The Wonder Working Cross of Godenovo
The cross which the Lord has
preserved for us, and even in an active church, is not just a relic or amazing
artistic image—it is a wonderworker. The endless stream of pilgrims to it bears
witness: the Russian heart seeks the Cross.
The Godenov cross is a unique
sacred object, miraculously found many centuries ago in Yaroslavl. And as in
the past, thousands of pilgrims come to the cross. Igumena Evstolia (Afonina),
abbess of the Pereslavl-Nikolsky Monastery, whose podvoriye in the city of
Godenov houses the sacred cross in its St. John Chrysostom church, speaks on
the cross, its history, and the miracles connected with it.
A sign of Russia’s sovereign
construction
The
cross was discovered in a backwater marsh not far from Rosotv the Great. The
historical sources say that it appeared “from the Greeks” in 1423, that is,
thirty years before the fall of Constantinople and Byzantium. For Russian
history, these thirty years were marked by critical events. These were the
years of rule of Vasily II, under whom Muscovite Rus’ was firmly established
and strengthened, having united several kingdoms of the surrounding lands,
which turned out to be the precondition for the significant event of the
Russian Church becoming independent from the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
After the adoption of the Ferraro-Florentine Union the undersigning
Metropolitan Isidore was driven ignominiously out of Moscow, and a Russian
bishop, elected to the position by a meeting of Russian hierarchs in 1448,
became the primate of the Church. Autocephaly and state unity, already underway
in Russia, were the necessary conditions for its sovereign construction. Soon,
during the rule of Ivan III, after his marriage to Sophia Palaiologina, to Rus’
came the Byzantine coat of arms, and shortly before that the Constantinople
icon of the Mother of God: it, like the Life-Giving Cross, was to become one of
the symbols that Russia is the successor to the Byzantine Empire. Then Elder
Theophilus wrote the famous words: “Two Romes have fallen, but the third now
stands, and a fourth there shall never be.” Having grasped all these events,
today we can say: by its appearance the Life-Giving Cross foreshadowed the
future sovereign construction of Russia.
Twenty-first century: the second
finding
Seventy
years of Soviet rule nearly blotted out from the people the memory of the
miraculous cross. In the late 1990s, having learned about it by chance from
some pilgrims, we took under our protection a dilapidated church with the
deteriorating relic, and began to pray before the cross. So was our podvoriye
established. At that time a barely noticeable trail lead to the cross. And what
do we see today? After decades of neglect the cross is so revered by the people
such that we can compare it with the veneration of Sts. Matrona and Seraphim.
The Russian heart seeks the Cross. On feast days of the Cross the relic is
visited by 10,000 people a day, and we see that these are not random people.
The second finding of the Life-Giving Cross by the Russian people is underway,
and it bears witness that the Russian people are being reborn.
Restoration
In
the godless times the cross endured not just neglect, but it also suffered
blasphemous desecration. Its restoration took place in 2002-2003, and what’s
more, by our request, the cross was never taken out of the active church,
where, as usual, the services were celebrated. The work was carried out by
restorers of the highest degree from the Russian State Museum in St.
Petersburg, and now we testify: the cross has truly been saved.
The cross works wonders
The
cross which the Lord has preserved for us, and even in an active church, is not
just a relic or amazing artistic image—it is a wonderworker. The endless stream
of pilgrims speaks to that the miracles of this holy cross attract the people:
they are healed from bodily infirmities and spiritually renewed, of which we
have many witnesses.
An article by Anastasia Rahlina
Source:
http://orthochristian.com/97391.html
