July 8, since 2008, in all cities of Russia, the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity is widely celebrated. Many consider it a worthy alternative to Valentine's Day, which came from abroad. Indeed, in the national holiday there is more spiritual love and admiration for loyalty and devotion. And all because the holiday is closely connected with Saints Peter and Fevronia - a couple that is an example of ideal family relationships.
The story of a difficult life and great love of Peter and Fevronia
Prince Peter, who was the son of Prince Yuri of Murom, was struck by a terrible leprosy. All attempts to cure the unfortunate from the disease ended in failure, no one could restore Peter to health. Almost resigned to his fate, the man saw an unusual dream in which he discovered that there is a girl in the world who can heal the affected body. V prophetic dream Peter was revealed the name of the savior - Fevronia.
Fevronia was a peasant woman from a Ryazan village, the daughter of an ordinary beekeeper. The girl from childhood studied herbs and had the gift of healing, even wild animals obeyed her and did not dare to show aggression. The surprisingly kind and beautiful young lady immediately liked the young prince, and he gave his word that he would marry the beauty immediately after his recovery. Fevronia put the man on his feet, but he did not keep his promise and did not lead the village girl down the aisle. Most likely, this was the reason that leprosy fell on the prince's head with greater force.
The messengers went for the healer for the second time, and Fevronia did not refuse to treat the deceiver and again gave him health. After that, Peter married the savior and until the end of his days did not regret what he had done. According to legend, the couple lived in love, harmony and respect, never deceived each other and always spoke flatteringly about their halves.
After the death of his elder brother, Peter was destined to take city power into his own hands. The boyars reacted with approval to the respected ruler, but a simple peasant woman did not give them rest - no one wanted to see a representative of the lower class in power. Boyar wives constantly slandered Fevronia, inciting their husbands to kill the clever and beautiful woman they did not like. One day, the prince was given an ultimatum - either drive his beloved wife out of the house, or leave the post of ruler. Peter did not hesitate for a long time, but chose to renounce power and decided to leave Murom altogether.
In exile, the young wise princess supported her saddened husband in every possible way. When there were difficulties in the house with food and money, she always found a wonderful way out. Peter still idolized his betrothed and never reproached his beloved for the fact that for her sake he had to leave his high post and live in hardship.
However, the deprivation of the princely couple did not last long, soon the Murom boyars realized that it would be difficult to maintain order in the city without a competent ruler. Having changed their minds, they sent messengers for the prince and asked him to return with his wife to his native city and again take up the post of mayor. Peter consulted with Fevronia and the couple, without resisting, returned home.
In love and harmony, the devoted spouses Peter and Fevronia lived to old age, and having lived to gray hair, they took monasticism under the names of Euphrosyne and David. Being monks, tenderly loving spouses prayed to God for death on the same day. Dreaming of being together in heaven, they prepared for themselves one coffin for two, where only a thin partition should separate the two bodies.
Tradition says that the elderly monks really departed to another world on the same day - this happened on June 25, 1228 according to the Strict style, which corresponds to July 8 according to the current calendar. Living, as befits monks, in different cells, they died in one hour.
The monks were afraid of the wrath of the Lord and did not put the dead in one coffin - there have never been such burials in Christianity. The bodies of the deceased were in different churches, but somehow miraculously they were close. After such a miracle happened for the second time, the monks decided to bury the loving spouses together near the Cathedral Church of the Nativity. Holy Mother of God.
Only 300 years after their death, Prince Peter of Murom and his wife Fevronia were canonized. The Orthodox Church declared them the patrons of the family, and the relics of the saints found peace in the Holy Trinity Convent in the city of Murom. July 8 in the Orthodox calendar is considered the Day of Peter and Fevronia.
Day of family, love and fidelity and its traditions
In the nineties, the inhabitants of Murom, where the holy spouses have always been revered, decided to combine City Day with an Orthodox holiday. Thus, by chance, a new Russian holiday was born, glorifying love and devotion.
In 2008, the celebration of the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity was officially approved, and soon approved by the Interreligious Council of Russia. Chamomile, a flower that is especially popular with all lovers, has become a symbol of the holiday of pure and selfless love. Later, the Family Day got its own medal, on one side of which a camomile is depicted, and on the other, the faces of Peter and Fevronia. The medal is traditionally awarded to married couples in which love and mutual understanding reign.
Now Orthodox holiday is already celebrated in forty countries of the world, but the main celebrations are held in the city of Murom, Vladimir region.
Information about Peter and Fevronia is known to us from "The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom" - one of the peaks ancient Russian literature XVI century. Its compiler in connection with the canonization of Peter and Fevronia by order of Metropolitan Macarius (c. 1482 - 1563) was the monk Yermolai-Erasmus (1500s - the middle of the 16th century). According to the Tale, a few years before his reign, Peter killed a fiery serpent, but from the blood of the serpent he fell ill with leprosy, from which no one could cure him. In a dream, it was revealed to the prince that he could be healed by the daughter of a "tree climber" (beekeeper), who extracted wild honey, Fevronia, a peasant woman of the village of Laskovo, Ryazan land. Fevronia, as a payment for treatment, wished the prince to marry her after the healing, and the prince promised to marry her. Fevronia healed Peter, but he did not keep his word, since Fevronia was a commoner. But in the process of treatment, Fevronia deliberately did not heal one scab on the body of the prince, because of which the disease resumed; Fevronia again cured Peter, and he was forced to marry her. When Peter inherited the reign after his brother, the boyars did not want to have a princess of a simple title, telling him: "Either let go of the wife, who offends noble ladies with her origin, or leave Murom." The prince took Fevronia, and on two ships they sailed along the Oka. After that, unrest began in Murom, many began to illegally claim the vacant throne, and murders began. Then the boyars asked the prince and his wife to return. The prince and princess returned, and Fevronia later managed to earn the love of the townspeople. In old age, having taken monastic vows in different monasteries with the names of David and Euphrosyne, they prayed to God that they die on the same day, and bequeathed to put their bodies in one coffin, having prepared in advance a tomb of one stone, with a thin partition. They died on the same day and hour. Considering the burial in one coffin incompatible with the monastic rank, their bodies were laid in different monasteries, but the next day they were together.
Veneration of Saints Peter and Fevronia
The day of church veneration of Saints Peter and Fevronia is July 8 (June 25, old style). The indication of the annals that the death of Prince Davyd and Princess Euphrosyne and their burial fell on the Bright Week of 1228 raises a dispute about the discrepancy between the time of death and the date of church veneration. According to church liturgical tradition, there are two occasions when saints are commemorated - on the day of their death and on the day of the transfer of their holy relics. The Tale clearly refers to the date of death:
... the holy soul will betray together in the hands of God in the month of June on the 25th day.
It has been suggested that the date of June 25, the day of the holy venerable martyr Fevronia of Syria, is associated with the transfer of the relics of the holy prince and princess from the dilapidated Borisoglebsky cathedral to the recently renovated Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin on Voevodskaya Hill, where the relics were until the Soviet era. The cathedral was demolished in the late 1930s. The holy spouses were buried in the cathedral church of the city of Murom in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, erected over their relics by vow by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1553. After establishing Soviet power, in 1921, the relics were taken to the local museum, where they were exhibited for public viewing. Since 1992, the relics have openly rested in the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity Monastery in Murom.
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Troparion and Kontakion to Saints Peter and Fevronia
Troparion, tone 8
Like a pious root, you were an honorable branch, having lived well in piety, blessed Peter, so with your wife, the wise Fevronia, pleasing God in the world, and venerable life be worthy; with them pray to the Lord, save your Fatherland without harm, but we honor you unceasingly.
Kontakion, tone 8
This world reigns and glory, as if temporarily thinking, and for this sake, you lived piously in the world of Peter, and with your spouse, the wise Fevronia, pleasing God with alms and prayers; even after death, lying inseparably in the tomb, you invisibly give healing, and now pray to Christ, save the city and the people who glorify you.
Saints Peter and Fevronia. Icons
On the icons, Saints Peter and Fevronia are depicted in full height, in monastic attire. In the hands of Peter and Fevronia, a cross or a scroll is depicted.
Temples in honor of Saints Peter and Fevronia
In honor of Saints Peter and Fevronia, the chapel of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in the city of Murom (1555-1557) was consecrated. There are three thrones in the upper floor of the church: the main one in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, in the aisles in the name of St. Apostles Peter and Paul and in the name of St. Alexis, man of God and Mary Magdalene; on the lower floor in the name of Murom miracle workers - the right-believing Prince Peter and Princess Fevronia. main cathedral Muroma stood in the center of the Kremlin on Voevodskaya Hill. According to the church historian Professor E. Golubinsky, the first temple on this site was built in the pre-Mongolian period. The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin witnessed many dramatic events in the history of ancient Murom. During the XIII-XIV centuries, together with the city, it was repeatedly subjected to Tatar devastation. The cathedral was dismantled before the Great Patriotic War.
Cathedral chapel consecrated in honor of Saints Peter and Fevronia Holy Trinity Trinity convent in the city of Murom, Vladimir region. The monastery was founded in the second quarter of the 17th century by the Murom merchant Tarasy Borisovich Tsvetnov, according to a number of local historians, on the site of the so-called "old settlement", where initially in the period of the 11th-13th centuries there was a wooden cathedral in honor of Saints Boris and Gleb, and later existed wooden Holy Trinity Church. In 1642-1643, through the efforts of Tarasy Tsvetnov, the Holy Trinity Stone Cathedral was erected on the site of a wooden church, which has survived to this day.
In honor of Saints Peter and Fevronia, an Old Believer church (ROC) is being built in the city of Murom, Vladimir Region.
Day of Family, Love and Fidelity
In Russian Orthodox Church a special day of veneration of the saints was established - the day of Peter and Fevronia. In 2006, at the initiative of the city authorities, the residents of Murom collected 15-20 thousand signatures under an appeal on the "All-Russian Day of Conjugal Love and Family Happiness (in memory of the noble princes Peter and Fevronia of Murom)", in which they called for declaring July 8 an all-Russian holiday dedicated to moral and spiritual family values. The All-Russian holiday, called "The Day of Family, Love and Fidelity", was first held on July 8, 2008. Due to the fact that the day of memory of Peter and Fevronia falls on Peter's fast, when the sacrament of marriage is not performed, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on December 25, 2012 established a second celebration in memory of the transfer of relics, which took place in 1992. The celebration takes place on the Sunday preceding September 6 (19).
Sculptures of Saints Peter and Fevronia
In the 21st century, in many Russian cities monuments to Peter and Fevronia appeared. The sculptural compositions “Holy Blessed Peter and Fevronia of Murom” have been installed in Russian cities since 2009 as part of the nationwide program “In the Family Circle”, created with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia (ROC). Sculptures to Saints Peter and Fevronia are installed in cities such as Murom, Arkhangelsk, Sochi, Ulyanovsk, Yaroslavl, Abakan, Nizhny Tagil, Yeysk, Blagoveshchensk, Omsk, Samara, Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk, Izhevsk, Tambov, Tula, Klin, Volgograd, Kirov, Velikiy Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk, Podolsk, Obninsk, Sergiev Posad, Volchansk, Voronezh, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Khabarovsk, Astrakhan and many others.
