At the bottom of Lake Issyk-Kul, scientists are looking for an ancient monastery, where, according to legend, St. Matthew, one of the apostles of Christ, is buried, writes the correspondent of the Itogi magazine E. Zigmund.
Church tradition says: after the Apostle Matthew was martyred, his followers hid the body of the saint from mockery; Allegedly, the remains of one of the four evangelists were buried in the region where the leg of the Roman legionary did not step. According to one version, the incorruptible relics of Matthew found their posthumous rest on the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan - on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul. The “Issykkul version” is not at all a church apocrypha. Many Christians are convinced that the legendary evangelist was buried in Central Asia.
For example, Metropolitan Vladimir of Tashkent and Central Asia speaks of this as an indisputable fact: "The shrine was kept in a monastery located on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, and the whole Christian world knew about its location." Recently, the discussion around the place of the evangelist's burial has flared up with renewed vigor. Last year, the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry even invited a representative of the Vatican to Bishkek. The fact is that several serious researchers simultaneously, independently of each other, came to the conclusion that the body of the Apostle Matthew was most likely buried on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul. Perhaps Christendom is really on the verge of a sensation.
Saint Matthew is one of the most mysterious figures in Christianity. The location of his grave remains a mystery for two millennia. Several countries claim the right to possess the holy relics of the apostle. The Italians, in particular, argue that the relics of the evangelist in the 1st century. AD, that is, immediately after death, came to the Apennine Peninsula and are now supposedly kept in the Cathedral of San Matteo in the city of Salerno. According to representatives of the Catholic Church, the body of the apostle was found during excavations of one of the Lombard castles. Now the Cathedral of San Matteo is listed in all Catholic guidebooks for pilgrims and in all tourist brochures in Italy. However, there is no documentary evidence in favor of such a hypothesis to this day. The official Vatican on this matter diplomatically states literally the following:“Before the old Catholic tradition, it is believed that the relics in Salerno belong to the Apostle Evangelist Matthew …” Thus, the Vatican does not state unequivocally that the relics from Salerno belong to the evangelist.
But one important document speaks in favor of the Central Asian version. In the middle of the XIX century. the famous Russian scientist Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, once in Venice, had the opportunity to study the so-called Catalan map of the world, compiled in 1375-1377. Abraham and Yehudi Kreskes. The scientist drew attention to the image of a building with a cross, which, according to the map, was located on the northern shore of Issyk-Kul Lake. Nearby there was an inscription: “A place called Issyk-Kul. In this place is the monastery of the Armenian brothers, where the body of St. Matthew, the apostle and evangelist resides. On the map, a building with a cross was connected by a straight line to Jerusalem.
In 1857 Semenov-Tyan-Shansky went to explore Turkestan. During his travels he tried to find traces of the “monastery of the Armenian brothers”. But from the Issyk-Kul Kirghiz, he only heard numerous legends about sunken cities: they say, once on the site of the lake there was a vast plain with populous And rich settlements, but God punished people for their sins, and the cities went under water. washed ashore by waves. And they added that not far from the shore, the lake hides in the depths the ruins of underwater palaces. Practical Issyk-Kul people often took bricks from the bottom of the lake and built mausoleums from them for their deceased relatives.
Semenov-Tyan-Shansk did not find any traces of the monastery on the coast, but suggested that it could well have existed in the area of the Kurmentinskaya Bay of Issyk-Kul and later went under water.
It is curious that not far from the place where, according to the famous traveler, an ancient Armenian monastery could be located, a few years later - in 1882 - the Russian Holy Trinity Monastery was founded. This monastery also has not survived, only the buildings of the refectory and the prayer house, made of such durable wood, that even an ax can hardly take them, remained from it. Today, on the site of the Holy Trinity Monastery, there is an orphanage. And the women working here assured that often at night one can observe an unusual phenomenon over the bay: for a few minutes, as if a luminous cross begins to rise above the water …
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However, could a Christian monastery exist on the banks of Issyk-Kul in the 1st millennium? Could the early Christians reach regions so far from the Mediterranean? Scientists answer these questions in the affirmative. Thanks to the conducted archaeological research, it is known today that Nestorian Christians settled in Central Asia.
Nestorianism “as a religious trend emerged in Byzantium in the first half of the 5th century. The Nestorians were especially influential in Syria - in those days the Byzantine province. In 431, this doctrine was declared heresy, its founder, Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople, was sent into exile, and his supporters were persecuted. First, the Nestorians fled to Persia, then to Central Asia. Some of them reached the Talas and Chuy valleys.
There is a number of archaeological evidence for this along the banks of the Issyk-Kul: a Christian church and a cemetery around it were excavated at the Ak-Beshim settlement. A Christian community also lived at the Krasnorechenskoye settlement, as evidenced by the gravestones (kairaks) with epitaphs and burials where bronze and jade Nestorian crosses were found. Kairaks with images of crosses were found at the Burana settlement. In addition, a ceramic vase covered with blue glaze was found in Issyk-Kul, on which the twelve apostles are depicted. Ceramics with the symbolism of the cross were found everywhere both in the valley parts of Kyrgyzstan and in its high mountain regions. Traces of Christians staying in Issyk-Kul region are relatively few, but those that have been found are an indisputable fact today.
Now scientists have to check the version of Semenov-Tyan-Shansky regarding the possibility of the existence of a monastery and a "Matthew's grave" in Kurmentinskaya Bay. After all, the Catalan map to which he referred does not give a clear indication of any strictly defined place. Thus, it cannot be ruled out that the ancient monastery is located on the territory of one of the flooded cities. By the early 1990s. Scientists knew at least about six ancient settlements that went under the water of Issyk-Kul: Koisary, Darkhan, Dolinka, Koisuu, Toru-Aigyr and Tyup. In calm weather, through the thickness of crystal waters, one could see now dilapidated walls, now the remains of houses, now the outlines of towers licked by waves. In principle, any of the above sites could be related to the subject of the search. Methodical underwater exploration began,during which archaeologists with scuba diving discovered, in addition to the named remains, seven more ancient and medieval settlements. In the coastal waters, they found a lot of ceramics, stone tools, bronze weapons, works of art in the Scythian "animal style", foundations of buildings. However, ancient objects along the banks of Issyk-Kul are found now and then. Among them were bronze axes and lamps, unusual elongated skulls of representatives of the Hun tribe, whole and broken clay jugs and pots. Among them were bronze axes and lamps, unusual elongated skulls of representatives of the Hun tribe, whole and broken clay jugs and pots. Among them were bronze axes and lamps, unusual elongated skulls of representatives of the Hun tribe, whole and broken clay jugs and pots.
But nothing similar to the ruins of the monastery has yet been found. It turned out that of all the flooded cities, the city of Tyup remains the least explored today, located just in the Kurmentinskaya Bay. The archaeologist was in no hurry to go to Tyup, considering it unpromising. If at the beginning of the 20th century, according to eyewitnesses, the underwater ruins of Tyup were clearly visible under water, then already by the 1950s. they were not visible. The reason for this could be a slow but steady rise in the level of the lake. It is interesting that at the same time, in the mid-1950s, officers of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB of the Kyrgyz SSR tried to search for the disappeared monastery in the Kurmentinskaya Bay. They were primarily interested not in the relics of the saint, but in the treasures allegedly hidden in the same monastery. One incident made one believe in the existence of a treasure of security officials: in the 1920s.from the Chinese emigration to the Land of the Soviets, a certain Uspensky, a former White Guard officer, returned. He brought with him a blueprint that was given to him abroad by a dying Orthodox priest. The location of the treasure hiding place was marked on the map - somewhere on the northeastern coast of Issyk-Kul, not far from Tyup. The map fell into the hands of the Chekists, and a quarter of a century later they took up the shovels, but they never found anything. Maybe they were just looking badly?
Today, if we go by the method of exclusion, it is the city of Tyup, as the least explored and, moreover, located in the place where, according to the version of Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, there was once a "monastery of the Armenian brothers", and can be the burial place of the relics of the saint. At least, this is the conclusion that some historians are leaning towards today. Doctor of Historical Sciences, Vice-President of the National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan Vladimir Ploskikh devoted many years to studying this problem: “I have practically no doubts that it is here, at the mouth of the Tyup and Koi-Su rivers, that the remains of an ancient monastery may be located. In the near future we will focus our searches in this very place. Scientists are confident in the success of the upcoming event and are currently looking for sponsors for a serious study."