Every self-respecting religion can boast of its saints. Usually saints are credited with various miracles, acts of self-sacrifice, severity and humility. Let's remember the biblical commandment: Thou shalt not kill! The saints were so white and fluffy. But there is one monk in Orthodox Christianity who, if you look at it, had a very mediocre relationship to Christianity. We are talking about Sergius of Radonezh. What's wrong with him?
Sergius was not just a patriot of his land, but also an active public figure. There are suspicions that the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, where he was in charge, has turned into a training center for young disciplined specialists, from where the warrior monks Peresvet with the call sign "Alexander" and Oslyabya with the call sign "Rodion" graduated. To a modern Christian, this may seem like something incredible … The priest turns into a real mentor for the fighters, an elite unit of that time. Judging by many pieces of evidence, we can confidently conclude that Orthodox Christianity in Russia was then completely different from what we now imagine. Most likely, there were no clear boundaries between Christianity and the old pre-Christian, Vedic faith.
During his service in the church, Sergius of Radonezh raised many disciples, who founded up to forty monasteries; from them, in turn, came the founders of about fifty more monasteries. In them, following the example of the Sergiev Monastery, a cenobitic charter was introduced, which to some extent resembles a military charter. It turns out that the old Russian monastery was the prototype of modern military units, where the main motives for discipline were patriotism and self-improvement.
Sergius of Radonezh contributed not only to the development of monasticism in Russia, but also to the creation of a kind of bases where potential warriors were brought up by strict discipline and asceticism. In case of urgent need, they were able to turn from monks into fighters.
During the period of his abbess, Sergius forbade the monks to beg for alms and made it a rule that all monks should live at the expense of their own labor, setting an example in this himself. Metropolitan Alexei, who highly respected the Radonezh hegumen, before his death, persuaded him to be his successor, but Sergius refused. This suggests that he was not a careerist.
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Sergius of Radonezh is credited with having a strong influence on the military-political situation in Russia at that time. High-ranking officials came to him for advice before making the most important decisions, that is, the saint acted as an adviser on domestic and foreign policy.
It was thanks to Sergius of Radonezh that the Moscow principality did not become a trading colony of the Genoese when Mamai offered the local authorities a deal with Genoa that was not very profitable for the region. Although the offer seemed beneficial to many, St. Sergius of Radonezh declared that "foreign merchants should not be allowed into the Holy Russian Land, for this is a sin."
Dmitry Donskoy.
It was Sergiy of Radonezh who set Dmitry Donskoy to win the internecine battle on the Kulikovo field. Many chroniclers are sure that the monk instilled confidence in the prince and the squad, despite the numerical superiority of Mamai's army.
After the victory in the Battle of Kulikovo, the Grand Duke began to treat the Radonezh abbot with even greater reverence and invited him to seal a spiritual will, which for the first time legalized a new order of succession to the throne: from father to eldest son.
Dmitry Donskoy.
Despite the clear and unambiguous position of the official history, it is still not known exactly what relations Russia had with the Tatars, who fought with whom and why? The same applies to the Battle of Kulikovo, in which the graduates of the monastery of St. Sergius of Radonezh took part. And the saint himself indirectly participated in it. Without his assurances of the success of the Russians, Donskoy's victory would hardly have been assured.
As the most reliable depiction of this battle, let us take an old Yaroslavl icon dating from the middle of the 17th century. It is customary to call it like this: “Sergius of Radonezh. The hagiographic icon”.
Why should we believe this particular image? The fact is that almost all the icons, which were traditionally covered with linseed oil, darkened over time, and about once every 100 years they were again covered with a base and painted again. This means that under the top image of the icon there is at least one more old icon. The bottom layer is of particular interest. In 1959, they were able to remove the upper layers and thus, in the jargon of reenactors, "opened" its very first edition.
It turned out that in the center of the icon is depicted Sergius of Radonezh, and at the bottom it is complemented by the "Mamayev Massacre" written on a long and relatively narrow 30-centimeter board. Thus, this rare depiction was able to escape the political edits of later artists.
On the icon we see the weapons and the type of faces of the "Tatars" - they are exactly the same as those of the Russians! Both troops are depicted in exactly the same way. On the left - the Russian troops of Dmitry Donskoy, on the right - the "Tatar" troops of Mamai. It is curious that Mamai's army is crossing the river to get to the Kulikovo field. They go to the river, going down from a high hill. Some researchers in this moment point to the striking similarity of the area where the battle took place, with the landscape on the Moscow Kulishki, where the church was built in the time of Dmitry Donskoy, by the way, it was he who won the Kulikovo battle.
To converge with the Donskoy on the Moscow Kulishki or Kulikovo field, Mamai's troops stationed on the high Tagansky or Krasny hill, it was necessary to immediately go down and immediately cross the river. That is, across the famous Yauza River. Only after that did the "Tatars" end up on the Kulikovo field, more precisely on the Moscow Kulishki.
Church of All Saints in Kulishki.
By the way, the icon shows that Mamai's troops are wading across the river. The river, which in the chronicles is called the Nepryadva, according to the authors of the New Chronology, is in fact the famous Moscow river Neglinnaya, which was just behind Dmitry Donskoy, who stood on the Kulikovo field.
Another oddity, captured on the icon, is the SAME LINKS for each of the warring parties.
The soldiers of Dmitry Donskoy and the soldiers of Mamai hold the same image of the not-made Savior, which for a long time was the old Russian military banner. It turns out that on the Kulikovo field, the Slavic troops of the Don and the Slavic troops of the "Tatar" prince Mamai met in an internecine battle. Speaking about Tatars, one should not forget that at that time everyone who lived in Tataria or the Horde was called Tatars. Let's remember the Cossack hordes on Russian maps and Cossacks - Tatars on the maps of Europeans.
Now let's try to collect the obtained facts into a single picture.
- Sergius of Radonezh helped found not just Orthodox monasteries, but a whole network of centers for the training of disciplined specialists, among whom were specialists and the military.
- Monks could participate in wars, as was practiced for a long time, for example, by Shaolin and Tibetan monks, who were also, in fact, excellent warriors.
- The Russian monk Peresvet, depicted in the above-mentioned icon, according to the chronicles, defeated the "Tatar Rambo" - a warrior named Chelubey; that, according to legend, was also a monk.
- Religion during the time of Sergius allowed monks to fight and kill, and this was not considered a serious sin.
Long-term excavations at the alleged battle site have led nowhere. Found only a small number of arrows and various household items. But the chronicles report that there were so many victims of the Battle of Kulikovo that they were buried from 6 to 8 days. How much ammunition, weapons, and so on should have been left? This means that the battle was not there, and most likely it took place on the Moscow Kulishki, where the Church of ALL SAINTS was built by Dmitry Donskoy.