11 monks and 43 laymen were killed by Polish invaders at the Theophany Monastery in Kostroma on this day in 1608. In 1990, the future Archpriest George Zelenin, the builder of the new St. Michael Church in Wayne, NJ, and I celebrated Pascha in the parish where Fr. George’s friend, the artist Sergei Simakov, lived. It took five hours by train from Moscow to Uglich and then from Uglich to the church of Holy Archangel Michael in the Woods (chto v boru). This church was located in a remote, depopulated area of central Russia. Very few people gathered for the services on Holy Friday and Pascha. While there, I learned that there was a monastery, which during the Time of Troubles (1598-1613) was burned down by “the Poles” with all the residents. Tsar Theodore Ioannovich, the son of Ivan the Fourth (the “Terrible”), died childless in 1598. Before this, his brother, Tsarevich Dmitry, had died in Uglich in 1591 under suspicious circumstances. In 1604, Grigorii Otrepʹev impersonated Tsarevich Dmitry and agreed with the Polish King Sigismund III. In 1604, False Dmitry, crossed into Russia with Zaparozhʹe Cossacks and Polish soldiers of fortune. Tsar Boris Godunov suddenly died in 1605. In June of the same year, the Poles were welcomed into Moscow. However, the arrogant behavior of the Poles resulted in the murder of False Dmitry in 1606. The astonishing success of this impersonation caused someone else to claim to be the surviving Dmitry (False Dmitry II). Toward the end of 1608, a large amount of territory in European Russia was controlled by False Dmitry’s troops. This is the time when the monastery I mentioned was burned in Kostroma, along with the monks and laypeople commemorated today. Many of those who committed what amount to war crimes by modern standards were people of the same Orthodox faith as those whom they tortured in Russia. The only difference was that they were subjects of the Polish King. In 1620, when Patriarch Theophan of Jerusalem was returning home through the Rzeczpospolita, the Cossacks who had gone to Russia during the Time of Troubles asked him to absolve them of the sins they had committed there. While working on this report, I found out that Sergei Simakov has never left this hamlet in the woods. In 1991, he abandoned artistic work. He became a priest and now he is Abbot Raphael. Sources: Igumen Rafail, “Ia schital, chto s pomoshch’iu kartin mozhno raskazat’ o Boge,” [I Believe that I Could Talk About God through My Paintings], Monastyrskii Vestnik [Monastery Messanger]. St. Herman’s Calendar 2023. |
