How saints are dressed up in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

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

Every year at the Petrov Lent in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, an amazing, secret and very responsible event takes place. The monks not only clean up the territory (for example, whitewash the inner surfaces of caves and renew the paint on the podiums of tombs), but also change the clothes of the holy relics. This process is painstaking and complicated, because the remains of 123 saints are kept in the monastery.

The veil of secrecy is ajar

The journalists were allowed to watch how the dressing of the saints takes place in the Far Caves of the monastery.

At about five in the morning, the monks, filled with joy and awe, begin to chant akathists, glorifying the saints, while addressing them as if they were alive. Then they carefully remove the relics from the cancer and carry them through an underground passage to a special two-story building. There they take off the vestments from the relics, while a piece of paper is attached to each vestment, on which the name of the saint is written. This whole process takes place with prayer.

The clothes of the saints are dried on ordinary ropes in the open air. The monks thoroughly dry not only the vestments as such, but also the inner clothing (shirt), which is wrapped around the relics. Meanwhile, the remains themselves "wait" in a locked room. The deacon is with them all day - he reads prayers over the relics.

The process of vesting

After the evening service, the monks again dress the saints in their clothes. Moreover, the procedure for vesting the saints has certain rules. Thus, the monks must be dressed in green robes. The first time the change of clothes of the saints takes place before the beginning of Great Lent (they are dressed in black or purple), the second time - on the Saturday of Holy Week (in red clothes), the third time - after Easter, at Trinity. The saints are dressed in accordance with the order in which they were at the moment when the Lord called them.

Nearby, attributes are placed in the shrine - for example, in the shrine of the Metropolitan of Kiev, Venerable Philaret, there are a club and a miter, and he is dressed in a robe with 33 buttons and bells.

All the holy martyrs of the Lavra (for example, Metropolitan of Kiev Vladimir Epiphany, who was shot by the Bolsheviks in 1918) are usually dressed in red robes, and the saints - in golden yellow robes.

Schema monks (the highest level of Orthodox monasticism) are supposed to wear a special mantle (schema) over their robes. For example, on the schema of Nestor Neknizhniy, to whom students and schoolchildren usually pray, one can read the inscription: "God creates a pure heart for me."

Miracles in the Lavra

As Father Stephen told the Novaya Gazeta correspondent, it is a great honor and a great miracle for each of the brethren to come into contact with the holy remains. They try to involve all monks in this process: one of them is instructed to take off the clothes from the saints, others - to put them on.

Father Stephen said that just as the deity did not leave Christ on the cross, so the holy bones do not leave God's grace and fragrance, so there is no need to dry the remains themselves. The vestments themselves sometimes have to be replaced with new ones (in this case, they are sewn here, in the Lavra), however, this happens extremely rarely.

It is surprising, but none of the monks of the Lavra remembers that the clothes hanging on the ropes were ever wet with rain during drying. Every year on this day, clear weather over the monastery, as ordered!

In addition, the very ritual of dressing up the holy relics is considered a miracle - according to the monks, this process is able to heal any ailments and ward off evil.

The relics are carried carefully, like babies

The over-clothed relics are taken out of the house and brought back to the caves. This process looks very solemn: in front is the deacon with a candle, followed by the monks, who very carefully and at the same time with joy and trepidation carry the parcels with the remains of the saints.

According to Father Stephen, you can kiss the relics and ask the saints about the most intimate, but not about everything at once, but choose the most important thing from all your desires. In this case, the candle must be held so that the wax does not drip onto the shrines.