Temple of warriors on a stream

On the trading side of Veliky Novgorod there is a street with the strange name “Fedorovsky stream”. On it, approximately half a kilometer from Volkhov, there is an amazingly harmonious church named after the Holy Warrior Fedor, one of the masterpieces of ancient Russian architecture of the XIV century. However, when it was built, there was a stream, and the street was called differently.

Two Fedora in the Saints

Orthodoxy knows two holy Fedor warriors. One of them was a military leader in Heracles, defeated the snake (not only George this) and was beheaded in 319 for the preaching of Christianity (and at the same time for vandalism: he destroyed the golden statues of ancient gods as pagan ones - and distributed their fragments to the poor). The second is Fedor Tiron, that is, a simple warrior-river. After this saint refused to sacrifice the pagan gods, he was asked to think tightly. Reflecting, Fedor Tiron burned the temple of Kibe-l, for which he was burned at the stake in 306.

The history of the building

What is curious, the first temple at this place was built in the Domongol time. A certain truly set up the temple here in 1115. "In the summer of 6623 ... Watch the truly Church of St. Fyodor Tiron, april in 28."

Perhaps this building managed to stand as many as two centuries, since we reliably know that in 1329, here a certain Fedorov temple burned down during a large fire.

Another 30 years have passed. In the Novgorod second annals we read: “In the summer 6869 (1360) ... Semion Andreevich with his matter by his God -loving Natalia, laid the Church of the Church of the Kamena Holy Theodore on Fedorov Street.” A year later - "Stareing the Church of Kamamyan St. Theodore on Fedorov Street." This temple has already received the name of the fedor-warrior, Fedor Stratilat. It can be seen that the figure of the military leader was closer to Semen Andreyevich, who entered the highest circles of the Novgorod administration than the figure of a simple warrior.

In those years, the life of the Novgorod Republic was in the period of "stability", rich citizens were even more rich - and did not forget about the spiritual. They enjoyed ordering stone churches on their streets (in parallel the temple served as a fireproof safe in case of fire), the less wealthy residents of neighboring manor also took off, and as a result a special, “Ulchansky” Genre of Temples arose - not very large, cozy and very beautiful.

Painting

The frescoes of the temple are no less outstanding than the building itself. Who their author is not known to be reliably. Most likely, the Greek master led the brigade. On the walls, inscriptions in Greek are preserved, impeccable in spelling and with magnificent knowledge of calligraphy. In addition, almost at the same time, just a kilometer from the Fedorov Temple, the outstanding Church of the Savior on Ilyin Street was painted by the great Theophanes Greek.

It is curious that the lives of both Fedorov are presented in the painting the same way. Moreover, the episodes of life both Theodore Tiron and Theodore Stratilat are located right on the same wall. So two saints were connected in one temple - a simple recruit and a military leader.

Alexey Paevsky