Men are more philosophical
And they doubt with Foma.
And the Myrrhbearers are silent,
Christ's feet sprinkled with tears.
The men are scared of the soldiers
Hiding from the fury of malice,
And Wives boldly with fragrances
A little light hurry to the coffin.
A.A. Solodovnikov
For anyone Orthodox Christian Easter is perhaps the most important religious holiday of the year. There is a simple explanation for this: on the specified day - and each time it falls differently, but it certainly happens in the spring - the Son of God rose from the dead, whom the atheists crucified on the cross, betraying humiliation and torment.
It is noteworthy that another Orthodox celebration is closely connected with Easter, which is no longer dedicated to the Creator, but ordinary people, moreover, women who showed themselves fearlessly and faithfully in relation to Jesus. In 2019, this date falls on May 12. Who were the myrrh-bearing women and why a separate holiday is dedicated to them, read in this article.
History reference
As we know from the Bible, the body of Jesus, who died as a result of his suffering, was anointed with fragrant oils, and this was done by two pious men: Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. They performed this ritual just before the burial. When Christ was already lying in the tomb, several women decided to go into the cave, which served him as a tomb for the time being. The goal of Christian women was similar to that pursued by the representatives of the stronger sex mentioned above: to anoint the body of the Teacher with fragrant oils. Such was the rite among the Jews, and it was carried out according to tradition on the first day after the Sabbath. The women did not change their customs and set off on Sunday. Now it should be clear why they were called myrrh-bearing women.
On the way, the Christian women discussed the important question at that time: “who will roll away the stone from the tomb.” But they did not need to choose a volunteer in their ranks, since the Lord God himself took care of everything before the arrival of the myrrh-bearing women. An angel descended to earth, as a result, an earthquake occurred, and the entrance to the cave turned out to be completely free. When the pious women reached the final destination of their journey, they became witnesses of what happened. They also saw an angel who told them that Christ had risen and was waiting for his disciples in Galilee.
So it is written in the Gospel of Matthew. But according to the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene was the first to come to the tomb of the Lord. The woman wept bitterly, because she believed that the body of the Teacher had been stolen by treacherous atheistic Jews. But then Jesus Christ himself appeared to the mourner and announced that he had risen and asked to inform all the disciples about what had happened, adding: do not touch Me until I have ascended to the Father. Mary Magdalene, overjoyed, hurried to fulfill the Master's command and met another Mary on the way. At that moment, both women saw Jesus, who repeated his request. However, when they heard the good news, the apostles did not believe the Christian women. However, that's another story...
Church tradition, on the other hand, illuminates the events of that day differently: according to this information source, the Mother of God, and not Mary Magdalene, was the first to see Christ risen from the dead. One way or another, but those ministers of the church who established the celebration of the day of remembrance of the myrrh-bearing women, apparently adhered to the truth of the third scenario.
Both church tradition and the Gospel in any case preserved the names of pious women. This is:
- Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene;
- Saint Joanna - the wife of Khuza, the steward of Herod;
- righteous Mary and Martha - sisters of Lazarus;
- Mary is the mother of James the Lesser and Josiah;
- Susanna, Solomiya;
- Saint Mary of Cleopova and others.
Interestingly, Mary Magdalene is mentioned in all church sources of information about myrrh-bearing women. The Bible says that Jesus cast out seven demons from this woman during his earthly life.
Joanna, the wife of the steward of King Herod named Chuza, followed Christ when he preached and served Him faithfully.
Martha and Mary were the righteous sisters of Lazarus. These two women believed in Christ before Jesus resurrected their brother, but after the persecution of the Jerusalem church and the expulsion of Lazarus from Jerusalem.
Maria Kleopova was the daughter of the righteous Joseph the Betrothed and was his child from his first marriage. She was in the prime of her early youth when the Virgin Mary became the wife of Joseph.
It must be said that the entire third week after Easter bears the name of righteous women who went to the Holy Sepulcher in order to anoint his body with oils. It's called: the Week of Myrrh-Bearing Women.
Orthodox and folk traditions
The Day of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women today is considered by many believers to be an analogue of International Women's Day - the well-known March 8th. On this holiday in churches, as a rule, parishioners are given flowers, and at home, Christians congratulate their relatives, acquaintances and female colleagues: of course, if they are Orthodox.
In addition, in some churches in Russia on the Day or throughout the week of the holy myrrh-bearing women - everywhere in different ways - the priests serve the worldly magpie for the dead parishioners of the church. There is such a practice. For example, in the village of Sergachskaya Achka, in the Smolensk region. And in another locality sounded area - Aksenovo Rybnovsky district - on Saturday, on the eve of the holiday, believers visit the graves of relatives and friends, leaving colored eggs on them.
The people also did not bypass this religious date. Since ancient times, the Slavs called the Day of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women the Babi holiday. He also had other names: Kumitnoe, Lalynki, Shapshikha, Margoshenye, Margoski, Kumishnoe, Babia scrambled eggs, Babia bratchina. The week of the myrrh-bearing women, respectively, was called the Babi week.
On this, in all respects, women's holiday in certain areas in Russia, they performed the so-called rite of cumulation. Fried eggs served as ritual food: "woman's" or "maiden's". For example, in one of the districts of the Kostroma region - Chukhlomsky - the hailing of women was played out with the performance of special hail songs. The latter contained in their text an invitation to go out onto the porch with chicken egg in hands, addressed to the local representatives of the beautiful half of humanity. The ceremony was performed at dawn or even before sunrise. And in the Roslavl district of the Smolensk province, women walked outside the outskirts in a friendly crowd, fried eggs on a fire and sang spring songs. By the way, when eating a dish, they said: “God grant that flax is born to us kudelen!”.
On the Day of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women, every Christian woman was supposed to visit the temple, defend mass. At the end of the service, the women ordered a common prayer service all together. They paid for this demand not with money, but, as you probably already guessed, with eggs, in some cases with flax. In the evening, adherents of the folk ancient customs arranged a banquet.
The Day of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women is a rather bright and very kind, heartfelt holiday. Its presence shows a respectful attitude in the Christian environment towards a woman as such.
On the third Sunday after Pascha, the Church remembers the feat of the myrrh-bearing women, disciples of Jesus Christ.
The gospel of the myrrh-bearing women
Women are called myrrh-bearers because they death on the cross Jesus Christ, according to the custom of the Jewish people, they came to the cave where Jesus Christ was buried, in order to anoint Him with myrrh, i.e. incense and fragrances.
It is noteworthy that of the large number of the Teacher's followers, they were the first to arrive at the place of His burial. It has not yet dawned, but the group faithful women was already on her way.
They did not find the body of Christ, but they met an angel who, having rolled away a heavy stone from the entrance to the cave, announced that Christ had risen from the dead.
These were the same women who stood at the Cross the day before during the crucifixion of Christ, these same women helped Christ and his disciples during the sermon of the Savior, "serving with your possessions"(Luke 8:2-3).
The Gospel calls the names of some myrrh-bearing women: Mary Magdalene, Salome (mother of the apostles James and John), Mary Jacobleva (mother of James, the apostle from the 70) and John (the wife of Chuza, the steward of King Herod).
To all these women, as well as to the apostles, Christ appeared after His resurrection from the dead.
Weaker sex?
After the arrest of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, the apostles fled and hid, Peter, when asked if he was a disciple of Christ, denied the Teacher.
During the crucifixion of Christ, one of the apostles stood at the Cross, John the Theologian. Only women fearlessly came to the execution and were the first to run to the Savior's Tomb.
Firmness and steadfastness in the faith of Christian women will be shown throughout the history of the Church. Along with the apostles, they will preach the truths of faith throughout the earth, we know the names of the saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina, Enlighteners of Georgia, Equal-to-the-Apostles Queen Elena and Grand Duchess Olga, who did so much for the spread of Christianity.
Along with men, women were martyred for their faith, martyrologies (lists containing the names of martyrs) include the names of hundreds of women who gave their lives for Christ.
Just like men, women abandoned life in the world and went to deserts and monasteries. There are dozens of female names in the faces of the saints. In ancient times and in modern times, female monasticism was developed no less than male.
Sisters of Mercy are exclusively female phenomena. Out of Christian compassion for their neighbor, women took care of the weak and wounded, the sick and the old. History does not know a male analogue of such a phenomenon.
During the persecution, the Russian Church survived thanks to Russian women. In the years Soviet power men practically did not go to church - they were afraid of the consequences. Under Khrushchev, even a one-time visit to a temple meant the end of a career, and in some cases could lead to imprisonment.
But the women were not afraid of any consequences, they were threatened with deprivation of their pensions - they went, threatened to evict them from the apartment - they invariably continued to go to the temple.
Such a bold confession of faith could not go unnoticed, if not for husbands or brothers, but for children and grandchildren. Subsequently, many of them came to the Church thanks to their mothers and grandmothers.
Russian women continue to carry out the feat and service of myrrh-bearing women even now. Most of the parishioners Orthodox churches- women, women alone "raise" children and "pull" the whole family. It is thanks to women (not politicians at all) that our society and Russia are still alive.
And this holiday is celebrated not only in Russia, but also in all countries where there is Orthodox Church. In fact, the day of the myrrh-bearing women is an international Orthodox women's day.
Happy holiday, dear women!
Week of St. Myrrh-bearing women. history of the holidayAT Week of the Myrrh-Bearing Women The Church remembers the holy women - witnesses of the suffering, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Among the myrrh-bearing women, we know the names of only a few, about whom the holy evangelists wrote. First - Mary Magdalene, it is said about her that the Lord cast out “seven demons” from her (according to church interpretation, here "seven" means many; “demons” can also be understood as sinful habits, contrary to the seven basic virtues - the gifts of the Holy Spirit). Second - Salome, who was the daughter of Joseph the Betrothed and the mother of the holy apostles James and John Zebedee. Third - John, the wife of Khuzan, the steward of King Herod, the one who saved the holy head of John the Forerunner from desecration. Fourth and fifth - Mary and Martha, Sisters Lazareva. Sixth - Marya Kleopina, which, according to the laws of Jewish kinship, the evangelist calls sister Holy Mother of God, seventh - Sosana. Among the myrrh-bearing women there was also Holy Mother of God, Which the evangelists call "Mary Jacob" and "Mary Joseph." There were many others with them, who walked with the Lord during His earthly life and served Him.
The resurrected Savior appeared first to the myrrh-bearing women. From them came the Easter greeting " Christ is Risen!". On the night of the Resurrection of Christ, the myrrh-bearing women hurried to the tomb of the Lord with the world in their hands, in order, according to Eastern custom, to pour fragrant aromas on the Body of the Savior. The wives, heading towards the coffin, thought: Who will roll away the stone from the tomb?". Before their arrival, due to the descent of the Angel, an earthquake occurs, which rolled off the stone and plunged the guard into fear. The angel told the women that Christ had risen and would precede them in Galilee. Before all, the Lord appeared to His Most Pure Mother. But, as the holy fathers write, so that for the sake of close kinship the miraculous phenomenon would not be subjected to some doubt, the evangelists do not declare this directly, but point to Mary Magdalene. We find some difference in the description of events among different evangelists, but there is no contradiction here, because they write about different times. Evangelist Matthew about the "Sabbath supper", when the women did not yet come in peace, but to "see the tomb". Mark writes about the early morning, when the sun was already shining. Mary Magdalene, as the most diligent, came repeatedly, was not afraid to go alone, in the middle of the dark night and despising the danger from the likelihood of meeting with armed Roman soldiers: by order of Pilate, they were given full power for reprisal if any of the students dared to come to the Holy Sepulcher. The Gospel of John, at the latest, emphasizes that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb first. Returning to the apostles Peter and John, she says: “We do not know where they laid Him” (John 20:2). After the apostles Peter and John left, Mary Magdalene remained at the tomb. She thought the body had been stolen and cried. At this time, Christ appeared to her, whom she at first mistook for a gardener. He tells her not to touch Him until he has ascended to the Father, and asks her to inform the disciples about His Resurrection. Then, according to Matthew, Mary, returning with the gospel to the disciples, meets the second Mary, and Christ appears a second time, commanding to again inform all the disciples about the Resurrection. The apostles, having heard about the resurrection of Jesus, did not believe.
Some time after the Resurrection of Christ, after His Holy Mary Magdalene, as well as Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, arrived in Rome in order to proclaim to the reigning emperor Tiberius Caesar the whole truth about past events. They presented him with many gifts and told about all the miracles and good deeds that Christ the Savior showed in the Jews and about how cruelly and inhumanly they condemned Him to death. By order of the emperor, other witnesses were then called, among them - the centurion Login, who stood at the Cross of the Lord. He had on himself the holy robe of the Lord, which he got by lot, and the emperor himself immediately received healing from it, applying it to a purulent scab on his face. Then the imperial chamber shook and shook, from which all the golden and silver idols that were there crumbled to dust. Very frightened, Caesar decided to make a detailed investigation.
Soon all the lawless murderers were brought to a fair trial and severe retribution - both Pilate and the Jewish elders. Marya Magdalene then worked hard in the gospel of Christ, for which she received in the church the title of Equal-to-the-Apostles. Having reached old age, she reposed in the Greek city of Ephesus and was buried by the holy Apostle John the Theologian. In the year 886, under the Greek emperor Leo the Wise, her relics were solemnly transferred to the Constantinople monastery of St. Lazarus.
Holy Righteous Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus
Good-looking Joseph, as it is called Holy Bible, was one of the seventy apostles. He came from the city of Arimathea or Ramatha (Rama) and was a rich and distinguished member of the Sanhedrin and, like Nicodemus, a secret disciple of Christ. However, when extreme circumstances demanded it, he courageously revealed his faith and decided to go to Pontius Pilate to ask Holy Body Lord for burial. As a man famous and known personally to the ruler himself, and also having sufficient funds for ransom, he had the courage to do so. Heeding the prayer of the Most Holy Theotokos, he despised all the fears and fears of a possible subsequent revenge from the Jewish elders. Having received permission to remove Jesus from the cross, he buried him in a tomb carved into the rock, which belonged to him. Together with Nicodemus, Joseph wrapped a shroud around the body of Jesus. It is believed that the burial in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea fulfilled the messianic prophecy of Isaiah:
He was assigned a tomb with evildoers, but He is buried with a rich man (Isaiah 53:9).
After participating in the burial of Christ, Nicodemus, according to the Tradition of the Church, was expelled from Judea. And Joseph of Arimathea was put in chains and thrown into a pit, from where he was saved by an angel. Subsequently, Joseph, as Holy Tradition says, together with Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus, who was resurrected by Christ, preached the Gospel in Gaul, on the territory of modern France.
It is believed that Nicodemus is the author of one of the apocryphal gospels, the date of which has not been established. The oldest parts of the text first appeared on ancient Greek. The Gospel of Nicodemus consists of the main part, which is called the Acts of Pilate, and an appendix to it - the Descent into Hell, which is absent in the Greek version of the text, being a later addition in the Latin version.
Feast of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women. Icons
The gospel story about the appearance of an angel to women at the Holy Sepulcher, representing the first evidence of the Resurrection of the Lord, formed the basis of the early iconography of the Resurrection of Christ. The earliest known icon painting of the Myrrh-bearing Women at the Holy Sepulcher is in the baptistery at Dura Europos (232/3 or between 232 and 256). Myrrh-bearing women are depicted walking from left to right towards closed coffin, they have vessels of oil and burning torches in their hands; above the Sepulcher - two stars, symbolizing angels. On the fresco of the vestibule of the burial complex in the Karmus quarter in Alexandria (second half of the 5th century), an image of a wingless angel sitting in front of the coffin appeared - this was later called "The appearance of an angel to the myrrh-bearing women."
On the relief of a silver sarcophagus (4th century) from San Nazaro Maggiore in Milan, three Myrrh-Bearing Women are shown in front of the Tomb in the form of a building, above which is the figure of a descending angel. On the avoria (c. 400), the tomb is depicted as a two-tiered stone building, with the guards leaning on it; on the left, an angel sits at the half-open door; on the right, the Myrrh-bearing Women approach, above which the Ascension of the Lord is represented.
In the Gospel of Ravvula, a sheet miniature is presented with the compositions “The appearance of an angel to the myrrh-bearing women” in the lower part and “The Crucifixion” in the upper part: in the center among the trees, on the same level with their tops, there is a small tomb with a half-open door, the guards fell on their knees before the entrance , one recoils from the light coming from behind the door. To the left of the tomb, a winged angel sits on a stone block, announcing the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to two wives, who are also standing on the left. In one of them, depicted with a halo, the Mother of God is recognized. Her similar image is presented in the scene "Crucifixion" and repeated again to the right of the tomb in "The Appearance of Jesus Christ to Mary after the Resurrection."
In the XIII-XIV centuries. there are various modifications of the iconography developed in the previous period. They often revive early Byzantine forms of individual objects. On the fresco of the monastery church in Mileshev (before 1228, Serbia), the Myrrh-Bearing Women are depicted to the right of the angel, whose large figure dominates the composition. The angel, seated on a large marble cubic block in shining white robes, is depicted frontally and looks straight ahead. AT right hand he has a rod, with his left hand he points to an empty tomb in the form of a vertical rectangular building with pitched roof and a barred archway, inside which is a rolled shroud. To the right of the stone are small figures of two Myrrh-Bearing Women. In the hands of one is a small kacea censer. Sleeping guards are depicted below. On the icon of the XIV century. presented in one composition "Descent into hell" and "The appearance of an angel to myrrh-bearing women"; women are depicted twice: sitting in front of the tomb and standing in front of an angel who, sitting on a slab, points them to a cave with linen.
In Russian, as well as in Byzantine, monuments, the scene “The Appearance of an Angel to the Myrrh-Bearing Women” is included in the passionate cycles, adjoining either the “Descent into Hell” or “The Appearance of Christ to the Myrrh-Bearing Women”, and is also found in the festive row of the iconostasis.
In general, the composition follows the scheme developed in the Middle Byzantine period, although various options images of the tomb and shrouds, the number of myrrh-bearing women and guards. So, in the painting of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin of the Snetogorsk Monastery (1313), the Wives are traditionally depicted as coming from the left, but the Holy Sepulcher is presented in a very special way: in the form of a rectangular slab under the ciborium, on which two conventionally depicted shrouds lie horizontally in a row. Lamps on chains hang over the coffin. This detail of the composition could reflect the real impressions of the pilgrims from visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and the decoration of the Anointing Stone.
Another version of the iconography “The Appearance of an Angel to the Myrrh-Bearing Women” is presented on an icon from the iconostasis of the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra (1425). The scene unfolds in the background mountain landscape. An angel with wings raised vertically is depicted sitting on a round stone next to a diagonally located sarcophagus with shrouds, top part which is in the cave. To the left of the sarcophagus, looking into it, are three Myrrh-Bearing Women. Their figures are given in a complex turn to the angel. This iconographic main feature which is the image of a rectangular sarcophagus, became especially popular in Russian art.
A similar iconography of the plot on the Novgorod tablet icon (end of the 15th century), only the sarcophagus is located at a different angle. On the icon from the iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral of the Kirillov Belozersky Monastery (1497), an angel sits at the head of the sarcophagus, there is no cave, the Myrrh-Bearing Women stand to the left, to the right of the sarcophagus are depicted figures of sleeping youths - the guards of the Sepulcher. On icons of the 16th century, three warriors in armor are depicted as sleeping (the icon of the second. half of the XVI c.), the guards are also depicted in more. On icons. XV - beginning. 16th century the number of Myrrh-Bearing Women has been increased to seven, and not only at the Tomb, but also in the scene of the appearance of the risen Christ, which was often combined with the plot “The Appearance of an Angel to the Myrrh-Bearing Women” (one of the earliest examples is an icon from the Gostinopol Monastery, 1457) .
