Appeal of Patriarch Hermogenes to the Russian people. Hieromartyr Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'

At the Gostinodvorsky Church in the name of St. Nicholas. According to contemporaries, the priest Ermolai even then was “a man highly adorned with wisdom, elegant in book teaching and renowned for the purity of his life.”

Kazan Metropolitan

Possessing an extraordinary literary talent, the saint himself composed a legend in the year about the appearance of the miraculous icon and the miracles performed by it.

Patriarchate

Metropolitan Ermogen was elected to the primatial see, and on July 3 of the year he was elevated to the Patriarchal throne by the Council of Saints in the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. Metropolitan Isidore presented the Patriarch with the staff of St. Peter, the Moscow Wonderworker, and the Tsar presented the new Patriarch with a panagia decorated with precious stones, a white hood and a staff. According to the ancient rite, Patriarch Ermogen made the procession on a donkey. At this time he was over 70 years old.

Having become a patriarch, he did not at first play a prominent role in state affairs, thanks to the disagreements that soon arose between him and Tsar Vasily, who aroused little sympathy in Hermogenes, adamant in his convictions, direct and decisive in his actions. With the deposition of Shuisky, the most important period of the Saint’s activity began, which now coincided in its goals with the aspirations of the majority of the Russian people.

In the era of severe turmoil, when “vacillation” gripped the majority of Moscow government officials and they, forgetting about the state, sought first of all personal gain, Saint Hermogen was one of the few people among the central government who retained their convictions and firmly put them into practice. When the candidacy of Prince Vladislav was put forward, St. Ermogen agreed to it only on the condition that Vladislav accepted the Orthodox faith and he himself wrote about this to King Sigismund. Anticipating, however, that the king had other plans, the Patriarch behaved very hostile towards the Poles; protested against the entry of the Polish army into Moscow, and even after the boyars allowed Hetman Zholkiewski in, he treated him and Gonsevski, who replaced him, very coldly.

The Church activity of the High Hierarch is characterized by an attentive and strict attitude towards divine services. Under him, the following were published: the Gospel, Menaion Monthly: September, October, November and the first 20 days of December, and also the “Great Church Charter” was published in the year. At the same time, Saint Hermogenes did not limit himself to blessing the publication of books, but carefully monitored the correctness of the texts. With the blessing of Saint Hermogenes, the service to the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called was translated from Greek into Russian and the celebration of his memory was restored in the Assumption Cathedral. Under the supervision of the High Hierarch, new presses were made for printing liturgical books and a new printing house was built, which was damaged during the fire of the year when Moscow was set on fire by the Poles.

Possessing an outstanding mind, Saint Hermogen worked a lot in monastery libraries, primarily in the rich library of the Moscow Miracle Monastery, where he copied the most valuable historical information from ancient manuscripts, which formed the basis of chronicle records. In the writings of the Primate of the Russian Church and his archpastoral letters there are constantly references to the Holy Scriptures and examples taken from history, which testifies to a deep knowledge of the Word of God and erudition in the church literature of that time. With this erudition, Patriarch Hermogenes combined his outstanding abilities as a preacher and teacher.

Concerned about the observance of the liturgical rite, Saint Hermogen composed a “Message of discipline to all people, especially priests and deacons, on the correction of church singing.” The “Message” denounces the clergy for the unregulated performance of church services - polyphony, and the laity - for lack of reverence during divine services.

Troparion

The first throne of the Russian land / and the vigilant prayer book for it to God! / You laid down your soul for the faith of Christ and your flock, / you established the power of our kings / you delivered our country from wickedness. / We also cry out to you: / save us with your prayers, Hieromartyr Hermogenes, our father.

Troparion to Glorification

The day of a bright triumph has arrived, / the city of Moscow rejoices, / and with it Orthodox Rus' rejoices / with spiritual songs and songs: / today is a sacred triumph / in the manifestation of the honest and multi-healing relics / of the saint and wonderworker Hermogenes, / like the unsetting sun rising with radiant rays, / dispelling the darkness of temptations and troubles / from those who cry out truly: / save us, as our representative, the great Hermogenes.

Proceedings

“The Legend of the Appearance of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and the miraculous healings that took place from it”;
“The message of punishment is to all people, especially to the priest and deacon about the correction of church singing.”

Used materials

Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron.

Hieromartyr Ermogen, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', came from the Don Cossacks. According to the testimony of the Patriarch himself, he was initially a priest in the city of Kazan at the Gostinodvorsky Church in the name of St. Nicholas. He soon became a monk and from 1582 was the archimandrite of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery in Kazan. On May 13, 1589, he was consecrated bishop and became the first Metropolitan of Kazan.

During the service of the future Patriarch in Kazan, the appearance and discovery of the miraculous Kazan Icon of the Mother of God took place in 1579. While still a priest, he, with the blessing of the then Kazan bishop Jeremiah, transferred the newly appeared icon from the place of its discovery to the church in the name of St. Nicholas. Possessing an extraordinary literary talent, the saint himself composed in 1594 a legend about the appearance of the miraculous icon and the miracles performed by it. In the legend, he humbly writes about himself: “I then... although I was stony-hearted, I nevertheless shed tears and fell to the image of the Mother of God, and to the miraculous icon, and to the Eternal Child, the Savior Christ... And at the command of the Archbishop, I went with the other holy crosses I took the icon to the nearby church of St. Nicholas, who is called Tula...” In 1591, the saint gathered newly baptized Tatars to the cathedral and for several days instructed them in the Christian faith.

On January 9, 1592, Saint Hermogen sent a letter to Patriarch Job, in which he reported that in Kazan there was no special commemoration of the Orthodox soldiers who laid down their lives for the faith and Fatherland near Kazan, and asked to establish a specific day of remembrance of the soldiers. In response to Saint Hermogenes, the Patriarch sent a decree dated February 25, which ordered “for all Orthodox soldiers killed near Kazan and within Kazan, to perform a memorial service in Kazan and throughout the Kazan Metropolis and the Sabbath day after the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos and to include them in the great synodik, read on the Sunday of Orthodoxy.” Saint Hermogen showed zeal for the faith and firmness in observing church traditions, and cared about enlightening the Kazan Tatars with the faith of Christ.

In 1595, with the active participation of the saint, the discovery and discovery of the relics of the Kazan miracle workers took place: Saints Guria, the first Archbishop of Kazan and Barsanuphius, Bishop of Tver. Tsar Theodore Ioannovich (1584-1598) ordered the construction of a new stone church in the Kazan Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery on the site of the previous one, where the saints were buried. When the coffins of the saints were found, Saint Hermogenes came with a council of clergy, ordered the coffins to be opened and, seeing the incorrupt relics and clothes of the saints, informed the Patriarch and the Tsar. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Job (1605) and by order of the king, the relics of the newly-minted miracle workers were placed in the new church. Saint Hermogen himself compiled the lives of Saints Gurias and Barsanuphius, bishops of Kazan.

For his outstanding archpastoral works, Metropolitan Hermogenes was elected to the primatial see, and on July 3, 1606, he was elevated by the Council of Saints to the Patriarchal throne in the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. Metropolitan Isidore presented His Holiness Patriarch Hermogenes with the staff of St. Peter, the Moscow Wonderworker (December 21, 1326), and the Tsar presented the new Patriarch with a panagia decorated with precious stones, a white hood and a staff. According to the ancient rite, His Holiness Patriarch Ermogen made a procession on a donkey around the walls of the Kremlin.

The activities of Patriarch Hermogen coincided with a difficult period for the Russian state - the invasion of the impostor False Dmitry and the Polish king Sigismund III. Patriarch Ermogen was not alone in this feat: he was imitated and helped by selfless Russian people. With special inspiration, His Holiness the Patriarch opposed the traitors and enemies of the Fatherland who wanted to enslave the Russian people, introduce Uniateism and Catholicism in Russia, and eradicate Orthodoxy. When the impostor approached Moscow and settled in Tushino, Patriarch Ermogen sent two messages to the rebellious traitors. In one of them he wrote: “...You forgot the vows of our Orthodox faith, in which we were born, baptized, raised and grew up, transgressed the kiss of the cross and the oath to stand until death for the House of the Most Holy Theotokos and for the Moscow state and fell to your falsely imaginary to the Tsar... My soul hurts, my heart hurts, and all my insides are tormented, all my limbs are shaking; I cry and cry out with sobs: have mercy, have mercy, brothers and children, your souls and your parents, departed and living... Look how our fatherland is being plundered and ruined by strangers, how holy icons and churches are being desecrated, how the blood of innocents is being shed, crying out to God. Remember against whom you take up arms: is it not God who created you? not on your brothers? Are you ruining your Fatherland?... I conjure you in the Name of God, leave your undertaking while there is time, so as not to perish to the end.”

