The mystery of the relics of Alexander Nevsky

Prince Alexander Yaroslavovich, nicknamed Nevsky, lived only forty-three years. He became a prince of Novgorod at the age of sixteen, at twenty he defeated the Swedes in the battle on the Neva River, at twenty-two he won a famous victory on the ice of Lake Peipus. Alexander Nevsky was not only an outstanding commander, but also an intelligent politician, a subtle diplomat. His activities fell on a difficult time for Russia: the Mongol hordes devastated the country, the invasion of German, Scandinavian and Lithuanian feudal lords threatened from the west. Under these conditions, Alexander Nevsky waged a complex political struggle to preserve the independence of the Russian people; he negotiated with the Pope, with the Golden Horde, the German states.

Alexander Nevsky is not an ordinary figure in Russian history. The church has honored the prince as a saint for many centuries, but modern historians are inclined to accuse him of even betraying the interests of Russia. Hero of the Battle of the Neva and the Battle of the Ice with the Germans, Swedes and Lithuanians. At the same time, the prince expressed his obedience to the Golden Horde and Prince Batu. Why?

The prince believed that it was possible to fight with the enemies of the West and they could be defeated, but Russia, devastated and devastated in wars, did not have the means to fight the Tatars, who could come with a whole people and completely devastate Russia. Alexander Nevsky chose the policy of waiting for the Tatars to split up and kill each other, and before that it was necessary to reconcile and recognize the supreme power of the khans, go to them to bow and pay tribute.

While two siblings challenged the Horde, Alexander Nevsky was appointed Grand Duke of All Russia by the same Horde. The prince had to humiliate himself in order to save his native land from destruction and persuade the Russian people not to resist, but to patiently endure the yoke and pay tribute. At that time, the prince was only 31 years old. Alexander Nevsky served as Grand Duke of Russia for 11 years. The prince died early, at less than 43 years old. Even then, his contemporaries, the policy of the prince in relation to the Mongol-Tatars was considered cowardly. But Russia was not able to resist the khans. The Horde loved Prince Alexander, trusted him, and these were the calmest years of the invasion of Russia.

The prince went to bow to the khan in the Horde 4 times and died on the way back home from the fourth trip. The prince fell ill with a cold. Before his death, he took monasticism with the name Alexy and even a schema (a symbol of an angelic image).

Grand Duke Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky died in the schema with the name Alexy on November 14, 1263 in Gorodets on the Volga, on the way from the horde. The veneration of him began from the very moment of his burial (November 23 at the Vladimir Nativity Cathedral), which was marked by a miraculous sign, witnessed by Metropolitan Kirill, who buried him. Local veneration of him as a saint was established in 1380, when, as a result of a vision, his relics were found, from which miracles began to happen. In 1723-1724. relics of Blgv. led. Prince were transferred from the Vladimir Nativity Cathedral in St. Petersburg to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. Aug 30 In 1724, in the presence of Emperor Peter I, a solemn ceremony of consecration of the first stone church of the monastery (Blagoveshchenskaya - Alexander Nevsky) took place, in which the tomb with the relics of St. Blgv was originally installed. prince. Subsequently, when the relics were transferred to the Holy Trinity Cathedral, in 1750 Empress Elizaveta Petrovna granted them a silver reliquary, which is currently in the State Hermitage. Under Peter I, by the decree of the Synod (dated June 15, 1724), it was ordered to depict St. Blgv. prince in grand-ducal, and not in monastic robes. Today, when the monastery is revived, every morning before the shrine with the relics of the patron saint of the monastery, its inhabitants perform a fraternal prayer service.

The holy reliquary is adorned with superbly chiseled bas-reliefs telling in their faces about the exploits of Alexander Nevsky. It also contains a piece composed by M.V. Lomonosov inscription:

The holy and brave prince rests his body here: But in spirit from heaven he looks down on this city, And on the shores, where he defeated the nasty, And where he helped PETRA invisibly. Revealing the daughter of His holy zeal, She erected a cancer in honor of this protector From the first silver, that the bowels of the earth Revealed to her, how she deigned to sit on the throne.

