IV. Обстоятельства, по которым были получаемы от Архиерея освященные антиминсы

For a more convenient indication of the circumstances under which the consecrated antimensions were received from the Bishop, we will consider these circumstances specifically, in relation to the movable and stationary antimensions. Movable antimensions are those given to camp or house churches, which are removed for a certain, known time. Sometimes on the very antimensions it was written that they were movable. In Kursk, in the bishop’s house, there is an antimension with the inscription on it: “for performing services in every place 34.” In Minsk, in the house church at the bishop’s house, there are antimensions with the inscription: “in the church in every place of his dominion 35”; “in the Church of St. Nicholas of Christ or in any place 36”; “at the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, Orthodox monastery, Surdetskaya, mobile 37.” “Antimension moving to the Stoshanina Church of the Laying (?) of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary 38. In Mogilev, in the sacristy of the cathedral, there is an antimension with the inscription: “to perform sacred acts in every place where it happens, also in the church of St. Epiphany of the Brotherhood of Polotsk monastery 39.” In the sacristy of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra there are antimensions consecrated by the Archbishops of Kherson, on which the inscription says: “movable” 40. From such nadisia it is clear that some of the antimensions were consecrated in the name of the Lord, others in the name of the Saint or the feast of the Lord. The original antimensions were movable. Such antimensions existed during the persecution of the Church of Christ from pagans and heretics and in the marching churches of Emperor Constantine the Great. They were also used during travel on the dry route and on ships 41. The antimensions were transferred from place to place, says Simeon of Thessalonica, like the ancient tabernacle, but had greater strength in comparison with it; because the living heavenly bread is sacred on them. They are given, he continues, at the discretion of the Bishop and according to need, where there is no church, also to faithful people going on a long and long journey, or to the kings themselves, so that a great sacrifice and sacrament can be performed on them (Chapter 126, New Skr. Part III, Chapter VIII, § 10). They are installed in one place and are not connected to the church; because for them the whole world is the church of God (chapter 127, ibid.). In Russia, movable antimensions are still sent to remote places where there are no churches at all. In 1858, November 16th, His Grace Eusebius, Archbishop of Irkutsk, asked St. Synod for remote places of the Irkutsk province of portable antimensions 42, and the Holy Synod allowed (December 22, 1858) “at a remote distance of some villages from the parish churches of the Irkutsk diocese, to issue movable antimensions to rural priests for performing the divine liturgy in houses of prayer and chapels” (Extracted from the report on the leading spiritual affairs of the Orthodox Church. Confession for 1858, p. 17). Not infrequently, movable antimensions were given during the reconstruction or amendment of the church to perform divine services in the chapel 43, and sometimes in the house 44. In Russia, due to the large number of churches built without extreme need, government officials have long had advice, convictions and decrees to limit the number of churches, and therefore the issuance of antimensions. Russians have always had a love of building and decorating churches 45 . They erected churches of God during joyful and sad events - after victory over enemies, after receiving miracles from an icon, recovery from illness, during famine, ulcers, attacks by enemies. Churches were built by entire communities and individuals. The so-called poor churches were built not only as parish churches, but also private ones, or, as they call them, house churches, even if they did not stand in the owner’s house, but near his house. But some were driven to build churches by the desire to express gratitude to God for the benefits they received, or to appease God when they had remorse about sins and untruths they had committed; others built churches either out of pure imitation, or out of ambition or other unclean motives. Due to the construction of the church, the church builders, either due to lack of funds to maintain the churches, or due to negligence about them; they were not kept in proper splendor and allowed to fall into disrepair. This was noticed at one time and strongly denounced by the Stoglavy Council 46. He convinced the Bishops to give permission to build churches not to everyone who asks for permission, but only to people who are sufficient and truly pious, and not to allow those who undertake the construction of a church out of a desire to be called a church builder - “he who is the creator of the church will be called.” The cathedral urged that it be better to take up the organization of previously built churches, which want to be grazed due to dilapidation or are small and undecorated” (p. 371). In the actions of the council that took place in Vilna in 1509, one can also see the expression of the council’s dissatisfaction with the needless construction of many churches 47 . But even in the 17th century I built churches, because it was not difficult to start building a church. They began to build not only a church, but also a monastery, without proper funds of their own, based on one promise. For example, the vow of a monk who did not have a fortune was respected, and at his request, wood was sent to him from the Tsar to build 48 . With such ease to begin construction, churches often stood without services. Reading the Scribe books of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, we find dozens, to say the least, of such expressions: “the church is empty”, “the church without services”, etc. (About the Pyatina and churchyards of Novgorod in the 16th century. K. A. Nevolin. Notes of the Imperial Russian. Geographical. General Book. VIII. Appendix XII and etc.). Something like house churches were churches in the deserts, built at the expense of monasteries, and sometimes churchyards. They were called exhibition churches 49. Exhibitions, being churches, had consecrated antimensions 50. The fate of many of these churches was the same as the votive house churches. According to the words of the Stoglav Cathedral, sometimes they did not reach the end of the construction for a long time, sometimes they were soon deprived of worship: “the elder will set up a cell in the forest or cut down a church, and go around the world with an icon to ask for the construction, and what he has collected, he will drink, and now he has set up an exhibition for the church, and has been there for a year, and lo and behold, it stands empty without singing” (Stoglav, ed. Kaz. Dukh. Acad., p. 63). To reduce the number of such churches, the council advised demolishing deserted churches into one desert or moving them to common old monasteries, as they can live, or moving deserted churches to churchyards next to old churches, so that they could be used as chapels near old churches (ibid., p. 373). But then at the end of the 17th century there were many such churches. This is evidenced by the Moscow Council of 1681, which saw that churches in the deserts served not to benefit the Orthodox Church, but to its harm, to the spread of schism. The cathedral forbade the construction of exhibition churches again, and ordered the former, where possible, to be converted into parish churches. 51 But since even after the resolution of the cathedral of 1681, the construction of churches similar to brownies and in hermitages did not stop; Then a series of Supreme decrees followed, limiting the construction of churches. According to the Highest Decree of 1715, on January 22nd, it was ordered, in the promise made by the Bishops when they were appointed to this rank, to include, among other things, the following: “I should not build churches beyond what is needed, for the sake of whims again, and not allow others, so that later they would not be empty, deprivations for the sake of what is appropriate according to the 84th rule of the local, like in Carthage, Council, and according to the 27th commandment of King Justinian. (Full Collection of Laws T. V, No. 2985) 52. Then in the Spiritual Regulations (in the added about monasteries, paragraph 44) it was ordered not to build again monasteries, hermitages and desert hermitages anywhere, under any circumstances, without the Highest permission. Moreover, the number of churches in the monasteries itself was limited. The Regulations say: “In each monastery there should be no more than three holy churches, that is, the cathedral, the refectory and the hospital.” (Regulations D. Add. about the monastery, paragraph 45). And regarding house churches, the Spiritual Regulations specifically prescribed that no one except the Highest Family should have a priest of the cross in a church house. (Spiritual Regulations on the laity, paragraph 7). By virtue of this decree, it was forbidden to perform divine services in such a church as, for example, Count Apraksin, which was moved from the house of his sister, the Tsarina and Grand Duchess Marfa Matfeevna and built to commemorate her. When Count Apraksin asked, due to his paralytic illness and the long distance, more than two miles from St. Isaac's Church, to be allowed to continue to perform divine services in the mentioned church; Then he was allowed, but for a while, until the holy church was built in the manner shown to the count in the manner exemplary by the architect. And that church building should be urgently conceived and built with haste, and so that he, the count, would have very diligent care about the building of that church, like a ktitor, without delaying time; and if he, the count, does not take care about that structure, and therefore sees that only a vain continuation of time is happening, then this movable church with a movable antimension and the priest