Глава тринадцатая. Архиепископ становится митрополитом 1826

The name Filaret is extremely beautiful! In the calendar it is translated as “loving virtue,” but the Greek word “arete,” which makes up the second part of the name, has a wide range of beautiful meanings. In the Greek dictionary we read: “arete” - valor, virtue; in general, perfection, superiority, dignity (both physical and moral); courage, bravery (in this meaning often in Homer and other writers); valiant deed, merit, service; everything good, every prosperity.” The year 1826 arrived - the year in which the bearer of such a wonderful name, Archbishop Philaret, was destined to become Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna. And then spend the second, most part of your life in this rank - forty-one years! No one led the Moscow flock longer than him, neither before nor after. This important event was preceded by the farewell of two mysterious coffins. They sailed past him, as if sending greetings from two august persons, with whom the time of his youth, youth, early maturity was associated. Who was in those coffins, whether those august persons themselves or not, is still covered in a veil of great mystery. History, speaking to us in the language of facts, testifies that on February 4, 1826, Bishop Philaret met and saw off the coffin with the body of Emperor Alexander Pavlovich, and on May 26 of the same year - the coffin with the body of his wife, Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna, who also untimely and suddenly left this mortal world. On Thursday, February 4, Archbishop Filaret stood at the Serpukhov outpost and here he met a sad procession. Upon arrival at the Kremlin, the coffin was transferred to the Assumption Cathedral, where the Moscow bishop served the liturgy. Then he made a speech. Beautiful, strong. He prefaced it with a quote from the biblical Book of Kings, which says about King Josiah: “There was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength. “Either the Lord turn away from the fury of his great wrath” (2 Kings 23:25–26). He said that he was unable to convey in words the meaning of Alexander’s reign: - Give me the word or teach me silence. I don’t know how to speak and I don’t know how to remain silent. I renounce the immense feat of praising Alexander, already Blessed; but one cannot resist sad thoughts and words before the Church about the king, who, like Josiah, is worthy to have the prophets weep for him... God, who raised Alexander up for a time of extraordinary battles and exploits, taught him to oppose the weapons of carnal armies, not only carnal, but especially spiritual... hellish weapons - heavenly, cunning - truth, audacity - firmness and patience, arrogance - meekness and humility, hope in art and human strength - hope in the help and providence of God. And what happened next? The idol of France was crushed on the chest of Russia! Filaret in his speech spoke about how, after the victory over Napoleon, the Russian Tsar led Europe to peace: – The hitherto indomitable spirit of battle is bound. For the unions of kings and kingdoms, for which until then no more decent law had been found, like the law of self-interest and mutual envy, Alexander, by his strong example, laid the foundation for the law of unselfishness and benevolence, in a word, the Christian law. The disagreements of peoples are either stopped or weakened. The seditionists, if not destroyed, are driven to despair. Matters that were decided by the sword are already being resolved by councils. According to Filaret, Alexander became the first sovereign to create a union in Europe - a prototype of the future United Nations, called upon to peacefully solve what was decided by force, blood, death, and suffering. But Napoleon, the culprit behind the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, is still known to everyone in the world. And Alexandra?.. How many people on our planet will now answer who this person was? One in a thousand? One out of ten, out of a hundred thousand? Or maybe one in a million?.. Human ingratitude! Moreover, in his native country, in his own home, the conspirators were destined to kill Alexander. And Filaret said about this in his speech: - To the King of Kings! You raised it for a time; You called him to eternity. Accept what You have given; do not abandon those whom you deprive. You took this king as the righteous from the face of unrighteousness, when it was preparing to be born again through apostasy from the kings... Be merciful, Lord, take this untruth from the face of the remaining righteous!.. For supporters of the legend about Elder Fyodor Kuzmich, there is no evidence in Filaret’s word that they are right. Filaret speaks of Alexander as deceased. Although he, possessing the mastery of speech, would be able to say it in such a way as to bypass the topic of death as such. Therefore, he was sure that it was Alexander who lay in the sealed coffin. And, mourning, he sent Alexander further, to St. Petersburg, where only three weeks later Nikolai and Mikhail would meet his brother. Three and a half months will pass, and the coffin with the body of Elizaveta Alekseevna will arrive in