Chapter 4 -- "Presentation of the Mother of God"
"We have a ship for you," exclaimed Rev. Freeman a month after his last encounter with the Old Believers. "It's an Italian ship and it will be able to take a small group of your people to Rome, where you will be transferred onto a Spanish ship for your journey to Brazil. The rest of you will have to wait for a Spanish ship that will take you directly to Brazil without having to transfer." His interpreter translated the message into Russian.
Ivan and his group looked at each other at first with joy and excitement in their faces, but then a worried and puzzled look came over their faces. 'Of all the places in the world,' thought Ivan. 'Why did it have to be Rome. That's our arch-enemy and home of the ante-Hrist, the Pope.'
"Eto naverno Bozhiya volya," (It no doubt is the will of God for us) said Ivan after a moment of silence. The others in the group nodded their heads in agreement. They all sensed limitations in dealing with the over-ruling hand of destiny that was controlled by God. To sail through hell for a heavenly cause would be no easy task.
"We'd better go now," whispered Masha as she stood by Ivan. "The baby's due any day now, and I wouldn't want to wait much longer for another ship. I'd like to see our baby born in the new land."
Ivan shared his wife's feelings, and he announced to his fellow-travelers: "I'm for going on this first ship out of Hong Kong."
"Ya s toboy!" (I'm with you) shouted Vasily and Antip in unison. The others in the group rallied behind Ivan with renewed excitement and expectations.
Rev. Billy Freeman stood by and listened without the interpreter relaying the Old Believers' words back to him. He understood the emotions that were displayed on their faces, and he read the initial puzzlement and latter joy on their transparent faces. He felt happy for them. He didn't tell them the details of how hard he had worked to arrange with several Latin American countries to accept a group of hard-working refugees. He had finally reached an agreement with Brazil, Argentina, and, with the help of the British consulate in Hong Kong, also Australia and New Zealand for a limited number. His altruistic motives were known only to his God, although he had been known as a humanitarian within the World Council of Churches for many years.
Two days later the Old Believers boarded an Italian ship and sailed out of Hong Kong down the South China Sea. After a short stop in India, the ship sailed on to Pakistan. It was during this stretch of the journey that Masha awoke one night before dawn and shook her sleeping husband.
"Ivan, Ivan," cried Masha. "I just had a strange dream."
"What?" answered Ivan sleepily. "What is it?"
"I just had a dream about a bearded old man in a long white hooded robe with a round sandalwood dot on his forehead," said Masha.
"You were just seeing one of the Indian men that came aboard last night," explained Ivan, trying to be rational and sensible about the whole matter.
"The strange thing about the man," proceeded Masha with her dream, "was that he brought a baby boy t me and sat him on my lap and said, 'He needs some of your nourishing milk or else he'll die.' Then he left me alone with the baby boy, and I took him to my breast and gave him milk."
Masha felt a surging feeling flow sporadically through her breast, and she felt a wetness accumulate on her clothes. The dream had become so real to her that it had manifested itself in reality.
"That must be a sign from God that you will have a boy," explained Ivan proudly.
"The strange part about the dream that frightened me and woke me up," continued Masha, "was the part where I saw myself feeding the baby. It was as if I were looking through one of the port holes in the ship. As I looked closer I saw that the mother and child both had a dark complexion, just like the Indian who brought me the child."
"That sure is strange," said Ivan, as the turnabout in the story made him concerned about the meaning of the dream.
"That's when I awoke and started to call to you for help," said Masha. "I was frightened when I saw the dark faces."
"There's a starets (elder man) aboard who might be able to tell you the meaning of your dream," said Ivan after his intuitive mind failed to give him an answer to the mysterious dream.
When morning finally arrived and the morning star faded into the eastern horizon, the sleepless Masha walked out on the deck of the ship and watched the sun cast its rays upon the azure waters. She appeared to be keeping a vigil, for she stood motionless against the rail of the cruising ship and watched the changing images in the sky and in the waters as the sun made its appearance on the stage of the new day.
By mid-morning the ship was bustling with its usual life of playful children, carousing lovers, gossiping women, adventure-minded young men, and reflective old men amidst the workaday world of the crew that kept the old ship sailing.
Ivan found the starets (elder man) named Simeon that he had mentioned to Masha, and he brought the elder man of the Sinkiang group to their small cabin. Simeon was the nastoyatel (minister) for the group from Sinkiang. After Masha related the dream to the elder man, he crossed himself and whispered a prayer with eyes open and then turned toward Masha.
"You have been blessed with a dream from God," began Simeon as his light blue eyes stared into Masha's face. "The man who brought you the child was the messenger of the Lord. He showed you not only the future of your personal life, but he also showed you the condition of the Church, which is the Mother of us all. Her complexion is dark because of the sadness and suffering she is going through in these dark, last days. She was given the child to suckle, because without her there would be no hope of life or salvation for men. The child was also dark like the mother because of the suffering he was bearing for mankind; the child is Hristos, who came as a child and was the Word made flesh through the Blessed Deva (Virgin). Since the world was dark with sin, he became dark with sin in order to redeem the world from darkness. He was the son of man in the flesh and a Son of God at the same time. That is the duality which we profess when we cross ourselves with two fingers instead of the heretical way of three fingers like the Latins do."
The words of the elder man sounded stranger to Masha than the dream itself. It appeared to Masha that the gray-bearded Simeon was trying to teach her the mystery of some profound religious truth that she was not able to grasp.
"Our teacher, Maksim the Greek, taught us how to make the sign of the cross," continued Simeon, as he expounded on his favorite theme. He seemed to have crossed over from interpreting the dream to expounding his pet doctrines. "He taught that we should have the thumb and last two fingers in a group to signify the Trinity, and the first two fingers, the index and middle fingers, held together extended, the middle one a little bent downward, to signify the two natures of Isous Hristos."
Masha took her eyes off the elder man's wrinkled face for a minute as she was momentarily captivated by the beautiful design of grapes on his violet rubaha (shirt). She loved to copy patterns from designs that she thought her husband would love to wear. She studied the three clusters, with seven purple grapes in each cluster, and she imprinted the pattern in her mind, noticing that each cluster of seven was joined by a vine and some green leaves. Around the collar she observed five clusters, with five purple grapes in each cluster, which were also joined by a vine and some green leaves. She told herself that she would set to work immediately with cross-stitching the pattern for a new shirt for Ivan. She hoped to finish it before the arrival of the baby so that Ivan would be able to have a new shirt at the birth of the baby. She had already forgotten the strange dream as her mind leaped into future possibilities and future joys.
Simeon, in the mean time, continued to expound on the sacred doctrine of making the sign of the cross on the face:
"Our other teacher, St. Basil, told us: 'Znameniye siye yako venets tsarya nashego Hrista na glavay svoyei nosim.' (This sign is like the crown of our king Hristos that we wear on our head.) By making the sign of the holy cross, we pray that God will deliver us from evil and that he would give us his blessing. Whenever you have a bad thought just cross yourself quickly and say: 'Gospodi Isousye Hristye, sinye Bozhiy, pomilui mya.' (Lord Isous Hristos, Son of God, have mercy on me.) The evil thought will instantly flee from you."
Simeon was thinking of citing some examples from the Scriptures of how the sign of the cross was first displayed during the Passover when blood was placed on the door posts, and during the exodus when Moses struck the Red Sea with his rod and then lifted his left and right hands to the heavens, but at that moment Vasily knocked on the cabin door and entered to announce that they were arriving at a port in Pakistan.
Masha felt relieved, for she was anxious to get on with her sewing work. She felt that church talk belonged to the men folk, and besides, she was too young to understand the complex teachings of the religion she was born into. 'Let the men worry their heads about what religion teaches,' thought Masha. "I have woman's work to do.'
And so Masha spent most of her days cross-stitching a new shirt for her husband and thinking of what she would make for her new-born child. As the Italian ship sailed away from Pakistan and headed for Italy, Masha began to sketch the design of the seven grapes on a white cloth. After she penciled in all the lines and boundaries, she picked up the needle with the purple thread and began the long and arduous task of creating a colorful work of art with her own hands.
