Sophia The Wisdom of God is a sacred concept of Orthodox theology. Born in the silence of mystical contemplation, it acquires not only religious, but also social, moral, and general cultural meanings in the history of Eastern Christian civilization.

In Byzantium, Sophia is the name of the main temple - a symbol of the dedication to God of the Christian empire, arranged by the Providence of the Almighty. The harmony and proportionality of spaces, the golden shimmer of smalt, the majestic figures of mosaics, as if united by the rhythm of the heavenly liturgy, the images of emperors humbly offering to God the fruits of their state activities - models of the cities they founded and the churches they built... The iconographic and architectural program of Hagia Sophia of Constantinople with special strength and convincingly expresses the idea of ​​the presence of God in history, the action of the Divine Logos in the world that lasts “here and now.” At a time when the purity and spontaneity of the perception of temple art were not yet clouded and erased, people felt the beauty and splendor of Sophia as the clearest proof of the truth of Orthodoxy. The words of the ambassadors of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, preserved by the Tale of Bygone Years, are famous: “... we don’t know whether we were in heaven or on earth, because there is no such view and beauty on earth, and we are not able to describe them; We only know that God dwells there with people... We cannot forget this beauty, for every person, having tasted the sweet, turns away from the bitter.” Sophia of Constantinople became, as it were, the “godmother” of Orthodox Rus', who perceived, in the words of Sergei Averintsev, “beauty as holiness.”
It is widely believed that the dedication of the churches of Sophia to the Wisdom of God began only in the 6th century, during the era of Justinian the Great. Indeed, after Sophia of Constantinople, in the key cities of the Byzantine Empire (Trebizond, Thessaloniki, Nicosia, Ohrid, Edessa, Chersonesus - the place of baptism of Prince Vladimir, Sugdei - Sudak), Sophia churches appeared one after another. But the majestic Justinian Temple itself was erected on the site of the ancient Church of Sophia, which burned down during the Nika uprising. Also known is the early, pre-Justinian Church of Sofia, built in the city of Sredets (Serdika, now Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria) and preserved to this day.
And yet, it is with Sophia of Constantinople that the embodied idea of ​​Sophia of the Wisdom of God is firmly connected. Let's say a few words about this prototype of the Russian Sophia churches, about which the architectural historian Choisy wrote that “never have the geniuses of Rome and the East produced such a striking and harmonious work in their combination.” Emperor Justinian made the decision to build a new vast temple forty days after the pacification of the Nika rebellion. The development of the project was entrusted to two architects, Anthimius of Thrales and Isidore of Miletus, who were fully aware of the principles of wisdom known at that time (today we would call them specialists not only in the field of architecture, but also in the field of physics). The most significant cities of the empire, in which monuments of ancient art were still preserved, participated with voluntary and forced sacrifices in the decoration of Hagia Sophia of Constantinople. Eight porphyry columns taken from the Temple of the Sun were brought from Rome; Ephesus donated eight green marble columns. The best decorations were brought to the capital from Cyzicus, Troas and Athens. But precious marbles did not satisfy Justinian - he used gold, silver, ivory... 10 thousand people built a grandiose cathedral over the course of just over four years, and on December 27, 537, the temple was consecrated. Under Justinian, the staff at the temple was designed for 555 people. This number later increased to 600.
The famous dome, more than 30 meters in diameter, dominates the average ship and rests on four concave triangle-sails, in turn supported by four massive pylons. To ensure that the support points did not give way and the entire building did not fall apart, divine services were performed daily during construction, and particles of relics were placed into the very body of the building. A contemporary of the construction, Procopius of Caesarea, wrote about the temple as an image of the cosmos, inspired by the invisible presence of God: “This place is not illuminated by the sun from the outside, but the brilliance is born within it.” The dome, surrounded at the base by a ribbon of windows, gave the impression of hanging in the air - as if it had been lowered from the sky on a golden chain...
Tradition says that an angel suggested the name of the temple to Justinian. “The Legend of Sophia the Wisdom of God,” preserved in the Novgorod patericon (17th century copy), tells: the king “was offended by this, when he named the church, and an angel appeared in the form of a youth, and called by the name of Saint Sophia, who are Wisdom God's." In the altar of Sophia of Constantinople there was an image of the Archangel Michael as the guardian of the temple (the image of the archangel-commander of the “bodiless heavenly forces” also begins to be associated with Sophia themes).

THE FACE OF RUSSIA ITSELF
After the restorers uncovered the ancient iconography of the Vladimir Mother of God, Maximilian Voloshin wrote the following lines:

...From under the vestments and pious scabs
You showed your true face,
The bright face of the Wisdom of Sophia,
A ray of hope in a sad fate,
And in the future - the face of Russia itself,
Despite slander and struggle.

For Rus'-Russia, the theme of Sophia the Wisdom became an expression of faith in the Universe-Creating Word, incarnate for the salvation of humanity. The emphasis on the incarnation brought the image of the Mother of God closer to the Sophia theme. The service of the Ever-Virgin Mary was interpreted by medieval authors as the “temple of Wisdom.” The St. Sophia churches in Rus' were a visible confirmation of the continuation of the tradition of sacred, God-centered statehood: it is noteworthy that Ivan the Terrible, who at one time planned to move the capital to Vologda, ordered the construction of the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which received the name of St. Sophia. The icons of Hagia Sophia, known in several versions, or “translations” (Kiev, Novgorod, Yaroslavl - probably there was also a Polotsk one, but its monuments have not survived), are complex allegorical compositions showing a high level of theological and symbolic consciousness of Ancient Rus'.
Art critic Vera Bryusova gives the following classification of Sophia’s images. In Kyiv iconography, Sophia appears as the Mother of God, Mother of Emmanuel. In Novgorod iconography she has the appearance of the Virgin, but in different translations, and also appears in the image of Emmanuel. In the Yaroslavl version (in particular, on the fresco of the Church of St. John Chrysostom, dating from the 16th-18th centuries), the main place belongs to the Mother of God in the seven-pillar Solomon Temple, with Christ on the cross (the Crucifixion becomes like the seventh pillar). The ciborium temple is crowned with the image of the Lord of hosts and is surrounded by several tiers of images of saints: prophets, apostles, saints, martyrs and martyrs. Later, this composition - going back to biblical verses from the book of Proverbs of Solomon (9:1 et seq.) - is expanded, supplemented and given the name “Wisdom created a temple for herself.”
The most famous and widespread version of the icon of Sophia the Wisdom of God has been known since the mid-15th century as a temple image of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod. It is most likely that this iconographic version arose during the time of Archbishopric Euthymius II and became especially widespread under Gennady of Novgorod, and then under Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow. This image spread widely throughout North-Eastern Rus' (including the Yaroslavl land). On it we see a “fire-like” (“fire-like”), fire-winged angel (sometimes described as a Virgo), seated on a four-legged golden throne with a pillow of fiery color, against the backdrop of a round radiance - “glory”. The angel is depicted wearing a royal crown, wearing a royal dalmatic. In his right hand is a staff with a radiant cross at the top, in his left hand is a scroll. On the sides are the Mother of God and John the Baptist; above Sophia's head is a half-length figure of Christ. At the top, the composition embraces the scroll of heaven, where Etimasia, the Prepared Throne, is located. The temple feast of the icon was established on the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God.
The biblical and iconographic theme of Wisdom gave rise to many interpretations that were lively and relevant reading. Already in one of the first monuments of East Slavic writing - the Izbornik of Svyatoslav of 1073 - one can find the so-called interpretation of Hippolytus-Anastasius. Especially for the Novgorod icon, as its interpretation, the “Word of Wisdom” was written, preserved in three copies of the 15th and 16th centuries. “The Tale is Known about Sophia the Wisdom of God” belongs to the pen of the famous spiritual writer of the 16th century, Zinovy ​​​​of Otensky. In the second quarter of the 17th century, Semyon Shakhovsky wrote “The Service of Hagia Sophia” for the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral. Finally, in 1687, Ignatius Rimsky-Korsakov, archimandrite of the Moscow Novospassky Monastery, the family tomb of the Romanovs, composed a detailed “Explanation of Sophia” in the style of a court panegyric (the text was presented to Princess Sofya Alekseevna when sending troops to the Crimea)…
“Overflowing” across theological boundaries, the semantics of Sophia was associated with such concepts as creative construction, creative knowledge, spiritual unity. According to the fair remark of the famous Byzantinist A. N. Grabar (1896-1990), no subject is so closely connected with the religious history of Russia as Sophia the Wisdom of God: from ancient times to the present day, it has been a topic that tests the insight of commentators.

“SPIRITUAL SWONSE”
The problem is that since the end of the 19th century, after several philosophical and poetic works (and even more personal conversations-revelations) by Vladimir Solovyov, the category of Hagia Sophia became the object of mystical and magical speculation, which gave rise to an entire “sophiological” literature. Echoes of sophiological disputes can be heard to this day, and sometimes it is difficult to immediately understand which interpretation of the image of Hagia Sophia is professed by this or that respected author. Thanks to the activities of emigrant philosophers and theologians, the term “Sophia” abroad has firmly become one of the “Russian brands”: when it is difficult to say anything intelligible about the “Russian soul”, they talk about its sophia...
Solovyov came to the theme of Sophia as the World Soul, the Eternal Feminine from metaphysical optimism, from the justification of the cosmos: “On the dark basis of discord and chaos, an invisible force brings out the bright threads of universal life and harmonizes the disparate features of the universe into bright images.” The cosmic principle governing existence in one of Solovyov’s poems is called “the bright daughter of dark chaos”... In the 1890s, towards the end of his life, Vladimir Sergeevich was literally captured by a magical whirlwind that had a distinct erotic overtones: it postulated the existence of a certain female aspect of the Deity (“feminine shadows of the Divine"), which has a personal existence.
The work “The Meaning of Love” states that “eternal Femininity, striving for realization and embodiment, is not only an inactive image in the mind of the Divine, but a living spiritual being, possessing all the fullness of strength and action. The entire world and historical process is the process of its realization and embodiment in a great variety of forms and degrees.” It turns out that it is to this strange cosmic creature (strongly reminiscent of a pagan goddess - the wife of the demiurge god) that all lovers and lovers raise their feelings, without realizing it: “The heavenly object of our love is only one, always and for everyone the same but the eternal femininity of God.” Priest Georgy Florovsky, who possessed an amazing quality of spiritual sobriety, characterizes the “Sophia” opuses of the celibate philosopher as “a terrible occult project of connecting humanity with God through heterosexual love.” Indeed, Vladimir Sergeevich asserts that “the transformation of an individual female being into a ray of eternal Divine femininity, inseparable from its source, will be a real, not only subjective, but also an objective reunification of an individual person with God, the restoration in him of the living and immortal image of God.”
There is no doubt that behind such constructions is Solovyov’s personal visionary experience, which raises strong doubts about its good quality. The merciless Florovsky writes about Solovyov’s later years: “It was, it seems, the darkest period in his life, “spiritual fainting,” temptation by erotic magic, a time of rotten and black passion.” Obviously, the son of the great historian in his youth experienced something that he interpreted as a meeting with the Soul of the World (this spiritualistic experience is described by him in the poem “Three Dates”). Throughout his life, Solovyov remained faithful to the “Virgin of the Rainbow Gate” of his visions, sang her in poetry and awaited her coming in an “imperishable body.” Shortly before the death of the philosopher, a tragicomic episode occurred to him, perceived by some authors as “retribution to the mysticist.” One day, an elderly lady, Anna Schmidt, appeared to Vladimir Sergeevich and decisively and in all seriousness declared that she was the incarnation of Sophia, and Solovyov was the incarnate Logos. The alarmed philosopher asked the lady not to talk to anyone about him, but rather to pray more... However, Mrs. Schmidt did not calm down and after Solovyov’s death, being already a completely insane old woman, she annoyed Blok with her visits.
But Alexander Alexandrovich had his own candidate for the role of the Virgin of the Rainbow Gate - his wife Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva. “Eternal Femininity” became one of the favorite themes of the Silver Age; it was especially popular in the circle that met at Blok’s Shakhmatovo estate. Today it may seem somewhat pathological and wild, but adult, educated and talented people (among whom, by the way, was the poet Andrei Bely) in the summer of 1904 declared Blok’s young wife the embodiment of Eternal Femininity and began to ritually honor her (the most interesting thing is that her husband was also not against). But one cannot amuse oneself with mysteries. The gaming cult ended in nervous breakdowns and psychological breakdowns. However, it should be recognized that Blok and his friends exactly followed Solovyov’s program, which provided for the “epiphany” of Sophia’s imperishable features in an ordinary woman... As one of the eyewitnesses of the events and moods of those years, Georgy Chulkov, recalled, “such haze arose around the “eternally feminine” that Not only weak heads were spinning, but also quite strong heads were spinning. And the “highest” sometimes turned out to be “the abyss below.”
Vladimir Solovyov was a rather unchurch man, and his constructions for the time being did not affect the theological consciousness of the Church. The situation changed when thinkers invested with pastoral rank began to speak from a sophiological position—priest Pavel Florensky, archpriest Sergius Bulgakov. The theological work of Father Paul was interrupted (as was his life later) by Bolshevik repressions, but Sergei Bulgakov managed to turn the Theological Institute in Paris, which he led, into a real stronghold of sophiology. It should be noted that disputes about Hagia Sophia poisoned not only the philosophical and intellectual, but also the moral atmosphere of the Parisian island of the Russian Abroad. Consider one well-known episode dating back to the apogee of the discussions (November 1935). One of the participants in the religious-philosophical debate, the sophiologically inclined Boris Vysheslavtsev (author of the book “Ethics of Transformed Eros”), after the end of the controversy, completely lost his composure, beat his opponent Maxim Kovalevsky until he bled. Apparently, his eros was far from completely transformed... It is characteristic that Vysheslavtsev’s friend, Nikolai Berdyaev, made a highly critical remark: “People who believed in Sophia, but did not believe in Christ, could not distinguish between realities.”
Among the definitions of Hagia Sophia, scattered in the works of Florensky and Bulgakov, in addition to purely artistic images (“The Great Root of the Whole Creature,” etc.), there are many that evoke a feeling of some kind of new god-building: “the idea of ​​God,” “creative the beginning of the world", "Kingdom, Power and Glory of God", "holiness of creation", "the truest, purest and fullest humanity", "Great, Royal and Feminine Being" and, finally, especially unfortunate: "goddess" and "fourth hypostasis " Sophia turns out to be a living being with a personal existence, “neither God, nor the eternal Son of God, nor an angel, nor a holy man” (Florensky, “The Pillar and Ground of Truth”) and at the same time “the line that lies between God and the world, Creator and creature, she herself is neither one nor the other, but something completely special, simultaneously connecting and separating both” (Bulgakov, “The Non-Evening Light”).
At a certain point, sophiological constructions began to really threaten the religious and cultural identity of the Russian emigration. It is necessary to name the names of those who showed in their works the actual isolation of sophiologists from the Christian tradition. After the appearance of the brilliant church-historical study “On the Veneration of Sophia the Wisdom of God in Byzantium and Rus',” the insufficient level of competence of Bulgakov, Florensky and their followers became obvious. In the fight against the “newly invented temptation,” the forces of foreign countries and the Church remaining in the Fatherland united. The theologian Vladimir Lossky, who lived in exile, prepared the materials of the Decree of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius (who himself was an outstanding theologian). A document condemning sophiology as a heretical teaching appeared in 1935. For that part of the emigration that did not recognize the “sub-Soviet” church leadership, the opinion of the ardent monarchist Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) was important. His book “The New Teaching of Sophia by the Wisdom of God,” containing a detailed, point-by-point, critical analysis of the writings of sophiologists, was published in the same 1935 in the capital of Tsarist Bulgaria, Sofia. After the publication of these studies, sophiological debates began to decline and practically died out during the Second World War.

CHRIST IS THE WISDOM OF GOD
Why did conservative-minded Orthodox Christians consider the thoughts of Solovyov, Bulgakov, Florensky not just heresy, but outright blasphemy? The fact is that the mysterious, esoteric symbolism of Hagia Sophia has a very clear dogmatic dimension. And dogmas, according to the same Bulgakov, are “the ledger of religious experience” - a fence designed to protect the shrines of faith. Who does Christian tradition mean by Sophia? The answer is quite clear. The Church calls Christ the hypostatic, personal Wisdom of God.
The concept of Divine Wisdom is expressed in a number of books of the Old Testament - in particular, the book of Proverbs of Solomon and the non-canonical Wisdom of Solomon and the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach tell about it in detail. Let us cite one of the most famous passages telling about Wisdom (Prov. 8:22 - 31): “The Lord made me the beginning of His way, before His creatures, from time immemorial; I have been anointed from everlasting, from the beginning, before the existence of the earth. I was born when there were no deeps yet, when there were no springs abundant with water. I was born before the mountains were erected, before the hills, when He had not yet created either the earth, or the fields, or the initial specks of dust of the universe. When He prepared heaven, I was there. When He drew a circular line across the face of the abyss, when He established the clouds at the top, when He strengthened the sources of the abyss, when He gave the sea a charter so that the waters would not cross its borders, when He laid the foundations of the earth: then I was an artist with Him, and I was a joy every day, having fun before His face all the time, rejoicing in His earthly circle, and my joy was with the sons of men.”
Summarizing the work of many generations of interpreters, the “Explanatory Bible” notes: “In this section, the fathers and teachers of the Church, not without reason, saw under the eternal and peace-giving Wisdom the hypostatic Wisdom, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Son of God, bringing the concept of it closer to the concept of the Word of God, which, according to the teaching of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, was with God from the beginning, was God himself, through whom “all things came into being, and without whom nothing that came into being began to be” (John 1:1-3, cf. Heb. 1 :2; Rev. 3:14). The next chapter of Proverbs opens with verses that formed the basis of one of the translations of the Sophia icon: “Wisdom built herself a house, hewed out its seven pillars, slaughtered a sacrifice, dissolved her wine and prepared a meal...” The sacrificial “Feast of Wisdom” is perceived as a prototype of the New Testament Eucharistic meal and Christ's atoning sacrifice. The image of a house founded by Wisdom is a symbol of the establishment by Hypostatic Wisdom of the Kingdom of God or the Church among people, for their spiritual nourishment, enlightenment and sanctification. The seven pillars were interpreted as the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord - see Isa. 11: 1 - 3), seven sacraments of the Church, seven apocalyptic churches, seven Ecumenical Councils.
In the first centuries of Christianity, the doctrine of Jesus Christ as the Wisdom of God was not yet fully established in the general church consciousness. Saint Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch (died in the 80s of the 2nd century) and Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (130-202) identified Wisdom with the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Later, Hippolytus (3rd century), a student of Irenaeus of Lyons and the great Origen, created a classic interpretation of the 9th chapter of Proverbs. In the Izbornik it is included in the questions and answers of Anastasia Sinaita: “Christ of God and the Father wisdom and power (created) his flesh; The Word became flesh and dwelt in us and established the seventh pillar of the Holy Spirit with the sevenfold figure, just as Isaiah spoke...” The interpretation of Wisdom as the Second Hypostasis was developed by Saints Cyprian of Carthage, Athanasius of Alexandria, and Basil the Great.
Archbishop Seraphim Sobolev in the book “New Teaching about Hagia Sophia” provides an overview of the acts of the Ecumenical Councils, clearly indicating that the understanding of Wisdom as the Logos - Christ was firmly established in the dogmatic consciousness of the Church. This same understanding is reflected in the liturgical practice of Orthodoxy. The canon for Maundy Thursday of the Venerable Kozma of Mayum contains the following words, linking the images of Christ and the Mother of God within the framework of the Sophia theme: “The infinite Wisdom of God, which created and preserved all living things, created for itself a dwelling from the pure unmarried Mother, for having clothed itself in the bodily temple, Christ our God, solemnly became famous."
The same perception of Sophia is reflected in icon painting and temple construction. One of the earliest images of Sophia was in the catacombs near Alexandria. It was described by the Russian researcher Kondakov at the beginning of the twentieth century, but now, unfortunately, it has been lost. Wisdom had the appearance of Immanuel with wings and the inscription “sofha”. Later (mainly in the West) Sophia is depicted both as the Hypostatic Wisdom - Christ, and as the personification of wisdom - sometimes the confusion of these categories leads to a darkening of the meaning of the compositions.
The spiritual program of Sophia of Constantinople was also Christological. The temple holiday there was Monday of St. Thomas Week, in commemoration of the confession of faith in Christ by the Apostle Thomas, expressed in the words: “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). During the services in the St. Sophia Church before the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, the troparion of the Wisdom of God was sung: “The Wisdom of the Father, the Radiance of Glory and the Image of His Hypostasis, who founded the heavens and the earth in the beginning, bless Thy heritage, preserve our King in peace, save the Church, Thy city and Thy people " Especially for his temple, Emperor Justinian composed the prayer “Only Begotten Son,” which is still performed in Orthodox churches. Despite the difference in the iconographic programs of the Kyiv and Novgorod Sophia, both churches, according to Vera Bryusova, “reveal an understanding of Wisdom as Christ.” Sophia Christology was adopted and developed in Rus'. Maximus the Greek's student Zinovy ​​Otensky, explaining the confusion of his contemporaries regarding the concept of Hagia Sophia, decisively distinguishes names, showing that Wisdom, Logos, Word and Power of God refer to the Son of God; Comforter, Paraclete - to the Spirit of God. The Mother of God (which some also began to identify with Sophia after the establishment of the temple holiday of Sophia of Novgorod on the day of the Dormition) is accompanied by other “words” - the Most Pure One, the Mother of the Heavenly King, the real Mother of God...
The fiery Angel of the Novgorod icon is interpreted by the Orthodox consciousness as the Son of God - “Angel of the Great Council”, in accordance with the prophecy of Isaiah: “For to us a child is born - a Son is given to us; the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). The icon itself caused controversy in the 16th century - some conservatives were inclined to see in it a “fictitious likeness”, “Latin wisdom”. Indeed, a certain overload of this composition with symbols, its “literary quality” evoke analogies with Western, Catholic monuments. However, popular veneration of the shrine (the image was considered miraculous) received high support from the Archbishop of Novgorod, later Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow.
...One of the semantic fields of the inexhaustible theme of Sophia of the Wisdom of God is associated with the concept of wholeness, integrity - the Divine simplicity of the Logos. Perhaps it was precisely this moral and spiritual line that determined the high demand for icons and legends dedicated to Sophia in those periods when Rus' especially needed unity. As V. G. Bryusova writes, completing her large-scale study “Sophia the Wisdom of God in Old Russian Literature and Art,” “in admiration of the divine miracle one feels the mysticism of the mystery of the resurrection of an Orthodox person after innumerable disasters.” This hope is given by faith, from the absurdity and “madness” of which the “apostle of tongues” taught to draw strength: “For when the world through its wisdom did not know God in the Wisdom of God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. For both the Jews demand miracles, and the Greeks seek wisdom; But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks, Christ, the Power of God and the Wisdom of God” (I Cor. 1:21-24).

Sergei ANTONENKO, Rodina magazine

In the Bible, the image of Sophia the Wisdom of God occupies a special place. It belongs equally to both the Old and New Testaments, being a name that refers to the person of the Lord who created the universe, and at the same time one of the most important concepts associated with ideas about the presence and participation of God in human affairs. For centuries, the minds of prophets, theologians, philosophers, poets, and artists tried to reveal its deep and multifaceted meaning in every way available to them. The source that fed them, in addition to the books of Wisdom - the Proverbs of Solomon, the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach, Ecclesiastes, the book of Job, - the Psalms and the books of the New Testament, were the texts of the liturgy and liturgical canons, among which the canon of Cosmas of Maium of the Maundy Thursday service stands out. , in which the image of Sophia is glorified and interpreted.

In Rus', from the time she accepted baptism, there was an understanding of Wisdom that was completely adequate to the apostolic one: “And we preach Christ crucified... Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23-24). Among the articles included in the Izbornik 1073 led. Kyiv book Svyatoslav, there is an interpretation of the 9th parable of Solomon "Wisdom made herself a home" Hippolytus of Rome (III century) as edited by a 6th century author. Anastasia Sinaita, where it says: “The Christ of God and the despairing wisdom and power... having become flesh in a word, dwelt in us.”

Icon Sophia, Wisdom of God (Kyiv)

I also understood the words of the parable of Metropolitan. Kiev Clement Smolyatich, who mentioned this in a letter to Thomas the Presbyter: “This is what Solomon says when he says that “wisdom created a temple for itself”: wisdom is Divinity, and the temple is humanity, for Christ our true God, as in the temple, entered into the flesh, having received it from our most pure mistress, the Mother of God.” The St. Sophia Cathedrals of Kyiv, Novgorod, and Polotsk, built in the 1st half, were dedicated to the Savior. - sir. XI century This, in particular, was evidenced by the images located above the entrances to these cathedrals: in the naos of St. Sophia of Kiev, on the western wall under the choir, Christ on the throne, surrounded by representatives of the grand ducal dynasty, starting with the baptist of Rus', Prince. Vladimir; a grandiose image of the Savior, known from descriptions, above the entrance to Sophia of Novgorod.

In fact, each temple was the “House of Wisdom”, which is spoken of in the 9th parable of Solomon. This is a similarity to the Holy of Holies of the Temple of Solomon, where the Lord dwelt between the lid of the Ark of the Covenant and the wings of the cherubim that crowned it, which is confirmed by the words of the psalm, laid out in mosaics above the arch of the altar of Sophia of Kyiv: “God is in his midst: he will not be moved; God will help him early in the morning." (Ps. 45:6). At the same time, the Temple of Sophia showed the image of the Church as the body of Christ: “As you come to Him [the Lord], a living stone... chosen and precious by God, you also, like living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”(1 Pet. 2:4-5).

In the decor of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv in the 40s of the 11th century. numerous images of figures of saints, located strictly frontally, are indeed similar to the stones from which the entire building is composed. In accordance with the text of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians, which says that the Church of Christ is established “on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” (Eph. 2:20), in the lower register of the painting of the Kyiv temple there are images of the apostles Peter and Paul and many prophets, as a rule, occupying a place in the upper spatial zones in the temple decorations.

And the medallion with the image of Christ the Priest, the shepherd of the people who had just joined Christianity, was placed by the mosaicists in the castle of the eastern girth arch, where the “cornerstone”, i.e., the keystone, should be located.

The same personification of the Church is the Mother of God, into whom, as into the “royal palace”, the House of Wisdom, the Divine Word moved in, having received human flesh from the Most Pure Virgin. In the mosaic image of Our Lady of Oranta, decorating the altar concha of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, this architectural symbolism received a particularly powerful expression.

Our Lady of Oranta. Mosaics from the 11th century Hagia Sophia, Kyiv

The monumental figure of the Blessed Virgin is inextricably fused with the mass of the wall, which emphasizes its inviolability and at the same time makes the comparison of the temple with the body of Christ especially convincing. No less impressive is the comparison of the figure of Our Lady of Oranta with the scene of the Eucharist located below her - the communion of the apostles with Christ. She appears here as a visible symbol of the indivisible unity, the monolithic integrity of the Church, created through the communion of the faithful with the body and blood of Christ.

As a creation of Divine Wisdom and at the same time as the body of Christ, the Church, personified by the Mother of God, is his image, or icon. This is evidenced by the dedication of many churches of Byzantium and Ancient Rus' to Sofia. But the word "Sofia" was perceived not only as a personal name and as the name of the main creation of Wisdom - the Church, prefiguring the coming Kingdom of God, where heaven and earth will unite.

It was also a sign of God's presence, God's glory, the seal of the Holy Spirit, which marked the children and servants of Wisdom, and finally, the name of His gift - the spirit of wisdom. In the minds of believers, the image of the hypostatic Wisdom - Jesus Christ - has never been separated from his creations, visible evidence of his good action, and from the idea of ​​​​manifold and inexplicable by the human mind manifestations of divine providence in the world - “the ways of the Lord”.