will be taken. (Full. Collection of resolutions and orders according to the Department of Law. Confession, t. 1, p. 83). In the same year, 1721, the previous custom of providing movable antimensions to ships was abolished. A special reason was given for this: “on a ship, during rough seas, there is a considerable fluctuation in both the rest and the spilling of things, which is why sometimes a spillage happens, as can happen to the Most Pure Mysteries celebrated in the liturgy, which can be observed, even if the clergy were careful in every way according to their position, the case will not allow the necessary great excitement, also the frequent dismantling of the altar, according to what happens in need does not happen without damage, and there is a great danger in keeping these Mysteries: for according to the holy rule, if anything from the Holy Mysteries is spilled through negligence, the clergyman is deprived of his dignity, and moreover, the Christian position itself forces these Holy Mysteries, as the most holy thing, to be observed and preserved in every possible way, lest any of them be spilled; those who do not keep this sin mortally. For this reason, the Holy Governing Synod, by general agreement, decided to be content in the fleet, in addition to the liturgy (which, due to its importance, being performed there is dangerous), other church services, and those performed without an antimension; and for which there is a greater need, that is, for communion, a liturgy is required, those who require it can be granted, even without such an extremely dangerous liturgy on a ship, with the spare Holy Mysteries, which are always available to priests found in the fleet. (Poly. Collected post, and arrangement according to the ved. legal. isp. T. 1, p. 178). Finally, in April 1722, on the 12th day, a special order followed, by which “those found in Moscow from noble persons in the houses of the church were ordered to be completely abolished, so that gentlemen, as determined by the Spiritual Regulations, would go to parish churches, and if elderly people cannot go to church, but demand to listen to the liturgy, then have them with the blessing of the synodal in their own chambers the antimensions, with the decoration required for priestly service, the tokmob, the tops of those chambers did not have any abolition from the others, and at other times, in the absence or upon the repose of those persons, when the antimensions were taken to the Synod, these chambers were free for home use (Full. Collected Laws. T. VI, No. 3964). According to this decree and according to the Rules of Procedure, the Holy Synod ordered November 1722 14th: “Abolish the house churches, let all sacred services and church singing be idle, and seal them with the synodal seal.” They are in the same year 1722 December 11th and sealed. (Case Arch St. Sin. 1737 No. 107). After the closure of the churches, on the basis of the mentioned decree, there were petitions to reopen them; and Theodosius, Archbishop of Novgorod, synodal vice-president, verbally announced the nominal decree of His Imperial Majesty, dated 1723 October 5th day, which allowed noble persons, due to their infirmities, which prevented them from going to parish churches, to have movable antimensions in their house chambers; according to the synodal consideration, the tokmob with those antimensions did not have their own church clergy, but the priests of those parishes would perform the ministry. (Case Archives of the Holy Synod of 1737 April 20th, No. 107 and Complete. Collection of Laws. T. VII, No. 4320). To fulfill this decree, the Holy Synod in 1725 on April 14th ordered the Spiritual Dicastery that the gentlemen located in Moscow should be sealed in their church houses, and the gentlemen who, due to their weakness, asked to open the churches and allow parish priests and their vicars to serve, the Spiritual Dicastery would allow with such an obligation that in those sealed churches only parish priests would serve. priests and clerics and their vicars, and only on the days of great holidays and on Sundays, except for weekday and poor holidays, and that other strangers and visitors from estates and other similar priests with clerics in these churches should not be allowed to serve in the priesthood at all, and that after conducting divine services, the parish priests should have those churches under their own locks and seal. But the Spiritual Dicastery cannot, without a resolution of the Holy Synod, allow petitioners to open a church. (Case No. 107). – It was also almost confirmed during the reign of Empress Catherine I. By decree and determination of the Holy Synod, Oct. On the 14th day of 1725, the church was allowed to open the houses and correct the clergy in them, as long as these infirm persons lived here. These persons were required to have a written undertaking that for worship they would have priests with the clergy of the real parish churches or whom they would send from their vicars from the same parish churches, and that they would not allow priests of the cross and other outsiders from their estates to come and other similar priests, and that the parish priests would maintain those house churches. (Case of Arch. St. Syn. 1737, April 20th, No. 107 and Complete. Collection of Laws. Vol. VII, No. 4320). After 37 years had passed after the opening of churches, a decree was again issued prohibiting the having of house churches. Just as the establishment of many house churches in Moscow attracted the attention of Emperor Peter I, so a large number of house churches in St. Petersburg caused a decree about them under Emperor Peter III. It was forbidden to build house churches again without the Highest permission, and those that were then ordered to be examined; at what time, by whose permission and for what persons were they built: In 1762, on March 5th, the Holy Synod issued the Highest Decree with the following content: “As much as it is necessary for the direct true piety of the faith to build churches of God for the offering of bloodless sacrifices, so much more should the cathedrals and parish churches built in general for everyone be preserved with appropriate splendor; for it is not multiplication, but decorum and maintenance that is useful, which depends on the number of parishioners and willing alms givers required; and since here in St. Petersburg a large number of churches have been built in the houses of particular people, one cannot even hope that the national cathedrals and churches will be preserved with due piety, because everyone takes care of his own, and not of the general, and for this His Imperial Majesty deigned to command the Most Holy Synod, about this, according to your position, immediately consider His Imperial Majesty present, and henceforth, without the permission of His Imperial Majesty, it will not be allowed to build churches in private houses, according to which His Imperial Majesty's Highest decree regarding the towns located here. St. Petersburg in the particular houses of churches, after due consideration by the Holy Governing Synod, to submit to His Imperial Majesty, and as for the fact that from now on, without the permission of His Imperial Majesty, no churches will be built in the particular houses, then about it also, so that from all places about the number of churches still existing in the particular houses, and especially about those consisting of Moscow, detailed statements were sent to the Holy Synod for consideration, indicating when they were built, and by whose permission and for which persons” (Poln. sobr. zavon, vol. XV, no. 11,460). As a result of the same Highest decree, a register of house churches in St. Petersburg was sent to the Holy Synod from Archbishop Benjamin of St. Petersburg, March 6, 1762 (see it further in the appendix). The Holy Synod, having received this register, decided, by the decision of March 7, 1762, to present from the Holy Synod to His Imperial Majesty a report with the synodal opinion that although “this is the construction of secular people in the particular houses of churches, even in former times the Spiritual Regulations were renounced, and it is unnecessarily and reproachfully respected, and no one should have them in their private houses are not allowed; but still named blessed and eternal glory worthy of the memory of the Sovereign Emperor Peter the Great, April 12, 1722 and October 14, 1723, by decrees, noble persons, in case of old age and infirmity, are not allowed to go to church, as a result of which such permissions from the diocesan unconsecrated Bishops were given, and such in the particular houses of various persons of churches here in S. St. Petersburg, according to the synodal member, the Most Reverend Veniamin, Archbishop of St. Petersburg, according to the permission of the former St. Petersburg Bishops, there are thirty in number; for the sake of which of these persons is allowed to have a church in their particular houses, or whether everyone will be generally renounced, it depends on His Highest Imperial Majesty’s permission, for which, for the sake of that information, for His Highest Imperial Majesty’s discretion, to present a copy with that report, and as for henceforth, without the permission of His Imperial Majesty in particular churches were not built, about this, confirming decrees should be sent from the Synod to all dioceses to the Bishops so that, from all places about the number of churches still existing in the partial houses, and especially those located in Moscow, detailed statements would be sent to the Synod for consideration, indicating when they were built, and by whose permission, and for which persons.” (Case of the architect of the Holy Synod of March 6, 1762, No. 113). As a result of this, a list of house churches was sent to the Holy Synod, April 23, 1762, from His Eminence of Moscow, which shows 63 churches 53 . But the aforementioned decree of Peter III on the closure of house churches did not last long. Empress Catherine II, soon after her accession to the throne, abolished it. Of the same 1762, July 17th, the Holy Governing Synod was informed from the Governing Senate about Her Imperial