In another letter, the High Hierarch urged: “...For God’s sake, know yourself and be converted, bring joy to your parents, wives and children, and all of us; and let us pray to God for you”...

Soon, God's righteous judgment was carried out on the Tushinsky thief: he suffered the same sad and inglorious fate as his predecessor; he was killed by his own confidants on December 11, 1610. But Moscow continued to remain in danger, since there were Poles and traitorous boyars loyal to Sigismund III in it. Letters sent by Patriarch Hermogenes to cities and villages excited the Russian people to liberate Moscow from their enemies and elect a legitimate Russian Tsar. Muscovites started an uprising, in response to which the Poles set the city on fire and took refuge in the Kremlin. Together with Russian traitors, they forcibly removed the holy Patriarch Hermogenes from the Patriarchal throne and placed him in custody in the Chudov Monastery. On Easter Monday 1611, the Russian militia approached Moscow and began a siege of the Kremlin that lasted several months. The Poles besieged in the Kremlin more than once sent envoys to the Patriarch demanding that he order the Russian militias to move away from the city, threatening him with the death penalty. The saint answered firmly: “Why are you threatening me? I fear only God. If all of you, Lithuanian people, leave the Moscow state, I will bless the Russian militia to leave Moscow, but if you stay here, I will bless everyone to stand against you and die for the Orthodox Faith.” Already from prison, the holy martyr Hermogenes addressed his last message to the Russian people, blessing the liberation war against the conquerors. But the Russian governors did not show unanimity and coherence at that time, so they could not take the Kremlin and free their High Hierarch. He languished in severe captivity for more than nine months and on February 17, 1612 he died a martyr’s death from hunger.

The liberation of Russia, for which Saint Hermogen stood with such indestructible courage, was successfully completed through his intercession by the Russian people. The body of the holy martyr Hermogenes was buried in the Chudov Monastery, and in 1654 it was transferred to the Moscow Assumption Cathedral.

Sources:
Menaion, March. M., 1996.
Patriarch Hermogenes, Series “Moscow Saints”. M., 1996.
Prot. Lev Lebedev. Patriarch Hermogenes in the book. Patriarchs of Moscow.
Mit. Macarius. History of the Russian Church, vol. VI., part 1, part III. Patriarch Hermogenes. M., 1996.

Blessed be the Lord my God,
train my hands to take up arms,
and my fingers are in battle.

Kathisma 20th, Psalm 143

400 years since liberation

In November 2012, the big anniversary of the liberation of Moscow from the Polish-Lithuanian occupiers took place. 400 years ago is a more than significant date. Despite the fact that the day itself (according to the secular calendar, November 4th is “Day of National Unity”) passed across the country without any special honors or celebrations, solemn services were held in Orthodox churches, processions of the Cross were held for the glory of God and our God-saved Fatherland. The Russian March took place in many cities as a national-volitional act of Russian people now living in Russia.

The main merit in the liberation of Moscow from the Poles (or, as they said then, from the Poles) belongs to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Hermogenes, who addressed an appeal to the Russian people in order to convene a militia. To his holy prayers, his chief pastoral blessing and, finally, to his martyrdom for the faith and the Fatherland, we owe our life, our faith, the fact that Holy Rus' was liberated from mistrust (in the words of N.V. Gogol), and, thereby, history it didn't stop.

“Look how our Fatherland is plundered and ruined by strangers, how holy icons and churches are desecrated, how the blood of innocents is shed, crying out to God. Remember against whom you are taking up arms: is it not against God, who created you, or against your brothers?.. Are you destroying your own fatherland?..” These words, spoken back in 1609, belong to Saint Hermogenes. In his letter to those who fell away from the king, Patriarch Hermogenes calls betrayal of the lawful king a betrayal of faith and apostasy from God.

The beginning of service to the Motherland

A great mourner for the Russian Land, Patriarch Hermogenes came from the Don Cossacks and was born in one of the Don villages (according to other sources, his ancestors were the Golitsyn princes).

According to legend, at holy baptism the baby was given the name Ermolai. As a teenager, he went to Kazan and became a cleric at the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. Here the youth Ermolai, under the guidance of Elder Barsanuphius, studied and strengthened in faith and piety. Over the years, Ermolai was ordained to the priesthood and assigned to the Church of St. Nicholas.

At this time (July 8/21, 1579), the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God appeared. The Mother of God appeared in a dream to the nine-year-old daughter of the archer Onuchin, Matryona, and ordered her to announce to Archbishop Jeremiah and the city authorities that on the site of the burnt house of the Onuchins, an icon of Her was hidden in the ground. The girl fulfilled the command. Residents rushed in crowds to the sacred place. Archbishop Jeremiah and the clergy made a procession of the cross, picked up the revealed icon and ordered it to be carried to the nearest church of St. Nicholas.
The icon was carried by the Nikolsky priest, the future Patriarch Hermogenes, who was crying with emotion.

Soon Father Ermolai lost his wife and took monastic vows with the name Hermogenes. The new monk was distinguished by his piety and knew the Holy Scriptures, the works of the holy fathers and church history well. Tsar Theodore Ioannovich, the son of Ivan the Terrible, elevated him to the rank of Metropolitan of Kazan.

In Kazan, Bishop Hermogenes worked diligently, instilling the Orthodox faith among the punished Tatars and glorifying the Russian name. The people revered him very much as a great faster and a man of ascetic life. But Kazan was only the beginning of the saint’s unforgettable service to the Russian Land.

Disaster

At this time, Rus' suffered a terrible disaster.

In 1598, with the death of Tsar Theodore (son of Ivan the Terrible), the ruling house of Rurik over Russia ceased. Boris Godunov, elected by the Zemsky Sobor, ascended the throne. The youngest son of Grozny, Tsarevich Dimitri, during the life of Tsar Theodore, was stabbed to death in Uglich (May 15/28, 1591). People said that the killers were sent by the queen's brother, Boris Godunov.

After the death of Theodore, Godunov reigned quietly for several years. But then the famine years and widespread disease began. Tsar Boris tried to win over the people - he fed the poor, gave work to the unemployed - but the people did not calm down. Troubles began. The first impostor appeared, who took upon himself the name of the murdered Tsarevich Dimitri. Who this person was is not known to this day (according to Karamzin, it was Grishka Otrepiev). But he declared himself the son of Ivan the Terrible and claimed that a fake baby was stabbed to death in Uglich, and he, the true prince, was allegedly hidden from the murderers and saved.

This one, calling himself Dimitri, showed up in Poland. The Polish king took the opportunity to cause harm to the Moscow state that he hated: he promised the impostor every assistance and gave him a detachment of troops.

And so, in August 1604, False Dmitry crossed the Dnieper and entered Russian borders. The impostor defeated the royal army. Godunov's situation became desperate. On April 29, 1605, he died suddenly.

The impostor reached Moscow without hindrance and... was crowned king. The new tsar surrounded himself with Poles, showed disdain for Russian customs, did not go to church services, and did not observe fasts. The Orthodox faith seemed completely alien to him. Since Patriarch Job clearly did not sympathize with the imaginary king, the one who called himself Demetrius deprived the elder of his patriarchal power, sent him into captivity in the town of Staritsa and installed Ignatius as patriarch.

Meanwhile, Polish woman Marina Mniszek, whom the impostor had previously planned to marry, arrived in Moscow. The Russians made it clear to False Dmitry that Maria Mnishek should convert to Orthodoxy. Kazan Metropolitan Hermogenes spoke on behalf of the Council of Bishops.

It is not proper, said the saint, for an Orthodox king to take an unbaptized woman and bring her into the holy church. Don’t do this, king: none of the previous kings did this, but you want to do it.

The impostor ordered Hermogenes to be deprived of his dignity and sent to prison in Kazan. However, punishment did not befall the strong-spirited saint. On the morning of May 17, 1606, when the said Tsar Dimitri was still sleeping, Prince Vasily Shuisky, with a sword and cross in his hands, rode on horseback into the Kremlin, through the Spassky Gate. The alarm sounded from the bell towers. Muscovites flocked to the Kremlin in droves. False Demetrius was thrown out of the window and immediately killed. They stabbed him, then burned him and, as A.S. Pushkin narrates in the historical story “The Captain's Daughter,” they loaded a cannon with his ashes and fired them out. Well, truly “The death of a sinner is cruel” (Psalm 33:22).

Maria Mnishek managed to escape.

Hermogenes - patriarch

Three days after the death of the impostor, the boyars and Moscow people gathered at Lobnoye Mesto, near the Kremlin walls, and proclaimed Prince Vasily Ioannovich Shuisky king, who had rid the Moscow state of the first False Dmitry.

Tsar Vasily convened a spiritual council and proposed electing Metropolitan Hermogenes as All-Russian Patriarch. The impostor's protege, Ignatius was deposed. And so, on June 3, 1606, the archpastors elevated the Kazan saint to the patriarchal rank. Meanwhile, the turmoil did not stop. A rumor spread again that the one who called himself Tsar Demetrius did not die on May 17, but fled from Moscow and was alive; someone else jumped out of the window. The dark people were confused. It became even worse than before. Robber gangs appeared. As with the first impostor, Ukraine became worried.

Patriarch Hermogenes ordered the relics of Tsarevich Dimitri to be transferred from Uglich to Moscow, and anathematized the impostor. Many, thank God, came to their senses, but there were also quite a few unreasonable people. The leaders of the rebels were the Putivl governor, Prince Grigory Shakhovskoy, and the slave Ivan Bolotnikov. The entire Northern land has risen. Shakhovsky sent out decrees, attached the stolen royal seal to them, and called on everyone to revolt against Tsar Vasily Shuisky.

At this time, Patriarch Hermogenes raised his voice against the instigators of the troubles. First, to exhort the rebels, he sent the Krutitsa Metropolitan Paphnutius. And when this did not help, he sent letters to the cities. He sent the first letters on November 29 and 30, 1606. The High Hierarch wrote that traitors were spreading rumors that Demetrius was alive. The Patriarch denied these rumors and convinced the people to be faithful to Tsar Vasily Ivanovich. The patriarchal letters had a great influence on the people; people began to come to Moscow from the cities to serve in the royal service. Shuisky equipped an army against Bolotnikov, under the command of his nephew, the young, valiant prince Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuisky. The hero completely defeated Bolotnikov... Serf and Shakhovsky fled to Kaluga and fortified themselves there. Unbridled people gathered around them. The tsar again sent an army, but it was transferred to the side of the rebels, who moved from Kaluga to Tula. At the same time, a new impostor appeared in the city of Starodub - False Dmitry the second, just like the first, a man of unknown origin (according to one version, a baptized Jew Bogdanko).

Patriarch Hermogenes cursed Bolotnikov and his associates, and advised the tsar to march with an army against the Tula villains in order to prevent them from uniting with the impostor. At the same time, the saint sent letters throughout the state, notifying about the campaign and indicating who the traitors to the Motherland were. Shuisky sent forward his valiant nephew Skopin-Shuisky with a detachment. It was the autumn of 1607. Skopin won again. The king arrived in time and besieged Tula. Tula residents begged for forgiveness. Bolotnikov and Shakhovskaya were captured. The Tsar triumphantly returned to Moscow.

The impostor, having spent the winter in Polesie, moved in the spring to Moscow, with his own and Polish gangs. In May 1608, a battle took place near Bolkhov between his and the royal troops. The impostor won and moved on without hindrance. By the beginning of June, he was in the village of Tushino (very close to Moscow), which is why he received the nickname “Tushinsky thief.” In the fall, the Polish commander Sapega came with seven thousand Poles; Marina Mnishek also arrived with him, whom Sapieha intercepted on her way to Poland. Without thinking twice, Marina recognized the Tushino thief as her husband and remained in Tushino.

Siege of the Trinity Lavra

Not daring to take Moscow by storm, the Tushins laid siege to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where there were a lot of rich utensils, expensive vestments and pearls. All these were offerings from pious kings, princes, boyars and other pilgrims. The villains decided to take possession of the wealth of the monastery. 30 thousand Poles surrounded the monastery and began to make tunnels. The Tsar sent, to help the monks and monastery peasants, a detachment of archers with the governors Golokhvostov and Dolgoruky, and sent his nephew Skopin-Shuisky to the Swedish king to hire 15 thousand Swedish warriors to fight the seditious Poles and the Tushino thief. From September 23, 1608, over a period of sixteen months, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra withstood the siege, although there were monks and archers ten times less than the Poles. The besieged suffered hunger, but did not give up. Day and night services were held in churches; Some monks prayed, others fought, poured boiling water and hot tar from the walls on their enemies, and went on forays. It was hard for them; diseases developed from hunger.

However, Moscow residents did not experience the best situation either. The Poles and Tushins scoured around the capital and did not allow traders to enter it. In Moscow, the cost of all food supplies has become terribly expensive. Discontent against Shuisky among the people grew. Prince Roman Gagarin, Grigory Sumbulov and Timofey Gryaznoy, on February 17, 1609, gathered a crowd of brawlers, came to the Kremlin, and began to call Patriarch Hermogenes to the Place of Execution. The saint refused. He was grabbed and forcibly taken away. In the square, the patriarch asked the crowd what they needed. The leaders shouted:

Shuisky secretly beats and drowns our brethren, nobles and boyar children, and secretly exterminates their wives and children, and there are already about two thousand of these beaten! And now they took our brothers to drown them.
Patriarch Hermogenes looked sternly at the rebels and calmly asked them a question:
- How could it happen that we knew nothing? At what time and who exactly died?
- Yes, and now they take it! - shouted from the crowd.
- But who was taken? - the patriarch asked again.
“We’ve already sent them to move them, you’ll see!” - the leaders shouted.

The Patriarch reproached them for lies and slander. One of the rebels stepped forward and began to loudly read the letter written in Tushino by the thief. It was said here that “Prince Vasily Shuisky was chosen for the kingdom by Moscow alone, but other cities do not know this, and we do not like Prince Vasily Shuisky; because of him blood is shed and the earth is not pacified; Why should we choose another king in his place?

The Patriarch responded to this:

Until now, neither Novgorod, nor Kazan, nor Astrakhan, nor Pskov, nor any cities were indicated to Moscow, but Moscow indicated to all cities. The Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich of all Russia is beloved, chosen and appointed by God and all the Russian authorities, and the Moscow boyars, and you nobles, all sorts of people of all ranks, and all Orthodox Christians, and from all the cities at his royal election and installation they were in At that time there were many people, and the whole earth kissed his cross, so that he, the sovereign, could want good, but could not even think of evil. And you, having forgotten the kiss of the cross, a few people rebelled against the king, you want to bring him down from the kingdom without guilt, but the world does not want this, and does not know, and you and I will not come to that council. But what if blood is shed and the earth is not pacified, then this is done by the will of God, and not by the royal will.

After these words, the patriarch left the Place of Execution to his chambers. The words of the saint had a tremendous influence on the crowd. Screams were heard:

The unrest against the king is being done at the instigation of the Lithuanian people! The traitors want to hand over Moscow to the Tushino thief!

The rebels were ashamed and went home.

To reassure the people, the patriarch again sends out letters. He wrote to those who had fallen away from the king that he considered betrayal of the lawful king to be a betrayal of faith and a departure from God.

“Look,” the saint writes, “how our Fatherland is being plundered and ruined by strangers, how holy icons and churches are being desecrated, how the blood of the innocent is shed, crying out to God. Remember against whom you are taking up arms: not against God, who created you, not against your brothers?.. Are you destroying your Fatherland?.. We do not write this word to everyone, but to those who, having forgotten the hour of death and the Terrible The Judgment of Christ and having broken the kiss of the cross, they drove away and betrayed the Tsar Vasily Ivanovich, and the whole earth, and their parents, and their wives, and children, and all their neighbors, and especially God.”

In August of the same 1609, the Polish king declared war on Moscow. Sigismund saw how the turmoil was corroding the Russian land, and decided to conquer Muscovy. He ordered the Poles who were near the Tushino thief to join the royal troops that besieged Smolensk. The Poles abandoned the thief, and he rode off on horseback to Kaluga at night. But the siege of the Trinity Lavra still continued. Only in January of the following 1610 did the Poles flee from the holy monastery, learning about the approach of the glorious Russian knight Skopin-Shuisky with the mercenary Swedish army.

The roads near Moscow have cleared. Carts with bread and provisions again reached the capital. Moscow has come to life. Muscovites met their savior with great honor. People began to say that it would be good if everyone’s beloved young prince Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky became Tsar.

These speeches reached Tsar Vasily and his brothers. One of them, Dimitry Shuisky, arranged a feast to which he invited Skopin. This was in April 1610. The hostess, Dimitri's wife, daughter of Malyuta Skuratov, presented Skopin with a cup of poisoned wine. The national hero fell ill and died.

The grief and indignation of the people was great. Everyone hated the Shuiskys. The people were convinced that the hero was poisoned on the orders of Tsar Vasily. The sad news of the death of the savior of the Trinity Lavra and Moscow spread throughout the land. Soon, on June 24, 1610, near the village of Klushina, the Polish hetman Zholkiewski completely defeated the tsarist troops, commanded by Dmitry Shuisky. Again they approached Moscow: along the Serpukhov and Kolomenskaya roads - the Tushino thief, and along Mozhaiskaya - Hetman Zholkiewsky with the Poles. Then the Muscovites deprived Vasily Ivanovich of the throne and a little later, on July 19, forced him to become a monk.

Patriarch Hermogenes tried to keep the boyars and people from lawlessness. He cried and begged them, defending Shuisky. But this time the boyars prevailed.

