The Donator Temple, famous for the paintings preserved in its cave chamber, recently surprised Russian tourists who stayed here for the night. On December 21, 2014, exactly on the day of the winter solstice, they witnessed the unusual glow of the cross installed on the top of the rock of the massif in which the temple is located.
“It happened at about eight o'clock in the evening, - said Vadim A. - Therefore, when the cross on the mountain lit up, I first thought that it was the light of the moon reflected from a flat surface. But the moon was not visible that day, it was obscured by clouds. Moreover, the glow as suddenly appeared, so suddenly and disappeared in a few minutes.
Somehow, the two men could not logically explain what they saw and decided that they were faced with an abnormal phenomenon. However, this place is really unusual, because, as the legend says, it was here that the Golden Cradle was kept for some time, which is associated with the appearance of the Holy Grail in Crimea, and the Donators Temple itself was the prayer house of the princes Theodoro.
Legend of the Golden Cradle: This cradle was depicted on the coat of arms of the medieval principality of Feodorovo, whose lands occupied the entire western mountainous Crimea, with the center in the Mangup fortress. The image of the cradle is present in numerous Theodorite cave temples, in the surviving frescoes depicting a child in a bowl or dish - a cradle around which angels and holy fathers perform services. Some researchers, comparing ancient frescoes and testimonies that have come down to our time, as well as the legends of the Crimean Golden Cradle and the legend of the Holy Grail (the "vessel" in which the blood of Christ was collected), find many similarities between them, indicating that The golden cradle can be the grail that disappeared without a trace.
Andrey Ostashko:
“After the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204, the cup, as one of the most revered relics of the Byzantine time, had to be hidden somewhere, and the warrior monks - either the Order of St. Constantine or the Order of St. George - took the cup to the far periphery of Byzantium, to Taurica.
Promotional video:
In addition, this time coincides with the time when the legend of the Golden Cradle appeared in Crimea. As the chairman of the society of St. Theodore Gavras Andrei Vasiliev writes in his book, even the supposed route of the bowl through the Crimea is known. It ran from Inkerman, the cave church of St. Eugraf, to the Donator Church, which became the second temple of the Grail. And from here the bowl was transferred to Eski-Kermen, then sent to Mangup, to the capital of the principality of Theodoro, and with a military threat from the Genoese they hid it in the Belbek valley, in the cave temple Altyn-Beshik, which translates as "Golden cradle". The sixth temple of the Grail was the temple of John the Baptist in Verkhorechye, and in the end the bowl was thoroughly hidden on the massif of Mount Boyko. All versions of the legend of the Golden Cradle agree on this.
The Donators Temple still attracts a lot of pilgrims from all over the world and esotericists who consider it a place of power. What actually happened here a thousand years ago?
“It is possible that such inexplicable things as the appearance of luminous balls or a change in the magnetic field may occur in the Donators' temple,” say parapsychologists. - Powerful energy is felt throughout the valley beyond Eski-Kermen.
Believers say: the place is prayed for. Esotericists believe that the whole thing is in an electromagnetic anomaly. However, maybe both? After all, it was not for nothing that Orthodox shrines were built on the site of pagan temples …