A large silver pyramid was attached to the eastern side of the shrine, on which M.V. Lomonosov inscription. It is written on two silver shields, which are held in the hands of two silver angels.

GOD

Almighty

And His saint

Blessed and Great

Prince ALEXANDER NEVSKY

Ross to the zealous, defender, who despised the punishment of the tormentor

On holidays, a precious golden lamp with a pendant brush made of precious pearls and diamonds was hung over the shrine of Alexander Nevsky on holidays. The lampada was granted in 1791 by Empress Catherine II. And in 1806, Emperor Alexander I granted a lectern with an icon case for particles of holy relics and a candlestick with twelve silver tandals.

In the icon case, which is covered with glass from above, there is a particle of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, as well as five arks with the relics of saints. And the image of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky for centuries remained the patron of the city, "heavenly representative for the Neva lands."

“According to the order of the District Committee of May 9, 1922, comrades Urbanovich and Naumov are sent at your disposal with tools to participate in the opening of the relics in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.”

Similar documents from the Petrograd District Committee had nine more railroad mechanics and a jeweler A. Semenov. And closer to noon on May 9, 1922, a dozen daring craftsmen arrived at the Lavra. By that time, a lot of people had already gathered there. Among them were delegates from believers of the city and county, representatives from the Petrograd executive committee and the provincial committee, representatives of the propaganda department, guardians from the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments and medical experts ...

A little further away from the crowd, a group of priests led by Metropolitan Veniamin kept their distance.

Exactly at twelve o'clock they began to open the relics of the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky - an autopsy that looked more like a public desecration.

HOWEVER, THERE IS ANOTHER INTERESTING STORY.

Recently, the Russian Orthodox Church has been carrying with great fanfare "particles of the relics of Alexander Nevsky" through Russian and foreign villages. But there are no relics of Alexander Nevsky in nature.

By the beginning of the last century, "the relics of Alexander Nevsky" were one of the main shrines of the empire. They were in St. Petersburg in a monastery specially created on the personal initiative of Peter I (Alexander Nevsky Lavra). The relics were kept in the main cathedral of the Lavra in a shrine made especially for them from the first silver mined in Russia. This reliquary, perhaps the largest piece of silver in the world, weighing almost one and a half tons, is now on display in a separate hall of the Hermitage.

In 1919, at the initiative of one of the main fighters against religion, P.A. Krasikov, a decision was made to open the relics of Alexander Nevsky.

The church petitioned the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet with a request not to touch "one of the main shrines of the city."

Krasikov replied that “neither perishable nor incorruptible, in a word, there are no remains of Prince Alexander Nevsky and cannot be, since in 1491 the entire city of Vladimir and the monastery of the Nativity with the church and the coffin of Alexander Nevsky, which was located there, burned down.” Therefore, this is “out of the ordinary in its impudence and complete contempt for the masses exploited by the church” deception.

The cancer was opened. And what was in it? Not the imperishable relics of the holy prince, but 12 small bones of different colors (which means they are from different relics). In addition, 2 identical bones of one right leg were found in the cancer. (“Acts of the II All-Russian Local Council of the Orthodox Church”. M., 1923, p. 10). These mortal remains of several dead were transferred as an exhibit to the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism in the Kazan Cathedral.

Here's how the documentary tells it:

When members of the Board of the Society of Orthodox Parishes were arrested in Petrograd, when the closest and most reliable people were taken away, Metropolitan Benjamin himself was not touched.

The emptiness around the lord was growing rapidly…

Well, on May 12, on the very day when the Renovationists launched the first assault on the patriarchal residence, in Petrograd, the relics of St. Alexander Nevsky were opened.

At noon, in the cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, representatives of the Petroispolkom, the provincial committee, the propaganda department, the press, the Society for Archaeological Monuments of Antiquity and Medical Expertise gathered.

“According to this order, the craftsmen approach the cancer and unscrew the screws. Several people remove the lid and take it aside. There is glass under the lid, it is also removed.

It's dark in here, someone says. - We have to move towards the light.

Precisely to the light, - repeats the other with an emphasis on the last word ...

