(† 1529?), St. (memorial on the Sunday before August 26 - in the Cathedral of Moscow Saints), Serpukhovskaya. The founder of David in honor of the Ascension of the Lord, husband. empty Traditions recorded in literature since the 19th century tell about the saint; there is brief information in calendars and synodics.

Explorers of the 19th century They were critical of the legend about D.'s noble origin - that before he was tonsured he was a clerk. book Vasily III Ioannovich Daniil Vasilyevich Mamyrev or Prince. Daniil Ivanovich Vyazemsky (Tokmakov, pp. 6-7). According to legend, D., in his youth, entered Pafnutiev Borovsky in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy One. Mother of God husband monastery, where he received monastic vows from St. Paphnutius of Borovsky († 1477). When he was tonsured, the ascetic was named in honor of St. David of Thessalonica. After some time, D., with 2 monks and 2 laymen, left the Borovsk monastery, taking with him the icon of the Mother of God “The Sign” with the upcoming monks Peter and Onuphrius of Athos, the prophets Habakkuk and Daniel (later this icon was in the saint’s cell).

According to the entry in the monastery synodik of 1602, in the 19th century. kept in the sacristy of David is empty. (see: Ascension David's Hermitage of Serpukhov U. S. 3-4, 56-57), on May 31, 1515, the monk and his companions settled in a desert area on the banks of the river. Lopasni in Khatun Volost, which belonged to Prince. Vasily Semenovich Starodubsky, son of Prince. Semyon Ivanovich Mozhaisky (Prince Vasily Semenovich Ryapolovsky is mentioned in the discharge books in 1492-1507 (Zimin A. A. Formation of the boyar aristocracy in Russia in the 2nd half of the 15th - 1st third of the 16th century M., 1988. P. 42). Later, judging by the nickname, the prince probably took monasticism. Thus, the hermitage on his lands could have been founded earlier than the date indicated in the synod - in 1492-1507). At the chosen location, the hermits erected cells and wooden churches: in honor of the Ascension of the Lord with the chapel of the Dormition of the Most Holy. Theotokos and refectory c. in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

Very little is known about D.’s monastic works. It is believed that the monk planted the first trees in a linden grove outside the desert wall. According to legend, shortly before the death of St. Joseph Volotsky († September 9, 1515) visited David's empty. on the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God. This event is captured in modern times. paintings of the monastery refectory church in honor of All Saints. Perhaps the spiritual friendship of D., etc. Joseph originated in the Borovsky monastery (before the departure of St. Joseph from it in 1479).

In the monastery synodikon of 1602, D.'s death was dated September 19. 1529. In one of the lists of the “Descriptions of Russian Saints” it is reported that “Reverend David the builder, disciple of the Pafnutevs, reposed in the summer of June 6995 (1483/84) on the 26th day” (Barsukov. Sources of hagiography. Stb. 144). However, June 26 is the day of remembrance of St. David of Thessalonica, in whose honor D. took a monastic name, and the year indicated as the date of D.’s death is unlikely. According to other information given in iconographic originals and hagiographic literature of the 19th century. (for example, with Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin), M.V. Tolstoy, N.P. Barsukov), the monk died on October 18. 1520. Obviously, the memory of the saint was celebrated on this day in the 19th century, but what this date is based on is unclear.

D. was buried in the desert, later. over his burial a chapel was erected in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “The Sign”, which is mentioned in the monastery inventory of the 17th century. it says: “In the same chapel the Reverend Father David rests under cover, on the tomb there is a cover: black cloth, among the silver cross” (Kholmogorov V., Kholmogorov N. Historical materials about churches and villages of the XVII-XVIII centuries. M., 1889. Issue 7. pp. 140-141). In the 30s XVIII century instead of a wooden chapel, a bell tower was built above the burial place of the saint, and a church was built under it in 1740. in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “The Sign”. In 1867-1870 on the site of the dismantled bell tower from Znamenskaya Church. a new temple was erected with the same dedication. In the 19th century a record of miracles was kept through prayers to the saint (St. David of Serpukhov, pp. 6, 8; Tokmakov, pp. 4-5).

May 23, 1997, with the blessing of Metropolitan. Krutitsky and Kolomna Juvenal (Poyarkov) found St. relics of D. Now they rest in a shrine in the monastery Church of the Sign. Days of memory of D. in the desert founded by him are celebrated on October 2 and 31, May 23 (the memory of the discovery of relics in 1997), June 26 is the day of D.'s namesake. The canonization of the saint is confirmed by the inclusion of his name in the Cathedral of Moscow Saints, the celebration of which was established in 2001

The service and akathist D. were compiled by the first rector of the revived David's Pust. archim. German (Khapugin; rector 1995-2005). The service begins with Little Vespers, at the end of which, along with the troparion to the saint, there is also a troparion for the discovery of the relics of D. The canon of the service has an acrostic: “The unworthy Herman brings due praise to the Monk David.” In the service, the saint is glorified for his monastic deeds and virtues, his spiritual kinship with the Venerable Paphnutius of Borovsky and Joseph of Volotsky is emphasized, and the saint’s celibate relics are glorified. D. dedicated temple at David's compound is empty. in the village Talezh, built in 1997

Source: Life and Akathist of St. David, abbot of the monastery of the Ascension of the Lord, Serpukhov miracle worker / St. Ascension David’s is empty. Pos. New Life (Moscow region), 2003.

Lit.: IRI. T. 4. P. 1; SISPRTS. P. 72; Stroev. Lists of hierarchs. Stb. 235; Barsukov. Sources of hagiography. Stb. 143, 144; Description about Russian saints. P. 230; Leonid (Kavelin). Holy Rus'. pp. 152-153; Zverinsky. T. 2. P. 121; Tokmakov I. F. Historical-archaeol. the description of Voznesenskaya Davidova is empty. M., 1892; Golubinsky. Canonization of saints. P. 321; Voznesenskaya Davidova is empty. Serpukhovsky U. Moscow province: Kr. ist. feature article. To the 400th anniversary of its existence (1515-1915). M., 1915; St. David of Serpukhov and the Voznesenskaya desert founded by him: (To the 400th anniversary of its foundation. 1515-1915). Serg. P., 1915; Pos. New Life (Moscow region), 2003; Efremov A. Monastery of St. David // Moscow. magazine. 1992. No. 1. P. 42-44; Voznesenskaya Davidova is empty: History and modernity / St. Ascension Davidova is empty. Pos. New Life (Moscow region), 20042.

Archim. Macarius (Veretennikov)

Iconography

It is known that there were iconographic images of D. According to the inventory of 1745, in the temple in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “The Sign” above the burial place of the saint - “the image of the Ascension of the Lord and St. David with a silver crown. The image and cover are old” (Vinogradov, p. 36). However, it is not specified whether this was the image of D. or his namesake saint - St. David of Thessalonica. In the iconographic original of the 20s. XIX century D. mentioned under 18 Oct. without a description of the external appearance (RNB. Pogod. 1931. L. 50).

The half-length image of the saint was included in the painting program of the 70s of the 19th century. part of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, near the composition “The Presentation of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God.” In a group of ascetics of the 16th century. it is presented in the murals of the Russian gallery. saints, leading to the cave church of St. Job of Pochaevsky in the Pochaev Dormition Lavra (painting of the late 60s - 70s of the 19th century by hierodeacons Paisius and Anatoly, renewed in the 70s of the 20th century).

In the Chapel of the All-Merciful Savior at the Moskvoretsky Bridge (belonging to David's Palace) there was a printed image of D. (mid-19th century). One of the lithographs with the figure of the monk in the form of an old man with a rounded beard of medium length, in a mantle, epitrachelion and doll (left hand on the chest), against the background of monastery buildings, was published in 1892 (see illustration in the book: Tokmakov. Between s .2 and 3). The basis for numerous icons and paintings. XX - beginning XXI century became the iconographic image of D., reproduced in 1915 (Vinogradov, p. 10). The saint, lean, slightly dark, with a gray beard, pointed at the end, is presented full-length, frontally, dressed in a cassock, mantle and schema with a doll on his head, in his right hand - an abbot's staff, in his left - a scroll.

In the end XX - beginning XXI century empty for David. D. icons of different versions are painted - full-length and waist-length images of the monk in the form of an old man with a long gray beard, in a monastic robe and in a doll, with a blessing right hand and a staff (at the shrine - under the image of the Ascension of the Lord, 1998), or with a staff and a scroll ( mosaic on the western wall of the Ascension Cathedral from the outside, 2002-2003). The icons are made as in the canonical ancient Russian. stylistics, as well as in the traditions of academic painting and late icon painting. On the 2003 icon from the local row of the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the All-Merciful Savior, the saint is depicted frontally in full-length against the background of the monastery (on the scroll is the text: “My brothers, I pray to all of you to have the fear of God and spiritual purity”), on several. icons of 1999 (sacristy of the monastery, private collection) D. is represented with his head uncovered, in prayer to the Mother of God (type “Sign”) in the cloud segment, with a panoramic view of the monastery in the beginning. 20th century, in the margins - St. Herman of Alaska and Paphnutius of Borovsk. On the lid of D.'s reliquary there is an image of him in the schema, with his eyes closed and his hands folded on his chest (1999).

