In each city of Ancient Rus there were several monasteries and more than a dozen temples. Then the Russian Orthodox believed that for every 100-150 inhabitants it is necessary to have a separate church so that everyone can offer their fervent prayer to God and hear the edifying sermon from the pulpit.
People in Ancient Russia were very religious. They actively participated in the life of their parish, they knew for sure the schedule of church services and always made the house of prayer rule. People lived together, and if one of the neighbors was married or baptized children, then these events were celebrated throughout the street. And in the same way, they gathered together for the funeral of the deceased and escorted the rest of the earth to the road.
Tver was no exception. There were several dozen churches in the city, not only adorning the capital of the Upper Volga, but also serving as a solid spiritual foundation for the Orthodox people.
Construction of the main temple of Tver
Temples, first of all, were built in the Kremlin. The streets, diverging in all directions from the Kremlin, formed a posad, the place where the townspeople lived. Domes of churches were visible everywhere between the roofs of Posad’s huts. In ancient times, almost all the Posad churches were wooden, but one ancient stone church was preserved in Tver.
The construction of a stone church in those days was expensive and troublesome, because princes, boyars or wealthy merchants could build a stone church. In 1575, the Moscow merchant Gavril Andreyevich Tushinsky began to build the White Trinity in Tver, but he did not have enough money, and therefore the missing part of the funds was given by another merchant - Peter Lamin. The walls of the temple were made of red brick, but people still called the church, red as an Easter egg, the White Trinity.
Why white?
Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is the heart of Russian Orthodoxy. Gavril Andreyevich Tushinsky came here to give the Lavra of St. Sergius the newly-built White Trinity Church in Tver.
In Russia at that time there were 2 concepts: black and white lands. The sovereign exempted the owners of white lands for special services from part of the taxes. The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius and everything that belonged to this monastery was just released by state decree from part of the taxes. Now the former tax benefit lives in its historical name - the White Trinity in Tver, and later the church walls themselves were plastered and whitewashed.
The exterior and interior of the temple today
From the time of construction, only shod gates and two small windows under the roof were preserved in the temple. Through them, almost no light fell into the inner space of the church, but during the service from the light, many burning candles were quite light and comfortable. An abundance of light was created by ancient chandeliers. They have survived to the present day, however, now light is emitted not by candles, but by electric lamps. Some icons written especially for this temple have survived to this day. True, today they are mostly in museums, and today's temple icons are not as ancient as the White Trinity in Tver, but their age is still 200-300 years.
The temple vaults were originally painted with white lime, and only 150 years ago the isograph brush touched them. The list of temple vaults has been updated many times, and today one can observe modern wall temple painting. In the oldest part of the temple is a magnificent carved iconostasis. Behind it, for the past four and a half centuries, the Divine Liturgy has been celebrated at the altar.
Divine services in the White Trinity
Today, the schedule of divine services of the White Trinity in Tver is from 8:00 until late in the evening, depending on the event and the day of the week.
Also in the church are bishop services dedicated to important events of church Orthodox life. On weekdays, it is performed by trained clergy, priests and deacons, and on holidays and Sundays - by the Tver Metropolitan himself. Readers and singers, who in the Russian Orthodox tradition are usually called church clergy, participate in worship, being outside the altar, on the choir, reading and performing liturgical chants and texts. As in Ancient Russia, all these people live on the kindly donations of parishioners.
Secrets and legends of the Time of Troubles
Time spared the White Trinity Temple in Tver. Fires and other disasters bypassed him. Even at the beginning of the 17th century, Polish troops did not cause the White Trinity any harm. At that time of troubles, many Tverichs kept their simple belongings in the church, even hid in hiding places under small domes. These hiding places survived to our days, but then at the beginning of the XVII century the Poles nevertheless found the hidden ones and killed them right in the temple. Many decades later, from time to time, traces of blood appeared on the walls of the temple.
White Trinity - a symbol of the Orthodox spirit of Tver
In the 20th century, the White Trinity in Tver remained the only church where services were regularly held. At this time, the temple became a cathedral. In 1982, the future 15 Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexei II, visited, and in 2010, the now-living Holy Patriarch Kirill during his archpastoral visit to the Tver diocese. And today the White Trinity is the oldest temple in Tver, which is the cathedral and one of the spiritual symbols of the capital of the Upper Volga.
Metropolitan of Tver and Kashinsky Victor - the mentor of the temple in Tver
The rector of the cathedral is His Eminence Metropolitan Victor of Tver and Kashinsky. A very long story connects the White Trinity Cathedral in Tver with the Metropolitan: at first he was the klyuchar (1987), then he was ordained archbishop (1996). Today, His Eminence Metropolitan Victor is the head of the Tver Metropolis and an honorary citizen of the city of Tver.
The holy relics of St. Macarius of Kalyazinsky
The main property of the White Trinity today can be called the presence in the walls of the temple of the crayfish with the holy relics of the Monk Makarii Kalyazinsky.
After the destruction of the Trinity Monastery in Kalyazin in the 30s of the XX century, it was decided to preserve the relics in the main cathedral of the Upper Volga White Trinity in Tver. The schedule of worship and worship of the holy relics of the Monk Wonderworker can be found in the monastery itself, but often you can worship the relics on any day of the week.