The story of how Peter ordered the icons not to cry wandered from one atheistic brochure to another in Soviet times. Nikolai Yudin in his well-known book "The Truth About St. Petersburg" Shrines " wrote: "In the midst of Peter's reforms, the clergy, dissatisfied with them, tried to raise the religious fanaticism of the masses against the" Tsar-Antichrist ". In one of the St. Petersburg churches, the Mother of God suddenly “cried”. The Tsar, who was on Lake Ladoga, immediately rode to the capital. He exposed the simple priestly mechanics, betrayed the organizers of the “miracle” to corporal punishment and published an order: “I order that from now on the Mother of God does not cry. If the Theotokos still weep with oil, the backs of the priests will weep in blood”(Acts of Peter the Great, the wise reformer of Russia, part VIII. 1789).
Frankly speaking, in this story I was always alarmed by the words of Pyotr Alekseevich about the "backs of priests." Finally, I went to the Public Library to check it out. In the eighth volume of "The Acts of Peter the Great, the Wise Transformer of Russia" there was nothing of the kind on these pages, but after a while I was rewarded: the story was found in the seventh volume. And it turned out to be even more interesting than I thought.
Popov mechanics
“From R. Kh. 1720.
The 1 of May. The Great Sovereign went to the work of the Ladoga Canal … In this very absence of His Majesty, a rumor suddenly spread that in one church, and namely Trinity, on the St. Petersburg side, a large image of the Mother of God was shedding tears. The people began to gather there in great numbers. Superstition has dragged into this a dangerous interpretation that the Mother of God is dissatisfied with this country, and with her tears proclaims a great misfortune to the new city, and perhaps to the entire State. Chancellor Count Golovkin, who lived not far from this church, went there, but not only could not disperse the people who had run away, but he could hardly get out of the tightness himself. He immediately sent a messenger to the Emperor with the news of this incident and of the murmur of the people.
The Great Sovereign, knowing from experience that even one spark of superstition can cause a terrible fire, if it is not extinguished in advance, he immediately set out, drove all night, and the next morning, arriving in St. Petersburg, immediately approached the mentioned church, where was met by the local priests and taken to the weeping image. Although His Majesty himself did not see tears, many of those who were there assured him that they had really seen them recently. The Emperor, examining the image very closely for some time, noticed something suspicious in his eyes. However, without allowing others to notice, he ordered one of the priests to remove the icon from its place and take it to the palace. Tamo the discerning Monarch examined this varnished image very carefully in the presence of the Chancellor, some of the noblest courtiers,the higher clergy and priests of that church who removed the image from the place and brought it to the palace.
His Majesty soon found in the eyes of the image very small and almost completely inconspicuous holes, which the shadow cast in that place made even more inconspicuous. He, having turned the board, tore off the frame, and breaking off the shift or connection, which is usually the case with images on the other side, to his pleasure he saw the justice of his guess and opened the deception and the source of tears; namely: in the board opposite the eyes of the image there were pits, in which some thick wooden oil was placed, and which were closed with a rear rail. "This is the source of wonderful tears!" - said the Emperor. Each of those present had to come up to see this cunning deception with their own eyes.
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Therefore, the wise Monarch interpreted to those around him how everywhere closed thickened butter in a cold place could last for so long, and how it flowed into the aforementioned holes in the eyes of the image like tears, melting from the warmth, when the place against which it lay was heated from candles lit in front of the image. It seemed that the Emperor was pleased with this discovery and evidence of deception. He did not let anyone notice his intention to investigate this matter further and punish the inventors, but said only to those present: “Now you all saw the reason for the imaginary tears. I have no doubt that you will talk everywhere about what you have been convinced of with your own eyes; this will serve to prove the emptiness and to refute the stupid, and perhaps even malicious interpretation of this false miracle. The image will remain with Me; I will put it in my Kunst-Chamber.
But in fact, the Emperor, enraged by such deceit and malicious interpretation of forged tears, secretly used every possible effort to find inventors. Some time later, after many secret searches, they were found, and by admitting in all the circumstances of this case and their intentions, they were punished so that no one dared to undertake such deceits from now on.