To the west The wall of the refectory of the Church of All Saints of David is empty. the paintings of 2003 depict: D. on his knees praying on the eve of the foundation of the monastery in front of the icon of the Mother of God “The Sign” (hanging on a tree trunk, behind D.’s back - 2 monks and 2 “simple men”); David's visit is empty. St. Joseph of Volotsky and a conversation with D. (during the meal, St. Joseph blesses and teaches the brethren). The icon of D. with 16 marks of life, painted in 2001 for the iconostasis of the Ascension Cathedral, contains traditions. order of marks from the birth of the saint to posthumous miracles and the discovery of the saint. relics.

Lit.: Tokmakov I. F. Historical-archaeological. the description of Voznesenskaya Davidova is empty. M., 1892. Ill.; Vinogradov N. P., diak. Voznesenskaya second grade hostel David's is empty. Serpukhovsky U. Moscow province: Kr. ist. sketch with fig. (1515-1915). M., 1915. S. 10, 11, 36; Mostovsky M. WITH . Cathedral of Christ the Savior / [Comp. conclusion parts: B. Sporov]. M., 1996p. P. 84; Markelov. Saints Dr. Rus'. T. 2. P. 91-92; Voznesenskaya Davidova empty: History and modernity. Pos. Novy Byt (Moscow region), 20042. P. 2, 7-8, 24, 32-33.

I. A. Volkov

The Venerable David, Abbot of Voznesensky, Serpukhov miracle worker, according to legend, came from the family of the princes of Vyazemsky and bore the name Daniel in the world. While still a young man, just over twenty years old, Daniel felt a calling to the ascetic life and came to the Paphnutian Borovsky Monastery. This monastery in the name of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded by the Monk Paphnutius of Borovsk in 1444. It was an abundant city of monasticism and Christian enlightenment; from it came many lamps of Russian monasticism. The Monk Paphnutius was tonsured and a disciple of the Monk Nikita, the third abbot of the Serpukhov Vysotsky Monastery. The Venerable Nikita was a relative and disciple of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, Abbot of the Russian Land. Thus, the Monk Paphnutius was the successor to the covenants of the Monk Sergius and an active representative of his monastic school.

Young Daniel entered the Borovsk monastery during the life of the Monk Paphnutius, who then shone like a great luminary with the holiness of his life and spiritual gifts. The structure of the monastery was communal. The abbot set an example for the brethren. They saw “labor and suffering, as well as deeds and fasting, and the thinness of the vestment, firm faith and love for God, and a well-known hope for the Most Pure Mother of God, and I always write from Her with hope in my mind in my mouth. For this reason, God’s grace was granted to you, who wanted to be able to see and tell the secret thoughts of the heart to the brethren, and to heal illnesses, and to accept God and the Most Pure Mother of God, and to be in truth far from the people of the [then] century by all the customs. Byashe is generous and merciful when appropriate; “it is cruel and vain when it is needed,” says the Monk Joseph, the future founder of the Joseph-Volotsk Monastery, who at the same time labored asceticly with the Monk David. David was guided by this example and godly advice in going through the life of a monk. Seeing the zeal and zeal of his novice, the Monk Paphnutius took monastic vows on him and named him David in honor of the Monk David of Thessalonica, a holy hermit who lived in the 6th century.

After the repose of his teacher, the Venerable Paphnutius, the Venerable David found spiritual guidance and patronage in the person of the great luminary of Russian monasticism, the Venerable Joseph of Volotsk. The Monk Joseph, a twenty-year-old youth, came to Borovsk and on February 13, 1460, having received monastic tonsure at the hands of the Monk Paphnutius, he lived with him in the same cell for seventeen years. The blessed elder, foreseeing his imminent departure to the Lord, invited Joseph to be his successor in managing the monastery. The Monk Paphnutius reposed on May 1, 1477. After him, Joseph ruled the monastery from 1477 to 1479. He intended to introduce the strictest dormitory in the Borovsk monastery, but he met disagreement with this from the monks, except for seven, so he withdrew from the grumbling and left his monastery for a while to personally inspect the structure of other monasteries.

Upon returning from his journey, he decided to leave the Paphnutian monastery forever and found a monastery of his own accord, for which, with seven monks devoted to him, he retired to the familiar forests of Volokolamsk, where he founded his famous monastery, in which he died on September 9, 1515. The Monk David did not break his spiritual connection with this great and enlightened ascetic until his death. The monk labored for a long time in the Paphnutian monastery.

In 1515, the Monk David, who labored for more than forty years in the Borovsky monastery, left this holy monastery in order to found his monastery in a desert area on the banks of the Lopasnya River in the ancient Khatun volost, where he came on May 31, 1515 with the icon of the Sign of the Mother of God with two monks and two novices. Having settled here, he set up cells, erected the first wooden churches in honor of the magnificent Ascension of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ with a chapel in honor of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with a meal. The monk planted a linden grove near his desert. On August 15, 1515, shortly before his death, the Monk Joseph visited this new monastery, dined with the Monk David and the brethren and instructed them in the Word of God.

