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In 1919 as part of their anti-religious
propaganda the Bolsheviks desecrated the remains of Saint Sergius by opening
the sarcophagus so that the public could see "The Saint," and filming
the entire episode. When he heard about this, Lenin was very pleased and
ordered that the film be shown in all movie theaters in Moscow and throughout
the country, to show to the people "...What kind of "Saints"
have been kept in these rich sarcophaguses which for centuries they
venerated...," expecting that it would alienate hundreds of thousands from
religion. It is a pity Lenin cannot see himself in his own mausoleum. Another
disrespect was shown to Saint Sergius and the Russian people humiliated when in
1930 the name of the town in which the Monastery is located was changed from
Serghievo to Zagorsk. V. M. Zagorsk, Bolshevik party propagandist, happened to
be in the premisses of the Moscow committee when in 1919 a
counter-revolutionary threw a bomb. Twelve people were killed including
Zagorsk, but only Zagorsk was remembered. Many Russians with whom I talked felt
that out of thousands of towns, Serghievo was purposefully chosen to be renamed
after a Jew, to debase the Orthodox Church and humble the Russian people.
Zagorsk never had anything to do either with the town or with the Monastery,
and to make the story even more ridiculous, his real name was not Zagorsk but
Lubotzky.
Throughout its long history, the Monastery played a very important role in the
destiny of the Russian nation, and kept alive the tradition that Saint Sergius
initiated. When a combined army of Poles and Lithuanians took Moscow, they knew
that Russian resistance would continue unless the Monastery was captured and
destroyed. An army of 15,000 soldiers was sent to take it, but the Monastery
fought back repeated attacks, and endured a siege that lasted sixteen months.
The defenders knew that the end of their resistance would mean the end of
Russian independence. In January, 1610, the Poles abandoned the siege and two
years later were chased out of Moscow.
There is hardly any Russian monarch who did not pay a visit to the monastery,
some of them under special circumstances. Thus Vassilii II hid unsuccessfully
in the Trinity Cathedral from Dimitri Shemiaka, his cousin and rival for the
throne. When captured, Vassilii promised to renounce his claims and remain in
the Monastery as a monk, but he was taken to Moscow and blinded. From this came
his nickname Vasilii the Dark. Peter the Great was luckier. When streltsi came
to the Monastery to search for him, he hid twice in the Cathedral of the
Assumption, in 1682 and again in 1689, and both times was not found. When he
became Tsar, Peter came back to the Monastery, but this time he was searching
for a fugitive, his former brother-in law by his first wife Yevdokia, Prince
Lopukhin. When he was told that Lopukhin had died as a monk, Peter ordered that
his body be taken out of the tomb and beheaded. The Abbot refused to obey the
Tsar's orders, reminded Peter of his own experience and the hospitality he had
received in the Monastery and beseeched him not to desecrate the holy soil of
the Monastery. A compromise was reached, and instead of chopping off the head
of the dead man, the dale that covered his tomb was cut just at the place where
his neck was supposed to be.
Please go to theTrinity St Sergius
fortress monastery for text and photos.
Though primarily built to propagate Christianity, defend national aspirations
and to a certain extent serve as outposts against enemy attacks, many Russian
monasteries also became cradles of high intellectual and artistic life. If art
and beauty had ever existed in ancient Russia, and to a considerable extent in
the present Soviet Union, then they could be primarily found in the churches
and monasteries which like jewels dotted the hills and valleys of the country.
The Trinity - Saint Sergius Monastery has been the leader most of the time. For
its contributions it received over two centuries ago the title of
"lavra" - an honorable name for a highly distinguished monastery.
There were only four lavras in all Russia out of over a thousand monasteries.
Almost from the first days of its existence the Monastery concentrated its
efforts on the propagation of literacy and handicrafts. Special attention was
paid to the copying of books, and the first manuscripts appeared in the
beginning of the 15th century. Some of them were decorated with interesting
miniatures. The Monastery also had one of the first libraries and museums,
which later became a very rich collection of various religious objects. After
so many centuries, and regardless of anti-religious propaganda by the communist
party and the government, thousands of Russians from all parts of the country
continue to make their pilgrimage to the Monastery and bow to Saint
"Sergius's remains.
Before the revolution the Monastery's sacristy and treasury contained hundreds
of sacred utensils, vestments and various objects that were donated to the
Monastery, some of them of great artistic value. There was hardly any Russian
tsar or tsarina who did not contribute something. Boris Godunov was
particularly generous. The small Trinity Cathedral contained hundreds of pounds
of silver and gold items. Hundreds of various precious stones were used to
decorate the icons, the altar and Saint Sergius' sarcophagus. Many are not
their any longer, and what was left is now in what is officially called
"The Zagorsk State Museum of Art and History." The Museum is still
worth seeing, to get at least a notion of what existed there before 1917. Of
particular interest are the collections of icons, needlework (which served
either as cons or coffin covers and were in most cases made by tsarinas
themselves) vestments, robes, miters, crosses and all sorts of religious
utensils.
The legend says that Saint Sergius liked woodcarving and that he made toys for
the peasant children of the nearby villages. Regardless of who was the first
wood-carver, the fact is that many people in the region have since practiced
this craft, which gradually turned the villages around the Monastery into the
"Center of Russian toy industry." Thousands of toys are produced
there of all sorts, shapes and sizes. Very popular are horses that move on
wheels, bears, rabbits, geese, scenes from Krilov's fables and many complicated
gadgets. In most cases they are naively done, but it is their coloring and
originality that makes them attractive, and few of them are of some artistic
value.
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