Did Peter I deny miracles?
One detail stands out. Arriving at the Trinity Church and suspecting something was wrong, Peter I nevertheless ordered to carry the icon to his palace. If it was important for him to stop the rumors, why didn't he expose the "miracle" right in the church, in front of everyone? After all, this would have an incomparably greater effect. The answer is simple: Tsar Peter, unlike Soviet atheists, was not at all convinced that all miraculous icons were fakes. Apparently, it was precisely the “evil interpretation” that made him doubt in this case that his works on the construction of Petersburg were displeasing to God. The Tsar could not help but know that tears on the icon were usually perceived as mercy from above.
By the way, one of the oldest Russian holidays was established in memory of just such a case. This happened in 1169, when the Suzdal prince conceived the conquest of Novgorod. In the morning before the start of the assault, the Novgorod Archbishop John carried an icon of the Mother of God from the Church of the Savior to the city wall. One of the enemy's arrows pierced the image, and the icon turned its face to the city, exuding tears. According to legend, the archbishop exclaimed at the same time: “Oh, miracle! How do tears flow from a dry tree? Queen! You give us a sign that you are hereby praying before your Son for the deliverance of the city. The miracle inspired the Novgorodians, and they recaptured the Suzdal regiments. And the feast of the Icon of the Sign, established on November 27 (December 10), was soon accepted by all Russian principalities.
As follows from the same "Acts", Peter even honored the holidays of the Russian Church: "However, I never missed an opportunity not to be present at the nationwide celebration of the Divine service, or procession of the cross, and could not tolerate the people on Sundays breaking the holiness of this day, and even in the greatest need, he barely allowed, but even then only after the end of the service of God, to send work on Sundays …"
Moving from Moscow to St. Petersburg, the tsar, among other relics, brought to the new capital the image of the Sign. By the way, he later blessed his daughter Elizabeth with this miraculous icon! So to say that Peter did not venerate miraculous icons is extremely rash.
What touched Peter so much in this story with the weeping icon from the Trinity Church? To understand this, you need to remember how the tsar's road was this wooden church on the Petersburg side. Since 1714, it was she who was the main temple of the capital. By order of Peter, a clock with chimes taken from the Sukharev Tower in Moscow was installed on its bell tower, and a special porch was attached to the church from the west, on which persons of the royal family and courtiers stood during the service. From the same porch, the royal orders were announced.
To plant like a madman in a chain …
Having exposed a single case of falsification of a miracle, Peter I did not become a denier of miracles in general, and he did not interfere with the worship of miraculous icons and relics. It is interesting that all the atheist authors who so confidently enrolled Peter as a freethinker, apparently, did not read the same "Acts". Otherwise, they would have stumbled, for example, on such a paragraph about the king: “From his earliest years he was filled with the fear of God, and according to the testimony of the chronicle of his conception and birth, he only adhered to the Word of God, that he read the entire Gospel and the Apostle by heart: the great name God never pronounced inako, as with the greatest reverence; and his first joy was the House of the Lord, in which he was not only a listener of the Divine service, but multiplied the attention and reverence of those who were to come with his royal voice, standing alongside the singers, and always reading the Apostle himself …"
And Peter did not issue a decree on the "backs of priests". This is pure fiction of atheist authors - there is nothing like it in Acts. On the contrary, this book contains such curious information about the tsar: “The atheists and blasphemers of the Faith were intolerable to him; he used to say about those that they inflict shame on a well-ordered State, and should not be tolerated in any way; because they undermine the basis of the laws on which the oath or oath and obligations are established. Once it was reported to him that one who uttered blasphemous words in the congregation was taken into custody: then he ordered to immediately plant him as a madman in chains …"
As you can see, Peter also did not like atheists too much. So, if the author of a book about St. Petersburg shrines and his comrades happened to be contemporaries of Peter, the question remains, how would it all end for them. It is not excluded that it was their backs that would "cry".