Moscow... But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. In his next speech on the day of St. Alexei, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, Wonderworker, February 12, 1826, St. Philaret spoke about incorruptible food, which in the Apocalypse the Apostle calls “hidden manna”: - Who knows what kind of new food this is, without a doubt, the best of other types, because it is not given to everyone, but is saved for treating the winner? As an example, I can tell you that this one, the now blessed conqueror of sin, crowned with incorruption, knows this. For just as those who receive corruptible food are themselves given over to corruption, so, on the contrary, the saint of God, who is not given to see incorruption, is without a doubt prepared for the state of incorruption by incorruptible food, and consequently, he was first given food and hidden manna (Rev. 2:17). The imagery of Filaret's sermons could not touch only the most deaf hearts. Speaking about those who do not have a thirst to eat the Divine word, Moscow Chrysostom compared them with the sick who have lost the taste for ordinary human food: - Why doesn’t he want to take it or, having taken it, but not being fed, he randomly spews it out? Untamed sensuality and earthly passions weaken the spirit, drown out its inner sensations, and damage its heavenly desires. That is why not everyone is promised hidden manna. What is the benefit and how can one give food to someone in whom illness has caused an aversion to it and an inability to eat? When the body overcomes the disease fighting it, then it can take advantage of food... Unbelief is a mental illness, a violation of a person’s inner harmony and connection with the entire Universe: Faith is health. This is what Philaret’s sermon is about. Healthy people should treat the sick with sympathy and strive to help them get rid of the disease. But it’s bad when a sick person does not want to admit that he is sick and does not crave treatment. Preaching, along with the management of the main diocese of Russia and the work of translating the Bible, remained for Philaret the most important component of his life and his pastoral ministry. Each time, making speeches, he realized that he had to save as many of his listeners as possible from the mental illness of unbelief. And he saved a lot of people! On the feast of the Annunciation in the cathedral church of the Chudov Monastery, Moscow Chrysostom spoke about the solid foundation of human life, which is Christ, and that only with Christ is humanity able to retreat from untruth. It, alas, constantly strives to deviate from the truth, to return to its ancient bestial state. On Holy Monday, April 12, Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich by his decree banned the activities of the Russian Bible Society. For the entire Russian Church and for Philaret in particular, this was a joyful event, since it meant that the authorities in Russia would henceforth base their Christianity exclusively on Orthodoxy, and missionaries from other faiths would no longer be given freedom to lure unstable souls to their side. At the same time, for the sake of such joy, Filaret and his supporters had to put up with a great sacrifice - it would not soon be allowed to continue the work of distributing the Bible in a modern language. But everything is the Lord’s will! On Easter, April 18, 1826, Filaret began his speech with a very strong rhetorical turn: - Christ is risen! Having said this, what more can I tell you? Everything has been said. Rhetorical, because then he still continued to talk about the resurrection and eternal life in Christ: - A pagan also believes, but in dead deities or creatures, just as he himself is mortal and corruptible... The Jew believes and believes in the Living God, but according to the writing of the law, which kills the sinner but cannot resurrect... We, Christians, believe in the Living God... How did we know? Most likely, by the resurrection of Him in whom we believed... And he ended the same way he started: – I will not further explain the various miracles that one miraculous word produces: Christ is risen! If it resurrects in us the holy love of God, which is constantly killed by the sinful love of the world and the flesh: this miracle is enough for the perfection of real joy and for all other miracles to reveal themselves to us. On April 25, Filaret spoke about one of the most important sayings spoken by Jesus in the Gospel of John to the Apostle Thomas. In Philaret’s translation it sounds like this: “Jesus says to him: you believed because you saw Me; Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). In another place in the same Gospel, Christ says: “...you will not believe unless you see signs and wonders” (John 4:48). This is one of the main places in the teachings of Christ. And one of the most difficult to understand, since it is impossible to find a Christian who would not dream at least once of seeing confirmation of his faith - in signs and wonders, in the visible manifestation of God's will and God's omnipotence. “And some of us, looking at the example of Thomas,” said Philaret, “might think: why are we so unhappy that we cannot have an immediate