Folk traditions on the day of Saints Peter and Fevronia
From time immemorial, the spouses addressed the Murom prince Peter and his wife Fevronia with prayers for family happiness. This day was happy for love and marriage, and after the Kupala games on the previous day, couples were determined. According to popular beliefs, on this day happy marriages. From that day on, they swam without looking back, since it was believed that on this day the last mermaids leave the banks deep into the reservoirs and fall asleep. This day was also considered the day of the full maturity of field and forest herbs, blooming by this time in all its glory.
Saints Peter and Fevronia. Art
Petersburg artist A.E. Prostev created a series of works dedicated to the life of Peter and Fevronia of Murom.
In the summer of 2017, The Tale of Peter and Fevronia was released. The film is based on the Tale of the faithful Murom Saints Peter and Fevronia.
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has established an additional day of commemoration Holy Blessed Prince Peter and Princess Fevronia, Miracle Workers of Murom. An additional day of remembrance of the saints was established on the Sunday preceding September 19 (September 6, O.S.), in remembrance of the transfer of their honorable relics in 1992.
Later honest relics The saints were transferred to the Annunciation Monastery of Murom, and in September 1992 they were transferred with honors to cathedral church Holy Trinity Convent of the city, where they now rest openly. During the transfer of the relics, the icon of the saints, previously located on the reliquary with the relics, began to stream myrrh, filling everything around with the wonderful aroma of the world. Also from that time, as the sisters of the monastery say, two luminous pillars began to rise above Murom at night and lamps themselves ignite in front of the relics, extinguished at night, and in the monastery it was decided to install an inextinguishable lamp in front of them.
| Icon of Saints Peter and Fevronia, Miracle Workers of Murom | |
On the days dedicated to the memory of Saints Peter and Fevronia, at the Divine Liturgy on a special - that is, dedicated to the meaning of the holiday - litanies, petitions will be made for the stay of marriage bonds, fastened by God, "in peace and unanimity, piety and purity", for bestowing "their household churches of invincible strength and advancement in love is not hypocritical”, and about the multiplication of the people - “let your people rejoice at the sight of sons and daughters, and let our people multiply and your blessing be inherited in them from generation to generation”. The Synod also instructed the Synodal Liturgical Commission to draw up “the text of a prayer for reading at the end Divine Liturgy in the days of memory of Saints Peter and Fevronia, about the multiplication of love, the strengthening of families, the preservation of marital fidelity, the granting of chastity to those who have not yet married and about helping them, preparing to enter into family life.
Miracles are still being performed from the incorruptible relics of Saints Peter and Fevronia of Murom, fates are happily changing, healings are being performed, and the sisters of the Holy Trinity Monastery continue to record these testimonies, which are valuable for us and our descendants, for the entire Russian Orthodox Church, for: "Wonderful is God in His saints!"
Saints Peter and Fevronia are spouses who achieved holiness not by monastic deeds or martyrdom, but by observance in family life. Their example became the ideal of the Orthodox family.
Peter was the son of Prince Yury Vladimirovich of Murom. According to The Tale of Peter and Fevronia, written in the 16th century, during a fight with a demon in the form of a snake, drops of snake blood fell on Peter, and he became covered with scabs. For a long time no one could cure him, until one day Peter found out that the peasant woman Fevronia, the daughter of a Ryazan beekeeper, could cure him. Peter found Fevronia, and she really was able to heal him. Fevronia took a word from Peter that he would marry her if he was healed, and he kept his promise, despite the fact that the Murom nobility condemned the marriage of the prince with a simple peasant woman.
When Peter became Prince of Murom, the boyars demanded that he divorce Fevronia and take a boyar daughter as his wife, not wanting the Murom princess to be from a peasant family. Peter refused, and the boyars expelled him and Fevronia from the city. But after their expulsion, a bloody struggle for power began in Murom, and the people of Murom begged Prince Peter and his wife to return. Peter and Fevronia returned.
They lived and ruled for a long time, in love and harmony. In old age they became monks with the names David and Euphrosyne. The couple prayed to God to die on the same day. And so it happened. They even bequeathed to bury themselves in one coffin.
