearing that some were grumbling at him as a foreigner, began to refuse to stay in Constantinople. The pious Theodosius, anxious to restore peace, establish unanimity and spread the Orthodox Church, declared to the head of Arianism, Demophilus, Bishop of Constantinople, that he should accept the teaching of the Council of Nicaea, unite the people and establish peace: otherwise he must withdraw from places of prayer. Thus, the Arians, who owned houses of worship for about 40 years, abandoning peace and unanimity with King Theodosius, retired outside the city in 380, and began to hold their meetings there. Emperor, grateful to St. Gregory for his successful works for the benefit of Orthodoxy, decided to entrust to his management the Great or Main Church of Constantinople. On this occasion, many Arians gathered in the capital; all the streets were filled with them. Only the emperor, by his presence, restrained the rage of the heretics against St. Gregory, who answered them with only sighs and tears. The Emperor and Gregory, surrounded by the clergy, solemnly entered the church. Everyone unanimously shouted before the emperor and expressed a desire to see Gregory at the primate see of Constantinople. The pious Theodosius, wanting to establish peace in the Church and knowing about his holy life and the high virtues of his mind, willingly agreed to his election as hierarch of Constantinople. But St. Gregory accepted the election only in the hope that in this see God would help him unite the east and west, which had long been divided over the Antiochian schism. The Holy Fathers of the Second Ecumenical Council, under the chairmanship of Meletius of Antioch, before the arrival of the bishops of Egypt and Macedon at the Council, approved St. Gregory in 381 as Archbishop of Constantinople. Present at this Council, St. Gregory cut off the Doukhobor Macedonian from communion with the Church and blotted out his name from the sacred diptychs, as well as the names of other false teachers. It is believed that St. took a close part in the composition of the Creed, from the eighth member to the end. Gregory the Theologian. Meanwhile, regarding the elevation of Gregory to the see of Constantinople, dissatisfaction arose on the part of the bishops, especially Egyptian and Macedonian, who said that the bishop of Constantinople should be appointed by Alexandria, and not Antioch. St. Gregory repeatedly said in his justification: “I came not of my own free will, not of my own call, as many now intrude into the chair, but called, forced and submissive to fear and the Spirit. The people, seething with jealousy and anger, despite my cry and tears, elevated me to this throne.” When the disagreement between the bishops did not cease, Gregory, standing in the middle of the Council, said: “Men and shepherds! I am no better than the prophet Jonah, throw me into the sea, just let the debate be silent.” St. Gregory confirmed his intention to leave Constantinople. He asked the emperor, as a favor, permission to leave the capital, presenting the reason for his request as physical weakness, for which the king agreed to dismiss him. The saint began to avoid meetings, under the pretext of his illness, and even changed his home, leaving the house connected to the church, in which the Council was present and which belonged to the Bishop of Constantinople. Persons who were very well disposed towards the saint, seeing that he had really decided to leave his see, with tears in their eyes begged him not to abandon the work that he had started so well, and to sacrifice his life for the good of the Church; this touched him sensitively, but could not change his resolve. Before his departure from Constantinople, St. Gregory delivered a touching farewell speech in the Main or Great Church. “Dear shepherds and fellow shepherds! Once upon a time this flock was small, even, judging by apparently, this was not a flock, but small traces and remains of a flock - without order, without supervision, without precise limits; she had neither free pasture nor a fenced yard, she wandered in the mountains and dens and in the abysses of the earth (Heb. 11:38), scattered and scattered here and there. Everyone, thinking about his own salvation, found himself, at will, a leader and a shepherd. She was like a flock that was exhausted from the Lions (Jer. 50:17), destroyed by a storm or dispelled by darkness. Such was once this flock, but now it has become well-ordered and expanded. And if it is not yet perfect, then through gradual increments it rises to perfection; and I predict that it will rise. Look: the tongues of the opponents have become meek, and those who took up arms against the Divine are silent before me. And these are the fruits of the Spirit, and these are the fruits of my doing.” “But I am not a free devotee of virtue, and have not yet reached such perfection. Reward me for my efforts. What? Not what some would think, capable of suspecting anyone; but what is safe to desire. Calm me down from long-term labors, respect this gray hair, honor my pilgrimage, and introduce in my place another who could please you in everything and bear church concerns; for the present time especially requires such shepherds. And you see the state of my body, exhausted by time, illness, and labor. Why do you need an old man who is timid, weak, dying, so to speak, every day, not only with his body, but also with his worries - an old man who can hardly tell you even this! Trust the teacher’s voice, since they have never refused him power of attorney. I am tired of listening to the accusations of my meekness; I am tired, arguing with words, and with envy, and with enemies, and with one’s own.” “Perhaps they will blame me for this (as they have already blamed me) because I have neither a rich table, nor clothes appropriate to my rank, nor ceremonial appearances, nor majesty in deportment. I did not know that I should enter into competition with consuls, governors of regions, the most noble of military leaders, who do not know where to squander their wealth; - that I, too, need to enjoy luxury from the wealth of the poor. I didn’t know that I, too, needed to ride on excellent horses, stand brilliantly in a chariot, that I, too, should have meetings and receptions with obsequiousness, that everyone should give way to me and make way for me, as soon as they saw someone coming, even from afar. If such simplicity of mine was painful for you, then forgive me for that; it's over now. Place someone else over you who would be pleasing to the people, and give me the desert, rural life and God; I will please him alone with the simplicity of my life. So, for the sake of the Trinity itself, which I honor and you honor, for the sake of our common hope and for the sake of the Church, grant me this mercy - let me go with prayers. Give me a letter of dismissal, as kings give to soldiers, and, if you wish, with a good testimony, so that I may have a reward: and if not, as you wish; I will not contradict.” Forgive me, Anastasia, who received the name from piety, for you have resurrected for us a teaching that was hitherto despised! Forgive me, the place of common victory, Shiloh, in which from the beginning we erected the tabernacle, carried and wandering in the desert for forty years! Forgive me, great and glorious church, a new heritage, a church that has received true greatness from the Word, a church that through me has become Jerusalem! Forgive me, and other churches, close in beauty to Anastasia - churches, like bonds, connecting different parts of the city and assigned to the part that is adjacent to each - churches that were not filled by me, having so much weakness, but filled with grace, unworthy of me! Forgive me, Apostles, beautiful village, my teachers in asceticism! Sorry, pulpit, this enviable and dangerous height; forgive, council of bishops, venerable in rank and years: forgive all who serve God at the sacred meal and approach the One who approaches God (Lev.10:2)! Forgive me, the ceremonies of the Nazarenes, the harmonious psalmody, the all-night standing, the honesty of virgins, the decency of wives, the crowds of widows and orphans, the eyes of the poor, directed towards God and towards us! Forgive me, hospitable and Christ-loving houses, helpers of my weakness! Forgive me, lovers of my words, forgive both these gatherings of people, and these canes, writing openly and secretly, and this lattice, barely holding back those who are crowding to listen! Sorry, kings and royal palaces! Forgive me, great and Christ-loving city! Sorry, East and West! For you and from you we suffer attack: the witness of this is He who will reconcile us. And above all and most of all I will exclaim: forgive me, Angels, guardians of this Church and also of my stay here and departure from here, if only my deeds are in the hand of God! Forgive me, the Trinity is my thought and decoration! Children, “keep the traditions” (1 Tim. 6:20). Having voluntarily renounced the administration of the Church of Constantinople in 381, to the great chagrin of the king and the people, the great saint went to Caesarea, where he pronounced a laudatory or funeral word for St. Basil the Great; then to the Church of Nazianza, which was outraged by the false teaching of Apollinaria, which had spread in Syria. The saint spent the last days of his difficult life in solitude, in the paternal village of Arianza, without ceasing, however, to work for the good of the Church, outraged by the Macedonians and Apollinarians, and to lead an ascetic life. He spent the entire fast before Easter in silence and wrote a poem on silence during fasting in order to give an account of the feat of his silence, and another poem: a song to Christ, wanting to end the silence with the praise of the risen Jesus Christ. Seeing that the heretics (Apollinarians) not only sow the weeds of their false teaching, but also slander him, as if he shared their thoughts with them, St. Gregory wrote a letter to the presbyter Kledonius, to whom in his absence he entrusted