Majesty's mercy to the loyal subjects regarding the churches of God - about the Highest Manifesto, given on the 6th of July, which was allowed to be printed in different houses of the church, sealed during the reign of the former Emperor Peter the Third - was it is allowed to have them, where they were sealed before, and henceforth, if someone in his church house, due to the weakness of his health, asks, then this Holy Synod was pleased to act according to its own or the diocesan bishops’ consideration, by virtue of the laws (Poln. Collected Laws. vol. XVI, No. 11612). Soon after receiving such permission (on the 28th day of September in 1764), a member of the Holy Governing Synod, His Eminence Timothy, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kaluga, raised the question of in what rank persons could be allowed to build house churches and give movable antimensions. He apparently believed that only the first 4th grade should be allowed. He wrote to the Holy Synod that “persons of the nobility living in Moscow demand permission to give them and build house churches with movable antimensions for the sick, among which petitioners, as it appears from the affairs carried out in my consistory, there are many persons of the 6th, 7th, and some 8th classes, and as in the above-mentioned Her Imperial The Majesty's decree, from which class and according to which such noble persons (who were ordered to have movable antimensions in their homes by the Most High) should be honored, is not depicted, then in the giving and construction of the said house churches shown to the applicants for permission, except for the first four classes, it turns out to be hesitant, but to refuse that demand of theirs, without having the exact generation from the Holy Governing Synod, it is not possible, which is why such house churches in Moscow have multiplied greatly, and the persons who received those churches, so that the real parish churches would have the same zeal for their splendor, are not hopeful, for the sake of the Holy Governing Synod, by virtue of the decree prescribed in October 1723, on the 5th day of the year (who were ordered to give permission to repair the movable antimensions according to synodal consideration), mainly about the above-mentioned consideration by this report, and which classes of persons, who, according to the force of the prescribed nominal decree, should be used by house churches, I have to wait for the decree command, and before receiving it, in the case of the prescribed mobile antimensions requirements, except for the first four classes, with the permission of the others I have to withhold.” (Case of the Arch. St. Synod 1764 Oct. 6th, No. 85). The Holy Synod responded to this, on November 3, 1764, to His Eminence Timothy, with a decree in which he wrote that His Eminence would “give permission to applicants to have house churches, not by class, but for those who have, for whom it is not possible to travel to parish churches, due to illness or extreme illness; old age, acted with such consideration as in the above-mentioned personal decree of the Sovereign Emperor Peter the Great was prescribed without fail.” (Ibid.). In 1800, on the 24th day of September, there followed the Highest prohibition for diocesan bishops to allow the construction of house and non-parish churches without first submitting this to the Holy Synod (Poln. Sobr. Zak., vol. XXVI, No. 19572). But on July 29, 1865, by the Highest command, he himself, except for the capitals, was allowed to authorize the construction of churches. Permission to build a house church was given to a famous person only until his death. What was written about with permission 54. If, after the death of a person who was allowed to have a home church, his relatives wanted to have that church with them; then they entered with a new request for permission 55. But even during the life of a person who was allowed to have a house church, sometimes the church was abolished and the antimension was taken away if the church was not maintained in proper splendor 56 Fixed antimensions are those that are appointed for a permanent church, built for a certain time. The name of the fixed antimensions is found in their very inscriptions. We see this on many antimensions of Western provinces. It was written on them: “at the Church of the Ascension of the Lord in the Orthodox monastery of Evensk, motionless” 57 “to the Church of St. Onuphrius of the Abroad Zhibotinsky Monastery, motionless” 58; “to the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the village of the great Bochlevka, the toil of the Kiev-Voznesensky nunnery is motionless” 59; “to the church of the supreme holy apostles Peter and Paul in the town of Turov, the archtopopia of Turov, motionless” 60; “to the church of the Holy Great Martyr George Protopopia of Davydgorod, abroad, in the town of Davydgorod, motionless” 61; “to the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the foreign monastery of Bresk, motionless” 62; “to the Church of the Epiphany on the great altar in the Pinsk monastery, motionless” 63: “to the church of the saints and great kings and Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helena at the chapel of the Orthodox Vilna monastery, motionless” 64; “in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ Protopopia Petrikovskaya in the town of Petrikov, motionless” 65; “in the Church of St. Nicholas of Christ on the left side in the border of the supreme apostles Peter and Paul motionless” 66; “in the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit of the Archpriest of Slutsk, the village of Slobodki, attributed to the Transfiguration of the Lord in Staritskaya Fundusheva. Given on the 15th day of March 1789” 67. When there was a need for motionless antimensions; then they were placed in churches, mostly newly consecrated ones. There were fewer cases when the previous antimension was placed in the church - it was already in that church during the liturgy. In each newly built church, a new fixed antimension was installed. The exceptions are churches of the same faith. The imaginary Old Believers, wishing to join the Orthodox Church on certain conditions, in a petition to the Moscow Metropolitan Plato, among other things, decided the following point: “for the Old Believers to consecrate the churches to Your Eminence according to old printed books or, with the blessing of Your Eminence, to the Old Believer priests, and let there be antimensions consecrated under the Patriarchs: Job, Hermogen, Philalere, Joasaph and Joseph, or re-consecrated to be by Your Eminence according to the old printed books and depicted as shown in the old printed Consumer Book.” (Collection of resolutions regarding the schism. St. Petersburg, 1858, p. 13. – Also in the book: A fellow believer’s response to an Old Believer to his objections. St. Petersburg 1857, pp. 120, 121). This condition was accepted by them and, together with others, was approved by the Highest on the 27th day of October 1800. (Full Collection of Holy Laws, vol. XXVI, No. 19621) 68. And to this day, when consecrating churches of the same faith, an ancient antimension is placed from the cathedrals or bishops' houses preserved in the churches, and - in the name of that saint or feast in whose name the new church was built. (Case of the Archives of the Holy Synod 1841 No. 693). A new antimension was prescribed for the consecration of the church and after alterations in it, if the church was consecrated after them in a new, and not in the previous name of a saint or holiday. The previous antimension in this case did not correspond to the church. Changes in the name of the church were not uncommon 69. There was a case when the new antimension turned out to be inappropriate for the church, when, during the consecration of the church, the antimension was placed in the name of a different saint, in whose name the church was before, and when such a consecration was recognized as “a matter bypassing St. apostle and saint father". In such a special circumstance, it was ordered not only to change the antimension, but, by laying a new one in the name of the former saint, to consecrate the church again with the antimension in place 70. A new consecrated antimension was sent to the church even if the church was consecrated after it had been desecrated by pagans or heretics. The Teaching News says: “If the church is desecrated by pagan violence, or by heretical or apostate violence, or if an obvious heretic is buried there, let the priest not dare to liturgisate, but he will cleanse it with a special episcopal blessing, and usually the church will be hallowed: without the blessing to serve, he will sin mortally and suffer episcopal punishment.” will be (Known. Teaches about how things are worthy of being kept by the Priest before service and in service). At the same time, we believe there was a new antimension. Thus, in the Orshina monastery, Tver province, the Church of the Ascension of the Lord was consecrated several times on the occasion of its desecration by enemies. This is evidenced by the antimensions found in 1848 in the Orshina monastery 71. Similarly, Metropolitan Philaret of Rostov, with a letter of 1608, allowed the Yuryev Cathedral Archpriest to consecrate the church in the Kirzhatsky Monastery, devastated by military men, ordering a new consecrated antimension to be given for consecration 72. If, after the enemy desecration of the church, out of necessity, it happened to perform a service, without the blessing of the bishop and without a new antimension, then this was considered a misdemeanor 73. A new antimension was sent even when, after alterations, amendments, a new altar was made 74. After the transfer of the church, the throne, from one place to another, it was previously customary 75, in this case, to give the churches new antimensions, on the basis of the rules found in the previous Trebniks, according to which, after the correction of the throne, which required the removal of the srachitsa, a new antimension was placed on the throne. In Joseph’s Trebnik there is “The Order of the Shattered Holy Meal,” which says: “If it is impossible to repair the