1. Why is the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity a new holiday and at the same time an old one?
“Holy noble princes Peter and Fevronia of Murom.” Photo: Icon painting workshop of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Kursk
Among the people, the Murom spouses Peter and Fevronia were considered saints long before 1547, when the Church legalized this tradition. Two manuscripts of the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries have been preserved, which testify that even then there were religious services to Saints Peter and Fevronia, revered by the people as miracle workers. The relics of the spouses were the Murom shrine, they gathered from all over Russia, and not only from ordinary people, but also from royalty. In 1549, Ivan the Terrible prayed for the success of the Kazan campaign at the relics of the Murom saints. In 1594, the barren queen Irina (Godunova) came to Murom to pray to the saints for a child, and the long-awaited baby was not long in coming. Peter I, Empress Catherine II, Emperor Nicholas I with the heir to the throne Alexander Nikolaevich (the future Emperor Alexander II) came to Murom to bow to the miracle workers. In pre-revolutionary times, the day of memory of Saints Peter and Fevronia was the Day of the city of Murom, which was perceived by the inhabitants as nothing more than Family Day. In 1992, the tradition was recovered. And soon the Murom people collected about 20,000 signatures under an appeal to declare July 8 the “All-Russian Day of Married Love and Family Happiness.” The idea found support, and since 2008 the day of the commemoration of the saints began to be celebrated as the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity, and from June 28, 2022, after the signing of the decree by the president Putin, the holiday was made official. . That is, the decree returned and legalized the party that has been lived among the people for centuries.
2. Why, of all the multitude of Russian saints, it was Peter and Fevronia who became the personification of family happiness in the public mind?
The relationship between the princely son Peter and the simple peasant Fevronia is a vivid example of love, devotion and self-sacrifice – those qualities without which a happy family cannot be built.
3. How do we know about the life of Saint Peter and Fevronia?
Usually we learn about the life of a saint and his spiritual feat from his life, but the story of Peter and Fevronia is an exception. The source here is “The Murom Tale of Peter and Fevronia”, written in the middle of the 16th century by the church writer Yermolai. The author’s monastic name is Erasmus, but his last name is unknown to us: he called himself Sinner.
The story of Peter and Fevronia, which had been orally circulated among the people since the 12th century, inspired Erasmus-Yermolai to create a real bestseller – the story was distributed throughout Russia in a huge number of lists (more than 300 have survived to this day). !). At the same time, love, adventure and even mysticism are only the top layer of a masterpiece. The book is full of the deepest theological symbols that were obvious to our ancestors. Let’s take a look at them too.
4. Who were Saint Peter and Fevronia?
So what do we learn by reading our story? Peter was the younger brother of Prince Pavel of Murom. Erasmus begins his story with the fact that the devil got used to visiting Paul’s wife. Wanting to seduce her, he each time took the form of Paul himself, so that no one could understand where Paul was and where the devil was. A skeptic will perceive such a beginning as a fairy tale and will be mistaken. It is in the 20th century that any pathology, even in the intimate sphere, has its own name, the language of the 16th century was much more chaste, but it fixed the spiritual essence of deviations from the norm, considering them “visiting the snake.” , the devil”, which is wise, because he himself the person in this case parted with his diseased state. So, only our hero Peter was able to recognize the devil and killed him with a sword. Exhaling, the devil splashed to Peter with blood, so that he fell ill: ulcers spread throughout his body Here again we have a symbol – the fight against evil, that is, Peter fought evil in the person of the serpent-devil, it is not For sure, our hero in this battle could “fight evil” If you know that the ancient verb “infect” is related to the word “get infected”, the meaning of what happened to Peter during this battle will become clear.
No one could cure Peter, and only Fevronia promised to help him, but on the condition that he marry her. Not believing that anything would come of this and that he would have to keep her word, Peter agreed. Fevronia, although she was the daughter of a simple poisonous frog – her father collected honey from wild bees – had the gift of healing. Peter recovered, but it just so happens that he was in no hurry to get married. Then the disease came back to him again. At this point, Peter did not hesitate and the couple began to live happily ever after.
Pablo soon died and Pedro would become a prince. But the arrogant boyars did not want their princess to be a simple peasant girl, and they put Peter before a choice: either find yourself a princess and sit on the throne, or you will not be a prince. Peter stayed with Fevronia, and she, who had the gift of clairvoyance, comforted her husband, saying that the test would not last long. In fact, the braggart boyars soon quarreled, never deciding who would rule Murom, and they called Peter back. Peter and Fevronia “ruled the city fairly and meekly, and lived lovingly and happily.”
Such an episode described by Erasmus-Yermolai is interesting. Once Fevronia was sailing along the river in a boat, and one boyar began to show persistent signs of attention. Then Fevronia suggested that he collect a handful of water from the right side and from the left side and drink from each. The boyar, inflamed with passion, drank, and Fevronia asked if there was any difference in water. “No, the taste is the same,” replied the suitor. “It’s the same with female nature, in vain you forgot your wife and think about another,” Fevronia answered.
In old age, Peter and Fevronia took monastic vows and bequeathed to be placed in a double stone coffin with a partition. This is how Erasmus-Yermolai relates his death. Sensing the approach of death, Peter sent a messenger to Fevronia with the words: “The time has come, but I am waiting for you to go to God together.” Fevronia at that time was embroidering the faces of the saints for the temple and said: “Wait a little longer, I have not finished the work.” But Peter hurried: “I am going to God and I cannot wait for you any longer …” So, for the third time, Fevronia stuck a needle into the unfinished work and breathed her last: on the same day and hour. with her husband. But the miracles did not end there.
Knowing that Peter and Fevronia had become monks, the stupid townspeople decided that it was not good for them, the monks, to lie in a coffin next to each other, and they put each in a separate coffin and placed them in different churches. But the next morning they found both bodies side by side in a stone coffin. Deeming it to be a misunderstanding, the townspeople removed the bodies for the night, but the next morning they were found together again. After that, no one dared to separate Peter and Fevronia. “Fantastic,” the skeptic will say. No, a transparent symbol illustrating the Biblical truth “husband and wife are one flesh”. And neither people, nor distances, nor even death can separate lovers.
Such love, such devotion and interpenetration of lovers were a rarity, a miracle and a mystery in both the 12th and 21st centuries. But both then and now people understand the full value of a genuine feeling, which is why for centuries streams of believers praying to St. Peter and Fevronia have not dried up, wanting to join such a divine fullness of love.
