Modern Russian pilgrimage to the Holy Land

(Speech read on March 30 in the hall of the City Duma at a ceremonial meeting of the Kiev branch of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society). In the eighth paragraph of its charter, the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society aims to provide assistance to Orthodox pilgrims when they visit the holy places of the East, by arranging for them hospice houses, hospitals, special pilgrim caravans, reducing the cost of travel expenses, publishing guidebooks, etc. Consequently, Russian people, who sympathize with the goals and objectives of this sympathetic and humane Society, which goes to meet the age-old needs of the spirit and heart of the Russian people, have the right to be interested in who these Orthodox pilgrims are, visiting the holy places of the East in their thousands, from what layers of Russian society they come, what goals and internal motives they move there from the most remote outskirts of our fatherland, what hardships and hardships they endure on their difficult journey and, especially, on the ships of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade, how do they spend their time in Palestine during the entire not-so-short pilgrimage season, what occupies their mind and heart at this time, and what, finally, do they take out personally for themselves and for their loved ones and blood from this difficult feat, even for our time? In other words, we wish to offer the attention of this venerable assembly a brief description of the types of modern Russian pilgrims almost exclusively on the basis of personal direct impressions and observations drawn from meetings with them in Palestine, in Egypt, in the Sin desert, on the top of the Divine Sinai, on St. Mount Avona, on the shores of the Adriatic, at the myrrh-streaming tomb of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and in Rome, in Peter's Cathedral, at the relics of the supreme apostles Peter and Paul, in order to express to you at the same time our pia desideria regarding possible, in our understanding, improvements in the life of Russian pilgrims to the Orthodox East. The pilgrimage to Jerusalem arose long before the coming of Christ the Savior to earth and became a pious custom of every true son of Israel, who considered it his duty to perform it annually. About the Mother of God and her righteous Betrothed Joseph St. Evangelist Luke narrates: “And His parent (i.e., Christ the Savior) went to Jerusalem every summer according to custom on the feast of Passover” (Luke 2:41), and from the age of twelve the Savior of the World Himself accompanied them there (v. 42). This custom was performed not only by Jews, but also by pagans converted to Judaism. On the significant day of Pentecost for the Church of Christ, when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles in the form of fiery tongues, according to the same evangelist: “the Jews living in Jerusalem were in awe of all the language that is under heaven... The Parthians and the Medes, and the Elamites, and those living in Mesopotamia, in Egypt and Cappadocia, in Pontus and in Ac and u, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the countries of Libya, even at Cyrene, and the Romans who came, Judah and the strangers, the Cretans and the Arabians” (Acts 2:5, 9-11). Need I add that among the true followers of Christ, the attraction to Jerusalem became even more intense, even more intense, because in their eyes this city became even more precious, even higher, as the place in which Christ lived and taught, where He shed drops of sweat in prayer, where He was crucified on the cross for the sinful human race, where, after the resurrection, He appeared to the apostles for 40 days, teaching them the secrets of the kingdom of God, where He founded the first Christian Church - the Mother of other Christian Churches - and from where He finally ascended into heaven with His most pure flesh. “It would be a long time to count now, says Blessed Jerome, how many evangelists, how many martyrs, how many men most skilled in church teaching have gone to Jerusalem throughout the entire time from the Ascension of the Lord to the present day. They all thought that they would have less religiosity, less knowledge, and that they would not receive, as they say, the high hand of virtues, if they did not worship Christ in those places where the First Gospel shone from the cross” 1 . Characterizing the pilgrimage of his time, that is, at the end of the 4th century (386–400), in a letter to Marcella on behalf of Pavla and Eustochia, he writes: “Each of the best people. Gaul is hurrying here. The Briton, removed from our World, as soon as he begins to succeed in religion, leaving the West, strives for a place so famous by rumor and biblical references. And what can we say about the Armenians, Persians, the peoples of India and Ethiopia, about the country near Egypt, seething with monks, about Pontus, Cappadocia, Syria of Kelen (Galen) and Mesopotamia, and about all the peoples of the East in general? They, according to the word of the Savior: wherever there is a corpse, there the eagles will gather (Matthew 24:28), flock to these places and present us with a spectacle of all kinds of virtues 2. Our fatherland was illuminated by the light of the Christian faith, compared with the peoples of the East and West, at a later time, but the pilgrimage to the Holy Land took root in us so firmly, took root so deeply in the heart of the Russian pious person, that at one time it even provoked energetic prohibitions on the part of the enlightened and zealous archpastors. “Ta bo rota,” that is, going to Jerusalem to worship holy places, according to the bishop of Novgorod in the 12th century. Nifont, “destroy this land” 3 (i.e. Russian). In answers to a certain Kirik, who “harrowed pilgrimages to holy places and did not order them to go,” the same Bishop Nifont says: “The great speech is to do good: let that work go, as if it were a shameful (idle) walker to eat and drink.” 4 But the prohibitions from the highest spiritual authorities did not have any good results in this direction. During the princely civil strife, during the difficult years of the Tatar invasion, during the era of “hard times,” pilgrimage to the Holy Land stopped for a while, but severe disasters and political turmoil in the Russian land passed, and the people, with greater strength than before, rushed to Palestine, to the Holy Sepulcher. Monks and laymen, men and women, merchants and service people, rich and poor, traveled to the Holy Land and other holy places from Russia. Russian people traveled on foot, rode horses and camels, sailed the sea on foreign merchant ships, exposing their lives to all kinds of dangers and hardships 5 . Nowadays, the attraction to the Holy Land among the Russian people not only has not weakened, but year after year, thanks to the ease of communication and other facilitations that our Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society provides for them, it is becoming stronger and stronger 6 . Nowadays, according to the observations of one Italian writer (Matilda Serao), “no country in Europe actually experiences such a strong longing for the shrines of the East as Russia” 7 . And this observation is confirmed by the official figure of the number of Russian pilgrims, over 10,000 thousand, from all over our vast fatherland gathering in Jerusalem during the pilgrimage season 8. Where and in what should we look for the reason for the indicated “strong longing for the shrines of the East” in the Russian people? We think that the reason for this phenomenon lies primarily in the character of the Russian person, in the conditions of his difficult life and in the surrounding harsh and gloomy nature, among which his life passes. With the Danish belief in everything wonderful and mysterious, inclined by nature to mysticism and idealization, brought up and brought up in the principles of the church and even harsh monastic regime, busy day after day getting a piece of daily bread, which the earth-nurse gives him after persistent and intense work, standing face to face with sad nature, bound by a deep snow blanket in some places for more than half a year, among severe frosts, snow storms and blizzards, causing despondency and even horror, in the few hours of rest, especially on holidays, the Russian person loves to listen and read something from the “Divine”. Under the childish babble of a grandson-student reading about the exploits of the holy saints of God, who suffered for the faith of Christ and spent their lives in severe ascetic deeds in Palestine, Egypt, Arabia and other places, or after the tempting eloquent conversations of an experienced visiting wanderer - a “man of God” about his walk through the shrines of the East - a winged thought takes him away from the distant the harsh north, from the sad reality, to another better, “promised land”, to a land flowing with milk and honey, where the sun always shines and warms, where green foliage delights the eyes of its inhabitants all year round, where every vegetable is born in abundance, and labor abundantly rewards a person, to a country, moreover, where the Lord our Savior Himself, the apostles, and the hosts lived, taught and suffered. holy martyrs and martyrs, ascetics and ascetics. In these joyful moments for the heart of a devout Russian man, a desire involuntarily creeps in to visit fertile lands, which, little by little, flares up brighter and brighter, then, unnoticed by him, turns into longing for the shrines of the East. Having put their children on their feet, arranging family affairs, having saved up a hundred, and quite rarely, two hundred rubles for the journey with hardships and restrictions, many, under the influence of this melancholy and uncontrollable attraction, decide, leaving everything near and dear to their hearts, for the sake of saving their souls and the souls of their relatives, to go to lands unknown to them. Through fasting, prayer and confession they prepare for this long journey. Favored by the well-wishes and tears of relatives and friends, many of the pilgrims leave their native village with only a staff in their hands, a knapsack with rye crackers on their shoulders, a linen or wicker handbag in front with the necessary amount of linen and clean clothes, and at their belt a tin teapot, this necessary pilgrim companion, the only one, one might say, their drinker, breadwinner, and even comforter in all sorrows and hardships... Heat and cold, snow and rain, meager food, lack of warm shelter for the night,” debilitating illnesses, unpleasant encounters along the way—this is what these, in the poet’s words, “warriors of God’s