columns (of the meal) without removing the shirt with the antimension, then remove the rope and the shirt with the antimension from the throne and having repaired the columns, and the deck, and the rest of the promised, and the whole is prepared, to sanctify the church with sanctification for all, just as the new one church. Place the shirt and rope and indium, even if it is hard, which was previously on the throne. The former antimins should be placed in a column, under the throne deck, and placed on the shirt; new antimins. But from the time when divine services began to be performed according to the corrected Trebnik, the former altar, after it was transferred from one church to another, was consecrated on the previous antimension. Thus, the Holy Synod allowed the synodal member, Archimandrite of the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, that along the Peterhof road, Gideon to transfer to the church he built with a meal from the dilapidated wooden church in the name of the wonderworker Sergius, the former consecrated antimension, also the throne, holy images and other church utensils, and on that antimension consecrate a new church with the same name. (Case of the arch. St. Sin. May 22, 1758, document No. 1284). If, during the correction of the throne, the srachitka was not removed; then, according to Joseph’s Trebnik, the antimins remained on the throne as before 76. According to the newly revised Trebnik, it was allowed to consecrate churches on the previous antimensions even if the srachita was removed from the throne for some reason 77, for example, due to fear of a fire that happened near the church 78. The new consecrated antimension was placed on the throne even when the old one fell into disrepair. In the Teaching News, printed with the book “Rule” and with the Service Book, it is instilled in the Priests that they should not serve on a holey, torn and completely dilapidated and faded antimension, and the Bishops are instructed to change the old antimension with new ones. However, regarding the change of antimensions on the thrones, their dilapidation was certainly required. In the decree of 1742, October 79, and in the Highest approved report of the former commission on ecclesiastical estates of 1765, February 17, it was ordered: “the antimensions, unless absolutely necessary, that is, until the antimensions become dilapidated, and without a request, the bishops should not voluntarily change them.” There was sometimes a custom that a newly appointed Bishop would change the antimensions in churches upon his entry into the diocese. This custom seems to have been indicated in the charter of Metropolitan Jonah (1449–1460). He, speaking about the duties of the Vicar of Kyiv, wrote to him: “The holy antimensions of Christ of God are re-consecrated, and the old ones are confirmed in the name of our humility, for the glory of God” (Act. History vol. 1, no. 48, p. 97) 80. And now sometimes in other churches the antimension is changed when a new Bishop enters the diocese. Thus, in the Poltava Diocesan Gazette, for 1870, No. 16, August 15th, when describing the Poltava Cathedral of the Assumption Cathedral and the thrones and antimensions in it, it is said that there are five thrones in the cathedral church, namely: a) the main altar in the name of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Holy Antimension on it is replaced by the Bishop ruling the flock” (p. 681). This antimension is described as follows: “For the performance of services in every place, consecrated by the Right Reverend Bishop Paul of Dalmatia, under the King of Poland Zhekgimont. 1614" (Case of the Arch. Holy Synod of 1841 No. 639, p. 142). Antimension on canvas, consecrated by Isaiah Kopinsky, Archbishop of Smolensk and Patriarchal Exarch of the whole north. 1631 August 6. The signature under the antimension is as follows: “Isaiah Metropolitan of Kiev, by the hand of authority.” (Case of the Arch. of the Holy Synod of 1841 No. 693. Antimens No. 2). Antimension on canvas, consecrated by His Grace Athanasius of Shumlyansky, Orthodox Bishop of Lutsk and Ostros, Protopropius of the Kiev Metropolis, September 1687, 26. (Ibid., antimension No. 33). Antimension on canvas, consecrated by Metropolitan Archbishop of Kyiv, Galicia and All Russia, Varlaam, March 24, 1692. The signature under the antimension is: “by the hand of authority.” (Ibid., antiminsa No. 46). Antimension on canvas, 1726. It is not indicated by whom it was consecrated. Signed: “Theophan the Bishop.” (Ibid., antiminsa No. 109). This antimension (altar) on polished canvas was celebrated during the reign of John and Peter Alexievich by Patriarch Joachim, 1685. September 8 days (ibid., antiminsa No. 15). See below for the description of the antimensions of the sacristy of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, which have figure No. 12. See about this the above words (p. 16) of John of Kithra. He wrote among other things: “The Archbishop of Kamchatka, His Grace Innocent, informed him that in the Kamchatka diocese, with the permission of St. Synod, such antimensions are issued to priests, and there are already more than 50 houses of prayer and chapels, where priests, arriving with antimensions and necessary accessories, conveniently perform divine services, to the consolation and edification of Orthodox Christians. The Most Reverend Innocent finds this method to be the best in comparison with camp churches. The construction of camp churches is inconvenient because a church in a tent and in the summer requires funds for transportation and for placing it in various places; and in winter, in those places, with severe frosts, it is completely impossible to use it. Moreover, the establishment of a camp church would require significant funds (Case Archives of the Holy Synod, November 15, 1858, no. For example, in the report of His Eminence Platon, Bishop of Astrakhan and Stavropol, St. The Governing Synod was told that the ruler of the post of Saratov and Voronezh governor-general, lieutenant general and cavalier Chertkov reported, on March 1788, and His Eminence Nikifor, the former Archbishop of Astrakhan, firstly, about the personal order of Her Imperial Majesty that followed to him of the same year on January 18th, about the construction of the Bolshoy Uzen River of the city and the appointment of a priest there from the city of Tsaritsyn, and demanded the appointment of such a priest; As a result, a priest from the Tsaritsyn Transfiguration Church with one cleric was assigned there. Then, in the year 790, March 8th, informing that in the plan confirmed by the Highest for that city, a church was built there, and that from him, Lieutenant General and Cavalier Chertkov, before its construction, it was determined for the first time to build a wooden chapel, he asked for permission to transfer to it from the Saratov Governor General's house a marching iconostasis and a holy antimension, in the name of the saint Great Martyr Catherine; why was it transferred there through the Saratov archpriest in the same year, and according to the decree it was allowed to perform sacred acts in the prepared building. The said Lieutenant General and Cavalier Chertkov, as it was reported from the aforementioned Saratov archpriest, supplied this new church with the necessary utensils. (Case of the Arch. of the Holy Synod of 1795, October 29, No. 79. For similar see in the East. Moscow Eparch. Administrative part. 2, book 1, note 287, p. 76, and part 2, book 2, note 327, p. 83). Thus, parishioners of the Dorpat Orthodox Church, on May 2, 1842, explained to St. Synod that, on the occasion of alterations in the church, they will remain without worship until the end of the work, which can continue until the month of October, for the nearest church to them, Nosovskaya, is located 45 miles from Dorpat, such remoteness presented for them very important difficulties in performing marriages, and why they asked for a movable antimension to be delivered to them, to perform divine services in a building hired for this purpose home; then St. The Synod, as a result of such a petition, sent an antimension to Dorpat on June 15, 1842, and on June 21 of the same year the clergy of the Dorpat Assumption Church consecrated a temporary house church according to church rites (Case of the Arch. of the Holy Synod of 1842 No. 2813). The origin of this love is explained in this way: nowhere is the piety and religious feeling of a person manifested with such completeness as in the church, where a person, as it were, most closely feels the presence of the Divine and enters into spiritual union with him. But this thought, which in itself is correct, given the insufficient mental development of the Russian person, with his childish, simple-minded view of things and the objects of piety, should naturally have led him to the conviction that in the matter of piety the most important thing is to have as many churches as possible... The many private churches, especially among gentlemen and other important persons, are explained by another historical circumstance - the then state of family life in high society, where women lived in closed sections and were not open to anyone. showed up... Posevin notes that in his time, noble women and girls almost never appeared in parish churches, except on Easter, when they received communion (Posevin, p. 279 - 280). – (The religious life of Russians according to foreign writers of the 17th and 17th centuries. Lev Rushinsky. Readings in Imi. total ist. and ancient 1871 books 3, pp. 60, 61). In the rules of the Stoglavy Cathedral we read: it is appropriate for the bishop to be the bishop of anyone in his area who violates the sacred rules and does not allow worldly people to build new churches, but despises old churches and does not hold them in violation. Many people do not build the church for the sake of God, but for the sake of vanity and pride and revenge for the sake of their wives; Nice people are confused by dreams and deceived by demons, they lie and take vows on themselves, and for this they want to build churches and erect prayer churches, and cannot satisfy those holy places with holy icons and