45. Просвещение христианством Казани и Астрахани

In 1552, a very important event took place for the Church and the fatherland - the conquest of the Kazan kingdom. Going on the Kazan campaign, Tsar John Vasilyevich asked the saints to pray for him, fasted and repented of his sins. Everyone felt that a struggle had begun both for the freedom of the fatherland and for the freedom of the Church, which had suffered for about three centuries under the yoke of the infidels. On October 2, Kazan was taken by storm. They noticed that the first terrible explosion erupted when the deacon in the royal camp church read in the Gospel: “And there will be one flock and one shepherd.” The city was consecrated with a procession around the walls and dedicated to the name of the Holy Trinity. Up to 60 thousand Christians who suffered in captivity under the Tatars received freedom. It was ordered to build churches: in the place where the royal banner stood with the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands - in honor of this image; in the middle of the city - in the name of the Annunciation of the Mother of God. A monastery (Zilantov) was founded on the site where the soldiers who fell in battle were buried. The Tatars saw the miracles of God's power performed over them and were baptized in large numbers. Three years after the conquest, in 1555, an episcopal see was opened in Kazan. Through the labors of the first Saint Gurias and his collaborators, Herman and Barsanuphius, the holy faith was firmly established in this Mohammedan city and the surrounding country. The triumph of Christianity was greatly promoted by the appearance in 1571 of the icon of the Mother of God, hidden in the ground (probably by one of the Christians who were captured by the Tatars), and the abundance of miracles that occurred during this appearance. In 1557, the kingdom of the Astrakhan Tatars was conquered. At the same time, one of the Astrakhan queens and her son was baptized, and the next year Abbot Kirill was sent to Astrakhan to baptize the people and establish churches and monasteries. In church administration, Astrakhan was annexed to the Kazan diocese. You might be interested in: