Holy fools in Russia and in other cultures: holy marginalized or madmen

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the old saying that “in Russia, the holy fools are loved”, the holy madmen were gradually replaced by “fools”. However, this is fundamentally wrong. The phenomenon of foolishness, widespread in ancient times in our country, carried an important social and spiritual function. Interestingly, apart from Russia and Byzantium, there are few examples of this kind in history, however, in different cultures there were sometimes shocking marginals who tried to draw attention to social or religious norms, publicly violating them.

The word "foolishness" comes from the old Slavonic "fool, madman". However, the meaning of “foolishness for Christ's sake” lies in the conscious rejection of one's own virtues and violation of the laws of the human world. This is considered very difficult service. The purpose of this seeming madness is to expose worldly delusions. If we talk specifically about goals and means and not look for deep differences, then examples of such behavior can be found in history, starting from ancient times.

For example, the legislator Solon, one of the "seven wise men" of Ancient Greece, six centuries before the birth of Christ, managed, pretending to be mentally ill, to resolve the difficult situation associated with the conquest of the island of Salomin:

(Justin "Epitome of the composition of Pompey Trog" History of Philip "")

Many prophets of the Old Testament of the Bible behaved like holy fools: they walked barefoot and naked, ate what is usually even unpleasant for a person to touch, and even slept with harlots. What can you not do to draw the attention of ordinary people to painful problems! I must say that more often than not, such shocking was a very effective means and bore fruit. The events described in the New Testament can even be considered an insane change in the established canons and laws:

- believes Abbot Damaskin (Orlovsky), a member of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints.

Then, when Christianity had already become the norm and turned into a state religion, the new holy fools began to denounce society and accuse it of apostasy from Christ. According to historians, the first ascetics, who can rightfully be called holy fools, appeared only in the 6th century.

The holy fools are "people of action." They appear when words are already powerless and only unusual actions can bring benefit to society, knocking people out of the "territory of comfort", if we speak in modern language. Blessed Simeon (VI century) pretended to be lame, substituted footsteps for the hurrying townspeople and threw them to the ground; Saint Basil the Blessed (XVI century) threw stones at the miraculous icon and argued with the formidable king; Procopius Ustyug (XIII century), disguised as a crippled beggar, slept on a heap of garbage and walked along Ustyug in rags, despite the fact that he was a wealthy merchant. The price for such, at first glance, antisocial behavior was not only cold, hunger and deprivation. Often people, not understanding the reasons for their actions, subjected the holy fools to reproach, or even worse. Basil the Blessed, for example, for the rolls scattered on the ground at the fair, the people first beat him up, and only then it turned out that the rogue merchant had mixed chalk into the flour. For a broken icon that worked miracles, he probably would have gotten even worse if the bottom layer of paint had not appeared from under the holy images - the icon painter allegedly painted the devil there in order to play a trick on the Orthodox. By the way, this example is one of the first mentions of ad-painting icons, the existence of which scientists are still not sure.

It is interesting that most of these unusual saints were in our country - 36 holy fools are venerated in the Russian Orthodox Church. The explanation for this is found in our mentality and temperament. The Russian man is a lover of truth, and at the same time he is very compassionate. The holy madmen were revered in our country and rarely offended. Foreign travelers in the XVI-XVII centuries wrote that in Moscow of those times a holy fool could denounce any person, regardless of his social status, and the accused would humbly accept any reproach. Ivan the Terrible himself treated them with reverence: for example, when Mikolka Svyat cursed the tsar and predicted his death by lightning, the tsar asked to pray that the Lord would deliver him from such a fate. And in honor of Blessed Basil, they even built a temple, the beauty and grandeur of which the whole world still admires.

In western Europe, this type of closeness to God was not very common. However, some examples from the lives of the saints also tell about quite shocking deeds. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan order, who lived in the XII century, once, however, finishing this description, the author added that

In the East, Islamic mystics - Malamati Sufis (that is, "worthy of reproach") behaved in a similar way with Christian holy fools. The Castilian traveler Pero Tafur in the 15th century spoke of such holy madmen in Egypt, In the 12th century, the Pashupata sect flourished in Central Asia. Its adherents also behaved in a very similar manner. For example, here are some of the instructions given in one of the Pashupata treatises:

Researchers believe that almost every society sooner or later gave rise to elements that destroy the rules set by itself. Clowns and jesters are figures known in almost all cultures. Somewhere they are revered, somewhere tribesmen mock them most of the time, but during religious ceremonies these characters suddenly turn into powerful priests.

The Monk Anthony said in the early centuries of Christianity:. The phenomenon of Russian foolishness in the 15th - 17th centuries is associated with the problems of society at that time, with the need to "revise" internal values. Today's, often only external churching of our people, which sometimes brings more questions than answers, according to some researchers, will also soon require new holy madmen who will be able to expose problems both in society and in the institution of the church itself.