A beautiful church, a wonderful choir - all this is on Polyanka, 29A near the metro station. Moscow Church of St.

While running around Polyanka the other day, I couldn’t resist clicking a couple of times on the beautiful Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea. The photos turned out disgusting, but I still decided to make a post for my diary, because there is almost no information about this temple on Liru.

One of the most beautiful churches in Moscow, in the name of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, is located in Zamoskvorechye, on Bolshaya Polyanka Street.
In ancient Moscow, the holiday of this saint is associated with the fact that on November 17, 1445, Grand Duke Vasily II the Dark returned to the Russian capital from cruel Tatar captivity. It was probably in memory of his return that the first wooden church in Zamoskvorechsk, consecrated on this holiday, was erected at the same time, although the wooden Grigorievsky Church was first mentioned in written historical documents only in 1632.
In old Moscow it was called “what’s in Derbitsy”. The name of Polyanka street officially appeared only in the 18th century, but at the time when the Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, large fields really began here, which extended far beyond the boundaries of the medieval city, and among them ran the old road from the Kremlin to Serpukhov. These fields gave the name to the ancient Moscow street. The land itself in this low-lying area, often flooded by the floods of the Moscow River, was a furnace, “mossy”, which is why it was nicknamed Derbitsy, distorted from the wilds. In the old days, “Wild” was the name given to a swampy lowland.

Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea remained wooden until the reign of the “quiet” Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. After the plague epidemic that broke out in Moscow in the middle of the 17th century, it was completely abandoned. In 1660, an ordinary Moscow priest, Andrei Savvinovich Postnikov, served in it, and his own courtyard stood next to the church. He managed to get close to the pious tsar and even became his confessor, so that in 1665 the tsar transferred him to the Kremlin Annunciation Cathedral, where there was the tsar’s home church, and made him archpriest.
It was he who married Alexei Mikhailovich to Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, the mother of Peter I, in 1671. And in October 1674, shortly before the death of the Tsar, he was at his feast in the Kremlin - the Tsar himself treated him to overseas wines and various dishes. But before leaving for such an honorable service, the priest asked the Tsar to allow him to rebuild his Zamoskvorechsk church with a stone one. The king complied with the request and took control of the construction: it began in 1668. They began to build a new church just north of its wooden predecessor, and Alexey Mikhailovich twice went to mass in the church under construction.

It is interesting that the stone for the handsome temple was brought from the famous village of Myachkova near Moscow: from the same quarry stone was taken for the construction of the white stone (and first stone) walls of the Moscow Kremlin under Prince Dmitry Donskoy, and in the 19th century - for the construction of the first Cathedral of Christ the Savior according to the project Vitberg on Sparrow Hills. At that time, this village was already the patrimonial possession of Herzen’s father, Ivan Yakovlev.
But shortly before the death of the king, his confessor fell out of favor with Patriarch Joachim himself. It is known that just a few days after the mentioned Kremlin feast, the archpriest was imprisoned on chains at the behest of the patriarch, and was able to write to the tsar for help from prison. The Tsar, who was in Preobrazhenskoye, went to Moscow to intercede about his fate, and began to ask the Patriarch to release his confessor, and the Patriarch, in response, blamed him on “various guilts,” which were probably the official charges against the Archpriest after the Tsar’s death. Only by Christmas 1675 - the last year of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich's life - was his confessor released from prison with forgiveness and permission to serve as a priest. He was even invited to the king for dinner at the same table with the patriarch.
This reconciliation did not last long, for it took place only thanks to the ardent participation of the king in the fate of his confessor. The first conflict is believed to have occurred at the king’s funeral. History has provided little reliable evidence of this, but it is known that the priest Andrei Savvinov allegedly himself was the initiator of a new quarrel, indignant that the patriarch was personally doing at the funeral what he, the royal confessor, should do. At the convened council, the patriarch accused the priest of many serious crimes, such as fornication, abuse of authority, inciting the tsar against the patriarch, and, in particular, that he had erected a temple for himself in Zamoskvorechye without the patriarch's blessing and that without the same blessing and “installed letters" accepted the rank of archpriest of the Annunciation Cathedral. And when in 1679 Patriarch Joachim consecrated the built church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, his former priest, defrocked, was already in exile in the distant Kozheozersky monastery
The architects of the new temple were Russian royal architects Ivan Kuznechik and the serf from Kostroma Karp Guba. 9 thousand famous glazed tiles in the “peacock eye” style, which gave the temple its all-Moscow glory, were made by the great master Stepan Polubes. His popularity and status in ancient Moscow construction can be compared only with Bazhen Ogurtsov, the builder of tiled tents of the Kremlin towers. And among the icon painters and royal isographers who worked on painting the temple and its images was Simon Ushakov himself. Previously, in the second tier there was a kind of choir, which indicated the palace nature of the church. People called her “red” - beautiful.

In the second half of the 18th century, a chapel appeared at the temple in the name of St. Gregory the Theologian, arranged with the care of parishioner Grigory Lichonin in honor of his heavenly patron. And until 1821 there was also a regular cemetery next to the church.
And during a terrible time for Moscow, the widespread cholera that raged in 1830, this temple wrote itself onto a new page of Moscow history. In 1834, a chapel of the Bogolyubskaya Icon of the Mother of God was built in it, to which they prayed during the epidemic. Cholera raged in Moscow from September 1830 and subsided in December: it came from the East, so it was considered “Asian” and was even called the “only true ally” of Nicholas I - such fear and such unified inspiration to fight a ferocious disease have not been seen since rebuff given by Moscow to Napoleon. Saint Philaret organized a general prayer service - Moscow priests walked around their parishes with a procession of the cross, and the Metropolitan himself prayed on his knees in the Kremlin. A strict quarantine was declared throughout Moscow and surrounded by military cordons, because of which Pushkin could not get into the city to see his bride and returned to Boldino twice. As a result, he asked his friend General Bibikov to get him permission, but was only able to get into the Goncharovs’ house on December 5, when the epidemic subsided.

Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea was closed at the end of 1935. His icons were transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery, and even earlier, in 1930, the Moscow Soviet approached the ancient hipped bell tower of the temple, intending to demolish it to expand the sidewalk. Miraculously, they defended it - only in the lowest tier they made a through passage. It was this method of expanding the “usable area” of sidewalks and pavements that was recommended by the subsequent General Plan of 1935.
By 1965, the temple, given over to various institutions, had fallen into disrepair and was well restored. It was placed under state protection as a monument of history and culture, and placed there along with the All-Union Production and Art Plant named after. Vuchetich" a quiet "office" for the official repurchase of ancient icons, which were purchased from the population and then, with the permission of the authorities, resold abroad to lovers of Russian "antiques". And only in 1990, according to a letter from His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, the Moscow Council returned the temple to the believers. By 1996, it was finally restored and renovated, and worship services began there.

Material quoted from

St. Gregory was born in the city of Neokesarea in the north of Asia Minor approximately in the 3rd century. from the Nativity of Christ. He received an excellent education and even went to Alexandria and studied there with Origen himself. Returning to his homeland, St. Gregory withdrew from the world into the desert and there led a holy life of prayer and fasting, receiving from God the gift of clairvoyance and prophecy. The bishop of the city of Amassia learned about the holy ascetic and decided to install him as a bishop in his native Neocaesarea. St. Gregory agreed and before his consecration he fervently prayed to God and the Queen of Heaven to reveal to him the true way of worshiping the Holy Trinity. And the saint had a miraculous vision during prayer - the Most Holy Theotokos herself appeared to him along with the Apostle John the Theologian. And from him the saint heard the requested knowledge about how one should truly and worthily confess the Holy Trinity. St. Gregory immediately wrote down everything he heard from the Apostle in a miraculous vision. And it was on this Revelation that the Orthodox teaching about the Holy Trinity was later based, developed by the Ecumenical Teachers, the Fathers of the Church, Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and Gregory of Nyssa, and also the Creed itself was compiled. St. Gregory of Neocaesarea did not live to see this. He died around 266 - 270.

