A Miracle of Liturgical Art: The Church of the Protection of the Mother of God at Yasenevo
This past
fall I had the opportunity to visit a construction project that is nothing short
of a miracle. I saw a group of mostly volunteers and amateurs, working with
small donations, building a church to rival any monument in the history of
Christendom. The project was recently completed, consecrated by His Holiness,
Patriarch Kirill, on December 27th, 2015. I would like to share what I have
learned about this astonishing church.
In 2001,
the Optina Monastery initiated a project to build a representation church in
Moscow. Over time, however, the project outgrew this basic program. A hilltop site
was located in Yasenevo, a district far to the south-west of the city center.
It is the highest ground around Moscow, and many felt that the land had a
providential destiny to hold a great church.
The
immensely capable Archimandrite Melchisidek (Artyukhin) was appointed to direct
the building project. It took seven years to acquire the land and the necessary
permissions from the government to build there. In the meantime, it was decided
to name the church for the Protection of the Mother of God, for the church,
overlooking the whole capital city, would represent the Holy Virgin’s
protection of Moscow. The project naturally took on the related theme of a war
memorial, commemorating the military protection of the capital, and they made
plans to ring the foundation with great stone crosses memorializing the many
battles through history in which the city was threatened and preserved. The
armed forces of Russia were moved by this gesture, and many contributions came
from individual soldiers.
A third
program emerged when Archimandrite Melchisidek noticed that the arches drawn by
the architect in the crypt level closely resembled the Grotto of the Nativity
in Bethlehem. He had the idea to recreate this holy site in the basement of his
church, and in time this idea grew also. In the end, they built full-scale
replicas of all the great pilgrimage sites of the Holy Land beneath the
Yasenevo church – a miniature pilgrimage destination in itself, in the same
tradition as the New Jerusalem Monastery built outside Moscow in the
seventeenth century. These replicas are remarkable feats of sculpture, copying
even the cracks and chips in the original stone slabs.
But most
astonishing by far was the project to decorate the interior of the main church.
It is ornamented in the style of the Sicilian Cathedrals of the 12th century –
without doubt the most sumptuous and refined style that ever emerged in the
Byzantine-influenced world. Virtually the entire inside of the Yasenevo church
is mosaic iconography in glittering glass and gold. There have been but a
handful of churches decorated like this in all of history, and this church
ranks fifth among them in area of mosaics. The lower walls of the church are
revetted in white marble and the floor is finished in splendid Cosmatesque
marble and mosaic interlace. The church is lit with a great brass choros and a
constellation of glittering chandeliers. The marble iconostasis bears
jewel-like icons with a powerful Romanesque gravity. It is a vision of medieval
splendor the likes of which have never before been seen in Russia, and only
rarely in all the world.
The true
miracle of the Yasenevo church, though, lies not in its richness, but its
poverty. Astonishingly, this church, constructed in just seven years, had no
major individual donors. There was no great oligarch or wealthy institution footing
the bill. Rather, the money came in small donations from ordinary people and
pious organizations – 800,000 donors in total.
Likewise,
the astonishing mosaic work was not the work of a professional studio, but of
students and amateurs, all volunteers. There was one professional iconographer
hired to draw the great Pantocrator, but beyond that, the work was planned by
highly-capable art students. They could not afford to buy Italian tesserae for
the vast areas of gold, so they asked for donations of gold jewelry from across
Russia, and developed their own technique for depositing the gold onto ceramic
tile fragments. The mosaic workshop was run by a retired master who taught
anyone who showed up. On the day I visited, she introduced me to her crew for the
day – a hairdresser, an economics student, an architect, all there on their day
off from work to come lay tesserae, and doing work like skilled masters. In
total there were at least 225 of these volunteer mosaicists, some of whom
arrived with no skills, but only a life-long dream of making an icon, and ended
up creating works of incredible beauty.
My guide,
Elena, explained that almost everything was built like this – the landscaping,
the marble work, the unexpected and charming decorations that could be seen
virtually everywhere. I found that the construction site felt like a liturgy –
the workers could feel their priestly role in this work. Everyone involved in
the project recognized that a miracle was taking place – that God had ordained
that this project was to be different from any other – that this church would
be built only with love, and that it would outshine all others.