manifestation and confirmation in faith from the Lord?” No, the Lord says to us too, not to see is not a misfortune, when there is already enough reason to believe; on the contrary, not seeing and believing is a special dignity of faith, and therefore special bliss. On May 15, in the Archangel Cathedral, on the day of Saint Tsarevich Demetrius of Uglich, Filaret devoted his sermon to the interpretation of the words of the Savior from the Gospel of Luke: “Woe to you, for you build tombs for the prophets whom your fathers beat up” (Luke 11:47). These words confuse many. It turns out that if your ancestors were guilty of something, you do not have the right to admit it and pay tribute to those to whom the guilt of your ancestors remains. Imagine that your grandfather participated in the executions at the Butovo training ground. So what? Are you now destined to justify the deeds of your grandfather and therefore renounce Christianity, since your grandfather was a persecutor of Christians? Filaret tried to interpret the words of Christ so that there would be no confusion: – If you honor the tombs of the martyrs who confirmed the faith by patiently suffering for it, but you yourself are not so much disposed to prove the invincibility of the faith through your own patience, and, when necessary, through suffering, as to torment others for your favorite opinions, then beware; and this disposition of spirit not so much does not encourage you with the joy that the saints found in suffering, as it threatens you with grief, which is foreshadowed by the imitators of the beating prophets. Philaret dedicated the sermon of May 20, 1826 to other very important words of the Savior, which in the Gospel of Luke sound like this: “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they excommunicate you, and revile you, and call your name dishonorable, because of the Son of Man: You will rejoice in that day and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. This is what their fathers did to the prophets” (Luke 6:22–23). This is also very difficult, and every Christian has thought at least once that this cup would pass from him. To suffer for Christ is bliss, but perhaps you can live with faith and hope in salvation and, moreover, never suffer for Christ?.. “If you are a true Christian,” said Filaret, “then your soul is certainly not attached to temporary well-being; not partial to earthly rewards; you encourage and console yourself with the thought of a heavenly and eternal reward. In this, Christianity remains a lonely religion, because all other religions say: be a diligent believer, and you will receive a reward here on earth. Moreover, some Christian confessions, especially the Protestant one, began to lean towards this: be a pious Christian, and you will be rewarded here, in this mortal world, you will be prosperous and prosperous, glorified in your environment. Filaret denounced this, calling it not Christianity, but Old Testament or even paganism: “Whoever is controlled and animated by the desire only for earthly reward is an earthly Old Testamentist, far from spiritual perfection and from acquiring heavenly treasures. He who does good deeds for temporary gain or for human glory has not yet left the realm of paganism; he produces idols of virtues for sale or for spectacle, he accepts his reward from people, and therefore heaven and God owe him nothing more... And if you want to adhere only to the natural, then see if through this you do not fall away from the grace-filled, which is higher than the natural... And yet, the inspired preacher does not fall into excessive severity and admits the possibility of some small reward here on earth, but only such that he can extend his days to the appointed time: – When a mercenary desires payment sufficient to provide food not only during the days of work, but also for the days of rest necessary later, I do not argue that it is natural for him to desire such a reward. But when a rich man does not want to do anything without deriving benefit from the deed, even, if possible, double and triple benefit: what is natural here? Filaret continued to preach Christian asceticism not only in words, but also in his way of life, always being content with the little things that were most necessary for his further existence. A modest table, on which there is just enough food and drink to quench hunger and thirst, modest housing, modest servants. Bishop Alexander Petrovich Svyatoslavsky’s secretary was like him in everything and tried to show how alien the desire for convenience was to him; for example, when he needed to read something out loud, he did it standing and could read for several hours in a row without sitting down. And unwitting spectators of this could then blame Filaret for not allowing his secretary to even sit down. In May 1826, another mournful procession arrived in Moscow - the coffin with the body of the late Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna was taken to St. Petersburg. Allegedly, she died suddenly in Belev on the way from Taganrog. The fact that this blooming woman of thirty-six years of age passed away so quickly after her husband further fueled the legend about their