An ancient carved icon in the novgorod saint sophia cathedral at the very time when peter i issued decrees ordering that carved icons be taken from churches and chapels and kept in the sacristies of cathedrals and monasteries, many similar icons of various sizes were sent to the novgorod saint sophia cathedral, of which the following are depicted here: 1) st. Paraskeva friday with her arms outstretched in prayer; 2) an unknown figure in royal robes, with a jagged crown on her head and a scepter in her hand; 3) another, similar to the first, with a crown around her head; 4) an unknown figure with outstretched arms, in a mantle fastened on her chest with three clasps; 5) a horseman in armor. All these figures, carved from linden wood, are painted. Their design lacks correctness and their decoration lacks elegance. This is almost a general shortcoming in the works of this educational art, so familiar to the russian people. Without dwelling on the three sculptures unknown to us, let us consider the first, as more remarkable in its antiquity and significance in the russian world, where the people mixed their ancient beliefs of pagan origin with the christian concept of the holy great martyr. The very name of st. Praskovia "friday" is nothing more than a translation of the greek word, i. E. Preparation for saturday, and was given to the great martyr who suffered for christ in the 3rd century, under the emperor diocletian, on the occasion of her birth on friday, which her pious parents spent in fasting, prayer and in remembrance of the savior's death on the cross. Our fatherland church, in agreement with the answer of the passion-bearer to the question of her tormentors, combined the greek name with its russian translation, and the common people, in ignorance, took them for two different words, giving them different meanings. Common people, in reverence for holy friday, in many places in russia keep fridays, i. E. , they keep a strict fast, and consider it a sin to work on the fifth day of the week, which they call vowed and sacred. They especially respect fridays before holidays, such as: annunciation, trinity, spasovskaya, uspenskaya, ilyinskaya. The stoglav mentions fictitious appearances of st. Paraskeva, who supposedly "commanded not to do manual work on friday, and not to let women spin, and not to wash clothes, and not to light a fire. " moreover, common people in poland do not even laugh on this day, believing that whoever laughs on friday will cry on sunday. Many local fairs and markets in russia are known as fridays, such as: the twelve temporary ones in a year, the ninth, the tenth, berendeyeva, gluttonous, etc. In moscow there was a place called old friday on red square, where trade took place. And in novgorod, overseas merchants built a church of st. Friday on the market square in 1156. Carved and iconographic images of st. Friday were displayed at crossroads, in chapels known as fridays, and on hollow trees in the forest, and took up space in the home altar in the front corner, or pokuta. Even women represented holy friday. The spiritual regulations say that "in little russia, in the starodub regiment, on friday they lead a simple-haired woman under the name of friday, and they lead her in the church procession, and at the church the people pay her honor with gifts and with the hope of some benefits. " in bulgaria, a lamb is sacrificed to friday. Having attached a candle to each of the horns and fumigated it with incense, they cut it over a vessel so that not a drop of blood is lost, with which they smear the children's forehead, cheeks and chin in the form of a cross; then, having roasted it, they eat it with a prayer, and bury the bones in the ground. The same is done in siberia, bosnia and herzegovina. In rus', when driving out winter, when welcoming spring, during the harvest, the harvest and the plowing, the chosen persons from the world represent friday. Popular superstition gave her the same significance as venus or suada had among the romans, and lada, who arranged weddings, among the slavs; therefore, brides especially pray to friday for their betrothed; she was also the patroness of trade. For the same reason, the fifth day of the week is dedicated by the romans, french, scandinavians and germans to venus, or svada, and freya: dies veneris, vendredi, freitag, friatac, freyjudagr. Such superstitions, combined with the sculptures of the holy great martyr, and the prohibition by the rules of the holy fathers of the use of carved icons, gave peter i the reason to order: to take away her sculptures from churches and chapels. As for the horseman in armor, he must be either st. George the victorious, or st. Demetrius of thessaloniki, whose images, sculpture and carving, often decorated churches, chapels and prayer houses. Date: 1846—1853.
Loading...
