Russia marks 450 years of St. Basil's Cathedral

Associated Press ^ | 07/12/2011 | MANSUR MIROVALEV

[iowamark]

He was naked, homeless and fiercely argumentative — and his name is immortalized in one of Russia's most remarkable buildings, St. Basil's Cathedral.

An exhibition detailing the lives of St. Basil and other religious zealots known as "holy fools" opened Tuesday as part of ceremonies marking the 450th anniversary of perhaps Moscow's most famous tourist attraction.

After years of restoration work that cost 390 million rubles ($14 million) — including the reinforcement of the walls and the pile of brightly colored onion domes and spires that crown the architectural fantasia — the iconic church looks lavish, and a striking contrast to the extreme asceticism that the holy fools practiced.

Although originally named the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin by the Moat, most know it as St. Basil's, referring to Basil the Blessed, a Muscovite "holy fool" who was buried on the original site before the present building was erected.

The "holy fools" braved Russian winters by walking stark naked — or mortified their flesh by wearing heavy fetters or lice-infested sackclothes. They fasted and never slept indoors, uttered prophecies, performed healings and even walked on water, according to their hagiographies.

And they dared to speak the truth to the powerful, being virtually the only group that could openly criticize the Kremlin rulers and channel ordinary people's frustration...

Completed in 1561, the soaring structure with nine onion-shaped, multicolored domes fused the Russian traditions of wooden architecture with Byzantine and Islamic influences. Over the years, it was associated with St. Basil, at whose grave many miracles happened, according to church chronicles...

[iowamark]

[Crazieman]

Survived the commies...

Can we do it?

[Dilbert San Diego]

This is inspiring to think that Christianity survived behind the Iron Curtain for so many years. As our own society is moving towards secularism in a big way, the example of the former Soviet bloc gives me hope that Christianity, and religion in general, will also survive here in America.

As a sidebar, I had a discussion with someone who said that organized religion was a negative influence on society. She said how much harm had been done in the name of religion, yadda, yadda, yadda. She tends to agree that we should tear down crosses and Ten Commandment monuments.

So I told her, let’s look at the historic record of communism, because communism is officially atheist. I told her how tens of millions had been killed in the name of communism. Can we really say that organized religion has been the biggest evil force in history, based on this evidence of the evils of communism?

Her response? That the followers of Chairman Mao, Joe Stalin, Pol Pot, et. al. adhered to communism with a religious zeal. In her mind, an officially atheistic ideology is really a religious type of ideology.

I think she’s politically liberal also. Her thought process is very different than mine, that’s for sure.

[Desdemona]

So cool and a decent article about the man himself.

[Desdemona]

For our Orthodox Bretheren.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
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[Studebaker Hawk]

Watch yer back.

[raybbr]

So did Google....

[x]

Well, they’re either celebrating that or Communism ...

[I still care]

I would argue with her that all that means is that man is meant to worship something.

We can either worship false Gods that have temporal power to take away everything we have, or true Gods who focus us on love, charity, patience, etc in a private relationship with Him.

But either way, you can’t take that propensity out of mankind. We WILL find something to worship, even if it’s... nothing.

I usually make some comment that (as far as evolutionists believe) if mankind has evolved into something determined by the “survival of the fittest”, what does it mean that every people on earth, even tribes in deepest jungles, have developed a concept of God?

You can never convince these people, but a little more ammo your way.

[Elendur]

This is inspiring to think that Christianity survived behind the Iron Curtain for so many years.
///
yes!
i have great respect for our Orthodox brothers and sisters in Christ. and even more, for the Coptic Christians,
and the few brave souls living in Pakistan.

...it IS easy to talk a good game as Americans.
but i wonder how many of us, would fail to “walk the walk”.
even Peter denied Christ.
and i certainly am not as strong as him, or many brave Copts and Russians.

I’ve been to Christian Churches all over the USA, of different types - even Mormon. But none compared with the quiet faith and devotion I saw on the rugged faces of Russians, in their tiny but beautiful Churches in Siberia.
(btw, no pews. no chairs. they stood. or knelt on a stone floor... every Sunday.)

[Cronos]

Christianity survived even longer under more persecution -- look at the Catholics, Orthodox, Copts, Armenians, Assyrians living in Moslem lands for a millenia and a half

Iraq had 2 million Christians before 2003, now they are 400,000 and dropping rapidly.

[Cronos]

our Orthodox brethren haven been chased from FR just as Catholics nearly were/are, by the same fanatics...

[Biggirl]

.....And the sad thing about that is, it by those who into “sola Scripture”, or Bible only at a time when Christians of all different church communities MUST stand together against the growing anti-Christian mood in our world today.

In other words, we must STOP fighting each other!

[catfish1957]

450 years? .. Are they subtracting the approximately 70 years when there was no religion in Russia?

[annalex]

Her response? That the followers of Chairman Mao, Joe Stalin, Pol Pot, et. al. adhered to communism with a religious zeal

It is true that communism is a religious movement, or at least imitates one. But it doesn't follow that because a true religion also inspires zeal, religion itself is harmful. One has to look at the tenets of the proposed religion rather than at the strength of the associated emotions. The mass killings are at the core of communism since Karl Marx, -- it teaches that class struggle is inevitable, cannot be replaced by peaceful conversion, and is a good thing because it gives pwoer to the working class. Let her show me where Christianity teaches anything similar.

[annalex]

our Orthodox brethren haven been chased from FR just as Catholics nearly were/are

Yeah -- what happened?

[Cronos]

well, the intensified campaign against us in the Apostolic Church is what happened. It seems to have died down a bit. I guess it may burn up again at Christmas — the anti-group gets some energy against Christianity at Christmas and Lent.

[Cronos]

Technically there never was "no religion in Russia" -- the state said its official aim was elimination of religion, but they never managed it as effectively as the Albanians or North Koreans did/do.

The Russian Orthodox and Georgian Orthodox were "tolerated" (of course their bishops etc. were regularly killed...)

The Armenian Church (an Oriental Church) was able to withstand this better due to the strong ties between the faith and nationality.

The communists "tolerated" the Russian Orthodox Church only because they thought they could control it and because the head of the Church was in Russia (so, the Soviets thought they could control him) -- Catholics were persecuted severely in the USSR.

This is in contrast to Albania where Mosques, Churchs and synagogues were shut down in 1967. the penal code of 1977 imposed prison sentences of three to ten years for "religious propaganda and the production, distribution, or storage of religious literature."