Defenders of the Faith of Christ

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Shihab ad-din Abdallah ibn Fazlallah, originally from Shiraz in southern Iran, known by the honorary nickname "Vassaf-i-Khazret" - "the panegyrist of His Majesty", was under the auspices of Rashid-ad-din. In Shabbat 699 (April 22 - May 20, 1300) Vassaf began writing his essay as a continuation of Juvaini's writings. Here is what he writes about Batu:

"Batu's stake was the vicinity of the Itil River. He founded a city, the space of which was as vast as his thoughts, and he called this merrily singing area" Sarai. " he was of the Christian faithand Christianity is contrary to common sense, but (he) had no inclination and disposition towards any of the religious denominations and teachings, and he was alien to intolerance and boasting."

For some reason, it turned out to be considered the first Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible. However, it cannot be denied that the khans-Chingizids were also called tsars in Russia and they were recognized as such by the Russian princes. Weren't they ethnically Russian? You never know the generally recognized Russian autocrats had foreign roots. Simeon Bekbulatovich was also a Tatar, Ekaterina was a German, and the last Romanovs had a lot of Russian blood.

But now we are talking about the attitude towards religion. From the above, it can be seen that, according to Shihab ad-din Abdallah ibn Fazlallah, Batu belonged to the Christian religion for some time. Perhaps he also had a Christian name. And this is not news for the Genghisids, since his own aunts were also Christians. Here is what L. Gumilev writes about this: “Chingis married his sons to Christians: Ogedeya - to the Merkit Turakin, Toluya - to the Kerait princess Sorkaktani-bagi. Nestorian churches were erected in the khan's headquarters, and the grandchildren of Chinggis were brought up in respect for the Christian faith."

Probably his son Sartak, our second Emperor of the entire Jochi-ulus (and of all Russia as well), inherited the religion from his father. He told his uncle (Batu's brother) - Khan Berke: “You are a Muslim, but I adhere to the Christian faith; to see a Muslim face for me misfortune “, after which he was poisoned. If there is a causal relationship, Sartak can be considered a victim for the Christian faith.

In fig. Alexander Nevsky and Sartak in the Horde. Fragment of the painting by F. A. Moskvitin. 2002 year.

Another nephew of Khan Berke (possibly also the son of Batu) was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church under the name of St. Peter, Tsarevich of the Horde. Here is what is written about him in the Life of the Saints:

At a time when Russia was suffering the yoke of the Golden Horde, Bishop Kirill of Rostov went to the Horde to Khan Berkai with a petition on the affairs of the Rostov See. The khan listened with interest to the bishop, who told him about the exploits of Rostov's enlighteners, about the first enlightener Leonty, who came to baptize a strange and cruel people, and about what miracles have been performed since then on the relics of the great righteous man.

No one still knows whether Berkai believed in the miracles described by the eloquent bishop, but after some time the khan called the bishop to heal his sick son.

Before leaving Rostov, the bishop sang a prayer service at the shrine of St. Leonty and, having consecrated the water, took it with him to the Horde. After sprinkling the khan's son with holy water and reading a prayer, the bishop, turning to the khan, said: “Your son will survive and become just as strong, How do you . The child recovered, and from that time Berkay ordered that all the tribute collected from Rostov go to the Rostov Assumption Cathedral.

The khan's nephew, who literally followed the bishop during his visit to the Horde, became a witness of the miraculous healing of his cousin; he closely followed everything that happened and often listened to his uncle's conversations with Bishop Cyril.

After the departure of Vladyka Kirill, the boy often began to seek solitude. In solitude, he reflected: “Why do we believe in the sun, moon, stars and fire? These are not gods, but who is the true God? From the people accompanying Bishop Kirill, he heard about beautiful churches and wonderful icons and how beautifully Orthodox prayers sound … The boy so wanted to see all this, he wanted to see for himself that miracles happen in the world. Growing up, he realized that his fate should be connected with Russia and its people.

And now he is already in Russia … It seemed to the young man that he had finally returned to his homeland, which he had once left. The young man, having come to Rostov, entered the temple of the Dormition of the Mother of God. And it was here, in this quiet and at the same time bright sanctuary, that the young man's heart was filled with faith, and, as the chronicler wrote about him, "a new moon rose in the heart of the prince." The young man asked Bishop Cyril to baptize him. But the bishop could not do it right away: he was afraid of Khan Berkai's revenge on the Russian people. When the khan died and the Horde stopped talking about the missing prince, the bishop baptized him. At baptism, Tsarevich Orda received the name Peter Tsarevich Peter lived in the house of Bishop Cyril, and after his death - in the house of Bishop Ignatius. Peter studied the Russian language, got acquainted with Christian customs and often hunted on the shores of Lake Nero. Why is it that the Russian people revered a Mongol who has converted to the Orthodox faith as a saint? For the most part, the chronicles shed light on the life of Peter Orda.