army,” doom themselves to. Often the mother-damp earth serves as a bed for them, a shoulder bag with breadcrumbs serves as a headboard, the starry sky serves as a cover, and the earnest sign of the cross, with which a pilgrim protects himself when going to sleep, is the only visor from enemy and human attacks. They walk slowly along St. In Rus', our wandering pilgrims from village to village, from city to city, often feeding on the name of Christ 9. Along the way, they enter all the monasteries of Kyiv, Russian Jerusalem, pouring out fervent prayer before the saints of the Kyiv caves and resting after a tiring journey in the hospitable shelters of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. From Kiev to the shores of the stormy Euxine Pontus (Black Sea) with its beautiful Odessa, it’s already a stone’s throw. Finding himself in Odessa, in the courtyards of the Russian Athonite monasteries, our pilgrim finds true benefactors and nurturers. Here he is greeted in Russian in the most hospitable manner, as a dear, welcome guest: hot food is given, tasty and plentiful, the shelter is light and spacious, the bed is soft, and in the luxurious churches of these farmsteads, dean-like day and night services are held, delighting and tenderizing our pilgrims. The monks of the farmsteads issue foreign passports for the pilgrims, take out the ship's pilgrim books for them, provide them with bread and brochures with moral and religious content for the journey, serve farewell prayers for them, transport their bags and luggage on their horses from the farmsteads to the steamship pier and settle them on the ship itself. But all these truly paternal cares of the Athonite monks seem to appear on the path of our pilgrims only so that later, remaining on our ships of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade, they feel most of all the bitterness of their loneliness and the weight of the path unknown to them among the capricious, changeable elements. As you know, the best steamships of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade, going on a direct Alexandria voyage, either do not take our pilgrims on deck at all, or they take them only to Smyrna and here they hand them over to the steamships of the same society, going on a circular voyage along the shores of Anatolia and Asia Minor. These steamships are of an old type, small in size, and are designed for transporting goods of all kinds. They are not distinguished by cleanliness and tidiness. Our pilgrims are placed on the deck and bow in all the free corners of these ships, or they are crammed in masses into the stuffy hold, often having as their neighbors whole herds of sheep, bulls, herds of horses, etc. One can imagine what atmosphere fills this modern ark, and what purity reigns on it during the voyage! It is not superfluous to add that even the best places on the ship are given to animal cargo, food has a free flow of clean air, and third class deck passengers are allowed to breathe in the stench of 10... For example, even such privileged third-class passengers as students of the Imperial 1 Kazan Gymnasium 11, who made a pilgrimage to Palestine in 1898 and enjoyed special attention from representatives of the Imperial Palestine Society and even the captain and servants of the ship, were not spared from this difficult neighborhood. The ship often lacks a tarpaulin under which a third class passenger could hide on a hot sunny day or a cold rainy day, and there is no comfortable place to lay the head of a seasick person. The pilgrims sleep side by side, on top of each other, sometimes even sitting, spend time in the holds and on the deck in the midst of all kinds of animal and human waste, causing nausea by their very appearance. But if there are no storms at sea, if the life-giving sun of the south gives the poor pilgrims a pleasant, caressing warmth, if they breathe easily and freely, thanks to the absence of unaccepted neighbors from the animal and bird kingdoms, then our pilgrim experiences no less spiritual languor on the ship from complete idleness, from the boring, monotonous environment of a sea voyage. Having come by chance from the most distant ends of Russia and united by a unity of purpose and aspiration, our pilgrims soon get used to each other and are so exhausted that their conversation, as they say, does not go well. The thought of each of them, occupied with the main goal of the journey, is eager to enter an unknown country, which is moving closer and closer to them every day, and each of them is glad to learn something new about it either from a book or from oral history of an experienced person. About the lucky one who has St. The Gospel or having obtained a soul-saving book somewhere, groups of illiterate pilgrims gather and listen to what they are reading with deep emotion and reverence, and then share their impressions of what they read with each other for a long time. Many questions and bewilderments arise here for the devout Russian pilgrim, but there is no one to turn to for solutions, since there is no knowledgeable or authoritative person on the ship, and the consciousness of powerlessness and helplessness leaves a bitter aftertaste in his soul. The pilgrim would like to sing divine hymns and pray the common folk prayer, for example, to sing vespers or an all-night vigil, or listen to an akathist, etc., but even this desire and desire of his heart is hindered: there is often not a single clergyman on the ship who could fulfill this desire. But if by chance such a legally capable person turned out to be among the passengers, there would again be a new misfortune, a new difficulty: on the ship it is not easy to find a free place for public prayer, and there is no trace of any deliberate devices for this on the ship. Arseny, Bishop of Volokolamsk, rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, traveled in 1900 with students of his Academy and accompanied by a significant number of clergy, for all-night vigils he had to huddle at the stern, near the spare wheel of the steamer, and pray before the icon of the Kasperovskaya Mother of God, which accidentally ended up in the hands of one pilgrim who was taking this icon to St. Andrew's Skete on Athos. But if these obstacles are eliminated, and it is possible to organize a nationwide prayer on the ship, with improvised choirs of pilgrims and pilgrims, to the sound of sea waves, under a sky dotted with myriads of brightly burning stars, then such nationwide services make a deep, irresistible impression on the soul of the impressionable pilgrim 12... In order to more clearly imagine the whole hardship of the sea journey of our modern pilgrim, the very sad and difficult picture of his deprivations on the ship of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade in his very first, urgent needs - clean air, a spacious place on deck, a secluded corner for prayer, etc., for great contrast, we will depict before you a picture of similar pilgrimage journeys of the heterodox West - German and French. In 1890, the German Society of the Holy Land in Cologne decided to equip three large penitential pilgrim caravans, of which one of 500 people made its sea voyage to Palestine under the following conditions. On September 23, all participants in this caravan gathered in the famous Cologne co6op before the altar of the Three Magi to listen to the bishop's liturgy and to receive pilgrimage red crosses around their necks from the hands of the bishop. In Genoa, the German Lloyd's steamer Amphitrida was waiting for them. On its deck there was a chapel with 17 altars, beautifully decorated with multi-colored flags. Every morning from 4 to 8½ o'clock a quiet liturgy was celebrated on these altars, and at 9 o'clock there was the main liturgy, and even once a bishop's liturgy with a sermon. A shot from a cannon meant the beginning of the liturgy, the next three shots meant the reading of the Gospel and the consecration of the Gifts, and the last shot meant the end of the liturgy. On the main altar the Holy Gifts stood among the plants, and as soon as the service ended, the daily veneration of the Holy Gifts began. For this purpose, the pilgrims were divided into dozens, who replaced each other in turns. A solemn meeting was arranged for them in Jerusalem, and the pilgrims entered St. The hail with the singing of spiritual hymns, accompanied by the Catholic clergy, the consul and the Turkish civil authorities 13. French pilgrimage caravans, which have made annual penitential trips to Palestine since 1881, usually choose Marseille as their meeting point. The steamer assigned to transport pilgrims is also adapted to the purposes of the trip. A massive wooden cross is placed on its nose, which is then brought to Jerusalem, consecrated in the Church of the Resurrection, accompanies the caravan, returned on the return trip, and donated to one of the rural churches, serving there as an object of honor for local pilgrims. At the stern of the ship there is a large altar with the Holy Gifts displayed on it, on which the Divine Liturgy is celebrated daily. The priests deliver sermons and conduct readings, preparing pilgrims in advance for a thorough acquaintance with the sights of Jerusalem and Palestine. In Jerusalem, these pilgrims will receive the same solemn and pompous welcome as the German pilgrims, and these pilgrims sometimes enter the walls of Jerusalem even with music 15. From these pictures of complete comfort, grace, luxury and pomp, let us transport ourselves mentally again to our poor Russian pilgrims in the fetid and dirty environment of the steamships of the Russian Shipping and Trade Society, after a two-week voyage, approaching the goal of their journey. Many pilgrims spend their last night on the boat from Beirut to Jaffa without sleep. There are now lively conversations between them about the upcoming dangerous landing from the steamer on land in Jaffa, thanks to the presence of many pitfalls near the very shores, plans are being made for future excursions in the Holy Land, travel bags are being packed, largely lightened from the forage prepared at home, etc. Early in the morning the steamer drops anchor in sight of the Jaffa pier, unless, of course, they interfere Then there are storms, and boats appear at the steamer, driven by stalwart and skilled Arab oarsmen, with qawas (guides) of the Imperial Palestine Society. Pilgrims are still brought to the shore on these boats before the heat gets hot. The joy of pilgrims entering the Holy Land is boundless. Out of an abundance of heart and feelings, they shed tears and make the sign of the cross, whispering grateful words of prayer. But this enthusiastic mood of the pilgrims quickly gives way to mournful despondency. The