the main care of the flock, to detect the slander of his enemies; to Theodore Bishop to refute the lies that were being made against St. Gregory on the occasion of his removal from the administration of the Church of Nazianza. Upon removal from Constantinople, St. Gregory lived for about 7 years, spending time in prayer, resting in the forest and field, traveling to warm waters and in the monastery, in correspondence on petitions for various persons, etc. Having experienced the impermanence of real life, St. Gregory depicted its vicissitudes in strong terms. “There are many paths to a troubled life,” he says, “and each is filled with its own sorrows. Wealth is wrong; poverty is shackles; beauty is a brief flash of lightning; youth - the heat of summer; old age is the sad west of life; eloquence is a soaring bird; glory - air; abundance is an oppressor; marriage is a yoke; having many children is a necessary concern; childlessness is a disease; assemblies are the inventors of vices; solitude - inaction; arts are the activities of people attached to the earth; someone else's piece of bread is bitter; it is difficult to cultivate the land; seafarers often sail to their grave; a foreign country brings dishonor. Everything here is sorrow for mortals: everything here - laughter, fluff, shadow, ghost, dew, blow, feather, steam, sleep, wave, stream, ship's wake, wind, dust, circle, always spinning and all the same rotating, and motionless and spinning, and collapsing and unfailing - in the seasons, days, nights, labors, deaths, worries, fun, illnesses, deprivations and success. And this is the definition of Your wisdom, Creativity and Word! Everything is impermanent, so that we retain our love for the Permanent! One thing is beautiful and lasting for a person - to take up the cross and move from here. Beautiful are tears and sighs, a mind nourished by Divine hopes! Beautiful is the renunciation of the foolish dust, the non-corruption of the image we have received from God! It is wonderful to live the life of an alien life and, having exchanged one world for another, patiently endure all sorrows. In 390, on January 25, Gregory died, being 62 years old from his birth. His body was laid in Nazianza. Gregory's contemporaries call him holy, divine, his writings are incomparable, and they confirm their judgments about objects of faith with his words. In the 5th century, Anatoly of Constantinople, in the 8th century - Cosmas of Mayum, in the 9th century - Theophanes and others wrote songs of praise to St. Gregory the Theologian, now sung by the Orthodox Church in honor of this saint. In 950, under Constantine the Porphyrogenitus, the body of St. Gregory the Theologian was transferred to Constantinople and placed in the church of St. Apostles, to help and protect the city. And during the Crusaders, according to Western legends, part of the incorruptible relics of St. Gregory the Theologian was transferred to Rome, from the convent of the Greek nuns, on the Campus Martius, and by Pope Gregory XIII, in 1580, in honor of this transfer, the celebration of June 11 was established there. In the liturgical hymns, the Orthodox Church calls on St. Gregory: “With your theological language, you destroyed the weaves of rhetoric, you adorned the Church with the glory of Orthodoxy with over-made clothes: Rejoice, Father, the most mindful of theology.” The Orthodox Church calls St. Gregory the Theologian, the second and the secret one, the bright scribe of the Trinity, who has both an honest appearance and a reverent visage - “a humble, pale face, elevated and thick eyebrows, a meek gaze, a braid that is not long, but thick and wide.” St. torment. Felitsata and her seven sons They suffered for 164 years in Rome, where their relics are. The priests accused them of insulting the gods by spreading the Christian faith, and the emperor handed them over to the mayor in order to distract them from Christ. The mother, to whom he first turned with admonitions, did not hesitate and encouraged the children to suffer for the faith; For this I was hit in the face. After that, he began to persuade her children to idolatry, starting with the eldest, and when this one remained adamant, he was mercilessly flogged. The same thing happened to the other six brothers. According to the report of this to the emperor, they were handed over to different judges for torture, and one judge killed the first son with lead rods, another beat the second and third with sticks, the third ordered the fourth and fifth to be thrown from a cliff, the fourth condemned the sixth and seventh to beheading, just as the mother suffered from the fifth tormentor. The names of the martyrs: Januarius, Felix, Philip, Silvanus, Alexander, Vitaly, Martial. † St. Moses, Archbishop of Novgorod St. Moses, Archbishop of Novgorod The son of rich and pious Novgorod parents, baptized Mitrofan 256, loved the Lord from his youth. Having learned to read and write, he diligently went to the church of God and diligently studied the law of God. Zealous