On September 19, 1529, he betrayed his righteous soul to God. His honest body was buried in the desert he founded.

The veneration of the Monk David began soon after his righteous death. In the synod of 1602 he is called a monk, and in documents of 1657, in addition, a miracle worker. There are no records of miraculous manifestations of God's mercy through the prayers of the monk. But the fact that these phenomena occurred is evidenced by the stories of residents of surrounding villages.

The Monk David appeared in a dream to the Serpukhov merchant Okorokova, who was suffering from a very difficult birth, and promised healing if she visited his monastery and served his funeral service for cancer. After the successful release of the burden, the grateful woman was in the desert and told those serving the requiem about the wondrous appearance of the monk to her.

In the 50s of the 19th century, when he was a candle-bearer in the David Hermitage, an elder of high spiritual life, Hierodeacon Benedict, a peasant from the Podolsk district came to the monastery and asked to serve a memorial service for the Monk David. The peasant who served the hieromonk told the following: “For about seven years I suffered from relaxation and without outside help I could neither move nor rise.

Almost in reality, the Monk David, a tall, gray-haired old man, in a monastic robe with a staff in his hands, appeared to me and ordered me to go to David’s Hermitage and serve a memorial service for him, promising to heal me from my illness. “Father,” I say, “I would gladly go, but not only can I walk, I can’t even get up, and I don’t even know where this desert is.” The elder hit me on the legs with a staff, ordered me to go to Podolsk and became invisible. Here, to my great joy, I felt the opportunity to move my limbs, although I could not stand on my feet, and I decided to follow orders, which I announced to my family. Despite the entreaties of his son and other relatives to postpone this intention, he began to get ready to set off. They quickly fitted him with crutches, although he could not use them due to the inability to stand on his feet. My son accompanied me to the village outskirts, the entire distance to which I crawled with great difficulty.

Then something happened, as if I had been shot all over, and I felt that my strength was growing stronger, I tried to get to my feet and - a miracle! – with the help of crutches he stood up and walked, albeit barely, on his feet. The further I walked, the more my strength became stronger. Near Podolsk, kind people told us how to find the way to the desert. And with God’s help, through the prayers of my father, the Venerable David, I reached the wilderness, and no longer need crutches.”

The Monk David appeared to an elderly noblewoman from the Podolsk district and said: “Why don’t you come to me?” The one who appeared became invisible, and the girl wondered who it could be. Soon she had to be in Moscow and go to the Chapel of the Savior, which belongs to the David’s Hermitage. Having accidentally seen a printed image of the Monk David here, she recognized him as the one who had appeared and began to ask whose image this was? When she was told by the servants at the chapel that this was an image of the founder of the Davidic Desert, the Monk David, she told her about the appearance, learned about the road to the desert and, indeed, soon arrived at the monastery and, having served a requiem, told everyone about the appearance that had happened to her.

The Monk David labored as a monk for more than fifty years, acquired many spiritual gifts and was, as the chronicle says, “the father and breadwinner of the entire surrounding population.” His memory is celebrated (according to the new style) on October 2, 31 and May 23 (discovery of relics).

Troparion, tone 4:

With your humility you have ascended above the world, O Reverend Father, / having defeated the evil enemy with virtue, / shining through the purity of your life, like the second sun, / leading many people to salvation. / Also pray to Christ God, Our Reverend Father David, / to grant us peace and great mercy ,// and the salvation of our souls.

Prayer to St. David of Gareji

Oh, all-bright, God-praised Abba David, holy of God! You, by the power of the good Law-giver, appeared to us, bound and overcome by the snares of the evil one, as a mentor in repentance and a helper in prayer. For this reason, you have been given many gifts of grace and miracles, the resolution of our sins and the remission of sins, the healing of illnesses and the driving away of the devil’s slander. Also, by your fatherly mercy in the divine understanding, by your many laborious prayers and supplications, and especially by your unceasing intercession for us, may the Lord God raise us, who have fallen into sin, with His invincible power against every visible and invisible enemy, so that by giving thanks to your holy memory, with desire We desired to worship the Eternal God in the One Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Troparion, tone 8:

With the flows of your tears you cultivated the barren, and you brought forth fruit from the depths with sighs of a hundred labors, and you were a lamp of the universe, shining miracles, David our Father, pray to Christ God for the salvation of our souls.

Troparion, tone 4:

Your exploits were then dissolved by streams of tears; now you stand before our Lord in prayer, as with your tears you sowed and with joy reaped the fruits revived in the desert. O David, radiance of the world and representative of our souls.