books and candles and serving priests and deacons and other clerics; Even if at first they are able, and after a little while they become poor and stand empty; therefore they do not create for God’s sake, but for the sake of vanity.” (Stoglav. Publishing house Kaz. D. Acad., p. Z69). It says about churches that stand without priests and without singing: “And which prince, or boyar, on his estates will keep the church in neglect, and without a priest, for three months, twelve weeks; Otherwise, we should send a priest on our own to that church, for the praise of God and the correction of the faith of Orthodox Christians, living and dead. (Act. History vol. 1, no. 298, p. 528). In the royal charter of 1604, June 26, given to the Verkhoturg governor Pleshcheev and head Khlopov, about the release of forests to the black priest Jonah to build a monastery in Verkhoturye, it is said: “The black priest Jonah beat us with his forehead, and said: he vowed to build a monastery in Verkhoturye in the name of the holy wonderworker Nicholas and St. passion-bearer of Boris and Gleb; and he, according to his promise, having taken our forest from you, erected churches, but for the completion of this he has nowhere to take the forest and timber” (Act. Ist. vol. 2, No. 48), and he was supplied with forest. In the history of the Russian Hierarchy it is said that this monastery of the Perm province was completed in 1615. During the fires that occurred in 1616 and 1762, all the manuscripts were destroyed along with the building; That's why there is no information about him. But, according to the legend of the old-timers, before the first fire there were four thrones in it (in whose name there were two thrones, we see this from the charter). In 1704, on September 12th, the relics of St. were transferred to the monastery. righteous Simeon, found in 1695. (Ist. Ross. Hierarch. vol. III, p. 531). The name “exhibition” meant a village built from another village, as if its colony (K. A. Nevolina, About Pyatina and Novgorod churchyards in the 16th century. Notes of the Russian Imperial Geography. General Book VIII, St. Petersburg, pp. 101, 107, etc.). Churches - exhibition-deserts formerly had undeniable importance as the leading settlements of a people spreading to all countries, but during the time of the Stoglavy Cathedral they lost this significance (Rules. Sobes. 1855, part III. Resolutions of the ancient Russian Church regarding churches, p. 175). But still they existed. In the Bogomolny letter, March 10, 1676, Cornelius Metropolitan of Novgorod and Veliko-Lutsk on Vaga, about the commemoration of Tsar Alexy Mikhailovich, it is said: and in Vrazheskaya throughout the entire district, in all quarters, to monasteries and churchyards and to the exhibitions of our diocese, they sent about this memory from themselves, so that in all monasteries and churchyards and exhibitions they commemorated the churches” (Acts of Arch. Expedition. vol. IV, No. 214, p. 290). When Metropolitan Macarius, in 1551 (7059), with the entire council, imposed a different tax on antimensions than the previous one, he also affected the antimensions given to exhibition churches. In the royal charter of 1641 it is said that “in the summer of 7059, Macarius Metropolitan of All Rus' with the Archbishops and Bishops and with the entire consecrated cathedral laid out: they were ordered to take half a half for the antimension from the old churches, and five altyns from the exhibition from the new churches” (Act. Arch. Expedition. vol. III, No. 306, p. 453). In the proposal of the council (13), the members of the council said: “many monks, male and female, do not want to be under obedience to their mentors, move away from the monasteries and begin to live in the forests, and little by little they take in the same disobedient people, and set up chapels, and serve prayer services, and then beat their foreheads about the letters of the Holy Patriarch, and from the Bishops, about the construction on those places of churches, and call them deserts, and in those newly built deserts church singing is not performed according to correct books, and for this many people come to them and settle close to them, and have them as sufferers, and from this opposition grows against the holy church: and so that the great lord, holy Joachim, the Sovereign is struck with the brow by the Metropolitans, Archbishops, so that the great Sovereign he mercifully decided to consider the bishop’s rank, and did not indicate the release of his Sovereign’s letters on the construction of the hermitages again; and they will transfer those deserts, in which the settlement of worldly people is close, into monasteries, and in those places they will build parish churches. And we affirm this proposal collectively, so be it.” (Act. Ist. vol. 5, No. 75, p. 117). Now in the Rite of Confession and Promise of the Bishop, which has been corrected, on behalf of St. Synod, the late Philaret: Metropolitan of Moscow (Extracted from the report on the leading spiritual affairs of the Orthodox Confession for 1856, p. 49), this was excluded from the bishop’s promise. The register of house churches (57 in number), compiled later in 1775, by order of Metropolitan Platov, was published in the History of the Moscow Diocesan Administration. Op. N. Rozov. 1870, part III, book. I, note. Z6, page 12. For example, on the 29th day of October 1796, the Holy Governing Synod, having listened to the report of His Eminence Demetrius, Bishop of Smolensk, with the prescription of the petition submitted to him this year in the month of August from the widow Colonel Irina Vasilyeva, Voevodskaya’s daughter, ordered: the widow Irina Vasilyeva Voevodskaya in her house in the inner comfortable peace, and not especially, a house church with with a movable antimension, in consideration of her old age, which prevents her from going to the parish church every day, to arrange and maintain only her until death, to allow, on this exact basis about that church itself and about the correction of the priesthood in it, as was ordered by the decree of the 5th day of October 1723, and on the roof of the chamber where this church will be placed, there will be no abolition from the other chambers, by virtue of the nominal the same 722nd year April 12th day of the decree, not to do, making sure that that peace is not surrounded by any obscenities, in the event of the death of her, Colonel Voevodskaya, this church, by virtue of the same Highest decree, is to be abolished, and the holy antimension is taken to the bishop's house, and church utensils and priestly vestments are given to the parish church, to which the heirs of her Voivodskaya will agree. And about this to send a decree to the Eminence of Smolensk (Case Archives of the Holy Synod, 1796 September 12, No. 122). For example, in 1795, on the 27th day of October, His Eminence Demetrius, Bishop of Smolensk, reported to the Holy Synod that, according to the decree of February 1788, on the 24th day, his predecessor, the late Eminence Parthenius, Bishop of Smolensk, at the request of Major General Thekla Danilova, daughter of Lesleva, allowed her to have for priestly service in the house of her granddaughter, the collegiate assessor widow Varvara Vasilyeva, daughter of Engelgard, consisting of the Smolensk governorship and district, in the village of Krasnogorye, a house church with a movable aptimin, in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos. Last year, 795, in the month of April, on the occasion of a fire in this house, and those chambers in which the said church was located were damaged, which is why the antimension was taken to the Smolensk bishop's sacristy, and the church utensils remained under the care of the aforementioned assessor Engelgardova. And at the same time, a petition was heard from the widow of Colonel Anna Vasilyeva Golovina, in which she presented that, due to her widowhood, she lives in the house of her own sister, the aforementioned assessor Engelgardova, and explaining that due to her middle age, as well as her mentioned sister, the widow assessor Engelgardova, travel to the parish church is burdensome, but the church from the above-mentioned the former church in this house, which consisted of a movable aitimins, all the utensils were intact, for this they asked permission to leave this church for both of them in that sister’s house as before, and for the return of St. antiminsa. Why did the Holy Synod determine: and sent to the Most Reverend Demetrius, Bishop of Smolensk, on the 16th day of April 1796, the decree prescribed: in consideration of the petitioner's middle age and the burdensome passage to the parish church, she left in the house of her sister, the collegiate assessor widow Varvara Engelgardova, with a movable antimins It is still permissible for both of them to leave the church in the same house, but after their death it is irrevocably abolished. (Case of the Arch. Holy Synod No. 78) For example, in a report from His Eminence Theoktist, Bishop of Belgorod and Kursk to the Holy Governing Synod it is said: “on this December 11th day (1787), the Kharkov spiritual board sent to me with an additional document presented that the district of Valkovsky, in the settlement of the state Ogultsy, the chambers of the brigadier Sofia Kapnistova, in which, by permission, the past On the 17th day of January 1766, the Most Reverend Porfiry Bishop, a church with a fixed (?) antimension was built, it became very dilapidated, so that the walls were completely damaged and came apart in the corners, in which there is a great leak, which is why the priesthood cannot be corrected, and there is not the slightest care for it; This same brigadier, having left the house in which the church is located, lives in Little Russia; for this purpose, for these blessed circumstances, the consistory determined, and I approved, the removal from the mentioned house church of the iconostasis, sacred vessels and all church utensils to the parish settlement of the Intercession Church and the taking, by decree of St. The Governing Synod of July 28, 1771, the holy antimension to the bishop's sacristy, dismantling the holy altar and