Eventually the Italian ship made its way up the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea. There, where the ancients taught was located the middle of the earth, the Old Believers experienced their first major storm at sea. Lightning flashed in the western sky and the waves clashed against the ship in an effort to either swallow up the ship or to send it crashing against the rocks near the island of Crete. Masha couldn't sleep the entire night as the tossing of the ship at sea made the fetus within the womb respond with powerful kicks against Masha's ribs.
Presvyataya gospozhe Bogoroditsa, moli Bogy nas greshnego," (Most Holy Lady and Mother of God, pray to God for us sinners) prayed Masha. She fingered her black, woolen lestovka (rosary) to keep count with the repetitions.
By morning the storm subsided, and the ship safely sailed along the coast of Italy. It wasn't long after that fierce storm that the ship finally sailed unharmed into the harbor of Rome--The Eternal City.
"Well, at least we'll get a look at the e city where St. Paul and St. Peter walked," said Antip Svyatogorov as the Old Believers lined up against the railing to watch the ship dock.
"Just don't think of going into a Latin church," warned Simeon. "We don't want to be stained with their heretical teachings."
"A man from the consulate is supposed to meet us and explain to us how long we must wait for the Spanish ship," said Ivan.
"I'd like to see the grandeur of Rome before it fell," announced Vasily Velikov.
"God punished Rome for its heresies," explained Simeon. "They proclaimed the pope to be infallible and ruler of all Christendom, and they expected all the churches to use only the Latin tongue in their liturgy."
"I heard that some of the pagan temples are still standing in Rome," said Vasily, without paying much attention to Simeon's words. Vasily was directing his words at Ivan in an attempt to attract a touring partner. "I'd like to visit the legendary seven hills, too."
"That wouldn't be a bad idea," responded Ivan, "but first I've got to make sure all our papers are in order with the consulate. We sure don't want to get stuck in Rome, not after all the things I've heard about their pagan ways."
It turned out that the Old Believers had to wait several days for the Spanish ship to depart for Brazil. In the meantime, they were given temporary quarters to sleep in, and they were allowed to go sight-seeing. Vasily coaxed Ivan and Antip to tour the city together in a small bus, which a consulate guide was kind enough t drive them around in. The elder man, Simeon, had no family to be with, so Ivan invited him to join them for the ride.
The guide took them first to the major attraction in the city--St. Peter's Church on Vatican Hill. A mass was being said on that day--November 21st, by the Old Believer's reckoning--in honor of the Virgin Mary who was presented as a child in the temple to be trained and taught how to serve and prepare herself to be a handmaiden of the Lord.
Masha was amazed at the tall pillars and grandiose statues. Some of the nude figures around the plazas made her face turn red with embarrassment. She was impressed, however, with the throng of people that came to pay respect to the Bogoroditsa (Mother of God). She watched several Catholic worshippers make the sign of the cross.
"They cross themselves differently than we do," observed Masha.
"Tomu mahaniyu besi raduyutsya," (The demons rejoice at that kind of waving of hands) chimed in Simeon.
The guide was trained in several languages, including Russian, and he attempted to explain and demonstrate the ritual of crossing to the curious spectators.
"The Latin sign of the cross," said the guide, "is made by placing the left hand on the breast and with the right hand touching the forehead and saying, 'In the name of the Father,' then moving the right hand to the breast and saying, 'and of the Son'; then moving to touch the left shoulder and saying, 'and of the Holy . . .', and then touching the right shoulder saying, 'Spirit, Amen.' That's the sign by which sins are forgiven." The guide finished his speech and demonstration.
"Now you see how deep the Latins got into heretical teachings," exclaimed Simeon. The elder man could not sit still and watch what he considered to be blasphemous signs being made. "You saw how he made the Nikonian sign of the first three fingers clumped together. We know, according to our great Church council of 1551 called Stoglav (Hundred Chapters), that the Russian church rituals are the true and orthodox ones, for we preserved the holy and original teachings of Hristos as they were handed down to us by the church fathers and saints."
"They even place their hand on different parts of the body," remarked Ivan.