Researchers of the iconography of Sophia of the Wisdom of God, having studied literary sources and art materials of Byzantium, Ancient Rus' and Western Europe, identified several types of images related to the theme of Wisdom, correlated with certain complexes of concepts and ideas. They can be grouped like this:

1. Sophia as a personified image of the abstract concept of higher knowledge - wisdom, with which “kings reign and the mighty write the truth” (Proverbs 8:15). To distinguish the subtle shades of iconographic symbolism, it is important to especially focus on the extrapersonal (“non-hypostatic”) nature of such personifications. In type they go back to the ancient personifications of the elements, figures of gods, nymphs and muses. Among the most striking and visual examples of images of this kind is the miniature of the Psalter of the 10th century. Paris National Library, representing King David between two female figures - personifications of Prophecy and Wisdom. We find winged female figures personifying Love, Faith and Hope in the miniatures of the 1st half manuscript. XII century Words of Gregory the Theologian, kept in the monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai.

2. Externally, the images of the servants of Wisdom - representatives of the Heavenly Hierarchy - are very similar to personifications of this kind. As a rule, these are also female figures in ancient clothes, without wings or with wings, standing on the sides of the throne of Divine Wisdom. But, unlike the former, they are actors who are not associated with any abstract concepts. Angels either serve Wisdom or are sent by her as messengers, heralds, enlighteners, givers, or conveners of the faithful to a feast. In the icon “Annunciation” n. XIV century from the collection of the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin in Moscow depicts a girl - a servant in the seven-column House of Wisdom.

3. In addition, in the paintings of temples, miniatures of manuscripts, and on icons, there is a special type of image of the Angel of Wisdom, which uniquely combines the features of the first two types. Usually this figure (winged or wingless), similar in every way to the personification of Wisdom, appears in the role of a muse - an inspirer, an inspiration for the creativity of a writer or artist, dictating to him.

She is distinguished by a girlish type of face and a special six- or seven-rayed halo of crossed rhombuses - a symbol of eternal existence and the creative divine principle, as evidenced by the inscription often located nearby: “The Wisdom of God.” At the same time, this angel is the “messenger of Wisdom”, a servant who gives the gift of divine grace to God’s chosen ones, and therefore the word “Wisdom” inscribed next to him or on his halo means the name of the gift itself and at the same time indicates the name of the one whose messenger he is .

One of the most indicative images in this sense is the Tver icon “Matthew the Evangelist” of the 15th century, where on the star-shaped halo of the wingless figure of the angel of Wisdom there is the inscription: “PR[E]M[U]D[RO]ST[L]. B[O]ZHYA IСЪ. H[RI]S[TO]VA" (The Wisdom of God of Jesus Christ).

Actually, the depiction of the act of transferring a gift, the moment of revelation of the divine will, is the main theme of the iconographic type under consideration. Icons, frescoes and miniatures representing the personification of Wisdom, dictating to the evangelists the words of divine revelation - the Holy Scriptures, reveal it most clearly. It is important that the giver of the gift himself, Christ the Wisdom, is usually not depicted here.

4. But scenes are known where it is Christ himself, the Divine Wisdom, who appears as the giver of the gifts of the Holy Spirit resting on him. In them you can see small figures of winged angels, which in this case are depicted not as servants distributing gifts, but as personifications of the seven spirits of divine grace, with which, according to the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 11: 1-2), the Messiah - the Son of David - is anointed . These are the spirits of “wisdom and understanding,” “counsel and strength,” “knowledge and piety,” and “the spirit of the fear of God.”

5. Among the images accompanied by the inscription “Sophia”, personifications of “Wisdom” as the concept of the gracious action of God, a divine gift, or representing messengers, servants, messengers of Divine Wisdom, the figure of Wisdom itself as the Divine hypostasis, the second person of the Trinity, stands out. “Born before the Virgin” and sitting at the right hand of the Father” (Ps. 109: 1, 3), being “at the beginning of the works of God,” she is the image of His goodness, the “creative Word,” the creator of everything visible and invisible: “Thy works are magnified, O Lord: Thou hast done all things by Wisdom; the earth is filled with Thy creations.” (Ps. 103, 24).

The range of iconographic depictions representing the hypostatic Wisdom is very diverse: from the image of Christ Pantocrator, accompanied by the inscription “Sophia,” to a winged angelic figure with a cross-shaped halo, inscribed in a rhombus or star-shaped radiance, the image of the glory of the Father. Among them are images of Christ the Angel of the Great Council, Christ the Good Silence, Christ the Sleepless Eye, Christ the Ancient of Days, Christ the Great Bishop, etc. They also include the image of the 12-year-old Christ in the temple, teaching the elders of Jerusalem.

Christ Angel of the Great Council

In Rus', such images became known no later than the 14th century, as evidenced by the fresco of the vestibule of the Church of the Assumption on Volotovo Field in Novgorod 1363. Here, the wingless figure of Wisdom, crowned with a star-shaped halo, is represented sitting against the backdrop of a seven-column basilica church, next to which there is a meal. Two groups of her servants are also depicted here. Some prepare sacrificial animals for the feast, others go to call the faithful and wise to the feast.

The Novgorod image of the feast represents the incarnate Logos, Jesus Christ, God's power and God's Wisdom.

Similar images of Christ the angel, usually surrounded by a host of angelic forces, are especially often found in miniatures of the 11th-14th centuries, illustrating in Byzantine manuscripts the Words of Gregory the Theologian the beginning of the Second Word on Holy Pascha: “I will guard my camp, says the wonderful Habakkuk (Hab. 2 , 1). I will stand with him now... I stood and looked: and behold, a man ascended onto the clouds, a very tall man, and his image was like the image of an Angel, and his clothes were like the sparkle of fleeting lightning. He raised his hand to the East, exclaimed with a loud voice... and said: “Now is the salvation of the world!”

It is known that many attempts were made to ban allegorical images of Christ. The Trullo Church Council of 691-692 in its resolution called for Christ to be written only in the flesh. Much later, images of Christ the angel, as well as images of him in the guise of the Elder Ancient of Days, raised doubts about their canonicity among traditionally-minded Russian people, which more than once became the subject of consideration at local Church councils in the 16th-17th centuries. One can recall the famous case of a diak close to Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Ivan Viskovaty, which arose in the middle. XVI century in connection with the unusual images of Christ, including the winged one, on the so-called. “Four-part” icon of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. Nevertheless, the image of Christ the angel has not lost its relevance over the centuries.

This is explained by several reasons. First of all, because this image was the most important link in the cosmogonic and historiosophical ideas of Christianity, based on the concept of the eternal plan for the creation of all creation and the divine Economy, that is, the providential action of God in the universe, his care for the world, the salvation of mankind and the establishment of the Kingdom of God in earth.

"To me , - wrote the ap. Paul to the Ephesians, - grace is given... to reveal to everyone what is the dispensation of the mystery, which was hidden from eternity in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, so that now through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers in heaven, according to the eternal purpose which He fulfilled in Christ Jesus.”(Eph. 3:8-11). Obviously, no other image was capable of adequately embodying the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bpre-eternal existence in the bosom of the Father, i.e., before the incarnation, the second person of the Trinitarian Deity, his creative principle - the Logos, or Wisdom, except the angelic one, indicating incorporeality and uncreatedness. This also explains the constant appeals to the books of the Old Testament, primarily to the Psalms and the Prophets, found in the Gospels and Apostolic Epistles, and then among the fathers and teachers of the Church.

In them is the image of the not yet incarnate Son of God, the Angel of the Great Council, as the prophet calls him. Isaiah takes center stage: “To us a child was born, a Son was given to us, the government is on His shoulder, and His name will be called: Angel of the Great Council, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Ruler, Prince of Peace, Father of the Age to Come.”(Isa. 9:6). Back in the 4th century. Athanasius of Alexandria wondered: “If God is the Creator and Creator, - the Creator creates through the Son, and it is impossible to see anything brought into being otherwise than by the Word - then is it not blasphemy, when God is the creator, to assert that there has never been a creative (i.e. ... that is, the creator. - L. L.) His Word and Wisdom?(Against the Arians word 1. § 16). He continues: “As David sings: “Thou hast created all things by Wisdom” (Ps. 103:24) ... and this Wisdom is the Word; and this Word is Christ” (Against the Arians, Word 1. § 19).

Among the works of medieval Russian art, perhaps the most remarkable and mysterious, which caused and continues to cause controversial opinions, is the iconographic type created by Russian icon painters and received in literature starting from the 19th century. the name “Novgorod” after the icon of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod. It represents an architecturally ordered, harmoniously built picture of the world. It embodied the entire complex of ideas associated with dogmatic interpretations of the image of Divine Wisdom.

Sophia the Wisdom of God is depicted here in the form of an angel with a flaming pink or pink-red face, with red wings, sitting on a throne supported on seven pillars, on either side of which stand the Mother of God and John the Baptist in poses of prayerful address. Above him is Christ Pantocrator, blessing with both hands, and even higher is the Etymasia, or Prepared Throne, standing on the arch of heaven and surrounded by kneeling angels.

It is known that in Rus' already in the 16th century. this fruit of refined theological thought and iconographic creativity raised many puzzling questions, forcing the most authoritative church leaders to remind those asking that the name Wisdom of God refers to the second person of the Trinity, the God of the Word - Christ. At the same time, the authors of the answers, in particular the younger contemporary of the famous theologian Maxim the Greek, Elder Zinovy ​​​​Otensky, turned to the primary source of this interpretation of the image of Sophia - the words of the Apostle Paul.

But since the interpretation concerned primarily the problem of the dedication of the temples to Hagia Sophia and the dogmatically correct understanding of the very name of the Wisdom of God, and not its image, the appearance of the fire-winged angel continued to confuse minds. He demanded more detailed and convincing interpretations, explaining not only its dogmatic basis, but also the essence of the pictorial symbolism itself. Therefore, on icons of this type in gray. XVI century Extensive inscriptions and comments began to appear accompanying images of Sophia.

Thus, on the temple icon of the Assumption Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra we read: “The image of Sophia, the Wisdom of God, demonstrates the purity of the Most Holy Theotokos of unspeakable virginity. Virginity has a fiery face and over the ears there are toroki (ribbons signifying omniscience and obedience to the will of God), a royal crown on its head, and above its head it has Christ... Interpretation: it shows a fiery face, since virginity is likened to (has a purpose) to be the receptacle of God; fire is God, burning bodily passions and enlightening the virgin soul... Torok is the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit..."

Naturally, this kind of allegorical interpretation only complicated the perception of the icon and multiplied the number of perplexed questions. In the XVIII-XIX centuries. the word “Sophia” is perceived mainly as an abstract concept, which in the mass consciousness of believers is no longer associated with the hypostatic Wisdom - Christ, at best denoting one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Even prominent and educated clergy found it difficult to answer the question why the images of Sophia on the temple icons of the St. Sophia Cathedrals of Kiev and Novgorod differ (in the Kiev icon, instead of an angel, the Mother of God is depicted standing in a seven-column church) and the days of the patronal feasts do not coincide, which in Novgorod with the. XV century celebrated on August 15, on the day of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, and in Kyiv - on September 8, on the day of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary? Philosophical and theological quests XIX - AD. XX century made the topic of Sophia more relevant than ever and at the same time complicated it even more. But they also stimulated scientific research, which focused on both biblical texts and texts of ancient theological interpretations, and iconographic monuments.

The image of Sophia in the form of a fire-winged and fire-faced Angel of the Great Council is located here not just in the center, but in the middle cross of the stage, at the intersection of its horizontal and vertical axes. The first axis is formed by 3 figures: Sophia, the Mother of God, and the Forerunner, standing on the sides of her throne, as in the Deesis. The second also consists of a trimorphic composition: Etymasia, a medallion with a half-length figure of Christ Pantocrator and again the Angel of the Great Council.

Such a complex construction and an unusual iconographic rendering of the image in itself indicate that its creators intended to combine in this way two main aspects associated with the symbolism of the image of Sophia. One of them is the “household” aspect, associated with the providential action of the Trinitarian God, descending to people “from the throne of the Father through the Son in the Spirit” and returning to them the Kingdom of Heaven.

The presence of the Holy Spirit is indicated by the royal rank of an angel - the anointed of God. Etymasia means the coexistence of Christ in the bosom of the Father until the incarnation and at the same time the image of the coming Kingdom of Heaven, when the Ancient of Days - the Trinitarian God - will sit on the throne to judge the nations. The half-figure of Pantocrator blessing with a bishop's gesture is an image of Christ's earthly ministry. The Angel of the Great Council is Christ, revealing his divine essence upon the Ascension and upon his accession to the throne of the Kingdom of Heaven after the Last Judgment.

The fact that it is He, proclaimed through the prophets and through the Archangel Gabriel, who preached the gospel to Mary, is indicated by Christ Pantocrator, the Mother of God holding a medallion with the image of the Child Christ, and the Baptist, who testified: “Behold the Lamb of God... I saw the Spirit descending from heaven ... and abiding on Him" ​​(John 1, 29, 32). The second aspect is ecclesiological, associated with the unchangeable, true reality of the life of the Church, which is revealed as the mystery of the union of man with God that takes place in it. Its apogee comes with the end of human history - the Second Coming of Christ, the transition of time into eternity, with the advent of “day without evening”, the opening of heaven on earth and the manifestation of the true divine essence of the King of the universe.

It is no coincidence that the lower part in the icons of Sophia from the “Novgorod” version is likened to the Deesis prayer. True, in contrast to the images of the Deesis in the scenes of the Last Judgment, this one is more similar to the compositions known as “Presta Tsarina”, or “Royal Deesis”. On them, Christ and the Mother of God, according to the text of the 44th Psalm, are depicted in royal robes, indicating, therefore, a mysterious union - the “marriage” of Christ the Bridegroom and the Mother of God the Church. But in the icons we are considering, the Mother of God and the Forerunner are not only they worship Sophia and pray to Her. They stand before Her throne on elevated platforms, just as on the icons of the Old Testament Trinity Abraham and Eve stand before the table. That is, the Eucharistic symbolism is emphasized - the Mother of God and the Forerunner are here also the servants of Divine Wisdom who prepare the meal and receive from Sophia the gifts of the Holy Spirit for distribution.