So, in one of the chronicles it is said that Tsarevich Peter, who once fell asleep on the shore of Lake Nero after a hunt, had an amazing dream: two people, from whom an unearthly light emanated, woke him up, saying: “Peter, your prayer has been heard, and alms yours has risen before God …”Peter at first was frightened - the men were much taller than human growth, and they were surrounded by a bright radiance.

“Do not be afraid, Peter, we are sent to you from God. Take these two bags from us, one with silver and the other with gold, in the morning go to the city and buy icons - the Most Pure Mother of God with the Eternal Child and the saints,”the messengers said. "Who are you?" - asked the prince. “Peter and Paul are the apostles of Christ,” they answered, and immediately disappeared. And then the prince heard a voice that directed him to go to the bishop with the words: "The Apostles Peter and Paul sent me to you so that you would build a church named after them, in the place where I fell asleep."

On the same night, the apostles appeared to Bishop Ignatius himself, asking to build a church in the name of the apostles Peter and Paul through the prince of Orda, to whom they handed a lot of money to contribute to the Rostov See. Waking up in surprise, the bishop summoned the prince and told him his dream. At this time, the prince appeared in the churchyard, carrying three icons shining in his hands … "So it was not a dream!" - exclaimed the bishop, going out to meet the prince. “It's true, Vladyka,” Pyotr Ordynsky said quietly.

On the shore of the lake, where the prince had a dream, a prayer service was served and the place intended for the church was fenced off. And soon there was a temple of the supreme apostles Peter and Paul, and with him the monastery of monks.

Tsarevich Pyotr Ordynsky began to live in peace and after a while married the daughter of a Horde nobleman who settled in Rostov. Peter Ordynsky remained forever in Russia and until his death was in Rostov, having outlived both St. Ignatius and Prince Boris of Rostov.

Only in extreme old age did Peter take monastic vows at the monastery, which he himself had once founded on the banks of the Nero. Blessed Tsarevich Peter Ordynsky died in 1280, having departed to God, who from paganism called him to the light of the Orthodox faith …"

After the death of Ulagchi, the young son of Sartak, power passed to Khan Berke. He and the Genghisids who followed him professed Islam. But this did not change anything - the Khan of the Dzhuchiev ulus continued to be the Russian Tsar, regardless of religion. Does this mean that the ROC began to be persecuted? Not at all, no. I will cite the text of the label of Khan Uzbek to Metropolitan Peter from 1313:

“And behold, the Label of Yazbyak the Tsar, to Peter the Metropolitan, to the wonderworker of all Russia.

The highest and immortal God by his power and will and his majesty and mercy are many. Yazbyakov's word. To all our prince, great and middle and lower, and strong Voevods and nobles, and our appanage prince, and glorious roads, and a Polish prince high and lower, and a Scribe, a Charter, and a teaching human Governor, and a Collector and Baskak, and our Ambassador and Messenger, and Danshchik, and Scribe, and passing Ambassador, and our Catcher, and Falconer, and Pardusnik, and to all people, high and low, small and great, of our kingdom, in all our countries, in all our uluses, where ours, God is immortal by power, holds power and owns our word.

Yes, no one will offend in Russia the cathedral church of Metropolitan Peter, and his people and his church; but no one collects acquisitions, estates, or people. And Peter knows the Metropolitan in the truth, and judges his people right, and rules his people in truth, in whatever it may be: in robberies, and in the act, and in the thief, and in all matters, Peter himself is the Metropolitan alone, or to whom he will order. Yes, everyone obeys and obeys the Metropolitan, all of his church clergy, according to their first law from the beginning, and according to our first letters, the first great Tsars and Defterm.

Let no one enter into the Church and Metropolitan, since then God's all essence; and whoever intercepts, and hears our label and our word, he is guilty of God, and will take anger from him, and from us he will be punished by death. And the Metropolitan walks on the right path, but on the right path abides and dismounts, and with a right heart and right thought, all of his church governs and judges and knows, or who will command such deeds and rule.

And we will not enter into anything, neither our children, nor all our Prince of our kingdom and all our countries, and all our uluses; let no one interfere with the church and the Metropolitan, neither in their volosts, nor in their villages, nor in any catch of them, nor in their side, nor in their lands, nor in their uluses, nor in the forests them, neither in the fences, nor in their volost places, nor their grapes, nor in their mills, nor in their winter quarters, nor in their horse herds, nor in all cattle herds, but all the acquisitions and estates of their churchly, and their people, and all their clergy, and all their laws laid down old from their beginning - then everything is known to the Metropolitan, or to whom he will order; let nothing be overthrown, or destroyed, or offended by anyone; May the Metropolitan abide in a quiet and meek life without any sense; Yes, with a righteous heart and right thought, he prays to God for us, and for our wives, and for our children, and for our tribe.

And we also rule and favor, as the former Kings gave them labels and granted them; and we, along the way, temizh Labels favor them, but God will grant us, intercede; but we rave about God, and do not take what is given to God: but whoever takes from God, he will also be guilty of God; but God's wrath on him will be, and from us he will be executed by death; but seeing that, and others in fear will be. And our Baskaki, and Customs officers, Danish officers, Contestants, Scribes will go - according to our letters, as our word said and bore, so that all the cathedral churches of the Metropolitan will be whole, all his people and all his acquisitions will not be offended by anyone or from anyone., as the label has: Archimandrites, and Abbots, and Priests and all the clergy of the Church, let no one be offended by anything. Whether they are imprisoning a tribute on us, or whatever else wake up: whether it’s tamga, whether it’s popluzh, whether it’s a hole, whether it’s washed, whether it’s bridging, whether it’s war, whether we’re catching it or ours; or when we will command our men to collect from our uluses for our service, where we will delight the warriors, but from the cathedral church and from the Metropolitan of Peter, no one will charge, and from their people and from all his clergy: they pray God for us, and for us they are watching, and our army is being strengthened; Who else does not know even before us that God is immortal by strength and will, all live and fight? then everyone knows.

And we, praying to God, according to the very first Tsars' letters, they were given a salary, and did not designate them in anything. As it was before us, so speaking, and our word weighed down. On the first path, which will be our tribute, neither our requests will be thrown on, or our ambassadors, or our Ambassadors will be, or our sterns and our horses, or carts, or the food of our Ambassadors, or our Queens, or our children, and whoever is, and whoever, let them not charge, let them not ask for anything; but what they take away, and they will give back a third, if they take it for a great need; but from us they will not be meek, and our eye does not quietly look at them. And that there will be church people, koi craftsmen, or scribes, or stone builders, or ancient ones, or other masters of whatever kind you wake up, or catchers of whatever kind of fishing you wake up, or falconers, and then no one intervenes in our business and let them not eat their; and our Pardusnits, and our Catchers, and our Falconers, and our Shorers, do not intervene in them, and do not charge them for their practical tools, and do not take anything away.

And that their law, and in the law of their churches, and monasteries, and their chapels, do not harm them in any way, nor blaspheme; and whoever learns the faith to blaspheme or condemn, and that person will not apologize to anyone and will die an evil death. And that the Priests and their Deacons eat the same bread, and live in one house, who has a brother or a son, and those along the way, our salary; Anyone who will not speak from them, but does not serve the Metropolitan, but he lives by the name of a priest, but is taken away, but gives tribute. And the Priests, and the Deacons, and the clergy of the Church were granted from us according to our pen letters, and they stand praying to God for us with a right heart and right thought; and whoever teaches with a wrong heart to pray to God for us, then sin will be on him. And whoever will be a Pop, or a Deacon, or a clerk of the Church, or Lyudin, whoever will, from wherever, will want to serve the Metropolitan and pray to God for us, what the Metropolitan will have in mind about them, then the Metropolitan knows.

So our word made, and I gave to Peter the Metropolitan a letter of this strength for him, so that all people, and all churches, and all monasteries, and all clergy clergy can see and hear this letter, may they not listen to him in anything, but obey him, according to their law and according to antiquity, as they have from ancient times. May the Metropolitan remain with a righteous heart, without any sorrow and without sorrow, praying to God for us and for our kingdom. And whoever intervenes in the Church and in the Metropolitan, and against him will be God's wrath, but according to our great torture he will not apologize to anyone, and will die an evil execution. So the label is given. So saying, our word did it. It was approved as such a fortress in the summer of the autumn, in the autumn of the first month of the 4th Old. It is written and given in full”(The label is from the publication: A. Tsepkov“The Resurrection Chronicle”).

From the text of the label, it can be seen that, despite religious differences, relations between the ROC and the Chingizids were built on the basis of friendship and harmony. But did it become so after their fall with the arrival of the truly Russian tsars?

Problems began even before the fall of the Chingizid dynasty. In 1378, Metropolitan Cyprian (later canonized) anathematized Prince Dmitry Donskoy (also later canonized). I still do not understand whether this anathema was lifted. If not, then they formally canonized a person who was not Orthodox at all, since anathema presupposes excommunication from the church.

In 1551, the "first" Russian tsar sharply limited the rights of the ROC in the land issue.

In 1721, Peter I abolished the patriarchate (not counting other innovations).

In general, the church got both from the Rurikovichs and from the Romanovs. I'm not talking about the Bolsheviks at all. Probably more than once they remembered the old - good times of the Tatar yoke, when they lived under the protection of the khan's label.