Colors of liturgical vestments in the practice of St. Philaret of Moscow

The article is devoted to characterizing the preferences of St. Philaret (Drozdov) regarding the color of liturgical vestments. The author describes the features of the saint's everyday life, in particular polychromatism, which is not typical for modern liturgical practice. Even the most superficial observation of the peculiarities of the liturgical practice of Metropolitan Philaret makes it possible to feel how unconventional the liturgical views of the saint were, how subtly and, may I be allowed to say so, gracefully, the bishop resolved certain issues related to the organization of worship. Strict adherence to rules and fear of deviating from the letter of the instructions is the lot of students; a connoisseur, connoisseur and specialist looks at his field of activity more broadly, which allows him to achieve much more significant and interesting results. The principles of using the colors of liturgical vestments today cannot be considered completely established. Even within the same diocese one can observe different parish traditions, not to mention differences in the practices of different local churches. And during the years of the saint’s life and work, even those guidelines that are considered more or less generally accepted in the Russian Orthodox Church today were not formed (such can be called, for example, the instructions of the Divine Service Directives for priestly church ministers). Therefore, in the area of ​​​​selecting vestments for performing this or that divine service, Saint Philaret did not have to deviate from the rules. Thus, Metropolitan Philaret could fully demonstrate his ideas about the color factor in the liturgical life of the Church. The main source of information about the chromatography of the bishop’s services is the notes of the deacon Pavel Sergeevich Grozov, who served under him, well known to researchers of the life and work of the saint. These notes have the character of a kind of liturgical journal, in which the author necessarily noted in what vestments the Metropolitan of Moscow performed this or that service. Since Father Paul kept his notes for quite a long time - ten years, from 1855 to 1865, we can try to get a certain idea of ​​​​the views of the saint in the field of coloristics of Orthodox worship. And certain features of the bishop’s use of the color scheme of vestments may be in demand in modern liturgical practice. It is obvious that the bishop himself appointed the vestments for divine services, although records with direct instructions from the saint are found only in cases where, for some reason, the original setting was changed. For example, an entry dated September 14, 1857 reads: “The vestment is white, old, Yegorovsky, by mistake, but they ordered to give it purple” 2 . Or from July 30, 1861: “The bishop’s vestment was first assigned to the frieze, and then he was ordered to give it a white one, with flowers on the satin, and a cross pattern” 3 . Saint Philaret, of course, felt and realized the effect of color in church services - the very fact that in the notes of Deacon Paul there are indications of the color of vestments is irrefutable evidence of this. At the same time, the correlation of the color of the vestment with the event being celebrated was carried out according to principles that were not similar to modern rules. The bishop's approach was different. The color of the vestments did not correspond to the theme of the holiday, but to the degree of its solemnity. In one of his letters to his confessor, the abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Archimandrite Anthony, regarding the construction of the Gethsemane monastery, the saint writes: “How can we not achieve the poverty of St. Sergius, let us somewhat imitate the poverty of St. Nikon and make a silk sacristy for the skete, without silver and gold. There is no need to be shy about flowers. White is for especially bright holidays, but it especially requires frugality. For others, red. For non-holiday days, if it happens, green or purple. This is also for fasting people, unless something bad happens.” 4 Following, although not literally, similar attitudes can be traced from the notes of Father Pavel Grozov. The color white is actually used by the saint on the most significant holidays: Easter, Christmas, Epiphany, which, in principle, coincides with current practice. But the use of white on the twelfth feasts of the Virgin Mary - the Assumption, the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, the Annunciation, the Introduction - looks unusual for our contemporaries, who are accustomed to associating the color blue with celebrations in honor of the Mother of God 5 . In some cases, gold-colored vestments were used for such holidays, 6 but in general, golden vestments were most often used on royal days and celebrations that were not only of a state, but also of a church nature. 