Find the Akathist prayer of the phylermic icon of the mother of God. The miracle-working icon of the mother of God of fillerm. Prayers to the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God
February 2014
This publication by Doctor of Historical Sciences M.V. Shkarovsky. This image was on the Russian land for more than a hundred years and during this period belonged to the Russian Royal House, but later it was irretrievably lost by our compatriots.
One of the most significant church shrines of St. Petersburg in the XIX - early XX centuries. was now located in Montenegro, the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God. The Orthodox Church calendar published in Russia on October 12/25 still notes "the transfer from Malta to Gatchina of a part of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of St. John the Baptist" (in 1799). And in one of the recent foreign Russian-language editions it was reported about the Filermsky image that "the original of the icon is in St. Petersburg." However, during the years of the civil war, which became a real tragedy in the history of Russia, many of the greatest cultural values and shrines were forever lost for our country. A number of them were destroyed in the course of fierce battles, burned down in fires, etc., but many during the bloody turmoil and split of the state irrevocably left its borders. This happened to one of the priceless sacred relics of the entire Christian world, which by the will of fate ended up in Russia - the Filermian Icon of the Mother of God.
This image had a long history. According to legend, the icon was painted by the Evangelist Luke at the beginning of the first millennium and consecrated with the blessing of the Mother of God. Soon the Evangelist Luke himself took this image to Egypt, from there it was transported to Jerusalem, and around 430 the Empress Eudokia, the wife of Theodosius II (408-450), ordered to deliver the icon to Constantinople, where the image of the Mother of God was placed in the Blachernae Church. In 626, through the prayers of the inhabitants, who offered their petitions to the Filermian image, the city was saved from the invasion of the Persians. On this occasion, a song of thanks was compiled to the Mother of God, which the worshipers had to listen to while standing; this chanting order was called an akathist.
In 1204, during the IV-ro crusade, the icon was captured by the crusaders and again transferred to Palestine. There she was administered by the monastic-knightly order of the Johannites, or Hospitallers. Displaced in 1291 by the Saracens from Palestine and Syria, the Johannites lived in Cyprus for 18 years, and in 1309 they moved to the island of Rhodes, reclaimed from the Muslims after two years of battles. For the Filermos icon, knights in the XIV century built a temple of the Mother of God on the territory of the ancient settlement of Yalisa on Mount Filermios (named after the monk Filerimos), near the city of Rhodes. This temple, built on the foundations of an ancient Byzantine basilica, is well preserved, as is the nearby monastery. In the Church of the Mother of God on Mount Filermios, there is currently a copy of the Filermos icon and divine services are held, and the temple is divided by a lattice into two halves: Orthodox and Catholic.
In 1522, the troops of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, after a six-month siege, seized Rhodes, and the members of the order a few years later (in 1530) found refuge on Fr. Malta, where the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God, as well as other ancient shrines, arrived with them. In 1573, the construction of a cathedral in the name of St. John the Baptist and, after his consecration, the venerated icon of the Mother of God was placed in the Filermsky side-altar, decorated with silver gates.
At the end of the 18th century, Malta was captured by French troops under the command of Napoleon, and the Knights of Malta decided to go under the protection of Russia. In 1798, they elected Emperor Paul I as the head of the order, and on November 29 of the same year, the emperor solemnly entrusted himself with the crown of the Grand Master. The hand of St. John the Baptist was brought to St. Petersburg in the same year, and the Filerma icon of the Mother of God and part of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord were delivered to the Russian capital in 1799.
In September 1799, the imperial court arrived in Gatchina, where Paul's favorite country residence was. By this time, the emperor's daughter, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, was betrothed to the Crown Prince of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Friedrich Louis. The wedding took place in Gatchina on October 12; on the same day, at the direction of Paul I, the solemn transfer of the shrines brought from Malta took place. They were placed in the Gatchina court church. The emperor brought his gift to the church, commanding to arrange gold, decorated with diamonds and precious stones for the right hand of St. John the Baptist and for a part of the Cross of the Lord, and for the Filermskaya icon - a new golden robe. In memory of this event, by the highest command, an annual holiday was established, included in the church month on October 12 (old style).
Gatchina did not remain the place of residence of the relics transferred from Malta for a long time. In the fall of 1799, with the departure of the imperial court, the Filermskaya icon and the rest of the shrines were transported to St. Petersburg. In 1800, the celebration of October 12 was already held in the Winter Palace of the capital. Then, for more than 50 years, the shrines were constantly in the Cathedral of the Winter Palace, and the holiday of transferring them to Gatchina was only indicated in the calendars and saints, but was not particularly celebrated.
During the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, the tradition of transferring the Filermskaya Icon to Gatchina was revived. In memory of Paul I, the founder of the city, Nicholas I ordered to erect a cathedral church in the name of St. the apostle Paul. The cathedral was founded on October 30, 1846, built according to the design of the professor of architecture R.I. Kuzmin and was consecrated on July 12, 1852.
In the autumn of the same year, Nicholas I visited the temple. A deputation from the parishioners thanked the emperor and asked that the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God and other Maltese relics be placed in the new temple for permanent residence. The Emperor listened to the request, but agreed only to a temporary annual offering of shrines to the cathedral for the worship of believers. Since that time, the celebration of the holiday on October 12 was restored, which began to be performed annually in the Gatchina court church and the Pavlovsky cathedral of the city. In 1852, Nicholas I also ordered to write a copy of the Filermskaya icon and place it in a gilded silver setting on the analogue of the Gatchina Cathedral. And soon at the royal gates of the middle iconostasis, a copy of the icon, made by the artist Bovin, was placed on the analogue.
On the eve of the holiday, October 11, the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God and other relics were delivered from St. Petersburg to Gatchina. An all-night vigil was solemnly performed in the palace church, and the worshipers were kissing the shrines taken out in the middle of the church. The next day, after an early liturgy in the palace church, with a procession of the cross, the shrines were transferred to the cathedral, where they stayed for ten days for general worship and prayers. On the day of the celebration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, October 22, after the procession of the cross through the city, the shrines were taken back to St. Petersburg. For more than 60 years, this holiday was the main one for the inhabitants of Gatchina, and during the rest of the year the Maltese relics stayed in the Cathedral of the Winter Palace, in a special icon case on the right side of the royal gates. In 1915, the senior judge and chairman of the Court of Justice of the Island of Malta, Pullicino, appealed to Emperor Nicholas II with a request to provide the Maltese Museum with photographs of the icon of Our Lady of Filerm. Soon this request was fulfilled.
Soon after the October Revolution, in late 1917 - early 1918, the Cathedral of the Winter Palace was closed and destroyed, but the Maltese shrines were saved. Among other items of decoration of the liquidated court churches, they ended up in the sacristy of the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, which belonged to the court department. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, Protopresbyter of the former court clergy Alexander Dernov on January 6, 1919, in two cases, transported the relics from Moscow to Gatchina, where they were placed in the Cathedral of St. ap. Paul.
The Soviet authorities showed interest in the Filermskaya icon only in the early 1920s. On December 29, 1923, the Main Directorate of Scientific and Artistic Institutions of the People's Commissariat of Education tried in a message to its Petrograd branch (containing a number of erroneous judgments on the history of the icon) to find out the fate of the relic: Rhodes of the Icon of Our Lady of Filermus in view of the Italian government's petition to return the icon to Rhodes [during the colony of Italy]. The icon was in the palace of Gaia [?], And now allegedly transferred to the Gatchina Palace. The Department of Museum Affairs asks to answer as soon as possible where this icon is located at this time, and to present a conclusion whether the museum value of the icon is so great to defend its abandonment in Russia before the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. "
This request was made in connection with the fact that in 1923 the Italian government, through its ambassador in Moscow, asked the Soviet authorities to return the shrines of the Order of Malta. The People's Commissariat of Education, in turn, sent a request to V.K. Makarov, in which he asked to find out the fate of these relics. Soon V.K. Makarov turned to the rector of the Pavlovsk Cathedral, Archpriest Andrei Shotovsky, for clarification.
However, there was nothing to defend. Neither in Petrograd nor in Gatchina icons have been kept for a long time. Her fate was mentioned in the response to the corresponding inquiry of January 14, 1924, by Archpriest John Shotovsky: "On January 6, 1919, the Protopresbyter of the Winter Palace, Father A. Dernov, brought to the Gatchina Pavlovsky Cathedral the following relics: a part of the Tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the right hand St. I. Forerunner and the icon of the Filermian Mother of God All these relics were brought in the same form in which they were always brought to the cathedral on October 12, that is, on the icon of the Mother of God - the robe and coffers for the relics and the cross were in After the divine service performed by the Metropolitan of Petrograd, these relics were left for some time in the cathedral for the worship of the faithful inhabitants of the city of Gatchina. On October 13, the rector of the cathedral arranged a procession with the cross around the city, accompanied by these shrines. Archpriest Archpriest John Bogoyavlensky, accompanied by Count Ignatiev and some other military man, put the relics in the cases in which they were brought to the cathedral, took them with him and took them to Estonia, without asking permission from either the clergy or the parishioners. The further fate of these shrines, where they are and what happened to them - neither the clergy nor the Parish Council - is unknown. "
Even earlier, these events were described in a letter from Archpriest Alexy of the Annunciation of Gatchina to His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and Protopresbyter Alexander Dernov dated October 6/19, 1920. As for the copy made under Nicholas I from the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God, according to the testimony of Archpriest Andrei Shotovsky, “at the present time [in January 1924] is preserved in the Pavlovsk Cathedral, although the silver riza was removed from it and handed over at the request of the local executive committee in the Trotsky financial department ".
It is possible to explain and to a certain extent justify the behavior of the rector of the Pavlovsk Cathedral. Indeed, by the fall of 1919, many priests had already been repressed, there were frequent cases of opening the relics of saints, destroying icons, etc. And during the period of a real threat to Petrograd from the troops of General Yudenich, when the city began to be cleansed of dubious elements, anti-church actions were also planned. Thus, in the statement of a delegation of authoritative priests and laity, sent on September 15 by Hieromartyr Metropolitan Benjamin (Kazan) to the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet G.E. Zinoviev was told that the church was agitated by "persistent rumors about the general arrest (or expulsion) of the Petrograd clergy in view of their counter-revolutionary nature or as hostages ..." Perhaps this was the reason that Archpriest John of the Epiphany (in monasticism Isidore, the future Bishop of Tallinn) not only left Gatchina himself (one can recall that the writer Kuprin left the city with the retreating troops of Yudenich), but also took with him the most valuable relics. So Russia lost these most important Christian shrines.
In the mid-1920s. the Soviet government transferred to Italy a certain icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, called Filermskaya, but this was just a list. In April 1925 the People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky sent a telegram to Leningrad: "The delay in the transfer of the Filermskaya icon from Gatchina causes trouble with the Italians; I strongly suggest that the icon be sent to Moscow. Please inform us about the execution immediately." Following this instruction, the administrative council of the Trotsky district executive committee withdrew a copy of the Filerm icon and handed it over to V.K. Makarov to be sent to Moscow. A photograph was taken from the icon and left in the cathedral. Thus, the Italian ambassador in 1925 in Moscow was given only a copy of the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God made in the middle of the 19th century, and it was she who was placed in the Roman residence of the Order of Malta (later this icon was transported to Assisi and placed in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli ).
As already mentioned, in October 1919, the former Maltese relics were taken from Gatchina to Estonia, then they were taken to Copenhagen, where they were handed over to the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Emperor Alexander III. On October 13, 1928, Maria Feodorovna died. In the same year, her daughters, the Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga, donated the Filermskaya Icon (and two other shrines) to the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, located in the Yugoslav city of Sremski Karlovtsi, and soon this venerated icon was delivered to Germany and placed in an Orthodox cathedral. Berlin.
In the summer of 1932, the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), handed over the Gatchina relics for safekeeping to the King of Yugoslavia, Alexander I Karageorgievich. On July 20, Vladyka Anthony in a letter to the former personal secretary of General P.N. Wrangel N.M. Kotlyarevsky noted: "... our Petrograd relics are still in the safe of the Ministry of the Court, and not in the church. They say that at the request of the Highest Persons they will be taken to the newly built church of the country palace in Dedin." Soon, the king placed the shrines in the palace church in Belgrade, and in 1934 moved it to the completed church of the country palace on the island of Dedinja.
In the report of Vladyka Anthony to the Synod of Bishops on December 10, 1932, it was emphasized: “By accepting the named Shrines, and transferring them for safekeeping to His Majesty King Alexander, I invariably recognized them as the property of the Russian Emperors. Therefore, my successors, as Chairman of the Synod of Bishops, were the owner The Shrines must be recognized as the Head of the Russian Royal House, and if the Shrines are transferred to one of my successors by the King of Yugoslavia, then the Right Reverend will have a duty to turn to the Head of the Russian Dynasty for instructions on how to deal with them. " Unfortunately, this provisional transfer condition was later forgotten.
On April 6, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked Yugoslavia without declaring war, German bombers raided Belgrade. Two days later, on April 8, King Peter III Karageorgievich, leaving Belgrade due to the military danger together with the Serbian Patriarch Gabriel (Dozic), took the relics with him. Soon they arrived on the territory of Montenegro - to the monastery of St. Vasily Ostrozhsky (Ostrog), carved into the rock at an altitude of 840 meters above sea level.
A few days later, the fugitives split up, the Patriarch remained in the monastery, and the king, together with members of the Serbian government, flew to Jerusalem on April 14, transferring the Gatchina shrines to the High Priest for preservation. Immediately after the arrival of German troops at the monastery, on April 25, the Patriarch was arrested and then taken out of Montenegro. For some time, the abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Leonty (Mitrovich), was also under arrest. The shrines, along with other treasures of the royal dynasty, were hidden in the underground of the abbot's cell, where they were kept for about 10 years. During the war, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church Abroad tried to find and return the relics, in connection with which Metropolitan Anastassy even met in mid-June 1941 with the commander of German troops in Serbia, General von Schroeder. The general assured the Metropolitan that "all measures will be taken to find and return the shrines from the Winter Palace," but he could not find them
The transfer from Malta to Gatchina of a part of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the Filerma Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of St. John the Baptist took place in 1799. These shrines were kept on the island of Malta by the knights of the Catholic order of St. John of Jerusalem. In 1798, when the French took over the island, the Knights of Malta turned to the protection and patronage of Russia. On October 12, 1799, they presented these ancient relics to Emperor Paul I, who at that time was in Gatchina. In the fall of 1799, the shrines were transported to St. Petersburg and placed in the Winter Palace in the church in honor of the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands. A holiday for this event was established in 1800. According to an ancient legend, the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God was painted by the holy Evangelist Luke. From Jerusalem, she was brought to Constantinople, where she was in the Blachernae temple. In the 13th century, it was taken from there by the crusaders and since then has been kept by the knights of the Order of John.
Russian Orthodox Church
http://www.mospat.ru/calendar/
Sunday, October 12 (Old) October 25, 2009 (New)
*
============
===========
Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God
The early history of the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God (up to the 11th century) bears a striking resemblance to the history of one of the most revered icon-painting images of the Queen of Heaven in Russia - the miraculous Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. Both sacred images were painted, according to legend, by the holy Evangelist Luke.
In 46, St. Luke sent the image to his hometown - Antioch of Syria - to the Nazirites, who dedicated their lives to monastic exploits. There the icon was in an ancient prayer house and was honored by believers for more than three centuries.
During the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great, when the Christian shrines of Jerusalem were restored, and material evidence of the earthly life of Jesus Christ and the holy apostles began to be collected, the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God was also transferred to Jerusalem from Antioch.
The icon remained in the holy city until 430. The Greek Empress Eudoxia, the wife of the Emperor Theodosius the Younger, during a pilgrimage to holy places, sent the holy icon to bless the Queen Pulcheria, to Constantinople. In the royal city, the icon was placed in the Blachernae church dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos. The image stayed here for several centuries and became famous for its miraculous power. It is known that two blind men were healed, to whom the Most Holy Theotokos appeared and ordered them to go to the church to the icon, where they immediately received enlightenment. After this incident, the image was also called Hodegetria (Guidebook).
In 626, during the reign of the Greek emperor Heraclius, during the invasion of the Byzantine Empire by the Persians and Avars, Constantinople withstood the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. All night long, many people, together with the patriarch, stood at prayer in the Blachernae church, asking for the help of the Mother of God. The next day, a procession of the cross was performed along the city walls with the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, the Hodegetria icon and the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, after which the patriarch immersed the vestments of the Mother of God in the waters of the bay. The rising storm stirred the sea and sank the enemy ships, saving the city from ruin.
Over the course of several centuries, by the miraculous intercession of the Queen of Heaven through Her holy image, Constantinople was delivered from the Saracens (under the emperors Constantine Pagonat, Leo Isaur) and from the detachments of the Russian knights Askold and Dir (under the emperor Michael III).
In the difficult times of iconoclasm, the Christians preserved the image of the Philermic Mother of God from the reproach of wicked heretics. After the restoration of icon veneration, the miraculous image was again placed in the Blakherna church.
In 1204, when the knights of the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople, they took away the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God, along with many other shrines in Constantinople. The image was again transferred to Palestine, where it went to the knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. At the end of the crusades, the knights transferred the icon to the island of Rhodes, where they built a temple for the icon on the territory of the ancient village of Filermios, near the city of Rhodes.
In 1573, after the capture of Rhodes by the Turks, the holy image acquired a new location on the island. Malta, in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. After its consecration, the revered icon was placed in the Filermsky side-altar, where it remained until the very end of the 18th century.
On June 10, 1798, the island of Malta was occupied by Napoleon's 40,000-strong army. Leaving Malta by order of the French government, the Grand Master of the Order of Gompesh took with him several shrines. Among them were the right hand of St. John the Baptist, part of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord and the miraculous image of the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God. Rescuing the sacred relics, the Master of the Order transported them from place to place throughout Europe, until he reached Austria. From here the icon made another long journey, this time to Russia.
The Austrian Emperor Francis II, who was looking for ways of an alliance with the Russian Empire against the rebellious and chaos-stricken France, wishing to win over Paul I, who had already held the title of Grand Master of the Maltese Order for more than six months, ordered to transfer the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God along with other shrines to Gatchina.
In his residence, Emperor Paul arranged a new rich robe for the Filermskaya icon, on which the radiance around the face of the Most Holy Theotokos was performed against the background of the Maltese cross.
After the assassination of Emperor Paul I in 1801, the relics were transferred to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and placed in the Cathedral of the Savior Not Made by Hands - the home church of the Royal family.
From 1852 to 1919, at the behest of Emperor Nicholas I, all three miraculous shrines were once a year transported from the Winter Palace to the Gatchina Palace Church, from where a crowded procession took place to Pavlovsky Cathedral, where the shrines were exhibited for 10 days to worship the Orthodox people.
In 1919, in order to avoid humiliation from the atheists, all three relics were secretly taken to Estonia, to the city of Revel, where they stayed for some time in an Orthodox cathedral. Further, their path extended to Denmark, where at that time the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna was in exile. After her death in 1928, the daughters of the royal personage, the Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga, donated the shrines to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky).
For some time, the sacred relics were in the Orthodox Cathedral of Berlin, but in 1932, foreseeing the consequences of Hitler's coming to power, Bishop Tikhon handed them over to the King of Yugoslavia Alexander I Karageorgievich, who kept them in the chapel of the Royal Palace, and then in the church of the country Palace on Dedinya island.
In April 1941, at the beginning of the occupation of Yugoslavia by German troops, the 18-year-old King of Yugoslavia Peter II and the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Gabriel, took the relics to the remote Montenegrin monastery of St. and from there they were transferred to the State Depository of the Historical Museum of the city of Cetinje.
In 1993, the Orthodox community managed to rescue the right hand of St. John the Baptist and a particle of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord from many years of imprisonment. The Filermskaya miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, by the inscrutable will of God, is to this day in the historical museum of the ancient capital of the Montenegrin Metropolis, the city of Cetinje.
The memory of the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God, one of the most revered shrines of the Christian world, is celebrated on October 25 (n. S), on the day of the transfer of the miraculous image to Gatchina.
Iconography
In terms of its iconographic type, the Filermskaya icon of the Most Holy Theotokos belongs to the Hodegetria edition, which also corresponds to the name given once to the image.
The miraculous icon is closest to the Kazan Hodegetria, more precisely, to its list, which is in the Kazan Cathedral of St. Petersburg. This is also a bust image of the Mother of God, but without the Child.
The main thing in the sacred image is the concentrated face of the Mother of God, with its subtle features reminiscent of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. There is every reason to believe that the image of the Filermskaya Theotokos, like the world-famous Russian shrine, belongs to the Komnenos time.
Lists icons
One of the most revered copies of the Filermskaya Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was written in 1852 for the Gatchina Cathedral in the name of St. Paul the Apostle. In 1923, the Italian government asked Moscow to return the relics of the Order of Malta. Since there were no shrines in Russia that year, the Italian ambassador to the USSR was given a Gatchina copy of the Filermsky icon.
It is known that the icon was kept for five decades on the Via Condotti in Rome at the residence of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta (the full name of the Order). From 1975 to the present day, the venerated image resides in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in the city of Assisi.
The last image of the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God remaining in Russia is on the medallion of the Grand Master de La Valette - a large Maltese cross with an image of the icon placed in its center, on the medallion. It is currently kept in the collection of the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin museums.
Vasilyeva A.V.
http://iconsv.ru/
*
======================
 |
| Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God List of XI-XII centuries. The Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria Honoring October 12 The miraculous icon, known under the name of Hodegetria of Filermskaya, according to the legend of ancient tradition, was painted by the holy Evangelist Luke. In church hymns, it is mentioned that this icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was painted during her earthly life. Saint Luke brought the icon to the Nazirites who dedicated their lives to monastic asceticism. She stayed with them for three centuries. Later, the icon was transferred to the Holy City of Jerusalem, where she also had to stay for a short time. In the 430s, the blessed queen Evdokia withdrew to the Holy Land and from there, with a special blessing, sent the icon to the sister of her crowned husband, the blessed Pulcheria. The latter, with a large crowd of people, honorably set a priceless image in the newly built Blachernae Church of Constantinople. In the temple, many believers received healings by praying before the miraculous image of the Queen of Heaven. In the hands of the Knights Hospitaller In Russia Export after the revolution In the Yugoslav lands |
The Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God is one of the patrons of St. Petersburg, along with the Kazan, Tsarskoye Selo, Mourning with pennies, the Nevskaya Quick-to-hear icons of the Mother of God. For more than a century, this icon stayed within the capital of the Russian Empire in the church of the Winter Palace, being a prayer image of the last six Russian emperors, including the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II. We are publishing an excerpt from the book about how the icon ended up in Russia.