altar, abolishing this house church, and turning the chambers into residential ones, about which I respectfully report to the Holy Governing Synod. (Case of the Arch. Holy Synod 1788 Jan. 12, No. 71). Antimens on canvas 1692 March 24th. Consecrated by the Orthodox Archbishop, Metropolitan of Kyiv, Galicia and All Russia Varlaam. Signature: “by the hand of power.” Antimins without relics (Case of the architect at the Holy Synod of 1841 No. 693. Chronological register of antimins of the Minsk diocese. Antimins No. 47). Antimension on canvas, September 11, 1749, consecrated by the Orthodox Archbishop. Metropolitan Timothy of Kyiv and Galicia. Signed: “the highly named Timothy Metropolitan.” Antimins without relics. (Ibid antiminsa No. 276). Antimension on canvas, November 2, 1749, consecrated by the Orthodox Archbishop, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia Timothy. Signature: “the most named Timothy, Metropolitan by the hand of authority.” Antimins without relics. (Ibid antiminsa No. 278). Antimension on canvas, 1750 November 6th, consecrated by the Orthodox Archbishop, Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia Timothy. Signed: the above-named Timothy Metropolitan by the hand of authority.” After the signature it is written: “Humble Gabriel. By the grace of God, Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia. January 23rd, 1778. Antimension with relics.” (Ibid. Antimension No. 281). Antimension on canvas, April 12, 1751, consecrated by the Orthodox Archbishop, Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia Timothy. Signature: “the highly named Metropolitan Timothy with a powerful hand.” Antimins without relics. (Ibid antiminsa No. 327). Antimension on canvas, April 7, 1756, consecrated by the Orthodox Archbishop, Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia Timothy. Signature: “the highly named Metropolitan Timothy by the hand of authority.” Antimins without relics. (Ibid antiminsa No. 337). Antimension on canvas, September 30, 1759, consecrated by the Orthodox Archbishop, Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia Arseny. Signature: “the above-named humble Metropolitan of Arsenia.” Antimins with relics. (Ibid antiminsa No. 368). Antimens on canvas. Consecrated by the Orthodox Archbishop, Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia Arseny; The year 1700 is printed in Slavic letters, but the exact year, month and date are not indicated. Signature: “the above-named Metropolitan of Arsenia.” Antimins without relics. (Ibid. No. 370). Antimension on canvas, February 1763; no day specified. Consecrated by the Orthodox Archbishop, Metropolitan Arseny. Signed: “the above-named humble Metropolitan Arseny.” Antimins without relics. (Ibid. No. 399). Antimension on canvas, 1785 September 23rd, consecrated by the Right Reverend Victor, Bishop of Pereyaslavl and Borispol, Coadjutor of the Metropolis of Kiev and the Holy Trinity Slutsk Monastery, Archimandrite. Signed: “The above-named humble Bishop Victor Sodkovsky.” Antimins without relics. (Ibid. No. 512). Until 1800, it was allowed to consecrate Old Believer churches in several places in Russia and perform divine services in them using old printed books. Such permission was given to the Old Believers - in 1790 in the Tauride province (in the Korsun Mother of God monastery), in August 1798 to the Novotorzhsky merchants; in the same year in October to the Old Believers of the Verkhneudinsk district; December . St. Petersburg, in the house of the merchant Milov; December of the city of Tver and surrounding villages (Meetings of resolutions regarding the schism. St. Petersburg, 1858, pp. 743 – 768). When permission was given to consecrate these churches, no mention was made of the use of ancient (i.e., before Patriarch Nikon) antimensions. The antimension is briefly mentioned only in the permission given to the St. Petersburg Old Believers: “to establish a church, providing it with an antimension.” Thus, in the Tver scribe books of 1635, two chapels are indicated in the cathedral in the village of Mikulino Gorodishche, at the main altar: 1) with the name of St. Gregory the Theologian and 2) St. Demetrius of Selunsky. They were renamed in 1655: the first - in honor of the Entry of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the other - in the name of St. Great Martyr Barbara. (Russian antiquity. 1853. Moscow. Year 4, p. 76). In the Tver Dormition Zheltikov Monastery in the cathedral church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, originally built by St. Arseny (d. 1409), the chapel on the right side was in the name of the Image Not Made by Hands; then, by decree of Patriarch Nikon, it was consecrated in the name of St. Arseny (Historical and statistical description of the Tver Assumption Zheltikov Monastery, Archimandrite Plato. Tver 1852, p. 23). In the Kostroma Ipatievsky Monastery in 1586 there were two churches above the saints and the former entrance gates, one in the name of Theodore Stratelates, whose namesake was Tsar Theodore Ioannovich; and the other in the name of the martyr Irina, whose namesake was Queen Irina.... These churches after the Lithuanian invasion were empty for a long time and without singing; during the reign of the Tsars John Alekseevich and Peter Alekseevich, they were resumed again, and in gratitude for the great benefits rendered by these Tsars, the monastery was consecrated, one in the name of John the Baptist and the Baptist of the Lord, and the other in the name of the supreme Apostles Peter and Paul (Description of the Kostroma Ipatiev Monastery. M. 1832, p. 27). In the Voronezh Alekseevsky Akatov Monastery in 1835, after the restoration of the iconostasis in the lower church of St. Alexei Metropolitan in the chapel of the teacher. Anthony and Theodosius, the renovated church of St. Alexei Metropolitan by Archbishop Anthony and renamed in the name of St. Mitrofan, the first Bishop of Voronezh. (Decree of 1835, November 4th and report of 1839, September 15th. See Description. Voronezh. Alekseevsk. Akatov Mizhsk. Monastery. Voronezh. 1859, pp. 14 and 15). This circumstance is stated in the letter of Patriarch Philaret (7128–1620) to the abbot of the Vologda Elias Monastery Serapion. Here is this letter: “From the Great Lord and Sovereign, His Holiness Philaret, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, to the Vologda Ilyinsky Monastery to Abbot Serapion: Vologda Archpriest Vasily will inform us that previously you had in the Ilyinsky Monastery the church of Varlaam of Khutyn, the Novgorod miracle worker; and how, de, the Cherkassy came to Vologda and he, de, burned the entire church, and after, de, that in that Elias Monastery, a new church was founded in the name of Varlaam the Wonderworker, the merchant Kondraty Akimov, and how, de, he built that church, and he, de, consecrated it in the name of the Midsummer Feast of the Lord, and not Varlaam the Reverend Father, but blessed that church to consecrate in the name Midsummer of the Feast of the Lord, former Vologda Archbishop Nektary; and before this, there was no feast of the Lord here at the church in the name of the Midsummer; and we, having talked with our sons with Jonah, Metropolitan of Sarsk and Podonsk and with Arseny, Archbishop of Suzhdad and Taruzh, ordered according to the rules of St. Apostle and St. Father, re-consecrate that church in the name of the Venerable Varlaam of Novgorod, the Khutyn miracle worker, as before, so that Nektary Archbishop blessed that church to be consecrated in the name of the Midsummer, according to the rules of St. Apostle and St. Father; and that church was overlaid and completed in the name of the reverend Father Barlaam the Wonderworker, and for the fact that, de, Nektarios himself is the Archbishop in excommunication on great spiritual matters, and as our charter comes to you, and you removed that antimension in that church, and in that place put a new antimension in the name of the Venerable Varlaam and arranged everything on the throne as before, as is done for the consecration of the church, and consecrated if only that church were in its former order; and the trading man Kondraty Akimov will want, according to his promise, to build a church in the name of the Midsummer Feast of the Lord, he erected the church wherever he wants, and not in the place where the church of Barlaam the Wonderworker. Written in Moscow in the summer of November 7128 on the 12th day. (History of the Church Hierarchy vol. IV, p. 292). The history of the discovery of antiminses is remarkable. His Grace Archbishop, later Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, Gregory, often visiting the Orsha Monastery, and long grieving over the extreme dilapidation of the church iconostasis, ordered to draw up a project for a new one that would correspond to the grandeur of the church and would accommodate all the images of the dilapidated iconostasis; and, at the same time, he ordered the old half-crumbling brick floor to be abolished and a wooden one made; and to protect it from rottenness, remove three quarters of the earth from under the brick, and punch holes in the wall. When they dismantled the brick and began to take out the sand embankment that was under it, then in the altar, at the very door leading from the left compartment occupied by the altar, to the middle compartment dedicated to the altar, a ringing sound began under the shovels of the workers, and they began to serve the following silver liturgical things, one after another, from the sand, one after another: a chalice, a paten, an asterisk, three dishes (one the size of a disk), a spoon, a cross, a censer and two icons in gilded frames; and at the same time, on the throne, abolished due to dilapidation, when the srachita was removed, they found three ancient antimensions, laid one on top of the other, in a recess deliberately cut out on the deck. All antimensions were placed at different times, after the consecration of the same Church of the Ascension of the Lord. The year of consecration of the first antimension coincides with the year of the consecration of the church upon its creation, and the 2nd and 3rd antimension coincide with the years of destruction and devastation of the city of Tver by enemies. And so, the antimensions were placed after the new consecration, after the looting of the church by enemies. Here are their inscriptions: 1) Holy antimension of 1567. “On the 2nd day of the summer of November 7076, in memory of the holy martyrs Akindinus and others like him, this altar, the Ascension of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, was consecrated by the holy Bishop Barsanuphius. Tver under the blessed Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich, Autocrat of All Russia, by the building of Archimandrite Gennady.” 2) Holy antimension of 1610. “On the 5th day of the summer of April 7118, in memory of the holy martyr Theodulus and Agathopod and others like them, the Church of the Ascension of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ was consecrated, under the blessed Tsar and Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich of All Russia, under Patriarch Hermogenes of Moscow, with the building of Archimandrite Joseph.” 3) Holy antimension of 1613. "On the 15th day of March 71, 21, this church of the Ascension of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ was consecrated, under the blessed Tsar and Grand Duke Michael Feodorovich of All Russia, in the first summer of his state, and under Archbishop Arseny, Tver and Kashinsky. By the command and construction of Archimandrite Joseph Orshina Monastery. It is believed that the 2nd and 3rd of these antimensions were placed during the consecration of the church after its desecration. From the 1st antimension it is clear that the Orshinsky church was consecrated in 1567 by Bishop Barsanuphius of Tver. Since 1567, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, during the reign of his pious son and during the reign of Boris Feodorovich, divine services in the Orshina Monastery were not interrupted by any unfortunate event, and the consecration of the church was not resumed. We copy from the Memorial Book of the Tver Province, for 1855, the considerations of I. Konshin: “On April 13, 1605, Tsar Boris Feodorovich reposed, his son ascended the throne, and after that he was villainously killed along with the Dowager Queen. On July 6th the impostor achieved his criminal goal. In May 1606 he was killed. On May 20th, Prince Shuisky entered the kingdom. Russia has not calmed down, troubles are in full swing: False Demetrius 2nd, this ghost, known under the name of the Tushinsky thief and hitherto unsolved, may be the son of Prince Andrei Kurbsky (Reader. Imp. General. History and Ancient. at Moscow. Univ. 1846, No. 1, p. 44. Act. Archaeological. Expedition. vol. 2, No. 91) is shaking not only the outskirts of Moscow, but the entire State. “In the autumn (1606),” writes Patriarch Ermogen, “those apostates and robbers and evil murderers and defilers came to the Sovereign’s estate, to the city of Tver; and in the Tver district, servicemen and all sorts of people were brought to the cross violently.” The Patriarch explains that “they are told to kiss the cross of a dead villain... They say that the damned one is alive.” (Act. Archaeol. Expedition. vol. 2, No. 58). It is true that these rebels were driven out by the excellent presence of mind and unparalleled courage in the entire Russian history of the blessed Tver Archbishop Theoktistos (Act. Archaeol. Expedition. vol. 2, No. 57 and 58), but from that time Tver already belonged to the number of cities captured by the crowds of the second impostor, for from the acts it is clear that on July 13, 1609 Prince Skopin-Shuisky approached Tver, “and they took the fort, and they beat many Lithuanian people, and trampled them and beat them along the main road along the Moscow and Osipovskaya roads, forty miles ... and the rest ... sat down in Tver, in the scree, and I,” writes Prince Skopin, “are hunting for them.” For this, the victories of Prince Skopin-Shchuisky cleared the local region; the surroundings calmed down, for, as can be seen from the second anti-timins, on April 5, 1610, the Orsha church was consecrated for the second time, undoubtedly desecrated by sacrileges, for without that there would have been no consecration. But then troubles flared up in Moscow again: on July 24, 1610, the boyars were informed by a district letter that “on the 17th day of July, the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich of All Russia, by petition of all the people, left the State, and moved to his side of the court, and is now in the monks.” (Act. Archaeol. Exp. vol. 2, nos. 130, 132. Collection of State grams. vol. 2, no. 197). The oaths to the boyars, Vladislav, False Dmitry 2 began, this bloody three-year period began, known under the name of the interregnum; gangs of vagabonds with fire and sword again scattered, devastating the country, already devastated, and the monuments say that on March 16-12, the 2nd, the rebellious crowds, led by Pleshcheev, “kissed the cross of the thief, who in Pskov is called Tsar Dmitry, and flooded the Tver region, but also in Tver, and in Torzhok, and in Staritsa, and in Rzhev and on Pogoreloye The settlement, at the thieves’ factory, they didn’t kiss the cross... and Ivan.... Pleshcheev was not allowed into the city of Tver, and his comrades and the Cossacks were not allowed to buy bread.” (Act. Archaeol. Expedition. vol. 2, No. 202). To this, without a doubt, the secondary desecration of the holy church of Orsha should be attributed. It is proven by the new consecration of the church with the third antimension. (Memorable book of the Tver province for 1865, pp. 134 – 146). Here is this letter: Blessing of the Great Master, His Eminence Philaret, Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl, named Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, to the great master Pan Jan Peter Pavlovich Sapieha, Kastlyanovich of Kyiv, elder of Usvyatsky and Kerepetsky. You wrote to us, sir, that in our patriarchate, in the Pereslavl district, in the monastery on Kirzhach, the Church of the Annunciation of our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, and that church was destroyed by military people, and the throne was destroyed and desecrated, and the church vessels were taken away, and now it is impossible for people in that church to serve divine liturgies and Orthodox Christians have nowhere to turn to, and many people in pain die without receiving communion; and we should give a holy antimension for the consecration of that church and bless and consecrate that church. And we wrote about the antimension, in Rostov, to the archpriest and the brethren, and told them to wait for a message from you; and how you, great sir, will send a priest or deacon to them in Rostov, and we ordered the archpriest and his brothers to give that holy antimension to the priest or deacon whom you send, duty-free, immediately, without delay; and I wrote about the consecration, in Yuryev Polskaya, to Archpriest Moses and his brothers, and they sent their letter to him about this under our seal; and they ordered them to consecrate that church of the Annunciation of the Holy Mother of God and serve the divine lntorgea according to the rules of the holy Apostles and holy Fathers, and we sent that letter to you to the great master Pan Yan Peter Pavlovich Sopega, Kastlyanovich of Kyiv, headman of Usvyatsky and Kerepetsky, and you, sir, then our letter, in Yuriev, sent to the cathedral archpriest Moses and his brothers, and sent the holy antimension, which they will bring to you from Rostov, to Kirzhach and ordered it to be given to the priest of that church. And how Archpriest Moses and his brothers from Yuryev, according to our charter, will send a priest and a deacon to Kirzhach, and they will consecrate that church according to the rules of the holy Apostles and Holy Fathers and with our blessing and decree. And the mercy of God and the Most Pure Mother of God and the great saints Peter and Alexei and Jonah of the Moscow wonderworkers and Leontius and Isaiah and Ignatius and Jacob the Bishops of Rostov wonderworkers, and on our humility may the blessing be and be upon you, great lord.” (Act. History vol. 2, No. 106, p. 136). We see this from the following charter of the 16th century, by the Right Reverend Varlaam, Metropolitan of Novgorod, 7101 (1593): “The blessing of the great lord, the Right Reverend Varlaam of the great Nova-grad and Velikolutskovo, in the Obonezh Pyatina on Solovki, in the most honorable and great monastery of the Divine Transfiguration of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and our venerable fathers and wonderworkers Zosima and Savvaty of Solovetsky, to the common Solovetsky monastery, to the son and colleague of our humility, Abbot Jacob, with the priesthood and with his brothers. You wrote to us in the current 101st year of December that last year in the hundredth year of August the Sviy Kayan Germans came to the Sumy fortress with a dress, and in the fortress there was a church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with a high top, and next to the church there was a meal next to the church, and to light from the German people from that church at night they taught to remove the neck and top, and the top fell at night for the meal, and the meal was broken, and about ten people in the meal were killed to death, and others were crushed; and for this reason the church now stands without singing, and at meals without our blessing they do not dare to sing. And that, with our blessing, the antimensions and the priest’s letters of our salary were sent with your elder Filaret, the Solovetsky monastery of the fatherland to the priests, in the Sumy volost, and in Nyukhcha, and in Komzhma, and in Kem, and in Unezhma, and the elder de Philaret with everything, the German people took the antimensions at sea, and they caught all the letters with him. Yes, Sumy volost Nikolskaya priest Maxim told you that for the sake of necessity he served in the church twice without our blessing; and priest Maxim wrote to us about this, about our blessing and forgiveness: and we should issue a decree about all this. And we pardoned priest Maxim in the service, and we gave him a decree about