People believe that a holy fool is a person with the obligatory presence of a mental disorder or a bodily defect. In simple terms, this is an ordinary fool. The Church tirelessly refutes this definition, arguing that such people spontaneously doom themselves to torment, wrapping themselves in a veil that hides the true goodness of their thoughts. Theology calls to distinguish between such two concepts as fools by nature and fools "for Christ's sake." If everything seems to be clear with the first type, then we should talk about the second in more detail. Because of their strong love for God, they became ascetics, protected themselves from worldly goods and comforts, dooming themselves to eternal wandering and loneliness. At the same time, they could afford insane, indecent behavior in public, trying to seduce passers-by. Spending weeks in prayer, months in fasting, they were endowed with the gift of providence, but in spite of this, they tried to avoid earthly fame.
The ideal garment for the blissful is a naked, tormented body showingdisregard for human perishable flesh. The naked image carries two meanings. First, it is the purity and innocence of an angel. Secondly, lust, immorality, the personification of the devil, who in Gothic art always appeared naked. This costume carries a dual meaning, being salvation for some, and death for others. Yet they had one distinctive attribute of clothing - a shirt or a loincloth.
The language spoken by the holy fool is silence. But there were few adherents of dumbness, since this contradicted the direct duties of the blessed one: to expose human vices and voice predictions. They chose something between silence and broadcasting. The ascetics muttered and whispered indistinctly, spouting incoherent nonsense.
Interpretation of the word
Foolishness is translated from Old Slavonic as a madman and a fool, comes from the following words: ourod and fool. Having studied the explanatory dictionaries of Ozhegov, Efremova, Dahl, we can conclude that the semantic load of the word is similar.
Semantic properties
1. In religion, a holy fool is a person who has renounced earthly advantages, who has chosen the path of an ascetic for himself. A wise fool who is one of the faces of holiness. (The holy fools danced and cried. V. I. Kostylev "Ivan the Terrible")
2. The old meaning of the word "stupid".
3. A disapproving designation that belittles a person: eccentric, abnormal. (Do I look like a young vagrant holy fool who is being executed today? M. A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita")
The meaning of existence
With their behavior they triedto reason with people by showing them in a caricature form their actions and deeds. They ridiculed such human vices as envy, rudeness, touchiness. This was done in order to arouse in the masses a sense of shame for an unworthy existence. Unlike the fair buffoons, the holy fools did not resort to biting sarcasm and satire. They were guided by love and compassion for people who have lost their way in life.
Procopius of Ustyug
The holy fool who was the first to compare himself with the ambassador of the will of God, calling on the next Sunday morning the entire population of Ustyug to pray, otherwise the Lord will punish their city. Everyone laughed at him, considering him insane. A couple of days later, he again tearfully asked the residents to repent and pray, but again he was not heard.
Soon his prophecy came true: a terrible hurricane hit the city. Frightened people ran to the cathedral, and near the icon of the Mother of God they found the blessed one praying. Residents also began to pray fervently, which saved their city from destruction. Many also saved their souls by turning their gaze to the Almighty. In the heat and frost every night, blessed Procopius spent time praying on the church porch, and in the morning fell asleep in a dunghill.
In Antioch there were holy holy fools, one of whom had an identification mark in the form of a dead dog tied to his leg. Because of such oddities, people constantly made fun of them, often kicked and beat them. Hence the conclusion that the holy fool is a martyr, only in contrast tothe classical understanding of this word, experiencing pain and suffering not once, but throughout his life.
Blessed Andrew Christ for the sake of the holy fool
During the reign of Emperor Leo the Great - the Wise, there lived in Constantinople a man who bought many slaves, among whom was a boy of Slavic appearance named Andrei. The owner fell in love with him more than the others, because the youth was handsome, smart and kind. From childhood, his favorite place to visit was the church, in reading he preferred the Holy Scriptures. One day the devil caught him praying and started knocking on the door to confuse him. Andrey was frightened and jumped into bed, covering himself with a goat skin. Soon he fell asleep and had a dream in which two troops appeared before him. In one, the warriors were in bright robes like angels, and in the other they looked like demons and devils. The black army offered the whites to fight their mighty giant, but they did not dare to join the battle. And then a fair-faced young man descended from heaven.
In his hands were three crowns of unearthly beauty. Andrey wanted to buy them for any money that the owner would give him, seeing such beauty. But the Angel suggested another option, saying that these wreaths are not sold for any earthly we alth, but they can belong to Andrei if he defeats the black giant. Andrei defeated him, received crowns as a reward, and then heard the words of the Almighty. The Lord called Andrew to become blessed for his sake and promised many rewards and honors. The holy fool listened to this and decided to do the will of God. Since thenAndrey began to walk down the street naked, showing everyone his body, cut up with a knife the day before, pretending to be crazy, carrying inarticulate delirium. For many years he endured insults and spitting in the back, steadfastly endured hunger and cold, heat and thirst, and distributed the received alms to other beggars. For his humility and patience, he was rewarded by the Lord with the gift of clairvoyance and prediction, thanks to which he saved many lost souls and brought deceivers and villains to light.
Reciting prayers in Blachernae Church, Andrey the holy fool saw the Most Holy Theotokos, from whom he received a blessing. Andrew died in 936.
Fearless Sayings
The holy fools fought not only with human sins, but also with their own, for example, with pride. The humility they acquired over the years helped them survive all human attacks and beatings.
But their humility and obedience does not at all mean that they are weak-willed and soft-bodied. Sometimes they made loud statements from the stands where the rest of the people stood and lowered their eyes in fear.
An example in history
After much persuasion by Nikolai Sallos, known as the Pskov holy fool, Ivan the Terrible still refused to eat meat during Lent, arguing that he was a Christian. Blessed Nicholas did not lose his head and noticed that the tsar had a strange position: not to eat meat, but to drink Christian blood. The king was disgraced by such a statement and, together with his army, was forced to leave the city. Thus, the holy fool saved Pskov from destruction.
Examplesin literature
The classic image of the holy fool, known to everyone from an early age, is the hero of Russian folk tales Ivan the Fool. At first he seemed to be an absolute fool, but over time it became clear that his unreason was ostentatious.
N. M. Karamzin created a hero named St. Basil the Blessed, who, not being afraid of the disgrace of Ivan the Terrible, denounced all his cruel deeds. He also has the character John the Blessed, who even in severe frost walked barefoot and talked about the nasty deeds of Boris Godunov at every corner.
Pushkin's blessed
All these heroes of Karamzin inspired A. S. Pushkin to create his own image of the holy fool, nicknamed the Iron Cap. Despite the secondary role assigned to him and a couple of lines in only one scene, he has his own "mission of truth" with which he fills the whole tragedy. No wonder they say that a word can not only hurt, but also kill. He turns to Godunov for protection after he was offended by local boys and took away a penny, demanding the same punishment that the tsar once offered to apply to the little prince. The holy fool demanded that they be slaughtered. The news itself about the fate of the baby is not new, it was mentioned in previous scenes, but the difference is in the presentation. If before this topic was only whispered, now the accusation was made in person and in public, which was a shock to Boris. The king described what he had done as a small speck on his reputation, but the Iron Cap opened the eyes of the people to the fact that this was a monstrous crime, and that it was not worth praying for the Herod king.
The blessed ascetics shunned earthly glory, but for their suffering and unappreciated deeds the Lord rewarded them with the ability to work miracles with the power of the prayer word.