for spiritual asceticism, he secretly retired from his parents to the Tver Otroch Monastery and there he was tonsured a monk. Fasting, obedience, and prayer were his favorite pastimes. His parents, having learned about his place of residence, begged him to go to the Colmov Monastery, to the pious abbot Macarius 257. Here he began to live more strictly than before. Here he was ordained as a hieromonk. Then he was the archimandrite of the Yuryev Monastery. After the death of Archbishop David, who was chosen to succeed him, he was consecrated by Holy Metropolitan Peter to the rank of archbishop in 1325. The jasper vessels that are blessed are still intact in the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. Moses then brought a gift to St. Peter 258. In the first year of his flock's reign, a fire devastated the main streets and several churches of Novgorod. To the new sorrow of the saint, popular unrest followed. And, however, he established a women's monastery on Tithe and then built a stone church of the Mother of God here. From the devastation brought upon Tver, Prince. Alexander, Novgorod managed to free himself with a rich ransom. But when the unfortunate Tver prince was warmly received in Pskov, this again almost brought trouble to the flock of blessed Moses. In vain he persuaded the Pskovites to abandon Prince Alexander, for the common good; only the severity of the High Hierarch of Russia averted the storm of troubles. Blessed Moses received the Grand Duke and Metropolitan with honor. Then the fire again devastated two streets and destroyed several churches. The anxieties of life were heavy for the saint’s soul, which yearned for desert peace. In 1330, despite the requests of the Novgorodians, he retired from the department to a monastery in Kolomtsy 259. Then he retired to an empty place and built a stone church of the Resurrection of Christ on Derevyanitsa. Boyars and ordinary people came here to the ascetic to benefit from his instructions and life. He spent 20 years in solitary exploits. After the death of Archbishop Vasily, at the urgent requests of the Novgorodians, in 1352 he again assumed control of the vast Novgorod flock. In the same year, he built a stone church in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God on Volotovo 260. Recently unveiled in this church, under the plaster, are fresco images of saints performing the liturgy, with the inscription on a scroll: “Where is our Be, who lives on high, and looks upon the humble” 261 . In 1353, fulfilling the will of the Novgorodians more than his own, he sent ambassadors to the patriarch, complaining about the oppression of the Moscow Metropolitan, although Theognost was no longer alive. The Patriarch, expressing respect for the personal qualities of the virtuous shepherd, sent St. Crossed vestments for Moses with the letter F, meaning Patriarch Philotheus, and with a woven inscription on the crosses: “Isa. Xs. Nika." In 1355 he built a monastery on Skovorodka, with a stone church in honor of the Archangel Michael. In 1357, he introduced order and built stone churches in three more monasteries: in Radogovitsy at the Volotovsky Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God, in the Spiritual Monastery and in the convent of St. John the Theologian; the first and last were founded by him 262. So the saint settled monks in the middle or near a crowded trading city. Isn't this strange? Against. The simplicity of life of the laity of that time did not represent those tempting and too dangerous entertainments that are known today. And the monastic service, long and reverent, distracted the hearts of the laity from earthly vanities to what is necessary for everyone. So the monastery of St. Moses were schools of piety for the lay people of Novgorod and, with careful supervision, they taught monastic piety. St. Moses did not limit his activities to those 263. The ancient chronicler describes his pastoral life this way: “he shepherded his church like a good shepherd; protected the offended, took care of the poor and widows; having gathered many scribes, he wrote many books at his own expense; He confirmed many in piety with his instructions” 264. Unfortunately, the written teachings of the saint that the chronicle speaks of are not known today. Two Gospels are known from the manuscripts copied on his orders. They are also instructive for our time. In the Gospel of 1355, written “by the command of the God-loving Archbishop Moses of Novgorod,” the scribes write: “if we write rudely, or where we have stepped, or in conversation with each other, or in dozing: but you, Reverend Fathers Abbess and Priest, honor yourselves by correcting yourself.” You see, books, including even St. The Gospels were written by order of St. Moses not so that every mistake of the scribe was recognized as an inviolable shrine, and not with that proud confidence that mistakes, despite all the attention, were not possible. Here are a few words from another Gospel of St. Moses: “And when Jesus had finished, he marveled at all the words... And the speech of Jesus was not to be seen by anyone... Having understood, Jesus said to them: Why do you think that you have little faith, because you have not taken bread?.. forbid Isa. Let your disciple not tell anyone that this is Isa Xs” 265. Let the admirers of imaginary antiquity see whether the name of the Savior Christ was written according to their rules during the reign of St. Moses? Let them be convinced that at that time the saving name was pronounced: Jesus, but was written with different abbreviations and without abbreviation. And here is another lesson for them from Saint Moses! In the Sofia sacristy there is an omophorion with four-pointed crosses and with embroidered words: “Moses the Archbishop, with the prayers of St. Sophia” 266. In 1359 St. Moses, feeling the weakening of his strength and wanting to devote his last time mainly to serving God, announced to the Novgorodians: “Choose for yourself a husband whom God will give you.” A successor was chosen by lot. But after that, a terrible rebellion arose in the city, because the Slavic end, alone, without the consent of others, changed the mayor and chose a new one. The armed Slavs dispersed the unarmed residents of the area, but the latter robbed many boyars; then a battle began between the Sofia and Trade sides of the city. Saint Moses came on foot from his Skovorodskaya hermitage to Novgorod. "Children! - he said to the Novgorodians. - Why this swearing? she is a joy to the filthy, a devastation to this place and to the churches. Stop the fight." The moved Novgorodians listened to the saint of God, and “God did not allow the devil to laugh at people,” says the chronicler. Returning to the Skovorodsk monastery, the ascetic saint labored in fasting and prayer for another two years. His cell robe and chains are kept in the Sofia sacristy - witnesses of his ascetic life. He died in a desert monastery on January 25, 1362 267. His memory was honored back in the 15th century: even then, as after, his closeness to the Lord and his miracles were known 268. In the description of 1634 they said: “glorified by God for miracles during the life and after death, and men and wives who resort with faith to his honest relics draw healthier health, and especially wives are healed, overcome by their natural infirmities” 269 . His relics, discovered in 1686, rest openly in a shrine; and part of them in 1693 was transferred to the Spiritual Monastery, now a women's monastery 270. Feast in honor of the icon of St. Mother of God, soothe my sorrows The icon is located in the Shilovsky Resurrection Monastery, Mogilev province, founded in 1782, as well as in Moscow in the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, on Pupyshi. RKP. life of St. Moses, described by Pachomius, in Tsarskoe No. 133, 136 and in the menaion of Makaria. Surprisingly, it is not rich in content. In the RKP. Saints: “Macarius the hermit, hegumen like on Mier, from Novgorod 40 fields.” Collection l. 3, 181. 182. Snegirev monuments: Assumption Cathedral. Collection l. 3, 74, 75, 182. Lvov, l. 2, 85–88. Russian time 1, 165–168. The compiler of the 3rd Novgorod Chronicle (111, 224), mistaking the Mother of God Church on Tithes for the Mother of God Church on Molotkov, brought in the builder of the Molotkov Church of the princes. Yaroslavl will tell you about the construction of the Tithe Church, while it had already been buried in the ground for almost a hundred years. Collection l. 3, 58, 88. Lviv. l. 2, 118. Collection l. 3, 86. 122. 139. 228. Known. acad. VI, 380. East. Hier. III, 394. The abbot of the Spiritual Monastery is mentioned in the chronicle in 1162. Macarius of antiquity I, 121, 351, 567, 616, 617. Parish churches built by St. Moses: Znamensky - in 1354 Prokopiev in 1359 Annunciation in 1362 Macarius of antiquity I, 253, 274, 373. Description of the manuscripts of the Synodal Library, pp. 221, 251, 252. Proceedings of the academician. Sciences VI, 277, 278. Probably under St. The service book of the Derevyanitsky Monastery of the 14th century was also written by Moses. Known acad. VI. 314. Description Novgorod. shrines, pp. 31, 32. Known. acad. VI, 380. Collection l. 3, 86, 87, 182, 227, 228. Description Sofiysk. personal 193. RKP. life of St. Moses, Pachomius service to him at the Royal No. 133, 136, 364, 563. In the rite of installation of a bishop in 1646, intercession is requested - “like our holy fathers Nikita and Niphon, bishops, John, Euthymius, Jonah, Moses and Serapion, archbishops and Rev. Father Anthony the Roman and Varlaam of Khutyn, Novgorod miracle workers.” East. ak. 4, 14. Metropolitan Nikon of Novgorod ended his letters of 1650 and 1651 as follows: “the mercy of St. Sophia and the great wonderworkers, Nikita and Niphon, bishops, John, Euthymius, Jonah, Moses and Serapion, archbishops of Novgorod - may it be upon you.” Description Solovetsk. monastery III. 319, 321, 325, 328, 330, 331. Read total ist. 1862 book. 4. Statistics materials, p. 48. St. Petersburg. 1831.