"We use the two top fingers to show the revealed dual nature of Hristos as man and God," proceeded Simeon with his explanation. "The three bottom fingers, thumb and third with fourth, conceal the great mystery of the Trinity. The top finger which is bent (the second one) shows the descent of the Son of God from heaven to earth. When the index finger touches the forehead it means the one Truth and Head of the Church, which is Hristos. The two fingers descending to the navel region shows the descent to earth and incarnation in the Bogoroditsa (Mother of God). When we place our hand on the right shoulder it signifies that Hristos sits as judge on the right hand of the father. And when we place our hand on the left shoulder we point to the second coming and the Last Judgment, 'na muku vechnuyu Eli na zhivot vechniy.'" (either for eternal suffering or for everlasting life.)
The guide watched as Simeon demonstrated the way of the Old Belief. Masha also watched with renewed interest as she began to understand the true significance behind her religion. She had performed the act of making the sign of the cross without much thought before, but now her mind dwelt on the vast significance behind every motion and every gesture that the hand made. She related it to the careful and precise movement of the hand in cross-stitching, and then she began to understand that the hand weaves many patterns upon the tapestry of life. She was proud of the patterns that she had been taught to make. The religious patterns and the patterns of nature embroidered on a shirt or blouse were the temple of God's world that she entered into and communed with whenever she went to church or whenever she worked on her cross-stitching. One pattern was of the soul, the other of the heart.
The guide spent some time driving the group of Old Believers through some temple ruins including those dedicated to Saturn and other gods who had been transplanted from Greece to Rome. Most of the Old Believers were not too impressed with the pagan past. Antip Svyatogorov, on the other hand, seemed to be asking the guide a lot of questions about Greek mythology and about all the attractions of the seven hills.
It was on the site of the Athenaeum, the temple dedicated to Athena, goddess of Wisdom, that Simeon was inspired to address the small group of Old Believers assembled there and relate to them the teaching about Moscow--the Third Rome.
"I don't know if any of you are acquainted with the 'Povest o Belom Klobuke' (Tale of the White Cowl), started Simeon as he faced the group that was intently staring at the ruins of the temple. Ivan's ears perked up as he heard the words "The White Cowl," for he had indeed heard from his Grandfather Iov about the legendary white hooded robe that was a symbol of spiritual power and of the Resurrection; white also represented purity and saintliness to Ivan, but now he remembered his grandfather's interpretation of white as being the radiance of the Resurrection of Hristos.
"The Blessed Monk Filofey wrote four hundred years ago that all Christian kingdoms would unite into the kingdom of Russia, according t the prophetic books," spoke Simeon in a loud voice. "Both Romes, the one we're standing on and the one in Constantinople, had fallen, and Moscow, the third Rome, had become the sole defender of the Eastern Orthodox Church. A fourth kingdom was never to be, for the prophet Daniel had announced that the final kingdom of the one true faith would never be destroyed. Since the Kingdom of the Father and the Kingdom of the Son had occurred, it was up to Russia to take up the banner of the final Kingdom of the Holy Spirit.
"It was all foretold in the story about the White Cowl. The holy White Cowl was created by the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, for the Blessed Pope Sylvester in the year 297, which according to our Russian chroniclers was the year 5805. It so happened that Constantine was suffering from an incurable illness, and an evil magician told him that the blood of three thousand infants would cure him if he bathed in it. But the emperor had a vision of the Apostles Paul and Peter, who told him that Pope Sylvester, who was in hiding, could show him a fountain of salvation which would cure the emperor's affliction. However, the emperor in return had to grant new rights to the Christian Church and make Christianity the national religion. Well, the emperor was cured because he obeyed the vision, and the persecutions of the Christians ended. To reward Pope Sylvester, the emperor gave him the White Cowl, which showed that spiritual power was above worldly power. The emperor left the keys to the Eternal City in the hands of the pope, and he went to rule the Eastern, or Byzantine, Roman Empire in the city named after him--Constantinople.
"After Pope Sylvester died, the White Cowl was held sacred until the division arose between the Eastern and Western Churches in the ninth century. The Latin heresy of papal supremacy over the entire Church was rejected by the East, and the White Cowl had to be miraculously rescued from the heretics, who were planning at that time to destroy it.
