The bringing of the relics of St. Nicholas the
Wonderworker from Italy to Russia triggered much discussion about the
veneration of holy relics and particularly about the propriety of their
fragmentation. We gathered some most common questions of our readers and
addressed them to Archpriest Vladislav Tsypin, a professor, a doctor of Church
history and a lecturer of the canon law in Moscow Theological Academy and
Moscow Theological Seminary.
- Fr. Vladislav, while the veneration of holy relics
do not cause any questions in the Orthodox environment, the tradition of their
fragmentation can seem strange to some people. Does it not contradict the
Orthodox dogmatics?
- It does not
contradict at all. In the Ancient Church, at the time of persecutions, there
was a tradition of serving the Liturgy on the relics of martyrs. When the
number of churches began to increase after the Milan edict of Emperor
Constantine, it led to the tradition of the relics' fragmentation, so that in every
church people could serve the Liturgy on the relics. On the other hand, it also led
to the fact that people began to use for that not only the relics of martyrs,
but of other saints too. On its turn, it led to the appearance of antimensions,
which have the signature of the bishop and consequently serve as a "document" which proves that a priest serves the Liturgy not by his own will, but by the
will of the bishop. By the way, according to the canon law, a bishop is
allowed to serve the Liturgy even without an antimensions, if it is necessary.
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| Archpriest Vladislav Tsypin |
- Does the size of the relics’ particle, which you want to venerate, matter?
- The size
itself does not matter. However, psychological perception of people can be
different, when they see the whole relics or just a part of them. God acts it
the way known to Him only. And this way is called God’s grace. According to the
decision of the 7th Ecumenical Council, relics are honored on an
equal basis with icons. The way God’s grace works through them is similar to
the way it works through icons. When we appeal to the saints’ relics, it is
more important that we believe in the power of God’s grace and the holiness of
the saint. It means that our conscious faith matters.
- Why was it so that many saints asked their disciples
and even ordered them to let the animals eat their bodies or just leave them in
a forest? Why did they want that their burial sites remained unknown?
- The saints
who asked for that did that because of their great humility. They considered
themselves the worst people. Here we can observe a "typical" Christian paradox:
the best of us, Christians, pay attention to their sins, but not to their
merits. They were those "of whom the world was not worthy", as Apostle Paul
said.
- Then why was
it so that in most cases that order was not followed in Christianity?
- First of all,
their disciples fulfilled the usual duty of burying their close people. It is
natural even from the secular point of view. Secondly, in most cases the
disciples and the followers of saints preserved their relics to glorify the
Lord for granting them such a person and to show future generations the example
of following Christ.
- In the life story of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki, it
is said that he was against the fragmentation of his relics. Once Leontius, an
Illyrian nobleman, wanted to take a part of the saint’s relics to build a
church in St. Demetrius’ honor in his homeland. Another time the ambassadors of
Emperor Justinian, who wanted to get the relics of St. Demetrius to bless the
newly built church in honor of St. Sophia, were stopped by the pillar of fire
from which they heard the voice: "Stop and do not dare to do this". What can we say
about this case?
- In the life
stories of saints, there are various episodes, but not always and not in all
circumstances they can be enlightening for us, Christians. There can be found different miraculous things, which perhaps should serve as an example, but only in case we
clearly understand the context of the events and the spiritual condition of the
people who got involved in this or that situation. This is why something what
we know from the life story of a particular saint cannot become a rule which must be observed. As for the will of St. Demetrius saying that he did not
want his relics to be divided anymore, we should consider that this practice could
turn into misuse: perhaps, there was a danger of destroying the relics at
all. It became also a spiritual danger for Christians, freedom from which is
recalled in the akathists to the saint.
- Are there any statements concerning relics in the
canons of the Orthodox Church?
- There are. In
the rule 94 of the Carthage council, devoted to the churches
constructed without permission of the authorities, it is said that local bishops are prescribed
to destroy such churches if there are no body or parts of the relics of a saint
in them. Here we can see that the parts of relics are compared by their value
to the bodies of martyrs. What is more, no one doubted that the particles of
relics could be honored on the equal basis with the whole relics.
- What is the origin of the tradition of relics’
fragmentation?
- Perhaps the
tradition appeared because of the fact that the relics of many saints were divided
from the very beginning: the saints were executed, their remains were burnt –
only their bones remained. What is more, there was a need for holy relics for
antimensions, which made this practice unavoidable, because it was just
impossible to have the whole relics for each from the hundreds of thousands of
churches.
Many relics,
for example, the relics of St. Savva of Serbia, were destroyed. Some relics
disappeared, while others were just stolen – especially after the 4th
Crusade, the Ottoman conquests and so on. However, we cannot stop honoring a
saint only because his relics have disappeared. In my opinion, destruction and
disappearance of holy relics should be considered the consequence of our
unworthy behavior.
We need to keep
in mind one thing: quite often we can see only the outer side of what is going
on in the Church and the world. The heavenly sense of the ongoing events is not
always clear to us. Perhaps, we act very self-confidently when we ty to
understand the deep meaning and the sense of what is happening.
- You are talking about a prudent and Christian
approach to the actions of saints: not in every situation a particular reaction
of a saint, about which we read in his life story (or in a legend about him),
should become a general rule.
- That is right.
One must not turn a particular case into a general obligatory rule. Any action
must be authorized by the Church to become a universal rule. We have no right to
refer to certain episodes from the saints’ lives and base certain rules on their
reactions, without paying attention to all the circumstances which led a holy
(I stress!) person to this or that reaction. For example, we have no right to
refer to the episode in which St. Nicholas slapped heretic Arius during the 1st
Ecumenical Council and consider this episode a permission to beat anyone who
does not agree with us, no matter whether they are people of the same faith or
not. You will agree that it will be strange to make this a norm. There were so
many cases when it seemed as if a slap was given because of “pious zeal”, but
in fact those were just the examples of bad behavior, which had nothing in
common with righteousness.
- What is the difference between Christian and pagan
approach to the worship of relics?
- There is a
wide range of different pagan beliefs. For example, the Romans had nothing similar
to the worship of remains. In ancient Egypt people artificially made mummys and
tried to connect that with their specific belief in immortality.
As for the difference
between Christian and pagan worshipping, we need to remember the same rule
which is applied to the worship of holy icons: we worship the foretype, which
means we glorify God the Creator, Who gives His creation freedom and strength
to follow Him. At the same time, we honor the feat of those people, who have
managed to fully use their freedom, and ask them to help us in our prayer for
strength we need to come to Christ and be true Christians.
An interview with Fr. Vladislav Tsypin
Translated From Source: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/103681.html
CONVERSATION