Saints Peter and Fevronia were canonized in 1547 under Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, but they were revered by the people as miracle workers and saints of God long before that. Many believers testify that miraculous grace comes from any icon of Peter and Fevronia, if you turn to the holy spouses with sincere prayer and pure thoughts.
Interesting facts about Peter and Fevronia of Murom
After the canonization of the holy couple in the middle of the 16th century, Metropolitan Macarius instructed Yermolai (Erasmus) the Sinful, a well-known Russian writer at that time, to literary form the oral folk tradition about Peter in Fevronia. So there was "The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom"- the only written source of information about the life of the holy spouses. The author of "The Tale ..." especially admired Fevronia's intelligence and insight.
Memorial Day of Saints Peter and Fevronia from the time of their canonization is celebrated on July 8 (June 25, old style). In 2008, this day was officially declared an All-Russian public holiday - Happy family, love and fidelity. The icon of Peter and Fevronia is in almost every church.
The relics of the saints before the revolution were in the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Murom. V Soviet time they were exhibited in the Murom museum for the purpose of anti-religious propaganda, and then kept in storerooms. Since 1992, the relics of the holy prince and princess have been in Murom Holy Trinity Monastery, and the day of memory of Peter and Fevronia is celebrated together with the Day of the city of Murom.
Even in the 15th century, before the canonization of the holy spouses, Ivan III prayed at their relics. Ivan IV the Terrible, a few years before the canonization of Peter and Fevronia, prayed at their relics before going to Kazan, and after the victory made a donation for the construction of a new church over the tomb of the saints.
Before Fevronia, the only Russian officially canonized woman was.
In Russia, since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been the Order of the Holy Blessed Prince Peter and Princess Fevronia of Murom for a significant contribution to strengthening the institution of the family.
Citizens of our country annually celebrate many holidays, both official, established by the state, and unofficial. One of the kindest, brightest, and at the same time young solemn dates registered in the state list is the Day of Love, Family and Fidelity. It falls on July 8 and is timed to coincide with the religious festival:. These chosen ones of God during their lifetime were spouses and became a standard married couple for Orthodox Russians. The story of their love is unknown today only to the lazy, which the Church has taken care of by organizing successful educational activities.
History reference
The story of Peter and Fevronia is rightfully considered the pinnacle of ancient Russian literature of the 16th century - by the way, one of the few. History names a certain Yermolai the Sinful as its author-compiler, and the latter did such a good deed by order of Metropolitan Macarius. Despite this, the biography of the saints was not included in the Great Menaion. Metropolitan Macarius explained this by the "exceptional legend" of the lives of Orthodox ascetics. But at the same time, it was the Tale of Peter and Fevronia that was and remains the main source of almost all data about the mentioned saints. Researchers claim that two plots are combined in the text of this chronicle document. In the center of the first one is the murder of a fiery serpent by Peter, the second contains information about wise maiden Fevronia. As for the genre of the Tale itself, there are no features of either hagiographic or historical narration in it.
Life of Peter and Fevronia
Let's take a look at the plot ancient chronicle. Her hero, Prince Peter, in monasticism David, was the second son of Yuri Vladimirovich, Prince of Murom. He took the throne in 1203. By that time, he was suffering greatly from a serious bodily ailment - leprosy, having fallen ill two years before this event. Peter's body was covered with ulcers and scabs, causing the unfortunate unbearable pain and discomfort, disfiguring his appearance young man. The disease appeared to the prince not by chance: the future saint entered into a fierce battle with a fiery serpent, defeating which, he became stained with the blood of a creature that turned out to be poisonous. No one could heal Peter of Murom. As a result, the young man resigned himself to his terrible fate, surrendering to the will of God.
But the Lord himself intervened in the fate of the noble prince, sending him a vision. In a dream, it was revealed to Peter that only the daughter of a "tree climber" of a beekeeper, who hunted for the extraction of wild honey, was able to heal him - a pious peasant girl named Fevronia, who lives in the Ryazan province, in the village of Laskovaya. This maiden, as it turned out later, was really known throughout the whole district as a kind person, knowing grass, taming wild forest animals and able to cure various ailments. She was also very beautiful and pious, possessing a mass of virtues.
Having collected all this information, Peter of Murom sent his people to the wise maiden. She, having listened to the messengers who came to her, agreed to help the prince suffering from illness. Peter's people, at the instigation of the martyr himself, promised the virgin a decent wage for her labor, but the girl refused gold and, before undertaking treatment, put forward her own condition. It was as follows: the prince must marry a peasant's daughter in case of healing the disease. The people of Peter conveyed to the owner the wish of the healer, and he agreed to the condition of the girl, although in the depths of his heart he understood that this would never happen. The fact is that Fevronia was just an ordinary peasant woman, that is, a commoner, and according to the law, a man of a princely family could not afford to take such a woman as his wife.
But be that as it may, the saint healed Peter of Murom. However, the maiden, possessing remarkable wisdom and the gift of providence, assumed what the outcome of their deal would be. Therefore, during the treatment, Fevronia ordered the prince to lubricate the entire body with a special ointment, and leave one scab as evidence of sin. After receiving the long-awaited healing, the prince immediately forgot about his promise and began to live and live in the city of Murom. But very quickly, the disease from one unanointed scab resumed and again covered the entire body of the young man. He realized that the reason for this was the unrestrained word given to the peasant girl. Feeling pangs of conscience, Prince Peter returned to the healer and repented of his sin. Fevronia, as mentioned above, was kind and again healed the young man. Well, he married his savior.
Family life
Having concluded marriage, the newlywed couple settled in Murom. Love broke out between them, they respected and cared for each other. Peter valued wisdom, virtue, piety, and kindness above all else in his wife. Soon, her husband Fevronia's brother died. The reins of government of the city passed into the hands of Peter. He became an excellent autocrat, who enjoyed genuine respect from the boyars. But the trouble is: the boyar wives disliked Fevronia, if not to say - they hated it. They, you see, did not want to be ruled by a commoner. The quarrelsome, treacherous women conspired against the pious wife of Peter and whispered unkind things to their husbands.
As a result, the boyars became angry and demanded that the prince part with his wife. However, Peter refused. Then the boyars expelled the pious spouses from the city. They got into a boat and sailed away from their native nest along the Ob River. On the way, Fevronia, as best she could, consoled and supported her frustrated husband at the end.
Later a short time turmoil began in Murom. Many candidates appeared for the vacated princely throne, a competitive struggle broke out, reaching the point of murder. The boyars could not cope without a leader and, having gathered a council, they decided to send people to Peter with a request to return to the city with his wife. The prince and princess fulfilled the desire of their former subjects.
Death and relics of the ascetics
Peter and Fevronia lived happily ever after, like in a fairy tale. They enjoyed every day spent together, but did not have children. When the prince and princess reached old age, they took monastic vows, becoming monastics, respectively, David and Euphrosyne. The couple began to serve God in different monasteries, but they asked the Lord to die at the same time, on the same day. The ascetics bequeathed to people to put their bodies in one coffin, having prepared the latter in advance: double, stone, separated by a thin partition.
As they dreamed, it happened: Prince Peter and Princess Fevronia died on the same day and even an hour, namely on July 8 (N.S.) 1228. But people who remember the desire of the spouses to be buried in the same coffin did not fulfill this. They laid the saints in different monasteries and in different tombs. However, the next day the body loving friend friend of husband and wife were miraculously reunited. Seeing this, they no longer separated them and buried them, as the couple had ordered during their lifetime.
Today, the incorruptible relics of Peter and Fevronia rest in a shrine located in the Holy Trinity Church of the monastery of the same name in Murom. There are always countless pilgrims praying for marital happiness.
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