joint departure into pilgrimage and monasticism. And if Alexander was identified with the elder Fyodor Kuzmich, then Elizabeth was identified with Vera the Silent, a recluse of the Syrkov Monastery near Tikhvin. This was also facilitated by the fact that the empress was taciturn during her lifetime. Just like the coffin with the body of Alexander, the coffin with the body of Elizabeth was tightly closed, and it was not opened when Philaret and the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna met the procession in Mozhaisk, and on the way to Moscow, services were performed at this coffin four times in different churches. On May 26, in the Mozhaisk St. Nicholas Cathedral, the Moscow Archbishop served the liturgy and delivered a soul-touching memorial word: “Our hearts had not yet rested from the former sadness when a new one befell us.” Our entire land, from edge to edge, from capital to capital, is blackened with royal burial routes. And more and more news came from St. Petersburg, one way or another connected with the December uprising. On May 22, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin died there. Accustomed to constantly sitting in his office and in the archives, on December 14 he spent the whole day in the chilly St. Petersburg wind, observing the events, fell ill, and was never able to recover. On May 30, the investigation into the Decembrist case ended. The investigative commission compiled a “Report on Secret Societies.” And on June 1, the Supreme Criminal Court was created in the case of the Decembrist rebels. About six hundred people were involved. Not without the influence of the riot, censorship tightened. On June 10, Admiral Shishkov pushed through his censorship regulations, soon nicknamed the cast iron ones. From now on, absolutely nothing could get into the press that would in any way criticize the existing political system, or Russia itself, its government, its people, army, orders and customs. And in Moscow, on the day of the commandment for Peter's Fast, June 13, 1826, Archbishop Filaret in the Alekseevskaya Church of the Chudov Monastery baptized the daughter of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, named Elizabeth in baptism. The baby's godmother was his own grandmother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. The event is not so much significant as it is touching. The life of the baptized girl will be short; after getting married, she will die in childbirth at the age of nineteen, and the Elizabeth Children's Hospital will appear in her honor in St. Petersburg. Parents, having spent a lot of money on an overly lavish wedding, and then experienced a loss, albeit belatedly, will realize the meaning of Philaret’s sermons, who condemned all luxury and excess, and will use the money for a good cause. In the summer of 1826, Russia tensely awaited the court's decision in the Decembrist case. Filaret, as a good shepherd, would like to direct the sovereign’s heart to mercy for the fallen. On June 25, at the Chudov Monastery, he delivered a speech on the birthday of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, who turned thirty years old. The essence of the sermon was a call to show mercy. Of course, the Moscow bishop could not directly say: “Sovereign, have mercy on them!” - but he reminded that the Lord God remains the supreme judge. He ended with these words: -Have ears to hear, let him hear. Whoever’s inner hearing of the heart is not blocked by spiritual insensibility, let him hear what the inner witness and judge of truth and sin—conscience—tells him during these reflections; and if she denounces the lack of exploits for the truth that elevates the tongue, or the lack of caution against sins that degrade the tribes; then let us add repentance to prayer, to repentance feats of correction, so that we may receive either a good reward from the truth of God, or pardon from the mercy of God. Blessed be God, who up to now has lifted up our tongue with righteousness! May the power of his grace diminish the sins that belittle the tribes in us! Amen. The court sentenced thirty-six Decembrists to death, of whom five were quartered, the others by beheading; seventeen people - to political death (that is, to deprivation of all rights, including the right to property and the right to be married), sixteen - to lifelong exile to hard labor, five - to exile to ten-year hard labor, fifteen people - to exile to six-year hard labor, fifteen - to exile to a settlement, three - to exile to Siberia, one - to deprivation of ranks and nobility and demotion to a soldier until the end of service, nine - to deprivation of ranks and demotion to soldiers with length of service. It was difficult not to shudder at the news of such a decision! The French revolutionaries recently surprised the world by cutting off thousands and thousands of heads. And here, in Russia, an ax is raised over thirty-six heads. Can you believe it?! It would not be amiss to note that none other than the liberal Speransky insisted on quartering! He knew that his name appeared on the lists of the Decembrist directory, he wanted to prove that he had nothing to do with it. The society did not yet know about