According to legend, the Monk David (in holy baptism Daniel) came from a noble princely family, presumably from the princes of Vyazemsky. He entered a monastery at a very young age, and was a student and tonsure of the Monk Paphnutius of Borovsk. When he was tonsured a monk, he received the name David, in honor of the Venerable David of Thessaloniki, and was a friend and prayer partner of the Venerable Joseph of Volotsk, who at the same time asceticized in the Borovsky Monastery. After the death of the Monk Paphnutius, his disciple Joseph became the abbot, but the brethren did not want to have him as abbot because of the severity of the charter he introduced. In addition to the seven elders, among whom was the Monk David. Unfortunately, we do not know any other details about the life of the saint in the Pafnutiev Monastery. It is known that on May 31, 1515, the Monk David came here to the site of the current monastery, with the icon of the Sign of the Mother of God, accompanied by two monks and two novices. And he built a church here in honor of the Ascension of the Lord and the Dormition of the Mother of God and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. He lived in this holy place for fourteen years and reposed in the Lord on September 19, 1529. (according to the old style). For more than half a century, the Monk David labored as a monk, acquired many spiritual gifts and, as the chronicle says, was “the father and breadwinner of the entire surrounding population.” His memory is celebrated (according to the new style) on October 2 and 31. And May 23 (finding of relics). http://www.hramzis.ru/life.php?id=112

Saint David of Serpukhov - Saint of Serpukhov, lived in the first quarter of the 16th century. Blessed David began his monastic exploits in the Pafnutevsky Borovsky Monastery during the life of the founder of the monastery, St. Paphnutius, who died in 1477. Then St. David labored in silent solitude, in 1515 he built on the Lopasna River, 23 versts from the city of Serpukhov, the Church of the Ascension of the Lord and laid the foundation for a desert monastery, known as David’s Ascension Hermitage, in which he died on October 18, 1520. His relics rest in secret . Filaret: “Lives of the Saints” October, St. Petersburg, 1885; arch. Leonid: "Holy Rus'", St. Petersburg, 1801. (Polovtsov)

The Monk David of Serpukhov (in the world Daniel) came from a family of princes of Vyazemsky. He was tonsured and a student of the great Paphnutius Borovsky. After the death of Paphnutius (1447), David remained in the Borovsky monastery under the patronage and leadership of Joseph Volotsky (another student of Paphnutius), who would later become a key figure in the dispute between the Josephites and non-covetous people. And he will prevail in this dispute, creating the preconditions for the disintegration of Russian monasticism. But all this will come later, but for now Joseph leads the Pafnutiev brethren. At the same time (regarding the tightening of the hostel regime) he enters into a clinch with almost everyone. Among the seven monks who supported Joseph in this conflict was David.

The result of the discord was Joseph's departure to wander through Russian monasteries. It lasted two years, and, having returned and seeing that a whip could not break a butt, Joseph decides to leave for good. Soon he will open his famous Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, where he will arrange everything to his liking.

But David remained in Borovsk. But gradually the desire to leave the Pafnutev monastery matured in him. 85 km. from Moscow, on the high bank of the Lopasnya River, he found a beautiful, strong place and settled in it. In May 1515, a monastery arose there. They say on the feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary in 1515, Joseph Volotsky visited him. I dined with David, was very pleased with everything, and blessed the new monastery and its abbot. Perhaps the late Father German, who in 1995 became the rector of the recreated Ascension David Hermitage, was inspired by the ideas of Joseph Volotsky that monasteries should be rich, because this is necessary for education and other public service. That is, he was inspired by ideas opposite to non-covetousness. That’s why he was ready to go to great lengths to make his monastery rich and strong, but he was killed.

David died in 1529. And soon he began to appear in different people’s dreams, help them, and perform miracles. Now his relics rest openly in the Church of the Sign and are the main shrine of the monastery. In fact, there are probably as many different particles of relics and other shrines as in the Davidic Hermitage nowhere else in Holy Rus'. Here you will be shown fragments of the honest bodies of Nikola Ugodnik, Eustathius Placida, Herman of Alaska, Dmitry, Abraham and Isaiah of Rostov, Ferapont Luzhetsky, Moses Ugrin and others, and others, and others. There is even an ark with the relics of the holy Bethlehem infants, a piece of the original Nail of the Crucifixion of the Lord, a piece of the Robe of the Lord, a piece of the robe of the Most Holy Theotokos and the honest head of an unknown martyr from Kyiv.

But besides the monastery located in the village of Novy Byt, another place nearby is associated with the name of David of Serpukhov, about five kilometers downstream of Lopasnya. There flows a powerful spring with extremely tasty water, which, as they say, was discovered by the monk himself and is therefore called the Spring of David. Topographically, it is near the ancient village of Talezh (first mentioned in 1328 in the spiritual charter of Ivan Kalita).