They seem to illustrate the words of the Eucharistic canon: “Thine from Thine is offered to Thee for all and for all.” And since, according to Orthodox dogma, the Eucharistic sacrifice is offered to the one Trinity, from which Christ is inseparable, and He is at the same time the “bringer,” “offered,” and “receiver” of it, He is depicted here three times: as the bishop making the sacrifice - Pantocrator, as a sacrifice - Christ Emmanuel in the medallion on the chest of the Virgin Mary and as a “fire” that receives her - the Angel of the Great Council. The same star-shaped radiance surrounding all 3 figures of Christ recalls that Sophia is the Wisdom of God, according to the teachings of the largest Byzantine theologians ser. XIV century, such as Archbishop. Gregory Palamas of Thessalonica and Patriarch Philotheus of Constantinople, remaining the hypostatic image of Christ, is the “common energy of the Trinity.”

The very image of a fire-winged angel is undoubtedly inspired by descriptions of the apocalyptic visions of the prophet. Malachi and John the Evangelist. Malachi (Malachi 3:2) speaks of an angel like a “melting fire”; in the “Revelation” of John - about an angel with a face “like the sun shining in its power” (Rev. 1:16). In this regard, it is worth paying attention to the fact that in Moscow in 1405 the first monumental painting on the theme of the Apocalypse known to us in the Orthodox world appeared. Its authors were Theophanes the Greek, theologian and great artist, Elder Prokhor and Andrei Rublev.

In meaning, the image of Sophia the Angel surrounded by the shining “glory” is extremely similar to the central icon of the full-figure Deesis rank from the high iconostasis, now kept in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

She is also associated with the name of Theophanes the Greek. Here Christ, dressed in the white and gold robes of the eternal God - the Ancient of Days, is represented against a flaming red background, seated on a throne, surrounded by dark blue "glory" and heavenly powers. Before him, as an image of the Trinitarian Divinity and the incarnate Logos-Sophia, in the pose of servants stand the Mother of God, the Forerunner, the apostles and creators of the liturgy - Basil the Great and John Chrysostom.

In the work of Theophanes the Greek, which we can judge from his frescoes in Novgorod, the thought of the representatives of Byzantine ascetic theology - the hesychasts - about the possibility of people who have achieved perfection, called to the feast of Wisdom, who have become “their own” of the Lord, to see with their bodily, sensual gaze the outpouring divine energy. The leader of the hesychasts, Gregory Palamas, wrote about it this way: “Only the pure in heart see God... who, being light, lives in them and is revealed to those who love Him and are loved by Him.” A man who elevated his mind and soul to the sight of divine light was likened to Moses, who on Mount Horeb saw an angel in an unburnt bush.

It seems interesting that the time of the appearance of the iconography that interests us in Rus' coincides with the years of work of Theophanes the Greek in Moscow in the XIV century. XV century This is indirectly evidenced by the oldest icon of this version known today, coming from the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, which was created no later than the 1st quarter. XV century The complex of ideas that formed the basis of the “Novgorod” version of the iconography of Sophia of the Wisdom of God reveals an amazing closeness to the ideas that were used as the basis for the composition of the first Russian multi-tiered iconostases, which arose precisely at this time, at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries. Their creators used the same scheme of vertical trimorphic compositions that became widespread in monumental painting. Below they placed the Deesis rite, above the feasts, and even above the Mother of God of the Sign with the prophets flanking her. It is very likely that the idea of ​​a high iconostasis and the iconography of Sofia of the “Novgorod” type were born in the same environment of artists associated with the court of the Moscow Metropolitan. Cyprian.

The further development of the Russian high iconostasis, where, simultaneously with the appearance of new tiers of icons, a vertical axis develops, the symbolism of which is associated with the same ideas of the Economy of salvation coming from above from the throne of the Lord of Hosts through the prophets and the Mother of God to Christ Pantocrator, who is establishing the Church on earth, fits perfectly into the logic of constructing the icon “Sophia the Wisdom of God”. And in the compositions themselves “Sophia the Wisdom of God” in the 17th century. instead of Etymasia, they begin to depict the Lord of Hosts sitting on the throne. This is especially typical for Yaroslavl church paintings.

Over time, when the narrow circle of intellectuals who spread the ideas of hesychast teachings in Moscow, Novgorod, Tver and other cities gradually disintegrated, and the theophanic aspect in the perception of the image of Sophia the Angel lost its relevance, attempts are made to give a new interpretation to images of this kind. They became widespread from the 15th century, when, as one might think, the icon of winged Wisdom became the temple image of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod.

Compared to the surviving icon of the 1st quarter. XV century, which presents a holistic picture of the phenomenon of divine glory, all theophanic motives disappear in them, the Christological symbolism associated with the hypostatic principle noticeably weakens, and the intonation of a personal prayerful appeal to Christ the Angel of Wisdom disappears.

The icons of Sophia the Wisdom of God from the “Novgorod” version are becoming more and more similar to the image of the Creed. The fiery angel gradually turns into the personification of the abstract concept of “virginity,” and the word “wisdom” ceases to be perceived as a name, but finally turns into a concept associated with the gift of the Lord and with the virtues that open the path to God. The image of the Mother of God-Church begins to play a key role in revealing the meaning of this composition. The ecclesiological theme clearly comes to the fore. In the 15th century archbishop Gennady of Novgorod establishes the day of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary as the patronal celebration of St. Sophia Cathedral.

This choice was not accidental. The Dormition - the death of the Mother of God gathers at her bed, as at the Eucharistic throne, the entire Church, people and angels. It prefigures the return of humanity to the bosom of the Lord and represents a kind of paraphrase of the Nativity of Christ.

There, Christ, who descended from heaven, like a swaddled baby, lay in a manger in the Bethlehem cave - here Christ ascends to heaven the swaddled soul of the Mother of God. In both scenes she is a “bridge” or “ladder” miraculously connecting earth and heaven, humanity and God. He is depicted here in the same way as the Mother of God Hodegetria is usually depicted holding the Child in her arms. Thus, the Dormition, which, according to legend, took place in the same Zion upper room where Christ celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples, in the understanding of the educated part of the Byzantine and Russian clergy, symbolized the sacrament of creating the temple of God.

With the strengthening of ecclesiological symbolism, feminine features in the image of Angel Sophia become more and more noticeable. In the Novgorod icon ser. XVI century “Wisdom created a house for herself”, the wingless figure of Sophia looks more like a virgin than Emmanuel - the Youth Christ. In the temple image of the Kyiv St. Sophia Cathedral, which appeared in the 16th or 17th centuries, to which the so-called. “Kiev” version, the figure of the Virgin Mary simply replaces the image of the Angel.

In the 17th century Numerous variants and modifications of the more traditional “Novgorod” iconographic type appeared. Canonically correct, they often represent a semblance of a detailed pictorial commentary on the foundations of Orthodox dogma. In one of them, called “Sophia the Cross”, in place of the figure of an Angel there is an image of a seven-column temple. Its central pillar is the Crucifix, established on the throne. Together, the pillars symbolize the 7 sacraments of the Church and at the same time serve as a support for the throne of the Mother of God located above, who replaced Sophia the Angel on it.

In another version, which can be found in temple paintings of the 17th century, for example. in the Church of John the Baptist in Tolchkovo in Yaroslavl, the image of Sophia from the “Novgorod” version is transformed into the image of the chant “Rejoices in You.” Moreover, the place of the winged Angel Sophia in the center of the composition was taken by the figure of the winged John the Baptist.

The purpose of such images is primarily doctrinal. They are no longer in any way connected with a person’s personal prayer experience, they do not open to his gaze the path for raising the mind from the visible to the invisible world. Evidence of this is the above text of the “writing about Sophia” and the entire history of interpretations of her image in Russian icon painting of the 16th-18th centuries.

And yet, on an intuitive level, Russian culture and art, even in relatively later times, showed amazing sensitivity in perceiving the deep poetic meaning of the image of Sophia. First of all, this was expressed in a living feeling of the existence of an indissoluble connection between Sophia, the source of holiness and grace, organizing life on the basis of truth, harmony and beauty, and the Church, through which, according to the already quoted words of St. Paul, “the manifold wisdom of God” is revealed, the mystery of Divine providence for man.

This was reflected in the icons depicting the conversation between Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, the Fathers of the Church, from whose lips and writings streams of wisdom originate, in numerous parable icons such as the image of the Gospel parable “About the Lame Blind Man” or the parable “About the Sweetness of the World”, borrowed from from an ancient legend< Варлааме и Иоасафе.

But the main thing was this. that the image of Sophia, seemingly having lost its personal, hypostatic features, continued to be associated with the cosmic solar, luminous principle and with the place from which this light poured out. The feeling of the presence of this light of holiness emanating from Sophia is inherent in the best works of Russian painting of the 17th and even 18th centuries. It is also preserved at the level of peasant culture. In the mass consciousness, the image of Sophia, formed under the influence of the official, somewhat abstract ecclesiological concept, acquires fairy-tale features in which the main thing is recognized - the feminine bright and sublime principle, the source of holiness. Royalty also connects it with the idea of ​​the state, land, city, and church.

Thus, in the spiritual verse about Yegoriy (George) the Brave it is said that the mother of him and his three sisters was “the blessed queen, Sophia the Wise,” who in the church of Chernigov, devastated by Tsarevich Demanish (obviously transformed from Emperor Diocletian), “about her child God prays." It is not difficult to understand that there was a contamination of several images here: svmts. Sophia, who according to her life had 3 daughters, the Mother of God, who gave birth to the Savior of the world, played by George, and Sophia as the Church awaiting the Second Coming of the Savior. And indeed, George appears here like the resurrected Christ, coming out of hell to the sounds of the Easter bells: “Egory went out to Holy Rus', seeing Yegory in the light of the white, red sun. Egor heard the voice of God, the voice of God’s bell.”

At the level of its own poetics, folklore recreates the picture of the rising of the dead from their graves and their reunification into the Church, which in principle repeats the concept of the Divine Economy carried out by Christ-Sophia.

L.L.

Lit.: Soloviev V. S. Sofia. The beginning of the universal teaching // Logos. 1992. Issue. 2; Kudryavtsev P. The idea of ​​St. Sophia in Russian literature of the last four decades // Christian thought. Kyiv. 1916: Book. 1. Book. 9; 1917: Book. 1; Bulgakov S. N. Non-evening light. M., 1994; It's him. The bush is unburnt. Paris, 1927; Berdyaev N. Sophiology // Path. Vol. 16. Paris, 1929; Seraphim, Archbishop (Sobolev). Defense of the Sophian heresy by Archpriest S. Bulgakov. Sofia, 1937; Filimonov G.D. Essays on Russian Christian iconography. Sophia the Wisdom of God // Bulletin of the Society of Old Russian Art for 1874-76. Research. M., 1876; Florensky P. A. Pillar and statement of Truth. M., 1914; Florovsky G. On the veneration of Sophia the Wisdom of God in Byzantium and Rus' // Tr. V Congress of Russian academic organizations abroad. Part 1. Sofia, 1932; Yakovleva A.I. Image of the World" in the icon "Sophia the Wisdom of God" // Old Russian art: Problems and attributions. M., 1977.
Source: Sophia the Wisdom of God. M., 2000. P. 9-16.

At the announcement: Icon Sophia the Wisdom of God of Novgorod

Mother Sva and Sophia, Wisdom of God (article), © Alena Selivanova, January 2016

Who is this – Sophia, the Wisdom of God? Why was the main temple of Constantinople dedicated to Her? Why were the first Christian churches in Rus' officially, that is, built in the 11th century in Novgorod, Kyiv, Polotsk, dedicated specifically to Sofia?

“The mystery is the Wisdom of God, and because, although it is preached everywhere, it is not comprehended by those without a sound mind, and is not revealed only with the help of wisdom, but only by the Holy Spirit, as far as we can contain it,” - John Chrysostom.

Those without a sound mind cannot comprehend wisdom, says Chrysostom. What is this - a sound mind? Our contemporaries will not find it difficult to answer this question, meaning for the most part ordinary pragmatism by common sense. But it is unlikely that the theologian who lived in the 4th century after the Nativity of Christ had it in mind. (And pragmatism still has nothing to do with health).

A sound mind - as theologians of the first centuries understood it - is a whole mind, not divided, which has overcome the world illusion of duality. It is he who becomes a participant in the integral view of God. The ancient book of the Novgorod Magi – Velesov – teaches the same thing: “Everything created cannot enter a dissolved mind!” (Glorification of the Great Triglav, tablet 11a).

The disintegrated mind, through its ignorance, divides the One into many incoherent fragments. And therefore he himself becomes disjointed, unable to contain the whole. The owner of such a mind believes, for example, in the existence of individual particular cases, the forces of nature acting on their own and, in the end, many individual gods... There has never been paganism in Rus', but there has always been and is Vedism! This is the merit of our primordial Tradition, which originates from Hyperborea - the legendary Polar Kingdom. The Russian Northern Tradition teaches: gods are not something in themselves, existing separately and outside of God - they are God Himself in His address to creation. Orthodox Rus' (the Rule was glorified) has known this from time immemorial. Tablet 11b of the Book of Veles speaks of the “Almighty” - the Great Triglav, God - and immediately after that about the “universal triglavs,” that is, the gods. This is exactly what the creative energies were called in Rus' - pribogi, so that no one would be tempted to think of them as somehow separate.

But if there appear among us “...delusional people who begin to count the gods, thereby dividing Svarga. They will be rejected by Rod as atheists. Are Vyshen, Svarog and others really a multitude? After all, God is both one and multiple. And let no one divide that multitude, and let no one say that we have many gods,” - Veles Book, tablet 30.

One of the most famous passages in the Bible telling about Wisdom (Proverbs 8:22-31): “The Lord had me as the beginning of His way before the earth was. I was born when there were no deeps yet, when there were no springs abundant with water. I was born before the mountains were erected, before the hills, when He had not yet created either the earth, or the fields, or the initial specks of dust of the universe. When He prepared heaven, I was there. When He drew a circular line across the face of the deep, when He established the clouds at the top, when He strengthened the sources of the deep, when He gave the sea a charter so that the waters would not cross its borders, when He laid the foundations of the earth: then I was an artist with Him, and I was a joy every day, having fun before His face all the time, rejoicing in His earthly circle, and my joy was with the sons of men.”

What are we talking about here if not the very Beginning of creation?

The entire Creation - the visible and invisible world - unfolds from the Primordial Point. The Word of God creates worlds. “Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (John 1:3).

Sophia The Wisdom of God is the divine energy emanating from the incomprehensible nature of the Threefold God. The true light that enlightens every person who comes into the world(John 1:9-10). Through wisdom God creates everything.

The thought of the incarnation of the Son of God is inseparable from the thought of the Mother of God, who is called the House of Divine Wisdom, the true Temple of the Living God on earth.

On the Novgorod icon “Sophia the Wisdom of God” (Fiery), the central figure of Sophia with a fiery face and wings, in red and gold royal robes and a crown, with a scepter and scroll in her hands, sitting on a throne, is the personification of both the Divine creative power and pure Divine Virginity, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.

O. Sergius Bulgakov in “The Never-Evening Light” writes about Sophia as a boundary, “which is between God and the world, the Creator and the creature, itself is neither one nor the other, but something completely special, simultaneously connecting and separating both.” .

The angelic image of Sophia is overshadowed from above by Jesus Christ. One of the most famous majestic names of the Son of God is the Sun of Truth. In the minds of the first Christians, the image of the hypostatic Wisdom - Jesus Christ - was never separated from His creatures, visible evidence of His good action, and from ideas about the manifold and inexplicable manifestations of Divine Providence in the world - “the ways of the Lord”.

Pavel Florensky writes about Sophia in the book “The Pillar and Ground of Truth”: “Sophia is the Great Root of the entire creation (the entire creation, and not just the whole), by which the creature goes into the intra-Trinity life and through which it receives Eternal Life from The One Source of Life; Sophia is the primordial nature of creation, the creative Love of God, “which was poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5), which is why the true Self of the deified, his “heart” is precisely the Love of God, just like the essence of the Divine is within-Trinity Love.”

And further in the same place: “In relation to creation, Sophia is the Guardian Angel of creation, the Ideal personality of the world. Forming the mind in relation to creation, it is the formed content of God the Mind, His “psychic content,” eternally created by the Father through the Son and completed in the Holy Spirit: God thinks with things.

Therefore, to exist is also to be thinkable, to be remembered, or, finally, to be known by God. Those whom God “knows” have reality, those whom He “does not know” do not exist in the spiritual world, in the world of true reality, and their existence is illusory.(...)

But let's return to the question of Sophia.

The Eternal Bride of the Word of God, outside of Him and independent of Him, she has no existence and crumbles into fragments of ideas about creation; in Him it receives creative power. One in God, it is multiple in creation and here it is perceived in its specific manifestations as the ideal personality of a person, as his Guardian Angel, i.e. as a glimpse of the eternal dignity of the individual and as the image of God in man.”

One in God, Wisdom is many in creation…

The Veles book of ancient Orthodoxy speaks of the Universal Mother - the All-Mother. And he calls her name: . The Old Russian word SVA means ALL (all, all-). Allegorically, the All-Mother was depicted as the Bird Sva with fiery plumage - the firebird: “The Bird Sva flew to us, and sat on a tree, and began to sing, and each of Her feathers was different, and shone with different colors. And the night became like day.” Tablet 7E (16) describes Her in even more detail:

And so Mother Swa beats her wings on both sides, Like on fire, all shining with light. And every feather of Her is red, blue, light blue, yellow, and silver, and gold, and white. And everything shines like the Sun. And the salting goes around in a circle. And She shines with seven colors [of the rainbow], as was bequeathed to our holy gods...

This is how our distant ancestors imagined the path of wisdom leading from reality to Truth. Before the Nikonian reform of the 17th century, almost all Russians were initiated into the first stage of northern Vedism - the Doctrine of the rebirth of the Twelve Gods. Where it is said that each god was reborn into the next, like the colors of the rainbow, forming a single light of truth. Yes, so strong that at night it became like day.

Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky said practically the same thing at the beginning of the twentieth century: “Russian gods are baptized. They shimmer into each other like a rainbow, and the Sun behind it is one. All of them are not only baptized, but also baptists. Everyone says: He is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie! (“Atlantis – Europe”, Belgrade, – 1930).

Whole knowledge can bring focus to the incomprehensible mystery of mysteries - the Revelation of the Holy Trinity. (Great Triglav - this is how Russian Vedism has called the Almighty from time immemorial). A person receives personal experience of Communion with God. The one to whom the direct feeling of the Triune has been revealed becomes completely free. Our very word FREEDOM is written in three runes, and they can be read as: wisdom ( matchmaker), which Bo G Yes l.

Let us remember the words of the Savior: you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free! (John 8; 32)

• Wisdom creates the minds of men
• Wisdom creates worlds
• Wisdom reveals the future

From the diaries of Father Sergius Bulgakov:

12/22/1922. On the roadstead in Kovani.

“We have already reached the mysterious waters of the Bosphorus... The pressure of thoughts excited my soul, and these marvelous shores delighted my eyes. Here is the key of European and world history, here is Justinian, here is Constantine the Great, here is John Chrysostom, Photius, Byzantium and its fall, here is the knot of the political destinies of the world, and to this day has not been unraveled, but even more tightened.”

“Yesterday I had the good fortune to visit St. Sophia. (...) This is, indeed, Sophia, the actual unity of the world in the Logos, the connection of everything with everything, the world of divine ideas (...) This is not heaven and not earth, the heavenly light above the earth is not God is not a man, but Divinity itself, the Divine cover over the world. St. Sophia is the last and silent revelation of the Greek genius about St. Sophia, a gesture to the centuries, which the theologically withering Byzantines could no longer and did not fully understand and express, and, however, she lived as the highest revelation in their souls, born in Hellenism and manifesting itself in Christianity.(...) And here with a new one with strength, and persuasiveness, self-evidence, one comprehends the meaning of the words of St., unknown to him. Justin the philosopher that Socrates and Plato were Christians before Christ and Plato is the prophet of God about Sophia in paganism.(...)

The Old Believers have a wise belief, as I see now, that Sophia will be restored at the end of the world.(...) This means that Sophia will be realized, will become possible only in the fullness of Christianity, at the end of history, when the most mature and final fruit will be revealed, when the White Tsar appears, and Constantinople will open its gates to him (...) and he will erect Saint Sophia. (...)

History is not internally over, it is in full swing, and away from the fog and fear inspired by the difficult hour of history, heed the voice of St. Sophia, her prophecy, she is not in the past, but in the future, she is a call to the centuries and a prophecy, history will end internally in Constantinople. (...) History has not internally ended until there is no Christian Hagia Sophia in the world, until she has become, at least for a moment, a victorious fact of history, that’s what Hagia Sophia told me.”

Father Sergius Bulgakov wrote this in 1923. Amazing words! How they resonate with current thoughts about current events in the world! The Internet was filled with articles about the return of Constantinople. But it seems to me that first the original Knowledge must return - the fullness of Christianity, which Bulgakov writes about. And this completeness also contains knowledge about Plato and Socrates, as Christians before Christ, and about Sophia, the Wisdom of God, as the Beginning of Creation...

One of the last predictions about St. Sophia appeared on November 26. “The appearance of Elder Paisius the Holy Mountain took place on the 20th of November. He came to the elder in Cyprus, told him to write down a letter and said that he would be here on earth:

“A storm is approaching you, confess, hold the cross in your hands and be with prayer on your lips. (...) Get ready - a thunderstorm is coming. The Word of God will be proclaimed everywhere, just as the sun emerges from the clouds after a thunderstorm. This will be the Light of the Lord, radiant and bright - “with this you will win” will be written in the sky. After a thunderstorm, a terrible thunderstorm, the sun will sparkle, a torch will sparkle again from the small fatherland. This boundless light will ignite millions of hearts, the hearts of the new apostles, in pure souls. And they will become the eyes of the Lord Himself, His Word and His Voice. (...) Holy Sophia is preparing, Her Angels are pouring myrrh, Cherubim and Seraphim are covering her with bay leaves..."

Icon of the Mother of God Sophia – Wisdom of God (Novgorod)

Story

The miraculously created icon of God Ma-te-ri “Sophia - the Great Wisdom of God” is available in many churches in Russia and comes down to two types: Kiev-sko-mu and Nov-gorod-rod-mu.

The first icon of “Sophia - the Most Wisdom of God” appeared in the 15th century, although the first one was in -on in 989 in , and the next - in 1037 - in .

The central figure of the icon appears as the All-resident in the form of the wing of the Fire An-ge-la, to -that one rises on the golden table, under the table. He is dressed in royal clothes (like dir) and pre-po-ya-san with a dra-go-valuable suit, on his head - a royal ve -nets. In his right hand he holds a ski-peter with a cross on top, and in his left hand he holds a sweater to his chest. According to one hundred pictures of the God-mother with God-la-den and St. John the Baptist with a scroll, on which one reads: “Az sv-de-tel-stvo-vah.” Above the head of An-ge-la is the blessed word Christ the Savior, even higher is the golden throne with an open That book on it is a symbol of the Divine presence. On both sides of the table there are three groups of angels.

The fact that the Fiery Angel is Christ can be judged by the words of the Apostle Paul, who says: “.. .we pro-know Christ the Ra-fifth... Christ, God's power and God's wisdom... in Jesus Christ, Who has become for us wisdom from God...” ().

St. John of God in his Revelation describes the Son of the Man “... about-le-chen- but in the under-dir and along the per-syam op-ya-san-no-go-golden-on-me... and His eyes are like a fiery flame; ... and His feet... are like boiled-hot ones in an oven" ().

This de-re-vyan-naya icon in the grey-re-rya-high-gold-chen-ri-ze is a copy of the Kon-stan-ti-no-Polish icon So-fii im-per-ra-to-ra Yus-ti-ni-a-na and from-no-sit-sya to the time of the construction of the New-city-rod-sko- go so-bo-ra.

This image once became famous for many miracles. According to legend, in front of her in 1542, a woman suffered from an eye disease, as if sa-but in the Nov-gorod-skaya le-to-pi-si: “The wisdom of God forgave the woman, her eyes were painful.” About St. Sophia is the same power and action of the Pre-wisdom of God, which is why she appeared in the fire nom vi-de.

All the numerous lists of the icon “Sophia - the Most Wisdom of God” have their first -property of either Kiev or Novy-gorod icons. The celebration of the Kiev icon takes place on September 8, and the New City icon on August 15.

Prayers

Troparion to the Most Holy Theotokos before the icon of Her “Sophia – the Wisdom of God”

Eternal Wisdom, Christ our God!/ By His divine glance, you bowed the Heavens,/ you deigned to dwell in the womb of the Pure Young Lady,/ having destroyed the mediastinum of enmity,/ you have sanctified your nature Our kingdom/ and Thy kingdom you have opened to us;/ for this sake for You, our Creator and Savior ,/ and who gave birth to Thee,/ who served the Pure Virgin for our salvation in the mystery,// we magnify in the Orthodox way.

Translation: Eternal One, Christ our God! Having bowed the Heavens with Yours, You deigned to dwell in the womb of the Pure Virgin, destroying the barrier of enmity, You sanctified our nature and opened Your Kingdom to us, therefore You, our Creator and Savior and who gave birth to You, who served as the secret of our salvation, the Pure Virgin, we Orthodoxy glorify.

Troparion to the Most Holy Theotokos before Her Icon “Sophia – the Wisdom of God”

The greatness and ineffable power of the Wisdom of God/ the vision of the carnal sacrament!/ Sophia the Preeminent,/ the purity of virgin souls and unspeakable virginity,/ the humble wisdom of truth,/ the chamber of the Holy Spirit ha,/ the most venerable temple of His incomprehensible glory,/ the fiery throne of Christ our God,/ in Thy for the Word of God indescribably dwelt, and flesh came into existence,/ He appeared invisible,/ and untouched from You came forth,/ and from mankind, catching the ancient enemy,/ and mankind from the oath of ancient freedom, / erecting the packs, from the point of death. / We pray to the Lady, / have mercy on us who are burdened with our cruel sins / and save our souls, / and, like a humane and merciful Queen, / Mother of the Wisdom of God’s Word, / look upon us, Thy sinful people, / and have mercy, intercede from cruel misfortunes and sorrows / and hail keep ours unharmed, // where today Your most holy name is gloriously glorified.

Translation: The great and ineffable power of the Wisdom of God is the plan of the sacrament! Sophia the Famous, purity of the virgin soul and ineffable virginity, humble wisdom, truth, repose, the revered temple of His incomprehensible glory, the fiery throne of Christ our God, for He ineffably dwelt in You and became flesh, the Invisible One appeared and came out of You untouchable, and lived with people, catching the eternal enemy and freeing people from the ancient curse, again raising them to where they fell from. We pray, Lady, for us, burdened with cruel sins, to have mercy and save our souls and, as the humane and merciful Queen, Mother of the Wisdom of the Word of God, pay attention to us, Your sinful people, and have mercy, protect us from misfortunes and grave ones, and our cities keep unharmed, where now Your most holy name is glorified in a God-pleasing manner.

Kontakion to the Most Holy Theotokos before Her Icon “Sophia – the Wisdom of God”

Let us, Orthodox people, / to the wisdom of God / and see the miraculous icon of the Most Pure Mother of God, / We also call Sophia, the Wisdom of God, after the appearance, / before the temple was animated by the Only Begotten the Son and Word of God./ This shines like a beam of light in His most honorable temple/ and hearts ours rejoices those who come with faith/ and look with fear and reverence at this most pure icon,/ thinking in our hearts/ that truly the Wisdom of God is the village/ and His mysteries are observed We see/ and worship the fiery imagination of the faithful , as to Her true and most immaculate virginity/ at Christmas and after Christmas again;/ from which came the Divine Fire,/ scorching corruptible passions/ and enlightening our souls and creating pure ones,/ also what the Father created, / the same and Wisdom, the Word and Strength will be called, / the radiance of glory and the Image of the Father Hypostasis. / And again we pray / and, falling, we kiss the most honorable icon of the Wisdom of God to the Mother / and we cry loudly: / O Mercy I am the Lady, / save my servants from the violence of the devil, / from the presence of foreigners and internecine warfare,/ for You are the Giver and Protectress of all good things// to those who flow to You with faith and ask for great mercy.

Translation: Let us turn, Orthodox people, to the wisdom of God and see the miraculous icon of the Most Pure Mother of God, which we call after its appearance Sophia, the Wisdom of God, because She was the animated temple of the Only Begotten Son and the Word of God. This most pure icon, emitting rays, shines in Your revered temple and rejoices our hearts, those who come with faith and look at it with fear and reverence, reflecting in our hearts that You are truly the village of the Wisdom of God and the plan of His Sacrament, for we, believers , we look with hope at Her fiery image and worship Her true and immaculate virginity - at Christmas and after Christmas. From Her came the Divine Fire, scorching the corruptible and enlightening our souls and purifying them, He through Whom the world was created by the Father (), He is called Wisdom, and Word, and Power, the radiance of Glory and the image of the Father. And again we pray and, bending our knees, venerate the venerable icon of the Wisdom of the Mother of God and cry loudly: “O merciful Lady, save Your servants from the violence of the devil, from the attacks of enemies and internecine war, since You are the Giver of all good things and the Patroness of those who come to You with faith and asking for great mercy."

Prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos before Her Icon “Sophia – the Wisdom of God”

Incomprehensible and All-Singing Wisdom of God, Sophia the Preeminent, virgin souls, that is, the Only Begotten Son, the Word of God, accept prayerful singing from our unworthy and profane lips. Even if it is written: the song is not red in the mouth of sinners, but the thief was saved by a word alone, the publican was justified by groaning, and the daughter of Canaanite was healed by a mother’s petition, because You, O Lord, are Good and Man having loved, enlightened the one coming into the world, and forgiven the sins of the sinner, and with reason Thou fillest the foolish, and makes the bubbly wise, and the souls that thirst for good words with Thy teaching, as Thou didst drink the Samaritan woman with living water, Thou didst make the fornicator chaste, and opened heaven to the thief. Yes, Thou art the Giver of all good things, and the Enlightener, and the Preserver of life, Christ our God, and to Thee We send glory and praise, honor and thanksgiving and glorification and worship with Your Beginning Father, and with Your Most Holy, and Good, and Life-Giving Spirit, and with Your Most Holy and Most Immaculate Matter, our Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, now and ever, and forever and ever. Amen.

Canons and Akathists

First Canon of the Most Holy Theotokos before the Icon of the Sign

Song 1

Irmos: The wave of the sea hid the persecutor and tormentor of old, hiding the saved youths under the earth, but we, like youths, drink to the Lord, gloriously we will be glorified.

Let the multitude of Novagrad rejoice in the joy of Divines today, seeing the warm Intercessor who bestows a strange victory on the contrary, and let them sing with Divine songs.

Like a high ladder, we see today Your icon, the All-immaculate Virgin, even though we see the resistance, we surrender to ultimate blindness, but we, looking back to it, are freed from troubles.

At Christmas, not accepting aphids, changing the corruption of all of us, Virgin, filling sorrows with motherly change, O God-pleased One.

Song 3

Irmos: By You, Christ, all Heaven is established, the Word of God and power confess the ineffable glory and Thy all-powerful hands of creation, for nothing is holy, except to You, Lord.

Like animals, rushing towards Your flock, Most Pure One, but You crushed those jaws and these are weak until the end of the show.

Having given birth to the common shepherd, the Lord Christ, the Virgin Unworn, pray to him from the present wrath to deliver us from the opposite circumstances, O Lady.

Merciful One, having given birth to the Merciful Savior, see the bitterness and sighing of Thy people, hasten, O Most Pure One, and show us compassion.

Sedalen, voice 8

Even as the prophets of old preached, the door of heaven, the burning bush, the many-bright candlestick, the golden censer, the handle and the staff gloriously appear today to the wonderful saint, he commands the people to dare and shows them a wondrous victory. Therefore, grateful to Thee, let us cry out: Virgin Mother of God, pray to Christ the God of sins to grant us forgiveness, for You, imams, hope, Your servants.

Song 4

Irmos: Thy mind was amazed at me, having heard the glorious command of Thy gaze, but strengthened by the love of Thy descent, for Thou didst not reject my poverty.

The city that reveres Thee, O Most Pure One, and duly glorifies, protect from the godless, O Pure One, a foreigner, for You, O Most Pure One, are inalienable wealth, protection and glory.

Those who imagine themselves, like Jericho of old, to destroy Your city, most pure Mother of the Word, are themselves given over to ultimate destruction by the power of You Incarnate, the Lady.

Look, Pure One, save the singing You, who wants to be consumed from those who resist, and deliver the one who has found rebuke, Mother of God.

Song 5

Irmos: The apostles are bound by a union of love, having laid their hands on Christ, who rules over all, and cleansed their red feet, preaching peace to all.

Warm intercessor to those who come running to You and hopeless, see the bitterness of Your people and give help, Most Pure One.

Even the one who gave birth to the Divine fire, the Virgin, the opposite, the Most Pure One, was caught in the fire by Thy prayer, like the Mother of the Creator, the All-Singing One.

Pure Bride of God, bewildered people, be generous with Your motherly prayers and soon destroy even the opposite situations on us with Your prayers.

Song 6

Irmos: I was born, but was not retained in the whales of Jonah, who bore your image, who suffered and was given burial, as if from the palace, from the beast, having invited the custodians, who guarded the vain and false, they left this mercy to nature.

Deliver the military invasions of Thy servant, O Most Pure One, and do not allow Thy inheritance to perish completely, O All-Pure One, but by the power of Thy born One, overthrow the enemy.

Do not despise those who have sinned many times, but accept the prayer of Your Mother for us, the Generous One, so that they do not boast of resistance—where is their God? - verbally, but let everyone understand that You, the Deliverer, are with us.

Now the time has come for help, now the need for change is pure. Pray to Your Son and God, that He may show mercy to those who have sinned and remove the present wrath.

Kontakion, tone 4

The honorable image of Thy sign is celebrated by Thy people, O Mother of God, to whom Thou hast bestowed a wondrous victory against Thy city. We also cry out to You by faith: Rejoice, O Virgin, praise to Christians.

Ikos

Resolve the darkness of my sins that lies in my mind, and enlighten me with Your light, O Virgin, so that I may be able to bring You praise, Who praised the Father, and the Holy Spirit of autumn, the Son and the Word of God, indwelt and passed incorruptibly from Your most pure side, with live people. Moreover, we, sinners and unworthy Thy servants, are today celebrating the sacred triumph of the sign that was Thy honorable icon, with which Thou didst bestow a glorious victory against Thy city, and, having been filled with all the miracles, instead of fragrant aroma, as far as possible we, earthly ones, bring praise to Thee. , saying: Rejoice, Mother of God, joy of Angels and men; Rejoice, firm hope and protection of Your city; Rejoice, for by Thy power we overthrow the contrary; Rejoice, intelligent Mother of the Sun, enlightening the faithful, darkening the unfaithful; Rejoice, Virgin, praise to Christians.

Song 7

Irmos: An unspeakable miracle! in the cave, having delivered the venerable youths from the flames, in the tomb, dead, lifeless, is relied upon for the salvation of us, who sing: O God of the Deliverer, blessed art thou.

Truly, a treasure honorable to Thy city, Thy icon, the Most Pure, was bestowed, even when we ourselves see the miracles, we are amazed and cry out to Thy Son: O God the Deliverer, blessed art thou.

Just as sometimes the Ninevites, for the sake of repentance, spared you, the Word of God, the preaching of the prophet Jonah, so here too you showed the image of Your Most Pure Mother, Christ, crying: O God the Deliverer, blessed art thou.

Temple of God, Lady, the Leader, in Your holy temple we lift up our hands in prayer: see our bitterness and give us help.

Song 8

Irmos: Be terrified and afraid, O Heaven, and let the foundations of the earth move: for behold, the dead are counted among the Highest as Living, and the little strange ones are accepted into the grave. Bless Him, O youths, O priestesses, sing to Him, O people, extol Him unto all ages.

The co-originating Word of the Father, the Most Pure Virgin, you gave birth to incorruptibly and you nourished from your breast. Pray to him, Mother of God, from the situation of the enemy to save those who sing and exalt Thee forever.

Whose providence on the Throne we will exalt Isaiah, Whom in the womb, O Virgin, Thou didst contain and give birth to incorruptibly. Pray to Him to be saved by Your servant, singing: children, bless, sacred, sing and exalt Him forever.

One good being, the most good Word, diligently pray that Thy servant will be delivered from this present wrath, singing with undoubted faith to Thy Son: children, bless, sacred, sing and exalt Him forever.

Song 9

Irmos: Wanderings of the Lady and immortal meals in a high place, high minds, faithful, come, let us enjoy the ascended Word, having learned from the Word, Whom we magnify.

With a merciful eye from above, look upon the city and Your people, Most Pure One, for there are no other imams to help, except You, the All-Immaculate One, and we all unceasingly magnify You, the Mother of God.

One, who gave birth to the Word incarnate, the all-singing Virgin, the ever-flowing source of healing, pouring out by faith to those who flow to Thy temple, Most Pure One.

Behold, Thy servants, we cry out to Thee, Mother of God: Thy usual mercies are upon the city and Thy people mercifully show us the contrary circumstances, so that we may all continually magnify Thee.

Svetilen

Desiring Your kindness, Jesus, Most Pure One, dwelled in You and You, the intercessor of Your city, gave the Word of God, which you preserve through Your intercession forever, so that we may please You, most immaculate Youth.

Canon of the Second Blessed Virgin Mary before the Icon of the Sign

Song 1

Irmos: The cut-off insect was cut off, and the sun saw the earth, no longer seen, the water flooded the fierce enemy, and Israel passed through the impassable, but having sung a song, we sing to the Lord, gloriously for we are glorified.

The rod of Divine power is now enshrouded in the grace and immeasurable light of God’s holy dwelling, a miracle greater than the nature of Thy image, Most Pure One.

In walking this glorious day, there was a sign of your divine image, the Mother of God, and even more so, even in resistance, as if they saw with the image and turned away the power, they were blinded by their bodily eyes.

Having hope in You, Mother of God, and the undoubted faith of the people of Novagrad, the Virgin of the Unartificed One took away the city from You.

I live on the skin of the Mother of the Word, having seen You, a numerous army of wise men, like a cheerful guardian, standing faithful to the situation, and their hands with others weakened.

Song 3

Irmos: At the beginning of the firmament, Heaven was founded by reason, and the earth was founded on the waters; on the rock, establish me, O Christ, with Thy commandments, for there is nothing more holy than Thee, the only One who loves mankind.

First of all, Thy almighty right hand, O Lord, working miracles with Moses, darkened Egypt, and here too, who came to destroy the city, Thy image darkened Thy Mother.

I heard the wonderful archbishop Thy promise, O Mother of God, to bring joy to your people, saying: Be of good cheer, for the Mother of our God is with us.

A glorious victory, filled with horror, having seen how the people then took up arms against the opposition and were victorious to the end.

Now the day of joy has come - the Sign of Your icon, Virgin Mother of God, and the holiday is bright, which we celebrate, we cry: there is nothing more pure than You, Bride of God.

Sedalen, voice 8

I, the prophets of old, preached, the door of heaven, the burning bush, the many-bright candlestick, the golden censer, the handle and staff, gloriously today appears to the wonderful saint, commands the people to dare and shows a wondrous victory. Therefore, grateful to Thee, let us cry out: Virgin Mother of God, pray to Christ the God of sins to grant us forgiveness, for You, imams, hope, Your servants.

Song 4

Irmos: You are my strength, Lord, You are my strength, You are my God, You are my joy, do not leave the bosom of the Father and visit our poverty. Together with the prophet Habakkuk I call Ti: Glory to Your power, Lover of mankind.

When the people heard the wonderful promise of victory, they were filled with indescribable joy, and, like the strength of a certain guardian of property, they resisted victory.

Thou hast bestowed a rich gift and inexhaustible treasure on Thy city—the icon of Thy Mother, the Word, and with the help of Sove we overthrow the enemy.

In Thy divine temple, O God-pleased One, where Thy miraculous icon was placed, He grants healing to those who come by faith.

With the gathering of the faithful, every human condition rejoices, having copulated in Thy honorable temple, seeing in it, like the bright sun, Thy honorable image, O Lady.

Song 5

Irmos: Thou hast cast me away from Thy presence into heaven, O Light of the Unstoppable, and an alien darkness has covered me, the accursed one, but turn me and direct my path to the light of Thy commandments, I pray.

Sometimes in the reigning city I skin a furious and blasphemer who wants to overthrow Your image, and of course you have shown the same wounds to the Mother of God.

I am protected by the shield of Thy invincible power, O Virgin, the indescribable multitude of those who have hope in Thee are overcome by Thy people, O All-Singing One.

I am an inexhaustible wealth and a source of healing for those who resort to Thy temple by faith, where Thy honorable image dwells, O Lady.

Song 6

Irmos: I will pour out a prayer to the Lord, and to Him I will proclaim my sorrows, for my soul is filled with evil and my belly is approaching hell, and I pray like Jonah: from aphids, O God, lift me up.

Since then, you appeared to the wonderful bishop in a terrible way, striving for insolence, but the people, filled with indescribable joy, armed with victory, the Lady.

This is a terrible sign, and I will glorify the thing, and I will celebrate the wonderful victory today, Thy people, O Mother of God, praiseworthy, as worthy of praise, we offer, saying: Rejoice, O Joyful One.

We kiss your honorable icon with a joyful heart and soul, having fun, and touching it with warm faith, we draw healing.

Kontakion, tone 4

The honorable image of Thy sign is celebrated by Thy people, O Mother of God, to whom Thou didst bestow a wondrous victory against Thy city. We also cry out to You by faith: Rejoice, O Virgin, praise to Christians.

Ikos

Resolve the darkness of my sins that lies in my mind, and enlighten me with Your light, O Virgin, so that I may bring You praise, Who praised the Father, and the Holy Spirit of autumn, the Son and the Word of God, who dwelt and passed incorruptibly from Your most pure side, live with people. Moreover, we, sinners and unworthy Thy servants, are today celebrating the sacred triumph of the sign that was Thy honorable icon, with which Thou didst bestow a glorious victory against Thy city, and, having been filled with all the miracles, instead of fragrant aroma, as far as possible we, earthly ones, bring praise to Thee. , saying: Rejoice, Mother of God, joy of Angels and men; Rejoice, firm hope and protection of Your city; Rejoice, for by Thy power we overthrow the contrary; Rejoice, intelligent Mother of the Sun, enlightening the faithful, darkening the unfaithful; Rejoice, Virgin, praise to Christians.

Song 7

Irmos: The fire of God was sometimes ashamed of God’s descent in Babylon, for this reason the youths in the cave rejoiced with their feet, like in a flower garden, rejoicing: blessed art thou, O God of our fathers.

Wait, O Most Pure One, for the bitterness of Thy servants and do not cast them aside in the end, for we are Thy inheritance and we are strengthened by Thy hope, and we all cry out to Thee: Rejoice, O Joyful One.

With the gift of branch-bearing grace and healing, Thy image, O Most Pure One, has been given to Thy city, and we kindly kiss it and rejoice.

Song 8

Irmos: With the edmeritsa, the Chaldean tormentor furiously kindled the cave of the godly, and having seen this better power, they cried out to the Creator and Savior: fathers, bless, priests, sing, O people, exalt to all ages.

Confused about all the people, they come running to You, crying out: do not betray us to our enemy, Lady Theotokos, but with Your mighty hand overthrow You, so that we may unceasingly praise You and exalt You forever.

For the indestructible property I have taken away Thy servants, Thy icon, the Most Pure One, we cast down those who resist and cry to Thy Son: children, bless, priests, sing, O people, exalt Him forever.

You appeared to the wonderful hierarch, the Most Pure One, and he, with many people, marveled at miracles, and ran with joy to Your image—give help, O Lady, saying: children, bless, priests, sing, O people, exalt Him forever.

What to bring to You, Most Pure One, more glorified from all creation, we are perplexed, Lady, just as Gabriel taught us: Rejoice, O Delighted One.

Song 9

Irmos: The ends of Heaven and the earth were astonished at this, for God had appeared as a man in the flesh, and Your womb was the most spacious of Heaven. Thus Thea, the Mother of God, the Angels and the people of the ranks are magnified.

From now on the day of salvation is auspicious, in which the sign of Your icon, the Most Pure One, appears, and we celebrate a bright, spiritual triumph.

Illuminated by Divine light, I see today, Most Pure One, Thy venerable icon, and by faith we worship Thee, We magnify Thee.

Having cleared your thoughts, unite the idle Novagrad with the bishop’s face, praise, and above all hope, the help given to the resistance.

Having preserved the virginity of Your sign unharmed, the Word of God, having passed from You, preserve Your city unharmed, O all-sung Virgin, may we unceasingly magnify You.

Svetilen

In the strength of Your kindness, Jesus, the Most Pure One, dwelled in You and You, the intercessor of Your city, the Word of God given as a gift, which you preserve through Your intercession ever since, so that we may please You, most immaculate Youth.

Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos before the Icon of the Sign, Novgorod

Kontakion 1

To the chosen Voivode, our Lady Theotokos, who through the sign of Her holy icon gave a wondrous victory to the people of Novagrad, we sing a song of thanksgiving: You are our All-merciful Intercessor, as you have an invincible power, free us from all troubles and protect us from visible and invisible enemies, let us call to You:

Ikos 1

Angels to the Queen and all creation, Lady, Most Pure Virgin Theotokos, with the glorious sign of Your holy icon, You graciously illuminated the entire Russian country and streams of miracles flowed from it to the faithful. In the same way, with zeal and love, falling before Your most honorable image, with tenderness we offer You praises:

Rejoice, consecrated village of God the Word; Rejoice, you who sanctify us through the grace of God.

Rejoice, you who served immaculately for the salvation of the fallen human race; Rejoice, O Pure One of all the Creator and Lord, having been conceived by the Divine Spirit in wombs, having given birth without incorruption.

Rejoice, O thou who embracest us all with Thy maternal care; Rejoice, in troubles and misfortunes you are a quick Helper to us.

Rejoice, thou who invisibly tames our evil passions; Rejoice, you who help us to succeed in Christian virtues.

Rejoice, free healer of our ailments; Rejoice, you who wisely instruct us on the path of repentance.

Rejoice, Virgin, praise to Christians; Rejoice, for you are blessed by everyone.

Rejoice, Lady, showing us a sign of Your mercy.

Kontakion 2

Seeing the embitterment of Novagrad, strongly at war from the Suzhdal wars, Saint John of Christ tearfully prayed for the deliverance and salvation of the city and heard a Voice from above, let him go to the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and take there the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, and carry it to the visor of the city against the hordes fighting against it . Having heard such a command from God, the saint cried out in gratitude to the Savior Christ: Alleluia.

Ikos 2

Having understood the will of God in the voice of Heaven, Saint John of Christ came to the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord to take the icon of the Mother of God and, while praying before her, the icon moved from its place on his honest hand, and with the singing of prayer he carried it to the visor of the city, saying to the people: be of good cheer. , The Mother of our God is with us. For this reason, having seen Your favor towards them, revealed in the miraculous coming of Your icon, we exclaim in song the blessings of Sisitsa:

Rejoice, Hope of unreliable Christians; Rejoice, joy and intercession of those who mourn.

Rejoice, Thou who showest Thy quick help to the helpless; Rejoice, you who are weak and give freedom to those who are oppressed.

Rejoice, Orthodox warrior to the Leader of victories; Rejoice, all-strong overthrow of the enemy armies.

Rejoice, thou who hast overshadowed the great Novgrad with Thy favor; Rejoice, for he was not taken away by the Chosen Voivode who came in Your icon.

Rejoice, merciful punisher of the unpunished; Rejoice, wise instructer of the foolish.

Rejoice, all-terrifying fearsome one who offends; Rejoice, O all-merciful Intercessor of the offended.

Rejoice, Lady, showing us a sign of Your mercy.

Kontakion 3

Strengthened by the power of God, St. John of Christ lifted up Thy holy icon, O Lady Theotokos, in the midst of the battle itself, where the arrows from the opposing forces fell like rain, and from them only Thy honorable face was shot on the icon: but Thy icon turned away Thy face from the hostile regiments and the tears flowing from his eyes, collecting them in his phelonion, Saint John of Christ commanded the people to be bold, but they, like the strength of a certain guardian of property, rushed at the resistance and conquered them to the end, calling to the Lord of Hosts: Alleluia.

Ikos 3

Having You, the truly great Novgrad, a sovereign warrior, the All-Blessed Mother of God, always more than in hope, with the sign of Your holy icon, You helped to defeat the strong regiments of the resistant people of Novagrad. In the same way that the singing of victory brings You, we cry out to you:

Rejoice, Thou who brought peace to the world through Thy Holy Nativity; Rejoice, thou who destroyed the mediastinum of ancient enmity.

Rejoice, you who punish those who are unjustly at war; Rejoice, consoling Christ-loving people with your signs and miracles.

Rejoice, who received the wound on the face of Your icon from the arrow of the enemy; Rejoice, you who wonderfully shed tears of grace from her.

Rejoice, having struck down those who resisted with blindness and flight; Rejoice, you who made strong shelves powerless.

Rejoice, strong Helper in battles; Rejoice, disgrace of enemies.

Rejoice, You who crowned Your people with wondrous victory; Rejoice, Invincible Commander of the leaders and armies of the Christians.

Rejoice, Lady, showing us a sign of Your mercy.

Kontakion 4

A storm of bewilderment confuses my mind: how can I be able to sing with unworthy lips Thy miracles, O Lady of God, whose holy icon Thou didst show Thy sign in Novegrad, granting help and intercession to all Orthodox people from enemies visible and invisible? Moreover, magnifying Your innumerable mercies towards us, we humbly sing to Your Son and God who glorified You: Alleluia.

Ikos 4

Having heard about the wondrous miracle of the holy icon of Thy sign in Novegrad, Most Pure Virgin, how the people of Novograd, who possess this, by Thy power and the help of Thy Divine image, gloriously overcome the resistance to show, with reverence and joy we worship this wonderful image of Thy and call upon Thee in praise:

Rejoice, Bride of the Father Without Beginning; Rejoice, unartificial Mother of the Eternal Word.

Rejoice, beautiful village of the Holy Spirit; Rejoice, overshadowed by grace of the Life-Giving and Consubstantial Trinity.

Rejoice, prophets of old who foretold in many ways; Rejoice, having surpassed the angelic councils with Your purity.

Rejoice, exaltation of the human race; Rejoice, grace-filled uprising of the fallen sons of Adamli.

Rejoice, for You have clothed yourself with flesh, Clothing the sky with clouds; Rejoice, for with Your milk You nourished the Nourisher of the universe.

Rejoice, All-Blessed Mother of God, Pure Ever-Virgin; Rejoice, our Joy and the salvation of our souls.

Rejoice, our Intercessor, given to us by God; Rejoice, guardianship and sacred refuge for all the faithful.

Rejoice, Lady, showing us a sign of Your mercy.

Kontakion 5

God-bright star, icon of Your sign, Virgin Mary, spiritually enlighten the great Novgrad with the radiance of many miracles, endlessly exuding grace-filled healing to all the faithful who zealously flock to Her. Do not deprive us of Your gracious illumination and Your merciful bounties, who honor Your miraculous icon with godly worship, so that we sing with gratitude to God: Alleluia.

Ikos 5

Having seen the glorious miracles that came from the icon of Thy sign, O Most Blessed Lady, the people of Novagrad flocked to it with zeal and, in their infirmities, received grace-filled healing from it. Now we come to her, we worship, and we honor, and from the desire of our hearts we kiss, we draw grace for healing, and we free ourselves from the ailments of the body and spiritual passions, calling to Ti and saying:

Rejoice, Joy of the sorrowing and the offended Intercessor; Rejoice, Consolation of the sad and Helper of the distressed.

Rejoice, unbearable Healer of the sick; Rejoice, unstolen wealth for the poor and wretched.

Rejoice, thou who hast provided the patient sufferers with gifts of grace; Rejoice, thou who deliverest the desperate and hopeless from the pit of destruction.

Rejoice, merciful Trustee of widows and orphans; Rejoice, Teacher of chastity and abstinence of young people.

Rejoice, sweet peace of reverent elders; Rejoice, quiet refuge for God-loving elders.

Rejoice, faithful Helper of repentant sinners; Rejoice, generous giver of spiritual gifts.

Rejoice, Lady, showing us a sign of Your mercy.

Kontakion 6

Novgrad preaches Your glorious intercession, O Most Pure Lady, how in the days of the invasion of enemies strong and armed from the holy icon of Your sign, You bestowed Your gracious help on Your people, You turned back the hostile regiments with the cold, Your city was safe and unharmed from them, and all sing to God the Savior: Alleluia.

Ikos 6

You shone with the rays of great miracles in Novegrad, the Virgin Mary, and you wonderfully glorified the icon of Your sign with the graceful flow of tears, generously giving countless mercies from her to all those who grieve and are burdened. Visit our souls, sickened by sinful passions, to the All-Good Lady, and be our Helper for salvation, so we cry to You in gratitude:

Rejoice, O Prayer Book favorable to God for us; Rejoice, O omnipotent Representative, turning the wrath of God into mercy.

Rejoice, stretching out Your God-bearing hands to supplicate the Creator; Rejoice, as the Mother of the Son, the Righteous Judge, pleading for the whole world.

Rejoice, covering us all with the cover of Your Motherly intercession; Rejoice, you who provide the grace of humility and patience to those who are in troubles and sorrows.

Rejoice, invisibly strengthening the suffering and helpless; Rejoice, you who raise up those who are sick and hopeless from the bed of illness.

Rejoice, you who show great mercy to those who pray to You by faith; Rejoice, you who wonderfully fulfill our good requests.

Rejoice, streams of grace-filled healings abundantly flowing to us; Rejoice, bestower of all things useful to everyone.

Rejoice, Lady, showing us a sign of Your mercy.

Kontakion 7

Wanting to show, O Lady, not only to the great Novugrad, but also to the entire Orthodox Russian population, Your glorious miracles from the icon of Your sign, You have glorified this in many cities, abodes and villages from ancient years to our days with wondrous miracles, sight for the blind, strengthening for the weakened, and for many She mercifully grants healing to the sick, and in this way people strive to magnify Thee, who has magnified our race, and sing to Christ God: Alleluia.

Ikos 7

Novgrad and the entire Russian land, a wondrous icon of Your sign, O Virgin Mary, blessed miracles of Hosea, showing Your rich mercy to the faithful. We therefore honor and praise You, Lady, with this magnificent worship:

Rejoice, quickly presenting Helper to those who diligently flow to You; Rejoice, merciful Hearer of our prayers.

Rejoice, thou who hast overshadowed the great Novgrad with Thy blessing; Rejoice, within its borders the icon of Your Sign glorified miracles.

Rejoice, thou who hast spiritually rejoiced the virgins of the face by the glorification of Thy icon; Rejoice, raising us to heavenly bliss with your omnipotent prayers to God.

Rejoice, thou who art merciful to Thy Son and God the Intercessor for all of us; Rejoice, good Helper, leading the war against the world, the flesh and the devil.

Rejoice, covering all the Orthodox countries with the cover of Thy mercy; Rejoice, infinite treasure of healings in many places and abodes.

Rejoice, O omnipotent Patroness of monks and nuns who strive well; Rejoice, and zealous Intercessor in the world of those who live piously.

Rejoice, Lady, showing us a sign of Your mercy.

Kontakion 8

Wandering in this earthly vale, much sorrowful and much rebellious, the mountain city, Heavenly Jerusalem, we also seek You, Lady, we pray: guide us along the path of the commandments of Christ and save us from the falls of sins, surprise us with Your mercy and overshadow us with Your intercession, yes, By your help we are saved, let us sing together with all the saints to God: Alleluia.

Ikos 8

To all the grieving Comforter and the needy Helper, O All-merciful Mother of God, do not despise us who fall before You before Your most pure image, but mercifully visit us with Your bounties: and just as You showed Your sovereign help to our fathers of old, so do not deprive us, the humble, of Yours intercession at the right time, let us not be ashamed of our hope, which according to God we place firmly in Thee, and we call upon Thee:

Rejoice, God-bright light, illuminating faithful souls with the light of Christ; Rejoice, valuable alabaster, anointing God-loving hearts with the world of God's grace.

Rejoice, intelligent Mother of the Sun, enlightening the faithful and darkening the unfaithful; Rejoice, glory of heaven and hope of earth.

Rejoice, our Hope and Intercessor of all those who flow to You with faith; Rejoice, you who love and honor Thee, delivering You from all troubles.

Rejoice, thou who graciously gladdens the souls of the faithful with good promises; Rejoice, glory and praise to the virgin faces.

Rejoice, you who guide the ascetics of piety to the mountainous Zion; Rejoice, you who lead the faithful to Heavenly Jerusalem.

Rejoice, you who enlighten darkened hearts with the light of true knowledge of God; Rejoice, covering us all with the blessed rays of Your great mercy.

Rejoice, Lady, showing us a sign of Your mercy.

Kontakion 9

All the angelic hosts reverently serve You, the Queen of Heaven and earth, while the human race brings silent praise to You, the Lady above and below, and venerates Your holy icon with venerable worship. You have given us this joy and consolation, O All-Good One, and You have always shown us the signs of the Mother of Your love, so that we may sing to the God who benefits us through You: Alleluia.

Ikos 9

The wisdom of humanity cannot comprehend the Divine mystery of Your ever-virginity, O Mary Theotokos, how at the Nativity and after the Nativity you kept the keys of Your virginity intact, surprising angels and men. In the same way, we piously confess Thee, Mother and Virgin, we always please Thee and sing praises to Thee:

Rejoice, having magnified the human race with Your immaculate purity; Rejoice, having sanctified the earth with Your all-holy Nativity.

Rejoice, you who wonderfully combined virginity and Christmas in Yourself; Rejoice, having preserved both yourselves immaculately.

Rejoice, great miracle of the universe; Rejoice, secretly incomprehensible to human minds.

Rejoice, astonishment of angelic faces; Rejoice, everlasting joy of God's saints.

Rejoice, first adornment of the heavenly world; Rejoice, reliable intercession of the world.

Rejoice, overthrow of demons; Rejoice, hell has been trampled underfoot.

Rejoice, Lady, showing us a sign of Your mercy.

Kontakion 10

You gave birth to the Savior to fallen humanity, O Most Pure Virgin, and You bore Him like a Child in Your arms, His Divine image and on the icon of Your sign You showed us and You bestowed upon us many of Your mercy and bounty. For this reason, with reverence and faith, we honor Your miraculous image, Lady, and we pray to You diligently: grant us protection and protection on the Day of Judgment, so that through Your Mother’s intercession the Righteous Judge, Your Son and God, may have mercy on us, and make us worthy to stand on the right hand and sing to Him with favorites: Alleluia.

Ikos 10

An insurmountable wall and a source of miracles, Your holy icon appeared, O Virgin Mary, not only to the great Novugrad, but to the entire Russian country. This, like a sign of victory, is powerful, the armies of the Orthodox defeat their enemies, the kings and saints are adorned with it, and every age of the faithful receives grace-filled consolation from it. Comfort us also with Thy, all-merciful Lady, favor and mercy, and let us cry out to Thee in praise:

Rejoice, our strong Hope; Rejoice, our undoubted Hope.

Rejoice, great glory of Novagrad; Rejoice, our country is a blessed protection.

Rejoice, victorious Helper against enemies in the days of battle; Rejoice, good Teacher of piety in the days of peace.

Rejoice, protection and supply of monastic monasteries; Rejoice, blessing on pious homes and marriages.

Rejoice, champion of virginity and purity; Rejoice, intercessor of the offended and persecuted.

Rejoice, robe of the naked; Rejoice, healing of the sick.

Rejoice, Lady, showing us a sign of Your mercy.

Kontakion 11

Do not despise our humble singing, O All-Merciful Queen, and do not close the womb of Thy bounty to us, O All-Bounteous Lady: behold, having become poor in good deeds, to the treasury of Thy mercy, Thy miraculous icon, we flow with zeal, O All-Blessed One, and, falling down, we pray: illuminate us with the Divine light of Thy grace and teach us to faithfully fulfill the commandments of Thy Son and God, so that we may worthily sing to Him: Alleluia.

Ikos 11

Light of the non-evening friend, with the bright rays of Your miracles you enlighten us, darkened by the darkness of sin, the Most Pure Mother of God, and lead us to silent praise of Your Most Holy Name. By the sign of Thy holy icon Thou hast truly revealed Thy sovereignty, O Lady All-Blessed, whom we joyfully call Thee in a bright celebration:

Rejoice, exalted by God above earthly and heavenly things; Rejoice, one Pure and Blessed One among women.

Rejoice, Queen and Lady of Heaven and earth; Rejoice, porphyro of the King of kings.

Rejoice, devil of seedless disgrace; Rejoice, the main thing of human salvation.

Rejoice, you who trust in Thee and do not put to shame; Rejoice, freeing those who ask Your holy help from troubles.

Rejoice, pillar and affirmation of virginity; Rejoice, shield and defense of the Orthodox faith.

Rejoice, magnificent adornment of the holy Church of Christ; Rejoice, covering us all with Your Mother's cover.

Rejoice, Lady, showing us a sign of Your mercy.

Kontakion 12

Grant us grace and mercy from Above, O Lady, from Thy holy icon, which Thou hast bestowed on us as a sign of Thy intercession, miracles from it that happen, affirming the Orthodox faith in us and disgracing unbelief. In the same way, we worship You and pray: keep us in Orthodoxy, O All-Good One, and grant us worthy to sing faithfully to God until our last breath: Alleluia.

Ikos 12

Singing Your miracles from the icon of Your sign revealed, the Virgin Mary, we praise, glorify and magnify You, truly the most honest Cherub and the most glorious without comparison Seraphim. But You, our All-merciful Intercessor, cover us with Your sovereign veil and deliver us from all troubles and temptations of the enemy, so that we may unceasingly sing to You with a voice of praise:

Rejoice, God-delighted and Immaculate Ever-Virgin; Rejoice, imperishable and incorruptible Lamb and Shepherd Mother.

Rejoice, crowned with a royal diadem from the Triune God; Rejoice, holy and luminous chamber of saints of the most holy Word.

Rejoice, standing at the right hand of Your Son and Lord; Rejoice, always praying to Him for the Christian race.

Rejoice, Cause of the grace-filled renewal of mankind; Rejoice, reconciliation of repentant sinners to God.

Rejoice, Deliverance to those suffering from troubles; Rejoice, Seeker of the lost.

Rejoice, healing of our bodies; Rejoice, salvation of our souls.

Rejoice, Lady, showing us a sign of Your mercy.

Kontakion 13

Oh, All-Sung Mother of our Sweetest Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ! Having accepted our present offering, deliver us from all misfortune and sorrow and remove the eternal torment of all before Thy holy icon of those who worship with faith and love and who gratefully call upon God for You: Alleluia.

This kontakion is read three times, then the 1st ikos “To the Queen of Angels...” and the 1st kontakion to the “Chosen Voivode...”.

Prayer

Oh, Most Holy and Most Blessed Mother of our Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ! We fall down and worship You before Your holy, miraculous icon, remembering the wondrous sign of Your intercession, which was revealed to the great Novugrad during the days of the military invasion of this city. We humbly pray to You, O All-Powerful Intercessor of our family: just as in ancient times You hastened our father to help us, so now we, weak and sinners, have been made worthy of Your Motherly intercession and care. Save and preserve, O Lady, under the cover of Your mercy, the Holy Church, Your city (Your abode), our entire Orthodox country and all of us who fall to You with faith and love, tenderly asking with tears for Your intercession. Hey, Lady All-Merciful! Have mercy on us, overwhelmed by many sins, stretch out Thy God-receiving hand to Christ the Lord and intercede for us before His goodness, asking us forgiveness of our sins, a pious peaceful life, a good Christian death and a good answer at His Last Judgment, yes, we are saved by Thy almighty to Through His prayers, we will inherit the bliss of paradise and, with all the saints, we will sing the Most Honorable and Magnificent Name of the Most Worshipful Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and Your great mercy to us, forever and ever. Amen.

This image is one of the most interesting in Orthodox icon painting, although, of course, there are other curious and unusual icons. Here we can see an interesting concept of representing the Mother of God in an allegorical form. Before the believers is the icon of Sophia the Wisdom of God, on which the Most Pure Virgin appears in the form of wisdom, that is, we are talking not so much about a specific person, but about the quality that was embodied through this person.

The meaning of the icon “Sophia the Wisdom of God”

In fact, the meaning of this icon is multifaceted and deep; in order to understand exactly the meaning of the icon of Hagia Sophia, some experience of the Orthodox faith and minimal theological education will be required. Such subtleties can be explained by priests or specialized books. Therefore, here it is necessary to say only briefly about the main details:

• Christ appears as wisdom incarnate, He is called the Wisdom of God, which, accordingly, became incarnate through the Mother of God;
• the seven pillars represent the foundations on which the church is based;
• the composition contains the holy apostles (can be in different combinations) and always John the Baptist, who was inextricably linked with Christ.

In general, this composition has an allegorical meaning. Not just gospel figures are depicted here, but each participant in the composition embodies a certain principle. It is useful for the believer to reflect on this image himself during the period of prayer and try to understand the interconnection of the elements.

Depending on the variety, the composition may vary slightly. However, the icon of the Mother of God “Sophia the Wisdom of God” always has a number of common elements.

In the center is the Mother of God and Child, that is, wisdom embodied. Angelic ranks look down from above, emphasizing the allegorical nature of the image and the connection with the higher world. On the sides stand the apostles, and from below there are seven steps or pillars, on which the following words are often indicated: Faith; Hope; Love; Humility before the Lord; Nobility; Glory; Purity of thoughts.

These qualities indicate the foundations of the church. This is a brief description of the icon of the Wisdom of God.

Varieties of icons

If we don’t talk about reproductions, then we are talking about very ancient images, which are now stored in different cities and are often named precisely according to their belonging to the city, in particular:

• icon “Sophia the Wisdom of God” of Kiev - located in the St. Sophia Cathedral, brought from the territory of Byzantium from the Cathedral of Justinian, in the upper part there are archangels and some Old Testament characters, for example Moses with his commandments, this detail (characters from the Old Testament) makes the icon different from the rest ;
• the Novgorod icon “Sophia the Wisdom of God” is also distinguished by a unique composition, in the center is the Lord on the throne, in an areola of blue light, which symbolizes the Kingdom of Heaven, and on two sides stand the Mother of God and John the Baptist in prayerful poses, this icon is considered miraculous and brings to believers help in various difficulties.

These options are the most common. By the way, the Kiev image is also considered miraculous. A huge number of believers gather in the cathedral every year on the days of veneration of the image.

One should distinguish the icon of Sophia of Suzdal, which is dedicated to an Orthodox saint, and also not be confused with the icon of Sophia of Slutsk, which was also created for the glory of another saint. Here we are talking about the names of ascetics, and in the image described earlier, Sophia is a synonym for wisdom, and not the name of a specific person.

If we are talking about the Suzdal image, then the former queen is glorified there, who was tonsured a nun because she could not give an heir to Vasily the Third. She first went to the Moscow Novodevichy Convent, and after that she was in Suzdal, where she acquired holiness. The Slutsk image also glorifies the famous princess, but who was from the Khodkivech family, managed to maintain the Orthodox faith even in difficult circumstances and is now considered an intercessor and helper of women.

What do people pray for to the icon “Sophia the Wisdom of God”

Many of those who need to receive valuable advice and guidance pray to the icon “Sophia the Wisdom of God.”

One should treat the content of the image as the entire fullness of wisdom that is contained in the Lord.

Prayer to the icon

Incomprehensible and All-sung by the Wisdom of God, Sophia the Preeminent, virgin souls, that is, the Only Begotten Son, the Word of God, accept this prayer song from our unworthy and vile lips. Even if the essence is written: the song is not beautiful in the mouths of sinners, but the thief was saved by one word, the publican was justified with a sigh, and the Canaanite daughter was healed with a mother’s petition, because You, O Lord, are Good and Lover of mankind, enlightening those who come into the world, and forgiving the sins of sinners, and with reason You fill the foolish, and make wise, and the souls that thirst for good words with Your teaching, like the Samaritan woman, you water with living water, you make the fornicator chaste, you open paradise to the thief, for You are the Giver of all good things, and the Giver of understanding, and the Guardian of the life, O Christ our God, and We send You glory and praise, honor and thanksgiving and glorification and worship with Your Beginning Father, and with Your Most Holy, and Good, and Life-Giving Spirit, and with Your Most Holy and Immaculate Matter, Our Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, now and ever , and forever and ever. Amen.