the court decision. On July 5, at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Archbishop Philaret read a sermon on the purification of the heart, prefacing the words of Christ from the Gospel of Matthew: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). On July 10, the sovereign signed a decree mitigating the sentence. Only five were sentenced to death, and not by quartering or beheading, but by hanging. The rest also had their sentences commuted in different ways. Russian bishops, including Filaret, played a major role in this mitigation. The end of the tragedy that took place on the Russian stage based on a European play has arrived. On July 13, five young people, the oldest of whom was thirty-three, ascended the scaffold built on the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress... This happened on the day of the Archangel Gabriel. Such is the “Gavriliad”... An execution with all the cinematic details - with the breaking of rotten ropes, Ryleev’s curses against the Tsar and Kakhovsky’s vulgar abuse... “The execution ended with due silence and order,” the king read in the report of the execution. The next day, exactly seven months after the horrors of Senate Square, a cleansing prayer was held in the Winter Palace, after which the royal court moved from the Northern capital to the Mother See for the coronation of the new emperor. While Nicholas was on his way to be crowned king, the southern borders of his empire flared up with a new war. The Persians, who never had any special affectionate feelings towards Russia, showed cunning back in 1812 when, having learned about Napoleon’s invasion, they decided to take the opportunity to stab us in the back. And while our people, straining all their strength, resisted the most powerful enemy in the world, we also had to fight back in the south and keep troops there that could be deployed to repel Bonaparte. When the December uprising broke out, Persia again assumed the pose of a lion stalking weakened prey. But she had been sneaking up for a very long time and made her jump when the prey managed to get to its feet and look around. Attacking the southern borders of Russia, the Persians were sure that the turmoil of the interregnum continued in our fatherland. Troops numbering about forty thousand under the command of Prince Abbas Mirza from the direction of Karabakh attacked Elisavetpol, captured it and besieged the Shusha fortress. On our side they were opposed by an army of eight thousand. Nicholas had the opportunity to begin his reign not only by suppressing the Decembrist rebellion, but also by a small victorious war in Transcaucasia. Arrival in Moscow occurred on July 21. The Tsar, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna and the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna stayed at the Petrovsky Palace, where they were soon met by the court and Moscow clergy. Four days later the ceremonial entry into Moscow took place. Having entered the Kremlin, Nicholas settled in the Chudov Monastery. Before the crowning of the kingdom, there was still a two-week Assumption Fast to be held in Moscow, to celebrate the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. Unlike his older brother Alexander, who only came to Christ with age, Nicholas from his youth set an example of the life of a churchgoer, observed fasts and prayers, constantly confessed and received communion, and led an ascetic lifestyle. During his stay at the Chudov Monastery, he always communicated a lot with Filaret. On the Feast of the Transfiguration, the saint read a sermon here that “the Divinity of Jesus shone through His humanity,” and there was a hint that the divine power of anointing is called to shine in sovereigns, whose anointing is a clear Christian symbol. And so the strict two-week fast ended, the Dormition was celebrated, and a week later, on Sunday August 22, the tsar with the tsarina, mother and brother Konstantin entered the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin. The sacred coronation and anointing to the throne was performed by Metropolitan Seraphim (Glagolevsky) of St. Petersburg and Novgorod, the second with him was Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia Evgeniy (Bolkhovitinov). But at the coronation, at the sovereign’s own request, Moscow Archbishop Philaret was appointed as the preacher. - Most pious sovereign! - he turned to Nicholas on the steps of the Assumption Cathedral. – Finally, Russia’s expectation is coming true. You are already before the gates of the sanctuary, in which your hereditary consecration has been kept for you for centuries... You were in no hurry to show us your glory, because you were in a hurry to establish our safety. You are coming at last as a king, not only of the kingdom you have inherited, but also of the kingdom you have preserved. Speaking further about the storms that accompanied the accession of Nicholas to the throne, Filaret gave an answer to those who slandered that his reign began with the gallows, namely, he recalled an episode from the biblical Book of Kings: at the death of King David and the accession of King Solomon, there was an uprising in the troops, led by the military