At the end of the eighteenth century. Malta was captured by Napoleonic troops, and then the Maltese knights decided to go under the protection of Russia. In 1796, the Ambassador of the Order of Malta, Count Giulio (Julius) Litta, arrived in St. Petersburg, where, at a solemn audience, he asked Emperor Paul I to accept the Order of Malta under his high patronage. In 1798, the Knights of Malta elected Emperor Paul I as the head of the order, and on November 29 of the same year, the emperor solemnly entrusted himself with the crown of the Grand Master. The hand of St. John the Baptist was brought to St. Petersburg in the same 1798, and the miraculous Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God and parts of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord - in 1799. Initially, they were located in the Vorontsov Palace, where the Maltese chapter was located.
Driven by a sense of gratitude, the Maltese sent a deputation to Peterhof to present the relics as a gift to Emperor Paul I. The emperor expressed a desire to mark this event with a special celebration, seeing in it a manifestation of God's special mercy to Russia.
On October 12, 1799, at 10 o'clock, a cavalcade with the emperor at the head left the Gatchina Palace to meet another procession, in which representatives of the Order of Malta were taking their shrines to Gatchina. After the meeting at the Spassky Gate, a solemn procession began.
The clergy marched in front with the procession, then rode the governor of the Order of Malta, Count Julius Litta, in whose arms, in a golden ark, on a scarlet velvet pillow, rested the honest right hand of St. John the Baptist. Following the Litta, the Maltese knights carried the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God and parts of the Life-Giving Tree. Emperor Paul I walked next to the carriage, in full attire of the Grand Master; he wore a red Supervest and a black robe, a Maltese cross on his chest, and a golden crown of the Grand Master on his head. The emperor was followed by Russian members of the sacred council of the Order of Malta: Count Ivan Petrovich Saltykov, Prince Peter Vasilyevich Lopukhin, Yakov Efimovich Sivers and others. They were followed by a large royal retinue; the procession was completed by many ordinary residents of Gatchina.
When the procession approached the palace, Paul I took the right hand of St. John the Baptist, and, with the singing of the troparion, brought it into the court church, where he put it on the prepared place; here the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God and a part of the Life-giving Tree were also laid.
THE LAST IMAGE OF THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD
IN HER TERRESTRIAL LIFE
The Filermskaya icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is one of the few images that during the earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos was painted by the holy apostle and evangelist Luke. The icon was painted in 46 AD, and this was the last image of the Mother of God in Her earthly life. In subsequent years, the holy Apostle Luke painted other icons of the Mother of God, for example, the Kykkos Icon, but all of them were written from the memory of Saint Luke. But, according to legend, Luke wrote the Filermskaya icon, looking at the Most Holy Theotokos, who was sitting opposite, looking thoughtfully into the distance.
The Filerme Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was brought by Saint Luke to Antioch, where it remained for three centuries. Later, the icon was transferred to the holy city of Jerusalem, where, by the will of God, it was not to stay long. In 430, the wife of the Byzantine emperor Theodosius the Younger Evdokia made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and from there, with special blessing, sent the icon to her husband's sister Pulcheria. Pulcheria staged a priceless image in the newly built Blachernae Church in Constantinople. In the temple, many believers received healings by praying before the miraculous image of the Queen of Heaven. For more than seven centuries the miraculous shrine was kept in Constantinople. But after the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1203, the icon was again transferred to the Holy Land.
Then the miraculous image ended up in the hands of the Catholic knights of the order of the Johannites, who were at that time in the city of Acre. After 88 years, Acre was captured by the Turks. Retreating, the Johannites took the holy icon with them and moved with it to the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea. Together with the Johannites, the miraculous image did not find rest and traveled around the world. In 1530, the Roman Emperor Charles V handed over the islands of Malta, Comino and Gozo to the Order of the Johannites. So the miraculous Filermskaya icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, by the will of God, finds a new home in the castle of St. Michael - the main residence of the Order of Malta on the island of Malta. And then the chapel of the Madonna of Filermo was built, and in 1571 the miraculous icon took its place in this chapel and became known as Filermo.
The name "Filermskaya" comes from the name of the Filermo hill, on which the chapel was built. From the Hill of Filermo, 267 meters high, a beautiful view of the island and the sea opens; the chapel of the Filermo Icon of the Virgin is also clearly visible from the flat terrain. The name of the hill, in turn, comes from the name of a monk who came here from Jerusalem in the XIII century, he built a small church on the hill, next to which a few centuries later the chapel of Madonna Filermo was built. The village Filermios was formed around the hill. The church, built by a monk, today is located in the center of the large Filermsky monastery, where pilgrims from many countries come.
In Russia, the celebration of the Filermskaya icon was established in 1800, and this day fell on October 12 st. Art., in memory of the transfer of the miraculous image to Russia. In 1852, Sovereign Emperor Nicholas I ordered to make a copy of the Filermskii icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. The copy of the miraculous icon was completed and found its place in the Gatchina Cathedral. It so happened that this was the only copy in Russia of the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God, which stayed in our country from 1799 to 1919. In 1925, at the request of the Italian government, this copy of the Filermskaya icon was handed over to the Italian ambassador to the USSR in secret from the Russian Orthodox Church.
It is generally accepted that the miraculous list was written one to one from the original icon, but this is not the case. The size of the list is 41.2 x 30.3 cm, the size of the original icon is 50 x 37 cm. There are other differences as well.
It so happened that in Russia after the revolution there were no lists or photographs of the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God. However, in our days in some churches of the Russian Orthodox Church there are lists of the Filermskaya icon, which is also important: after all, believers who offer their prayers to the Mother of God in front of any of Her icons, mentally ascend from the image to the Prototype.
The Filerma icon of the Virgin in Cetinje is in good condition; throughout its long-suffering history, the icon itself has been renewed several times, so the colors and the Face of the Virgin have been well preserved. The precious robe is intact. Riza has a rich gold plating; on the gold, covering the Face of the Mother of God, there is an eight-pointed enamel cross. On the miraculous list, the star is made of metal, and the robe gives the impression of a helmet. At the original icon, the riza is adorned with nine large rubies alternating with large diamonds made in the form of flowers. On the robe of the Most Holy Theotokos there is a double necklace of sapphires and diamonds, sapphires (there are 6 of them) - in the form of large drops. There is no central stone in the sapphire chain; earlier in its place there was an earring granted by Empress Catherine II. On the golden frame surrounding the image of the Mother of God, golden Angels are located in the corners. The existing precious riza was made in Russia in 1801, after the assassination of Emperor Paul I, who prayed for long hours in front of the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God. Before arriving in Russia, the vestment of the Filermskaya Icon was made of silver and pearls.
Unlike other shrines donated from the museum in the city of Cetinje to the monastery of St. Peter of Cetinje, the Filermsky miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is still in the historical museum. Pleases only one thing - the shrine is intact (for a long time the icon was considered lost) and is located on the territory of the Orthodox state. This is the story of only one icon associated with the social changes that shook our Fatherland after 1917.
Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God
Not far from the city of Rhodes, on the island of the same name in the Mediterranean Sea, in the mountains, there are the ruins of the ancient village Filerimos, where a small ancient church dedicated to Our Lady has survived nearby. The history of the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God, written, according to legend, by St. Evangelist Luke. It is from here, persecuted by the Turkish conquerors, that the knights of the Order of the Johannites will transport this great relic to the island of Malta, and from there it will go to Russia at the end of the 18th century ...
