18 July (5 July according to the Julian calendar) 2022 is the 600^th anniversary of the uncovering of the holy relics of our father among the saints, the Holy Venerable and God-Bearing Father and Abbot Sergius of Radonezh the Miracle-worker (1422).

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Troparion, Tone 8

From thy youth thou didst receive Christ within thy soul, O venerable one, / and didst desire more than all to withdraw from the tumult of the world. / Thou didst manfully dwell in the wilderness, / and therein didst produce the fruit of humility, the children of obedience. / Wherefore, as thou becamest the abode of the Trinity, / thou hast illumined with thy miracles all who have recourse to thee with faith, / granting healing in abundance unto all. // O Sergius our father, entreat Christ God, that He save our souls.

 

Kontakion, Tone 8

Thy precious relics, shining forth from the ground today / like the all-radiant sun, / have been found to be incorrupt, resplendent with a multitude of miracles like a fragrant flower, / pouring forth divers healings upon all the faithful, and gladdening thy chosen flock, / which, having wisely assembled, thou didst shepherd well. / In their behalf thou now standest in supplication before the Trinity, / praying that victory be granted to our Orthodox hierarchs over all heresies, / that we may all cry out to thee: // Rejoice, O divinely wise Sergius!

 

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The Venerable Sergius of Radonezh (given the name Bartholomew at baptism) (1314-1392), was born into a boyar family in the city of Rostov.

 

After the deaths of his parents, the holy venerable Kirill and the holy venerable Maria, the young Bartholomew decided to retreat from the world. He and his brother, Stefan, founded the Holy Trinity Hermitage on the Konchura River. In 1337, Bartholomew took monastic vows and received the name Sergius. In 1354, he was ordained a hieromonk. He was then elected the second abbot of the Trinity Hermitage.

 

With the blessing of Patriarch Philotheus I of Constantinople and Metropolitan Alexei of Kiev, Moscow and All Rus, Abbot Sergius introduced a monastic rule for the Hermitage.

 

Abbot Sergius blessed Grand Prince St. Dmitrii Donskoi before his battle at Kulikovo Field on 8/21 September 1380 and sent two schema monks, Peresvet and Oslyabya, to accompany the prince on his campaign against the Tatars.

 

In 1389, he witnessed the last will and testament of Grand Prince St. Dmitrii Donskoi, which bequeathed the grand principality to his son, Vasilii (who reigned as Vasilii I), by right of primogeniture. He was glorified in the choir of saints in 1452, during the reign of Grand Prince Vasilii II the Blind.

 

The prayers of the Venerable St. Sergius protected his monastery during the siege by the Poles in the Time of Troubles. The heroic defense of the monastery played an important role in the victory of the Russian Volunteer Army over internal and external enemies and in making possible the Great Local Church Council and Assembly of the Land in 1613, which called the legitimate Romanoff Dynasty to the Throne. The Tsars and Emperors of the House of Romanoff always piously honoured the memory of the “Abbot of the Russian Land” and made pilgrimages to the monastery founded by him before undertaking important tasks or making vital decisions of national importance.

 

St. Sergius of Radonezh was the Heavenly patron saint of two martyrs/grand dukes: Sergei Alexandrovich, murdered by terrorists in the Moscow Kremlin on 4/17 February 1905; and Sergei Mikhailovich, executed by the Bolsheviks in Alapaevsk together with the Holy Royal Martyr Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna, Princes of the Imperial Blood Ioann, Konstantin, and Igor Konstantinovich, and other martyrs, on the very day when the Church commemorates the uncovering of the holy relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh—5/18 July 1918.

 

After the 1917 Revolution, the holy relics of the Venerable Sergius were exposed and defiled by militant atheists. After the reopening of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra in 1946, the communist authorities returned the relics to the Church.

 

The Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. The Grand Duchess Maria of Russia, and members of her August Family have venerated the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh many times. In 2014, in recognition of her many and varied works for the benefit of the Church and on the occasion of her 60^th birthday, the Head of the Imperial House of Russia, H.I.H. The Grand Duchess Maria was awarded the Russian Orthodox Church’s Order of the Venerable St. Sergius of Radonezh, First Class.

 

The Venerable Sergius of Radonezh is commemorated on 5/18 July (1422) and 25 September/8 October (1392).

 

Visit of the Tsesarevich George to Russia and his pilgrimage to Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery for the celebrations of the 700^th anniversary of the birth of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the Abbot of the Russian Land (in Russian): http://imperialhouse.ru/rus/allnews/news/2014/4096.html 

 

The presentation by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia of the insignia of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Order of the Venerable St. Sergius of Radonezh to the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. The Grand Duchess Maria of Russia

http://imperialhouse.ru/en/allnews-en/news/4341.html

 

 

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Photo credits: V. Khodakov, V. Konev, Hieromonk Nikon (Levachev-Belavenets), O. Danilov.