leaders Joab and Shimei. - During the reign of David these tares grew; and his successor had the task of clearing the land of Israel from them; Well, what if this lot of Solomon fell to Alexander’s successor? The difficult beginning of the reign all the more quickly shows the people what God gave them in Solomon. It was hardly possible to say more precisely than the wise Moscow Chrysostom did! Comparing Alexander with David, and Nicholas with Solomon, perhaps only he could find such a vivid comparison in the text of the Bible, and, listening to these words, Nicholas confirmed his intention to declare Philaret metropolitan on that same day. - Come, God-chosen and God-inherited sovereign emperor! The attributes of true majesty are clothed with signs of majesty. May the anointing from the saint seal all this with internal and obvious sanctification, long-lasting and eternal. After this greeting, Nikolai Pavlovich entered the Assumption Cathedral and was crowned together with his wife Alexandra Fedorovna. He sat on the diamond throne of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and the Empress sat on the golden throne of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. Sacred anointing was performed from the crab of the Roman Emperor Augustus - a carnelian cup given to Prince Vladimir Monomakh by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine. Then the sovereign kissed the large pectoral cross of Peter I, which saved him from a Swedish bullet on the field of the Battle of Poltava. After the sacrament was performed, Nicholas ascended the Red Porch and bowed to the people three times, which had not happened during previous coronations. The coronation of Nicholas was soon followed on the same day by the joyful announcement for Philaret about his elevation to the rank of Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna. So, in one day Nicholas became emperor, and Filaret became metropolitan! A very good sign! But his joys did not end there: Nicholas granted the new Metropolitan a white hood with a cross strewn with precious stones, as well as funds for the construction of a new building of the Bethany Seminary, thereby honoring the memory of the unforgettable Metropolitan Plato, whose brainchild this seminary was. In the evening, all of Moscow was magnificently illuminated, especially the Kremlin. All the towers and bell tower of Ivan the Great were burning with a bright flame; the battlements of the walls were entwined with fiery stripes, and wide patterned borders sparkled along the fences. And in the following days the illumination was repeated several times. On the evening of August 27, a ball took place in the Faceted Chamber, on September 1, a court masquerade was held at the Bolshoi Theater, and on September 3, the Moscow merchants gave a ball in honor of the sovereign. Another joy awaited Philaret during these days of national celebrations. In August, immediately after the coronation, a meeting of the Holy Synod took place in Moscow, at which he dared to again raise the issue of translating the Bible. Metropolitan Seraphim responded with a decisive refusal, and Metropolitan Eugene also supported him. But two weeks passed, and they, with the consent of the sovereign, decided to support the new Moscow metropolitan in another way - Filaret received a decree from the Synod: “Instruct Your Eminence, so that you, having reviewed the Long and Short Christian Catechisms of the Greek-Russian Church compiled by you before, compiled two books from them.” It was a breakthrough of the blockade! His catechisms are no longer prohibited! It was possible to temporarily forget about the ban on Bible translation. The king continued to shower favors. Following Filaret, he caressed his longtime acquaintance - the poet Pushkin. The one from whom Filaret once took exams. Now he was a well-known author of poetry throughout Russia, the poems “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Bakhchisarai Fountain”, the first chapter of the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” had already been published, and a total of six chapters had been written. Alexander Sergeevich was urgently summoned from the village of Mikhailovskoye, where he was serving exile. For three days and three nights he shook in the stroller without rest and on September 8 he reached Moscow. Tired, unwashed and unshaven, he was taken to the Chudov Monastery to the Tsar’s office. In my pocket is the poem “Prophet”. They talked for two hours, after which, unexpectedly for many, they parted as friends. The poet's disgrace was lifted. The king promised to be his personal censor. “Well, now you are not the old Pushkin, but my Pushkin,” Nikolai said goodbye in a friendly tone. And soon at a ball at the French ambassador he boasted to Bludov: – You know, I had a long talk with the smartest man in Russia today. Guess who? With Pushkin. He honored me with inspiration, And I, in my heartfelt emotion, This is how Alexander Sergeevich will remember this meeting in a couple of years. On September 12, already in the rank of Metropolitan, Filaret consecrated the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity at the Intercession Gate and dedicated