The Russian abbot Gabriel mentions the island of Rhodes in his notes, saying that “the island of Rhodes is large and very rich in everything. The Russian prince Oleg was (in slavery) on this island for two years ”. (We are talking about Oleg Svyatoslavovich, Igor's grandfather, the hero of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign").
But let us return to the very origins, to the days of the earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos, to how this miraculous image of Her was born, through which abundant grace has been poured out on the human race for almost two millennia.
The first icon painter, according to ancient church tradition, was the apostle and evangelist Luke. Who was the origin of the writer of the third Gospel of St. Luke is not known exactly. Eusebius of Caesarea says that he came from Antioch, and, therefore, was "proselytized", that is, a pagan who converted to Judaism. St. Luke was a very gifted man: he was not only the author of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, but also a physician and a skilled painter. Apparently, Luke belonged to the 70 apostles chosen by the Lord to serve. Since the second journey of the Apostle Paul, Luke has become his constant collaborator and almost inseparable companion. There is information that after the martyrdom of Ap. Paul St. Luke preached and died a martyr's death in Achaia. His holy relics were transferred from there to Constantinople along with the relics of St. Apostle Andrew.
Church tradition tells us that the first icon painted by St. Luke, was the image of the Most Holy Theotokos. It was written at a time when the Mother of God lived in the house of St. John the Evangelist. It is generally accepted that this image was the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, which later moved from Jerusalem to Constantinople, after which it was sent to Russia at the beginning of the 12th century to Grand Duke Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgoruky. The Blessed Virgin, when she saw this image, said: "The grace that is born of Me and Mine be with this icon." And these words became prophetic. Not only from this image, but also from many and many other sacred images of the Mother of God, innumerable miracles of deliverance from various diseases and troubles have been and are being performed.
Let us try to imagine the Most Holy Virgin as St. Luke and tried to capture in paints for other generations.
The appearance and moral dignity of the Virgin
Church historian Nicephorus Callistus has preserved for us the legend about the appearance of the Most Holy Theotokos. “She was,” we read from him, “of average height, or, as some say, somewhat more average, golden hair, quick eyes, arched and moderately black eyebrows, an oblong nose, blooming lips, full of sweet speeches, a face not round and not sharp, but somewhat elongated, arms and fingers are long ”.
“She was a Virgin,” says St. Ambrose, - not only in body, but also in soul, humble in heart, prudent in words, prudent, little talkative, lover of reading, hardworking, chaste in speech, respecting not man, but God as the judge of his thoughts, Her rule was not to offend anyone, everyone is good to desire, to honor elders, not to envy equals, to avoid bragging, to be sane, to love virtue. When did She even offend her parents with a look on her face? When she was in disagreement with her family, was proud of a modest man, laughed at the weak, shied away from the poor? She had nothing harsh in her eyes, nothing imprudent in her words, nothing indecent in her actions: her body movements were modest, her step was quiet, her voice was even; so that Her bodily appearance was the expression of the soul, the personification of purity. "
The church historian Nicephorus Callistus complements the moral image of the Blessed Virgin in the following way: “She maintained decency in conversation with others, did not laugh, did not indignant, especially did not get angry; completely artless, simple, She did not think about herself at all and, far from being effeminate, was distinguished by complete humility. Regarding the clothes She wore, She was content with their natural color, which is still proved by Her sacred head covering. In short, in all Her actions a special grace was revealed. "
“We all know,” wrote St. Ignatius the God-bearer, - that the Ever-Virgin Mother of God is full of grace and all virtues. They say that She was always cheerful in persecution and troubles; in need and poverty was not upset; she was not angry with those who offend Her, but even benefited them; in the well-being of the meek; she was merciful to the poor and helped them as best she could; in piety - a teacher and a mentor for every good deed. She especially loved the humble, because she herself was filled with humility. "
St. Dionysius the Areopagite, three years after his conversion to Christianity, was honored to see the Blessed Virgin Mary face to face in Jerusalem, describes this meeting as follows: immeasurable divine light and such a wondrous fragrance of various aromas spread around me that neither my feeble body nor my spirit itself could bear such great and abundant signs and beginnings of eternal bliss and glory. My heart is faint, the spirit in me is faint from her glory and Divine grace! The human mind cannot imagine any glory and honor (even in the state of people glorified by God) higher than the bliss that I tasted then, unworthy, but rewarded by mercy and blessed above any concept. "
The virtues of the Most Holy Theotokos and the grace of the Holy Spirit, which cleared Her for the great work of being the Mother of God, placed Her above all righteous and holy people and even the powers of heaven. Her zeal for prayer and pious pursuits, ever-virgin purity and chastity, faith in the promises of God, everlasting attentiveness to the ways of Divine Providence, devotion to the will of God, good-natured endurement of difficult everyday circumstances, unshakable courage among the greatest temptations and sorrows, motherly warmth to kindred , and, most importantly, unconditional humility in everything: these are the moral perfections constantly manifested in Her, from infancy to dormition.
The path of the holy icon
St. Luke the Evangelist shows
her work of Our Lady
According to church tradition, St. Luke painted about seventy icons of the Mother of God. We know of four of them. This is, first of all, as already mentioned, the Vladimir image, written on the board of the table at which the Savior, the Mother of God and Joseph the Betrothed were eating. The Vladimir icon became famous in the Russian land for countless miracles. Through her, the Mother of God more than once saved Russia and its capital Moscow from plunder and destruction. Before her, the Russian grand dukes and tsars prayed at times of danger to the state. Lots were placed on the shroud in the icon case for the Vladimir icon for the election of Russian metropolitans, and later patriarchs. Many healings from grave illnesses and troubles were sent by the Mother of God through this image and lists from it to Orthodox people.
The second anciently revered image, written by the evangelist, is the image of the Mother of God-Hodegetria, which was in Constantinople and received the name of Blakhernsky (E. Poselyanin, “Legends of the miraculous icons.”, P. 423). A 12th century Latin manuscript says about this icon: “In a part of the palace near Hagia Sophia, on the seashore near the Grand Palace, there is the Monastery of St. Mary of the Mother of God. And in that monastery there is a holy icon of the Holy Mother of God, called Odigitria, which translates as “guidebook”, because once there were two blind people to whom Saint Mary appeared, took them to her church and enlightened their eyes, and they saw the light. This icon of St. Mary of the Theotokos was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist, [depicting] the Savior on her hand. With this icon of the Mother of God, processions are made every Tuesday throughout the city, with great honors, singing and hymns ”(“ The Miraculous Icon in Byzantium and Ancient Rus ”,“ Martis ”, M.-1996, p. 443)
This icon was originally located in the homeland of St. Luke - in Antioch, from where it was transferred to Jerusalem. The wife of the Greek emperor Theodosius II Eudokia, who traveled through St. places of Palestine in 436-437 years, acquired this icon and sent to Constantinople as a gift to St. Pulcheria, sister of the emperor. She placed the wonderful image in the Blachernae temple, where the icon showed numerous miracles of healings. (Note that in the Blakherna Church, where the holy fool Andrew saw the Protection of the Mother of God, according to the inscrutable fate of God, two icons of the Mother of God, painted by the Evangelist Luke, met - Odigitria and Filermskaya, which we will talk about later).
The third icon attributed to the brush of St. Evangelist is "Mammal". Its history is connected with the name of the founder of the only Lavra in the East, Saint Sava the Sanctified, who, before his blessed death, predicted that after a while a pilgrim of the royal family from Serbia, who had the same name, would visit the Lavra, to whom this icon should be presented. St. Sava passed away to the Lord in 532, and for several centuries the monastery tradition kept his will. Saint Sava's predictions came true only in the 13th century, when St. Savva, Archbishop of Serbia. He was given the prophetic testament of St. Sava the Sanctified and two great shrines were handed over at once: the icon "Mammal" and another icon - "Three-handed", after a prayer before which the severed hand of St. John Damascene.