In ancient Moscow, the feast of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea turned out to be associated with an important historical event for Russia - on this day, November 17, 1445, Grand Duke Vasily II the Dark, so nicknamed because he was blinded by his enemies, returned to the Russian capital from cruel Tatar captivity. It was probably in memory of his return that the first wooden church in Zamoskvorechsk, consecrated on this holiday, was erected at the same time, although the wooden Grigorievsky Church was first mentioned in written historical documents only in 1632.

In old Moscow it was called “what’s in Derbitsy”. The area where this temple was erected was in those days a far, distant wilderness. Once upon a time there was an ancient road from Novgorod to Ryazan. The development of the territory of the ancient Zarechye began in earnest during the time of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, since the main road from Moscow to the Horde ran through it. The name of Polyanka street officially appeared only in the 18th century, but at the time when the Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, large fields really began here, which extended far beyond the boundaries of the medieval city, and among them ran the old road from the Kremlin to Serpukhov. These fields gave the name to the ancient Moscow street. The land itself in this low-lying area, often flooded by the floods of the Moscow River, was a firebox, “mossy”, which is why it was nicknamed Derbitsy, distorted from wilds. In the old days, “Wild” was the name given to a swampy lowland.

At first, peasants and artisans settled in this damp, unsightly area, and from the 16th century there were also settlements of archers in Zarechye. The palace settlement of the royal kadashes - coopers who made the wooden barrels and tubs necessary in the ancient economy (according to another version, the royal weavers were the kadashes) was located right there. Then, from the 18th century, Moscow merchants began to populate Zamoskvorechye and its Polyanka.

And the church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea remained wooden until the reign of the “quiet” Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. After the plague epidemic that broke out in Moscow in the middle of the 17th century, it was completely abandoned. In 1660, an ordinary Moscow priest, Andrei Savvinovich Postnikov, served in it, and his own courtyard stood next to the church. He managed to get close to the pious tsar and even became his confessor, so that in 1665 the tsar transferred him to the Kremlin Annunciation Cathedral, where there was the tsar’s home church, and made him archpriest.

The priest maintained his closeness with the tsar until the death of the sovereign. It was he who married Alexei Mikhailovich to Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, the mother of Peter I, in 1671. And in October 1674, shortly before the death of the Tsar, he was at his feast in the Kremlin - the Tsar himself treated him to overseas wines and various dishes. But before leaving for such an honorable service, the priest asked the Tsar to allow him to rebuild his Zamoskvorechsk church with a stone one. The king complied with the request and took control of the construction: it began in 1668. They began to build a new church just north of its wooden predecessor, and Alexey Mikhailovich twice went to mass in the church under construction.

It is interesting that the stone for the handsome temple was brought from the famous village of Myachkova near Moscow: from the same quarry stone was taken for the construction of the white stone (and first stone) walls of the Moscow Kremlin under Prince Dmitry Donskoy, and in the 19th century - for the construction of the first Cathedral of Christ the Savior according to the project Vitberg on Sparrow Hills. At that time, this village was already the patrimonial possession of Herzen’s father, Ivan Yakovlev.

But shortly before the death of the king, his confessor fell out of favor with Patriarch Joachim himself. It is known that just a few days after the mentioned Kremlin feast, the archpriest was imprisoned on chains at the behest of the patriarch, and was able to write to the tsar for help from prison. The Tsar, who was in Preobrazhenskoye, went to Moscow to intercede about his fate, and began to ask the Patriarch to release his confessor, and the Patriarch, in response, blamed him on “various guilts,” which were probably the official charges against the Archpriest after the Tsar’s death. Apparently, these guilts were very serious, since the king at first could not do anything for his favorite and only put his faithful archers on guard for him. Only by Christmas 1675 - the last year of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich's life - was his confessor released from prison with forgiveness and permission to serve as a priest. He was even invited to the king for dinner at the same table with the patriarch.