7 For the period reflected in the records of Fr. Paul, the practice of using gold color is quite understandable: for the clergy who participated in the coronation of Emperor Alexander II in 1856, a special set of vestments with gold embroidery on a red field was made. The vestment was considered a gift from the emperor to the participants in the service. Saint Philaret in 1857 donated his set to the Synodal sacristy for storage with other historical antiquities “in order to awaken in visitors to it [the sacristy] a reverent memory of the high and sacred royal celebration, joyful for us contemporaries and memorable for those who will follow us” 8 . As a token of gratitude for such an act, the emperor ordered another set of the same type to be made for the saint as a personal gift. In this vestment, the saint served not only services on royal days, but also services performed in the official presence of members of the imperial family, no matter what holiday they fell on 9. The blue color, from the point of view of the saint, corresponded to Lenten celebrations - in blue vestments the services of the Sundays of the Lenten Triodion, sometimes the services of Maundy Thursday, sometimes the days of small fasts or services on Christmas or Epiphany Eves could be performed 10. The color blue, it seems, was considered by the ruler as a transitional color from white to violet or lilac - vestments of such colors were also used on Lenten holidays, although more often on Lenten weekdays 11. But the Feast of the Exaltation could be celebrated in both purple and white vestments; a strict system cannot be identified here 12. When holidays coincided, the saint tried to reflect this coincidence in the color of his vestments. Thus, if the feast of the Presentation fell on one of the preparatory weeks of Great Lent, purple vestments were used (but not blue!), although more often white vestments were used on the Presentation 13. On February 24, 1857, when the celebration of the accession to the throne of Emperor Alexander II took place in the first week of Great Lent, the saint performed the rite of the triumph of Orthodoxy in a blue sakkos, and for the liturgy he changed it to a coronation one, with gold embroidery on a red background 14. A change of vestments during the service often occurred during the consecration of churches. For example, on October 7, 1856, the Metropolitan consecrated the Church of the Resurrection of the Word in the Intercession Monastery in green vestments, and after the consecration served the Liturgy in gold 15. It is customary in our time to change vestments during the Easter service. The Bishop also changed vestments on Easter, but often in direct opposition to modern practice. So, in 1857, he served Easter Matins in red vestments, and Liturgy in white. White vestments, but different from those used at the Liturgy, were also used at Vespers; white dominated the vestments that year and throughout Easter week 16. Funeral services, as was customary in the 19th century, were usually performed by the saint in dark, even black vestments. But at the same time, a white omophorion could be used, and there was also a case of a funeral service in a white sakkos with a black omophorion - on December 2, 1856, at the funeral of the widow of the state councilor Alexandra Onufrievna Gubina 17 . Coronation vestment of St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna (from the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Ministry of Health): 1. Sakkos. Color gold (yellow). Russia, 1856 Silver, copper, brocade, glazed, canous, gold lace, gold threads, sequins, braid, fringe. 2. Staff. St. Petersburg, 1856. Master I. L. Smedberg. Gold, precious stones, pearls; casting, embossing, shotting. 3. Sulok. The color is red. Russia, mid-19th century. Velvet, gold threads, pearls, fringe, beads, bugles. 4. Mace. The color is red. Russia, 1856. Velvet, silk, lace, gold threads, fringe, silk ribbon, silver. 5. Omophorion. The color is red. Russia, 1856. Silver, silk, gold threads, gold lace, fringe. Speaking about the color of this or that vestment of the bishop, one should clearly understand one characteristic feature - St. Philaret almost never used all items of vestment of the same color. Polychromatism in the selection of vestments details was, it seems, one of the basic liturgical guidelines of the Metropolitan of Moscow. Usually the miter and omophorion differed from the rest of the vestments in color: a blue vestment with a green miter, a gold vestment, a white omophorion and a red miter; purple vestment, white omophorion, green miter; the most common combination is red and white: white sakkos with a red miter or red sakkos with a white omophorion. A more complex combination is also found: in the Chudov Monastery on the Week of the Worship of the Cross in 1857, the bishop appointed a green sakkos, epitrachelion, arms, club and omophorion - blue, and a miter - purple 18. Saint Philaret also used such a technique as the difference in the colors of the vestments of the bishop and the concelebrating clergy, as well as the decoration of the church. Thus, on Christmas Eve 1861, the bishop served in purple vestments, and his fellow servants in blue. The shrouds on the Throne were also blue 19 . First of all, we note that, apparently, this variety of colors was precisely a combination of colors, and not dissonance - we do not know exactly what tone or shade of color is named in the notes of Fr. Paul in red, or green, or purple. For the author of the notes, the color designation served only as a marker for a specific item in the metropolitan sacristy, distinguishing it from the rest, a kind of inventory number. Therefore, different names could be used. Thus, for one of the donated vestments, Father Deacon uses the names “brocade, pink cross,” “white, brocade with red crosses,” “white cross with red borders.” There is no doubt that we are talking about the same vestments; in all cases the surname of the donor is indicated 20. White fabric with a red frame could, of course, give a pink tint, but for an outside observer there was still the possibility of their own interpretation of what they saw. Father Paul and the Metropolitan did not always agree on the name of the color - on the cheese-free week of 1862, he notes: “the vestment is lilac, but the bishop calls it purple” and clarifies: “with a silver white embankment, wavy” 21. In addition, we must take into account that in reality the color might not look the same as it seems to us now, in the era of mass production, when the color standard is determined by the fabric manufacturer, and the combination of such seemingly different colors could look quite harmonious. The desire for harmony of colors in vestments is clearly expressed in some of the instructions of St. Philaret. Thus, giving orders on the order of the service on July 19, 1826 on the Kremlin Square of the Cathedral Prayer Service on the occasion of “deliverance from sedition” in 1825 (meaning the Decembrist uprising), the Bishop specifically prescribes: “Vestments should be festive, brocade, colored, and should not be white or velvet of the same color, so that there is not a lot of variety” 22 . A similar remark about maintaining uniformity in vestments can be found in the correspondence of the saint with the Monk Anthony of Radonezh. On April 17, 1837, the bishop wrote: “I agree to make vestments from the materials and coverings in the sacristy. In this case, it is necessary to observe such an order that either for a private service, make a surplice and robes from the same material (of course, if there is more material for more than one vestment), or for a cathedral service, two robes of the same type, or several surplices of the same type; for in cathedral vestments it is necessary to uniform priests with priests and deacons with deacons” 23. Saint Philaret’s refusal to be monochrome in the selection of vestments can be explained by practical considerations. Concern "Sofrino" in the 19th century. did not exist, each vestment was the result of handicraft production, a piece product, and not a complete set could be made, but individual items or groups of items, for which it was simply impossible to select missing parts made from the same fabric and in the same style due to the lack of production standards. In addition, the bishop had plenty to choose from - on the pages of Deacon Pavel Grozov’s notes, about four dozen vestments are mentioned (an exact count is difficult, since the same sets could be mentioned under different names). But still, it seems, these circumstances were not the main reason for such polychromatism in the vestments of the saint. The Metropolitan of Moscow, if desired, could probably order a standardized set for himself, and more than one. The combination of colors of different details of the bishop's vestments was intended to express certain features of the divine service, which ones can only be guessed 24. But, it seems, we can confidently assert that each service was a new, special event for the bishop, and he sought to express this peculiarity and uniqueness, including in the selection of vestments. Time, place, sound, theme, content of the service, vocabulary and semantics of its texts, the architecture of the church, its interior and interior decoration, the composition of the participants and, of course, the color scheme determined by the vestments of the clergy - all these factors had to be in the greatest possible harmonious combination, expressing the eternal and perfect harmony of the Kingdom of Heaven. Grozov P. S. Notes of P. S. Grozov, a former deacon under Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, about the latter’s ministries in Moscow and the Moscow diocese. M., 1904. Grozov P. S. Notes of P. S. Grozov... P. 85. Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow. Letters to St. Anthony, Vicar of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra. 1831–1867 (hereinafter referred to as Letters to the Governor...). Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 2007. Part 1. P. 331. See for example: Grozov P.S. Decree. Op. P. 22 (Annunciation in 1857), 28 (Assumption in 1857), 31 (Protection in 1857), 33 (Introduction in 1857), 43 (Nativity of the Virgin in 1858). Grozov P.S. Decree. Op. pp. 17–18 (Christmas in 1856). Right there. P. 59 (August 30, the name day of Emperor Alexander II), 49 (February 19 - the day of accession to the throne of Emperor Alexander II), 15 (October 22, 1856 - the celebration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in memory of the deliverance of Moscow and Russia from the Poles). Collection of opinions and reviews of Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna on educational and church-state issues (hereinafter referred to as the Collection of Opinions...). T. IV. St. Petersburg, 1886. pp. 175–176; Grozov P.S. Decree. Op. P. 10. Grozov P.S. Decree. Op. pp. 57–58. Right there. pp. 19, 64, 68, 79, 86, 92. Grozov P.S. Decree. Op. pp. 77, 78, 94, 107. Right there. S. 12, 30, 70, 89. Right there. pp. 16–17, 21, 45. Grozov P.S. Decree. Op. P. 21. Grozov P.S. Decree. Op. P. 94. Collection of opinions... Vol. II. St. Petersburg, 1885. P. 146. Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow. Letters to the governor... Part 1. P. 24. Observation by Rev. Pavel Khondzinsky: the bishop, revealing the image of Christ at the service, dresses in “robes of many colors,” similar to those made by Jacob for Joseph (Gen. 37:3), one of the Old Testament prototypes of Christ.