Temple in the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary “It is worthy to eat.... Shrines of Athos: The miraculous icon of the Mother of God “It is worthy to eat” (“Merciful”)

Athos stood firmly between heaven and earth in order to reconcile the human race with God and delay the righteous judgment of God, aroused by human betrayal, against many people.

Elder Joseph of Vatopedi

There are places on earth that, like lonely candles, illuminate the darkness of our sinful life. The Holy Fathers, who were honored to see the world with spiritual eyes, say that they are connected to heaven by certain pillars of light. The Holy Mountain is such a place. For the second millennium, the great ascetics of Athos have been praying for our land. The Most Pure Virgin Herself took the Holy Mountain under Her special protection.

Venerable Peter of Athos

In 667, the pious monk, the Monk Peter of Athos, saw the Mother of God in a subtle dream, who said: “ Mount Athos is My lot, given to Me by My Son and God, so that those who withdraw from the world and choose for themselves an ascetic life according to their strength, and who call upon My name with faith and love from the soul, may spend their lives there without sorrow and receive for their godly deeds eternal life. I love that place very much and want to increase the monastic rite there. The mercy of My Son and God will endure forever to those who will monk there if they fulfill the saving commandments. And I will spread them in that Mountain to the south and north, and they will prevail over it from sea to sea, and I will glorify their name throughout the entire sunflower, and I will protect those who will strive there in fasting and patience.” Arriving on Athos at the behest of the Lady, the Monk Peter spent more than half a century there in a cave, not seeing any people and talking only with God, the sea and the stars.

Many of the miraculous icons of the Mother of God shone on Mount Athos: Iveron, All-Tsarina, Jerusalem, Economissa and others. Our story about the icon Mother of God "Worthy to eat"(“Merciful”) This miraculous image resides in an amazing, unique city in the world - in the administrative center of the Holy Mountain, named Kareya. Once upon a time, it was here, on the site of a pagan temple, that Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine the Great erected in 335 the first temple on the Holy Mountain in the name of the Assumption Holy Mother of God, which is still the spiritual center of Kareya. The first Athonite inhabitants gathered around him. The Kareya Lavra, which later arose here, flourished, its abbot became the leader on Athos and was called “prot” - first or senior. Under the proté, a Council or Synod of honorary elders met. General meeting Monks of the Holy Mountain traditionally took place in Kareya on her patronal feast day, on the day of the Dormition of the Most Pure One.

This continued until the 17th century, when the Turks imposed such an unbearable tribute on the Lavra that this monastery was forced to sell individual sections of its lands to other monasteries, which thereby became independent, and the Lavra ceased to exist as a single whole. Then the Cathedral of the Holy Mountain decided to transform Kareya into a city - a center of spiritual administration monastic republic. And to this day on Athos common affairs All the monasteries of the Holy Mountain are governed by the Sacred Assembly, or Kinoe, which meets in the building of the Protata. The spiritual center of Kareya remained Protaton - a temple dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, which was destroyed and reborn more than once. Already in 362, it was burned at the behest of Emperor Julian the Apostate. In the 10th century, under Emperor Nikephoros II Phocas, the temple was restored; in the 14th century it suffered greatly at the hands of the Latins, then was rebuilt again with the care of the Bulgarian kings. Inside the cathedral, priceless frescoes by the famous 14th-century Byzantine isographer Manuel Pansenilos have been preserved.

Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Kareya

Since 982, the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “It is Worthy to Eat” has been in the altar of the Assumption Church on a high place. Together with the temple, it survived many adversities, but remained unharmed, and now the second millennium has illuminated the entire Orthodox world.

Miraculous icon Mother of God “It is worthy to eat”

And when the monk began to sing these words, the icon of the Mother of God “Merciful,” which stood in the cell, suddenly shone with a mysterious light, and the novice suddenly felt a special joy and began to sob with tenderness. He asked the guest to write down the wondrous words, and he inscribed them with his finger on a stone slab, which softened under his hand like wax. After this, the guest, who called himself the humble Gabriel, became invisible, and the icon continued to emit a wonderful light for some time. Shocked, the novice waited for the elder, told him about the mysterious stranger and showed him a stone slab with the words of prayer. The spiritually experienced elder immediately realized that the Archangel Gabriel had come to his cell, sent to earth to proclaim to Christians a wondrous song in the name of the Mother of God - another in the series of those that people learned from the angels (“Glory to God in the Highest,” “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts”, Trisagion “Holy of God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”).

Since then, the angelic song “It is worthy to eat...” has been sung during every Divine Liturgy around the world - wherever there is at least one Orthodox throne or at least one lives Orthodox Christian. The elder and the novice told the priest about what had happened. He blessed the gathering of the Council of Elders, at which the wonderful messenger and his words were told. Here, at the cathedral, they offered up the prayer to the Mother of God “It is worthy to eat...”, and the stone with the words inscribed on it was sent to the Patriarch of Constantinople as evidence of a miracle. And the icon, in front of which this prayer was sung for the first time on earth, has since become known as “It is Worthy to Eat.” Soon the icon was transferred with honor to the cathedral church of Kareya, where it remains to this day.

Not far from Kareya, on the eastern slope of the Holy Mountain near the Aegean Sea, is the Russian St. Andrew's monastery, and near it is that narrow ravine with a rapid stream of water, near which stood the cell where the heavenly messenger descended.

More than a thousand years have passed since then. During this time, the icon left Athos only four times in order to console, support, and enlighten those Orthodox who do not have the opportunity to come to it themselves.

The first time this happened only in 1963, when the millennium of the Holy Mountain was celebrated and on the occasion of this anniversary the miraculous one visited the Greek capital of Athens.

The second, in 1985, when on the occasion of the 2300th anniversary of the city of Thessaloniki (now Thessaloniki) it was brought there.

For the third time - in the fall of 1987, when the shrine again visited the capital of Hellas, it was greeted with honor at the pier of the port suburb of Athens Piraeus with a solemn procession of the cross with banners, candles, wreaths of fresh flowers, and for eighteen days it remained in the Church of the Annunciation, day and night accepting those who wanted to venerate her. All this time, the Holy Mountain monks were constantly at the icon.

Finally, in the fall of 1994, a wonderful guest visited the city of Larnaca on the island of Cyprus. By the providence of God, just then a ship with pilgrims from Russia stood in the port of Larnaca. In the evening, just an hour before the ship’s departure, pilgrims hurried across the city to venerate the miraculous, but saw a long line stretching beyond the horizon. But the crowd of pious Greeks suddenly parted, letting Russian Orthodox pilgrims through to the great shrine.

Procession of the cross with the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “It is Worthy to Eat” on Mount Athos. Photo: Vitaly Kislov / Pravoslavie.Ru

The Most Pure One has long poured out Her mercy on Russian Christians. Lists with miraculous image“It is worthy to eat” were in St. Petersburg, in Galernaya Harbor, where there is a majestic pseudo-Byzantine temple built in honor of the Mother of Mercy. And on June 16, 1999, another list was delivered to the Moscow courtyard of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra from Holy Mount Athos, made by the same isographers - inhabitants of the Athos Nikolsky monastery ("Belozerki"), who also painted the image of the Iveron icon, donated by the Holy Mountain residents to the restored Iveron chapel in Moscow.
According to the iconography, the image of the Mother of God is a half-length image of the Most Pure One; on Her right hand sits the Baby clinging to Her with a scroll in his hand. The celebration of this miraculous work takes place (June 11, Old Style) on the very day when the heavenly guest visited the Athonite monks:

Archangel Gabriel was sent from heaven from You, Mother of God,
to the humble novice of Mount Athos,
in a desert cell singing songs of praise to Thy before Thy holy icon,
may he teach him to sing the heavenly song, with which the Angels in heavenly Zion glorify Thee.
In the same way, we are also humble, remembering Your kindness for people,
with thanksgiving we cry to thee:
Rejoice, worthily praised by the Archangel and Angel;
Rejoice, blessed one from all the heavenly powers.
Rejoice, Ever-Blessed and Most Immaculate;
Rejoice, Mother of our God.
Rejoice, Most Honest Cherub;
Rejoice, Most Glorious Seraphim without comparison.
Rejoice, you who gave birth to God the Word without corruption;
Rejoice, truly present Mother of God.

Nadezhda Dmitrievafrom the book “He Rejoices in You”

Particularly revered temple icon of the Mother of God, called “It is Worthy to Eat”, Athonite writing.

Brought to the Moscow courtyard of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra on June 16, 1999 from Holy Mount Athos, where it was painted by isographers - inhabitants of the Athonite Nikolsky Skete ("Belozerki") as a list of the miraculous Athonite Icon located in the cathedral church of Protata, in Kareia - the capital of Athos .

The first all-night vigil according to the Athos charter in honor of the Mother of God and in honor of Her icon “It is Worthy to Eat” was celebrated on the night of June 23-24, 1999 - the day of celebration of this icon, and has been performed annually since then.

As is clear from its very name, the history of this icon is connected with the Orthodox chant “It is worthy to eat.” In the 10th century, in a cave not far from Kareya, a certain elder priest and a novice labored. One Sunday, June 11, 982, the elder went to the monastery for an all-night vigil, but the novice remained at home. Late at night an unknown monk knocked on his cell. The novice was not surprised by this - there are many monasteries on Athos, many hermits live in the mountains, sometimes going down to their brothers. The novice bowed to the stranger, gave him water to drink from the road, and offered to rest in his cell. Together with the guest, they began to sing psalms and prayers. However, while singing the words “More Honest Cherub”, the mysterious guest unexpectedly noticed that in their places this song is sung differently? adding before “Most Honest” the words “It is worthy to eat, as truly you are blessed, the Mother of God, the Ever-Blessed and Most Immaculate, and the Mother of our God.” And when the monk began to sing these words, the icon of the Mother of God “Merciful,” which stood in the cell, suddenly shone with a mysterious light, and the novice suddenly felt a special joy and began to sob with tenderness. He asked the guest to write down the wondrous words, and he inscribed them with his finger on a stone slab, which softened under his hand like wax. After this, the guest, who called himself the humble Gabriel, became invisible, and the icon continued to emit a wonderful light for some time. Shocked, the novice waited for the elder, told him about the mysterious stranger and showed him a stone slab with the words of prayer. The spiritually experienced elder immediately realized that the Archangel Gabriel had come to his cell, sent to earth to proclaim to Christians a wondrous song in the name of the Mother of God - another in the series of those that people learned from the angels (“Glory to God in the Highest,” “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts”, Trisagion “Holy of God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”).

Since then, the angelic song “It is worthy to eat...” has been sung during every Divine Liturgy throughout the world - wherever there is at least one Orthodox throne or at least one Orthodox Christian lives. The elder and the novice told the priest about what had happened. He blessed the gathering of the Council of Elders, at which the wonderful messenger and his words were told. Here, at the cathedral, they offered up the prayer to the Mother of God “It is worthy to eat...”, and the stone with the words inscribed on it was sent to the Patriarch of Constantinople as evidence of a miracle. And the icon, in front of which this prayer was sung for the first time on earth, has since become known as “It is Worthy to Eat.” Soon the icon was transferred with honor to the cathedral church of Kareya, where it remains to this day.

More than a thousand years have passed since then. During this time, the icon left Athos only four times to console, support, and enlighten those Orthodox who do not have the opportunity to come to it themselves. The first time this happened only in 1963, when the millennium of the Holy Mountain was celebrated and on the occasion of this anniversary the miraculous icon visited the Greek capital of Athens; the second - in 1985, when on the occasion of the 2300th anniversary of the city of Thessaloniki (now Thessaloniki) it was brought there; for the third time - in the fall of 1987, when the shrine again visited the capital of Hellas, it was greeted with honor at the pier of the port suburb of Athens Piraeus with a solemn religious procession with banners, candles, wreaths of fresh flowers and for eighteen days it remained in the Church of the Annunciation, during the day, and at night, taking those who wanted to venerate her. All this time, the Holy Mountain monks were constantly at the icon. Finally, in the fall of 1994, a wonderful guest visited the city of Larnaca on the island of Cyprus. By the providence of God, just then a ship with pilgrims from Russia stood in the port of Larnaca. In the evening, just an hour before the ship’s departure, pilgrims hurried across the city to venerate the miraculous, but saw a long line stretching beyond the horizon. But the crowd of pious Greeks suddenly parted, allowing Russian fellow believers to enter the great shrine.

From time immemorial the Most Pure One has poured out Her mercy on Russian Christians. Copies of the miraculous image “It is Worthy to Eat” were available in St. Petersburg, in Galernaya Harbor, where there is a majestic pseudo-Byzantine temple built in honor of the Mother of Mercy. And on June 16, 1999, another list was delivered to the Moscow courtyard of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra from Holy Mount Athos, made by the same isographers - inhabitants of the Athos Nikolsky monastery ("Belozerki"), who also painted the image of the Iveron Icon, donated by the Holy Mountain residents to the restored Iveron Chapel in Moscow.

Troparion, tone 4

P rite, faithfully, with boldness / to the Merciful Queen Theotokos / and tenderly cry to Her: / send down Thy rich mercies upon us: / preserve our Church, / keep people in prosperity, / deliver our land from every situation, / grant peace to the world / / and salvation for our souls.

Kontakion, tone 4

P This day the whole of Athos will roar,/ as if a wonderful song was received from an angel to You, the Pure Mother of God, // which all creation honors and glorifies.

The miraculous icon of the Mother of God “It is worthy to eat” located in the capital of Athos, Kareya, on the high place of the altar of the cathedral church.

She appeared around 980 and was glorified in 1864. This icon is especially revered due to this occasion.

At the end of the 10th century, near the Athos Karey monastery, there lived an old hermit with his novice. One day the elder went to the church for the all-night vigil, and the novice remained in his cell to read prayer rule. As night fell, he heard a knock on the door. Opening it, the young man saw in front of him an unfamiliar monk who asked permission to enter. The novice let him in, and they began to perform prayer chants together.

So they flowed in their own order night service until the time came to glorify the Mother of God. Standing before Her icon “Worthy is the Merciful One,” the novice began to sing the generally accepted prayer: “The most honorable Cherub and the most glorious without comparison Seraphim...”, but the guest stopped him and said: “We don’t call the Mother of God that way” - and sang a different beginning: “ It is worthy to eat, as truly, to bless Thee, Theotokos, Ever-Blessed and Most Immaculate, and Mother of our God.” And then he added to this “The most honorable Cherub...”

The monk commanded the novice to always sing in this place of worship the hymn he had just heard in honor of the Mother of God. Not expecting that he would remember such wonderful words of the prayer he heard, the novice asked the guest to write them. But there was no ink or paper in the cell, and then the stranger inscribed the words of the prayer with his finger on the stone, which suddenly became soft like wax. Then the monk suddenly disappeared, and the novice only had time to ask the stranger his name, to which he replied: “Gabriel.”

When the elder returned from church, he was amazed to hear the words from the novice: new prayer. Having listened to his story about the wondrous guest and seeing the miraculously written songs, the elder realized that the celestial being who had appeared was the Archangel Gabriel.

The rumor about the miraculous visit of the Archangel Gabriel quickly spread throughout Mount Athos and reached Constantinople. The Athonite monks sent to the capital a stone slab with a hymn to the Mother of God inscribed on it as proof of the truth of the news they conveyed. Since then, the prayer “It is worthy to eat” has become an inseparable part Orthodox services. And the icon of the Mother of God “Merciful”, together with its former name, began to be called “It is Worthy to Eat”.

Temple of Protates in Kareya. Athos.

Photo by I. Suvorov

An ancient church has been preserved in Russia icon of the Mother of God “It is worthy to eat” in the village of Porez, Kirov region., also called after one of the thrones of the Theotokos. This extensive brick church is in Russian-Byzantine style, built in 1859-1878. A four-pillar, five-domed temple with a refectory and a four-tiered bell tower with an onion dome. Closed in the late 1930s. In 1997 it was returned to believers and is being repaired.
Address: Kirov region, Uninsky district, village. A cut.

There are also modern churches. This

Photo by O. Shchelokov

Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “It is Worthy to Eat”, built in 1999-2001 in the village them. Vorovsky, Vladimir region.
Address: Vladimir region, Sudogodsky district, pos. Vorovsky.

Photo by A. Alexandrov

Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “It is Worthy to Eat” of the Assumption St. George Monastery, erected in 2002-03.
Address: Republic of Bashkortostan, Blagoveshchensky district, p/o village. Usa-Stepanovka, monastery.

The last church of the monastery was the small church of the Icon of the Mother of God “It is Worthy to Eat,” located next to the cells in the northwestern part of the territory.

The Dostoinovskaya - Mother of God Church was stone, two-story, warm, built in 1886–1887. under the abbess of Izmaragda of the Resurrection at the expense of willing donors; had one sanctuary in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “It Is Worthy.”

The church appeared in 1886-1887. and was a two-story corner tower with a dome. On the lower floor of the temple there were two cells for monastics. The reason for the founding of the temple was the following circumstance, testifying to A.N. Ushakov:

“The land on which the temple was erected belonged to the city and cut into the monastery, which is why the society turned to the current abbess Izmaragda with an offer to buy the land. And the monastery acquired it. On this land, the abbess began building a new stone two-story residential tower in the form of a chapel in such a way that it fit into the coal wall of the monastery. When the construction was completed, Mother Abbess Izmaragda more than once saw dreams and heard a voice that told her that she had forgotten the Kazan Mother of God. The religious and God-fearing abbess began to fervently pray to God and came to the conclusion that she was called to a good deed to build a temple in honor of the Kazan Mother of God. With this intention, Mother Abbess went to the city of Yaroslavl to ask Vladyka for a blessing. Vladyka noticed that there was already a temple in honor of the Icon of the Kazan Mother of God in the city of Uglich, but he did not reject the wishes of Abbess Izmaragda. Upon arrival in Uglich, the abbess received a letter from Athos that the image of the Mother of God “It is worthy to eat” was coming to her... This icon was transported first to Yaroslavl, then to Rybinsk to the chapel of the Epiphany Monastery and, finally, to Uglich. Then Mother Abbess became convinced that new temple should be in honor of the donated icon. They laid the foundation stone for the temple..."– wrote A.N. Ushakov.

The church in the name of the icon of the Mother of God “Merciful” (It is worthy to eat) was built in memory of the coronation Alexandra III. This temple with a large dome was larger and more majestic than the Trinity Church in Gavan (now lost), nevertheless, until 1923 it was subordinate to it and did not have its own clergy.

The first church near Galernaya Harbor appeared in 1725, when a linen church for the “galley squadron of ministers” was moved here from the Malo-Kalinkin Bridge. Since 1733, the church was housed in a wooden barracks.

In 1792, according to the design of the architect J. Perrin, the wooden Church of the Holy Trinity was built. Then the idea of erecting a stone temple repeatedly arose. The first donor was the skipper of the Rowing Port M.F. Kirin. In 1822, he bequeathed capital to the Trinity Church, which by 1887 had grown to 76 thousand rubles, which allowed the clergy to think about the construction of a new stone church for the population of the Harbor, which at that time amounted to about 15,000 people. Metropolitan Isidore petitioned for this already in 1866, and in next year The city council even allocated land for the construction of the parish church of St. Nicholas.

It was decided to build the temple in memory of the coronation of the Emperor, who donated 25 thousand rubles for construction. In this regard, the belfry was later decorated with a large gilded crown.

In 1886, a petition was filed for the allotment of a plot of land. In 1887, the design of the temple was approved; its authors were architect V. A. Kosyakov and engineer D. K. Prussak. This became their first major work.

The stone church, topped with a five-domed dome, is designed in the style of the temples of ancient Byzantium and is a bit reminiscent of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople. The height of the church from the surface of the earth to the foot of the cross on the main dome reaches 42 meters. Black domes have a smooth spherical shape. The central dome, having a much larger size than the others, rises upward and is, as it were, supported from below by four small sub-domes, only half protruding from the building in the form of apses. In ancient Byzantine architecture such domes are called conchs. The drum of each dome is surrounded by an arcade of windows, which was very characteristic of the Byzantine style. There are 18 windows on the drum of the main dome, and 8 on the conchs. The bell tower, which is equal in height to the small domes, is designed in the same style. Instead of windows, it is surrounded by an arcade of 6 openings for the belfry.

On June 11, 1887, the construction site was consecrated. Work began in 1888 with a temporary wooden chapel, where they installed the icon of the Merciful Mother of God (It Is Worthy), brought from Athos by Hieromonk Arseny, a famous preacher and missionary. The icon gave the name to the future church. Funds for the chapel were donated by the patron of the temple under construction, merchant D. Zaikin.

On May 29, 1889, the foundation stone of the Temple was consecrated by Bishop Mitrofan of Ladoga. By that time, the foundation and part of the walls had already been built. The three-aisle temple for 1,800 people was built on a marshy area, so in 1888, under the leadership of F. S. Kharlamov, an embankment was built and other work was carried out to strengthen the soil under the foundation. In the fall of 1892, the building was put under the roof. The iron for the domes was donated by the benefactor of Galernaya Harbor, Countess N.A. Stenbock-Fermor.

In 1892 the Temple was roughly ready, but then a lack of funds greatly slowed down the work. The matter was moved forward only by the energy of Chief Prosecutor K. P. Pobedonostsev, who understood great importance temple for the working outskirts. In 1894, crosses were installed on the domes. Interior decoration continued for another 15 years.

On December 15, 1896, Bishop Nazarius of Gdov consecrated the left (northern) chapel of the temple in the name of St. Andrew of Crete and the Prophet Hosea in memory of the salvation of Alexander III in the train accident in Borki. Also, in memory of this event, in 1891, according to the project of V.A. Kosyakov, a chapel was built on Staro-Peterhofsky Avenue in the name of the icon of the Mother of God the Merciful.

After this, the temple was accepted by the maritime department, which transferred funds to complete construction.

Another two years passed before, on October 25, 1898, Bishop Benjamin of Yamburg, together with Archpriest John of Kronstadt (now canonized), in the presence of Pobedonostsev, consecrated the main chapel. A single-tiered bog oak iconostasis from the workshop of P. S. Abrosimov with images based on the “Athos model” by Moscow icon painters was installed here. The interior sculpting was done by O. S. Konoplev.

On March 28, 1900, Metropolitan Anthony consecrated the right (southern) chapel in the name of Saints Sergius of Radonezh and Theodosius of Chernigov, but only three years later the work of gilding the cross, cladding the staircase with granite, and installing a fence was completed in the church. At the same time, images arrived from Sarov St. Seraphim Sarovsky and the “Tenderness” icon of the Mother of God, consecrated on the saint’s shrine. 18th-century icons of the Savior and the Mother of God, as well as a gilded cross from 1727, were transferred from the Havana church to the temple. Big image St. Nicholas was presented by the manufacturer T. T. Chupyatov, and later a chandelier made of gilded bronze weighing 10 pounds was presented.

In 1903, the bell tower was crowned with a golden crown. A metal fence on a granite base was built along the road in 1903 (lost). A garden was laid out around the temple. The Epiphany blessing of water took place on the seaside, where the religious procession was taking place. The Nevsky Orthodox Brotherhood operated at the temple since 1910.

Priest in the church of Fr. Dimitry Vasilievich Arkhangelsky.

The Church of the Icon of the Mother of God of Mercy became the dominant feature of the area. The height of the building was 42 meters. Based on the experience gained here, the architect V. A. Kosyakov built the Naval Cathedral in Kronstadt. In Novosibirsk there is a cathedral, which is an almost complete repetition of the St. Petersburg church.

After the consecration, a charitable society was opened at the church, maintaining a school for orphans, an orphanage and an almshouse.

In 1932, the temple was closed and transferred to a diving training unit. Training equipment was installed in the temple: a diving tower, a torpedo tube, a survivability compartment, a swimming pool and other devices for conducting experiments and training. In the northern aisle there is a museum exhibition dedicated to the life-saving equipment of submariners.

In 2006, the parish of the temple was registered.

On December 19, 2012, the temple was officially returned to the Church. The symbolic keys to it were handed over today by representatives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation to the clergy of the St. Petersburg diocese. The order to transfer the temple was one of the first documents signed by Sergei Shoigu as Minister of Defense.