Great Devastation

“My soul hurts, my heart hurts, and all my insides are tormented...
I cry and cry out with sobs: have mercy, brothers and children, have mercy on your souls...
Look how our Fatherland is being plundered and ruined by strangers!”

After the overthrow of Vasily Shuisky from the throne, power passed to the Boyar Duma, where Prince Theodore Mstislavsky presided. People gathered in the streets and discussed who should be elected Tsar. There was no agreement between the boyars and nobles. The first of the boyars, Mstislavsky, stood for the election of the Polish prince Vladislav; others wanted Prince Vasily Golitsyn. Patriarch Hermogenes also voted for him. “What do you expect from the Poles, if not the final ruin of the kingdom and the Orthodox faith? - Patriarch Hermogenes said reproachfully to the boyars. “Isn’t it possible to elect one of the Russian princes to the kingdom?”

And here the Patriarch pointed to the ancient boyar family of the Romanovs. Of the Romanov brothers beloved by the people, Ivan Nikitich could be elected Tsar. But it was not Patriarch Hermogenes who named him, but young Mikhail Feodorovich, whose father, tonsured a monk by order of Boris Godunov with the name Philaret, was now Metropolitan of Rostov. But the boyars supported Mstislavsky. The Patriarch was forced to yield, but said: “If the prince is baptized and is in the Orthodox faith, then I bless you. If he does not leave the Latin heresy, then the Orthodox faith will be violated throughout the entire Moscow state, and let our blessing not be on you, and we will also impose an oath on you.”

The boyars sent elected officials to the Patriarch with a request to bless the agreement they had concluded with Zolkiewski regarding the invitation to the prince Vladislav to the throne. The saint was in the Assumption Cathedral when the electors came to him.

“If there is no guile in your intention,” he answered them, “and you do not think of violating the Orthodox faith and bringing the Moscow state into ruin, then the blessing of the entire council of four Patriarchs and our humility will rest on you, otherwise let the oath fall on you from all four Orthodox Patriarchs and from our humility, and you will be deprived of the mercy of God and the Most Holy Theotokos and will accept vengeance from God along with heretics and apostates.”

The boyars hastened to inform Zholkiewski, who was stationed near Moscow, about everything. The oath to Prince Vladislav began. The Tushino thief fled to Kaluga, where he was soon shot by the baptized Tatar Prince Urusov.

For several days in a row, Moscow residents took an oath to the Polish prince. Letters were sent to all cities so that they could take the oath there too. Mstislavsky and his comrades rejoiced. But Patriarch Hermogenes was mournful. The wise saint foresaw that the election of a Polish prince as Tsar would not lead to good. The elder “cryed in front of all the people and asked to pray to God that He would raise up a Russian Tsar.”

It soon became clear that His Holiness Hermogenes did not grieve in vain.

"Deception" of Sigismund

The boyars equipped a large embassy and sent it near Smolensk, to the Polish king Sigismund. The main ambassadors: Metropolitan Philaret (Romanov), Prince Vasily Golitsyn and Prince Daniil Mezetsky were given orders to ask the king to release the prince to Moscow as king, but so that Vladislav would first convert to the Orthodox faith, not maintain relations with the Pope, and when gets married, then take the bride from some Russian, boyar family.

Patriarch Hermogenes taught the ambassadors: “Do not be seduced by any of the charms of the world and agree to accept Vladislav in no other way than if he is baptized with Orthodox baptism, otherwise they will stand strong for the faith and endure suffering unshakably.” The saint wrote two letters: one to the king, and the other to the prince. He begged the king to let his son convert to Orthodoxy, and the prince to accept Orthodoxy. And again, turning to the ambassadors, he fervently asked them to preserve their faith. “You, like martyrs who want to suffer,” said the Patriarch, “do not spare your life even to death: for such deeds you will receive the crowns of the kingdom of heaven.” “It is better to die for the Orthodox Christian faith than to do anything shameful!” - answered Filaret.

The Patriarch blessed the ambassadors:

Go, God be with you and the Most Pure Mother of God, and the great miracle workers, our intercessors and guardians - Peter and Alexy, Jonah and Sergius, and Demetrius, the newly-suffering noble Tsarevich.

On September 11, the embassy left Moscow. The king greeted the ambassadors extremely unfriendly. They were placed in summer tents on the banks of the Dnieper. During the reception, Princes Golitsyn and Mezetsky and Metropolitan Philaret expressed everything that was entrusted to them. And then the “deception” of the Polish king was revealed. It turned out that Sigismund himself wanted to reign in Rus', and the prince was exhibited only as a diversion. The prince, according to Sigismund, is young: where can he manage?.. When he gets older, then he can take the throne of the Moscow Tsars, but for now the father himself will reign.

The ambassadors notified Moscow about the king’s “deception.”

Zholkiewski began to negotiate with the boyars about letting Polish troops into Moscow to protect the capital from the gangs of the Tushino thief. The high priest opposed this. “Your job, His Holiness,” one of the boyars told him, “is to look after church affairs, but you should not interfere in worldly affairs. From time immemorial, it has been the case that it is not the priests who rule the state.” Supporters of the Patriarch began to be imprisoned and subjected to all kinds of persecution.

The Poles occupied Moscow. Hetman Zholkiewski autocratically managed all affairs in the capital. Knowing the influence of the Patriarch on the people, he tried to attract the Saint to his side, but to no avail: His Holiness Hermogenes understood perfectly well who the enemies of the Russian land were.

Meanwhile, Zolkiewski realized that Sigismund, in seeking the Moscow throne, had started a dangerous game that could end sadly for the Poles. The hetman saw how the Russians hated the oppressors: market traders even refused to sell goods to the Poles. “If there is a riot, the Muscovites will kill all of us,” Zolkiewski reasoned, and in order to avoid getting into trouble, in mid-October he went to the king, transferring power over Moscow and the Polish garrison to Pan Gonsevski. Gonsevsky began to vigorously advocate for his king. He was diligently helped by the boyar Mikhailo Saltykov and the small tanner Fedka Andronov, who surrendered to the Poles for money.

Patriarch Hermogenes alone remained faithful to the Orthodox faith and truth. The people turned their last hopes to the strong-willed and straightforward saint. If the Patriarch does not help to overcome the great devastation, the Russian people reasoned, then it means there is no one to expect good from. Patriarch Hermogenes said that there is no other outcome as soon as gather a national militia, which will liberate Moscow and the entire state from the Poles, and then elect a Tsar. The people agreed with the Patriarch. The saint began to write letters, calling on Russian cities to take up arms to deliver holy Rus' from troubles.

The sufferings of Patriarch Hermogenes

Now the saint openly rebelled against the Poles and with his appeals, imbued with fiery love for the Motherland, encouraged and strengthened the Russian people. Mstislavsky, Saltykov, Andronov and others, seeing that militias were gathering in the cities, on December 5 came to Patriarch Hermogenes and began to ask him: “Bless, Holy Master, the people for the oath to King Sigismund, and sign these letters: they say, Russian people in They all rely on his royal will and are ready to obey him unquestioningly. And another letter to our Smolensk ambassadors, so that they do not contradict the king in anything. Whatever he wants, so be it.”

“I agree,” answered the Patriarch, “to write to the king, but not about that and not like that. If the king gives his son to the Moscow state and Vladislav is baptized into the Orthodox faith and leads all Polish people out of Moscow, then I will put my hand to such a letter and will order the other authorities to do the same. And to write as you write, that we should all rely on the royal will and command the Moscow ambassadors to do the same, then this, of course, means that we should kiss the cross to the king himself, and not to the prince; Neither I nor other authorities will write such letters and we do not command you. If you do not listen to me, then I will place an oath on you and curse everyone who adheres to your advice. I will write to the citizens who have risen to defend the Fatherland: if the prince accepts the same faith with us and reigns, then I command and bless you to remain firmly in obedience to him; If he reigns and does not accept the same faith with us and does not lead the Polish people out of the city, then I bless all those people who have already kissed his cross to go to Moscow and suffer for their faith to death.”

In response to the words of Vladyka, Mikhailo Saltykov shouted: “I will kill you!” The madman grabbed a knife from his belt and swung it at the saint. Patriarch Hermogenes crossed him and calmly said: “I am not afraid of your knife, but I arm myself with the power of the Cross of Christ against your boldness. May you be cursed from our humility in this age and in the future.”

Saltykov fell at the feet of the saint and asked him for forgiveness. Hermogenes forgave him, and said to Mstislavsky: “Your beginning, sir. You are the greatest honor above all; it is fitting for you to strive and suffer for the Orthodox faith; and if you are deceived, like others, then soon God will end your life, your entire root will be destroyed, and no one will remain on earth from your family.” With that, the traitors left the Patriarch.