This iconographic variant became widespread in the 16th century. A feature that determined the tradition of Russian art was the image of two angels sitting on round stones at the head and at the foot of the sarcophagus (icons of the 15th and early 16th centuries). These iconographic types persisted throughout the 17th-18th centuries.
Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women. Paintings
World painters such as Annibale Carracci, Duccio di Buoninsegna, M.V. Nesterov and others.
Temples in honor of the Myrrh-Bearing Women
A church in Veliky Novgorod was consecrated in honor of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women. The temple was erected in 1510 on the site of the wooden church of the same name, which burned down in 1508. It is known that there was an even earlier building, indicated in the annals in 1299 among 12 burnt churches. The construction of the church was ordered and financed by the Novgorod merchant Ivan Syrkov. In 1536, a chapel was built in the name of the Evangelist Matthew, and then in honor of the Presentation of the Lord. AT late XVI centuries, part of the treasury of Ivan the Terrible was stored in the warehouses of the church. Now the church houses the Regional Children's Cultural Center.
A temple in Pskov was consecrated in honor of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women. The stone Mironositskaya church was built in 1546 in the center of the necropolis, in place of the wooden one on the skudelnits (i.e., in a cemetery with common graves of those killed and those who died during the pestilence). It was erected at the expense of the Moscow (at that time Novgorod) Metropolitan Macarius. In 1878, a fellow faith chapel was built at the church, which has not survived to this day. The Mironositskaya Church was closed in the 1930s. In 1989 it was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church.
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In the Republic of Mari El, in the village of Yezhovo, Tsarevokokshay district, there was the Mironositsky Monastery. Its construction was carried out by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and is associated with the legend of the phenomenon miraculous icon with the Myrrh-Bearing Women on the site of the future monastery. The icon was delivered in 1647 to the Tsar in Moscow and subsequently placed in the church of the monastery. The monastery was founded in the same year, but after the October Revolution it was closed.
In the city of Serpukhov there was a church in honor of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women. The first news about the "being" here of the temple in the name of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women dates back to 1552. Around 1685 the temple was built in stone. The Mironositskaya Church was destroyed in the 1930s.
There are currently no functioning Old Believer churches in honor of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women.
Week of the Myrrh-Bearing Women. folk traditions
Margoski or Margoska week - this is how the second week after Easter was called in the black earth provinces (for example, in Oryol) - the week of the Myrrh-bearing Women. This festival is set exclusively for women. Easter eggs acquired special significance here, occupying the main place in the festive rite. Near Moscow, this women's holiday was expressed in the fact that the temples were overcrowded married women, widows and girls are much more than on any other holiday, and at the same time, each of the worshipers, approaching the cross after mass, necessarily christened with the priest and gave him an egg, just as only men performed the same rite on Bright Sunday matins .
According to Vyatka, the peace-bearing holiday was celebrated in its own way and was called "Shapshikha". The custom was reduced to a women's feast, which was arranged by one of the participants, by lot. Most often it was either a widow or a small family. The hostesses were brewing beer and preparing dinner for the time the others returned from church. Late in the evening the feast ended with dancing.
Where there were few churches and parishes were removed to a considerable distance, on the same Sunday in the morning, women and girls climbed into the nearby forest, or even at least to a place where bushes of willows were tied up, with ritual offerings in their hands, pockets or in their bosoms - couple raw eggs and a couple of baked and dyed. They walked with songs, but on arrival they fell silent, in view of the onset of the solemn sacred rite Christening and nepotism. Each took off the cross from her neck and hung it on a tree; another came up to him, crossed herself, kissed him and exchanged him for her own cross; then she kissed the owner of it, made a fuss - they began to reckon and be called "godfathers", "gossips" until Spirit Day. After that, the women sang songs, fried eggs, drank kvass.
Teenage girls were usually greeted like this: “You still have to grow up, and bloom more,” and they said to the girl who got married: “Before the raid ( next year) braid your braid in two so that matchmakers and matchmakers do not leave the hut, so as not to sit on your understool "(in girls), and women were expressed wishes of a different nature:" You will give birth to a son for the summer, for that year you yourself will be the third.
Soulful teaching during the week of the Myrrh-Bearing Women
A great feat, patience and courage were able to show women who were weak and weak by nature, when it seemed that impenetrable sinful darkness had already irrevocably engulfed the entire Universe, because the One Whom we call the “Sun of Truth” and “Light of the World” was crucified and buried. The closest disciples of Christ retreated for a while, but it was women who followed Christ in the most difficult hour along His way of the Cross and were honored for this with the greatest joy - to hear the angelic gospel and be the first to see the Risen Savior. For “It should be for the tribe that fell under sin before, and the oath to the one who inherited, first to see the Resurrection, and inspire joy” (Sinoksar).
When night guards were sitting at the Tomb, there was no way for women to approach him. But they wanted to give their last honor to their beloved Teacher, over whom, with the onset of the Sabbath day, they did not have time, as it was supposed to, to perform a full burial rite: Joseph and Nicodemus, due to lack of time, were able to anoint the Body of the Lord only with oil and myrrh. Therefore, women, moved by great love and compassion, desiring to better serve even the buried Lord than to have temporary sinful pleasure, prepared valuable fragrant aromas and impatiently awaited the beginning of Sunday, when, according to the law, they could continue the work they had begun. The Jewish priests, who constantly reproached the Savior for violating the Sabbath day, in this case, on the contrary, completely revealed their malicious hypocrisy, for, neglecting the prohibition for the sake of the Sabbath rest, they were engaged in various chores in order to put guards and strengthen the Lord's Sepulcher with iron seals.
The great earthquake and the appearance of angels greatly frightened the Roman soldiers. As soon as they came to their senses, they went to announce an unprecedented miraculous event, so the women were able to calmly and freely approach the Tomb. The appearance of two angels in the Tomb spoke of the God-human nature of the Savior: the angel sitting in the heads pointed to the Divine, the other, sitting at the feet, to the humble incarnation of the Word.
A special word must be said here about Joseph of Arimathea, a story about which all the evangelists have. “Blessed Joseph of Arimathea, while still serving the law, recognized Christ as God, which is why he dared to a laudable feat. Formerly Joseph hid, but now he dares to do a great deed, laying down his soul for the Body of the Teacher and taking on such a hard struggle with all the Jews. As a great gift, Pilate gives him the Body. For the body of Christ, as a mortified rebel, was to be thrown unburied. However, Joseph, being rich, it is possible that he gave gold to Pilate. Having received the Body, Joseph honors it by placing it in a new tomb, in which no one has ever been laid. And this was by the providence of God, so that after the Resurrection of the Lord no one would say that another dead man, buried there before Him, had risen instead of Him. For this reason, the tomb is new.
He did not think: “Here I am rich and I can lose wealth if I ask for the body of the One Who is condemned for appropriating Himself royal power and I will become hated by the Jews, Joseph of Arimathea so he did not think about anything like that with himself, but, leaving everything as less important, he asked one Joseph of Arimathea to bury the body of the condemned. Pilate was surprised that he had already died, for he thought that Christ long time will endure suffering, like the robbers, why did he ask the centurion, how long ago did he die? That is, did he die prematurely? Having received the body, Joseph bought a shroud and, having taken off the Honest Body, wrapped it around it, committing it to burial. For he was himself a disciple of Christ and knew how to honor the Master. He was "gentle," that is, a respectable, pious, irreproachable man. As for the title of a member of the council, it was a certain dignity, or, better, a civil service and position, having which they had to manage the affairs of the court, and here they were often exposed to dangers from the abuses inherent in this place. Let the rich and those who are engaged in public affairs hear how the dignity of a member of the council did not in the least interfere with the virtue of Joseph. The name Joseph means "offering", and "Arimatheus"-"Take it." (Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, commentary on the Gospel of Matthew and Mark).
The number of days in the three-day Resurrection of the Lord may cause some bewilderment, but Scripture has a hidden meaning. Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria explains in detail to us the mysterious course of those sacred events:
How are three days counted? At the eighth hour the heel was crucified; from this to the ninth-darkness: consider this for me for the night; then from the ninth hour-light: it's the day,-Here is the day: night and day. Next, heel night and saturday day-second day. Again, the night of the Sabbath and the morning of the day of the Lord, signified in Matthew: in one from the Sabbaths, at dawn, for the morning is counted for the whole day,-here is the third day. And otherwise you can count three days: on Friday, the Lord betrayed the spirit, this-one day; on Saturday was in a coffin, this-another day; on the night of the Lord's day he rose again, but from his part, the day of the Lord is considered another day, so that's three days. For also concerning those who have fallen asleep, if one dies about the tenth hour of the day, and another-about the first hour of the same day, they are said to have both died on the same day. I have another way to tell you how to count three days and three nights. Listen! On Thursday evening, the Lord celebrated supper and said to the disciples: "Take, eat My Body." Since He had the power to lay down His life according to His will, it is clear that at the same time He slaughtered Himself, as He taught the Body to His disciples, for no one eats anything unless it was first slaughtered. Count: in the evening He gave His Body, that night and day of Friday until the sixth hour-here is one day; then, from the sixth hour to the ninth-darkness, and from the ninth-until the evening light again,-here is the second day; again the night on the heel and the day of Saturday-here is the third day; on the Sabbath night the Lord arose: this-three full days.
Discussing the Resurrection of Christ, the holy fathers point us to amazing contrasts. Indeed, while weak and unlearned women receive the highest wisdom and the gift of evangelists, the oldest church teachers and interpreters of Scripture among the Jews show in themselves a truly petrified insensitivity. So, having heard from the most unprejudiced witnesses, Roman soldiers, about a great earthquake and the appearance of angels, they do not leave their atheistic atrocity, but give a considerable amount of money for an absurd evidence of theft, which is completely impossible under those circumstances.
