When a warrior, a peasant, a monk or a craftsman died in Russia - in other words, an ordinary resident, according to the Orthodox funeral rite, he was buried in order to help his soul answer in another world for the sins committed during his life. However, the last days of a representative of the government or aristocracy were also associated with another ritual - the ordination to monasticism. Thus, those in power appeared before the Lord, having certain privileges. This was done not in order to emphasize their power in death, but to mitigate the severity of the involuntary sins of those who are called the arbiters of destinies.
When accepting the schema, a person received a different name - monastic, and it usually began with the same letter as the secular one. The monastic name of the ancestor was sometimes called newborn children.
Acceptance of the schema as a borrowed Byzantine custom
The custom of accepting the schema on his deathbed came to Russia from Byzantium. Emperors and aristocracy were tonsured as monks. The deceased in the posthumous portrait appeared in two guises: his worldly image and in the form of a monk. At least 17 emperors are known to have been tonsured.
However, tonsure into the schema was also practiced during coups and overthrow of emperors, especially among the Venetians and Genoese, who were fiercely at odds with each other: each side tried to gain influence over Byzantium by placing “its own” emperor on the throne.
In Russia, the wife of Yaroslav the Wise Ingigerd (Irina) was the first to take the dying tonsure in 1050. She was the daughter of the first Christian king of Sweden, Olaf Sjötkonung. In contrast to the Byzantine rules in Russia, the monastic name did not exclude the mundane, but was added to it.
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Example of tonsure: holy blessed prince Alexander Nevsky
Grand Duke Alexander Yaroslavich ruled at that difficult time for Russia, when the danger of civil strife periodically hung over the country, consisting of appanages, and also the Tatars from the East and the Catholic crusaders of the Livonian Order from the West were pressing. He was faced with the task of choosing a path for the entire state, and deeply religious Alexander chose the East, uttering his famous phrase that no one makes a greater sacrifice than one who laid down his soul "for his friends." This meant: the prince understands that he is destroying his soul, but he does it in the name of the interests of Russia.
Alexander traveled to the Horde several times. He not only made friends with the Tatars, he even became a twin brother of Batu's eldest son, Sartak. The Horde at that time was not Muslim: it was dominated by Chingizov Yasa based on Tengrianism, and Nestorian Christianity was also widespread. Sartak was a Nestorian and rendered military assistance to his brother against the Crusaders.
Alexander strove to keep the country in a single fist. He put his eldest son Vasily to rule in Veliky Novgorod. But the latter took part in the uprising against the princely power. Alexander suppressed the riot and dealt with his son's advisers, cutting off their noses or gouging out their eyes. He cursed Vasily himself and deprived him of the right of inheritance. His excommunication from power led to the fact that the third son of Nevsky, Andrei, went to war against the second, Dmitry; called the Tatars to Russia and plunged the country into the abyss of wars and destruction.
These were some of the acts of Alexander Nevsky, and this is an example of the fact that power is inextricably linked with the violation of Christian commandments and those who rule really need additional protection before God.
Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky died while returning from the Horde. He was only 42 years old. He managed to accept the schema and was tonsured with the name Alexy. They began to venerate him as a saint immediately after his death, but he was canonized only in 1547 during the Council convened by Ivan the Terrible.
Alexander's body was taken to Vladimir and buried in the Rozhdestvensky monastery. Under Soviet rule, the monastery was converted into a police station, the shrine was transferred to the local museum, and the relics of Alexander were transferred to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg.
The tonsure of women from families of the highest nobility
Many princesses voluntarily tonsured nuns after the death of their husbands, but nevertheless continued to participate in secular life. Let us recall at least the tragic fate of the family of Prince Simeon the Proud, whose children died during the plague epidemic. He, too, became infected when he kissed them before burial. Simeon was tonsured with the name Sozontius, and his widow Maria subsequently took monastic tonsure with the name Photinia. However, Maria-Fotinia did not lock herself in the monastery, and at the request of Metropolitan Alexy helped in the restoration of Moscow after fires and epidemics and even in organizing the construction of the first stone Kremlin.
The first example of a forcible tonsure in Russia was the story of the wife of Vasily III, Solomonia Saburova, who was exiled to the monastery by the royal husband for being childless. Although which of them suffered from these ailments is a big question: in the second marriage of Vasily and Elena Glinskaya, there were no children for four years, and all of Moscow knew about Elena's amorous adventures with Prince Telepnev-Obolensky.
Tonsure and power
Ivan the Terrible sent his annoying wives to the monastery one after another.
And in the Time of Troubles, they were exiled to the monastery as to a prison, considering that the monk was not a competitor. Thus, the Shuisky got rid of the relative of the Rurikovich - the boyar, rich man and dandy Fyodor Romanov. He was tonsured with the name Filaret. However, life turned in such a way that this person, in the status of a monk, acquired the highest power in Russia. At the end of the Time of Troubles, his son, 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov, was elected tsar. And Filaret became the patriarch and ruler of the country's destinies under him. It was thanks to his political talent that the country was able to recover from the Time of Troubles and gain even greater greatness.
Galina Pogodina
