Bitterly

The predictions of Seraphim of Sarov came true in their tragic fullness in the Serafimovsky aisle of the Trinity Cathedral in Pskov

Recently, recalling Yuri Pavlovich Spegalsky, the author of Pskov Guberniya rightly remarked: “Pskov has been destroyed. Pskov as a single architectural ensemble, which has such a rare “uncommon expression” for cities, has been destroyed for decades in a row, and neither the life of Spegalsky, nor his name, nor the name and life itself of Vsevolod Smirnov, Boris Skobeltsyn, Mikhail Semyonov, Elena Morozkina and others great Pskovites did not stop this process of destruction of historical Pskov. Not just the appearance - the city itself. These names, the honor and conscience of Pskov, remained the property of that very small circle of people” [ 1 ]. Now, to these names, we can safely add the name of Archimandrite Zinon, whose iconostasis in the chapel of St. Seraphim of Sarov was "renewed" in such a miraculous way.

The first shock from what happened has already passed - it remains only to state the fact: we have not grown up to the extent of the culture bequeathed to us by our ancestors, including high-canonical church art.

This is especially bitter, because the Russian Orthodox Church positions itself as the heir to "Holy Rus'" and many sincerely perceive it that way.

And what actually happened? - such is the sincere bewilderment of the clergy and the Orthodox community about the situation with the iconostasis. vAnd you don’t know how to answer it, and whether it is necessary to answer it ...

"It's all right, beautiful marquise" ...

I will only say that it is very significant that the iconostasis was desecrated in the name of the saint, who almost two centuries ago said:

“The Lord revealed to me that there will be a time when the hierarchs of the Russian Land and other clergy will deviate from preserving Orthodoxy in all its purity, and for that the wrath of God will strike them. For three days I stood, asking the Lord to have mercy on them and asked that it would be better to deprive me, the wretched Seraphim, of the Kingdom of Heaven than to punish them. But the Lord did not bow to the request of the wretched Seraphim and said that he would not have mercy on them, for they would teach the teachings and commandments of men, but their hearts would stand far from Me.

Perhaps, because of these bitter words, the bishops - members of the Holy Synod - did not want to canonize the "impudent" elder in 1903, but what to do - the Sovereign insisted ...

This word came true for the state Church in 1917, a terrible year for Russia, and it will come true again if the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church continue to look up to the synodal period in the history of the Orthodox Church in Russia, when it completely discredited itself, serving more to Caesar than to Christ. It was during this period that the icon of St. Andrei Rublev could be covered with a barrel of sauerkraut, because the understanding of the icon was lost in the church consciousness, and the Face of God was buried under a pood of gold salaries and other jewelry.

Nowadays, gold salaries have been replaced with color reproductions and student handicrafts of self-styled "bogomaz" masters, but the essence of this has not changed. The window to the heavenly world is boarded up with the coarse slab of indifference.

What - to be according to this.

Artyom TASALOV, Moscow.

1 See: L. Shlosberg. Lights of Spegalsky // "PG", No. 3 (372) of January 23-29, 2008