his sermon to a very important dispute with those who said: “My church is in my soul, and therefore I do not go to church.” Filaret argued that it is impossible to enter the heavenly church, where the Lord truly dwells, without visiting earthly churches in which the sacraments are performed. - Good for those of us who have found in their hearts a pious desire to create or recreate and renew a church to the Christian God... Good for those who love the created church and willingly visit it: for he loves the work of grace, visits the abode of grace... On September 15, a folk festival dedicated to the coronation celebrations was held on the Maiden Field. What was not there! Not far from the pavilion of the imperial family there were “four galleries with columns for persons of the first three classes and the diplomatic corps; three galleries for military headquarters and chief officers, four private galleries for five thousand people, an arena, two large fountains with wine, two roller coasters, a booth for acrobats, a booth for gymnastic games, several pavilions for choirs of musicians, a carousel, various swings, a stage for releasing three balloons and, finally, 240 tables, each ten fathoms long, covered with tablecloths and beautifully decorated, strewn with apples, birch trees and multi-colored baskets with rolls. On each table were placed hams, fried birds, jellies, pastries in the form of pots of roses, whole roasted rams with gilded horns, laid out on dishes covered with red damask; buckets of beer and vodka; oak trees with plums, pears and apples. The Emperor himself opened the national holiday, arriving at the Maiden Field at one o'clock. He stayed here for about an hour and a half. As soon as the sovereign and both empresses entered the pavilion, the white flag waved and the celebration began. According to eyewitnesses, the people, like sea waves driven by the wind, rushed to the tables, on which in an instant none of the food placed on them was left. Crowds of people rushed from the tables to the fountains, gushing with white and red moisture. The fountains soon disappeared under the people who surrounded them and one by one they collapsed. Having fallen into the ruins, displacing one another, others scooped up wine with their hats. The merry fellows walked across the field, dragging with them some a chicken, some a leg of a ram, and some a table leg. Upon the emperor’s departure, the people who had been on a spree attacked the spectators’ boxes and began to tear off the red canvas. The number of people participating extended to two hundred thousand people. In general, the folk festival on the Maiden Field, given the wonderful setting of the place itself and especially the wonderful weather, was a complete success and represented a one-of-a-kind spectacle,” this is how an eyewitness described this event. The English and French ambassadors, the Duke of Devonshire and the Duke of Ragusa, celebrated with luxurious balls. At the end of the celebrations, the most magnificent ball was held, hosted by Countess Anna Orlova-Chesmenskaya, and it all ended with a grandiose fireworks display on September 23. One hundred and forty thousand rockets depicted the monograms of the king and queen in fiery letters in the black sky. From Moscow, Nikolai went to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where Metropolitan Philaret met him: - God-crowned sovereign and anointed of God!.. Here, where Demetrius Donskoy sought advice for victory, Peter the Great - for safety, many of your ancestors and predecessors - for reinforcement and encouragement of the spirit for the great exploits of the great title - here you also appear to lay the royal advice of your soul before the altar of the Trinitarian God, at the tomb of the chosen servant of God. Soon good news came from the Caucasus Mountains. The small and victorious war was over. The troops of Prince Madatov and General Ermolov defeated the Persian troops five times larger than them, lifted the siege of Shushi, liberated Elisavetpol and all of Transcaucasia. On September 28, the sovereign joyfully informed Metropolitan Philaret of the victory in the Chudov Monastery. After performing the prayer service, Filaret said a short solemn word: - Most pious Emperor! It was pleasing for God, who always trusts in Him to create victors, to immediately conclude and seal the solemn time of your sacred coronation with the triumph of victory. A new joyful sign for us is that God, graciously bowing to the prayers of yours and the Church, has effectively blessed you with both peaceful power over your people and victorious power against your enemies. With this, our hopes are strengthened more and more and our prayers receive new boldness, may God prosper you always and in everything! In a word, the solemn symphony of Nikolai Pavlovich’s coronation was a great success. But who could have known that his reign, which began with the suppression of the rebellion and a small victorious war in Transcaucasia, would end in the catastrophe of defeat in the Crimean War? So, the Nicholas era began. A fourth sovereign began to rule in Russia, under whom Vasily Drozdov, Saint Philaret of Moscow, happened to live.