Stones of pre-split Russia. Part 1

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

Stones of pre-split Russia. Part 2

There is an interesting work by L. A. Belyaeva "White stone tombstone of the Ferapontov Monastery" describing the first artifact of this kind found in 1982. However, I haven’t come across extensive photographic materials, let alone a detailed analysis of artifacts.

I'm trying to fill the gap.

It's about such stones.

Thanks to an impressive photo session made by my brother Andrey, there is an opportunity to consider all this in more detail and in detail. I already wrote somewhere that I am gradually curtailing my own historical research focusing exclusively on writing and language, but perhaps the publication will stir up the inquisitive minds of other researchers and we will finally be able to at least partially understand what Russia was like before the Schism, before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon, and according to some versions before the present, the actual baptism of Russia in the 17th century and not in the mythical 10th.

This topic is especially dear to me because it is a question of my small homeland. On the ruins of this monastery, as boys, we played war and told each other legends about black monks, underground passages and treasures, which of course are hidden in this land and walled up in these walls.:)

Actually, we were not far from the truth, this land really kept treasures, but of a completely different kind. Directly under our feet there was a History, which perhaps they wanted to hide, or maybe they destroyed it due to thoughtlessness or a lack of resources. Who knows.

What can we say for sure - before us are the fragments (literally:)) of the real history of Russia 16-17 (and according to Belyaev even 14-17) centuries - genuine artifacts of the past.

So let's go.

History reference

Mozhaisky Luzhetsky Nativity of the Mother of God Ferapontov Monastery - located in the city of Mozhaisk, has existed since the 15th century. The only one (apart from the temple complex on the site of the former Yakimansky monastery) of 18 medieval monasteries in Mozhaisk, which has survived to this day.

The monastery was founded by St. Ferapont Belozersky, a student of Sergius of Radonezh at the request of Prince Andrei Mozhaisky. This happened in 1408, after 11 years from the founding of the Belozersk Ferapontov Monastery by him. The dedication of the Luzhetsky monastery to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is associated with the decision of Ferapont himself. Apparently the Nativity of the Mother of God was close to his soul, since the Belozersk Monastery was also dedicated to Christmas. In addition, this holiday was especially honored by Prince Andrew. It was on this holiday in 1380 that his father, the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ioanovich, fought on the Kulikovo field. According to legend, in memory of that battle, his mother, Grand Duchess Evdokia, built the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Moscow Kremlin.

The first stone cathedral in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin stood in the Luzhetsky monastery until the beginning of the 16th century, after which it was dismantled, and in its place, in 1524-1547, a new five-domed one was built, which has survived to this day.

The first archimandrite of the Luzhetsk monastery, the Monk Ferapont, having lived ninety-five years, died in 1426 and was buried at the northern wall of the cathedral. In 1547 he was canonized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Later, a temple was built over his burial.

The Luzhetsky monastery existed until 1929, when, according to the protocol of the Moscow Oblast Executive Committee and the Moscow City Council, on November 11, it was closed. The monastery survived the dissection of the relics of the founder, ruin, destruction and desolation (it stood ownerless in the mid-1980s). In the pre-war period, the monastery housed a hardware factory and a workshop for a medical equipment plant. At the monastery necropolis there were factory garages with observation pits, storage facilities. Communal apartments were arranged in fraternal cells, and the buildings were transferred to the canteen and club of the military unit.

Wiki

Later, a temple was built over his burial …

This short phrase from the wiki precedes our entire story.

The temple of the Monk Ferapont was erected in the second half of the 17th century i.e. after Nikon's reforms.

Everything would be fine, but its construction was accompanied by a large-scale collection and laying of gravestones from the surrounding cemeteries into the foundation of the temple. This practice is not comprehensible to our mind, but in fact it was quite widespread in the old days and is explained by the economy of a scarce stone. Gravestones were not only laid in the foundations of buildings and walls, but even paved the monastery paths with them. I can't find links now, but you can search the net. Such facts are definitely there.

We are interested in the slabs themselves, although their appearance makes us wonder whether it was only because of saving resources that they were hidden so deeply

But first, let's orient ourselves on the terrain:).

This is actually what is now left of the temple of the Monk Ferapont. This is the very foundation that the workers stumbled upon when clearing the territory of the monastery in 1999. The cross was erected at the place where the relics of the saint were found.