By Andrew
Gould
Source: https://www.orthodoxartsjournal.org/a-miracle-of-liturgical-art-the-church-of-the-protection-of-the-mother-of-god-at-yasenevo/
How Can I Defeat the Passion of Laziness?
“Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be
wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the
summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O
sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to sleep — so shall your poverty come on you like
a prowler, and your need like an armed man” (Proverbs 6:6-11).
Archimandrite
Markell (Pavuk), the spiritual father of the Kiev theology schools, speaks
about the main cause of laziness.
- Father, where does laziness come from? What will
happen if we do not fight with it?
- A “modern
laziness” is mostly typical for people living in comfortable city
circumstances. For example, there is no need for them to go outside to get some
water or to chop wood and stoke a furnace so that it will be warm in the
house. In a village, if you has not brought some water and chopped wood, you
will be frozen and hungry.
Work is an
important necessity in a village. If you are lazy, you have to live in the cold
without any food. Our laziness is the result of comfort.
 |
| Archimandrite Markell (Pavuk) |
- What do we need to do, father? Shall we reject the blessings
of civilization?
- It is rather
difficult for a modern person to reject them. Civilization has enslaved us.
Some people try to avoid such life and settle in far monasteries, for example
in the regions of Caucasus or Carpathians. However, there are not so many people, who avoid
comfort and make themselves work in such a way.
- How can we struggle with laziness then?
- A loving and
prudent person avoids laziness. He always worries that if he does not do what
depends on him, then it can make other people suffer.
Laziness never
comes to people in whose house there are many children. The members of such a
family always have many duties and they simply have no time to relax. Cooking, washing
and cleaning – almost all family members, excerpt from the youngest children,
are dealing with this. At the same time, in small families with one child or
without children it is much more difficult to cope with laziness.
By the way, the
desire for easy and comfortable life is one of the reasons of not having many
children. On its turn, it leads to the absence of responsibility because there
is no one whom to care and worry about. And then it leads to laziness.
- Our time is the time of optimization. People want to
make less effort, but get higher results. Our life is developing in this
direction.
- It is truth
that modern conveniences of our life help us to solve various problems with
minimum efforts. It is expected that people will become happier and will pay
more attention to each other.
- However, it
all happens on the contrary. Why so?
- Because it is
impossible to defeat our selfishness, individualism and other passions with the
help of various technical means and achievements. In the 21th century, the
nature of a person remains the same as it has been in the 4th
century. Only the state of mind has changed a bit. The inner condition of a person can be
changed not by machines and computers, but only by God’s grace, which people
can fully receive only when they participate in the Church Sacraments. As far
as many people neglect the Church, unsolvable problems emerge. Now we are
speaking about one of such problems, which snowballs all the time.
- What should we do then?
- It is better
for a person, who wants to overcome his laziness, to experience the monastic
life as much as his duties allow. Since ancient times people were looking for
consolation in monasteries and traveled for long distances to get there.
The rhythm of
the monastic life does not let you be lazy. Apart from venerating the holy
relics of saints, pilgrims learn here how to be self-organized. In any monastery,
there is a strict day schedule, which has not been changed for centuries. It
includes obligatory services - Midnight service, Hours, Liturgy, evening
services; meal time, time for work and rest… Everything is cyclical.
All people
living in the world can emulate the monastic schedule to some extent and try to
organize their day strictly; to think thoroughly about when they will work, pray or
rest. It will be much easier then to overcome your laziness. As history shows,
in ancient times people lived exactly like that, trying to emulate the life of
monastics. That is why sometimes the foreigners who visited our land imagined it as one large monastery.
- Why is it much easier to organize yourself in a monastery then when you try to do it on your own?
- For example,
I personally would not attend the service because of my laziness. But then I see the brothers who are going there. And I understand that I will be ashamed of the brothers if I miss the service. All people in a monastery are connected just like in a big
family. If you are not present at the service, then someone else will have to
take out the particles instead of you. If you are a member of the choir, but
you has not come, then it will affect the choir’s singing and
the mood of all the people who serve and participate in the service. Each person has a great
responsibility here. Here you always have a strong sense of duty which do not
let you be lazy. The brethren always try to support each other.
The same
situation should be in a family: the sense of responsibility, mutual support,
bearing of other’s burdens. If there is no such mood in a family, then the
spouses begin to clear up who owes who, who must do this or that, who has done
more and so on.
What is more,
laziness must be fought steadily when the first symptoms emerge. Dismay in one
of such symptoms. And we know that we can defeat dismay with prayer and fast. If
they are combined, then your house will be full of joy.
- Father, it seems then that there is no clear advice in this case. We return to prayer and fast all the time.
- The problem
is that we do not always understand what the true prayer and fast should be.
Often we pity ourselves too much and think that if we devote more time to
prayer, then we will not manage to do something else. However, this is just a trap.
Source: http://pravlife.org/content/kak-borotsya-so-strastyu-kotoraya-rodilas-ranshe-nas
The Events Surrounding The Holy Protection of the Theotokos
One of
the most beloved holidays in the Orthodox calendar is the Protection of the
Mother of God. The Slavic people celebrate this holiday on October 1. The Greek
tradition celebrates it on October 28.
The tradition
holds that during the tenth century, the city of Blachernae in Constantinople
was threatened by a barbarian invasion. Saint Andrei Yurodivyi (Andrew of
Constantinople), his disciple Saint Epiphanius, and a group of people saw the
Mother of God, St. John the Baptist, and several other saints and angels during
a vigil in the church. This same church housed several of the relics of the
Virgin Mary, including her robe, veil and part of her belt. These were brought
from Palestine during the fifth century.
During
this vision, the Theotokos came to the center of the church, knelt down and
prayed for a long time. Her face was drowned in tears. Afterwards, she removed
her veil and spread it over the people as a sign of protection. After this
appearance, the danger passed and the city was spared the bloodshed of an
invasion.
The icon
of the Holy Protection shows the feast in which the Theotokos is standing above
the faithful with her arms stretched open in prayer and draped with a veil.
Angels are on both sides of her. In most icons, Saint Andrew and his disciple
Epiphanius are in the lower right. St. Epiphanius is wearing a tunic under his
cloak and seems astonished at this miraculous appearance. St. Andrew is dressed
only in a cloak. Below the Theotokos, in the center of the icon, is a young man
with a halo dressed in a deacon’s sticharion. In his left hand he is holding an
open scroll with the text of the Kontakion for the Nativity in honor of the
Mother of God. This is St. Romanus the Melodist, the famous hymnographer whose
feast is celebrated on October 1. His choir is with him as is the Emperor Leo
the Wise, the Empress, and the Patriarch of Constantinople.
On my
Greek Orthodox calendar, the October 28th is also marked “OXI Day”. What does
this mean? In the past few years, this feast has been recognized as a
thanksgiving for the deliverance of the Greek nation from the Italian invasion
of 1940. It is a national holiday in Greece known as “Ochi Day” or “No Day”, in
reference to the response of the Greek leader Metaxas to Mussolini’s ultimatum.
By Joanne Jamis Cain in The Sounding Blog
Source: http://myocn.net/the-holy-protection-of-the-theotokos/
No Orthodox Christian is Without Theotokos’ Protection: a Sermon By Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov)
In the
Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!
Today the
Holy Church marks the day of the Protection of the All-Holy Theotokos. This is
essentially a Russian celebration, but happens in a very few parished of other
Orthodox Churches. Most of you know that this feast arose in Greece, in
Constantinople. In the Blachernae temple, St.Andrew the Fool-for-Christ, an
well-known ascetic in Constantinople at that time, beheld the Mother of God
during the Divine Services standing above all the faithful, holding
her Protection above them, her archiepiscopal omophorion, invisible protecting
each worshipper, each one who was in the church, striving whole-heartedly
toward God. Only two people saw this spiritual vision: Andrew the
Fool-for-Christ and his disciple. The rest continued praying as before. They
stood reverently, paying attention to the words of the prayers. But what a
difference there is between those two, who saw the Holy Theotokos, and us who
stand with faith in church while faith raises our souls up to God?
