July: Day 3: Teaching 1: Translation of the Sacred Relics of the Holy Metropolitan Philip from Solovetsky Monastery to Moscow

July: Day 3: Teaching 1:
Translation of the Sacred Relics of the Holy Metropolitan Philip from Solovetsky Monastery to Moscow

(On the Reasons for the Incorruptibility of Holy Relics)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow, the translation of whose much-healing relics is now celebrated, ended his life as a martyr in the Otroch Monastery in Tver, where he was exiled for the truth after an accusation by Ivan the Terrible, and where he was strangled by the chief of the Tsar's oprichniks, Malyuta Skuratov. Several years after the death of the Saint, the abbot of the Solovetsky Monastery, Jacob, and his brethren asked Tsar Feodor Ivanovich for permission to transfer the body of the deceased to the Solovetsky Monastery, where Philip had taken monastic vows and was abbot. There the relics of the martyred Saint rested peacefully under the protection of the church and the prayers of the brethren of the monastery who reverently honored him; there miracles began to be observed at the tomb of Philip over those who prayed before them with faith and reverence. 

Many years had passed since then, troubled and difficult years not only for Moscow, but for the entire Russian kingdom. The martyrdom of Tsarevich Dmitry, having opened access to the throne for state dignitaries not of royal lineage, paved the way for the thieving raids on it by ambitious pretenders. The struggle with them and for them and for the throne with Poland tired and weakened Russia so much that the entire reign of Mikhail Feodorovich was not enough for her to finally rest from the preceding national disasters. Each in his own way understood and explained their causes and rapid development; but all, however, agreed in general with the voice of the chroniclers that everything that happened happened by God's permission, for the sake of our sin as punishment and correction. Many remembered the difficult Time of Troubles, the lawlessness and arbitrariness of the oprichnina, the blood of the unjustly killed, and the martyrdom of Saint Philip. As soon as everything returned to its usual order during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, the beloved and respected Metropolitan of Novgorod Nikon, later the Patriarch of All Russia, in a friendly conversation with the attentive and well-disposed Tsar began to advance the idea of spiritual, supreme protection of the capital of the kingdom through the prayers and intercession of the deceased hierarchs of Moscow, the Holy Metropolitan Philip, Patriarchs Job and Hermogen, mourners and sufferers for the Russian land. He considered the collection and repose of their incorrupt relics in the Kremlin Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Moscow to be timely and reliable. Nikon's idea appealed to the heart of the pious Tsar, who had repeatedly seen Saint Philip in a dream, commanding that his relics be transferred to Moscow, and had himself already come to the idea of transferring them to the Dormition Cathedral. 

A council was immediately formed, to which the Tsar announced his desire to transfer the relics of Saints Philip, Job, and Hermogenes to the Dormition Cathedral, and which with gratitude and joy asked the Tsar to hasten the fulfillment of his pious desire. The body of Patriarch Hermogenes, which rested in the Chudov Monastery, was then transferred to the Dormition Cathedral and placed on the ground near the tent over the robe of the Lord. Metropolitan Barlaam of Rostov and Yaroslavl was sent to Staritsa with a large retinue for the relics of Patriarch Job. The Tsar ordered Nikon himself to be sent to the Solovetsky Monastery for the relics of Saint Philip, as the first to inspire the idea of transferring his relics, especially since Nikon himself had been tonsured a monk in the Solovetsky Monastery. Among the court nobles closest to the Tsar were Prince Khovansky, the clerk Leontyev, and others. The Tsar presented Nikon with a letter which he was to read in the Solovetsky Monastery before the relics of Saint Philip. This letter to the deceased, as if to the living, is remarkable for the spirit of humility with which the innocent Tsar begs the martyr to forgive the sins of his ancestor, and as a sign of this forgiveness to grant Moscow his holy relics with their inherent grace of prayerful intercession for the Russian land and the miraculous preservation of the capital of the kingdom. With this letter, which resembled another of similar content, which the Greek Emperor Theodosius once sent to Comana to the relics of Saint John Chrysostom (who had been exiled there and died there prematurely at the insistence of the Emperor's mother Eudoxia), when he decided to transfer them from Comana to Constantinople. 

Nikon solemnly set out for the Solovetsky Monastery. Arriving there, after the letter had been read, amid abundant tears from the brethren bidding farewell to their dear abbot, while singing psalms and church songs appropriate to the occasion, he raised the incorrupt relics of the Saint from their resting place, and first by water to Yaroslavl, then by land to the Trinity Lavra, he accompanied them, reporting to the Emperor from each place of stopover about his procession. To meet the holy relics in the Trinity Lavra of Saint Sergius, Cornelius, Metropolitan of Kazan, and Markell, Archbishop of Vologda, with archimandrites, abbots, and a host of clergy, were sent from Moscow. The relics of Saint Philip were solemnly transferred from the Lavra to the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow on July 3, 1652, and placed openly on the southern side between the iconostasis and the southern doors of the cathedral. These incorrupt relics now rest openly in this place, pouring forth the grace of healing to those who pray with faith.

II. The relics of Saint Philip, as we have said, rest incorruptibly, thus testifying to his pleasingness to God.

If someone curious and doubtful were to ask: “What are the reasons for the incorruptibility of the holy relics?” it would not be difficult for him to answer, knowing the holy life of the great Saint, who laid down his soul for his flock and adorned himself with all the Christian virtues.

a) On the one hand, the power of Christ, having entered into the holy men of God, vivifies, sanctifies and penetrates their bodies, imparting to them incorruptibility, since it itself is incorruptible and miraculous and is not a human power, but divine. Thus divine and grace-filled from the fullness of grace was the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which many who touched received healing (Mark 3:10), so divine and grace-filled were His garments, from the touch of which the woman with the issue of blood was healed (Mark 5:27-27). In a similar way, His thought and word were blessed, through which ten leprous men and many other weak and sick people were healed (Luke 17:12-13, etc.). In a similar way, the bodies of the saints and their very clothes are grace-filled, incorruptible and miraculous due to the presence in them of the power and grace of God.

b) On the other hand, the second reason for the incorruptibility of the holy relics is the saints’ own spirit, which dwelt in their bodies during their earthly life, constantly soaring to the heavenly, constantly occupied with the spiritual and divine, and at the same time incessantly mortifying their bodies, suppressing their needs and most natural inclinations. As a result of this, the spirit of God’s holy men receives extraordinary strength and power and completely enslaves the body, almost destroying its activity. Thus, little by little, it assimilates to itself, penetrates and spiritualizes the body, which has ceased to resist and lust after it, and thus makes it spiritual, that is, incorruptible. In the lives of the saints we find many examples of how the human spirit, which lived in God’s saints, having acquired, as a result of the communion of the Divine Spirit and the enslavement of the body, an extraordinary tension in a certain direction and extraordinary power, assimilates the body to itself, spiritualizing it:

Saint Boniface, a saint of the Western Church, had nail wounds appear on his hands and feet when he reflected on the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer, from constant remembrance of the name of the Savior, the inscription of this sweetest name was found in his heart.

The action of the spirit on the body can be noticed in everyday life. The Orthodox Christian way of thinking produces one external appearance (type) of Orthodox Christians. Jews, Muslims and other non-believers, having accepted Christianity, lose their previous tribal appearance and become similar to the appearance of those whose religion they accepted.

Who also does not know that warriors in the heat of spiritual passion do not feel the most severe wounds in war. In the saints, the action of the spirit on the body with the assistance of God's grace is constant and extraordinary.

III. May this present reflection on the reasons for the incorruptibility of the holy relics strengthen in us our reverence for them and our zeal to resort to them with faith in the all-powerful grace of God.

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.