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Friday, September 16, 2022

Offsite Post: ‘Christian Culture: Young Russia vs Young US’

 

It is often claimed that the United States are a Christian country (the most Christian country, according to some), but the development of Christian culture within that union of States is in sharp contrast to what one finds in the history of Orthodox countries.

This distinction is shown with remarkable clarity in the life of the Holy Prince Andrew Bogoliubsky (‘God-loving’) of Vladimir (+1174).  In his life one sees a conscious, lifelong effort to benefit his people both physically and spiritually:

‘The chronicles also stress Saint Andrew’s peace-making activity, a rare trait among the princes and military commanders of those harsh times. The combination of military valor with love for peace and mercy, of great humility with indomitable zeal for the Church were present in Prince Andrew in the highest degree. A responsible master of the land, and a constant coworker in the city construction and church building activity of Yurii Dolgoruky, he built with his father: Moscow (1147), Iuriev-Polsk (1152), Dmitrov (1154), and he also adorned the cities of Rostov, Suzdal’, and Vladimir with churches. In 1162 Saint Andrew could say with satisfaction, “I have built up white Rus with cities and settlements, and have rendered it with much populace.”

‘ . . .

‘Thirty churches were built by Prince Andrew during the years of his rule. The finest of them is the Dormition cathedral. The richness and splendor of the church helped to spread Orthodoxy among the surrounding peoples and foreign merchants. Saint Andrew had directed that all travellers, whether Latins or pagans, were to be led into the churches he built and to have “true Christianity” pointed out to them. The chronicler writes: “Both Bulgars, and Jews, and every sort of common person, beholding the glory of God and churchly adornment, came to be baptized.”

‘ . . .


‘The liturgical activity of Saint Andrew was multi-faceted and fruitful. In 1162 the Lord granted the holy prince a great solace: in Rostov there was discovered the relics of Rostov saints -- the holy hierarchs Isaiah and Leontius. The glorification of these Rostov saints throughout all the Church took place somewhat later, but Saint Andrew initiated their national veneration. In 1164 the military forces of Saint Andrew crushed their long-time enemy, the Volga Bulgars. The victories of the Orthodox nation were marked by a blossoming of liturgical creativity within the Russian Church.


‘In this same year of 1164, at the initiative of Saint Andrew, the Church established the Feast of the All-Merciful Savior and the Most Holy Theotokos on August 1 (venerated by the Russian people as “Savior of the First Honey”), in memory of the Baptism of Rus by holy Equal of the Apostles Vladimir and in memory of the victory over the Bulgars in 1164. The Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God on October 1 embodied in liturgical forms the faith of the holy prince and all the Orthodox nation in the acceptance by the Mother of God of Holy Rus beneath Her omophorion. The Protection of the Theotokos became one of the most beloved of Russian Church Feasts. The Protection is a Russian national holiday, unknown to the Latin West. It is a liturgical continuation and creative development of theological ideas inherent to the Feast of the Placing of the Robe of the Mother of God on July 2.


‘The first church consecrated to the new Feast was the Protection church at Nerla (1165), a remarkable monument of Russian Church architecture, built by the master artisans of Saint Andrew at the head-waters of the River Nerla, so that the prince could always see it from a window of his Bogoliubov garret. . . .’

These accomplishments of St Andrew (they are not all named) occurred in Russia less than 200 years after she was baptized with the Holy Great Prince Vladimir in 988.  It is a remarkable development, from the violence and dissipation of a heathen people to the peaceful constructiveness of Orthodox culture.

What, then, of the United States in the first 186 years after her independence from Great Britain?  Did the years 1776-1962 bring along with them any great developments in Christian architecture, liturgical developments, holy days, the discovery of saints, and the like? 

The answer is an emphatic No, which is quite ironic considering that the U.S. did not, like Russia, begin their lives as non-Christian nations.  They all claimed in some way to be Christians of some kind or another.  One would expect that given their long experience with Christianity, their incarnation of a vibrant Christian culture in their first two centuries of existence would overshadow what Russia was able to accomplish in a similar time frame.

But the opposite has happened.  Christianity and its public, communal manifestations have decayed considerably.  The earlier pretty cathedrals have given way to hideous modernism (see the Wayfarers Chapel); and even the better designed Washington National Cathedral is marred by a sculpture of Darth Vader.  So sparse is beautiful church architecture in the States that a cathedral of the Orthodox Church, a faith relatively new to the States, in Cleveland, Ohio, made it into a list of the top 9 most beautiful churches in the States.

As for liturgical developments, . . .

The rest is at http://thesaker.is/christian-culture-young-russia-vs-young-u-s/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

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