absence of a shelter or barracks in Jaffa, where a pilgrim could rest or at least hide from the hot rays of the scorching sun, forces our pilgrims to remain in the sun until two o'clock in the afternoon, when the train to Jerusalem leaves, without food and often even without water. A small railway station, which also opens its doors only an hour before the train departs, cannot accommodate and shelter even half of those passengers who are going to depart for the train. It is not easy for our pilgrims to breathe sweat and in the crowded, small carriages of the Jerusalem Railway, and therefore, morally and physically exhausted, dusty, tired and hungry, they crawl out of the carriages in Jerusalem and slowly and sadly wander to the buildings of the Russian Palestine Society in the darkness of the rapidly approaching night. Having changed clothes and refreshed their faces with water, the pilgrims gather in the common dining room of Russian buildings and here, in front of the icon in the luxurious iconostasis, listen to a prayer service thanking the Lord God for a safe voyage, are welcomed by the clergy of our Jerusalem mission with their arrival in the Holy Land and are treated to a free dinner prepared at the expense of the Palestine Society via a telegram from Jaffa. This evening meal ends the first day of pilgrimage in Palestine. The next two or three days, upon arrival in Jerusalem, the pilgrims rest, get used to the conditions of life and life in Russian buildings, wash in the bathhouse and then on a pre-arranged day, under the guidance of kavas (guides), go to the Patriarchate, where, according to a long-established custom, the hierodeacons and novices of the Patriarchate perform the ritual of washing the feet of newly arrived pilgrims, which makes a deep impression on them. After washing the feet, at a fraternal meal, all pilgrims are offered food and drink, blessed by the patriarch, who, if he has free time, receives fans for blessing personally, and here sometimes receives mites brought by pilgrims from Russia “for the commemoration.” From the Patriarchate, pilgrims go to the Holy Sepulcher and are led around with litanies performed by the Greek Holy Sepulcher clergy in all the venerated places of the Church of the Resurrection. Many of the pilgrims no longer return to the Russian buildings, but remain in the Holy Sepulcher Church for the whole night to listen to Matins in the Church of the Resurrection, which always begins exactly at midnight, and the first liturgy at the Holy Sepulcher, which is sometimes sung by pilgrims and pilgrims in the Slavic language. Pilgrims usually spend the time from the closing of the church doors by the guards to the beginning of Matins reading and singing akathists at Calvary and in other sacred places of the church. After this, guardianship over newly arrived pilgrims, one might say, ceases, since the attention of the heads of buildings and the Society’s cavas is always drawn mainly to newcomers and inexperienced people. However, according to pre-arranged routes, under the guidance of the same kavas, pilgrims on certain days visit the tomb of the Mother of God in Hessemane, the Mount of Olives and its attractions, Zion, Bethany with the tomb of the righteous Lazarus and other places worthy of their attention in Jerusalem and its environs. The same routes and schedules determine the departure time of pilgrimage caravans to the Jordan, to Bethlehem, to Hebron to the oak of Mamre, to Nazareth and other places. But the Russian pilgrim, who has come to Palestine to see everything with his own eyes and go to all places on his own feet, having felt in Palestine as in his homeland, reluctantly obeys existing schedules and travels freely, in the company of two or three people, especially if among them there is one already experienced person. Our pilgrim is not afraid of even such a difficult feat as traveling to Nazareth, especially at the beginning of spring before the Feast of the Annunciation, when stormy mountain streams from frequent rains make many places impassable and threaten every minute the lives of brave travelers crossing them. This path, in the words of the Italian writer mentioned above, is endured “only by the natives, and such ardent, tireless pilgrims who endure to the end, like Russian peasants. These Russian pilgrims are silent and patient, “not daring to ask for or accept help, eating black crackers and tea, having arrived in Palestine, they walk from shelter to shelter, from shrine to shrine, always on foot, for such is their vow, such is their poverty.”16 In order to more clearly depict before you the depth of religious delight that covers the entire moral being of these “God’s army of the best warriors”, their truly heroic enduring of all hardships, sorrows and even serious illnesses and accidents on the way to fulfilling their holy feat, we will cite one of the many cases that at one time made a deep impression on all eyewitnesses and was recorded in our diary from the words of a sister of mercy. In 1886, the construction of the majestic bell tower at the Russian church on the Mount of Olives was completed. Forever the unforgettable builder of this bell tower and church, in which he later found a worthy place of eternal rest, our head of the spiritual mission in Jerusalem, Fr. Archimandrite Antonin wished to hang a massive Russian bell on it, which would ring out the surroundings of the Holy City with its wondrous bell and, touching the hearts of devout Russian pilgrims, at the same time loudly speak to its heterodox inhabitants about the greatness of Russia and Orthodoxy and about our successes in Palestine. The plan was done, since the late Fr. Antonin did not stop at any difficulties in achieving his goals. The donated massive bell arrived from Russia to Jaffa on the steamship of the Russian Society, and all that remained was to deliver it to Jerusalem. In the absence of a railway at that time, this delivery presented almost insurmountable difficulties. Resourcefulness and understanding of the Russian soul helped Fr. Archimandrite Antonin, who decided to involve all Russian pilgrims in this matter. With an ardent speech calling on pilgrims of all ages and genders, he achieved that the Russian buildings in Jerusalem were empty, and everyone, both old and young, went to Jaffa to bring the bell with them. Bearing in mind that the path from Jaffa to Jerusalem is uphill and requires at least two days of travel in normal times, one can imagine how much effort, energy and time it took to transport the bell from Jaffa to Jerusalem. But difficulties still lay ahead when the bell had to be dragged across the bed of the Kidron Stream, which separates the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem. When descending into this bed, the beams on which the bell was transported, due to an oversight, tilted to the side, and the bell rolled to the ground, crushing some of the pilgrims. Among the victims was one elderly pilgrim: both of her feet were crushed by the bell. Shedding blood and lying on the ground, she did not utter a single groan, but crossed herself all the time, repeating the same phrase: “Glory to Thee, Lord, that Thou hast vouchsafed me to suffer in the place where Thou Thyself suffered for us sinners!” They somehow bandaged the unfortunate woman's legs with towels and scarves and, putting a black Arab from Russian buildings on the shoulders, sent her to a Russian hospital. But even on this short journey through the entire city, on the shoulders of an Arab, the sufferer quietly whispered the words of prayer. The doctor at the Russian hospital recognized the victim’s situation as grave and expressed fears for her life, in view of the pilgrim’s advanced age, the very heavy loss of blood after the accident, and the general exhaustion of strength from pilgrimage abstinence, but, to the surprise of everyone, the unfortunate woman easily endured the difficult operation and began to recover quickly. As soon as the danger of death had passed, the victim began earnestly to ask the Sister of Mercy to write a letter to her son with the news of the visitation of God that had befallen her and asked him not to grieve about what had happened to her. In response, an equally astounding letter was received, in which the son expressed joy and gratitude to God for deigning his mother to suffer in St. City, in view of St. Golgotha. Here, if you like, we are dealing with the Spartans, but already with Christian Spartans. Pilgrimage, as a high religious feat, undertaken voluntarily and carried out in good faith, leaves little free time for those who undertake it. Attending church services in the Russian church, in the Church of the Resurrection and in other places, viewing venerable places, indispensable trips to the feast of the Nativity of Christ in Bethlehem, on the feast of the Epiphany in the Jordan, on the day of remembrance of St. Savva, December 5, to his monastery or monastery located near Jerusalem, on the feast of the Annunciation in Nazareth, etc., fills, one might say, all day and all the season of the devout pilgrim, and he has scarce time to rest. Only the rainy winter season keeps him in the Russian buildings, usually crowded with pilgrims. And despite the spiritual conversations and readings with vague pictures being conducted by members of the mission at this time, pilgrims without movement and without anything to do still experience languor and boredom. If the meat-eating period from Christmas to Lent is long, the tireless pilgrim does not remain in Jerusalem, but goes either to Sinai or to Bar-grad to the myrrh-streaming tomb of St. Nicholas, considering it an indispensable duty to return to Jerusalem for Lent. Lent is, one might say, a time of suffering for the pilgrimage season. Pilgrims spend time day and night at services in Jerusalem churches and at those litanies and processions that are performed almost every Sunday by the patriarch and his numerous clergy in the Church of the Resurrection. These days the pilgrim has no time to think about food and sleep. And in ordinary times, from his arrival in St. Grad, devout pilgrims take a vow not to eat meat, and due to the difficulty of getting fish here, they usually eat only bread, cereals and fruits (for example, oranges), washed down with hot tea, and now many take food restrictions to the extreme: for the entire Lent they even stop drinking tea, contenting themselves with a piece of bread or rye cracker soaked in cold water 17 . Due to the huge influx of pilgrims to Jerusalem for fasting, the crowding in Russian buildings increases so much that many of the pilgrims prefer to take a nap for one or two hours either directly on the marble floor of the Church of the Resurrection, or