"It was then that the virtuous Patriarch of Constantinople, Philotheus, had a vision of a youth of about sixteen from whom a great light shone and who told the patriarch about the White Cowl. Philotheus was to send the white Cowl to the Russian land, where it was to be worn on the head of Vasily, Archbishop of Novgorod. This same youth had appeared previously to the heretical pope in Rome and had scared him into sending the white hooded robe to Constantinople. When the White Cowl arrived in Constantinople in an ark, and the vision of Philotheus was verified, the people rejoiced and the church of Hagia Sophia was blessed with many miracles.
"The Patriarch Philotheus, as you might guess, wanted to keep the blessed White Cowl for himself, and he prayed about it. After Matins one Sunday, after his usual prayers, he lay down to rest, and in his sleep he saw two men come through the door. One of them was armed as a warrior and had an imperial crown on his head, and the other wore bishop's vestments. The man in the bishop's robe was Pope Sylvester, and he foretold that the city of Constantinople would be taken by the nomadic sons of Hagar because of its sins, and the Grace of the Holy Spirit would be revealed in the third Rome, which was to be the land of Russia. He also foretold that all Christians would unite into one Russian nation because of its orthodoxy, and he said it was predestined since ancient times that radiant Russia would become more honorable than the two Romes which preceded it. Then he commanded the Patriarch Philotheus, who was seized by great awe, to send the holy White Cowl to the Russian land. The other man in the vision, Emperor Constantine, silently confirmed the pope's words.
"When the patriarch awoke he went to the church, fell before the ikon of the Holy Mother of God, and wept for a long time. Finally he did as he was told, and he put the White Cowl back in the ark and sent it to the Russian land. In the city of Novgorod the Great, the virtuous Archbishop Vasily had a dream in which he saw the angel of God. This angel of God was dressed like a monk, and he wore the White Cowl upon his head. He announced that the White Cowl was to come to Novgorod from the patriarch on the morrow. Vasily was to accept the symbol of the radiant Resurrection, which came to pass on the third day. After the angel of God said that his visit was a sign that God's will was done, he became invisible.
"After Vasily woke up he pondered the meaning of the vision. The following morning he sent a procession outside the city, to the crossroads, to see if the White Cowl would appear. Sure enough, the ark with the White Cowl in it arrived as foretold by the angel of God. The venerable gift was placed in the middle of the Cathedral of Holy Sophia, the Wisdom of God. There they celebrated the service of thanksgiving, during which time a voice came from the ikon of the Lord, saying, 'Holy, Holy,' and then after a short silence the voice announced thrice in Greek, 'Ispola eti despota' (Many years to the Lord). All the people who heard these voices were seized with awe and joy, and they said, 'The Lord have mercy upon us.' Then Vasily told the people his vision, and he put the White Cowl on his head, and from that day to this day the White Cowl has remained in the Russian land."
"Is it true that the grave of Archbishop Vasily was discovered after the second world war?" asked Ivan, who remembered his grandfather verifying the story from a recent archeological find.
"Yes," answered Simeon. "I remember hearing about it from orthodox people who had crossed the Altai Mountains into Kulkja a year after the war for the Fatherland. They said that his grave was opened, and in it was found the sacred White Cowl."
"It is truly magnificent," said Masha, who was enthralled by the spirit of the tale. She felt a closeness to the Russian people and to the role that they were playing as the chosen people of the final kingdom on earth. It was as if suddenly the whole meaning of existence had become clear to Masha, and she understood why she would always preserve the Old Belief of the Russian people as it had been given to them by the messengers of God. She would teach her children what she had been taught. She would be a keeper of the Flame no matter where in the world she would journey.
"What is truly amazing," spoke up Antip, who had been sitting on a rock and musing about the extraordinary tale, "is that we were led by God to the place where it all began. It's amazing how far we have gone since Roman times from Catholic heresy to Russian Orthodoxy."
"I will never forget the story Simeon told us," said Vasily. "It will remain etched on my heart and mind as long as I live."
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Chapter 5
Beginning - Chapter 1
Copyright 1982 by Paul John Wigowsky