Meanwhile, militias began to emerge from the cities. Up to one hundred thousand defenders of the Fatherland gathered in Moscow under the command of the Ryazan governor Prokopiy Lyapunov. The Kaluga residents marched under the command of Prince Dmitry Trubetskoy. Ataman Zarutsky and the Cossacks joined them. The mass of militiamen who went “to die for the holy churches of God and for the Christian faith” terrified the villains. The Polish leader Gonsevsky came to His Holiness Hermogenes and rudely said: “You are the first instigator of treason and all the indignation. According to your letter, the military men are going to Moscow!.. Write to them now so that they leave, otherwise we will order you to be put to death by an evil death.”

“Why are you threatening me? - the Patriarch answered fearlessly. “I fear the One God.” You promise me an evil death, and I hope to receive a crown through it. Leave all of you, Polish people, from the Moscow state, and then I will bless everyone to move away. And if you stay, it’s my blessing: everyone will stand and die for the Orthodox faith!”

Saltykov arrived for Gonsevsky and began to demand the same thing as Gonsevsky. Saint Hermogenes answered: “If you and all the traitors and Poles with you leave Moscow, then I will write for the militias to return, and then everything will be pacified... I bless all worthy Christian leaders to quench the sorrow of the Church and the Fatherland!”

At the same time, ambassadors from cities came to the Patriarch. The saint strengthened them in their love for the Fatherland and persuaded them to stand firmly for the Motherland and the true faith. The Russian land now did not want to listen to anyone except its high priest. Rus' gathered its strength and became terrible to uninvited guests. Who gave courage to the frightened Russian people and called them to fight against numerous villains? Great Elder, Patriarch Hermogenes!

He sent letters to all cities, openly called on the people to arm themselves against the Poles, allowed Vladislav to take the oath, and urged everyone to gather and move towards Moscow. Even before these letters, the Poles assigned guards to the Patriarch. Now they kept the high priest of the Russian Church under strict supervision. Only occasionally did the Patriarch manage to talk, more or less freely, with the Russian people, who came to Moscow from all sides to receive a blessing from the great sad man of their native country. “I can’t write,” the saint said in such cases, “the Poles took everything, and they plundered my yard. And you, remembering God and the Most Pure Mother of God, and the Moscow miracle workers, stand together against your enemies.”

The Russian people spread the words of the Patriarch throughout the land. The people were inflamed in spirit and made a firm determination to sacrifice everything for their Motherland. In many places, residents kissed the cross to stand for Moscow and go against the Poles. Cities began to send letters to each other calling on them to rise up to save their native land. “And we, with the blessing and by order of His Holiness Hermogenes,” said one of these letters, “have gathered with all the people from Nizhny (Novgorod) and with roundabout people we are going to Moscow.”

“The First See of the Apostolic Church, His Holiness Hermogenes the Patriarch,” wrote the Muscovites, “unquestionably lays down his soul for the Christian faith, and all Orthodox Christians follow him.”

Martyr for his native land

The militias, moving from various parts of the Russian land under the leadership of Lyapunov, Trubetskoy and Zarutsky, approached Moscow. Soon, in April 1611, about 100,000 militia gathered here. Fearing popular outrage, Gonsevsky released Hermogenes for one day - on Palm Sunday - to perform the ritual of procession on a donkey.

Gonsevsky and the Russian traitors once again decided to influence the elder Patriarch. “If you don’t write to Lyapunov and his comrades so that they go away, you yourself will die an evil death,” they threatened. “You promise me an evil death,” the Patriarch calmly answered, “but I hope to receive a crown through it and have long wanted to suffer for the truth. “I will not write to the regiments stationed near Moscow,” the saint added, “I already told you, and you will not hear anything else from me.”

Then the Poles threw the Patriarch into the dungeon of the Chudov Monastery, kept the elder from hand to mouth and declared him deprived of the patriarchal rank.

During Holy Week, the Poles set Moscow on fire, while they locked themselves in the Kremlin. Lyapunov blocked all routes to Moscow. The supply of supplies stopped, and the villains would have died of starvation, and, fortunately for them, there were discords between the militia commanders. The enmity led to the fact that the brave and honest Lyapunov was killed. The militia was upset. At the same time, the Polish king took Smolensk with the help of a traitor, who showed the way to the Poles through the weakly defended Smolensk gates, and the Swedes occupied Novgorod. Moscow was threatened with new troubles. It seemed that the end of the Russian land had come. There was nowhere to expect help.

Ataman Zarutsky tried to enthron the son of Marina Mnishek and the Tushino thief. Then, for the last time, Patriarch Hermogenes raised his authoritative voice from his imprisonment. On August 5, 1611, a certain Sviyazhenian Rodion Moseev entered the Kremlin and secretly made his way to Patriarch Hermogenes. The saint hastily compiled his last letter and sent it to Nizhny Novgorod, where the Russian people especially mourned the suffering that befell their homeland.

In this letter, the great elder sent blessings and permission to all those who rebelled for their homeland in this century and in the future for the fact that they stand firmly for the faith. “And don’t accept Marinka’s son as king: I don’t bless him. Speak my name everywhere!” - the holy elder taught.

The last letter of the suffering patriarch accomplished a great deed. When it was received in Nizhny Novgorod, the local elder Kozma Zakharyevich Minin-Sukhoruky appealed to the people: “Pawn everything, wives and children, spare nothing for the salvation of the Fatherland!” And again a powerful militia grew up. It was compiled all winter in the north, as well as in the Volga region and on the Oka, and in the spring of 1612 it went to Moscow under the command of the valiant governor Prince Pozharsky and the great citizen Minin, and on October 23 of the same year Moscow was liberated from the Poles.

Even during the gathering of the second militia, Gonsevsky came to prison to the suffering Patriarch and demanded that the saint command that the Russian people not gather together and not go to the liberation of Moscow. "No! - Hermogenes said joyfully. “I bless them.” May God’s mercy be upon them, and may the traitors be cursed!”

After this, the Poles began to starve the great old man. The saint died as a martyr on February 17, 1612, having fulfilled to the end his holy duty of devotion to the Orthodox faith and Motherland. Forty years after his death, the body of His Holiness the Patriarch was transferred from the Chudov Monastery to the Kremlin Assumption Cathedral. There, the tomb of the Holy Patriarch Hermogenes is still located, as well as the tomb of Metropolitan Philaret, the parent of Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov.

Let's hasten to save the Fatherland

Four hundred years have passed. From the great devastation, three of the brightest names were preserved in the people's memory: citizen Minin, governor Prince Pozharsky and His Holiness Patriarch Hermogenes. These names are dear to the heart of every Russian Orthodox person. They are inseparable from each other.

Before the revolution of 1917, it was planned to erect a monument in honor of St. Hermogenes on Moscow’s Red Square, but this was prevented by the outbreak of World War I. Then, this place was occupied by a communist “shrine” - Lenin’s mausoleum. By some miracle, a two-figure monument to Minin and Pozharsky survived during the Soviet years. From an almost central place on Red Square, it was moved to the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God (popularly: St. Basil's Cathedral). But historical justice is still being restored, albeit partially.

In 2012, with the blessing and under the leadership of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, at the walls of the Kremlin, in the Alexander Garden, the Ceremony of Consecration of the Foundation Stone took place, on the site that in 2013 will be occupied by the already made monument to St. Hermogenes (the author of the project is: a creative team of sculptors under the leadership People's Artist of Russia S. Shcherbakov). Through the efforts and prayers of Orthodox people, and, in particular, the All-Russian public movement “People's Council” and the Public Fund to promote the installation of a monument to Patriarch Hermogenes, it was possible to bring this holy cause to life. God bless.

The liberation of Russia, for which Saint Hermogenes stood with such indestructible courage, was successfully completed by the Russian people through his intercession. The body of the Hieromartyr Hermogenes was buried with due honor, first in the Chudov Monastery, then, in 1654, his incorruptible relics were transferred to the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

In 1913, the Russian Orthodox Church glorified Patriarch Hermogenes as a saint. And now, in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, there is the tomb of the Patriarch-Martyr with his holy relics. During the hard times of the interregnum, the holy elder healed the weak in spirit, but from the grave he healed the sick physically. He served Russia during his lifetime, and serves it after death, as a prayer book before the Throne of the Most High.

“Let’s hasten to save Moscow and the Fatherland!” - Kozma Minin repeated Hermogenes’ cry, turning to Prince Pozharsky. “Let’s hurry,” answered the prince-voevoda. Moscow and the Fatherland were saved. The cry of the great Patriarch seems to be heard even now. The saint's faith in the great future of his Motherland still strengthens Orthodox Rus' amid all the adversities that have befallen it.

About Russia today

In the steppe covered with mortal dust
A man sat and cried.
And the Creator of the universe walked by.
Stopping, He said:
"I am a friend of the downtrodden and the poor,
I take care of all the poor,
I know many cherished words,
I am your God. I can do everything.
Your sad face saddens me,
What need do you have?
And the man said: “I am Russian.”
And God wept with him.