“Then the disciples come to the tomb and see only sheets lying; and this was the sign of the true Resurrection. For if anyone had moved the body, he would not have exposed it; and if someone stole, he would not take care to twist the boards and put them separately in a special place. Therefore, the evangelist said beforehand that the body of Christ was buried with much myrrh, which glues sheets to the body no worse than resin, so that when we hear that the veil was lying in a special place, we would not at all believe those who say that the body of Christ was stolen. For a thief would not be so stupid as to use so much effort for an unnecessary thing and not suspect that the longer he does it, the sooner he can be caught ”(Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, interpretation on the Gospel of John).
“Every soul that rules over the passions is called Mary. Purified through dispassion, she sees Jesus as both God and man.”
The joy of the angelic appearance was given to women only by suffering and crucifying themselves for the outside world under Christ's crucifixion. For nothing brings us closer to God than the voluntary suffering that we endure for His sake. Easter joy is felt most of all after a strict many-day abstinence. Similarly, Eternal Pascha is impossible for us if we do not push ourselves to hardships and sorrows, for the sake of fulfilling the commandments and acquiring the gospel virtues, in order to be worthy to stand before God in spiritual and bodily purity and see the Risen Christ in His inexpressible and imperishable glory.
“Let us, following the example of Joseph, always apply diligence to virtue and take it, that is, the true good. May we be vouchsafed to receive the Body of Jesus through communion and put it in a coffin cut from stone, that is, in a soul that firmly remembers and does not forget God. May our soul be cut out of stone, that is, having its foundation in Christ, Who is the Stone. Let us envelop this Body with a shroud, that is, let us receive Him into a clean body (for the body is, as it were, the shroud of the soul). The Divine body must be received not only into a pure soul, but also into a pure body.” (Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria).
In the third week (in church calendar Sunday is called a week) after Easter, our Church glorifies the feat of the holy myrrh-bearing women: Mary Magdalene, Mary Cleopova, Salome, Joanna, Martha and Mary, Susanna and others.
These are the same women who witnessed the death of the Savior on the Cross, who saw how the sun darkened, the earth shook, stones crumbled, and many righteous people rose from the dead when Jesus Christ was crucified and died on the cross. These are the very women whose homes the Divine Teacher visited for their love for Him, who followed Him to Golgotha and did not depart from the cross, despite the malice of the scribes and elders of the Jews, and the brutality of the soldiers. These are the same women who, loving Christ with pure, holy love, decided to go dark to the Holy Sepulcher, overcoming the horror by the grace of God that made the apostles run away in fear, hide behind closed doors, and forget about their student duty.
Weak, fearful women, by a miracle of faith, before our eyes grow into evangelizing wives, giving us an image of courageous and selfless service to God. It was to these women that the Lord first appeared, and then to Peter and the other disciples. Before anyone, before any of the men in the world, they learned about the Resurrection. And having learned, they became the first and strong preachers, began to serve Him already in a new, higher - apostolic calling, they carried the news of the Resurrection of Christ. Well, aren't SUCH women worthy of our memory, admiration and imitation?
Why do all the evangelists pay so much attention to the coming of the myrrh-bearing women to the Holy Sepulcher, and two of them add a story about how Mary Magdalene was chosen to be the first to see the Risen One? After all, Christ did not choose these women and did not call them to follow Him, like the apostles and 70 disciples? They themselves followed Him as their Savior and the Son of God, despite His apparent poverty, simplicity, and the obvious hostility of the high priests towards Him.
Imagine what these women had to experience, standing at the Cross of the Savior and seeing all the shame, horror and, finally, the death of their beloved Teacher?! When the Son of God gave up his spirit, they hurried home to prepare spices and myrrh, while Mary Magdalene and Mary Josiah watched where the body of Jesus was laid in the tomb. They left only after the onset of complete darkness, in order to return to the tomb before dawn.
“And now, more disciples – apostles! – remained at a loss, Peter himself wept bitterly over his denial, but the women were already hastening to the tomb of the Teacher. Is fidelity not the highest Christian virtue? When the word "Christians" was not yet used, they were called - "faithful." Liturgy of the Faithful. One of the illustrious ascetic fathers told his monks that in end times there will be saints, and their glory will surpass the glory of all who were before, because then there will be no miracles and signs, but they will remain faithful. How many feats of fidelity have been accomplished by good Christian women over the centuries of the history of the Church!” - writes historian Vladimir Makhnach.
Sin came into the world with a woman. She was the first to be tempted and tempted her husband to fall away from the will of God. But the Savior was born from the Virgin. He had a Mother. To the remark of the iconoclast king Theophilus: “Much evil came into the world from women,” nun Cassia, the future creator of the canon Great Saturday“With a wave of the sea,” she answered weightily: “Through a woman, the highest good also happened.”