church singing and we wrote to him. And when our letter comes to you, you would send it to us in Novgorod for antimensions from the saints, to whom those antimensions should be brought, and not from ordinary people; and we ordered the antimensions to be given new ones, and the priest’s letter of honor, and payment records in the Sofia and our tribute in the entrance and in the tithe, we ordered them to give letters of complaint, tarhan, and preferential, and we ordered them to give the crown tax. And the fees were given for letters of exchange, twenty-five altyns for the popov’s, and for stipends, for tarhans and preferential fees for five letters of exchange, four rubles of thirty altyns, without a hryvnia per letter; and you would have ordered those duties for antimensions to be sent, but now we ordered those duties to be paid from the Sofia treasury. And I bless you, the son of our humility. Written in the great New Town in the summer of 7101, December on the 12th day.” (Geographical, historical and statistical description of the Solovetsky Monastery. Arch. Dosifei. M. 1853, part 2, pp. 106 – 108). In the blessed charter of Patriarch Joseph, given in 7156 (1648) September 25th, for the renovation of the church of the Yaroslavl Obnorsky Resurrection Monastery (where the relics of St. Sylvester rest), after the roof of the church collapsed and the altar in the church rotted, it is indicated: the Church of the Resurrection of Christ should be re-covered, and the altar in the church should be replaced with a new one, and the old roof of that church should be re-covered and order the throne to be taken out into the field, burnt with fire in a clean place, and order the old antimension to be sealed in a new throne in the gum column from the eastern countries; and how they will cover that church, and put up a new altar, and on that they ordered a new altar and an antimension to be given and to consecrate that church according to the rules of the holy Apostle and holy Father" (Church of the village of the Resurrection on Obnor, where there was formerly the Resurrection Monastery. Yaroslavl 1862, pp. 64, 65). In the blessed letter of Metropolitan Alexander of Novgorod (March 13, 1590) to the estate of the Solovetsky Monastery, in the Sium volost, which allowed the churches to be moved from one place to another, he said: “it will be like you, priest Maxim and all the peasants of the Sium volost, beat us with their foreheads, and the tongue granted you: blessed the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the prison, they placed it lower, for German parish and arson (i.e., to avoid a raid and arson by the Germans), and even then we ordered the destroyed Church of the Assumption of the Most Pure Mother of God in the same Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker to be added as a side chapel, and we ordered the antimins to those two altars to be given for the long journey.... Yes, as God expects, those churches will be erected and completed, and you would be assembled with the priestess and with deacons in those churches, placing the antimensions on the thrones, the old antimensions of those thrones in the underside, and the new antimensions on top of the old antimensions, so that those about the church are sanctified.” (Act. Archaeologist. Exp. vol. 1, No. 346). In Joseph's Trebnik it said: “If it is possible to build columns without taking off the shirt with the antimins, then shit will happen. If there is a wooden church, then a woodworker will repair the columns and the board of the throne, without removing it from its place, and other needs for this. Behold, let the priest alone do it inside the altar, if he had the temptation to do this, or the layman with him. A single layman is not worthy of having a throne built in the altar. And with this former one, he begins a prayer service to the church, and sanctifies the water, even on the first day of August. And after dismissal, the saint enters the altar, together with the elders and deacons, and stands before the holy table. And speaking to the archdeacon, Bless the Master, the saint proclaims, Blessed is the Kingdom. According to Amen, they accept the lips, and wipe the columns, and sprinkle them, and then lower the shirt with indium, saying Psalm 144. I will exalt You, my God, my King..., all the way to the end. And another 22nd. The Lord shepherds me and deprives me of nothing. Until then, everything about the holy throne will be completed. And then, Glory and now, the same saint receives the censer, and burns incense around her. And the saint standing before him said, Blessed be our God. The archdeacon also says, Let us pray to the Lord in peace.... for this holy church.... for the sanctification of this church, and the altar in it, and the shaken table, by the coming and power, and the action of the Holy Spirit..... the Most Holy Most Pure..... and its saint is the church of the shaken meal - with all the saints, remembering... And This is spoken by the archdeacon, and then the saint says this prayer: We thank You, Lord God of hosts [The bishop reads it during the consecration of the church and also during the consecration of a special antimension before the position of St. relics into it (Official Arch. sacred page 157). But in this prayer in Joseph’s Trebnik, words are added that are not in the Official Book, namely: in it the saint thanks that he was worthy to send down grace “even before us, sinners and unworthy servants of yours, to stretch out your hands on your holy meal, to set it strong, to serve you only King and Lord.”] But amine to the archdeacon for saying: Let us go in peace. To the rest who answer: In the name of the Lord. Deacon: Let us pray to the Lord: Lord have mercy. We also say: The most honorable Cherub and let go, Christ the true God... and his holy one is the church, and all the saints” (chapter 3, sheet 42 on the back and given 43, 44). The decree of 1753, August 13, says: “In the event of repairs in the church inside the altar, if the altar is damaged or cannot be moved from its place, then, without consecrating the church, sprinkle only the altar and its clothes, also everything renewed with sacred water; if the throne is damaged or shakes, the church should be consecrated.” So in November 28, 1755, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Novgorod province of the Derevskaya Pyatina of the Kolomna churchyard, caught fire from thunder and lightning above in the quadrangle. Although the fire was soon extinguished, the people who came running took the holy images and all the church utensils from the church, including the saints’ clothes and saccharine from the throne. After this, the clergy of this church asked permission from the authorities to perform divine services in that church. The Holy Synod (January 15, 1756) blessed to place on the holy altar with clothing the holy antimension, which was removed from the altar when the church was set on fire by lightning, as it turned out, by an unknown person from the parish people. He gave his blessing to consecrate the church on the previous consecrated antimension, according to the church rites, with a small consecration, and then perform the priesthood in that church as before. (Case of the Arch. Holy Synod 1756 Jan. 8, No. 157). On the 14th day of July, 1757, there was a fire in the Novgorod province, the Bezhetsk Pyatina, the Tver half of the Vyshnevolotsk churchyard, the exhibition of the village of Bystrov in the estate of the real chamberlain Pyotr Vasilyevich Saltykov. At least thirty peasant and church-servant households were burned by the fire. During the fire, from the Church of the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos, with the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which was thirty yards away from the burning courtyards, holy images, priestly and ecclesiastical vestments, and holy antimensions, and from the altars, clothes and other church utensils were taken out by strangers, and placed in the sexton's house. Priest Porfiry Vasilyev and the clerics did not know how everything was carried out, because during the fire time they were to work on the Vlasov wasteland (the area is about three versts away), and according to the summons, when the priest and the clerics arrived, then it was announced to them by the assembled former people that during the fire time that happened, holy images from the above-mentioned church, and from the thrones, and from the altars of clothes, and the holy antimensions were removed and taken out into the field, and someone else, besides the images and other things, removed the clothes and antimensions, which they did not know to show due to the crowds at that time. Then, when the holy images, priestly and ecclesiastical vestments and holy antimensions, clothes and other church utensils were brought intact into the aforementioned church, preserved from the fire; then it was reported to the Holy Synod that, following the above-mentioned removal of the holy antimensions and clothing; neither the priest nor the clerics without a blessing and from where it is necessary to perform sacred acts without a proper decree are dangerous. St. The Synod blessed that in the declared church and in the area the clothes and holy antimensions should be placed on the holy altars in the proper order according to the church charter, and the priesthood should be carried out as before. (Case of the architect of the Holy Synod 1757 September 17, No. 157). Also, when, during a fire in the Church of the Intercession in the city of Belev (Tula province), in 1801, the throne and the altar were not shaken, but only the clothes were removed from the throne, but the srachita (old) remained on it; then, after inspection of the church by persons from the authorities, and after corrections in it, the Right Reverend Methodius was allowed to “consecrate the church on the previous antimensions” (Tulsk. Consist. Arch. 1801, No. 1402, 38. Tula. Eparch. Vedom. 1869, No. 19, Oct. 1, p. 205, 206). See this decree further, in the chapter on payment for antimensions. About this custom, see further, in the chapter on payment for antimensions. You might be interested in: