St. Sophia of Suzdal is considered one of the most revered saints in the Russian Orthodox tradition. December 29 - the day of the death of nun Sophia - became the official day of her memory in the church calendar. The relics and the ancient miraculous icon of St. Sophia, to this day kept in the Intercession Monastery in the city of Suzdal, are the main shrines of the monastery. Believers from faraway places come to bow to them to receive healing from illnesses and help in difficult matters.
Sofia Suzdalskaya and Solomoniya Saburova
Few today correlate these two names. Meanwhile, in worldly life, Saint Sophia of Suzdal (1490-1542) was one of the most distinguished women of her time. In history, she remained as Solomonia Saburova - the wife of Vasily III, the last Grand Duke of Moscow.
Having chosen the fifteen-year-old Solomonia at the brides review hosted by her mother, Sophia Paleolog,Byzantine custom, Prince Vasily caused displeasure of those close to him. For the first time, the ruler of Moscow married an "irregular" from a boyar, not a princely family. Nevertheless, the kind and pious Solomonia won love and respect at court.
Princely share
Alas, her fate was tragic. All twenty years of marriage, the princess remained childless. Neither fervent prayers, nor trips to holy places, nor long services in temples helped. The displeasure of the Grand Duke grew, the situation around the unfortunate Solomonia became more and more tense. Passionately desiring to have an heir, Vasily the Third forbade his brothers to marry, fearing that the grand prince's throne would go to his nephews. All this saddened the smart and kind princess, but she could not do anything.
Grand Divorce
Contrary to popular belief, it was not Henry the Eighth who started the tradition of royal divorces.
In 1525, after twenty years of a childless marriage, Vasily III decided to divorce his wife. Evil tongues claimed that it was not without the "charm" of the young Princess Elena Glinskaya, with whom Vasily got married without waiting even a year.
The divorce of Vasily the Third was the first and unprecedented in the history of Russia. The decision of the prince was supported by the boyars, but the clergy were harshly condemned, many of them paid with their freedom for protecting the princess.
Nevertheless, the decision was made. The prince acted "of his own free will" and after the divorce, Princess Solomonia had to take tonsure and retire to the monastery.
Nunreluctantly
How did Sofia Suzdalskaya take the news of her tonsure? The life of the saint contains two options for her acceptance of monasticism. In the first, she was forcibly tonsured at the behest of her husband, in the second - not wanting strife and civil strife and seeing her barrenness, she asked permission to voluntarily go to the monastery.
Modern history claims that St. Sophia, and then still the Grand Duchess, passionately, as best she could, resisted the tonsure, trampling the monastic robe with her last strength. However, having learned that the tonsure was the desire of the prince, Solomonia submitted. However, nun Sofia could not come to terms with her new status for a very long time.
According to the chronicles of that time, having accepted her new position, she found peace in prayer and monastic labors. One of the legends says that the nun, who was not afraid of any work, dug a well for the monastery with her own hands when the monastery did not have enough water. The cover sewn by her on the grave of St. Euphrosia, sewn by her, has survived to this day. Sophia of Suzdal was revered by her contemporaries as a true ascetic, who, with her kindness and exemplary service, won the love and respect of the nuns and all who knew her.
Almost all her subsequent life as a monk, the ascetic spent within the walls of the Intercession Monastery in the city of Suzdal, where she was buried in 1542.
Miracles of Sophia of Suzdal
Shortly after the death of nun Sophia, miracles of healing began to occur on her grave. So, in 1598, the first recorded deliverance from the blindness of Princess Anna took place. Non-fiction. Four years later, in the same miraculous way, another woman saw the light on the grave of the saint. In subsequent years, other miraculous transformations are described. The prayer of Sophia of Suzdal helped with eye diseases, deafness, paralysis and mental disorders.
St. Sophia was not only a healer, but also a protector. Appearing in monastic attire and with a lit candle in her hands to the leader of the Polish army approaching the monastery, Sophia of Suzdal saved her native monastery.
As the “Historical meeting about the God-saved city of Suzdal” describes this event, the chronicler and clergyman of the 18th century Anania Fedorov: strong fear gripped the commander Lisovsky from the vision of the saint and his right hand was taken away, while other Poles fell to the ground along with their horses, stricken with disease. The enemy army retreated, and the miraculous event itself was depicted on the tombstone of the ascetic.
Memory after death
The official church proclaimed the veneration of the nun Sophia as a saint only in 1650 - a hundred years after her repose, and the issue of canonization was de alt with two centuries later. Nevertheless, soon after her death, the people began to honor her as a saint, and the worshipers reached out to her grave. It is noteworthy that even in the old, preprinted calendars, she is called the holy righteous nun, but at the same time Princess Sophia.
During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the long-awaited heir to Prince Vasily from his second wife, Solomonia-Sophia was commemorated as a reverend nun and the veneration was more of a local character. It is noteworthy that already at that time, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, in a letter to the king, called Sophia-Solomonia a reverend martyr, innocent and holy. According to legend, Tsar Ivan the Fourth himself came to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery and, according to the legends, personally covered the tomb of the nun with a blanket made in the workshop of his beloved wife Anastasia Romanovna, especially as a gift for the grave of the saint.
Under the next Tsar Fyodor Ioanovich, the veneration of St. Sophia of Suzdal increased even more. Crowded pilgrimages were made to the grave of the venerable nun, members of the royal family more than once favored the monastery with their visits. The embroidered cover on her tombstone with the image of the Savior, presented to the monastery by Tsarina Irina Godunova, has survived to this day. The dedicatory inscription confirms the year and purpose of the offering.
What Princess Solomonia looked like
Not a single lifetime portrait of Princess Solomonia Saburova has survived to this day. We do not know whether such images existed at all, since portraiture, like secular art, came to Russia only in the Petrine era, almost two centuries after the events described. Several miniatures from chronicles have been preserved, depicting scenes of the wedding of Vasily the Third and Solomonia, the tonsure of the princess and several other significant historical episodes from the life of the princely couple. Contemporaries described Solomonia Saburova as a woman of extraordinary beauty.
19th century engraving depicts a young dark-haired woman with regular featuresfaces in tiaras and expensive clothes. Whether the real Solomonia was similar to the portrait image created by the artist of the times of romanticism is difficult to say. Her image as a monk is known, but most likely it was also painted after the death of St. Solomonia-Sophia.
Iconography of Hagia Sophia
Many icons painted in the 19th-20th centuries represent St. Sophia of Suzdal in accordance with the Byzantine icon-painting canon: in a monastic klobuk and paraman of a blue-green, almost earthy color, brown cassock and crimson or dark cherry mantle. The face and hands are written in ocher, large round eyes, thin straight nose, small lips.
The oldest image of St. Sophia dates back to the second half of the 17th century. Of course, we have before us an exaggerated canonical image of the saint, and it is foolish to look for a portrait resemblance in it with descriptions and well-known images of the real Solomon. The name of the master who transferred the image to the board remains unknown. Presumably, the oldest icon of St. Sophia was created by icon painters in her native monastery. Interestingly, in the traditional iconography leading from this image, there is a mandatory attribute - a scroll held by Sophia of Suzdal. This icon is considered miraculous and may have been intended for the tomb of the saint.
Confession of a saint
In the Orthodox church calendar, the name of Sophia of Suzdal appears a year before the revolution. In 1984, she was “officially” included in the host of saints, but so far only locally revered Suzdal, and since 2007, Hagia Sophiarevered already at the all-church level.
Reverend Sophia bequeathed to bury herself in the ground. A strange desire for that time, since traditionally it was customary for people of her position to be buried in stone tombs-crypts. For more than four centuries, from 1542 to 1990, her ashes remained undisturbed.
In 1995, her grave in the monastery was opened and the relics of Sophia of Suzdal solemnly removed from the ground. Now they are exhibited in a closed reliquary in the Intercession Cathedral. This is the main shrine of the monastery, to which numerous pilgrims flock. It is striking that, having lain in the ground for more than four hundred years, the relics turned out to be incorrupt. However, after opening the tomb, they decayed within minutes.
With what they come to the saint
With various requests and prayers, they turn to St. Sophia. Already in our time, the list of miracles revealed by her is replenished with new evidence. Mostly, she is addressed with requests for getting rid of all kinds of diseases. First of all, as a healer, Sophia of Suzdal is revered by the people. What else does the saint help with? As we remember, during her lifetime, Princess Solomonia was barren. However, the fact is amazing - a prayer to St. Sophia helps barren couples find a long-awaited child.
There is evidence that she showed the way to the lost, protected children from harm and helped to soften the grumpy temper of the elderly.