The entire foundation is made of tombstones

The usual stone is not there at all.

Along the way, for supporters of the theory of disasters, well, the one when everything fell asleep:)

The part of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (first half of the 16th century) where the red brick is visible - was completely underground. Moreover, in this state, he underwent later reconstructions, as evidenced by the position of the gate. The staircase of the main entrance to the cathedral is a remake, restored from the excavated fragments of the original.

The height of the masonry of the cathedral, freed from the ground, is about two meters.

Here's another view of the foundation

But actually the plates themselves

Most of the artifacts are designed according to a single principle and contain a patterned edging, a fork-shaped cross (at least as it is commonly called in scientific literature) in the lower part of the slab, and a rosette in the upper part. At the branching point of the cross and in the center of the rosette there is a round extension with a solar symbol or a cross. It is noteworthy that the solar symbols at the cross and the rosette are always the same on one slab, but different on different slabs. We will touch on these symbols, but for now, their types are just large.

Branching the cross

Sockets

Curbs

Plates are quite thin, 10 centimeters, medium, about 20 centimeters and quite thick up to half a meter. Medium-thickness slabs often have side curbs like this:

"… there are inscriptions in Russian" (c) ВСВ

It is somehow hard to believe that the above photographs refer to Russia, and even Christian Russia. We see absolutely no signs of the traditions to which we are accustomed. But according to the official history, Russia at that time had already been baptized for six centuries.

The bewilderment is legitimate, but there are artifacts that baffle me even more.

Some slabs contain inscriptions, mostly in Cyrillic, sometimes of a very high level of execution.

For example, such.

"In the summer of 7177 December, on the 7th day, the servant of God, the monk, the schema monk Savatey [F] edorov, son of Poznyakov,"

The inscription leaves no doubt that a Christian monk is buried.

As you can see, the inscription was made by a skilled carver (the ligature is very good) on the side of the stone. The front side remained free of inscriptions. Savatey died in 1669 from r.kh.

And here's another. This is a masterpiece of loved ones. It was this plate that turned my life upside down:), it was with it that I actually "got sick" with Russian script as a unique way of writing, several years ago.

"In the summer of 7159 January, on the 5th day, the servant of God Tatiana Danilovna died in the foreign shop, the schema of Taiseya"

Those. Taisiya died in 1651 from r.kh.

The upper part of the slab has been completely lost, so there is no way to know how it looked.

Or here is a sample where the side with the inscription is laid in the joint of the blocks. It is impossible to read it without destroying the masonry, but it is clear that a great master worked there as well.

Questions emerge from these three pictures.

one. Don't you find such rich gravestones of monks strange? Schemniks, of course, are honored in Orthodoxy, but is it enough to have such last honors?

2. The dates of the burial make one doubt the version that only old gravestones were supposedly used for the construction (there is such a point of view). The given slabs went into the foundation very young, which, by the way, is evidenced by their safety. As if cut yesterday. It’s your will, but it’s very strange how it treats fresh burials and even the holy brethren.

I can cautiously assume that … they were not brothers they were already to the Nikonian reenactors, but, as it were, people of a different faith. And with the departed Gentiles it is possible not to cerimonate, then the living were not very much taken care of.

A few more slabs with inscriptions of different workmanship before we complete this part of the material.

As can be seen from the last examples, the practice of engraving the epitaph on the patterned horizontal surface of the slab also took place. Apparently, in this case, the inscription was made in the field between the pitchfork cross and the upper rosette.

Here it is clearly visible. And the border and the rosette and the cross and the inscription coexist quite organically.

So what do we have?

At the end of the 17th century, upon completion of the reform of Patriarch Nikon, the temple of St. Ferapont was erected on the territory of the Luzhetsky monastery. At the same time, the gravestones that were present in the area at that time are placed at the base of the foundation of the temple. Those. slabs of different ages are preserved in the foundation for three hundred years. For three hundred years, the pre-Nikonian canon of the Orthodox tomb is also preserved. What we can see now is, in fact, the state of quality, wear, and, indirectly, the age of the artifacts at the time of their laying in the foundation.

Obviously, the less worn slabs date from around 1650-1670. The samples presented in this part correspond mainly to this time.

But! There are also older slabs in the foundation and they also have inscriptions on them.

But more on that in the next part.

Stones of pre-split Russia. Part 2