on bunks, if they are free, in rooms for worshipers near the Holy Sepulcher. The motivation for this is an irresistible desire to be present these days at every service in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Exhaustion and exhaustion of the pilgrims' strength at this time reach the last degree. Typhoid fever, dysentery, malaria, erysipelas, etc. diseases find the most convenient soil for themselves in these exhausted organisms, and not only our Russian hospital, but also the hospital of the Patriarchate is overflowing with sick Russian pilgrims. Many of the pilgrims lie down to eternal rest on the hill of Zion... But for those who were destined by the Lord to happily endure their cross to the end, to endure all the hardships and hardships of a voluntarily chosen feat, having received St. fire from the life-giving Holy Sepulcher and lighting an unquenchable lamp from it in his lantern, in order to then bring it to his native village, having listened to Easter Matins and no less solemn Vespers of this day in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, when the Patriarch gives each pilgrim red eggs, having broken his fast at the expense of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society on Russian buildings, he usually leaves St. Grad happily, and often even on foot, goes to Jaffa to get on the first Russian steamship leaving for Russia. There is no need to paint before you a second sad picture of the return journey of our pilgrims to their homeland, when in a huge mass they fill the deck of these arks, called the steamships of the Russian Society. From Odessa to Baikal, Yeniseisk, Blagoveshchensk and other villages of our vast fatherland, wanderers often return on their own feet and with a staff in their hands. But in their hearts they now feel ardent joy, on the one hand, in view of the moral satisfaction for the feat they have accomplished, and on the other, in view of the approach to their native hearth and a speedy meeting with dear people. The backpack no longer burdens the wanderer. The place of rye crackers is now taken in it by Palestinian shrines dear to him: vials with Jordanian water and oil from the Holy Sepulcher, from the Sepulcher of the Mother of God, pebbles from the bottom of the Jordan River, from Mount Tabor, Sinai and from other places, locusts, the fruit that St. The Forerunner of the Lord, a crown of thorns made from thorns in the image of the crown that was placed on the head of the Savior, the milk of the Mother of God from the Bethlehem cave, stone peas from the field of giants, etc. objects. Here in the bag are the death shirt in which the pilgrim bathed in the sacred waters of the Jordan, a shroud in case of death and a palm branch with which he stood at matins on the week of Vai. The pilgrim is proud of his burden and, like the apple of his eye, carefully preserves it, anticipating the joy that his relatives and friends will experience from the happiness of owning even a small part of these treasures of the Christian East... Such a pilgrim enters his home as a man of God, a lucky man, and is greeted with all the tears of joy. And the fire of holy faith, lit in the lamp before the image, will then warm and shine not only for the rest of the days of the ascetic-pilgrim himself, but also for all his relatives and friends. In the early winter evenings, on a dark impenetrable autumn night, amidst the howling of a blizzard and blizzards, this warrior of God will gather all his household and neighbors, friends and acquaintances into his warm hut and give them a long speech about those holy places that he saw with his own eyes, walked with his feet, where the sun always shines and warms, where there are no evil blizzards and snow, and all his listeners will feel better, lighter and warmer at heart. A happy man, his listeners will say, that the Lord brought him to see such holy places! But next to this type of Russian pilgrim depicted by us, deserving complete sympathy and the most genuine and sincere sympathy, in view of the enormous moral benefit that he brings to the environment around him, influencing it in a healing and refreshing way, to deep regret, a completely different type of pilgrim arises before us, which, I am sure, is well known to you, M. Sovereigns and M. Sovereigns, as residents of Russian Jerusalem. This type of pilgrim involuntarily attracts attention and, so to speak, hurts your eyes. He is dressed18 in a worn, patched half-caftan or cassock; from under a black velvet monastic scufa, tufts of unkempt gray hair, and sometimes even pitch-black, long hair fall over his shoulders, on his legs are supports or pistons, on his shoulders and at his waist are all the attributes of a true pilgrim. This type of pilgrim is often found on the hills of our city, but most often you can see him on a holiday not in churches, but at the holy gates of our famous monasteries or near the porch of the churches most visited by pilgrims, where he either directly stretches out his hand for alms, or, most often, having stocked up on the Psalter, we recite psalm after psalm, without at the same time taking his predatory eyes off the pilgrims, giving pennies to the beggars standing here. Today you see this pilgrim at the fence of the St. Michael’s Monastery, tomorrow you will meet him at the nearby caves of the Lavra, the day after tomorrow in the Vydubetsky or Pokrovsky monasteries. This year he makes a living in our city in the summer, goes to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra near Moscow in the fall, spends the winter in Jerusalem, sails to Mount Athos for the summer, and again the next year he repeats his travels along the beaten and well-known path. This is the type of that wandering Rus' that Bishop Nifont of Novgorod condemned back in the 12th century, saying that it “walked around eating and drinking in the dark,” i.e. that these pilgrims wander around idly, so that, doing nothing, they eat and drink for nothing. To satisfy his mammon, such a pilgrim seeks all means and is very well informed about which bishop and on what days gives out alms, in which monastery there is a church holiday and bishop's service, where a free meal is offered in the monastery or the distribution of kvass and bread, what kind of benefactor exists in the city from whom one can easily beg alms, etc., and this pilgrim is aware of all the city news and gossip, perfectly is familiar with the state of church affairs, makes the most amazing characterizations of high-ranking ecclesiastical and secular officials, etc. He speaks fluently without hesitation, interspersing his speech with texts from St. Scriptures, proverbs and witticisms, always seriously, instructively; knows how to flatter and bypass his interlocutor with words, win him over in his favor, and gain his trust; where the need is real, he is ready to serve, and therefore has not only a strong influence on the simple-minded Russian person, but a downright irresistible charm. This type of parasite pilgrim on the St. the city of Jerusalem occurs very, very often. Here he is a parasite, living at the expense of our gullible pilgrims, a distributor of all kinds of gossip and incredible rumors among them. The fight against this kind of parasite is beyond the power of our Consulate General in Jerusalem, which often escorts them out of Palestine under escort. This type of pilgrims knows all the entrances and exits, and knows how to hide from the supervision of our consulate. A year or two later, after being expelled from Palestine, they easily obtain a foreign passport, do not take pilgrimage shipping books, but go to Alexandria on a direct flight in order to transfer there to French or Austrian ships going to Jaffa, and thus avoid, when disembarking, unpleasant meetings with the qavas of the consulate or the Palestine Society. In Jerusalem they live either in Greek monasteries, or with all their pilgrim belongings they wander around idly during the day and spend the night in St. Grobe, running around the Russian buildings that they hated in every possible way. If these pilgrims sometimes leave Palestine voluntarily, it is for the sole purpose of fooling the Russian pious people with the help of real and imaginary Palestinian relics and then replenishing their bottomless pockets with their labor pennies. Sometimes this kind of pilgrims enter into a deal with the abbots of Greek Palestinian monasteries and go to Russia as alms collectors for St. The coffin, for the needs of the Jerusalem monasteries, telling among pious compatriots about their crying poverty, about the terrible Turkish atrocities and oppression, etc., and their skillful preaching is never fruitless... This type of pilgrims, let’s say in the words of Bishop Nifont of Novgorod, are still destroying the Russian land, because they are defaming the Russian good name abroad, profaning the venerable the title of pilgrim... To our deep regret, we have to state the very sad fact that in this thankless role of the negative pilgrim type in the Orthodox East in Palestine, a Russian woman is much more often found than a man. This is quite natural. According to the data of our Orthodox Palestine Society, “among non-Orthodox believers, women make up barely 1/8, but with us, on the contrary, 2/3 of all worshipers 19 . In other words, this means that at present, during the pilgrimage season, out of 10 thousand pilgrims, almost seven thousand are Russian women. The figure is very respectable and cannot but give serious thought to the attentive observer. Unfortunately, the reports of the Imperial Palestine Society do not indicate the predominant age among our pilgrims, since dividing them by class tells us little, in view of the fact that blueberry nuns, cassock nuns and novices receive passports according to the state from which they came to enter the monastery. In any case, there is no doubt that there are relatively few elderly pilgrims in Jerusalem or those on whom harsh life has already left its indelible mark, most of them are middle-aged women, from 35-45 or 50 years old, but there are many who are much younger than the specified age. What attracts our Russian woman to Palestine? It is hardly possible to explain this attraction solely by the softness of the soul, the depth of female feeling, since a Polish woman, a French woman, and an Italian woman are no less pious and religious than our Russian woman, and, however, the percentage of pilgrims of these latter to Palestine is very insignificant. The reason for this phenomenon must be sought, in our opinion, in the way of Russian life, in the social and economic conditions of our life in general and of Russian women in particular. Time and space do not allow us to dwell here on clarifying