On May 20, the Georgian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the Venerable Fathers John of Zedazni and his twelve disciples - the “second apostles” of Georgia. Coming from Syria in the 6th century, they became the successors of the feat of Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Nino in the Christian enlightenment of Iberia and the pioneers of monastic construction on Georgian soil. And a few days later, on Thursday after the Ascension of Christ, May 24, a moving celebration will be held of the Venerable David of Gareji - according to legend, the beloved disciple of the Venerable John, the founder of the great shrine of Georgia - the David-Gareji Lavra. By the providence of God, St. David is becoming increasingly famous in Russia, largely thanks to the activities of the Moscow Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Pokrovka, where this saint has been especially revered for many years.

By apostolic call

In Tbilisi, in the altar of the Patriarchal Cathedral of Tsminda Sameba - the Most Holy Trinity - a small round smooth stone of dark ocher color with reddish inclusions is kept in a reliquary. This is the miraculous shrine of the Georgian Orthodox Church - the Stone of Grace. The following legend is associated with him.

It was the 6th century from the Nativity of Christ. Several monks approached the foot of the mountain in the north-west of Jerusalem (from the era of the Crusades it would be known as the Mount of Joy), having made a difficult journey from a distant land called Sakartvelo, or Iberia. The elder who led the pilgrims suddenly said to his companions: “I, a sinner, will not dare to walk on the earth where the Lord’s feet have trod.” Having dismissed the disciples, he did not go further, and when the time came to go back, he picked up three simple stones from the ground, believing in his soul that he had taken them as if from the tomb of Christ. At this time, an Angel appeared to the Patriarch of Jerusalem in a dream and said that one of the pilgrims “by his faith took away all the grace from Jerusalem.” The patriarchal walkers caught up with the monks and took away two stones, and left one, conveying to the elder the words of the patriarch: “I give you one part for your desert, take this stone as a grace, as a memory and as a reminder of your faith.”

This touching legend, the material evidence of which Orthodox Georgia still worships to this day, tells the story of the great saint of the Georgian Church, one of the founders of Georgian monasticism - St. David of Gareji.

The Monk David was among the twelve Syrian fathers who came to Georgia in the middle of the 6th century with their teacher, the Monk John, who became the educator of the eastern part of the country - Kartli. According to legend, the Mother of God Herself sent the hermit John to the land of Iberia to continue the work of Equal-to-the-Apostles Nino. Having received in a dream the order of the Most Holy Theotokos to choose twelve disciples as his companions, he decided to rely entirely on the Providence of God and chose them by lot. Shio of Mgvim, David of Gareji, Anthony of Martkop, Thaddeus of Stepantsminda, Stefan of Hir, Isidore of Samtavi, Michael of Ulumbia, Pyrrhus of Brettia, Zenon of Ikaltoi, Aviv of Nekres, Jesse of Tsilkan and Joseph of Alaverdi - all of them subsequently received their middle names from the places where they founded the holy monasteries or occupied bishop's chairs. From the name of Mount Zeda-Zadeni near Mtskheta, which the Monk John chose as his place of residence and founded the first monastery there, he himself began to be called John of Zedazni.

What ancient spiritual heritage nourished these new apostles? They grew up among Syrian monasticism, which occupies a special place in the history of Christian asceticism. There are different views of specialists on this issue, but now many are ready to admit that the ideal of monasticism and the monastic lifestyle in its original form, even ahead of Egypt and Palestine, originates from the Eastern Syrians. In the 4th-6th centuries, many monasteries and large monastic centers operated throughout Syria, attracting numerous pilgrims and followers. At this time, a large ascetic-theological school arose in Edessa, which had a significant influence on the formation of monastic communities. At the same time, it was in Syria that stylites arose - a unique type of individual asceticism, which in turn also contributed to the formation of monasteries near the places where the stylites labored - for example, the beautiful and majestic monastery of Kalat-Siman is associated with the name of the first stylite - St. Simeon († 389) . The future Abba David of Gareji probably retained for the rest of his life the memory of how, leaving his native Antioch and going to Georgia, their teacher brought his children to the younger follower of Saint Simeon - Simeon the Stylite of Divnogorets, and he gave them a blessing.

It must be said that monastic missionary work was a very common phenomenon in Syria. The preaching of Christianity in the East - not only in Georgia, Armenia, but also in Mongolia and China - was almost always the merit of the Syrians. Until approximately the middle of the 5th century, the Georgian Church was under the jurisdiction of the Antioch Patriarchate. Georgian youths studied at theological schools of Antioch and Nisibia. In Syria, people from Iberia lived in vast monastic settlements on the Black Mountain. There is information that the first translation of the books of the Old Testament into Georgian was made from Syriac manuscripts.