In each
of our lives there have been supernatural occurences, one or several, which
indubitably confirmed for us the existence of the spiritual world, that
the Lord God, whose nature is inconveivable, the Ruler and Master of the world,
directs all the fates of men, and he leads a man from this life, from temporal
life, to eternal life. Before Him each of us must give an account for the way
we have spent our lives, for each deed and for every thought which we have made
and brought to fruition in this world. And there is indeed a great difference
between the ascetics, chosen ones of God, who like in the reality of the
spiritual world, and us, who only from time to time are made worthy of special
revelations, special visions. What is this mystery, and in what does our
unworthiness and insufficiency consist?
 |
| Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) |
We have
come today to the temple of God in order to offer Him the sacrifice of
repentance, prayer, and candles. What more can a man give to God? In general,
the relationship between God and man takes place only on the level of
sacrifice. Here in our temple there is an altar to God, whereon God Himself
offers Himself in sacrifice to us. He offers all of Himself, just as the great
sacrifice was offered on Golgotha, when the Lord Jesus Christ lowered Himself,
Divinity lowered itself to the level of mankind and offered itself entirely in
sacrifice out of love for us, in order that He might raise us up from a
condition of death to one of eternal life, whereunto we are all called.
We all
know about the sacrifice of Christ, and we all live by this sacrifice. But God
also awaits a sacrifice from us. The only sacrifice that is a true gift and a
true sign of love is that which is important and dear to us that we give up
from ourselves to someone else.
Contemporary
man, unfortunately, is not, as a rule, prepared for sacrifice. We have no
decisiveness to cut out from ourselves our habits that run contrary to the
commandments of Christ, that get in the way of divine communion, and which are
empty or harmful for us, being very dear to our passions. And these weaknesses,
sicknesses, sins, habits, and (most importantly) our laziness, we are unable to
offer in sacrifice to God by cutting them out from ourselves. But this is the
only thing that God is waiting for.
Observe
how people come to church and, in the first years they have a wondrous and
fruitful spiritual life, when they come to know God, come to the Church and
begin to live a new life. Why? Because, of course, their first zeal has given
them the strength to offer their former habits and attachments in sacrifice to
God, and God in return has given them wondrous grace and spiritual power,
wonderful forsight and communion with God. But then, when he comes back to a
normal state, to every day life, then a new sacrifice is required from us. But
we offer it with greater and greater difficulty and this causes the life of the
Christian to bear little fruit, and to become more and more tiresome. He
understands intuitively and by the experience of his previous life that this is
the right path, but he is unable to renounce that which he knows it necessary
to renounce. He understands that it is necessary to offer these weaknesses and
laziness to God in sacrifice, and then to begin again a strong and renewed
spiritual life, but Orthodox Christians make such a step with great difficulty.
It is the now the case that, even until his death, a man abides in a divided
state, having not the power to step over his own pride, over his own
predilection for ease and pleasure which, it would seem, are not sinful in
themselves … But in order to enter a new spiritual state, in order to excise
one’s passions, such a sacrifice is entirely necessary.
Andrew
the Fool-for-Christ was just such a man, who sanctified his entire life by the
greatest method and, as the Holy Fathers write, by the science of sciences,
which is Divine communion. Gradually he excised from himself all that stood
between him and God: passions, pride, self-opinion that came from people
exalting him. And it was precisely this man who was made worthy of the vision
of the All-holy Theotokos. But this was only one of the many visions that he
had. Saint Seraphim, the Elders of Optina, the Saints of our time, according to
whose spiritual lives we orient ourselves, they lived and now live as a
constant sacrifice, offering themselves in sacrifice to God.
These
words sound terrible to the external man, who still does not know what the love
of God is. But if any man thinks about these words — a husband, for example,
who brings something that is very important to him as an offering to his spouse
— then he will understand that he has enriched himself, inasmuch as he has
deeply understood the importance of their relationship. A mother begins to
understand this when she offers her hours, days, and strength to her children,
giving up her own future; and in this she finds her happiness. Every Christian
understands this, who is able to be raised to the state of Divine communion,
and in this he finds that true happiness which exists on the earth, rather than
those things which unhappily come to and end when we pass fro temporal life to
eternal life.
May the
Lord raise us also to this spirit of the Saints, even if only in part. May He
grant us to understand the mystery of which the Lord spoke when He said “I
desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” May we ascend to that spiritual stature where
the sacrifice of God, offered to us ourselves, will be as mercy, as happiness
and joy. Very few are capable of this, but each of us is called to it. Amen.
By Bishop
Tikhon (Shevkunov)
Source: http://www.pravmir.com/sermon-on-the-feast-of-the-protection-of-the-mother-of-god-2/
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