St. Sergius of Radonezh: A Ray of Light in Dark Times

October 8

St. Sergius of Radonezh reposed on this day in 1392.

St. Sergius’ phelonion, Eucharistic vessels and shroud from his relics (the beginning of the XIV c.)

The destruction of Kiev by the Mongols in 1240 accelerated the development of the Principality of Vladimir, which Grand Duchy of Moscow subsequently took over. The first saints of the Mongol period were Russian princes and holy hierarchs from this area. St. Sergius of Radonezh was the first monastic saint of this period.

Russian monasticism was established in the 11^th century by the cave-dweller St. Anthony. His contemporary St. Theodoisus organized the individual monastics into a monastery in the city of Kiev. They did not have a coenobitic life (a monastery which provides for brethren) at Kiev Caves Monastery. The Kiev Caves Paterikon blatantly depicts the problems engendered by the monastery’s idiorrhythmic rule of life (each individual looks after himself financially).

It took St. Sergius to change the situation in Russian monasticism. After he and his brother Stephen withdrew from the world, little by little, they began to receive new brethren. They carried on the principle of idiorrhythmic self-sufficiency, until St. Sergius decided to depart from it. Yet he did not stop there in his exploration of different ways of monastic life, going so far as to entertain a correspondence with Patriarch Philotheos (Kokkinos, d. 1379) of Constantinople regarding traditions of monastic spirituality.

Continuing in St. Alexis’ footsteps (see my September 15 report), St. Sergius supported Moscow against other Russian principalities to the point that he went to Nizhnii Novgorod to announce the cessation (“interdict”) of all liturgies in churches there as long as the local prince refuses to place himself under Moscow. Holy Trinity Monastery, which he founded, became the “mother ship” for many other Russian church centers. The saints who emerged out of St. Sergius’ coenobium, like St. Stephen of Perm, established monasteries and missions across the land of Rusʹ.

Monasteries “planted” around Muscovy by direct disciples of St. Sergius.
Map: Metropolitan Pitirim (Nechaev), Archimandrite Innocent (Prosvirin), Troitse Sergiva Lavra [Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra, Moscow, 1985]

One reason why St. Sergius’ relics and his Lavra became such an integral part of the Russian cultural code is given by the great Russian historian Vasilii Osipovich Kliuchevskii (1841-1911) in his famous speech marking 1892 as the 500th anniversary of the saint’s repose.

An Excerpt from Prof. V.O.Kliuchevskii’s Speech

Why is this memory dear to the people? What does it say to them, to their minds and hearts? In modern language, dried up in abstractions and schemes, it is difficult to depict the living, deeply hidden movements of the believing people's soul.

Guided by the elder's blessing, the fighters went: some to the south beyond the Oka River against the Tatars, others to the north beyond the Volga to fight the forest and swamp (disciples of St. Sergius established a number of coenobitic monasteries, especially in the North of Russia – P.A.). Time has long since erased these affairs from the people’s memory, just as it has deeply covered the bones of the Kulikovo fighters with centuries-old dust (St. Sergius blessed the two of his monks with military background to join Great Prince Dmitry Donskoy in his fight agaisnt Khan Mamai in 1380 - P.A.). But the memory of the holy desert dweller still soars in the popular consciousness, like a coffin with incorruptible remains standing unharmed on the earth's surface.

Why is this memory dear to the people? What does it say to them, to their minds and hearts? In modern language, dried up in abstractions and schemes, it is difficult to depict the living, deeply hidden movements of the believing people's soul.

A strong and bright impression, once produced by one man and by elusive, silent moral means, about which one does not know what to say, has sunk deep into this soul, just as one cannot find words to convey another bright and encouraging, although silent, look of another person.

The culprit of the impression has long since passed away, the setting of his activity has also disappeared, leaving meager remains in the monastery sacristy and a spring flowing from his prayer. However, the impression is still alive, flowing with a fresh stream from generation to generation, and neither national disasters nor moral turning points in society have hitherto been able to smooth it out. This impression consisted of the first vague feeling of moral courage, the first glimpse of spiritual awakening. By the example of his life, the height of his spirit, St. Sergius raised the fallen spirit of his native people, awakened their confidence in him and his strengths, and inspired faith in their future. He came from among us, was the flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones, and rose to such a height that we did not even expect it to be accessible to any of our people. This was the opinion of everyone in Rus' at that time. This opinion was shared by the Orthodox East, like that bishop from Constantinople who, according to the story of Sergius’s vita, having arrived in Moscow and hearing everywhere talk about the great Russian ascetic, exclaimed in surprise: “How can such a lamp appear in these lands!?”

St. Sergius, by his life, by the very possibility of such a life, made the grieving Russian people feel that not everything good in them had yet died out; by his appearance among his compatriots, who were sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, he opened them to look into their own inner darkness and discern there the still smoldering sparks of the same fire with which the torch that illuminated them burned. The Russian people of the 14th century recognized this action as a miracle, because to revive and set in motion the moral sense of the people, to raise their spirit above its usual level - such a manifestation of spiritual influence has consistently been recognized as a miraculous and creative act. This is what it is in its essence and origin because its source is faith. A person who has once breathed such faith into society, given it a vivid sense of the presence of moral forces in itself, which it did not expect in itself, becomes for it the bearer of a miraculous spark, capable of igniting and calling into action these forces whenever they are needed, when the available everyday means of folk life prove insufficient.

The impression of the people of the 14th century became the belief of the generations that followed them. The fathers passed on the inspiration they had received to their children, and they traced it back to the same source from which their contemporaries had first drawn it. Thus, the spiritual influence of St. Sergius outlived his earthly existence and overflowed into his name, which, from a historical memory, became an ever-active moral engine and part of the people's spiritual wealth. This name retained the power of the immediate personal impression that the Venerable made on his contemporaries; this power continued even when the historical memory began to fade, being replaced by church memory, which turned this impression into a familiar, uplifting mood. Thus, warmth is felt long after its source has died out. The people lived with this mood for centuries; it helped them organize their inner life, to unite, and strengthen the state order.

With the name of St. Sergius, the people remember their moral revival, which made possible their political rebirth, and they learn by heart the rule that a political fortress is strong only when it rests on moral strength. This revival and this rule are the most precious contributions of St. Sergius; not archival or theoretical, but placed in the living soul of the people, in its moral content. The moral wealth of the people is measured by monuments of deeds for the common good and by the memories of figures who contributed the greatest good to their society. The moral feeling of the people grows with these monuments and memories; they are its fertile soil; in them are their roots; tear it away from them and it will wither like mown grass. They do not nourish national conceit but the idea of the responsibility of descendants to their great ancestors, for moral feeling is a sense of duty. Celebrating the memory of St. Sergius, we check ourselves, review our moral reserve, bequeathed to us by the great builders of our moral order, renew it, replenishing the expenses made in it. The Lavra of St. Sergius gates will be closed, and the lamps will go out over his tomb only when we have squandered this reserve altogether without replenishing it.

Source

V.O. Kliuchevskii, "Znachenie prepodobnogo Sergiia dlia russkogo narod i gosudarstva"["The Significance of Venerable Sergius for the Russian People and State"] Azbuka.ru

His Beatitude Onuphry, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine, joined the brotherhood of Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra in 1970 and until the recent events used to come annually for today's commemoration. The photo was taken there in 2015.