Ipatievsky Vestnik № 2 (22), 2023

In the article, the author examines the initial period of human history and the chain of Old Testament prophecies about the ultimate destinies of the earthly existence of the world. The fall of the first people entailed severe punishment for the human race, but the all-merciful Creator made a promise about the appearance of a Redeemer in the world and established a sacrifice that reminded people of the slaughter of God's Lamb, who took upon himself the burden of all human sins. The belief in the coming of the Savior-M essiah in different periods of human history was different. To strengthen faith, the Lord sent prophets, the central theme of whose predictions was the appearance of Christ, the redemption of the human race by a Great Sacrifice and the return of the lost Eden, the appearance of a new Heaven and a new Earth. But before these global universal upheavals, the antipode of Christ the Savior, the son of perdition, the Antichrist, must appear in the world. From the first days of its existence, the Christian Church has seen predictions about the last times of the existence of our world in scripture.

This article examines the significance of funeral prayers for the Christian tradition through the prism of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, paying attention to the biblical teaching about death. In general, questions about death, about the posthumous existence of a person, about the "afterlife" belong to the so-called "eternal questions" that a person inevitably asks in the process of forming his worldview. These are the questions that no natural science can answer, they belong to the field of metaphysics. For the religious worldview, questions about the death of a person and about posthumous existence belong to the fundamental, universally binding truths of religion, without which religion does not exist. In the Christian worldview, it is possible to fix a certain restraint in the answers to these metaphysical questions. In particular, these questions remain largely unanswered, because the afterlife of man is a region hidden until time, according to the Apostle Paul, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." (1 Corinthians 13:12). And in the same epistle to the Corinthians: "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor. 2:9). Despite this divination, Christian teaching offers answers to these questions, gives a person everything necessary for salvation, for the formation of a holistic worldview.

The article examines the theological and patrological aspects of the Orthodox doctrine of the creation of the world. The Holy Fathers saw in the image of the co-creation a great dogmatic significance and coordinated the first chapters of the book of Genesis primarily not with the arguments of reason and experience, but with the idea of the omnipotence of God, His wisdom and goodness. Therefore, for svt. St. Basil the Great and the other holy fathers analyzed in the article, each act of creation was instantaneous, but all of them together took place within six days. In turn, the evolutionary reading of the Book of Genesis distorts the way of action of all Persons of the Trinity at the creation of the world, as well as the manifestation of the properties of omnipotence, wisdom and goodness of God. It also destroys the connection generally accepted by the holy fathers between the first world (before Adam's fall) and the renewed world after the Second Coming of Christ. The denial of the literal creation of Adam and Eve by God leads to the destruction of the unity of the entire human race, the overthrow of church dogmas about original sin, Incarnation and Redemption.

The article describes the history of the compilation, consideration by the Holy Synod and publication in 1778 (as well as the republication in 1848) of the liturgical sequence in honor of the main shrine of the Kostroma land — the Feodor Icon of the Mother of God. It is noted that the printed edition of this service actually meant the All–Russian glorification of the miraculous image, whereas the first service to the icon was not printed, was used locally and was preserved only in manuscripts of the XVIII–XIX centuries. The author considers the question of the authorship of the service, assesses the criticism of the traditional opinion that the compiler of the liturgical sequence was Archpriest John Krasovsky Jr. (1746–1810). The status of the celebration of the icon on March 14 (old style) is analyzed both in comparison with the tradition of honoring the historical day of the appearance of the icon in Kostroma (August 16, old style), and taking into account the special church- state significance of the day of March 14 for Kostroma and the royal House of the Romanovs. The appendix to the article publishes the full text of the service, presented in 1777 to the Holy Synod (before its reduction during consideration by the Synod), in comparison with the texts of the printed editions of 1778 and 1984.

The article describes an understudied period in the biography of Marshal of the Soviet Union A. M. Vasilevsky (winter 1914/1915) on the basis of archival documents, including previously unpublished ones. At this time, the future commander decides to devote his future destiny to military service. To do this, he passes early exams for the full course of the seminary, receives a document about education and collects the necessary papers for admission to the Cadet school. This article is the material for the second edition of the book "Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky: from seminarian to Marshal".

The article deals with the history of the unusual acquisition of pectoral crosses, unique in their kind, which came out of the workshop of a talented master jeweler I. V. Zakharov, who lived and worked in Moscow in the second half of the 19th century. Their detailed description and technical parameters are given. The award pectoral cross, which is actually also a reliquary cross, has a special reduced appearance and stands out for its parameters and style against the background of silver pectoral crosses produced on the territory of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century. The lack of information about these crosses in the well-known catalogs of jewelry church art and the unusual meeting of two creations of one master after more than 100 years indicates that not all unique works of jewelry were seized during the years of Soviet power from the Church and believers, and then resold or melted down. Until now, there are evidence of the careful preservation and use of shrines for the direct liturgical purpose, acquired and carefully preserved by generations of believers in incredible ways.

The article compares evolution of the Orthodox Church position in Belarus and Georgia. Based on consideration of stages and the main direction of development, the ways of further evolution of relations between two states and Orthodox Church are predicted. The conclusion is formulated about the preservation of the current model of relations between the state and Orthodox Church in Belarus and Georgia in the medium term.

The coat of arms of the Russian Federation, the double-h eaded eagle, asserts the continuity of the Russian Federation from Russia of the past centuries. The eagle's body symbolizes the Fatherland — a multinational nation with its culture, its territory with structures and natural resources, with its state structure and armed forces. Two heads mean civil and spiritual authority. Their authority is emphasized by crowns. The symbols of power are also the scepter and the power crowned with crosses, which shows the indissoluble union of civil power and the spiritual power of the Moscow Patriarchate and the centers of other traditional religious associations separated from it. The third crown shows that the power of the people rises above the president and spiritual leaders, implemented in referendums, presidential elections, impeachment, elections of the patriarch. Christians consider Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Head of the Church to be the bearer of the third crown, which does not contradict with what has been said about the supreme power of the people, according to the proverb "Vox pópuli vox Déi".

The idea of eldership, having gone from the Old Testament patriarchs to the coming to the world of the Savior, acquired a New Testament filling, which was fully revealed by the holy fathers and teachers of the Church. In the history of monasticism, the phenomenon of eldership experienced both periods of prosperity and periods of oblivion. Currently, the topic of eldership and its spiritual significance as an institution has not lost its relevance. This article gives a short essay on the history of the institute of eldership in order to reveal the essence of eldership service.

The paper for the first time publishes a white stone tombstone from the Godunov family tomb in the Holy Trinity Ipatiev Monastery (Kostroma). The restored text of the epitaph suggests that it indicates a representative of the Godunov family, the son of Iosif (Asan) Dmitrievich Godunov, who had two secular christian names — the baptismal Nestor and the public, non-baptismal Mikhail, under which he appears in the overwhelming majority of sources. The paper attempts to clarify the time death of Mikhail's / Nestor Godunov and certain considerations are expressed about the possible date of his birth, as well as about his personal heavenly patrons, in whose honor he was named with two Christian names.