This reconciliation did not last long, for it took place only thanks to the ardent participation of the king in the fate of his confessor. The first conflict is believed to have occurred at the king’s funeral. History has provided little reliable evidence of this, but it is known that the priest Andrei Savvinov allegedly himself was the initiator of a new quarrel, indignant that the patriarch was personally doing at the funeral what he, the royal confessor, should do. And then patience ran out. At the convened council, the patriarch accused the priest of many serious crimes, such as fornication, abuse of authority, inciting the tsar against the patriarch, and, in particular, that he had erected a temple for himself in Zamoskvorechye without the patriarch's blessing and that without the same blessing and “installed letters" accepted the rank of archpriest of the Annunciation Cathedral. And when in 1679 Patriarch Joachim consecrated the built church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, his former priest, defrocked, was already in exile in the distant Kozheozersky monastery

The architects of the new temple were Russian royal architects Ivan Kuznechik and the serf from Kostroma Karp Guba. 9 thousand famous glazed tiles in the “peacock eye” style, which gave the temple its all-Moscow glory, were made by the great master Stepan Polubes. His popularity and status in ancient Moscow construction can be compared only with Bazhen Ogurtsov, the builder of tiled tents of the Kremlin towers. And among the icon painters and royal isographers who worked on painting the temple and its images was Simon Ushakov himself. Previously, in the second tier there was a kind of choir, which indicated the palace nature of the church. People called her "red" - beautiful.

In the second half of the 18th century, a chapel appeared at the temple in the name of St. Gregory the Theologian, arranged with the care of parishioner Grigory Lichonin in honor of his heavenly patron. And until 1821 there was also a regular cemetery next to the church.

And during a terrible time for Moscow, the widespread cholera that raged in 1830, this temple wrote itself onto a new page of Moscow history. In 1834, a chapel of the Bogolyubskaya Icon of the Mother of God was built in it, to which they prayed during the epidemic. Cholera raged in Moscow from September 1830 and subsided in December: it came from the East, so it was considered “Asian” and was even called the “only true ally” of Nicholas I - such fear and such unified inspiration to fight a ferocious disease have not been seen since rebuff given by Moscow to Napoleon. Saint Philaret organized a general prayer service - Moscow priests walked around their parishes with a procession of the cross, and the Metropolitan himself prayed on his knees in the Kremlin. A strict quarantine was declared throughout Moscow and surrounded by military cordons, because of which Pushkin could not get into the city to see his bride and returned to Boldino twice. As a result, he asked his friend General Bibikov to get him permission, but was only able to get into the Goncharovs’ house on December 5, when the epidemic subsided. Only in Kuzminki, according to legend, there was not a single case of illness, which was attributed to the gracious help of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God, kept in the local church.

The tragic consequences of the cholera epidemic remained a reminder for a long time. In addition to the Bogolyubsky chapel of the St. Gregory's Church, founded in gratitude and in memory of Moscow's deliverance from trouble, the Alexandrinsky Orphanage was established in 1831 “for the care of orphans of officials who died of cholera in Moscow.” At first it was located in Basmannaya Sloboda, in the former estate of Count Razumovsky on Gorokhovoy Pole, and then it was transferred to the center of Moscow, to the Apraksin estate on Znamenka.

Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea was closed at the end of 1935. His icons were transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery, and even earlier, in 1930, the Moscow Soviet approached the ancient hipped bell tower of the temple, intending to demolish it to expand the sidewalk. Miraculously, they defended it - only in the lowest tier they made a through passage. It was this method of expanding the “usable area” of sidewalks and pavements that was recommended by the subsequent General Plan of 1935. And although at the time of the reconstruction of the bell tower of the Zamoskvorechskaya church this plan had not yet been created, its ideas, apparently, were already in the air. In the same way, according to the General Plan, they intended to radically expand the Arbat - to cut through passages-sidewalks in the lower floors of its buildings, and turn the former sidewalks, “freed” from pedestrians, into pavement and make them available for transport. This is what they did with the bell tower of St. Gregory’s Church.