the motives and motives that guide the Russian pilgrim when undertaking her long, difficult journeys, although these motives and motives are not unknown to us and would deserve your enlightened attention, but in any case, in the vast majority they have little in common with purely religious ones and deserve sympathy and respect. The behavior of these pilgrims in Palestine speaks quite eloquently for itself. Having broken free from the supervision of relatives or elders, controlled by no one and unrestrained by anything in their desires and actions, but guided solely by instinct and an awakened, long dormant feeling of passion, they, with their behavior not only on the street, but also in the churches of God, and with their flirtatious attire, involuntarily attract the attention of the observer... To illustrate our idea, it is enough to mention here our compatriot Mary Gladkaya, called in Palestine “Mother Maria,” who acquired a very loud, albeit sad, fame 20. It is much more interesting for us now to get acquainted with that environment, or with that moral atmosphere, which contributes to the moral decay of Russian pilgrimage and sometimes creates ugly types like the personality we have just named. The Jerusalem of our days is not at all like the Jerusalem of the time of Blessed Jerome, who, speaking of the burden of people of different tribes and languages ​​towards him from all over the world, at the same time testifies to the unanimity and solidarity of all. “No matter how different the voices are,” he writes in a letter dated 386, the religion is one. As many different folk choirs as there are, there are almost as many singing choirs. But between them (which constitutes exclusively and predominantly Christian virtue) there is no dispute due to either self-interest or motives of pride; general competition because of humility... No one judges another, so as not to be condemned by the Lord. And gnawing each other with your teeth, which is so common in many countries, is not the case here at all” 21 . These happy times for Jerusalem have now passed irrevocably. True, even today they strive to Jerusalem from Britain, and from Gaul, and from Italy, and from Germany and from other countries, but not for the sake of “competition due to humility,” but just the opposite, in order to conduct “self-serving disputes” with each other “out of motives of pride” in holy places. About modern Jerusalem we can express ourselves in the words of Blessed Jerome, that here all the tribes, nationalities and religions living here “gnaw each other with their teeth” in a way that is “not common” in other places. At St. Golgotha, from which brotherly love was proclaimed, in Bethlehem, where the Savior of the world was born and where the angels sang: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace,” Orthodox, Catholics, Armenians and even Copts wage a passionate struggle to the point of shedding blood over the possession of holy places; Greeks, French, Italians, Germans, English, Americans argue and quarrel with each other, striving to seize land and acquire as many proselytes as possible among the natives. In the struggle for dominance in the Holy Land, in the heat of passionate polemics with each other, all permitted and prohibited means are used. Gold, which foreigners own in abundance and which the inhabitants of the East are greedy for, strong patronage, schools, various kinds of charitable institutions - hospitals, hospices, orphanages - "baksheesh" household items and clothing - all this serves as a tempting bait for the natives. In order to discredit their opponents in the eyes of the natives, in case of need, when all decent means are unsuccessful, they are used insinuations, the most vile slander, lies and deceit. Due to these phenomena, disputes are being waged in Jerusalem over holy revenge, the authenticity of such shrines, which have been in the hands of the Orthodox since ancient times, is being questioned and disputed, all efforts are aimed at preventing the maintenance of the latter in proper splendor and cleanliness and thereby promoting their speedy destruction and desolation. Disputes, even on the basis of serious scientific research, about reality, for example, the position of Golgotha, the tomb of the Mother of God, denial of the authenticity of the threshold of the city gates on the site of Russian buildings, etc. - all these are undoubtedly echoes of religious discord and hidden struggle between different nationalities. What measures are used by the opponents of Orthodoxy in the fight against its representatives and how skillfully they seize the land plots necessary for them in Jerusalem, the best proof of this can be the gift of Emperor William to Pope Leo XIII of the place in Zion, on which, according to the generally accepted legend, the descent of the Holy Spirit took place on the apostles, a gift that he himself received from the Turkish Sultan during his trip to the East and stay in Jerusalem. To our deepest and greatest regret, at present in Jerusalem we are present not only at a passionate struggle between Orthodoxy and heterodoxy, East and West, which is to some extent understandable and natural, but we do not see here unanimity and brotherly love even among the representatives of Orthodoxy. Until recently, the Greek local clergy was very unsympathetic to the educational and humane activities in Palestine and Syria of our Jerusalem mission, headed by its late rector, Archimandrite Antoninus, and now our Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society has also inherited the same disposition and even opposition on its part, straining all its efforts to maintain Orthodoxy in the East and those covenants that were indicated to it. the late Fr. Archimandrite Antonin. Finally, among the local ruling Greek clergy there is also no unanimity and solidarity. The Patriarchate, long burdened with debts and deprived of the opportunity to adequately support its numerous brotherhood, has long been waging a struggle with the Holy Sepulchre clergy, through whose hands a real golden shower is pouring from all over the Orthodox world. Independent of the patriarch and irremovable, the archimandrite of the Holy Sepulcher brotherhood is not only the actual owner of the largest profitable quarters of Jerusalem, hotels, warehouses, but also holds in his hands all the synodal bishops, thanks to their material dependence on the latter. The Archimandrite of St. Tomb not only is not subordinate to the patriarch, but, using his influence on the synodal bishops, he himself exerts strong pressure on the patriarch, whose position on the Jerusalem throne largely depends on his influential support. Due to the absence of strong authority in the Jerusalem Church in the person of its head, often a protege of the mentioned Holy Sepulcher Brotherhood, the Orthodox clergy is morally demoralized to the last degree: its self-will, selfishness, loose morals and similar vices are sharply striking even to a superficial observer. The lack of funds in the Patriarchate developed a practice that persisted in Palestine until recently - giving numerous monasteries in Jerusalem itself and outside of it to the farm or on lease for a certain period of time to wealthy clergy, who tried to derive the greatest possible benefit from their rent, not caring in the least about the splendor of the monasteries, about the morality of their inhabitants and bringing the monasteries into an amazing form of poverty and squalor. Donations of money and sacristy to these monasteries did not achieve their goal, since the tenant abbots, when the lease term ended, when leaving, took with them everything that they had done or acquired during their ownership of the monastery. Many monasteries have been turned into rented furnished rooms, which are given by tenants to residents - most often Russian pilgrims who remain permanently in Jerusalem - for a certain fee. The abbot-tenant lives in these monasteries at his own discretion, without denying himself anything. The so-called “Gerondisses”, scattered among such monasteries, have long since acquired loud and notorious fame far beyond the borders of Palestine. The attempt of the very energetic patriarch of the Jerusalem Church, Nicodemus I, to curb the Jerusalem clergy and streamline its moral life ended, as we know, in complete failure. In 1888, a villainous attempt was made on this patriarch by a monk of a Jordanian monastery, and in the end, when in his good intentions this patriarch met dissympathy and direct opposition from his closest colleagues, he had to cede the helm of the rule of the Zionist Church to another person, retiring. Our pilgrims and pilgrims of the negative type find themselves in such a morally difficult atmosphere, in a world of low intrigue, insidious insinuation, blatant slander and human slander, where the holiness of the place, the importance and solemnity of the moment, the high rank in the hierarchy, and the moral personality of the most impeccable and dedicated public figure are mercilessly trampled upon. Living for a long time in Jerusalem, without having a clearly defined goal in front of them, unoccupied with anything serious, not knowing how to fill and kill the excess of idle time, they go into this world with all their being and breathe in its rotten atmosphere. Interest in issues of church life and knowledge of the customs and life of our clergy and especially the higher hierarchy, acquired by them in their homeland, or during their life in monasteries, or during their wanderings around the monasteries and shrines of the Russian land, give them the full opportunity, thanks to their extraordinary accessibility, ease of use and innate insinuating courtesy, to quickly get close to the Holy Sepulcher clergy, not excluding bishops, to easily navigate the local church affairs and trends and feel aware of all church issues. Our compatriots, who have lived in Greek monasteries in Jerusalem for many years without a break and are very knowledgeable in the church affairs of the Zion Church, provide them with an important service in this regard. Newcomer pilgrims, and especially pilgrims who lived on the buildings of the Palestinian Society, due to a lack of personal moral disgust, willy-nilly become involved in the same vices and spread them among the best part of the Russian pilgrimage. And in fact, let's say in the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa, “where the hearing is defiled, the sight is also defiled, the heart is also defiled, accepting indecent things through sight and hearing. How can one pass dispassionately through places where passions operate?” 