People believe that a holy fool is a person with the obligatory presence of a mental disorder or a bodily defect in him. 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 thoughts. Theology calls to distinguish between two concepts, such as the holy fools of nature and the holy fools "for Christ's sake." If everything seems to be clear with the first type, then you should talk more about the second type. Because of their strong love for God, they became ascetics, protected themselves from worldly goods and amenities, dooming themselves to eternal wanderings and loneliness. At the same time, they could allow themselves insane, indecent behavior in people, trying to seduce passers-by. Spending weeks at prayer, months in fasting, they were endowed with the gift of providence, but, despite this, tried to avoid earthly fame.
Ideal clothing for the blessed is a naked, tormented body, showing disregard for human perishable flesh. Naked image has two meanings. First, the purity and innocence of an angel. Secondly, lust, immorality, the personification of the devil, who in Gothic art has always seemed naked. This costume has a dual meaning, being for some salvation, and for others death. Yet they had one distinctive attribute of clothing - a shirt or loincloth.
The language the holy fool speaks is silence. But there were few adherents of dumbness, as this contradicted the direct duties of the blessed one: to expose human vices and to voice predictions. They chose a cross between silence and broadcasting. The ascetics muttered and whispered indistinctly, carrying incoherent nonsense.
Word interpretation
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 and has chosen the path of an ascetic for himself. A wise madman, one of the faces of holiness. (Holy fools danced and cried. V.I. Kostylev "Ivan the Terrible")
2. The ancient meaning of the word "stupid."
3. An unapproving designation that belittles a person: eccentric, abnormal. (Do I look like a young wandering holy fool who is executed today? M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita")
Meaning of existence
By their behavior they tried to enlighten people, showing them in a caricature of their actions and deeds. They ridiculed such human vices as envy, rudeness, resentment. This was done in order to cause the masses a sense of shame for an unworthy existence. Unlike fair buffoons, the holy fools did not resort to stinging sarcasm and satire. They were led by love and compassion for people who have gone astray.
Procopius Ustyuzhsky
Blessed holy fool who first compared 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. After a couple of days, he again tearfully asked the inhabitants to repent and pray, but was not heard again.
Soon his prophecy came true: a terrible storm 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 earnestly, which is why they saved their city from destruction. Many saved their souls, turning their eyes to the Almighty. In the heat and cold, every night, blessed Prokopy spent time praying on the church porch, and in the morning fell asleep in a dunghill.
In Antioch, holy holy fools were observed, one of which 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. Hence the conclusion that the holy fool is a martyr, only in contrast to the classical understanding of the 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, a man lived in Constantinople who bought many slaves, among whom was a boy of Slavic appearance named Andrei. The owner fell in love with him more than others, because the young man was handsome, smart and kind. From childhood, the church became its favorite place to visit; in reading, he preferred the scriptures. One day, the devil caught him in prayer and began knocking on the door to confuse him. Andrei got scared 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 wars were in bright robes like angels, and in the other they looked like demons and devils. The black army offered whites to fight their mighty giant, but they did not dare to join the battle. And then a fair-faced young man came down from heaven.
In his hands were three crowns of unearthly beauty. Andrei wanted to buy them for any money that the owner would give him when he saw such beauty. But the Angel proposed another option, saying that these wreaths are not sold for any earthly riches, but they can belong to Andrei if he defeats the black giant. Andrei defeated him, received crowns as a reward, and then he heard the words of the Most High. The Lord called Andrew to be blissful for his sake and promised many rewards and honors. The holy fool listened to this and decided to fulfill the will of God. From that time, Andrei began walking along the street naked, showing everyone his body, which had been cut off the day before with a knife, pretending to be crazy, carrying slurred nonsense. Over the years, he suffered insults and spitting in the back, endured hunger and cold, heat and thirst, and distributed the alms he received to other beggars. For his humility and patience, he received a gift from the Lord as a gift of clairvoyance and divination, thanks to which he saved many lost souls and brought into the clear water deceivers and villains.
While reading prayers in the Blachernae church, the holy fool Andrei saw the Blessed Virgin Mary, from whom he received a blessing. In 936, Andrei died.
Fearless sayings
The holy fools fought not only with human sins, but also with their own, for example, with pride. The humility acquired by them over the years of their life helped to survive all human attacks and beatings.
But their humility and obedience does not mean at all that they are weak-willed and soft-bodied. Sometimes they made loud statements from the stands where other people stood and looked down in dismay.
History example
After much persuasion by Nikolai Sallos, known as the Pskov holy fool, Ivan the Terrible nevertheless refused to eat meat in fasting, arguing that he was a Christian. Blessed Nicholas was not at a loss 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.
Examples in the 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 like an absolute fool, but over time it became clear that his foolishness was ostentatious.
N.M.Karamzin created a hero named Vasily the Blessed, who, not afraid of Ivan the Terrible's disgrace, denounced all his cruel deeds. He also has the character John the Blessed, who even walked barefoot in severe frost and on every corner spoke about the nasty affairs of Boris Godunov.
Pushkin's blessed
All these heroes of Karamzin inspired A.S. Pushkin to create their own image of a holy fool, nicknamed the Iron Cap. Despite the secondary role assigned to him and a couple of remarks in only one scene, he has his own “mission of truth”, with which he fills the whole tragedy. No wonder they say that in a word you can not only injure, but also kill. He seeks protection from Godunov after local boys offended him and took a pretty penny, demanding the same punishment that the tsar had once proposed to apply to the little prince. The holy fool demanded to kill them. The news itself about the fate of the baby is not new, it was mentioned in previous scenes, but the difference in presentation. If before that they only whispered on this topic, now the accusation has been made in person and in public, which shocked Boris. The king designated the deed as a small speck on his reputation, but Iron Cap opened his eyes to the people that this is a monstrous crime, and that you should not pray for the king-Herod.
The blessed ascetics eschewed earthly glory, but the Lord awarded them the ability to work miracles with the power of a word of prayer for their suffering and unappreciated exploits.