Chapter 7 -- "Synod of the Mother of God"
When the Tuesday morning service commemorating the Nativity of Christ was finished, the tired worshippers were about to disband when all of a sudden tiny five-year-old Haritina shouted from the living room window, "It's snowing!"
Andrey and his wife Paraskeva rushed to the window to see if their daughter was telling the truth. Ivan and Masha followed to see what the excitement was all about. Antip and his wife Evgenia joined the crowd at the wide scenic window. The snow was coming down in flurries, and it was sticking to the cold January ground. A thin white carpet was laid over the earth as if to commemorate the pure Virgin Birth of the Redeemer of all Mankind.
"That's the first time it snowed this winder," announced Andrey, whose eyes reflected the white, glistening snow.
"It's probably the first and last time for this year," commented his wife, Paraskeva.
"Ivan brought us this blessing," speculated Antip.
"I was just thinking the same thing," said Masha, amazed at the coincidence. "I was thinking that the snow is welcoming us to Oregon and to a new life in America."
"Mama," yelled Nikolai, who had come to life with the rest of the children. "May we go outside to play with the snow?"
"Can we go make cheloveka iz cnyega (a man out of snow)," begged Haritina, pulling at her mother's calf-length dress.
"Kolya will get a cold," said Ivan. "His lungs are weak."
"Puskaiy," (let them) said Andrey. "It only snows once or twice a year here, in what some call the 'banana belt'. At least let the children have some fun."
The mother dressed the children in warm clothes, and within minutes the children were scraping up the soft fluffy snow with their mittens and making snowballs. The night sky slowly changed to day and the hidden sun rose upon the eastern horizon. The white snow silently floated to the outstretched hands of the children, who were trying to catch the crunchy flakes and savor the pure watery taste in their mouths.
The mothers and fathers watched the children frolic in the thickening snow; they received vicarious pleasure by watching, for in so doing they were remembering their own childhood. They days of innocence and unresponsibility seemed to be like paradise in comparison to the adult task of providing food and shelter for the family. The children were care-free, playful, and had no thought for tomorrow, while the adults were constantly anxious about work and always worried about what the future had in store for them.
The heavenly snow seemed to cover all the earth and all the homes with one gigantic blanket of forgetfulness and rest. It was on snowy days that most people just wanted to sit home by a warm fire and watch the earth fill up with whiteness. Andrey went out to the patio to get an armful of alder wood for the fire. He had a blazing fire sparkling in no time at all. The men gathered around the warm fire in the brick fireplace and swapped stories about China and Brazil and made plans for a fishing trip to the coast, while the women gathered around the stove in the kitchen and talked about their growing children.
It turned out to be an all day affair at Andrey's house. Everyone was having a good time and no one wanted to stop the festivities. The women spent all day baking and cooking Russian bread, all sorts of zakuski (sweet pastry for snacks), kotlety (cutlets), lapsha (vermicelli), and piroshki (turnovers with meat filling). Andrey brought out his fermented braga (a home-brewed wine made from berries) and toasted his friends with the end of the 40-day Christmas fast and the beginning of the great feast, which would continue in one form or another until the next fasting period. Meat and milk products, which were prohibited during the Christmas fast in preparation for the new birth, were once again permitted by the Ustav (book of rules), which regulated the daily dietary life of the Old Believer.
The children had finished making a Snegurochka (Snow-Maiden) and a Dyed Moroz (Grandfather Winter) by mid-morning, and they excitedly rushed into the warm house to tell their parents about their four-feet tall creations. The dwarf-sized figures stood like two guards in the front yard, and their arms-made-from-birch-branches dangled below their girdled waist. Red stones were set in their eye sockets, and carrots were taken from the refrigerator to make the nose. Prokopy found an old black Russian hat that his father Andrey had thrown out in the garage, and Haritina found an old flowery Russian scarf. Old-man Winter and the Snow-Maiden were crowned with the headgear, and they took on a personality distinctly Russian.
By evening it was time to observe a minor holyday in remembrance of the Bogoroditsa (Mother of God); it was one of the numerous days during the church calendar year that the Bogoroditsa was commemorated. There were also two ikons of the Bogoroditsa that were especially important to the Russians because of the Blessed Virgin's miraculous appearance on Russian soil; they were "Our Lady of Vladimir" and "Our Lady of Kazan." As "Our Lady of Vladimir," she was the embodiment of umileniye (motherly tenderness); as "Our Lady of Kazan," she was the Heavenly Queen.
Masha was so tired and exhausted by the festivities of the previous day that by the time the evening service for the Mother of God came around, she was hardly conscious of her mechanical prayers and bowings. She was slowly losing consciousness by the time the service ended; her head nodded constantly during the service, and she barely stood on her feet. Several times she thought she was going to fall, but Paraskeva stood by her side and supported her with her right shoulder during Masha's weak moments.
Masha was thankful when she finally stumbled down on the hide-away-bed and fell into a sound sleep. Ivan covered her with a goose-feather blanket and kissed her good-night on the cheek.
It was exactly 1:30 A.M. when Masha awoke with a loud "Gosdpodi Pomilui" (Lord, have mercy) that startled Ivan and brought him instantly to her side.
"What's wrong?" asked Ivan as he tried to calm down his sobbing wife.
"I just had a terrible dream," sobbed Masha. Her whole body seemed to vibrate and tremble as if she had just seen a ghost.
"What did you see in your dream?" asked Ivan. He held his shaking wife in his arms and tried to comfort her and bring her back to herself.
"I was in a strange world where people were tortured for their sins," began Masha. Her eyes gazed into the far distance as she tried to recall the details of the overpowering dream. "I remember seeing a lady in white clothes coming to me out of the sky and saying to me, 'Come and see the souls that have suffered upon the face of the earth and in the fire.' She was wearing a very brilliant crown on her head and a golden halo encircled her head. She looked like the Blessed Virgin, Bogoroditsa (Mother of God), for she had a sad and sorrowful look on her face. Then she took me by the hand and led me to the south where the land was burning from the heat of the sun. She said to me: 'This land is being scorched with famine because of the sins of the people.' She pointed to a river of fire which was full of snakes. A dragon reared its head out of the waters. She said: 'The people you see in the river of fire are those tortured by fire and snakes for sins of lechery, cannibalism, and murder, for they sinned against the flesh.' Then I saw a man hanging by one foot and I asked the Holy Virgin what he was being punished for. She replied: 'He is devoured eternally by worms, for he sold his soul for silver and god, and he stepped all over people for filthy lucre.' Then I saw a woman hanging by her tongue and I asked the Holy Virgin: 'What has she done wrong?' And the Holy Virgin answered, 'This woman used to say evil words and gossiped, and now her tongue has brought her to eternal ruin and damnation . . .'
"Then the Blessed Virgin lifted me out of the fiery region, and I felt like I was flying northward through a dark tunnel. As we flew through the dismal darkness, I heard voices that pierced my heart like arrows. And for the first time during this strange dream, I wanted to cry. I asked the Blessed Virgin, 'Whose voices are those?' She answered, 'Those are the voices crying out in the darkness to gods made out of wood and stone. They did not believe in the Holy Trinity; instead they called upon the sun and the moon and the earth and the water and worshipped them as gods.' And then a voice called out, 'Blessed One! Come nearer so we can see light, for we have not seen light for ages.' And I wept when I heard the plaintive voice. Then the Blessed Virgin asked the voice, 'Why did you refuse to believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost?' The distant voice answered with clenched teeth, 'We suffered from pride in ourselves, and we gloried in our own achievements, forgetting from whom came our life, breath and spirit. We did not even want to honor you, Blessed One, nor acknowledge that from you was born the Lord Isous Hristos, who, having come in the flesh, has redeemed the world from sin.' Then the Blessed Virgin reprimanded the voice coming from the darkness, saying, 'Why did you live in error? Did you not know that all creation honors me and my son?'
"And with those words the Blessed Virgin left the voice in utter darkness again, and we continued north until we came to a fiery cloud filled with people. 'These are the people who laid around in bed during holydays and did not attend church,' spoke the Holy Virgin. 'And the ones who refused to say their prayers are also there.' I turned my face from the fiery cloud, for I remembered skipping church and prayers during some of the holydays.
"Then we sailed eastward in a boat upon the waves of a wide river, and it appeared as if the water was boiling. In the water were heads of men and women bobbing up and down like corks, and they appeared to be drowning. The men and women were hardly able to say 'Gospodi pomilui' (Lord, be merciful) before another wave of boiling water would pull them down below the surface of the river.
"And then I saw a host of angels and saints watching over the sinners and praying in unison: 'Holy, Holy, Holy. Holy God and holy Bogoroditsa (Mother of God), we praise you and the Son of God born of you. Rejoice, Source of Light Eternal; rejoice, giver of birth to the Son, the Adam of old, creator of ages and redeemer of those that pray to you. Intercede for the sinners, and pray to our Lord for the entire world.'
"And suddenly the Holy Virgin spoke in a loud voice: 'God have mercy upon them.' And the waves on the waters ceased and were still. Then the Holy Virgin asked the host of angels about the sinners in the boiling waters, and she was told that the Jews who tormented and crucified her Son were tormented there in like manner. The Holy Virgin turned away from that place, and the boiling waves once again drowned the sinners in a perpetual never-ending motion.
"Then the Blessed Virgin led me westward and showed me the intercession of the saints, and I heard the never ceasing prayer 'Gospodi Pomilui' (Lord, have mercy). She told me: 'Because of the intercession of the saints I will continue to intercede for all mankind, to bring their prayers to my Son, the Light of the World, and to plead for mercy until the sinners repent of their sins and keep the commandments that were given to them by my Son.'
"At those words I cried out, 'Gospodi Pomilui' (Lord, have mercy), and that's when I woke up." Masha ended her account of her dream and fell into a long silence. She contemplated the meaning of her dream for many days, but she told Ivan not to mention the dream to anyone else.
Bogoroditsa, Mother of God Ikon
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Chapter 8
Beginning - Chapter 1
Copyright 1982 by Paul John Wigowsky
