The city of Yaroslavl has churches and temples that are different in appearance and size, but they are all holy places, praying. Having visited the Upper Volga, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (the third son of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna) noted: there are more such people in Yaroslavl than in Moscow. Most of the modern guests of the old city confirm: wherever you turn around - golden domes are everywhere. The former Posad is overshadowed by a sign of the Cross.
Temple and church
By visiting the temples of Yaroslavl, you can satisfy your sorrows, as well as touch the history of the city, which is more than a thousand years old (1006!). Before continuing the discussion, it is worth discussing how the concepts of “temple” and “church” differ. Although these are synonyms, they are not always interchangeable.
The first word came from the old Russian "mansions", "temple". The second is from the Greek kyriakon (“house of the Lord”). The universe system and temples are interconnected. For Christians (and not only) they are oriented to the cardinal points of the model of the Universe. Often the structure has the shape of a cross.
A room with an altar installed in its eastern part and a meal is already the simplest church. Initially, believers gathered in a room, talked on religious topics, and prayed. Christians go for the salvation of the soul to the cathedral, church, church, church; Jews - to the synagogue; adherents of Islam - to the mosque.
From wooden to stone
To summarize: the temple is a building for worship. But it differs in that it is larger than the church, decorated with three (or more) domes, there are several altars, if there are two (or three) priests, several liturgies are served daily.
The church is a community of people of the same faith. The building has one dome. Even if there are two priests, the cycle of spiritual chants sounds once during the day. Until the seventeenth century, the temples of Yaroslavl were built of wood. After another terrible fire that occurred in 1658, when almost the entire city was destroyed, stone buildings began to appear. Transfiguration Cathedral (beginning of the XVI century.) - The oldest. Built on the site of a 13th-century cathedral.
Church of the Cross
Its current address is Moskovsky Prospect, 161. It is known from the history of the district that the church was founded in the seventeenth century. Holy Cross Church (Yaroslavl), then still wooden, was consecrated in 1677. Its appearance was preceded by an epidemic of plague (pestilence). She came from the south, from Moscow and inexorably gathered her terrible harvest.
It was necessary to block the disease. Iona Sysoevich - Metropolitan of Yaroslavl and Rostov decided that it would be a wooden cross three meters high. It was made and painted by the masters of the Transfiguration Monastery. The townspeople carried the shrine in their hands, drove on horseback to meet the plague wave.
In one place, the horses stopped dead in their tracks, and no one could force them to continue their journey. Here they established the Cross. It is believed that because of this, the pestilence did not enter Yaroslavl. The stone temple was built in 1760. The wooden three-meter protector of the city and the relics of the Pleasures of God are the main shrines. Daily services are held. On Sunday and on holidays - two liturgies (at 07:00 and 09:00).
Elijah the Prophet
The architectural and art school at the beginning of the 16th century not only took shape, but also reached an unprecedented peak. The ancient temples of Yaroslavl demonstrate a wall painting of special value. These are the best examples of medieval monumentalism. The middle of the seventeenth century was marked by the appearance of such a shrine as the Church of Elijah the Prophet (Yaroslavl, Sovetskaya sq., 1).
It was built in the period from 1647 to 1650 by order of the merchants Skripnins, where the wooden churches of Ilyinskaya and Pokrovskaya were previously located. A complex ensemble was conceived. The components are in harmony with each other.
The base is a five-headed quadruple. Unusual bulbous domes of dark green color (5). The temple was painted by Guri Nikitin - a famous master of fresco painting, icon painting and miniature. Aisles: Rizopolozhensky, Pokrovsky, Guria, Samon and Aviv. The building is called the pearl of Yaroslavl architecture. There are other temples of Yaroslavl that can delight and shake their beauty and grandeur.
Strict and generous
Why is Elijah the Prophet? Traditions say that Yaroslavl was founded on the day of memory of this saint (according to the old style on July 20, on the new - on August 2). Strict, generous, omnipotent - this is how he is characterized in Orthodoxy. Ilya was approached to help in the hunt, when treatment (healing) was coming, in love.