The path of the myrrh-bearing women was neither mysterious nor complicated, but quite simple and understandable to each of us. These women, so different in life, served and helped their beloved Teacher in everything, took care of His needs, relieved Him way of the cross, sympathized with all His trials and torments. We remember how Mary, sitting at the feet of the Savior, listened with her whole being to His teaching about eternal life. And another Mary - Magdalene, anointing the Teacher's feet with precious ointment and wiping them with her long, wonderful hair, and how she wept on the way to Golgotha, and then ran at the dawn of the day of resurrection to the tomb of the tortured Jesus. And all of them, frightened by the disappearance of Christ from the tomb, weeping in inexpressible despair and amazed at the appearance of the Crucified on the way, when they were in a hurry to announce to the apostles what had happened.
Hieromartyr Seraphim (Chichagov) drew attention Soviet women: “They are all the more dear to us and close to our hearts because they were the same ordinary people, like us, with all human weaknesses and shortcomings, but out of boundless love for Christ, they were completely reborn, changed morally, achieved righteousness and justified on themselves every word of the teaching of the Son of God. By this rebirth, the holy myrrh-bearing women irrefutably proved to all the followers of Christ that the same saving rebirth is not only possible for them, but also obligatory on condition of their sincerity, and that it is accomplished by the grace-filled power of the gospel denunciation, admonishment, strengthening, inspiration or inducement to spiritual exploits. and the ascetics acquire the Kingdom of God, which is truth, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
They attained sincerity through their love for Christ, and by perfect repentance they got rid of and were healed of the passions. And forever they will serve the entire Christian world as an example of strong and living love, Christian women's care for a person, an example of repentance!
For many centuries we had an Orthodox folk women's holiday, kind, bright, associated with the most important event in the history of man, the Resurrection of Christ - the week of holy myrrh-bearing women. Genuine International Women's Day. It is very important to revive it, because the calendar is the most precious asset of our culture. “Through the calendar, the cult influences culture, determines our life, the life of our country,” writes Vladimir Makhnach. - From the order of worship, from liturgical texts - to folk customs, to the upbringing of children, to the moral health of society. And we, of course, should preserve everything that is left of our calendar, and gradually restore what is lost, stolen, perverted ... Our state, of course, is secular, but the country is Orthodox. And the state exists to serve the society, the nation.”
In the meantime, let's congratulate all good Orthodox women on the day of the holy myrrh-bearing women. And celebrate. And rejoice. This year, the 3rd week of Easter (that is, the third Sunday) falls on May 7th.
Week 3 of Easter on April 30 (Sunday) of the myrrh-bearing women is a holiday for every Orthodox Christian woman, an Orthodox women's day. On this day, the holy myrrh-bearing women are remembered. Who are they, the holy myrrh-bearing women - Mary Magdalene, Mary Cleopova, Salome, John, Martha, Mary, Susanna? Why does the Russian Orthodox Church commemorate these women on the second Sunday after Pascha?
Every woman on Earth is a myrrhbearer and brings peace to the world, to her family, hearth, she gives birth to children, is a support for her husband. Orthodoxy glorifies the woman-mother, the woman of all classes and nationalities.
Myrrhbearers are the very women who, out of love for the Savior Jesus Christ, received Him in their homes, and later followed Him to the place of crucifixion on Golgotha. They were witnesses of Christ's suffering on the Cross. It was they who hastened in the dark to the Holy Sepulcher to anoint the body of Christ with myrrh, as was the custom of the Jews. It was they, the myrrh-bearing women, who were the first to know that Christ had risen. For the first time after his death on the cross, the Savior appeared to a woman - Mary Magdalene.
This holiday has been especially honored in Russia since ancient times. Well-born ladies, rich merchants, poor peasant women led a strictly pious life and lived in faith. The main feature of Russian righteousness is a special, purely Russian warehouse, the chastity of Christian marriage as a great Sacrament. The only wife of the only husband - this is the life ideal of Orthodox Russia.
Another feature of ancient Russian righteousness is the special "rank" of widowhood. Russian princesses did not marry a second time, although the Church did not forbid a second marriage. Many widows cut their hair and went to the monastery after the burial of their husband. The Russian wife has always been faithful, quiet, merciful, meekly patient, all-forgiving.
The day of the myrrh-bearing women in Orthodoxy is considered an analogue of March 8. Only instead of the dubious ideal of a revolutionary woman and a feminist rebel, the Church praises completely different qualities of our mothers, spouses, sisters and girlfriends. First of all, it is a great sacrifice, self-forgetfulness, fidelity, love and a living fiery faith that can overcome everything. Those very faith and love, which are fully accessible only to the weak female nature, and which shine even in the most hopeless darkness.
How many myrrh-bearing women there were in total - we do not know for sure. The Gospel simply lists them by name, and only a few women are more or less specific. church tradition Assimilated the title of myrrh-bearing seven or eight disciples of Christ. All of them subsequently became ardent preachers and worked on a par with other apostles. And Magdalene was even honored to be called equal to the apostles - that is, having the same glory and bearing the same cross as other male disciples.