I became involved with the Danilov Bell return process by accident. In my quest to visit numerous sites of Holy Russian Orthodoxy while in the country, I happened to be perusing a Russian website that lists not only the Liturgical Calendar in Old (as in Old Rite calendar, making the current date about September 1, 7516...don't worry, I don't really understand it either) and New Calendar, but also all of the churches in operation in present day Russia. (In case you are interested, the website is http://days.pravoslavie.ru/ ...mostly helpful if you can read Russian, the English portion of the website only contains articles and not the interesting stuff on churches).
As I browsed the "monasteries" section (Ru.: "Монастыри и подворья Москвы") I happened upon the website of Danilov Monastery, located about 5 metro stops away from my Smolenskaya apartment, slightly south of Moscow's Garden Circle. I was mostly looking to attend another monastic Divine Liturgy, as I had already attended one at Donskoy Monastery the week before and thoroughly enjoyed it (A brief note: Monastic services tend to flow slightly faster than the average Russian Orthodox Church service. This is likely a result of the nearly daily celebration of Divine Liturgy, Matins and Vespers by the Monastic Communities there.) Upon viewing the Monastery's website, I found a brief article on their "News" section (on the Russian version of the website, once again the English website is somewhat lacking) stating that there would be a ceremony the following day at 4pm to receive the Danilov Bells from Harvard University.
I immediately decided that I was going, I had only one class the following day. Furthermore, РГГУ, where I am studying is on the same Metro line as the Monastery, so the commute would not be an issue. At the time, however, there was one setback: the official ceremony, celebrated following Divine Liturgy would take place on Friday, September 12, and I had two classes. I somewhat nervously called my Moscow adviser hoping to find some way out of them, which I did, as she noted most of the teachers at the University would have little or no problem with an Orthodox Christian wanting to attend a major Orthodox event in Moscow.
My mind now at ease, I went to the first ceremony on a bleak 45 degree day at around 3:45pm. I entered the main square of the Monastery itself somewhat confused; I barely knew where I was going, nor did I know where exactly the congregation would "meet" the bells. The amount of people in the square (at that time about 50) and a small gathering of monastics quickly put my mind at ease. As it was cold, I entered the public trapeza (a small building near the Gate Church of St. Symeon the Stylite which sells bread and drinks to the visitors of the monastery) and bought a cup of tea, but nearly as soon as I prepared my tea, the bells began to ring. These of course, were the current set of bells in the Gate Church, which began a joyous peal to hearken the beginning of the procession.
I came out of the trapeza to see the monastic clergy in beautiful gold vestments singing in procession though the gate church. The gathered congregation followed suit and began travelling down Ulitsa Danilovsky Val' towards a large intersection. I noticed that the congregation was now about 200 people, all walking with icons and singing various church hymns, merely proud to have the chance to meet the bells. After several minutes of walking and waiting at the intersection, a flatbed pulled up carrying the Harvard/Danilov bells. I could not see them all at that time due to the crowd and the largest bell, which hid the smaller bells from view. The flatbed drove in front of the clergy and led the procession back to the monastery. I somehow got grouped in between the American Harvard delegation and three or four old Russian women telling me to sing with them, and asking me questions about the monastery as if I lived there. Finally we arrived back at the monastery and the bells were placed near a series of platforms which would eventually hold them for the following days' ceremonies. Before I departed for home, one of the lead bell ringers of the monastery walked by myself and the Harvard group. A Harvard delegate commented, "Father! They're finally home!" The monk just beamed and said "Yes, they are!" and hurried off to the bell tower.
Two days later, I left for the monastery again - this time in the morning...at the time, the sun was barely up (sometime before 7am). I entered the monastery church (Cathedral of the Holy Fathers) in time for the service of Hours. I couldn't have gotten inside at a better time; with the start of the service, the rain increased along with the wind, on a day presently in the low 40s. Divine Liturgy began and the people poured in. The service itself was beautiful: the clergy consisted of 1 Metropolitan (His Beatitude Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk), 1 Archbishop, 4 Mitred Archpriests (including I believe, two Archimandrites), at least 10 Priests, 3-4 deacons, 4-5 subdeacons, and several servers. The choir consisted of two male choruses which sang from both sides of the Cathedral. The only negative side was the number of people. The actual congregation consisted of at least 300-400 people packed into a very small area (while the Cathedral is not small, a great deal of its space is taken up by the area where the Hierarchy stands, the two choir lofts, and several pillars holding icons). When the time came to receive Holy Communion, I made special effort to slip to the front of the line and get out of the Cathedral as soon as was possible; several guards (the size of the average NFL linebacker) held back (with difficulty) parts of the massive congregation, all collectively pushing to get to the front of the communion line. I walked around outside and began searching for a spot near the stage where the upcoming ceremony would take place.
As it was raining quite hard, I stood near a group with umbrellas (I had my own, but if I had opened it, I would have never found a spot to view anything). Within moments, a woman handed me a hot pirozhok, a cup of tea, and about 100 rubles, uttered "God bless you" in Russian, and disappeared into a crowd before I was even able to thank her. Within the next few minutes, a Russian man in his 60s pulled me to the front of the gate viewing the stage, held his umbrella over me and told me "Stay here, you'll see things better!" I was absolutely astounded, but very little prepared me for the next half hour. The clergy processed towards the stage from the Cathedral and took their places under umbrellas held by various subdeacons and readers. Seconds later, I saw two familiar men walk by: the subdeacons to the Patriarch of Moscow (I recognized them from pictures I had previously seen). The bells in the main tower began ringing, and two cars pulled up through the Gate Church.
At that moment, His Holiness, Alexy, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia stepped out of the car and began walking towards the stage. He stopped directly in front of our small group, gave a blessing to our shouts of "Mnogaya Leta! (God Grant You Many years!) and waited. I was at a point where I had no idea what to say or do, as I had just received a blessing from the leading Hierarch in the Russian Orthodox Church throughout the world. But who was he waiting for? Within the next few minutes, another limousine pulled through the Gate Church, only this one came equipped with the Russian Secret Service. Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation stepped out of the car and walked to the Patriarch. The two talked briefly and processed to the stage.
The actual ceremony was brief. The man next to me did his best to make sure I was warm, giving me his gloves and telling others to keep their umbrellas over me. The Patriarch gave his commentary on the return of the bells as did several others. The President briefly rang one of the bells per the request of the Patriarch, which signalled the final moment. Three bell ringers began a series of peals on the Danilov Bells, ringing for the first time in their proper home in nearly 80 years. The sound was phenomenal: the highest bells sounded glorious and the deepest bells shook your entire body. The only thought in my head at that point was "I hope that everyone in the world can hear this and understand its importance."
I left, shaking from the cold, still awestruck at the past several hours. The following day marked my third week in Russia. Looking back, I can't believe that I witnessed all that I did in such a short period of time, but I did. This was truly an amazing event, both personally and for the Church in Russia. I hope it has been interesting reading about it for you all as well!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Return of the Danilov Bells - A History (Part 1)
It's considerably rare to say that you have actually "been part of history." Nowadays, this comes out as somewhat of a cliche, from saying you watched Michael Phelps break Mark Spitz's record (regardless of the fact that it was from the comfort of your home 10,000 miles away from Beijing on NBC Sports), to watching a Revolutionary War reeenactment on the Anniversary of the battle itself. I am hoping, therefore that you, O Devoted Readers (if you exist) will not hold me accountable for falling victim to creating yet another cliche with my following post.I feel that to one degree or another, I have witnessed history in the past few days. Before I come to the story of the past few days, it is necessary to give some background information.
For those of you who know anything about the history of the Soviet Period, you are obviously aware that it was a tumultuous time of social upheaval beginning in about 1905 and coming to fruition in 1917. Ultimately, it would be another five years until the Bolshevik Communist Party under the direction of Vladimir Lenin officially took over the Russian country. With the official takeover of the Russian government by a Communist power (ironically the Bolsheviks were a relative minority, but used the Russian term "bolshe" meaning "large" or "majority" to gain a greater following, as clearly in such a tumultuous time, the people would follow whoever seemed to be the most powerful), they sought to employ Marx's ideology throughout the country. Arguably, this was next to impossible, as Russia's class system was virtually nonexistent. The Bolsheviks therefore began to forcibly turn Russia into their "Communist State" by means of rapid industrialization and destruction of all institutions linked to "bourgeoisie mentality."
One of these institutions was the Russian Orthodox Church. The Church acted as a prime target for Communist hatred as it had an established hierarchy (with the Patriarch, Synod of Bishops, etc.) and practiced the veneration of Saints, Christ and the Theotokos (Gk. God Bearer - The Blessed Virgin Mary), which in the Communist mindset was a notion of subservience to one thing or another, which naturally contradicts Marx's political philosophy of every worker being united as one, all with equal lots in every facet of existence. The Church therefore was attacked full-force by the government: the Patriarch (St. Tikhon of Moscow) was imprisoned, thousands of clergy and believers were murdered, churches were destroyed (most prominently perhaps the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, which was imploded and converted into Moscow's largest swimming pool), and various holy items (bells, icons, relics, etc) were destroyed, sold, or put into storage throughout Russia.
Many of these items, however, were miraculously spared. The Tikhvin Icon of the Theotokos (an ancient icon which the Orthodox accept as the work of St. Luke the Evangelist) was taken out of Russia by the former Archbishop of Chicago, John Garklavs and his adopted son the Archpriest Sergei Garklavs during the turmoil of World War II. The icon was stored in the Garklavs' home in Chicago until 2004 when it was returned to Tikhvin, Russia (approximately 100 miles from St. Petersburg). This brings me, however, to the most recent of such occurences.
In the 1930s, Josef Stalin increased the anti-religious policies of the Soviet Union, ordering hundreds of icons destroyed, churches destroyed (for instance the aforementioned Christ the Saviour Cathedral), and bells and religious artifacts melted down or destroyed. One of the most prominent sets of bells in Russia at that time was a collection (Ru. "zvon") at Danilov Monastery just south of the Garden Ring in Moscow. Stalin ordered these bells to be taken down, which they were, but somehow, they repeatedly avoided the fate of being melted down or destroyed. Eventually, a Harvard businessman named Charles Crane bought the bells and had them shipped to the University's campus within the next several years. This set of approximately 18 bells was stored in Harvard's Lowell House. On important days in the Harvard calendar, as well as weekends, these bells were rung by specially trained ringers on the campus.
In 1985, during the period of Glastnost' and Perestroika (the period of openness and cultural rebirth in Russia preceding the fall of Communism) the Danilov Monastery began to reconstruct the severely damaged regions of the grounds and cathedrals, and services began to be held again by monastic clergy. At this time, however, the monastic community and the Church of Russia began to inquire regarding the bell collection at Harvard. Initially, there was some difficulty, as many at Harvard feared that due to the age and weight of the bells, it would be next to impossible to remove them from the Lowell House belfry. In the past few years, however, a group known as "The Link of Times" began to work with Harvard and the Moscow Patriarchate to restore the bells to their proper home at Danilov Monastery.
I will relate the story of the return in "Part Two" of this blog at a later time.
For those of you who know anything about the history of the Soviet Period, you are obviously aware that it was a tumultuous time of social upheaval beginning in about 1905 and coming to fruition in 1917. Ultimately, it would be another five years until the Bolshevik Communist Party under the direction of Vladimir Lenin officially took over the Russian country. With the official takeover of the Russian government by a Communist power (ironically the Bolsheviks were a relative minority, but used the Russian term "bolshe" meaning "large" or "majority" to gain a greater following, as clearly in such a tumultuous time, the people would follow whoever seemed to be the most powerful), they sought to employ Marx's ideology throughout the country. Arguably, this was next to impossible, as Russia's class system was virtually nonexistent. The Bolsheviks therefore began to forcibly turn Russia into their "Communist State" by means of rapid industrialization and destruction of all institutions linked to "bourgeoisie mentality."
One of these institutions was the Russian Orthodox Church. The Church acted as a prime target for Communist hatred as it had an established hierarchy (with the Patriarch, Synod of Bishops, etc.) and practiced the veneration of Saints, Christ and the Theotokos (Gk. God Bearer - The Blessed Virgin Mary), which in the Communist mindset was a notion of subservience to one thing or another, which naturally contradicts Marx's political philosophy of every worker being united as one, all with equal lots in every facet of existence. The Church therefore was attacked full-force by the government: the Patriarch (St. Tikhon of Moscow) was imprisoned, thousands of clergy and believers were murdered, churches were destroyed (most prominently perhaps the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, which was imploded and converted into Moscow's largest swimming pool), and various holy items (bells, icons, relics, etc) were destroyed, sold, or put into storage throughout Russia.
Many of these items, however, were miraculously spared. The Tikhvin Icon of the Theotokos (an ancient icon which the Orthodox accept as the work of St. Luke the Evangelist) was taken out of Russia by the former Archbishop of Chicago, John Garklavs and his adopted son the Archpriest Sergei Garklavs during the turmoil of World War II. The icon was stored in the Garklavs' home in Chicago until 2004 when it was returned to Tikhvin, Russia (approximately 100 miles from St. Petersburg). This brings me, however, to the most recent of such occurences.
In the 1930s, Josef Stalin increased the anti-religious policies of the Soviet Union, ordering hundreds of icons destroyed, churches destroyed (for instance the aforementioned Christ the Saviour Cathedral), and bells and religious artifacts melted down or destroyed. One of the most prominent sets of bells in Russia at that time was a collection (Ru. "zvon") at Danilov Monastery just south of the Garden Ring in Moscow. Stalin ordered these bells to be taken down, which they were, but somehow, they repeatedly avoided the fate of being melted down or destroyed. Eventually, a Harvard businessman named Charles Crane bought the bells and had them shipped to the University's campus within the next several years. This set of approximately 18 bells was stored in Harvard's Lowell House. On important days in the Harvard calendar, as well as weekends, these bells were rung by specially trained ringers on the campus.
In 1985, during the period of Glastnost' and Perestroika (the period of openness and cultural rebirth in Russia preceding the fall of Communism) the Danilov Monastery began to reconstruct the severely damaged regions of the grounds and cathedrals, and services began to be held again by monastic clergy. At this time, however, the monastic community and the Church of Russia began to inquire regarding the bell collection at Harvard. Initially, there was some difficulty, as many at Harvard feared that due to the age and weight of the bells, it would be next to impossible to remove them from the Lowell House belfry. In the past few years, however, a group known as "The Link of Times" began to work with Harvard and the Moscow Patriarchate to restore the bells to their proper home at Danilov Monastery.
I will relate the story of the return in "Part Two" of this blog at a later time.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
A Little Social Commentary: Parks and Festivals
Russia: most people say it as "that remote place with the KGB and Kremlin and some wacky looking churches." The idea of "Gee it's not like I was calling him from Siberia" and the like seems to invade our American vernacular. But then again, let's be honest, Russia is a massive country with two well known cities, and a bunch of barren land where it snows a lot. At the least, Russia is portrayed as relatively emotionless and dismal, with a bunch of grumpy people, who only get happier when drinking vodka.
Well as I'm writing this, it's about 75 degrees Fahrenheit...which makes it, I think about 24 degrees Celsius (I'm not converting to Kelvin because it doesn't matter, I'm not a scientist!). It's nighttime, so conceivably the temperature has gone down. I'm going to estimate that earlier today, it was around 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius) and by far the most beautiful day of the past few weeks. When I arrived, it was around 85 degrees and humid, within two days dropped to about 50 degrees and raining, in two more was in the 40s, and then climbed gradually back up to the 70s. In the past three days, the temperature has balanced itself somewhere in the mid-70s, with almost non-stop sun. A brief bit of clouds yesterday called to mind the commercial "A bad day in Florida beats a good day almost anywhere else" where the people sunning themselves on the beach are distraught by a lone cloud that enshrouds the sun for mere moments.
Focusing on today, however, as this gorgeous 80 degree+ day happened, I was not in the wastelands of Siberia, picking potatoes or working in Stalin's latest lead weight factory, but in the following park:
I hope the picture quality on that turns out alright, otherwise this is going to make me look like I'm nuts.
This park (Tsaritsyn in the South of Moscow) was not only beautiful, but pristine. There were thousands of people in it, but not a scrap of trash on the ground (with virtually no trashcans as I noticed), not one sketchy drunk passed out on a bench, no smell of...well you get the idea. I certainly can't say the same of Central Park or the park by Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia (certainly not of the latter as I one time witnessed a half naked man in Detroit Red Wings style hockey pants wiping his face with a lemon...interesting to say the least).
The same was true of yesterday at "Den' Goroda" or the celebration of Moscow's 861st Anniversary. I walked probably 5miles worth of Moscow (Tverskaya Ulitsa, to Red Square...Red Square past Christ the Savior Cathedral, through a large park, and down Stariy Arbat to Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya) and can say legitimately the same thing about the majority of the city that I witnessed.
New Year's Eve in Philadelphia (to compare a reasonably grandscale event) a few years ago smelled of cheap alcohol (hidden away from the watchful eye of all society as is the case with nearly all alcohol in the US), and one could not walk in the streets without feeling slightly dirty as the puddles of recent rain intermingled with litter, food, and the like. Furthermore, the feeling of safety was virtually non-existent: whereas in Moscow, the police were nearly everywhere patrolling the streets, parks, Metro stops, etc., New Years Eve in Philadelphia was merely decked with "security guards" at the Waterfront (and police directing traffic...), and no activity in the train, EL, or subway stops. I still consider the five minutes underneath of City Hall awaiting either certain death or the subway to be one of my most frightened moments, as myself and a friend were surrounded by any number of questionable looking individuals.
I'm not knocking Philly, because part of me really has some sense of loyalty dedicated to it. I'm mostly just noting the following: we find ourselves so critical of everyone else's society, its strange customs, its questionable history, its "backwardsness," yet a simple walk through these capitals of the modern world really do show the average person how wrong we really can be. Now I'll be honest...some of the Russians are grim looking. It apparently DOES get very cold here very quickly. But the idea of "bleak Moscow" is a major stretch in my opinion, even if after only two weeks of living here. It's one of those "don't knock it till you try it" matters I think...much like the Babushka's borsch :)
Signing out for now! Back to engaging the world, as always...
Well as I'm writing this, it's about 75 degrees Fahrenheit...which makes it, I think about 24 degrees Celsius (I'm not converting to Kelvin because it doesn't matter, I'm not a scientist!). It's nighttime, so conceivably the temperature has gone down. I'm going to estimate that earlier today, it was around 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius) and by far the most beautiful day of the past few weeks. When I arrived, it was around 85 degrees and humid, within two days dropped to about 50 degrees and raining, in two more was in the 40s, and then climbed gradually back up to the 70s. In the past three days, the temperature has balanced itself somewhere in the mid-70s, with almost non-stop sun. A brief bit of clouds yesterday called to mind the commercial "A bad day in Florida beats a good day almost anywhere else" where the people sunning themselves on the beach are distraught by a lone cloud that enshrouds the sun for mere moments.
Focusing on today, however, as this gorgeous 80 degree+ day happened, I was not in the wastelands of Siberia, picking potatoes or working in Stalin's latest lead weight factory, but in the following park:
I hope the picture quality on that turns out alright, otherwise this is going to make me look like I'm nuts.This park (Tsaritsyn in the South of Moscow) was not only beautiful, but pristine. There were thousands of people in it, but not a scrap of trash on the ground (with virtually no trashcans as I noticed), not one sketchy drunk passed out on a bench, no smell of...well you get the idea. I certainly can't say the same of Central Park or the park by Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia (certainly not of the latter as I one time witnessed a half naked man in Detroit Red Wings style hockey pants wiping his face with a lemon...interesting to say the least).
The same was true of yesterday at "Den' Goroda" or the celebration of Moscow's 861st Anniversary. I walked probably 5miles worth of Moscow (Tverskaya Ulitsa, to Red Square...Red Square past Christ the Savior Cathedral, through a large park, and down Stariy Arbat to Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya) and can say legitimately the same thing about the majority of the city that I witnessed.
New Year's Eve in Philadelphia (to compare a reasonably grandscale event) a few years ago smelled of cheap alcohol (hidden away from the watchful eye of all society as is the case with nearly all alcohol in the US), and one could not walk in the streets without feeling slightly dirty as the puddles of recent rain intermingled with litter, food, and the like. Furthermore, the feeling of safety was virtually non-existent: whereas in Moscow, the police were nearly everywhere patrolling the streets, parks, Metro stops, etc., New Years Eve in Philadelphia was merely decked with "security guards" at the Waterfront (and police directing traffic...), and no activity in the train, EL, or subway stops. I still consider the five minutes underneath of City Hall awaiting either certain death or the subway to be one of my most frightened moments, as myself and a friend were surrounded by any number of questionable looking individuals.
I'm not knocking Philly, because part of me really has some sense of loyalty dedicated to it. I'm mostly just noting the following: we find ourselves so critical of everyone else's society, its strange customs, its questionable history, its "backwardsness," yet a simple walk through these capitals of the modern world really do show the average person how wrong we really can be. Now I'll be honest...some of the Russians are grim looking. It apparently DOES get very cold here very quickly. But the idea of "bleak Moscow" is a major stretch in my opinion, even if after only two weeks of living here. It's one of those "don't knock it till you try it" matters I think...much like the Babushka's borsch :)
Signing out for now! Back to engaging the world, as always...
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