With and without a teacher

What else could St. David’s memory of his first steps in a new land preserve? The life of St. John of Zedazni tells how travelers approaching the ancient capital of Georgia, Mtskheta, were greeted with great honor by the clergy and people, led by Catholicos of Kartli Eulalius; how they bowed to the shrines of the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, among which was the Robe of the Lord, kept in secret; how they went around Eastern Georgia, preaching and, by the grace of God, performing miracles and healings...

After some time, Abba John chose Mount Zadeni near Mtskheta as their place of residence. The mountain had a bad reputation: previously there was a pagan temple here, and the monks had to work hard to cleanse it of evil spirits through prayer and fasting (see Matt. 17:21) and turn it into a lot of peaceful monastic deeds. Pilgrims began to flock to this first monastery on this land, many of them joined the monastic brethren - the monastery grew, taking on the form of a monastery, with life under the leadership of one abbot and spiritual father, with obediences distributed among the brethren.

One day, says the Life, the Monk John received a message from above that it was time for him to let his spiritual children go - they would disperse throughout Georgia to found their own monasteries and increase the preaching of Christianity.

Thus, David and his disciple Lucian first settled on Mount Mtatsminda near Tbilisi, building in it, following the example of St. John, a small cave and a chapel. Every Thursday they went down to the city and preached. The Life of Saint David tells that once the fire-worshipping pagans bribed a pregnant woman so that she would point to David as a seducer. At the trial, the monk touched her stomach with his staff and ordered the child to say the name of her father. According to legend, after the name of the culprit was announced, the slanderer gave birth to a stone in pain. Grieving over what had happened, David offered a prayer, and on Mount Mtatsminda he poured a spring, the water of which heals the childless and restores women's health. The source still exists today, and countless generations of women have already received gracious help from it. On the spot where the simple chapel of St. David once stood, a temple was built, which was called Mamadaviti (“Father David”), but it also did not survive. The current church was built here at the end of the 19th century.

Soon the monks decided that they should completely withdraw from the world. They found a desert area in Kakheti, on the slope of the Gareji mountain range, about 70 kilometers southeast of Tbilisi. From this moment begins the history of the great shrine of Georgia - the David-Gareji Lavra, until the 20th century, the largest spiritual and cultural center in the Caucasus.

Desert Fathers

...Water is one of the first necessary gifts of God to man. But the waters did not pass through the Gareji mountains (see Ps. 103:10). The Gareji desert is dry, harsh, in summer it burns with heat of fifty degrees, in winter the frost reaches minus thirty, precipitation occurs only a few times a year. Apparently, everything was like this many centuries ago: The Life of St. David tells that, having come to Gareji, the ascetics each carved out a stone bed for themselves in the small natural caves of the mountain, prayed in the open air, ate grass, roots and milk, which was given by the wild fallow deer with their cubs who came to them, they drank rainwater, collecting it in depressions carved into the rock.

And in our time, Metropolitan Andrei (Gvazava) of Gori and Aten, who in the 1990s was the abbot of the revived David-Gareji Lavra, recalled: “The living conditions in the monastery were difficult: there was never water there, both drinking and for domestic needs. there was none - they collected rainwater using ancient tanks...”

Through the prayers of the Monk David, a holy spring arose here too, but of an extremely ascetic nature: it later received the poetic name “Tears of David” - in fact, it is water oozing little by little through the thickness of the rocks in one of the caves.

Soon the hermits had their first church, carved into the rock and consecrated in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The patron of this small temple was the Rustavi nobleman Bubacar, who believed in Christ after the miraculous healing of the monk and was baptized by him along with all his household.

As happened most often in the history of monasticism, the ascetics could not remain in their solitude for long. People seeking salvation began to come to them and settle nearby in caves. The first monastery was formed - the one that is now called the Lavra of St. David: many cells carved into the mountain slope.

Nearby, David's followers began to build new monasteries. Dodo of Gareji, with the blessing of his teacher, founded the Dodos-Rka monastery (in Georgian - “branch of Dodo”) in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos. Lucian, according to legend, is the Natlismtsemeli (“Baptist”) monastery in the name of the Holy Prophet John the Baptist. The monasteries were organized according to the Syrian cenobitic charter; Anchorites, who shunned all communication, labored alongside them. By the end of the saint's life, about two thousand disciples had gathered around him.

When the hour of his death was revealed to the elder, he gathered all the inhabitants of Gareja and said goodbye to them. The Monk David reposed on Thursday after the Ascension of the Lord and was buried in the Transfiguration Church of the David-Gareji Lavra. The Monk Lucian later rested there as well. Already in the 6th century, the Georgian Orthodox Church canonized David and Lucian as saints. For centuries, their graves were especially revered and were a place of pilgrimage. There is no tradition of finding relics in Georgia; in 2000, they opened the tomb of St. David of Gareji, made sure that the relics were in place, washed them, took a small particle and left everything intact. The Monk David rests peacefully under a bushel near the altar of the ancient Church of the Transfiguration of his monastery.

Lavra in history

For centuries, monastic life did not fade away in the David Lavra. Externally, the monastery changed - it grew with cave cells, terraces, connecting bridges... The lavra acquired its modern appearance in the 9th century, when it was completed by the Monk Hilarion Kartveli (822/3-875/6), who also erected new churches on the territory of the monastery complex. The greatest flourishing of David-Gareji occurred in the 11th-13th centuries - during the period of revival after the invasion of the Seljuk Turks. Then there were new invasions and devastations, including terrible ones: in 1615, on Easter night, the Persian Shah Abbas I massacred all the Gareji monks who had gathered for service at the small Church of the Resurrection of Christ. Tradition has variously preserved the number of martyrs - from six hundred to six thousand people, but it is known that after this tragic event the shrine was practically empty, and life subsequently continued in only three of the twenty monasteries. However, the authority of the “Georgian Thebaid” as an educational center and bearer of the spiritual ideal for all of Georgia was preserved.

During Soviet times, in 1923, the Gareji Lavra was closed. Since the late 1940s, a military training ground was located on the territory of the complex, as a result of which many rock churches, frescoes and epigraphic monuments were damaged or completely lost. The Lavra began to gradually recover in the 1970s, and monastic prayer returned there in the 1990s. The first inhabitant and vicar of the Lavra of St. David was Irakli (in monastic vows David) Makharadze, who was the caretaker of the museum-reserve located here, an architect by training, who took the priesthood and monasticism - now His Eminence, Metropolitan of Alaverdi.

Today Gareji unites about twelve temple ensembles. The grandiose monastery complex stretches for almost 25 kilometers, as if cutting through the Gareji Ridge, along which the border between Georgia and Azerbaijan passed in Soviet times. Some of the unique structures ended up on foreign territory, and neighbors have so far shown no desire to return Georgia’s heritage.

The most famous now and attracts numerous pilgrims is the Dodos-Rka monastery, with preserved ancient wall inscriptions in different languages, painted with extraordinary art; the active monastery of Natlismtsebeli with the cave temple of John the Baptist, which remembers the disciples of St. David, and, possibly, the Abba himself; Tetri-Udabno monastery, which was built during the heyday of Gareji in the 11th-12th centuries and preserved evidence of the unique school of fresco painting that existed here.

Venerable David of Gareji in Moscow

Despite the changing political circumstances, the Russian and Georgian Churches have always had many points of contact. So the Georgian saint of the first centuries of Christianity, the Venerable David of Gareji, miraculously, at the end of the twentieth century, found his “home” in Moscow, which became the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Gryazekh, which stands on Pokrovka, next to Chistoprudny Boulevard.

According to the rector of the Trinity Church, Archpriest John Kaleda, it all began in the 1990s with the unique missionary work of O.V. Shvedov, elder of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Tushino, where Father John also served: a great connoisseur and admirer of Georgian saints, Oleg Vasilyevich regularly brought water to Moscow from the spring of St. David on Mount Mtatsminda in Tbilisi, and became the initiator of prayers to the saint in his church. And soon cases of miraculous healing of women’s ailments and deliverance from infertility forced even inveterate skeptics to believe in the power of the saint’s intercession.

Father John transferred the tradition of prayer to the Monk David to the Trinity Church on Pokrovka when he was appointed its rector. Prayer services began to be served every week. We first ordered a small analogue icon of the saint for the church - at that time the only one in Moscow, and subsequently raised funds for a large hagiographic icon. The author of both icons was the icon painter Nina Mikhailovna Nosova (who later took monastic vows with the name Tikhon, a resident of the Stefano-Makhrishchi stauropegic monastery).

In the temple there is also another icon of the saint - a gift from the governor of the David-Gareji Lavra, and a wonderfully written image of the Monk John of Zedazni and his twelve disciples, donated by the governor of the Svetitskhoveli monastery, Archimandrite Seraphim. The parishioners of the Trinity Church did not remain in debt and, in turn, sent their offering to the Georgian saint - an embroidered cover on his tomb in the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord. They worked on the cover for several years under the guidance of specialists, in particular, Irina Andreevna Kesler, artistic director of the gold embroidery workshop of the Alekseevsky Stavropegic Monastery. When the cover was ready, experts praised this work as a worthy continuation of the tradition of ancient Russian gold embroidery art. His Holiness Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II also highly appreciated the work of Muscovites.

Thus, bypassing all spatial, temporal and other boundaries, the humble monk, Saint David of Gareji continues the work for which he lived and offered his prayers on the blessed land of Sakartvelo - the work of multiplying love.

Photo: Vladimir Khodakov, Ekaterina Orlova

Also presented are photographs from the website of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Gryazekh