22. Pilgrimages are now being made to the Holy Land for scientific purposes. Currently, these pilgrimages have become an urgent need for everyone who is keenly interested in biblical archeology and, in general, the historical past of Palestine and St. City, which has experienced many disturbances and disasters in its lifetime. The importance of traveling to Palestine for a student of the Bible was well understood by the great expert on it, Blessed Jerome. “Those who visited Athens, he says, understand the history of the Greeks much better, and those who walked from the Triad to Sicily, then sailed from there to the mouth of the Tiber, know the third book of the Aeneid better. The same is necessary for knowledge of the Holy Scriptures” 23. But the learned pilgrimage to the Holy Land has especially taken root in the West and has its most prominent representatives from there, since interest in biblical science in the broad sense of the word, unfortunately, is more popular there in the West than in the Orthodox East and even in our fatherland. The grandiose excavations of Wilson, Warren, Bliss, the research and scientific works of Robinson, the recently deceased (☦ 1900) Konrad Schick, Conder and others are well known to our domestic biblical orientalists and have been used by them in our biblical and archaeological literature to a sufficient extent with deep gratitude. Since the end of the nineties of the last century, in the West they began to organize annually in September and October, regular scientific trips along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, to Tunisia, Egypt, Jerusalem, Syria and other places, inviting famous scientific professors as companions, who give scientific lectures about the places visited by these scientific caravans, and then demonstrate them in the very places 24. Representatives of the enlightened West, living permanently in Jerusalem and pursuing mainly missionary goals, now devote their leisure and energy to serious scientific research in the field of biblical sciences, the history of church and civil Palestine and Syria. In addition to scientific archaeological societies, recently at the monastery of St. Stephen, opposite the Damascus Gate, the Dominicans opened a theological and archaeological institute, and, following their example, in 1900 the Americans opened the same institute. The range of subjects taught at these institutes, in addition to the languages ​​of Latin, Greek and Syriac, includes Jewish topography, epigraphy and geography. We Russians, compared to the West, have done very little to study the Holy Land. Until now, there have been two scientific expeditions from Russia, properly organized to study Jerusalem, Palestine and other places in the East: in 1883, for excavations at a Russian site near the Church of the Resurrection on the site of St. threshold and in 1891 to explore the remarkable sites and monuments of Jerusalem, the Holy Land, Transjordan, Gawran and Syria. Both scientific expeditions were equipped with funds from the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, and the scientific results of the last expedition have not yet been made public. More has been done for the study of the Holy Land by individual Russian scientists and professors of our theological Academies at their own modest means and on their own personal initiative. The names of the late Bishops Porfiry Uspensky, Archimandrites Antonin and Leonid, former rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy, Rev. Filaret and the hitherto prosperous professors A. A. Olesnitsky, M. A. Muretov and others. well known not only in their homeland, but also abroad. The major works of some of these scientists, such as, for example. “The Holy Land”, “The Old Testament Temple in Jerusalem”, etc. do honor to Russian biblical-archaeological science and testify with their own eyes that among Russian scientists there can be talented and lovingly devoted people to the work of science who, if placed in favorable circumstances, could go hand in hand with foreign scientists, and sometimes independently of them and even more impartially than the latter work in the study of the dear Holy Land to all of us. In very recent times, before our eyes, a new attractive type of pilgrimage to the Holy Land is emerging - these are school pilgrimages. Until now, two school trips to Palestine have been made, so to speak, of an official nature: the first from Kazan in 1898 under the leadership of the teacher of the Imperial 1st Gymnasium N. Gortalov, who had been to the East several times before, with students of this gymnasium, and the other in 1900 from Trinity-Sergievsky Posad by students of the Moscow Theological Academy, led by the rector of this academy His Eminence Arseny, Bishop of Volokolamsk, with the participation of professors of the same academy N.O. Kapterev and V.N. Myshtsin and many other clergy. In addition to these two trips, properly organized and carried out with the knowledge of the highest authorities, and therefore enjoying attention and favor throughout the East, students of our Kyiv theological educational institutions traveled to the Holy Land several times on their own initiative with their meager contributions. While we wholeheartedly welcome this new, emerging, sympathetic type of pilgrim-schoolchild to Palestine and wishing that the first pilgrims-schoolchildren to the Holy Land would find imitators among their peers, we allow ourselves to strongly disagree with those fears and objections regarding these pilgrimages that were expressed by some of our teachers, who recommended that the leisure and time of schoolchildren be utilized and, supposedly, with greater benefit in studying their fatherland. We do not deny the importance of excursions within our vast fatherland for our students: they will undoubtedly help national studies and contribute to the awakening in them of love for the homeland and a sense of national identity, but we do not recommend that our teachers keep silent in front of their young students about the homeland of all mankind - the East and, in particular, about the cradle of the Christian faith, Jerusalem. An excellent example of a school trip to St. The city is given to us by the founder of the New Testament religion, our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Evangelist Luke, having mentioned twice that “As a child (Jesus) was stretched out and strengthened in the Spirit, filled with wisdom” (Luke 2:40, 52), he narrates that He, “when he was twelve years old,” together with his parents, who were traveling to Jerusalem for the Easter holiday “every summer,” appeared here and for three whole tedious days searches and moral suffering of parents who had lost their son - spent “among the teachers” in the church, listening to them and asking questions (v. 46). An example forever unforgettable. Indeed, for a schoolchild leaving the institution in which the first foundations of his moral and religious education, the development of character and correct worldview were laid, on the threshold of the church of higher science, it is very, very useful, breaking away from his usual environment, in a new place, among new people, to test himself and give an account of everything that this school taught him and, in particular, what he learned from school lessons on theology, so that later everything useful and keep what is precious for life both in memory and in the heart, without sacrificing anything before the most powerful and eloquent authorities of the negative direction. The East in general and Palestine in particular will give a lot to the school-pilgrim in the sense of clarifying and factually substantiating his views and opinions on issues of the Christian faith, will help in developing not only an independent religious and moral worldview, but even expand his mental and aesthetic horizons. The East, if we take a closer look at its morally unspoiled and untouched by European civilization inhabitants, living in Transjordan or in the Sin desert, and still lives the biblical patriarchal life depicted in the sacred books and in particular in the Pentateuch of Moses. And until now, modern Jethro lives in a leaky hut or tabernacle and is content with the most unpretentious furnishings and food; and to this day his costume is still simple and unpretentious, consisting of a long shirt, sandals on his feet and a head cover with a baldric around it; and hitherto all his wealth lies in camels, in herds of goats and sheep; Even to this day, Zipporah tends her father’s sheep until she is married; and now also Musa (Moses is a common name among the Bedouins of Arabia) may turn out to be a polite deliverer for her at the well, when she comes to water her father’s sheep; and to this day, every traveler in a wretched tent awaits the most cordial hospitality and a willingness to share the last piece of bread with him. Nature, climate, the change of seasons, food, a cup of cold water on a hot, scorching day - all this remains the same as it was in biblical times, during the life of Christ the Savior and the apostles, and with the same meaning as before. In a word, it is much more useful for a traveler in Palestine to have the Bible instead of the notorious Baedeker, and with it to make his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and undoubtedly this correct guide will sooner and closer lead him to the desired Jerusalem. In conclusion, based on the above, we allow ourselves to express several of our sincere, sincere wishes addressed to the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society and aimed entirely at improving the life of our modern pilgrims in St. Land, although the implementation of these largely depends on the sympathy that you, Mr. and Mr., will provide to this Society with your moral and feasible material support. 1) Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in our fatherland has a long and not inglorious historical past. It took root in Russian life and entered, one might say, into the flesh and blood of the Russian people. The number of pilgrims to the Holy Land is growing every year, and has now reached a very respectable figure, over 10,000 thousand per year. The efforts of the Palestine Society were and are being directed so far mainly to give these newcomers decent shelter in Jerusalem, to give them water, which in Palestine, in the absence of rain, is sometimes worth its weight in gold, to provide the opportunity to buy food products familiar to Russian people in a Russian store, to protect them from exploitation by the local population, to give them hot food for a reasonable fee and thus protect them from disease and severe exhaustion etc. But all this, however, is very insufficient for our pilgrim. Our Russian pilgrim is very undemanding in relation to temporary housing, he is unpretentious in his choice of food - crackers and a cup of hot tea constitute his usual food for many days - he is gentle and forgiving towards all the troubles and insults encountered on his way, good-natured even at a time when his last ruble is taken away from him almost by force in Greek monasteries or a silver pectoral cross is removed from his neck, but he he languishes from spiritual hunger when his religious needs remain unsatisfied, when he does not find a person with whom he could have a heart-to-heart talk, openly pour out his deep sadness in front of him, which oppresses his soul, often driving him out of the house and bringing him from the Amur to Golgotha. That is why we would like our Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society to pay special attention to this moral side of the life of our devout Russian pilgrim and to take the latter under his fatherly guardianship before he appears in Jaffa or even in Jerusalem on its buildings. This guardianship should begin, in our opinion, with Odessa. It is urgently necessary, at least during the difficult times of pilgrimage movements from Odessa to Jaffa and back, to arrange a more or less bearable life for our pilgrims during their sea voyage, that is, to free them from the unpleasant neighborhood of four-legged and feathered animals and to avoid the overcrowding and cramped conditions that are felt on Russian steamships, especially those sailing from Jaffa to Russia now after Easter. Our ships with pilgrims should be furnished at least so satisfactorily that everyone understands and feels where he is going and what feat he is performing. We are far from thinking of wanting on Russian ships for pilgrimage trips the same comfort that we saw on German and French ships, but we believe that some of the necessary equipment can be arranged on our ships without much difficulty. St. Gregory of Nyssa, who traveled to Palestine for a council to organize the affairs of the Arabian Church, says: “the chariot was both a church and a monastery, where we sang to the Lord together all the way and fasted 25. If the chariot can be turned into a church and a monastery, then a hundred times with great convenience the same or something similar can be done on our ships transporting pilgrims from Odessa to Jaffa. But one small chapel on the ship would still not be enough; it is necessary to appoint, as guides-overseers, confessors who, accompanying the pilgrims, would perform daily services for them, perform religious services, give sermons, arrange readings about the Holy Land and the places of saints near which the ships pass, talk privately, monitor the moral behavior of the pilgrims and especially pilgrims entrusted to their care, etc. In this case, our pilgrims are not they would have felt the spirit of flying on the ship, they would not have known the boredom of idleness, and then they would have heard less often about the vices that are not alien to some of them now. Our pilgrims, who come in such huge numbers to worship the holy places, need greater moral control both on ships and on Russian buildings in Jerusalem. The lack of careful control is now giving rise among them to those sad phenomena that we discussed above. Of course, in this matter, our Jerusalem spiritual mission could provide a significant service to the Imperial Palestine Society, but its members, busy mainly with fulfilling church requirements and services, pay very little, to say the least, attention and paternal concern for the moral life and spiritual needs of our many pilgrims. Our Russian archpastorship can, and even must, ease the difficulty of this task for the Palestine Society by unconditionally prohibiting the travel abroad from our monasteries by ryasophore nuns, novices, and young nuns in general, for whom these trips are not only useless, but even positively disastrous. In this truly humane and holy feat, let them be inspired by the views of the great church father Gregory of Nyssa, who through his own experience experienced all the harm of such travel for monks and especially nuns. “People who have chosen the monastic and hermit life, says this father of the church, who consider it a matter of piety to visit places in Jerusalem in which monuments of the Lord’s presence in the flesh are visible, then it would be good for them to look at the rule, and if the leadership of the commandments requires this, then do this work as the commandment of the Lord. If this is not in the commandments of the Lord, then I don’t know where it would be commanded to want to do something, making oneself a law in the choice of good. Where the Lord calls the blessed to inherit the kingdom of heaven, He did not count the journey to Jerusalem among the good deeds. Where He proclaimed beatitudes, He did not include their zeal for this... “Since this matter, upon careful consideration, turns out to be harmful to the soul of those who have chosen a strict life, it should not be the subject of special jealousy, but of the greatest caution” ... A wise and chaste life “is preserved with an unmixed and separate way of life, so that nature is not offended by the mixing and close proximity of either women with men, or men with women, as long as they strive to maintain chastity. But during a journey, the necessity always leads to a violation of caution and to indifference in observing the rules, for it would be inconvenient for a woman to make such a long journey if she did not have a guardian; due to physical weakness, she is lifted (by someone) onto and off the pack animal, and in difficult cases is supported. And in order to raise, you need to have either an acquaintance who would perform this service, or a mercenary who would serve; In both cases, criticism is inevitable here. For whether he entrusts himself to someone else’s or to his own, he still does not preserve the law of chastity” 26. After these considerations about the travels of his time, it is not difficult to imagine what St. father about our pilgrimage journeys on Russian ships, when “the mixing and close rapprochement of the sexes” during mass movements reaches positive disgrace. The burning “sense of bitterness” experienced by St. Gregory of Nyssa in his time, after traveling to Jerusalem, cannot help but be experienced in our days by every serious and thoughtful observer. 2) A pilgrimage shelter or at least a temporary barracks for pilgrims arriving in Palestine in Jaffa, so that they can hide from the heat and rest after suffering the troubles at sea and when landing on the shore, is a matter of urgent and urgent need. 3) It is very timely for the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, which has set itself the goal of “collecting, developing and disseminating information in Russia about the holy places of the East” (§ 1, note 1), to think about opening its own archaeological institute in Jerusalem, so as not to be towed by the scientific authorities of the West, but to make its own Russian contribution to the treasury of human knowledge. Standing courageously to guard the interests of Orthodoxy and the people in Palestine and Syria, in view of the onslaughts from heterodox faiths of the West, the Imperial Palestine Society must be opposed in the field of scientific development of issues of bibliology, biblical and church archeology, civil history with its own Russian scientific forces, the lack of which it can hardly feel 27. The twice-equipped scientific Russian expeditions to Jerusalem and Palestine, and, one must assume, which cost the Society quite a lot, testify to this quite eloquently. The benefit of such an institute for Russian biblical scholarship and archaeologists in Palestine is beyond any doubt. Then, willingly and with great benefit for the success of the business, learned professors, talented artists and our schoolchildren would travel here, who would then have the full opportunity to actually be “among teachers to listen to them and ask questions about many things that excite their minds and disturb their hearts (Luke II, 46). “It would be a real shame, we repeat the words of our Orientalist II. K. Kokovtsova, for Russian scientists, as Russian people, i.e., relatives in flesh and blood to those thousands of Russian pilgrims who irresistibly strive annually, despite any obstacles and often with all kinds of hardships, to the Holy Land, if only this Holy Land were given one of the very last places in Russian archeology, especially at the present moment, when other educated peoples are preparing to strengthen their activities in that direction and they, for example, are already projecting a number permanent archaeological centers in the country itself and in particular in Jerusalem 28. It is in no way possible to replace this urgent need in Palestine with interviews on scientific issues, open since April 11, 1900, once a month in St. Petersburg, under the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society: it is another matter to work on scientific issues of Palestinian archeology on site in Jerusalem and completely different in St. Petersburg. 4) But the opening of a Russian archaeological institute in Jerusalem is still only a dream, and its implementation will require a more or less distant future; at the present time, a well-organized scientific library is highly desirable and urgently needed in Palestine, without which Russian scientists who come to Palestine for scientific research cannot do. The existing library in our buildings, compiled with funds from the Palestine Society, is far from the desired ideal and leaves much to be expected in the future in this regard. 5) Finally, there is a need for the Palestinian Society to take under its wing the Palestinian Museum, which was started by the late Fr. Archimandrite Antonin and which he bequeathed to our Jerusalem spiritual mission. Solid material support and experienced hands and minds will turn this modest scientific aid into an institution very useful not only for the future of our archaeological institute in Jerusalem, but also at present for our Palestinian scholars and archaeologists who accidentally visit Jerusalem. This is how many urgent needs our Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society has at the present time. We have not touched upon his other humane, truly Christian and fruitful side of his activities in the field of maintaining Orthodoxy among the natives of Syria and Palestine, education and the creation of charitable institutions: hospitals, shelters for children, charity homes, etc. To carry out these and many other tasks, it is necessary, beyond any doubt, enormous means and resources, so that our Russian institutions can be brought to any level with similar educational and charitable institutions heterodox Palestinian societies, so that the Russian name is not blasphemed among the nations. These funds Imp. Pal Ave. The community, as you know, receives exclusively from the Russian people, taking advantage of the right granted to them, on the insistence of the great holiday through our Holy Church to contact them with a request for a voluntary contribution to the Holy Land. Citizens of the mother of Russian cities, Russian Jerusalem, the urgent needs of the Russian pilgrim are better known and understandable to you than to any of the Russian people, since every year thousands of them pass through the streets of your holy city before your eyes. Respond to the ardent call to you now addressed on behalf of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, and make your contribution to the holy cause, remembering that the Lord will bless you for it from Sin, and you will see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life. (Ps. 127:6). Works of Blessed Jerome of Stridon. Kiev, 1879, part 2, page 11. Russian history. librarian ed. archaeographer, commissioner St. Petersburg. 