Christian shrines. You are truly amazed at the abundance of the greatest relics that were then in every church and monastery of Constantinople.
Suffice it to mention, for example, the plate, on which the face of Christ was miraculously imprinted, about the letter written by the Savior in his own hand to King Abgar, the crown of thorns, cloak, whip, cane, shoes, shroud and the card of the Savior's burial. The clothes of the Most Holy Theotokos, her shoes and other various and sacred objects of the Savior and His Most Pure Mother were also kept here. In addition, the reigning city gathered a huge number of miraculous icons and relics of saints.
Around 430, Empress Eudoxia, the wife of Theodosius II, ordered the delivery of the Filerme Icon from Jerusalem to Constantinople, where the image of the Mother of God was placed in the Blachernae Church. During the stay of the icon in the temple, Constantinople was exposed to mortal danger four times from enemies - Arabs, Persians, Slavic princes Askold and Dir. In the days of danger, the inhabitants of Constantinople offered fervent prayers to the Queen of Heaven before her miraculous image, and each time they received deliverance from the devastation that threatened the city. (see Essays on the history of the St. Petersburg diocese. St. Petersburg, 1994. P.62).
In 626, through the prayers of the inhabitants, who offered their petitions to this image, Constantinople was saved from the invasion of the Persians. In gratitude for deliverance from danger, a song of thanks was composed of the Mother of God, which the worshipers had to listen to while standing. This song sequence was called “akathist”, which in translation from Greek means “non-sedated singing”. So the appearance of the very first of the many thousands of akathists compiled later is associated with the blessings of the Mother of God, manifested by her through her Filerma icon. The intercession of the Mother of God for the human race is dedicated to Saturday in the fifth week of Great Lent, which is called the Sabbath of the Akathist.
In 1204, during the fourth crusade, Constantinople was plundered and desecrated. Western Christians no longer considered the Orthodox as their brothers, but considered them “schismatics,” that is, schismatics who can be “taught” with fire and sword. Most of the shrines of Constantinople were taken away by the crusaders. The Filerme icon fell into the hands of the Latins and was transferred again to Palestine, where it was administered by the monastic-knightly order of the Johannites, or Hospitallers, who had great influence in the Holy Land. However, Muslims soon drove the Johannites out of Palestine, and they found refuge in Cyprus, where they lived for 19 years (1291-1310). After that, they moved to the island of Rhodes, where the residence of the chapter of the order was brought. The island, covered with fragrant lemon, orange and pomegranate groves, with a mild and warm climate, seemed to the Johannites a good place for permanent residence.
The icon, which arrived here along with other shrines, was placed in a church specially built for it in the village of Filerimos not far from the island's capital. The Johannites greatly revered the icon, considering it their patroness, and the shrine constantly traveled with them. Defending against Turkish raids, the knights turned Rhodes into a well-fortified fortress, building powerful stone walls. However, two centuries later, in 1522, the Turks conquered the island and the Johannites surrendered. Only a few years later they found refuge on the island of Malta. Here the ancient shrines were united: the hand of John the Baptist, a part of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord and the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God. In 1573, in the capital of the island, the construction of a cathedral in the name of St. John the Baptist began, in which the icon of the Mother of God was placed in the Filermsky side-altar, decorated with a silver gate. (See Archimandrite Augustine (Nikitin). The Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God. The Pushkin era and Christian culture. Issue VII. St. Petersburg, 1995. S. 123.).
From that moment on, the fate of the shrines becomes inseparable, which will be discussed in the next chapter.
Victor Vasiliev
Instead of a preface | On the Orthodox veneration of the shrine
Right hand of the Baptist. Jordan | The Miracle of the Snake | Rescue from captivity | In Constantinople
Life-giving tree of the Cross of the Lord. Calvary | "You will win with this sim" | Finding the Holy Cross by Saint Helen | Return of the Cross of the Lord from Persia | Further history of the Cross of the Lord
Blessing of the Mother of God. Filermskaya icon | The appearance and moral dignity of the Virgin | The path of the holy icon
Malta, Russia, Serbia. Chivalry and Revolution | Blessing to the reigning house | Shrines in Gatchina | Empress Dowager | On brotherly Serbian land
Celebration of shrines in Gatchina | Archpriest Alexy | Instead of a conclusion
On October 25, we celebrate the Transfer from Malta to Gatchina of a part of the Tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the Filerma Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of John the Baptist (1799).
The ancient church tradition traces the origin of the icons of the Mother of God to the times of the Apostles. In church hymns, it is mentioned that the Filermian icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is one of the few images that, during the earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos, was written by the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, the companion and assistant of the Apostle Paul, and was blessed by the Mother of God.
The icon was painted in 46 AD and brought by Saint Luke to the Nazirite monks in Antioch.
Later, the icon was transferred to Jerusalem, where she also had to stay for a short time. In 430, the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius the Younger Evdokia made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and from there sent the icon to Constantinople.
For more than seven centuries the miraculous shrine was kept in Constantinople. But after the capture and plundering of Constantinople in 1203 by the crusaders, the icon was again transferred to the Holy Land. It was then that the miraculous image fell into the hands of the Catholics - the Knights of the Johannes, who were at that time in the city of Acre.
After 88 years, Acre was attacked and captured by the Turks. Retreating, the knights took the Holy Icon with them and moved with it to the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea. Together with the Johannites, the miraculous image did not find rest and traveled around the world. All this time, the knights protected the shrine from the Mohammedans. The icon stayed in Cyprus for a short time. Since 1309, for more than two centuries, the shrine has been hidden on the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea, conquered by the knights from the Turks and Saracens.
At the end of July 1522, the one hundred thousandth army and fleet of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman I Qanuni landed on the island and began a siege of the fortress and capital of the Order of the Johannites. The knights defended themselves with great tenacity. Nevertheless, a white flag was raised over the ruins of Rhodes. In the conditions of the surrender of the island, it was said: "... so that the cavaliers were allowed to stay on the island for 12 days until they transfer the relics of the Saints to the ships (among them was the right hand of St. John the Baptist and the Cross from part of the tree of the Cross of the Lord), sacred vessels from the Church of St. John, all sorts of order rarities and their own property, so that the churches located on the island are not outraged, for which the cavaliers, for their part, concede to the Port both Rhodes and the islands belonging to it. "
After leaving Rhodes, the knights have been transporting the Holy Places to different cities of Italy for more than seven years; the island of Candia, Messina, Naples, Nice, Rome, fearing to become dependent on any supreme power of the sovereign lords.
In 1530, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V transferred the islands of Malta, Comino and Gozo, as well as the Tripoli fortress in Libya, to the Johannite Order for eternity. In the same year, the shrines, together with the Grand Master of the Order and the council, arrived on the island of Malta, where the Filerme Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos finds a new homeland. The place of its storage was the fort of San Angelo (Saint Angela), and later the castle of Saint Michael - the main residence of the Order of Malta.
In 1571, the miraculous icon and relics of the order were solemnly transferred to the new city. Here in the capital of the Sovereign Order of Malta John of Jerusalem, the city of La Valletta, in the Cathedral of St. John, the chapel of the Madonna Filermo was built. In it, next to the Altar, they placed the miraculous image written by the Holy Evangelist Luke. Since then, the icon has been called Filermskaya. For more than two centuries, the shrine did not leave the island, remaining together with other Christian relics of the Order of Malta.