By 1965, the temple, given over to various institutions, had fallen into disrepair and was well restored. It was placed under state protection as a monument of history and culture, and placed there along with the All-Union Production and Art Plant named after. Vuchetich" a quiet "office" for the official repurchase of ancient icons, which were purchased from the population and then, with the permission of the authorities, resold abroad to lovers of Russian "antiques". And only in 1990, according to a letter from His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, the Moscow Council returned the temple to the believers. By 1996, it was finally restored and renovated, and worship services began there.

The temple in honor of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, which is located in Moscow on Polyanka, has a very ancient history. It was originally cut down from wood by order of Prince Vasily II, nicknamed the Dark. According to legend, this was done as a sign of gratitude to Heaven for deliverance from Tatar captivity.

The legend about the construction of the temple

Today there is no trace left of that wooden structure. In its place stands a majestic stone temple. But even then, when this place was a wasteland, Prince Vasily, while staying in the Horde, swore to God that in the place from which he would see the Moscow Kremlin, he would build a temple and consecrate it in honor of the saint whose memory would be celebrated that day. He was destined to see the fortress walls of the capital on November 30, 1445. According to the Orthodox calendar, on this day the memory of St. Gregory the Wonderworker of New Caesarea is celebrated. This circumstance determined the fate of the future church, now known as the Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea on Polyanka.

New construction

The wooden church stood until the 17th century. In 1669-1679, a stone temple grew next to it. This happened on the initiative of the royal confessor, priest Andrei Savinov, with the help of sovereign donations. He gave the church blessing for the construction, but Patriarch Joachim had to consecrate the completed Church of Gregory of Neocaesarea. The construction was supervised by the best architects that could be found at that time. History has preserved their names for posterity: Karp Guba and John the Grasshopper.

Architecture and decor of the church

Architecturally, the Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea reflected the standard Moscow practice of church construction for that time, which included a five-domed structure and a tent-type bell tower. The decoration of the temple was done using tiles and their authorship belongs to a person whom we also know by name. He was the famous potter Stepan Polubes at that time.

Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich himself had a hand in developing the temple project in terms of what would now be called design. It was he who ordered the Church of Gregory of Neocaesarea to be painted red to resemble brick, and the tent to be covered with whitewash and turquoise. As a result, the church turned out to be so beautiful that people called it the Red Church. The iconostasis was painted by royal artists and icon painters, led by the well-known Simon Ushakov. His authorship in this project belongs, for example, to the image of the Mother of God “Eleusa-Kykkos”. Of course, now it is not in the temple, but among the exhibits of the Tretyakov Gallery.

Church and royal family

In the same temple he married Natalya Naryshkina in 1671. In it, who will later become Emperor Peter the Great. Even today, the font in which the future reformer sovereign was baptized is kept in the Church of Gregory of Neocaesarea. In principle, such attention to the temple of the royal family was quite understandable, since its rector was traditionally the confessor of the king, and the temple itself had the status of a courtier.

Church in the War of 1812

During the events of 1812, the temple on Polyanka of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea also distinguished itself. If in relation to other churches the French indulged in acts of vandalism and burned many religious buildings along with ordinary houses, then in this case they behaved unprecedentedly. Namely: in the temple of Gregory of Neocaesarea there were soldiers on duty, whose task was to protect the building from looting and fire. French soldiers carried water in buckets to protect it from damage by the fire that devastated the capital. Napoleon lamented about this, saying that if only it were possible, he would put this church in the palm of his hand and take it to Paris.

Revolution

But what the French interventionists did not do, the Russian communists successfully accomplished. For 22 years after the 1917 revolution, services continued to be held in the Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea. But in 1939 it was closed and half destroyed. The last abbot was killed at the Butovo training ground.

Return to believers

The temple returned to the hands of believers only in 1994. Divine services were resumed at the same time. By 1996, the temple had been restored sufficiently so that it could be consecrated, which happened with the participation of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus'. In the temple rest the relics, according to official sources, of the patron of the church himself - St. Gregory of Neocaesarea. They were given to the parish community in 1998.