Nikolay Zinoviev

Yes, great and holy is the feat of Saint Hermogenes. Russia was liberated. But these days, brothers and sisters, we, as sad as it may be to admit, are not free.

The Russian village is on its knees. Over the past 20 years, so-called democratic freedoms and reforms, 23 thousand villages have been destroyed, and another 11 thousand are dying; 17 thousand schools and more than 40 thousand kindergartens were destroyed during the same period. Many of our borders have been cut off. There are a huge number of dummies standing on the border with China (dolls, not border guards). Military camps are being destroyed. The population of Russia is decreasing annually from 2 to 2.5 million. “Natural decline” is how official statistics from the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation cynically refer to the extinction of the Russian people. And she plans to make up for this decline with “migration growth,” i.e., immigrants from other countries... More than 90% of active, religiously seeking, and, moreover, previously baptized in the Orthodox Church, Russian youth are in sects... And they remember words of Taras Bulba: “A vile thing has now begun in our land... They are adopting God knows what Busurman customs; they abhor their tongue!..”. There is no need to talk about whether Orthodox Russian shrines and traditions are revered in the Russian Federation today. The credo of the modern Russian has become the postulate of Satanism of Aleister Crowley: “Man is a star, and therefore: do what you want - this is the law of life”.

Happening today - I’m not afraid of this word - silent genocide over Russia (from the Greek γένος - clan, tribe and lat. caedo - I kill). Our youth today are being corrupted by drugs, alcohol, completely immoral programs and films on TV, computer games where there are mountains of corpses and a sea of blood. The feeling of shame, about which the Russian proverb says - He who has no shame has no conscience, - is destroyed with the help of moral and ethnic relativism. Yes, “freedom is good today.” But, as we know, everything comes to an end. Russian people understand that they are not mankurts, and were never without memory. Today, memory is returning to the Russian people when a powerful information war is waged against us.

Will there be salvation from all this damnation?...

Afterword

"The salvation of Russia will come from the monastery from the monk"- said the great Russian writer F.M. Dostoevsky at one time, seeing the storm of revolutionary bacchanalia approaching over Russia. Commenting on these words, our contemporary, brother of the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville (USA), monk Vsevolod (Filipyev) said:

“These words are clearly prophetic and have already come true historically. Before the revolution in Russia there were thousands of monasteries and thousands of monastics. Where did these monks go after the coup? Some were repressed, some renounced their faith, but the majority “dissolved” in our society, in the world. They lived in villages, baptized children, many were subsequently repressed and ended their lives as martyrdom. Through their prayers, the resurrection of Rus' is now underway. These words also have a spiritual meaning. A monk is a different person, not like everyone else. And one of the most important features of a Christian is non-worldliness. In this sense, all Christians are monks. And they must bring this light of other existence, of another world - the bright world, the world of the Lord - into our world.

Another interpretation of these words was given by the ever-memorable brother Joseph Muñoz. He said: “Russia needs an example of a real monk who completely rejected himself to the world and devoted himself to God.” Such examples have inspired the Orthodox since ancient times: Saints Sergius of Radonezh, Anthony and Theodosius of Kiev-Pechersk... The martyr Joseph himself was secretly tonsured. Without begging for the merits of family life, the Lord showed us the path of ascetic, monastic life, complete devotion to God. That’s why, the more people follow this path, the more Russia will have the opportunity to cleanse itself and repent, which in a spiritual sense will mean the salvation of Russia.”

I would sincerely like to wish all of us, brothers and sisters, God’s help, strength of spirit, good prudence, peace and zeal for God! Through the prayers of the holy martyr Hermogenes. To the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and Russia!

Hieromonk Savva (Kristinin)
Blagoveshchensk.
December 2012

Notes:

Yuri Bogdanovich Otrepiev (“half name” - Grishka Otrepiev) is a former monk, clerk of the Chudov Monastery (in the Moscow Kremlin), at one time he performed secretarial duties under Patriarch Job. The son of the Galich nobleman Bogdan Otrepiev. He was close to the Romanov boyar family and served under Mikhail Nikitich. Around 1601 he fled from the monastery.

The unification of the overwhelming majority of the Russian people into black communities and hundreds made it a well-organized force capable of resisting any enemy. It is not without reason that the Black Hundreds played a huge role in the formation of the people’s militia in 1612 under the leadership of the Black Hundreds Kozma Minin and Prince Pozharsky.

The centuries-old life of the Russian people in the conditions of the community and the Black Hundreds made the Black Hundreds a feature of the national character of the indigenous Russian people, expressing unshakable love for folk traditions, customs and ideals in the 19th century. embodied in the formula “Orthodoxy - Autocracy - Nationality”. The Black Hundreds as a feeling of patriotic power and unity of many Russian people managed to preserve even after the cosmopolitan reforms of the 18th - 19th centuries. The enemies of Russia mortally hated the Black Hundreds as an expression of the indigenous Russian spirit, realizing that as long as it was alive, they could not defeat the Russian people.

Since mid. XIX century The enemies of historical Russia - revolutionaries and freemasons of all stripes - seek to discredit the high feeling of the Black Hundreds, to humiliate it, to give it an abusive meaning. In the mouths of revolutionaries, freemasons and liberals associated with them, the word “Black Hundred” becomes identical to the expression “enemy of the revolution.” And since the main revolutionaries were Jews, the concept of “Black Hundred” is also identified by revolutionaries with the word “anti-Semite.”

Russian patriots - opponents of the revolution, of course, did not object to being called by the glorious name “Black Hundreds”. One of the millions of Russian Black Hundreds, who remained unknown, expressed the spirit of the Black Hundreds in a poem:

Who, making a prayer,
Honors the people and the king,
In whom neither the heart nor the mind is unsteady,
Who, under the hail of slander, saves Rus' from troubles, -
He is called a Black Hundred”

Russian historian, Doctor of Economic Sciences, writer, director of the public organization “Institute of Russian Civilization” O.A. Platonov, book “War with the Internal Enemy”, pp. 17-18

Alexey Mikhailov: “Over the past 15 years, more than 40 thousand kindergartens have been closed in Russia.”

Among the holy defenders of our Fatherland, the Hieromartyr Patriarch Hermogenes stands on a par with the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky and the Monk Sergius of Radonezh. The main feat of his life - firm opposition to the reign of a heterodox sovereign over Russia, an inspired preaching of the liberation of the country from foreign invaders - Patriarch Hermogen accomplished already in old age. He witnessed his words with martyrdom. This time is the most difficult in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was brought by circumstances almost to the edge of its existence, which is why it was nicknamed the Time of Troubles. In such times, the Lord found among His servants those who could strengthen the Orthodox Christian people, sending them hope and support in the person of the most zealous and devoted earthly servants to Him.

About the first half of the life of Saint Hermogenes, only fragmentary information has reached us. The year of his birth is determined on the basis of the testimony of the Poles, who claimed that in 1610 only the “octogenarian patriarch” opposed them. Therefore, this is 1530. There are suggestions that his homeland is Kazan. Its origin also remains a matter of debate. Some claim that he is from the family of princes Golitsyn, others from the Don Cossacks, others from the posad clergy. According to the testimony of the Patriarch himself, he was initially a priest in the city of Kazan at the Gostinodvorsky Church in the name of St. Nicholas.

It was to him, in 1579, then still presbyter Ermolai, that God destined to witness the miraculous appearance of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, and to be the first to “take from the earth” the priceless image, and then solemnly, with a procession of the cross, bring it into the temple. At this time, 50-year-old Hermogenes was a priest of the Gostinnodvorsky Church in Kazan. Later, when he was already the Kazan Metropolitan, the saint compiled a written “ The legend about the appearance of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and the miraculous healings that took place from it" He also composed stichera and canons for the service on the day of the appearance of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God; imbued with high religious inspiration, the troparion known to every Orthodox person “ Zealous Intercessor" also belongs to Saint Hermogenes.

Soon (apparently after the death of his wife) he became a monk and from 1582 was the archimandrite of the Transfiguration Monastery in Kazan. On May 13, 1589, he was consecrated bishop and became the first Metropolitan of Kazan.

It was a difficult task to strengthen Orthodoxy among a population that had been Muslim since ancient times, and Hermogenes, with his wise and virtuous mentoring, sought to prevent the weakening of faith in areas where, deep down, people still retained an inclination towards Islam. Mosques were placed almost next to the Kazan Monastery, and this increased the likelihood that newly converted Christians, communicating with their Muslim acquaintances and loved ones, could turn away from the Christian faith, which extremely upset St. Hermogenes. Saint Hermogen remained firm in matters of faith and was actively involved in the Christianization of the Tatars and other peoples of the former Kazan Khanate. The following measure was also practiced: newly baptized peoples were resettled in Russian settlements, isolated from communication with Muslims.