The painting of the Elias Church is a combination of two traditions: the original Russian (centuries in a row it took shape under Byzantine influence) and the new (formed by the 17th century). The secularization of culture, characteristic of that time, led to the fact that there are many everyday scenes in the painting. The temple is well preserved. Services are held from Trinity to Intercession every Sunday and on major holidays.
Good news
Annunciation Church (Yaroslavl) - Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 3rd Yakovlevskaya Street. Information from the archives of the 19th century states that it was built in 1769 with donations from parishioners. It is believed that the originally wooded and marshy wilderness became a haven for a small wooden monastery, which was destroyed by the Polish conquerors.
There is no documented evidence, but there are old Holy Gates. Later, a wooden temple appeared in the Yakovlevskaya Sloboda area. In 1778, stone was founded in its place. First summer (cold church). By 1783, the construction of the bell tower and the winter temple (warm church) were completed. They are united by an arch and a bell tower.
Other dates of foundation are also called. The consecration was probably carried out in stages, at the end of each cycle of work. From the Miraculous Image of the Honest and Life-giving Cross (wooden, with the carved crucifix of Christ, framed), an untold light emits today, it is revered. This is the main shrine of the Cathedral of the Annunciation.
Dreamed in a dream and was found
The custom of the Cross on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross has been resumed since 2008. An interesting legend, rooted in the middle of the fourteenth century. The landowner from Kostroma, suffering from a serious illness, stopped for the night at the Yakovlevsky monastery (the very one among the swamps and forests). At night, he dreamed of a Healing Cross coming from the earth.
He ordered the servants to dig in a place he remembered well. And a miracle happened: they extracted a valuable find in the light of day. The patient kissed the shrine and received healing. In Soviet times, the Blagoveshchensk-Yakovlevsky temple was not closed to the castle, although many other temples of Yaroslavl went into oblivion.
Three icons are venerated: the Apostle James with life, the Annunciation of the Mother of God and the Mother of God “The Burning Cupid”. Perhaps they were temple in wooden churches. With the blessing of Bishop Joseph, Father Michael Stark ordered the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary “The Inexhaustible Chalice”. The interior of the temple is harmonious and thought out. At the heart of the decoration are icons of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The temple is open daily. On Sunday and on holidays two liturgies are served - at 07:00 and 09:00.
Saint Tikhon
It is worth mentioning the Tikhonovsky temple (Yaroslavl, Panin St., Dzerzhinsky district). Its full name is St. Tikhonovsky. Work on the construction of an unusual architectural structure in the style of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries lasts almost ten years. Completion is scheduled for 2017. It got its name in honor of the eleventh Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, St. Tikhon (in the world Vasily Ivanovich Belavin, 1865-1925).
They say that the flock treated the head of the Yaroslavl diocese (1907-1914) with great love, revered him for his patience and humanity. He was a reasonable, affordable archpastor. The decision to build a new church was made in 1989. Archpriest Mikhail Peregudov, who was blessed by Archbishop Mikhey of Yaroslavl, blessed him to complete a difficult task.
Peregudov and his family made great efforts so that a temple chapel and a chapel “Unexpected joy” appeared on a vacant lot (bare spot).
Opening soon
Buildings laid the foundation for the construction of the temple. In June 2002, the parish began to operate under the leadership of Archpriest Mikhail Smirnov (b. 1970). He graduated from the Yaroslavl Art College and the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute (now Technical University). Participates in a project developed by V. N. Izhikov (author of many Orthodox churches, architect-restorer).
It will be a three-altar temple, fifty meters from the ground to the cross. Construction is carried out by the whole world. Different help is meant: in the form of physical labor, financial investments, prayers. The Sunday School for Children and Adults has been operating since 2004. Library - since 2005. The book fund already has over seven thousand items. 2017, when the temple will finally enter operation, not far off.
Come to the city of Yaroslavl! Temples and churches will conquer your heart, warm your soul, raise your thoughts!