Temple today

Currently, in addition to this shrine, this temple contains particles of the relics of many other saints, which is of certain value in the eyes of believers. In addition to the main altar in honor of the indicated father of the church, two more function - in memory of St. Gregory the Theologian and in honor of the Bogolyubskaya icon of the Mother of God. The rector of the church at the moment is retired bishop Jerome (Chernyshov).

Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea on Polyanka: schedule and address

The easiest way to get to the temple is from the Polyanka metro station. The full address of the parish is as follows: Bolshaya Polyanka Street, 29A.

As for the schedule, services in the temple are held on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

On Saturday:

• 09:00 - Matins, liturgy.
• 17:00 - all-night vigil.

On Sunday:

• 09:30 - liturgy.

A more detailed schedule of the Church of Gregory of Neocaesarea should be checked with the church, as it is updated monthly.

Bright, ocher, decorated with wise patterns, the Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea was built in the middle of the 17th century. Located on Bolshaya Polyanka (famous for its merchant mansions, Zamoskvoretskaya Street), not far from the Polyanka metro station. The temple consists of three main parts: a tented bell tower is connected by a refectory with a quadrangle, topped with a hill of kokoshniks and a five-domed dome. The most beautiful decorative decorations - white stone and brick figured details - platbands, portals, cornices. The facades of the bell tower and quadrangle are framed by a belt of nine thousand multi-colored tiles of the “peacock eye” design by Stepan Ivanov, nicknamed Polubes.

According to legend, the Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea “in Derbitsy” was founded in honor of the return of Grand Duke Vasily II from Tatar captivity. The prince, while in captivity, made a vow: if he manages to free himself, he will order to build a temple in the place from which he will see Moscow, in the name of the saint, whose memory is celebrated on this day. This happened on November 17 (30), 1445 - on the day of the celebration of the memory of St. Gregory, bishop and wonderworker of Neocaesarea. It is from here that you can see the Kremlin domes. Then, exhausted by captivity and the long journey, the Grand Duke, seeing them, praised God for their salvation.

The church has been known documentarily since 1632. Originally it was wooden. Since the middle of the 17th century, the rector of the temple, Andrei Savinov, the confessor of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, has been rebuilding the church in stone with money from the state treasury. It is known that not without his influence, widower Alexey Mikhailovich chose 20-year-old Natalia Naryshkina as his bride. To this day, one can read in the literature that the wedding and then the baptism of their first-born, Peter I, took place in the Church of Gregory of Neocaesarea, although historians claim that all this took place in the Kremlin Cathedral. The construction of the temple was not yet completed after the death of the king, but its rector, Andrei Savinov, was exiled to a monastery. Among his sins, he was charged with building a temple without the patriarch's blessing. However, the patriarch himself subsequently blesses the completion of the temple and consecrates it.

The interior decoration of the temple is no less magnificent. The walls were painted by residents of Kostroma and Pereyaslavl. The icons in the temple are by Ushakov and Zinoviev. The presence of a “royal place” gave the temple a special status.

For more than three centuries, the temple experienced devastation twice: during the War of 1812 and the 30s of the 20th century. In 1994, the temple was consecrated again. Nowadays the main shrine of the temple is the miraculous Bogolyubskaya icon of the Mother of God. Other revered relics are also kept here, including the relics of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, Tikhon of Zadonsk, Mitrofaniy of Voronezh and other saints.

This was in 1999. Once we were visiting my classmate and friend, Mikhail Naroditsky. Mikhail, his wife Elena, daughter Marina and mother-in-law Tatyana Vasilievna are parishioners of the Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea on Polyanka. They told us that the church they go to has now been completely restored, there is even a reliquary for the relics of the Saint, but they cannot find the relics themselves. They turned to different places for them, about which they said that they were staying there, they even went to Spain, but all in vain.

I remember the conversation. After some time we left for London.

Church of the Assumption on Knightsbridge

On Sundays we went to liturgy in the London Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God and All Saints in Knightsbridge. On that day, Bishop Anthony, Metropolitan of Sourozh, served. In the church, it was customary during the liturgy to mention all the saints, “whose venerable relics reside in the church.” Unexpectedly, we heard that the bishop, among other names, mentioned the name of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea.

Immediately after the service, we approached Bishop Anthony and told him about the Moscow Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea and about the difficulties in obtaining the relics. The Bishop said that a small piece of the relics is sealed in the analogue icon of the temple, but he will definitely look in another place, in which, perhaps, there is another piece of the relics of the Saint.

Many weeks passed, Bishop Anthony was ill, rarely appeared, and in response to our cautious questions he said that he was searching and praying, asking us to be patient and wait.

I soon found myself in Moscow again, went to see my friends and told them about the discovery of relics in a London temple. They were very happy and quickly organized a letter of request from the rector of the church on Polyanka, hegumen (now bishop) Jerome (Chernyshov), addressed to Bishop Anthony.

These days, my wife, Tatyana, called and joyfully reported that she had been in the Assumption Church, and Bishop Anthony confirmed that he had found the relics and was ready to hand them over. Tatyana asked the bishop how the transfer could be organized, he replied that it happens that the relics are transported not only by clergy, but also by lay people, and he is ready to transfer a piece of the relics to us so that we can take it to Moscow.

Before leaving, in the red corner of the apartment, I discovered and took with me to London a bag for prosphora, embroidered by our Orthodox friend Natalia Gulaya.

Transfer of relics

We waited impatiently for Sunday, June 13, 1999. After the liturgy, we humbly approached Bishop Anthony, he asked us to wait a little, retired to the altar, returned and gave us a particle of the relics.

You cannot imagine the feelings that gripped not only my family and me at that moment, but also many of those present in the church who knew about our request and helped and empathized with us in every possible way. We began to thank the bishop, to which he said: “It was not I who did this, but the Lord.”

We put the piece in the prepared bag, thanked Vladyka heartily for his kindness, and he took a photo with us as a souvenir.

This was the last meeting with Bishop Anthony, Metropolitan of Sourozh, who in many ways changed our lives and, I know, the fates of many others.

Shrine meeting

Two weeks later we left London. In Sheremetyevo we were met by the rector of the Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea on Polyanka, Jerome (Chernyshov), with a representative of the Patriarchate and received the relics. We asked that the bag be returned to us in memory of this event, which he did after the celebrations.

On the evening of November 29, 1999, on the eve of the memory of Gregory of Neocaesarea, in the Moscow Church of the Saint on Polyanka, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II led a solemn all-night vigil, during which he met the shrine.

We are grateful to the Lord for giving us the opportunity to be involved in these events, and also to have the happiness of hearing the voice of Bishop Anthony, Metropolitan of Sourozh, attending his Thursday readings, accepting his kindness, help and blessing.

Tatiana, Yulia and Pavel Petrov, parishioners of the Church of the Great Ascension

Moscow, London, 1999

Photo gallery

Memorial Day of the Saint

Church of St. Gregory on Polyanka

The Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea in Derbitsy (on Polyanka) is one of the most beautiful churches in Moscow.

It was built by Grand Duke Vasily II (Dark) in gratitude for the miraculous deliverance from Tatar captivity. While in the Horde, the prince made a vow to God: to build a church on the spot from which he would see the walls of the Kremlin, in honor of the saint, whose memory would be celebrated that day, which happened on November 30, 1445, on the day of remembrance of St. Gregory the Wonderworker.

History of the relics

A piece of the relics of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea was presented by Tsarina Paraskeva Feodorovna (wife of Tsar Ivan V) to Prince Grigory Volkonsky, who in 1811 donated it to the temple.

After the October Revolution, the relics disappeared and the temple was closed.

Revival of the temple

In 1990, according to a letter from His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, the Moscow Council returned the temple to the believers.

Since 1994, services were resumed in the Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, and by 1996 the temple was finally restored: the facades were painted with red-orange paint - lead, all architectural elements were highlighted with white and turquoise, and the crosses were gilded.

Alfa Bank donated funds for a shrine for the relics of the Saint.