On June 10, 1798, the island of Malta, without visible resistance, was captured by Napoleon's 40,000-strong army. Leaving Malta by order of the French government, the Grand Master of the Order of Gompesh took with him the Shrines: the right hand of St. John the Baptist, part of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the miraculous image of the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God. Rescuing the Shrines, the Master of the Order transported them from place to place throughout Europe. So they found themselves for a short time in the city of Trieste, later in Rome, and finally ended up in Austria. Here the master, deposed by Napoleon, as a private person, stopped in private, hoping to find protection in the person of the Austrian emperor.
Russian Emperor Paul I became the Grand Master of the Order of Malta since 1798. The Roman throne did not prevent this, confident in the help of the Russian Emperor, the only and true Christian Emperor, able to withstand the rapidly spreading revolution. The Emperor had every right to the title of the Grand Master of the Order. After all, he autocratically ruled over millions of Catholics in the Russian Empire, and de facto could lead the order. This fact was recognized by almost all the secular governments of Western Europe, except of course France itself, Spain and Rome.
The decision of Sovereign Paul I Petrovich received recognition from the first among the crowned heads of Europe - the Emperor of the Holy Roman-German Empire and the Apostolic King of Hungary Francis II. He was the last non-Orthodox monarch who owned the miraculous Phylerme Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos and other Holy Places of the Order of Malta.
The Austrian Emperor was looking for ways of an alliance with the Russian Empire against the rebellious and chaos-stricken France. And in order to win over the Sovereign Emperor Paul I, who had been holding the title of Grand Master for more than six months, Francis II forced von Gompesh to abdicate, and ordered to confiscate from him the sacred relics of the Order, which he kept after finding refuge in Austria.
The shrines, including the miraculous Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God, were immediately sent by a special delegation to the new residence of the Order, St. Petersburg, by order of the Austrian Emperor. This is the story of their movement to Russia.
Since 1801, the Maltese shrines have been in the Imperial Winter Palace, in the richly decorated Cathedral of the Savior Image Not Made by Hands. From 1852 to 1919, as Emperor Nicholas I Pavlovich ordered, all three Shrines were transported once a year from the Winter Palace to Gatchina to the Palace Church. From there, a crowded procession took place to the Pavlovsk Cathedral, where the Shrines were exhibited for the worship of the Orthodox people for 10 days. Pilgrims came from all over Russia and the world, and then the Shrines returned to St. Petersburg to the Imperial Winter Palace. This would be the case now, if the revolution of 1917 had not happened.
In 1919, the Shrines were secretly taken to Estonia, to the city of Revel. For some time they were there, in the Orthodox cathedral, and after that they were also secretly transported to Denmark, where the Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna, wife of Alexander III and mother of Nicholas II, was in exile.
After the death of Maria Feodorovna in 1928, her daughters, the Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga, handed over the Shrines to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Metropolitan Anthony.
For some time the shrines were in the Orthodox Cathedral in Berlin. But in 1932, foreseeing the consequences of Hitler's coming to power, Bishop Tikhon handed them over to the King of Yugoslavia, Alexander I Karadjordievich, who kept them in the chapel of the Royal Palace, and then in the church of the country Palace on the island of Dedinya.
In April 1941, at the beginning of the occupation of Yugoslavia by German troops, the 18-year-old King of Yugoslavia Peter II and the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Gabriel, took the great Shrines to the remote Montenegrin monastery of St. Basil of Ostrog, where they were secretly preserved. But in 1951, local security officers arrived at the monastery - a special service "Udba" (Yugoslavian OMON). They took the Shrines and took them to Titograd (now Podgorica) and after a while transferred the relics to the State Depository of the Historical Museum of the city of Cetinje.
In 1968, one of the policemen secretly reported about the Shrines to the Cetinje abbot Mark (Kalanya) and Bishop Daniel. In 1993, they managed to free the right hand of St. John the Baptist and a particle of the Life-giving Cross from their long-term imprisonment.
The Filermsky miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is still in the historical museum of the ancient capital of the Montenegrin Metropolis, the city of Cetinje, and all attempts by the Orthodox community, laity and clergy to rescue her from captivity are still unsuccessful.
Icon Lists.
When in 1852 in Gatchina the six-year-old construction of the magnificent cathedral in the name of St. Paul the Apostle was completed, a copy of the miraculous icon of Filermskaya was made for this Cathedral. In 1923, the Italian government, one of the first to recognize Soviet Russia, turned to Moscow with a request to return the relics of the Order of Malta. Since there were no more Shrines in Russia, in 1925 this list was handed over to the Italian ambassador to the USSR.
It is known that the icon was kept for five decades on the Via Condotti in Rome at the residence of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta (the full name of the Order). From 1975 to the present day, she resides in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in the city of Assisi.
The last image of the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God remaining in Russia is on the medallion of the Grand Master de La Valette - a large Maltese cross with an image of the icon placed in its center, on the medallion. It is currently kept in the collection of the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin museums.
>By the grace of God, in June-July 2006, the right hand of St. John the Forerunner and the Baptist of the Lord was temporarily brought to Russia from Montenegro to worship the people. In this article, a brief history of the origin of each of the Gatchina shrines separately (according to the book "Lives of the Saints" by St. Demetrius of Rostov).
The day of October 12/25 is marked in the Orthodox Church calendar with the holiday "Transferring from Malta to Gatchina a part of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the Filerma Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of John the Baptist (1799)." Before the appearance in Russia, these shrines were the most valuable part of the collected sacred relics of the knightly Maltese Order of St. John of Jerusalem.
In 326, the miraculous finding of the Holy Cross at Calvary took place. Queen Helen. Soon after this, on the tsar's order, a new church of the Resurrection of Christ was founded here, which was destined to become for many years the keeper of this great shrine of the entire Christian world. But it cannot be represented in its entirety as it was when it was acquired. Tradition tells us about many parts of the Cross of the Lord, which in ancient times were separated from it and spread to all ends of the world. The East kept these particles, and the Christian West also kept them. In the same way, Holy Russia, in the 1000-year period of its Christian life, more than once received parts of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord from the East. She received one of these particles from the West from the Knights of the Order of Malta.
At the same time with a particle of the Cross of the Lord from the island of Malta was transferred to Russia by the Johannites and another, a long time preserved shrine: the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God - Hodegetria. Tradition from ancient times says that it was written by the holy Evangelist Luke and consecrated with the blessing of the Ever-Virgin Herself.
During the fourth crusade, the Hodegetria icon, along with many other shrines of Constantinople, was taken by the crusaders from the Blachernae church and sent to the West. Transferred back to Palestine, it went to the Johannites. The icon was their integral property during all their further migrations, until they brought it as a gift to Emperor Paul.
The right hand (right) hand of St. John the Baptist is the third shrine in honor of which a celebration has been established in Russia.
According to a legend dating back to antiquity, St. Evangelist Luke, preaching Christ in Sebastia, bowed down to the relics of the relics of His Baptist and asked the inhabitants of Sebastia to allow him to transfer them to Antioch, where they could be saved from reproach and destruction by the infidels. But the Sebastians allowed him to take only the right hand of the Baptist, which, with reverence, was transferred by him to Antioch.
In 639, Antioch fell, and with it the right hand of the Baptist fell into Muslim captivity. Many times the Byzantine emperors tried to take it from Antioch, but all their efforts did not achieve the desired goal. Finally, the Lord judged the Christian shrine to be transferred from the city enslaved by the unclean people to the capital of the Christian kingdom - Constantinople.
When Constantinople fell under the onslaught of the Turks (1453), Sultan Mohammed II, who joined it, ordered the right hand of the Baptist, along with other Christian shrines, to be placed in his royal treasury and sealed with a seal.