The abbot raises the lid of the coffin.

What is in it?

It's empty there. There is a purple satin cover at the bottom, a brand new orange satin pillow at the head, and in the middle a small casket made of light wood, as if the day before from the master.

They open the box, under the lid there is a glazed frame, then they take out pieces of some old matter from there, then the decayed remnants of the Grand Duke's schema, and at the very bottom there are brown decayed bones, and even those are very few, with a handful no more. The experts determined that there are two incomplete tibias, one rib, remnants of the temporal bones and clavicles. That's all the "powers" ...

Further, the author of a mocking newspaper report cites the embarrassed explanations of the shepherds, they say, in 1491 there was a fire in Vladimir, the shrine with the relics was on fire and only individual bones were saved. Again, in 1723, when Peter I ordered the relics to be transferred to St. Petersburg, they were safely taken to Shlisselburg and left to winter here, but in the winter the pavilion where they were stored burned down, and the relics suffered again ...

"The Metropolitan ... - notes the reporter - as if a little excited."

As a matter of fact, for the sake of this phrase, we retold an article that was mocking in its tone.

There is no need to prove here that all the autopsies performed in the first years of Soviet power did not in any way refute the sanctity of the relics and their miraculous work. The Church believes that incorruptibility is preserved by the power of the Lord's will just as much as is necessary to testify to the holiness of God's saint.

By the way, that is why the author of the “method of restoring the appearance of a person based on skeletal remains,” Stalin Prize winner Mikhail Gerasimov, never recreated the appearance of Alexander Yaroslavich - there was no skull in the cancer. So the people had to be content with the image created by Cherkasov in Eisenstein's film.

On May 23, 1491, a fire broke out in the monastery. The Resurrection Chronicle and the Book of Power report that a cancer with the relics of Alexander Yaroslavich died in the fire. But the shrine, in which the imperishable relics of the prince supposedly lie, after the fire, was again in its place. And the monks, as if nothing had happened, continue to record the miracles that come from them.

Ivan the Terrible made a personal contribution to giving Alexander Yaroslavich the status of the holy defender of the Russian lands. In 1551, before going to Kazan, he spent a week in Vladimir, in prayer at the Nativity Monastery, where another miracle took place from the holy relics. Ivan the Terrible announced that he had healed the prince's sick hand from cancer.

The most grandiose spectacle with pseudo-relics was played out under Peter I, who needed to raise the status of the new capital of the state. Archimandrite Theodosius will personally witness the relics. For more than a year, Peter has been thinking about how to decorate the transfer of the shrine more beautifully, in which instead of imperishable miraculous relics there is a pile of bones.

On August 30, 1724, the shrine with the relics was transferred to the galley, the rowers on which were the highest state dignitaries. Peter took the helmsman's place. Troops lined up on the banks of the Neva, people crowded. Under the artillery salute and the ringing of bells, the ark was transferred to the shore. Peter opened the shrine with the relics with a key, looked at them, then closed them and threw the key into the river so that no one else could open it. This was the final chord of a grandiose hoax. After such a convincing argument, only a suicide could doubt the authenticity of the relics. And in order not to provoke rumors, the church stopped announcing miracles coming from the relics of Alexander Yaroslavich.

The relics of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky were returned to the Lavra Trinity Cathedral in 1989. Instead of the shrine exhibited in the Hermitage, there is a modest box, apparently made of stainless steel. The people come and bow. I wonder what?

Today, body parts of "Alexander Nevsky" are one of the most "popular" relics of the Russian Orthodox Church. Over the past decade, the production of relics and icons with particles of relics and the “AN” brand has been put on stream by the Russian Orthodox Church. It is not known for certain how many parts the body of the deceased (or what is given out as his relics) was dismembered by pragmatic clergymen. It is quite possible that if it were possible to collect all the particles of the relics of the saint, it would turn out that they belong not even to two, but to a much larger number of the deceased. However, the church has never been embarrassed by such conventions.

For whom do the gentlemen from the Russian Orthodox Church and the representatives of the authorities who have colluded with them take us?