When the Kazan Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery was being rebuilt - this was in 1595, while digging ditches for the foundation of a new stone church building, coffins with the relics of the first Kazan saints - Guria and Barsanuphius - were found. Saint Hermogenes opened the coffins, and everyone saw that the remains of the saints turned out to be incorrupt. The remains were placed in arks by Hermogenes himself and presented for worship above ground. This event had an inspirational effect on the saint himself, on those present, and on the entire newly converted flock! At the same time, Metropolitan Ermogen composed a service for the discovery of the holy relics of the saints.

For his outstanding archpastoral qualities, Metropolitan Hermogen was elected to the primatial see.

During these troubled times, the impostor False Dmitry was in power, posing as the miraculously saved youngest son of Ivan IV the Terrible, Tsarevich Dmitry. He swore allegiance to the Polish king Sigismund III and promised to introduce Catholicism in Russia. But on May 17, 1606, the boyar party of V. Shuisky raised an uprising in Moscow. False Dmitry was killed, his corpse lay on Red Square for several days, then it was burned, and his ashes were loaded into a cannon, firing in the direction from which he came. On May 25, 1606, Vasily Shuisky became king.

And already on July 3, 1606, under the new Tsar Vasily Shuisky, Metropolitan Ermogen was elevated by the Council of Saints to the Patriarchal throne in the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. Metropolitan Isidore presented the Patriarch with the staff of St. Peter, and the Tsar presented the new Patriarch with a panagia decorated with precious stones, a white cowl and a staff. According to the ancient rite, Patriarch Hermogenes performed a procession on a donkey (an Orthodox rite performed in the Russian state on the holiday of Palm Sunday and symbolizing the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem on a donkey)

Procession on a donkey

Elected to the patriarchate at the age of 70, during the difficult time of the Time of Troubles, when Russia and the Russian Church were in extreme danger of enslavement and heterodox captivity, Saint Hermogen, in the words of Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov), “stood up for both more zealously, courageously and unshakably than anyone else.” "

With special inspiration, His Holiness the Patriarch opposed the traitors and enemies of the Fatherland, who wanted to introduce Uniateism and Catholicism in Russia and eradicate Orthodoxy, enslaving the Russian people.

The death of False Dmitry I was known reliably only to Moscow and the surrounding area. The Russian periphery did not have accurate information on this matter, and the desire to believe in a “legitimate”, “natural” tsar was very great. The chaos of turmoil continued. And in this chaos a new false savior appeared - False Dmitry II. Prince Grigory Shakhovskoy and a number of other boyars joined him. A rumor was spread that Dmitry was not killed in Moscow, but managed to escape (he “miraculously” escaped a second time). Surrounded by Polish troops, Zaporozhye and Don Cossacks, and many other wandering people, False Dmitry II appeared within Russia in August 1607, and on June 1, 1608 he came close to Moscow, setting up a camp in Tushino. Many boyars from Moscow began to run to the Tushinsky thief, as this impostor was called then.

Fearing neither the shameless impostor False Dmitry, nor the powerful Polish king Sigismund, Saint Hermogen, in the face of traitors and enemies of the Fatherland, became the spiritual head of the entire Russian land.

Camp of False Dmitry II in Tushino

When the impostor False Dmitry II approached Moscow and settled in Tushino, Patriarch Ermogen sent two messages to the rebellious traitors. In one of them he wrote:

« ...You forgot the vows of our Orthodox faith, in which we were born, baptized, raised and grew up, you broke the kiss of the cross and the oath to stand until death for the house of the Most Holy Theotokos and for the Moscow State and fell to your false-imaginary Tsar... My soul hurts, my heart hurts , and all my insides are tormented, all my joints tremble; I cry and cry out with sobs: have mercy, have mercy, brothers and children, your souls and your parents, departed and living... Look how our Fatherland is plundered and ruined by strangers, how holy icons and churches are desecrated, how the blood of innocents is shed, crying out to God. Remember against whom you take up arms: is it not God who created you? not on your brothers? Are you ruining your Fatherland?... I conjure you in the Name of God, leave your undertaking while there is time, so as not to perish completely».

In another letter, the High Hierarch called: “ For God's sake, know yourself and convert, make your parents, your wives and children, and all of us happy; and we will pray to God for you...».

King Sigismund Korolevich Vladislav

We will not describe all the twists and turns of this difficult time; they are sufficiently described. Let's talk about the main thing. Tsar Vasily Shuisky aroused strong boyar opposition against himself. Having called upon the Swedish king Charles IX, against whom Sigismund III had already fought, for help against the Poles, Shuisky put Russia in a state of “official” war with Poland. The Poles began open intervention. A large army of Poles approached Moscow. The interventionists besieged the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, which they were never able to take during the 16-month siege.

S.D. Miloradovich. Defense of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra

Sigismund himself, who was besieging Smolensk, now demanded that his son, Prince Vladislav, be elevated to the Russian throne. Difficult negotiations took place with him, in which Metropolitan Filaret, the father of the future Tsar Mikhail Romanov, also participated. Patriarch Ermogen initially acted in favor of Shuisky. But when this tsar was finally overthrown in July 1610, the patriarch proposed 14-year-old Misha Romanov to the kingdom. However, the patriarch's voice was not heard then.

Ermogen had to give in to the boyar party that supported Vladislav under the pretext that Moscow did not have the strength to defend itself from Polish intervention. Reluctantly, the saint agreed to recognize Vladislav Sigismundovich as Russian Tsar, subject to his Orthodox baptism and the withdrawal of Polish troops from Russia. But the Moscow boyars, without reckoning with the patriarch, allowed the Poles into Moscow and sent a special embassy with a letter that Russia was surrendering itself “to the will” of the Polish king.

V. Chistyakov. The Patriarch refuses to sign the letter of the Poles

And then something happened that was the decisive moment of all events and brought the whole country out of the chaos of turmoil, from circumstances that seemed completely hopeless. The patriarch did not sign the above-mentioned letter of surrender of Russia. And when boyar Saltykov rushed at him with a dagger, he replied: “I’m not afraid of your knife! I am protected from it by the power of the cross of Christ.” As a result, there was no agreement with Sigismund and no capitulation to him. This is what one protocol formality like a signature (in this case, its absence!) means at a decisive moment.

This gave spiritual and legal grounds to Russian cities to oppose the Poles in defense of their fatherland. Patriarch Hermogenes, through “fearless people,” sent messages to Russian cities and towns with calls not to obey the Poles and not to believe impostors. The inspired calls of the Patriarch were heard by the Russian people and stirred up the liberation movement.

The urban movement alarmed the Poles and their supporters. They demanded that Hermogenes write to all cities so that they would not go to liberate Moscow. With this, boyar Saltykov came to him again. “I will write,” answered Hermogenes, “... but only on the condition that you and all the traitors with you and the king’s people leave Moscow... I see the desecration of the true faith from heretics and from you, traitors, and the destruction of God’s holy churches and I can’t do it anymore.” hear Latin singing in Moscow."

Hermogenes was imprisoned in the Chudov Monastery and began to starve. Already from prison, the holy martyr Hermogenes addressed his last message to the Russian people, blessing the liberation war against the conquerors.

Patriarch Hermogenes in the dungeon of the Chudov Monastery (February 1612)

Meanwhile, people's militias reached Moscow. At the suggestion of Patriarch Hermogenes, the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was brought from Kazan (most likely a copy of the original), which became the main shrine of the militia of Cosmas Minin Sukhorukov and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. In front of her, after a strict fast, the almost desperate Russian army tearfully prayed, preparing for the final assault on Moscow. On October 22, 1612, the militia captured Kitai-Gorod, and on the 26th the Kremlin surrendered.

Patriarch Ermogen did not live to see this bright day. He languished in severe captivity for more than nine months, and on January 17, 1612, he died a martyr in captivity in the Chudov Monastery.

There is a later legend that before his death, the patriarch sprouted oats in the dungeon and he was found dead kneeling among the green shoots.

A. Novoskoltsev. Death of Patriarch Hermogenes

The first to hastily enter the Assumption Cathedral in armor was his neighbor boyar, Prince Khvorostinin, who was in the militia, and excitedly asked: “Show me the grave of our father! Show me the grave of the leader of our glory!” And when they showed her to him, he fell to her and cried long and bitterly.

In 1652, the remains of the patriarch were transferred from the dilapidated tomb in the Chudov Monastery to the Great Assumption Cathedral, where they remain today. The glorification of the patriarch, which took place on May 12, 1913, coincided with the 300th anniversary of the death of the saint and the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov (a few days before the arrival of the royal family in Moscow).

Burial place of Patriarch Hermogenes in the Assumption Cathedral. Photo from 1913

Contemporaries testify to Patriarch Hermogenes as a man of outstanding intellect and erudition: “The sovereign is great in reason and sense and wise in mind,” “he is highly adorned with wisdom and elegant in book teaching,” he was called the adamant of faith.

Under him, the following were published: the Gospel, the Menaion of Menstruation, and the “Great Supreme Rule” was also printed. The Patriarch carefully monitored the correctness of the texts. With his blessing, the service to the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called was translated from Greek into Russian and the celebration of memory was restored in the Assumption Cathedral. Under the supervision of the high priest, new presses were made for printing liturgical books and a new printing house was built, which was damaged during the fire of Moscow in 1611.

Concerned about maintaining decorum, Saint Hermogen composed a “Message of discipline to all people, especially priests and deacons, on the correction of church singing.” The “Message” denounces the clergy for the unregulated performance of church services: polyphony, and the laity for their irreverent attitude towards divine services.

The name of the saint, hero, defender of the Russian Land, who for a long time was almost “one warrior in the field”, who, by the will of God, held the most difficult defense against encroachments on the honor, sovereignty and faith of Orthodox Rus', will forever remain in memory as an example of unbending courage and loyalty to this their oath to God and their people.

Hermogenes or Hermogenes?

In all publications until the moment of glorification in 1913, the patriarch is referred to as Hermogenes. But after glorification he becomes Hermogenes. This decision was made by the Holy Synod, because His Holiness Patriarch Hermogenes himself signed the name Hermogenes.

And according to the American historian Gregory Freeze, the main reason is that Hermogenes was the name of the disgraced Bishop of Saratov, who actively opposed Chief Prosecutor Sabler and Grigory Rasputin. To avoid confusion and the name of the new saint not to be associated with the name of the disgraced bishop, the Synod restored the ancient spelling of the patriarch’s name - “Hermogenes”.

Troparion, tone 4
The day of a bright triumph has arrived, / the city of Moscow rejoices, / and with it Orthodox Rus' rejoices / with songs and spiritual songs: / today is a sacred triumph / in the manifestation of the honest and multi-healing relics / of the saint and wonderworker Hermogenes, / like the unsetting sun, rising with radiant rays, / dispelling the darkness of temptations and troubles / from those who cry out truly // save us, as our representative, the great Hermogenes.

Kontakion, tone 6
We exhaust you with prison and famine, / you remained faithful even to death, blessed Hermogenes, / driving away cowardice from the hearts of your people / and calling everyone to a common feat. / In the same way, you overthrew the wicked rebellion and you established our country, / let us all call to you: // Rejoice, intercessor of the Russian land.

Hieromartyr HERMOGENES, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, wonderworker (†1612)

Among the holy defenders of our Fatherland, the Hieromartyr Patriarch Hermogenes stands on a par with the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky and the Monk Sergius of Radonezh. The main feat of his life - firm opposition to the reign of a heterodox sovereign over Russia, an inspired preaching of the liberation of the country from foreign invaders - Patriarch Hermogen accomplished already in old age. He witnessed his words with martyrdom. This time is the most difficult in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was brought by circumstances almost to the edge of its existence, which is why it was nicknamed - Time of Troubles. In such times, the Lord found among His servants those who could strengthen the Orthodox Christian people, sending them hope and support in the person of the most zealous and devoted earthly servants to Him.

Only fragmentary information has reached us about the first half of the life of Saint Hermogenes. The year of his birth is determined on the basis of the testimony of the Poles, who claimed that in 1610 only the “octogenarian patriarch” opposed them. Therefore, this is 1530. There are suggestions that his homeland is Kazan. Its origin also remains a matter of debate. Some claim that he is from the family of princes Golitsyn, others from the Don Cossacks, others from the posad clergy. According to the testimony of the Patriarch himself, he was initially a priest in the city of Kazan at the Gostinodvorsky Church in the name of St. Nicholas.

It was to him, in 1579, then still presbyter Ermolai, that God destined to witness the miraculous appearance of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, and to be the first to “take from the earth” the priceless image, and then solemnly, with a procession of the cross, bring it into the temple. At this time, 50-year-old Hermogenes was a priest of the Gostinnodvorsky Church in Kazan. Later, when he was already the Kazan Metropolitan, the saint drew up a written“The Legend of the Appearance of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and the miraculous healings that took place from it” . He also composed stichera and canons for the service on the day of the appearance of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God; imbued with high religious inspiration, known to every Orthodox person, the troparion "Diligent Intercessor" also belongs to Saint Hermogenes.

For his outstanding archpastoral qualities, Metropolitan Hermogen was elected to the primatial see.

The death of False Dmitry I was known reliably only to Moscow and the surrounding area. The Russian periphery did not have accurate information on this matter, and the desire to believe in a “legitimate”, “natural” tsar was very great. The chaos of turmoil continued. And in this chaos, a new false savior appeared - False Dmitry II. Prince Grigory Shakhovskoy and a number of other boyars joined him. A rumor was spread that Dmitry was not killed in Moscow, but managed to escape (he “miraculously” escaped a second time). Surrounded by Polish troops, Zaporozhye and Don Cossacks, and many other wandering people, False Dmitry II appeared within Russia in August 1607, and on June 1, 1608 he came close to Moscow, setting up a camp in Tushino. Many boyars from Moscow began to run to the Tushinsky thief, as this impostor was called then.

Camp of False Dmitry II in Tushino

When the impostor False Dmitry II approached Moscow and settled in Tushino, Patriarch Ermogen sent two messages to the rebellious traitors. In one of them he wrote:

“...You forgot the vows of our Orthodox faith, in which we were born, baptized, raised and grew up, you broke the kiss of the cross and the oath to stand until death for the house of the Most Holy Theotokos and for the Moscow State and fell to your false imaginary Tsar... It hurts my soul, my heart is sick, and all my insides are tormented, all my limbs are shaking; I cry and cry out with sobs: have mercy, have mercy, brothers and children, your souls and your parents, departed and living... Look how our Fatherland is plundered and ruined by strangers, how holy icons and churches are desecrated, how the blood of innocents is shed, crying out to God. Remember against whom you take up arms: is it not God who created you? not on your brothers? Are you ruining your Fatherland?... I conjure you in the Name of God, leave your undertaking while there is time, so as not to completely perish.”

In another letter, the High Hierarch called: “For God’s sake, know yourself and convert, make your parents, your wives and children, and all of us happy; and we will pray to God for you...”

The urban movement alarmed the Poles and their supporters. They demanded that Hermogenes write to all cities so that they would not go to liberate Moscow. With this, boyar Saltykov came to him again. “I will write,” replied Hermogenes, “... but only on the condition that you and all the traitors with you and the king’s people leave Moscow... I see the desecration of the true faith from heretics and from you, traitors, and the destruction of God’s holy churches and I can no longer hear Latin singing in Moscow.”

Patriarch Ermogen did not live to see this bright day. He languished in severe captivity for more than nine months, and on January 17, 1612, he died a martyr in captivity in the Chudov Monastery.

There is a later legend that before his death, the patriarch sprouted oats in the dungeon and he was found dead kneeling among the green shoots.

Hermogenes or Hermogenes?

Troparion, tone 4
The day of a bright triumph has arrived, the city of Moscow rejoices, and with it Orthodox Rus' rejoices with songs and spiritual songs: today is a sacred triumph in the manifestation of the honest and multi-healing relics of the saint and wonderworker Hermogenes, like the unsetting sun, rising with radiant rays, dispelling the darkness of temptations and troubles from those who cry out truly: save us, as our intercessor, the great Hermogenes.

Kontakion, tone 6
We exhaust you with prison and hunger; you remained faithful even to death, blessed Hermogenes, driving away cowardice from the hearts of your people and calling everyone to a common feat. In the same way, you also overthrew the wicked revolt and established our country, and we all call to you: Rejoice, intercessor of the Russian land.

Prayer sschmch. Hermogen
Oh, great saint of Christ, our holy father Hermogenes! We earnestly flock to you, a warm prayer book and unashamed representative before God, asking for consolation and help in our needs and sorrows. In the ancient time of temptation, the enemy of wickedness invaded our country. The Lord has revealed to the Church His unshakable pillar and shepherd of goodness to the Russian people, laying down his soul for the sheep and driving away the fierce wolves. Now look down on us too, your unworthy child, who calls you with a tender soul and a contrite heart. Our strength has become impoverished within us, and the enemy’s trappings and snares have devastated us. Help us, our intercessor! Confirm us in the holy faith: teach us to always keep the commandments of God and all the traditions of the church, commanded to us from our father. Be our shepherd, the archpastor, a spiritual leader, a warrior, a doctor for the sick, a comforter for the sad, an intercessor for the persecuted, a mentor for the young, a compassionate father for all and a warm prayer book for everyone; for by your prayers we protect you, let us unceasingly sing and glorify the all-holy Name of the Life-Giving Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. A min.

Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK

for the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Sparrow Hills