But to protect the desecrated city and its desecrated shrines, the aforementioned Order of the Johannites rose up, which at that time had its place of residence on the island of Rhodes. They not only bravely repulsed all the attacks of the Turks on this island, but also began to threaten their own possessions. Then the successor of Mohammed II, Bayazet II, wishing to gain the affection of the Johannites for himself, sent a gift to the master of their Order the right hand of the Baptist (1484). Wherever the Johannites moved, churches were built in honor of the Baptist, and from that time on, along with each resettlement, his right hand was transferred to new churches. The same church was later built by the Master of the Order on the island of Malta.
* * *When Malta was taken by Napoleon and the crown of the Master of the Order passed to the Russian Emperor Pavel Petrovich, who admired the glorious history of the Knights of Malta as a child, the Johannites, grateful for his patronage, decided to transfer all three great treasures to his possession, none of which they had ever parted with. ...
 |
The right hand of John the Baptist was the first of the shrines transported by them to Russia. In 1798, she was temporarily placed in the order chapel, located in St. Petersburg. In the next year, 1799, on October 12 (c / i. Style - ed.), The remaining two shrines were transported to Gatchina along with her: a particle of the Lord's Cross and the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God. All the details of this solemn event were subsequently entered into the service compiled on behalf of the Holy Synod for the day of October 12.
To store the shrines and accommodate the Knights of Malta, construction began in Gatchina on the outskirts of the palace park of a small monastery in the name of the Martyr Harlampy. During the emperor's stay in Gatchina, the place of storage of the shrines was the palace church in the name of the Holy Trinity.
After the murder of Emperor Paul I by the conspirators, the construction of the monastery was stopped, the shrines were kept in the temple of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. In 1852, when, on the personal instructions of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, the Cathedral of St. Apostle Paul - in honor of the heavenly patron Paul I, from that time the shrines annually for ten days - from October 12 to 22 (old style) were transferred from St. Petersburg to the Gatchina Pavlovsky Cathedral to worship the people.
After the October coup, the Church of the Winter Palace was plundered, but the shrines were saved. They ended up in the sacristy of the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Then, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, the shrines were transported to Gatchina, to the Pavlovsk Cathedral.
On October 13, 1919, the rector of the cathedral, archpriest Fr. John the Epiphany (the future Bishop Isidore and confessor of the future Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II) took the relics to Estonia, thus saving them from seizure by the Bolsheviks and desecration.
 |
Then they were taken to Copenhagen, where they were handed over to the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. After her death in 1928, her daughters, the Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga, handed over the Filerm Icon to the head of the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who placed it in the Orthodox Cathedral in Berlin. Bishop Tikhon, who took care of the Orthodox flock in Berlin, in 1932 transferred this icon and the rest of the Maltese relics to Orthodox Serbia, the Serbian royal dynasty, as a token of gratitude for the fact that Serbia gave shelter to many Russian emigrants.
The further fate of the revered shrines is as follows. King Peter III Karageorgievich, leaving in April 1941 for Great Britain, handed over the relics to the Serbian Patriarch Gabriel for preservation. Together with other treasures of the royal dynasty, they were hidden in the underground cells of the abbot of the Montenegrin monastery, St. Basil of Ostrog, Archimandrite Leonty (Mitrovich), where they were kept for ten years. The shrines were illegally confiscated by the communist authorities of Yugoslavia during a campaign to confiscate church values.
Only in 1993 did the gum hand of St. John the Baptist and part of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord were transferred to the Cetinje Monastery of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. The Filerma Icon of the Mother of God is still in the National Museum of Cetinje (Montenegro).
* * *After the shrines left the Russian land, “copies” of them were made in the Pavlovsk Cathedral in Gatchina, i.e. pictorial images of the gum of the hand of St. John the Baptist and the Filermskaya Icon of the Mother of God. They were made by the priest Alexy Blagoveshchensky, he also sewed beautiful vestments for them. (Father Alexy served in the Pavlovsk Cathedral from 1919 to February 1938. In the case of the "churchmen" he was arrested on February 24, 1938, and shot in Leningrad).
During the reign of Archpriest Peter Belavsky, a donated silver reliquary cross with a particle of the relics of St. John the Baptist and Baptist of the Lord. In the 1990s, a particle of the Tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord was donated to the cathedral, which is now placed in a reliquary, also attached to the icon of the Hand of St. John. So, by the grace of God, pieces of shrines in different ways came to the Pavlovsk Cathedral ...
G. Elfimova
CETINA MONASTERY
The Cetinje Monastery is the most famous spiritual relic of Montenegro, attracting thousands of pilgrims from all over the world every year. Such popularity is due not only to the presence in the vaults of the monastery of the greatest Christian shrines - the right hand of John the Baptist and a particle of the Life-giving Cross, but also to the atmosphere of deep faith and asceticism that has remained unchanged since the time of the first southern Slavs.
The first mention of the holy monastery goes back to 1484, when the Zeta ruler Ivan Chernoevich, retreating under the onslaught of the Turkish conquerors, moved his residence from Lake Skadar to the Lovcen foothills. Soon there was also built a monastery - the center of the metropolis.
Presumably, the temple was erected by craftsmen from Primorye, which left a special imprint on the architectural style of the monastery. In the middle of it stood the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, surrounded on three sides by a colonnade. On the edges of the site were the monastery buildings and the small church of St. Peter. In the outer walls of these buildings there were loopholes, and the whole monastery was surrounded by a moat and a fence made of stakes. Some fragments of these buildings have survived to this day.
He then became the chair of the Diocese of Zeta. After 1493, the bishop was called "the bishop of Montenegrin and seaside." The monastery was razed to the ground in 1692 by the Turks, and was restored by Vladyka Danilo, in a place not far from its previous position. On this occasion, a new monastery was built from old stones, and received a plate with the seal of Crnojevic. In 1714 the monastery was burnt down and was restored in 1743 by the Montenegrin Metropolitan Savva Ivanovich Njegos. It was rebuilt several times, the last time in 1927. The relics of St. Peter of Cetinje are kept in the monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos.
The central element of the monastery complex is the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, built of cut stone, which contains one of the greatest Montenegrin shrines - the relics of St. Peter of Cetinje and Christian relics of the Order of the Knights of Malta. The church is famous for its rich carved iconostasis by Greek masters of the mid-19th century.
The monastery's treasury contains a unique collection of manuscripts and old printed books, as well as personal belongings of Montenegrin metropolitans, church utensils, many of which were donated from Russia.
Special mention should be made of the relics of the Maltese order, whose path to the Cetinje monastery was difficult and confusing. It is reliably known that the shrines in 1799 were presented to the Russian Emperor Paul I by the head of the Order of the Knights of Malta, and until 1917 they were in the Winter Palace. After the revolution, they were kept for some time in Copenhagen by Maria Feodorovna, mother of Nicholas II, then in the Orthodox Church in Berlin and at the court of the last ruling Yugoslav dynasty of the Karadjordievichs in Belgrade. The Second World War forced members of the royal family to leave the country and hide the shrines in one of the remote Montenegrin monasteries. Then their traces are lost. And only many years later, the relics were discovered in one of the repositories of the Montenegrin Cheka, identified and donated to the church.
Despite its difficult history, the Cetinje Monastery has always remained a stronghold of Orthodoxy on the Balkan Peninsula, a symbol and cradle of the famous Montenegrin freedom-loving spirit.
The monastery contains:
The hand of John the Baptist
The relics of St. Peter of Cetinsky (Peter I Petrovic Njegos)
Particles of the Holy Cross
Epitrachelion of Saint Sava
Crown of King Stephen Decansky
Various old church banners