1880, vol. VI, p. 62. “Other times a great futrine (i.e., fortune - storm) arises,” says our pilgrim Hierodeacon Zosima (15th century) about the Black Sea, and “there is a great fear before Philip’s fast.” “In the middle of the way” (i.e. from Jerusalem), the same pilgrim describes his misadventures, “the ship of Kotan, the evil robbers, came upon us, and smashed the ship with cannons, like a wondrous beast, and cut our shipman into pieces, and threw him into the sea, and took him, even in our ship. He hit me, the poor thing, in the chest with a spear and with words; “kalugere, pone ducat corsa”, the hedgehog is called gold money. I was cursed by the living God, by the Most High God, which I do not have; They took my entire mshelesh, leaving me poor in a single Sukman, and they themselves, galloping around the ship, like marvelous beasts, shining with their spears, and swords, and sabers, and wide axes. I think, sinner Zosima, that the air will be afraid of them.” Message Imp. Ave. Pal. General 1901, no. 1, pp. 13–14. Message Imp. Ave. Pal. General 1901, No. 1, p. 45. This number of pilgrims is also noted by the Highest Register of April 29 of this year, given in the name of the now deceased assistant chairman, member of the council and secretary of the Imperial. right Palest. Society V. N. Khitrovo. New Time, 1903, No. 9752. Comp. V.M. Doroshevich. In the promised land (Palestine). M 1900, p. 126. Even emigrant premises are locked from them, writes our well-known publicist V.M. Doroshevich, “so as not to be polluted,” as if emigrant premises were intended for emigrating marquises and viscounts. They are placed in dirty, dimly lit holds, sleeping without bedding on a floor covered with sticky mud. Their deck is usually filled with transported livestock. They are doomed to eat dry bread all the way, 10 days, buying hot water from the restaurateur. In a word, adds this experienced Russian traveler, I sailed on a “convict” ship and on a “pilgrimage” ship, and if a convict from a voluntary fleet ship were brought in and shown how pilgrims were transported, he would have asked, “What have these people done?” And, of course, I would not believe that these people were “guilty” only of wanting to worship the Holy Land.” Because if a pilgrim were brought onto a “convict” ship, he would probably envy even the convicts: “If only they could swim like that for a day”! (V.M. Doroshevich. In “The Promised Land”, p. 128). In Beirut, writes the leader of this trip, N. Gortalov, they loaded a lot of sheep into these holds in which we were placed, and they had to remain open for the flow of fresh air to the animals; some of us sat on logs piled on the deck between the holds and sides of the steamer, while others, in order not to feel the heavy smell that came from the hold, with the permission of the captain, took places on the stern of the steamer, near the first class deckhouse. In addition, that night we had to experience stronger rolling than during the entire previous period of our journey, and some students, who had previously tolerated the rolling well, now suffered from bouts of seasickness” (Communication of the Imperial Rights of Palestine. General 1900, January-February, p. 74). Above, the same Gortalov writes that on the steamship “Russia” they, “due to the lack of emigrant premises, were allocated a place separately from the others, on the front part of the deck, between the engine and the first class wheelhouse, since there were many passengers in the hold, mainly Jews (Ibid., p. 70). “I don’t know,” writes V.M. Doroshevich, are sights more majestic, more touching than the singing steamer carrying pilgrims from the Holy Land. The whole day on the ship the singing of “Christ is Risen” does not stop. Having gathered in groups of 5, 6, 10 people, here and there they sing this bright joyful song all day long, praising God, with the happy faces of people who have seen heaven. Evening is coming. Calm. The quiet, calm, smooth sea glows with an opalescent light under the brilliance of the sunset rays. The village priest, traveling in third class, put on an old stole and served vespers on the lower deck. From the boxes they made something like a lectern, covered it with a clean canvas, laid out the icons bought in Jerusalem and consecrated at the Holy Sepulcher, and the singing of “Christ is Risen,” majestic, as always the singing of the crowd, rushes across the quiet, calm sea. In the heat, in the heat, when the singing ship calms down, you hear in the hold, among the silence, a quiet, leisurely reading. In the hold, on the deck under the awnings, wherever there is at least a little shade, they read aloud and listen to the reading of the Holy Scriptures “(In the Promised Land, p. 124). Message Imperial right Palest., general 1901, no. 1, pp. 36–37. In addition to penitential caravans, in France until recently there were pilgrimage caravans of St. Louis, organized by Augustinian assumptionist monks. These monks had four large steamships that made trade voyages to the ports of the Mediterranean Sea, but 2-3 times a year they also served to transport their pilgrim caravans to Palestine (Communication of the Imperial Rights. Palestine Society 1901. No. 1, p. 42). Message Imperial right Palest. Obshch., 1901. No. 1, pp. 47, 33, 39. Message Imperial right Palest. total 1901, No. 1, p. 47. “Having arrived in Palestine, the pilgrims, according to V.M. Doroshevich, they usually impose strict fasting on themselves. “Fasting during Holy Week” means in the language of pilgrims: to eat absolutely nothing for the entire week. Almost everyone does this” (In the Land of Promise, p. 128; Sn. pp. 129, 130–131). See V.M. for a picture of this type. Doroshevich in The Promised Land, pp. 124–125. Message Imperial right Palest. General 1901 No. 1, p. 44. Maria Gladkaya is an intelligent woman, a native of our south, the mother of a large family and wife and hitherto living husband, whom she left at first only for a while to pray at the Holy Sepulcher. But Jerusalem captivated our compatriot so much that she decided not to return to her homeland to her family hearth, having set herself the unrealizable dream in her life to realize and reproduce an inimitable example in the person of the noble Roman matron Pavla, the companion of Blessed Geronim, who also left her husband and children for the sake of an ascetic life in Palestine. (For example, Paula, an ascetic of the 4th century, often referred to Maria Gladkaya both in explanations with the consulate and in conversations with private individuals and in particular with me). Here in Jerusalem, our compatriot chose Elder Nicephorus, Metropolitan of Cetra of Arabia, as the object of her attention and tender care, with whom she settled in a cell, in the monastery of St. Tsars Constantine and Helena, in the vicinity of the patriarchal chambers. Living, to the temptation of many Russian admirers, under the same roof in a monastery with Metropolitan Nicephorus, through him, as an influential member of the Jerusalem Patriarchal Synod, she began to exert so much pressure on the course of church affairs in the patriarchate that her further stay in Jerusalem became inconvenient. At the request of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, with the assistance of the Russian consul, under the escort of the cavas of our consulate, she was repeatedly expelled from Jerusalem, but, having reached Constantinople, she was always able to settle her affairs here in such a way that she returned to Jerusalem again without hindrance and even in triumph, however, now she has already been evicted from the patriarchate and lives in her own house in Gornaya near Jerusalem, but with She does not want to give up her former strong position and importance in Jerusalem. The instrument of her power and significance is a weak-willed and elderly elder, Metropolitan Nikifor lives permanently in her house in Gornaya, does not appear at the meetings of the synod and casts his vote on the instructions of his experienced mentor, well versed in politics and church affairs... Currently, the restless Maria Gladkaya, intending to follow to the end her prototype, the ascetic Paul of the 4th century, who was, as is known, the abbess of women's communities in Bethlehem, he strains all the efforts of his mind and will to become the head of the Russian community there, created through the efforts of the late head of the mission, Fr. Archimandrite Antonin and is under the jurisdiction and spiritual dependence of the rector of the Russian Jerusalem mission. In achieving her ambitious aspirations, Maria Gladkaya does not neglect any means, which causes deep confusion and even discord between the peaceful inhabitants of our only foreign women's community or desert with a church in the name of the Kazan Mother of God... Works of Blessed Jerome, vol. II, p. 12 Creation St. Father, vol. 45 (part VIII). M. 1871, p. 457. Creation, blessed one. Jerome, vol. I, pp. LXXXIII. Message Imp. right Palest. General 1901, no. 3, p. 365. Creation Holy Father, vol. 45 (part VIII), p. 459. Creation Holy Father, vol. 45 (part VШ) pp. 455–457. And if in this matter we needed an energetic organizer and a fruitful figure in the Palestinian archaeological institute we are designing, then we would have no difficulty in naming his name - this is our venerable Hebraist and archaeologist, former prof. Kyiv Theological Academy A.A. Olesnitsky, according to the terminology accepted in the hostel, is now “not his lot.” Message Imp. right Overlap. Obshch., 1901, No. 3, p. 365, Proceedings of Kievsk. spirit. Academician T, II. 1903 You might be interested in: