The Orthodox Creed as an expression of the religious consciousness of the Orthodox Russian people

A thousand years ago, under the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, the Russian people accepted the Christian faith. He accepted her mainly out of trust in the Grand Duke and his grandmother, St. Olga, but not only for that reason. He was attracted by the Christian faith itself, by Christ himself, the Mother of God, the holy martyrs, the Fathers of the Church, and ascetics. Preachers of the Christian faith have visited the Russian land since apostolic times. It was attended by the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Andrew the First-Called with their disciples and companions. Under Vladimir, the Christian faith became our national heritage, the basis of life not only for individual believers, but also the principle of life for the entire Russian people. The Russian land became the land of Svyatorusskaya. The Christian self-awareness of the Russian people found its expression in the Orthodox Creed. Together with the Gospel, with the psalter, with the lives of saints, with the writings of the Fathers of the Church, with church hymns, the Symbol of Faith expressed and directed our Orthodox Christian thought, established our attitude towards God, towards people and towards life. If this was not a completely clear and distinctly realized and formulated worldview for everyone, in any case, it was the engine and inspirer of the conscience and behavior of the believing Russian people, living deeply in the recesses of the soul. Whether it was good or bad, reasonable or unreasonable, successful or unsuccessful - this was shown by the entire subsequent life of the Russian people, its thousand-year history and spiritual image, formed under the influence of the Orthodox Church and the examples of Orthodox saints. The Russian people created the only country in the world not only in size, but also in its moral character, maintaining good relations with all the numerous peoples that became part of its state; and he also sought to maintain good relations with all other peoples around him. For the Russian people, imbued with the spirit of Christianity, there did not exist and do not exist people and tribes that are despised, hated, intolerant and persecuted. He stands on the broad foundation of Christian love. In every person he knows how to find and see the image of God. He has a wide, capacious heart. And this was given, this was taught to him not only by the nature given to him by God, but also by his holy Orthodox faith, Christianity in its purest expression without the admixture of human conjectures, changes and additions. We deeply and lovingly perceive the examples and testaments of the martyrs, the instructions of the holy fathers and ascetics of the Church, our own saints, Christ for the sake of holy fools and elders. We especially venerate the saints who are close to us in spirit - St. Nicholas, the holy great martyrs George and Panteleimon, the holy great martyrs Barbara and Catherine, the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina, St. Alexei (man of God), St. Philaret the Merciful, St. the prophet Elijah, and from our Russians - St. Sergius of Radonezh, Rev. Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk, Rev. Zosima and Savvaty Solovetsky, Rev. Sergius and Herman of Valaam, Saints Mitrofan of Voronezh, Tikhon of Zadonsk, Joseph of Belogorodsky and all other saints and ascetics, holy fools and wanderers, with their lives, instructions and conversations, illuminated, comprehended and showed the Russian people the image and path of Christian holiness, teaching them to repent and pray. Certainly. The Russian people are not holy people. There is a lot of impurity and dirt in his life and in his soul. But he knows where he is and what true truth and holiness consists of. He will not be deceived by false feigned holiness. He will subtly distinguish truth from lies in every person. And at the same time, he is in no way insured against the fact that he will not prefer the devil’s path of evil to Christ’s path of goodness and truth. The examples of Razin and Pugachev and their comrades clearly show this. We cannot fail to note one more circumstance in the historical fate of the Russian people - its exceptional and remarkable geographical position between Europe, Asia and America, in the vast expanses of European Russia and North-East Asia. This position has placed the Russian people in a special relationship with all the peoples of the world, connecting it with people who are very diverse in their history and culture, on the one hand - simple and primitive in faith and concepts, on the other hand - preserving the remnants of the ancient great cultures and traditions of the Hindus, Chinese, Mongols, Japanese, Arab Jews, as well as with people of the most recent modern European culture. Such an international position of the Russian people in connection with the peculiarities of their own culture, on the one hand, makes all these culturally diverse peoples close and understandable to them, and on the other hand, dissociates them from them, obliges them to understand, love and cherish their own spiritual characteristics, their own spiritual image and their own special path in life. This determines the unusual, mysterious, but also extremely important purpose of the Russian people in the destinies and lives of European and Asian peoples, without losing their identity and their special path, to be a spiritual connecting knot and the center of world life in future unknown, mysterious destinies and circumstances of human history. You might be interested in: