Orthodox Russia, the centre of world civilisation
Moscow celebrated the Russian variant of the feast of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus', with Patriarch Kirill also commemorating the "believing atheist", Stalin, to extol the "new Baptism" of post-Soviet Russia. Meanwhile, Metropolitan Tikhon of Crimea inaugurated a major exhibition in Sevastopol dedicated to Prince Vladimir, presenting it as a true “universal museum of Christianity.”
Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) of Moscow celebrated the Russian variant of the feast of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus', two weeks after the "Gregorian" date observed by Ukraine, extolling the "Russianness" of the baptismal heritage, but without dwelling on the controversy with the Ukrainians over the attribution of the choice to Grand Prince Vladimir of Kyiv.
The current Kremlin leader, Vladimir Putin, has also been compared to the "apostle-like" baptiser, because "today at the head of our state is a sincerely Orthodox man, not for political expediency, not for particular circumstances, but by his own free choice, based on his deep faith, which reflects on the life of our entire people.”
The patriarch cited the saying that "the faith of the tsar is the faith of the people," referring to the first Vladimir and, by extension, also to the latest Vladimir, passing through the many "sincerely believing" rulers in Russian history, even those of the Soviet period.
Noting the "various legends" handed down about Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, which Kirill mentions "without comment" as to their authenticity, the Georgian "father of the peoples" met the then Patriarchal Lieutenant, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), in 1943, addressing "Your Excellency" with the Russian saying, “Dwell on the past and you'll lose an eye,” thus ushering in "a new era of Russian Orthodoxy."
In fact, Stalin appointed Sergey as Patriarch, restoring many of the churches and freeing many bishops from concentration camps, so he too can rightfully be included in the list of "heirs of Vladimir the Great."
The memory of the "believing atheist," who used the Church to fuel his own personality cult, serves Patriarch Kirill to demonstrate the continuity of faith in Russia even through Soviet persecution, which “failed to eradicate Orthodoxy from the minds and hearts of our men and women.”
During the reign of the official ideology of the Bezbozhniki (Безбожники), the "godless" communists, “many people obviously renounced their faith in God out of fear," but many also did not give up expressing their religiosity, even though "not everyone had the courage to go to church.”
Recalling his own experiences from the Soviet era, Kirill said that "some secretly invited priests to their homes for Easter," and even those who did nothing of the sort “still remained believers.”
For the Patriarch, "the Lord has had mercy on Russia, on the Russian people" despite the most terrible persecutions against religion in history, thanks "to the faith of our martyrs and confessors, of our grandmothers and mothers, a little less of our fathers."
However, after the end of the atheist regime, the Orthodox Church resumed its "civilising" role, which for centuries made it the true "establishing force of the State," an expression that goes back to the late 15th century saint "hammer of heretics," Joseph of Volokolamsk, whom the Patriarch often refers to in order to show the importance of the Church in Russian history.
The post-Soviet "new Baptism" of 34 years ago is therefore the true content of the celebration of the 1,073rd anniversary of the Baptism of Kyiv, demonstrating that "epochal events and tectonic shifts in the life of the state never submit to the will of politicians, even if they try to dominate them, but are actually intended to realise God’s will," and therefore "we are today heirs of this divine miracle, this gift of His mercy.”
This renews Russia's vocation to a universal mission to “expel the devil who seeks to separate man from his Lord and Saviour," the Patriarch triumphantly proclaims.
Today, however, Russia lives "in very favourable conditions," without any pressure on the Church, and no one threatens the true faith, like in many other countries around the world.
In addition to Orthodox rulers, the intelligentsia "has also converted," and most of the best scholars and specialists in various fields of science "are true believers."
Yet true faith "always requires great sacrifices," Kirill warns, citing the Russian term for asceticism, podvig (подвиг), which presupposes dvizhenie (движение), the "movement" of the inner development of the human personality.
"It is not possible to complete the task of work and war if the soul is too weak, if a correct vision of the world is not asserted," because only "when the soul is strong, then actions are also strong," which is what Russia desperately needs today, alluding to the need to achieve victory in the war with Ukraine, though without explicitly mentioning it.
The renewal of baptismal faith must therefore "consist and regenerate itself ever more," the patriarch insists, since “Russia is a great country that exerts an enormous influence on world civilisation, and on everything that happens in the world,” broadening its horizons far beyond the confines of the conflict with its neighbour.
We must “know how to combine faith with science, technology, and every form of knowledge,” paying particular attention to "those who live further west than us, who have long since renounced their faith.” Russia’s testimony will also serve all other peoples and religions, to "adequately reflect on the destinies of the states and regions of the world."
For this reason, the faith of Russians must be increasingly authentic, concludes Kirill, "without hypocrisy, without limiting itself to the formal fulfilment of duties, without fear of higher powers, but only with the fear of God to be good servants of His plans for Russia and the entire world," with the prayers of all the saints and martyrs, of the Vladimirs, and the Orthodox or pseudo-Orthodox rulers who "enlightened Russia."
The patriarch’s appeal was immediately and zealously echoed by another prominent figure in the Russian Orthodox hierarchy, Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Crimea, who recently inaugurated a major exhibition dedicated to Krestny Otets, Russia's "godfather of baptism," Prince Vladimir the Great, who was baptised in Chersonesus on the shores of the peninsula on the Black Sea before immersing the people of Kyiv in the waters of the Dnieper River.
The exhibition occupies the main section of the large "New Chersonesus " museum, the ecclesiastical museum complex created on Tikhon's initiative on the ruins of the ancient city, on the outskirts of the capital, Sevastopol.
It features seven large halls, with many sacred and historical objects, as well as large screens and a theatre hall with a domed screen for film screenings.
The metropolitan directly mentioned Ukraine, stating that the “Baptism is a celebration of the unity of peoples, of Russians and Ukrainians and of all other peoples who have historically united with Russia,” and the Sevastopol museum will not be just an event limited to Russia, but a true “universal museum of Christianity.”
Rereading a thousand years of history, Tikhon states that “many times attempts have been by other states to destroy and divide Russia, but we have always been able to overcome and annihilate these plots, even at the cost of our own blood.”
He noted the clashes that began in 1654, which he called “the first special military operation” to reunite Ukraine with Russia, when Bogdan Khmelnitsky’s Cossack uprising split the "Ukrainian" borderlands from the Kingdom of Poland, subjugating them to Tsar Alexei of Moscow, the second Tsar of the Romanov dynasty.
The metropolitan notes that "13 years of fighting were necessary," alluding to the need to see the end of the current war, however many years it might take. Today, for the metropolitan, "the blood of brothers not only divides, but also unites – perhaps not immediately, but we will get there; time heals everything.”
After the solemn liturgy in the Kremlin's Dormition Cathedral, the Patriarch and all the metropolitans led a solemn procession, carrying the relics and icon of Holy Prince Vladimir, to Borovitskaya Square, where the monument to the Baptiser, erected in 2016, stands. The monument also features the tsarist hat, the Tatar-style Monomakh's Cap (shapka Monomakha, шапка Мономаха), which the tsars only adopted in the 16th century with the coronation of Ivan the Terrible.
This also highlights the overlapping of historical figures in the Russian world, where dates are not what counts, but their contemporary interpretations.
The celebratory litany included a prayer “for our country, guarded by God, and for its President Vladimir Vladimirovich, the authorities, and the victorious army, that we may live in peace and the purity of faith.”
The Baptism is an event that is renewed in spirituality and above all in the reconstruction of a unitary world, which for Russians truly characterises the political-religious dimension, being the only country in the world in which the sacrament becomes the foundation of the state, and the projection of a universal empire.
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03/09/2011
09/12/2021 09:33
