Слово 33. Послание к Адашеву о тафиях (головных турецких уборах)

My lord, beloved servant of Christ and man of God Alexey, reverend father and beloved brother in Christ Jesus our Lord. I wish you to always be healthy and joyful. May the Lord reward you for your spiritual love, that you honor me poor in every possible way, of which I learned from your letter, filled with all Christ-like love and truth; Also, your servant Andrei Semenov spoke in detail about your diligent efforts in my favor. And what worthy gratitude can I give you for your kindness towards me? You are a true disciple of Christ and an obedient follower of Paul, who says: Be like me, as I am Christ (1 Cor. 4:16). Therefore, Christ will make you heir to his heavenly kingdom, together with Paul. Hey, Lord Jesus Christ, do not despise his compassion and goodwill towards everyone who grieves and needs help! And so be it. I, Father, in accordance with your letter, have prepared a notebook according to your instructions, and in addition to it, I am sending ten other notebooks to our lord, the Right Reverend Metropolitan, and to you. These, in my opinion, are not bad things, containing a teaching about the correction of morals, as well as a strong weapon against the Latin heresy and against the evil stubbornness of the Jews, and against Hellenic delusion and astronomy. Those who read them with attention, a sober mind, with willingness, with faith and love, with the rejection of all arrogance of mind, conceit and childish hopes and arrogance of the Corinthians, will find them filled with a sufficient measure of wisdom and spiritual intelligence and strength. I say this not in relation to you - do not allow me, Lord, to rage like this - for regarding you I know that you are filled with all kinds of spiritual virtues, but this word of mine applies to some others. I ask you, read my message, which I wrote to the Right Reverend, and from it you will reliably understand all the falsehoods and truths about me of my slanderers, of whom God alone is the Judge, and may the Lord not put them in this sin. And the notebook, which has 27 chapters, was written very judiciously by me for the great ruler himself. Know, my lord, that as the Metropolitan talks about tafyas, so I understand, and I also abhor when I see Orthodox Christians with shaved heads, and from the depths of my heart I sigh that Christians liken themselves to the haters of Christians - the Turks, and not only with tafyas, but also with boots modeled on Turkish ones, so that you cannot know by anything else that they are Christians except by the cross a sign. The Greeks who are related to me have been under the Turkish yoke for many years, and we live among them, but we do not have this custom. I’m afraid, Father Alexie, that they might also like Turkish turbans. This is bad, Alexy, and completely alien to Orthodox people, and such a vile and filthy custom is not acceptable. It should be a strict rule according to the apostolic authority to prohibit everyone, in general, from such outrage; especially the craftsmen who do this work should be prohibited from doing this work. And if anyone does not obey, strictly order the parish priests not to give him and his family communion and not to let him into church. And strictly order the Armenians and other foreigners not to bring such goods to Russia, and if anyone does, beat him with whips at the auction, and take away what he brought. For God’s sake, do not be careless, but be moved, with God’s help, with apostolic zeal and authority. And Phinehas, it is said, rose up, driven by jealousy for God, and with his spear he pierced a certain nobleman of Israel, who had committed fornication with a foreign Midianite wife, and killed them both in their most heinous crime (Num. 25:7). We will take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and arm ourselves with the zeal of Phinehas and them, so that we too may please the Lord. Paul did not remain silent to the sorcerer Elimas, who turned Sergius Anthipatus away from him, but, having forbidden him by apostolic authority, deprived him of his sight (Acts 13:2–11). Likewise, we will strictly prohibit both those who make these outfits and those who wear them, no matter who they are. Let us not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot destroy the soul. But before the prohibition, let us turn to them with sufficient admonition, begging them with love, and not abusively and not with the heart, for it is not fitting for the servant of the Lord to be violent, but to be meek (2 Tim. 2:24) and so on. After the first and second teachings, we will tell them this: know that if you do not obey the word of God and me, your father, then from now on, no matter who comes to me in the tafya for a blessing, he will not hear or see a blessing from me. What God’s holy scripture does not praise or command, I do not praise. Or do you think that it was in vain that the Holy Scripture said about the Israelites who transgressed the commandments of God: And they mingled among the nations, and practiced their deeds, and became a temptation to them (Ps. 106:35-36). But enough of that. For God’s sake, I conjure you by Jesus Christ, do not leave me without communion. Judgment, my lord, I did not ask and do not ask, but I ask for mercy: show mercy, so that you yourself may receive the same grace from the Savior, for judgment without mercy, it is said, is for those who have not done mercy (James 2:13). At the same time, I ask you, for God’s sake, send me for a while the book of Gregory the Theologian - Greek, with an interpretation; send her, for God's sake. Don’t leave this faithful servant of yours, Andrei, in his poverty, as God puts on your heart. I don’t have a decent Greek hood: for God’s sake send me one. And I bow to you, my sovereigns, to the ground. I kiss and kiss the honorable priest-deacon Vassian the sacristan with all my soul; I received his gift intact; may the Savior reward him. You might be interested in: