Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana. Holy Martyr of Tatiana Roman († 226)

Central Deanery

History

The Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana was consecrated on September 12 (25), 1837 by Saint Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow.

The church was built in the outbuilding of a rebuilt city estate of the end of the 18th century, which belonged to the Pashkov family, located on Mokhovaya Street near the Moscow Kremlin. In 1832, Nicholas I bought this building for Moscow University, and in 1833-1836. it is being rebuilt under the direction of the architect E.D. Tyurina.

The temple was closed in July 1919. On November 7, 1922 a club was opened here, on May 6, 1958 - the Student Theater of Moscow State University.

On Tatyana’s day, January 25, 1991, for the first time after its closure, a prayer service of St. mts. Tatiana. He headed the service.

On December 20, 1993, the Academic Council of Moscow State University decided to restore the university university house in a building on Mokhovaya Street. April 27, 1994, in agreement with the rector of Moscow State University, by decree of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II in the church of St. mts. The Tatians established the Patriarchal Compound. A graduate of the department of classical philology of the philological faculty of Moscow State University was appointed acting rector of the revived university church.

On January 24, 1995, the first all-night vigil took place in the revived church; the day after the solemn Liturgy in honor of the feast of St. mts. Tatiana, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II performed a festive prayer to the holy patroness of Moscow University. Since that time, regular worship services began in the temple.

On December 2, 2000, in the basement of the building, the lower church was consecrated - in honor of St. Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow.

On April 24, 2016, the recreated iconostasis was consecrated in the upper church. The former iconostasis, donated in 1998 by Protopresbyter Alexander Kiselyov, was transferred to the lower church.

On August 31, 2012, by decree of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, rector of the Church of St. mts. Tatiana appointed, who served here since 1996.

By the decree of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of November 1, 2016, on the territory of the new complex of buildings of Moscow State University on the Sparrow Hills under the construction of the Church of St. equapp Cyril and Methodius at Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov Patriarchal Compound was established. The cleric of the church of St. mts. Tatians archpriest John Lapidus.

The original house church of the martyr Tatiana of Moscow University was consecrated in the year. It was the first university church in the name of this saint, which laid the foundation for the tradition of Tatyana's churches in higher educational institutions. The temple operated in a circular building on the right (east) wing of the university building. In the year the building burned down.

The modern church is located in the former theater wing of the city estate of the late XVIII century, which belonged to the Pashkov family. In the year, the estate was acquired by Moscow University and rebuilt by the architect E. D. Tyurin. The temple was consecrated in the year by Saint Filaret of Moscow. The interior of the church was decorated with sculptures by I.P. Vitali.

In July, the temple was closed, shortly after which it was ordered to liquidate the interior of the church. The reading room of the Law Faculty was arranged in the church’s premises, and on the pediment instead of the old inscription “The Light of Christ enlightens all” the slogan “Science to the working people” was beaten out (this inscription was subsequently removed). In the year, on the fifth anniversary of the October Revolution, a club was opened in the former temple. On May 6, the Moscow State University Student Theater was opened in the building.

On January 25, in the temple walls, for the first time after a long break, a moleben of St. Tatiana was served. The service was led by Patriarch Alexy II. In the year, speaking at Moscow State University, the patriarch expressed a desire to revive the university church. The following year, a group of professors turned to the rector of the university with a proposal to restore the house temple in its historical place. The Academic Council of Moscow State University approved the initiative of the faculty and on December 20 decided: "To restore the architectural monument as it was - the building of Moscow University on Herzen St., 1. To recreate the Orthodox home church of Moscow University in this building ..."  By the order of the rector Sadovnichy from March 17, the student theater was allocated other rooms: in the main building of Moscow State University on the Sparrow Hills and in the old building on Mokhovaya. On April 27 of the same year, in agreement with the rector of Moscow State University, by decree of Patriarch Alexy II, a patriarchal courtyard was established in the former church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana. Until January of the year, the process of preparing the necessary documents, registering the parish, and releasing the temple from previous tenants was going on.

Over the next ten years, the church’s former appearance was restored - the inscription and the cross were recreated on the pediment of the church, the choirs and the central entrance to the upper church were re-built, paintings and stucco molding were restored.

On March 7, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II performed the rank of great consecration of the newly opened Church of St. Tatiana.

Rectors

Shrines

• particle right hand mts. Tatiana Roman
• particle relics svt.

Temple in the 18th and 19th centuries

January 12, Memorial Day of the Roman Martyr Tatiana, 1755 Empress Elizaveta Petrovna signed a decree establishing Moscow University.

Since the memory of the martyr Tatiana was celebrated on this day, her memorial day - Tatyana's day - subsequently became the birthday of the University, and later the universal student day.

For the first time the church in the name of St. he consecrated the martyr Tatiana on April 5, 1791 in the circular room of the left wing of the university building.

From the sermon of Metropolitan Plato at the consecration of the temple:

“The school of sciences and the school of Christ began to be united: the worldly wisdom brought into the sanctuary of the Lord becomes sanctified; it helps one another, but moreover it affirms one another. ”

In 1812, the temple burned down along with the main buildings of the University.

In September 1817, the upper church of the neighboring St. George Church on Krasnaya Gorka temporarily (until 1837) became a university house church.

In 1833, the estate of D.I. and A.I. Pashkov was purchased for the University, located on the corner of Mokhovaya and Nikitskaya streets.

In 1833-1836, the architect E. D. Tyurin rebuilt the main manor house into the Auditorium (the so-called “new building” of the University), the left wing into the library, and the manege part, where the troupe of the burned Petrovsky Theater gave performances in 1805-1808 - to the University Church.

September 12, 1837 consecrated the university house church; Archpriest Peter Matveyevich Ternovsky became the first rector of the house church.

Presumably, in 1913 a new inscription appeared on the pediment:

"SVIST CHRIST IS ENLIGHTENING ALL."

Temple closure

January 1918 - By decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the Church was separated from the state and the school from the Church.

August 10, 1918 - The decision of the People's Commissariat for the Elimination of House Churches at educational institutions was issued.

1918 - Tatyana's temple is closed.

August 1918 - The rector of the University was submitted an application from 175 parishioners “with a request to initiate an application for recognition of this temple by the parish church of the University District”.

July 24, 1919 - Items recognized as “having historical and artistic significance” were placed at the church’s altar, later transferred to the Museum Department of the People's Commissariat for Education. Icons and utensils that did not interest the Museum Department were transferred to the Church of St. George on Krasnaya Gorka.

October 3, 1919 - The community of the university parish was reckoned by decision of the Moscow Diocesan Council to the St. George Church on Krasnaya Gorka.

1919 - A reading room was set up in the church premises: bookcases of the law faculty were placed in the church. On the pediment of the building made a new inscription "Science - Workers."

1922 - On the fifth anniversary of the October Revolution, a student club was opened in the church building.

On May 6, 1958, actress Alexandra Aleksandrovna Yablochkina solemnly cut the ribbon and opened the Student Theater in the church building, which continued to be here until January 22, 1995.

Return and restoration of the temple

On January 25, 1991, Patriarch Alexy II served a prayer service with the akathist Martyr Tatiana in the church building.

In the fall of 1992, MSU professor Grigory Aleksandrovich Lyubimov made a presentation at the presentation of the St. Tikhon Theological Institute with the proposal to recreate the house church of St. mts. Tatians.

December 20, 1993, the Academic Council of Moscow State University adopted a decision "On the restoration of the old architectural monument on the street. Herzen, d. 1, on the reconstruction in this building of the Orthodox home church of Moscow University and the placement in other premises of this building of the museum expositions of Moscow State University. ”

April 10, 1994 in the Kazan Cathedral the consecration of the icon of St. mts. Tatiana, which was later transferred to the University Temple.

On April 27, 1994, Patriarch Alexy II established the Patriarchal Compound in the Tatiana Church by Decree No. 1341.

From the first month of the existence of the church of St. mchts. Tatiana’s orthodox student’s newspaper Tatyana’s Day begins to be published (since 2007 it has been published in electronic form - Tatyana’s Day website).

On April 23, 1995, for the first time after a 77-year break, the Divine Liturgy was held in the upper church.

December 29, 1995 two particles of relics from the right hand of St. Tatiana, who rests in the St. Michael's Cathedral of the Assumption Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, was brought to the University House Church: one particle was inserted into the icon of the holy martyr, and the other was placed in the ark.

In 1996, a particle of the relics of St. Filaret of Moscow was transferred to the temple by students of the Moscow Theological Academy and the seminary who participated in the acquisition of these relics in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

In December 1997, the icon of the Mother of God “Add Mind” was donated to the temple.

In 1998, in the Week of All Russian Saints, the exterior mosaic icon of the martyr Tatiana on the facade of the temple was consecrated.

On September 30, 1998, an agreement was signed, approved by Patriarch Alexy II, to transfer to the temple of the holy martyr Tatiana the iconostasis of the church of St. Seraphim of Sarov, brought to Moscow from New York by Protopresbyter Alexander Kiselyov.

In December 1998, the publishing activity of the temple began.

In 1999, at the altar of the church of St. mchts. Tatians set mosaic icon of the Resurrection of Christ.

December 2, 2000 - the lower church was consecrated in the basement in the name of St. Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomensky.

In 2000, a baptistery was built and consecrated in the basement of the temple to perform the Sacrament of Baptism over adults by complete immersion.

The only church in Moscow Martyr Tatiana is located on Mokhovaya Street, on the corner of B. Nikitskaya - as you know, this is the house church of Moscow University.

Saint Tatiana is considered the patroness of both the university and its students. It was on Tatyana’s day in 1755 that Empress Elizaveta Petrovna signed a decree on the founding of Moscow University - on the name day of Count I. I. Shuvalov’s mother, who submitted the decree to the empress for signature.

Saint Tatiana was the daughter of a noble Roman who secretly converted to Christianity. At that time in Rome pagan persecution of Christianity began again, when Alexander Sever became emperor. They seized the saint and forced them to return to paganism, making a sacrifice to the idol. But through her prayer, the statue was smashed to pieces, and a part of the pagan sanctuary collapsed. And when the next day the martyr was locked up in a circus and a hungry lion was allowed in, he did not touch her, lying down at her feet.

After long and terrible torment, never having obtained from her a renunciation of Christ, Saint Tatiana and her father were cut off their heads. It happened in the year 226.

Initially, Moscow University did not have its own house church, as well as its own building, built specifically for him. At first, it was temporarily located in the old building of the Zemsky Prikaz on Red Square, where the Main Pharmacy was located at that time. The architect D. Ukhtomsky hastily updated the old building for the needs of Moscow University (now the Historical Museum on this site).

A festive prayer service on the opening day of Moscow University on April 26, 1755 and the first divine services for university celebrations were held in neighboring Kazan Cathedral.

However, already in July 1757, the search for a temple began to open a university house church in it. Then the director of Moscow University, I.I. Melissino, turned to the Moscow office of the Holy Synod with a request to transfer to the university the nearby church of St. Great Martyr Paraskeva Fridays in Okhotny Ryad. It was supposed to temporarily set up its own university church "both for listening to all students and for interpreting the Catechism."

However, the church was located in the courtyard of Princess Anna Gruzinskaya, a relative of the very Georgian Tsar Vakhtang, whom Peter I had given the courtyard to the church together with the church refused to transfer the family inheritance to the university, having informed her of this decision through the administrator. Then they began to look for other temples.

Soon, Moscow University took over the estates of princes Volkonsky, Repnin and Boryatinsky on Mokhovaya, where its main building was later built according to the design of Matvey Kazakov. And approximately at the place where the building of the Zoological Museum now stands with a huge arch of the neighboring Botanical Building of Moscow State University, in ancient times there was an ancient church of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, built back in 1519 by Aleviz Fryazin. It contained two chapels belonging to Repnin, and Prince Repnin bequeathed them along with church utensils to Moscow University.

However, upon examination, the commission concluded that the building of the dilapidated church could collapse just about the time and that it was unsuitable for worship.

In 1784, the new director of Moscow University, P.I. Fonvizin (the brother of the famous writer), asked Archbishop Plato to transfer the whole Dionysian Church to the university in order to dismantle it and build a new house church in that place: “To fulfill the Christian position, students need the University to have their own parish church, so that the abbot would have all the laws and the ability to instruct the law of a learning youth, be the confessor of students and students who are in official custody, he could always correct the requirements. "

In that place, work was already underway on the construction of the Main Building of Moscow University. Vladyka Plato granted the request and in response demanded to build a church "the best and most extensive, corresponding to the honor of the University and the number of students in it."

One of the main differences between Moscow University and European universities is traditionally seen in the fact that it did not have a theological faculty. But this does not mean that the teaching in it was purely materialistic or that theology was not taught in it at all.

God's law was one of the compulsory disciplines for all students. And in 1819, a separate university-wide department of the Knowledge of God and Christian doctrine was even organized to teach theology, church history, and church law.

Even one of the paragraphs of the student’s charter at the end of the 18th century read: “Most of all, a university pet from natural Russians should have a firm knowledge of the Catechism of the Greek-Russian Church, and an unbeliever should be aware of the truths of religion according to his religion.”

And in 1791, in the left wing of the Main Building erected by Kazakov, where ISAA is now located, the first university house church in the name of St. the martyrs of Tatiana - "in the unforgettable memory of a worthy day on which the University project was instituted." By the way, architect and artist Anton Ivanovich Claudi worked on her project with Kazakov. He painted her interior. Note that the same master worked on the murals of the famous Moscow church of St. Martin the Confessor on Taganka.

On April 5, 1791, the Tatiana Church was consecrated by Metropolitan Plato, who uttered a word on the text “Wisdom built a house for yourself and establish the pillars of the seventh,” ending his solemn sermon with the words: “The School of Sciences and the worldly wisdom brought in the sanctuary of the Lord becomes sanctified: one another aids, but moreover, one affirms the other. "

And Empress Catherine the Great sent a full rich sacristy as a gift to the university church on the morning of the Sunday of the Resurrection. As one old scholar put it, with this gift, "the Empress as if christened with the University."

The most august persons personally attended the university temple. So, in December 1809, Emperor Alexander I came here with his sister Ekaterina Pavlovna and her husband, Prince George Holstein-Oldenburg.

The emperor was delighted with the beauty of the church and said in French: “Oh, how good, isn’t it? Everything here is so sweet, excellent and in accordance with the simplicity and perfection of the Christian Faith, which can lead everyone in awe ...”

This first university church burned down along with the entire building on Mokhovaya in the fire of 1812. Her rector, Father Jonah, managed to save from the church only old church utensils - apparently the very one donated by Catherine II.

And on the day when Napoleon’s army left Moscow, it was Father Jonah who was the first of the Moscow priests to serve in the walls of the Holy Monastery a thanksgiving prayer to Christ the Savior. For his exploits during World War II, he was later awarded the pectoral cross.

University Church of St. Tatiana, who was left homeless, reopened temporarily in 1817 on the second floor of the church of St. George the Victorious on Krasnaya Gorka, adjacent to the university. This temple, destroyed by the Bolsheviks, stood on the site of the current house No. 6 on Mokhovaya Street, built in 1934 by the famous architect I.V. Zholtovsky as the first Moscow model of architecture of the "Stalinist Empire".

It was here, in the newly consecrated Tatianinsky side chapel of the St. George Church, students of Moscow University swore allegiance to Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, and then to his brother Nicholas I in 1825. And here, on Tatyana’s day in 1831, a solemn service was held after a terrible cholera epidemic in Moscow.

Only in 1832, Emperor Nicholas I bought for the University the Pashkov estate on Mokhovaya, located between Vozdvizhenka and Bolshaya Nikitskaya streets and built, perhaps, by Vasily Bazhenov himself (now it is the Auditorium building of Moscow State University).

The name of this great architect is not accidentally mentioned here: the Pashkovs were relatives of that very rich man P.E. Pashkov, the son of orderly Peter the Great, for whom Bazhenov built a palace on the corner of Mokhovaya and Znamenka, known as the "Pashkov House".

In the estate on Mokhovaya, its owners were going to give balls and theatrical performances. However, at first in the left wing of this estate, where the university church is now located, an equestrian arena was arranged.

And in 1806, the Pashkovs leased the outbuilding to the treasury for performances of the troupe of the former Petrovsky Theater of Medoks, who moved here from the burnt building on Theater Square. And it was here, in a modest manor outbuilding, that the Moscow Imperial Theater arose, which became the cradle and ancestor of the Bolshoi and Maly theaters.

In 1836, the Russian architect E.D. Tyurin rebuilt the former Pashkov wing for the Tatyana Church, where it operated until 1918. In those years, he was engaged in a general reorganization of this estate for the new buildings of Moscow University.

The architect Tyurin, the builder of the Epiphany Cathedral in Yelokhov and the Alexandrinsky Palace on B. Kaluzhskaya, considered it an honor to work for Moscow University and worked for free. And then he presented the University with his collection of paintings, in which were paintings of Raphael and Titian. He collected it all his life ...

On September 12 (25), 1837, St. Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, consecrated the new house church of the university in the presence of Minister of Education S. S. Uvarov. The stanzas from the sermon of St. Filaret - “Come unto Him and be enlightened” - were laid out on the iconostasis, above the Royal Gates. The same inscription was laid out "on the forehead of the temple" - on the pediment of the church building overlooking Mokhovaya street.

Only in 1913 a new inscription appeared on the pediment, restored in our time, - "The Light of Christ enlightens everyone," - made in ancient Slavic script. And then a wooden four-pointed cross was installed upstairs.

The interior of the new university church on Mokhovaya was magnificent. Initially, it was painted by the same Anton Claudi. On the edges of the iconostasis, to the right and left of the Crucifixion above the Royal Gates, there were sculptures of two kneeling angels by the famous master I.P. Vitali: to the right of the Crucifixion - the Angel of Joy, to the left - the Angel of Sorrow. After the revolution, they were transported to the sculpture museum in the Donskoy Monastery, where they were in the Mikhailovsky Church near the tombstone of Prince Golitsyn.

In 1855, on the occasion of the centenary of Moscow University, the Italian artist Langelotti re-painted the walls and vault of the Tatianinsky temple. And teachers and students then raised money for the purchase of two icons for the church of the letter of the Italian painter Roubaud: St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Elizabeth the Righteous - made in the Byzantine style. And two more icons of the work of the same Roubaud (Savior and Our Lady) were presented to the University by his former trustee Count S. S. Stroganov.

In the same anniversary year of 1855, a shrine appeared at the Tatianian Church: the historian M.P. Pogodin donated to the university church a particle of the relics of St. Cyril. Twenty years before, it was presented to a scientist in the Prague Cathedral, where the right hand of the holy enlightener of the Slavs is stored.

And in 1862, the memory of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, and services were held in the Tatianine Church.

On Tatiana’s day in 1877, the clergy of the university church consecrated the first monument to M.V. Lomonosov by S. Ivanov, then installed in front of the Audit Building. During the Great Patriotic War, fragments of an exploding high-explosive bomb fell on its pedestal, and the monument was transferred to the building of the former Tatianian Church, where the MSU club was then located. And in its place in 1957 a new monument appeared, made by the sculptor I. Kozlovsky, who now stands in the courtyard of the faculty of journalism.

Every year on January 12 (25), a festive prayer service with the Akathist to the holy martyr Tatiana was solemnly served at the university church. After the Mass, everyone went to the auditorium on Mokhovaya Street, where the official ceremony of celebrating Tatyana’s Day was held, and then the student’s free-rein. As you know, that day in the prestigious restaurant "Hermitage" on Trubnaya hastily rolled carpets and dusted the floor with sawdust, and instead of elegant chairs set up benches and moved tables together - the main feast of students was traditionally held there:

Long live Tatyana, Tatyana, Tatyana,
  All our brothers are drunk, all drunk
  On Tatyana's glorious day!

On a Tatyana’s day, city officers were ordered not to touch the swag students and not to take them to the unit.

The students and teachers of Moscow University were parishioners of the Tatiana Church - here they confessed and communed, married, baptized their children, and funeral relatives.

After the death of professors from Moscow University and its members, they buried here in the university church: V.O. Klyuchevsky and T.N. Granovsky, S.M. Soloviev and A.G. Stoletov ...

In February 1852, N.V. Gogol was buried in the Tatiana Church. As you know, he died in the parish of another church, Simeon Stolpnik on Povarskaya, which he visited in the last years of his life. They decided to arrange a farewell to him precisely in the Tatianian Church because Gogol was an honorary member of Moscow University. Friends of the writer and professor carried the coffin with his body in his arms and carried him to the cemetery of the Danilov Monastery.

And in 1892 in the church of St. Tatiana funeral service for a graduate of Moscow University - A.A. Feta. And here the funeral service was held for the first elected rector of Moscow University, S.N. Trubetskoy, who died of a stroke in the reception room of the Minister in St. Petersburg during the 1905 revolution.

In the university house church, the future philosopher Vladimir Solovyov and, possibly, Marina Tsvetaeva were baptized. The sisters of Tsvetaeva, the daughter of a professor at Moscow University, were certainly parishioners of this church - it was here, under its arches, that their first confession and communion took place.

The abbot of the church was also a professor of theology at the university. One of the most educated priests, Archpriest Nikolai Sergievsky, Moscow University student Sergei Tolstoy, the eldest son of the writer, who studied at the chemist, could not pass the subject, not knowing the answer to the question "what is the origin of the soul?" (the correct answer was: "Divine").

The university house church was closed in 1918, in accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the separation of the Church from the state and the school from the Church. Divine services at Moscow University were held for a short time in the same St. George Church, where in 1920 they secretly celebrated Tatyana's Day - on the 165th anniversary of the university.

Then the Bolsheviks forbade celebrating this ancient holiday, and the festivities on Tatyana’s day officially returned to us only in the 1990s.

In Soviet times, Lunacharsky and Bukharin, Kachalov and Sobinov performed in the building of the former church, converted into a club at Moscow State University, and in November 1927 Mayakovsky read the poem "Good" just finished here.

And it was in these walls that on November 27, 1936, Academician N.D. Zelinsky proposed assigning the name of M.V. to Moscow University Lomonosov. His proposal was accepted, and from May 7, 1940, Moscow State University began to bear the name of its founder.

Here, on May 6, 1958, the great Russian actress A.A. Yablochkina solemnly cut the ribbon and opened the Student Theater of Moscow State University.

Its first director was Rolan Bykov, and under him the theater gained such fame that even the nearest trolleybus stop was called the “Student Theater of Moscow State University”. This theater gave Russian culture a lot of distinguished names - Ju Savvin, Alla Demidov, Alexander Filippenko, Mark Zakharov.

However, the history of relations between the university community of the house church, created in 1993, and the Student Theater of Moscow State University ended in conflict in the early 90s, in which the Church acquired its legal rights to this historic building.

By symbolic coincidence, the first rector of the Tatiana Church of Moscow State University, reopened in 1995, Archpriest Maxim Kozlov was a priest of the Kazan Cathedral, restored shortly before this, and the first prayers for the return of his house church to Mokhovaya University in Moscow were again held in Kazan Cathedral.

On January 25, 1995, on Tatyana’s day, the house church of Moscow University was again consecrated here, and later on the ground floor of the building the so-called lower church was consecrated as a new chapel in the name of St. Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, who once consecrated the Tatiana Church itself.

In the same year, the first student Orthodox newspaper of Moscow State University "Tatyana's Day" began to appear here, in which students of Moscow universities worked.

Currently, the church is operating, and all the old traditions of Moscow University are returning.

Holy Martyr TATIANA ROMAN († 226)

Holy Martyr Tatiana was born in Rome in a wealthy and noble family (her father was a consul three times). Her parents secretly professed Christianity and raised their daughter in piety and faith in God.

Upon reaching adulthood, Tatiana decided not to marry, but to take a vow of chastity and devote herself to the service of the church. Tatiana was surprisingly pretty. Her tender, pale face was framed by thick brown hair. A slender figure, a good disposition and a reasonableness surprising for her age attracted the attention of others around her. She was not at all like the spoiled Romans of her circle. On the contrary, she was undemanding and executive. Many young people from wealthy families got married to Tatiana, even her father persuaded her to start a family. But she told him: “Father, my heart has long been given to the Lord, and no power will force me to renounce this love!”  And her father left her alone, and resolutely refused the suitors.

Tatiana entered the Christian community of Rome, and the bishop, seeing the zeal of the girl, appointed her deaconess. Now she has many responsibilities: visiting sick women and caring for them, preparing for baptism, overseeing liturgical gatherings. She was almost not at home, rarely saw her father, but was happy. For, helping those in need, she served the Lord! Tatiana could not sleep or eat for days, caring for the sick and homeless. Knowing the kindness of deaconesses, offended, forgotten by all, people came to her.

The holy martyr Tatiana suffered during the persecution of Christians under the young emperor Alexander North (reigned from 222 to 235). Alexander Sever was young, inexperienced, and the state was ruled by his close associates - members of the state council. Among them was one, named Ulpian, who was distinguished by a special hatred of Christians. It was he who compiled a collection of laws against believers in Jesus Christ. This by his decree poured the blood of Christian martyrs, as in the first years of persecution. Ulpian sent out an order to force all Christians to worship the Roman gods, and in case of disobedience to commit torment and death.

Tatiana knew how cruelly tortured Christians refused to worship idols. They were tortured with lashes and hooks, tortured with red-hot iron, and wild lions brought from Africa for this purpose were lowered onto them. But there was no fear in her soul. It seemed to her that she had already experienced all this. Once in a dream, she saw herself surrounded by wild, evil faces. They held out instruments of torture, which, touching her, became softer than clay. Her hands and feet were tied, but the ropes miraculously untied. Beside her, the walls collapsed and statues fell, and in the distance, in the radiant radiance, Jesus Christ stood. "Do not be afraid of anything,- He said, - and if you endure all torment to the end, you will be with Me. ”

After a while, Tatyana was captured and brought to the temple of Apollo, where she was forced to make a sacrifice to a pagan idol. Refusing, Saint Tatiana was brutally tortured, but the firmness of her faith and patience was unshakable. Amid the torment, she only prayed that God would enlighten her tormentors. “Lord, do not leave me at this difficult time!  Tatiana prayed. - Give me strength to stand and forgive my tormentors, for they do not know what they are doing! ”  And the Lord heard the prayer of the righteous.

When Tatiana was brought to a pagan temple, the earth shook. And suddenly the statue of Apollo staggered, as if someone invisible rocked it, fell and smashed to smithereens.

Tatiana began to be beaten with whips, but they bounced off her and fell upon the executioners themselves.

Lord Tatiana pleaded. “Send them the light of truth so that they will know You, a loving and merciful God!”

And suddenly a miracle happened: the tormentors saw four angels surrounding Tatiana, and traces of torment disappeared from her body. These miracles made the tormentors believe in Christ. They knelt in front of the girl.

Forgive us! Forgive me, for we did not torture you voluntarily! they prayed.

All eight people were martyred that day.

After that, Tatiana was beaten with iron sticks, but each time the tormentors themselves received the blows - the angels of God helped the saint.

On the third day, Ulpian ordered Tatiana to sacrifice the hunting goddess Diana.

On the way to the temple of the goddess Tatiana, she prayed intensely:

Lord, you know how I believe in you! How I want the light of truth to enlighten their hearts! Help me, do not leave me!

Suddenly there was a thunderclap, lightning flashed from behind the clouds and struck the temple. When the smoke cleared, everyone saw that only debris remained from the temple of Diana ...

Then they led the saint to the court, hung her there and began to torment her with iron hooks. Then they threw them, a little alive, into the dungeon and locked the doors. At night, to the tormented Tatiana, the angels appeared and healed her wounds.

The next morning, Tatiana was brought to the circus - the name of the square, surrounded by a number of benches. Competitions of fighters took place here, Christians were also thrown here, on which predatory animals were released. Without ceasing to pray, Tatiana stood in the middle of the arena waiting for new torment. The cage containing the predatorsopened and released from her a fierce lion. Everyone thought that he would rip the girl, but the opposite happened! The lion obediently, like a kitten, lay down beside him and began to lick her legs. When they tried to take the lion back to the cage, he suddenly rushed at a noble dignitary and tore him apart.

Pacification of a Lion (artist Natalya Klimova)

Tatiana was again tortured, and then thrown into the fire, but the flame did not harm her.

The judges, having decided that Tatiana was engaged in magic by means of her hair, sheared them and locked her for two days in the temple of Jupiter. On the third day, the priests, coming to the temple to make a sacrifice to Jupiter, found his statue broken, and Tatiana alive.

The signs of the power and truth of the Lord, revealed in the martyrdom of St. Tatiana, led many to faith in Christ.

Then the frightened persecutors sentenced her to death. Saint Tatyana was sentenced to death by the sword. Together with her, her father was executed, who revealed to her the truths of the faith of Christ. Tatiana's martyrdom occurred January 12, 226 .

The relics of the holy martyr Tatiana

Hand of the Holy Martyr Tatiana

Relics (right hand) the holy martyr Tatiana are kept in Holy Assumption Pskov-Pechersky Monastery   since January 27, 1977. The right hand was handed over to the monastery by hieromonk Father Vladimir (Moskvitin) - the brother of Archimandrite Athanasius (Moskvitin), from whom these relics were stored earlier. Father Athanasius served in Spasskoye village, Klinsky district, Moscow Region for 22 years, right up to the day of his death. This holy shrine was given to Father Athanasius by the pious spouses of a distinguished family, his spiritual children, who later both received monastic tonsure from Father Athanasius. They at one time bought the holy relics for gold currency during the ruin of the Tsarsko-Selo Sovereign Palace, where they were stored. Due to the cruelty of the past years, the shrine was kept secretly both among the spouses and in the father of Athanasius, but always with due honors and a prayerful appearance before her.

The icon of the holy martyr Tatiana with a particle of relics is in Novospassky Monastery (metro station "Proletarskaya", Peasant Square, 10).

Patroness of students

Since 1755, the martyr Tatiana has traditionally been revered as the patroness of Russian students. It was on the day of her memory that the famous Moscow University was established (January 12, 1755, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna signed a decree “On the Establishment of Moscow University”).

Initially, the University did not have a house church, since it itself temporarily occupied the building of the Main Pharmacy. Only in 1791 in one of the wings of the new university building, built by Matvey Kazakov, was the house of the Martyr Tatiana's House organized in memory of the foundation day of the university. However, during a fire in 1812, the temple burned down along with other buildings.

The new building of Moscow University on Mokhovaya with the Church of St. Tatyana. G.F. Baranovsky. 1848

The new house church of Moscow University was rebuilt in 1833 - 1836. from the right wing of the Pashkovs estate on the corner of Nikitskaya and Mokhovaya streets by the famous architect Evgraf Dmitrievich Tyurin and consecrated on January 12 (January 25), 1837, by Metropolitan Filaret (Drozdov) in honor of the martyr Tatiana. Around that time, the tradition began to organize student festivities on Tatyana’s day, and to honor the saint herself as the patroness of students. On the attic, the inscription flaunts “The light of Christ enlightens all”.

In 1918, the Temple of the Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University was closed. A reading room was arranged in the church premises: bookcases of the law faculty were placed in the church. In 1958, the Student Theater was opened here. Only in 1995, the house church of Moscow State University was again consecrated and opened. Two particles of relics were brought from the right hand of St. Tatiana, who rests in the Mikhailovsky Cathedral of the Holy Assumption Pskov-Pechersky Monastery: one particle was inserted into the icon of the holy martyr, and the other was placed in the ark.

Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK

for the Temple of the Life-Giving Trinity on the Sparrow Hills

* In preparing the material used information from various Orthodox sources.

Troparion, voice 4th
Thy Lamb, Jesus, Tatiana calls with a great voice: You, my wife, I love and seek those who are suffering and crucify and buried in your baptism and for your sake, for I reign in you and die for you, and I live with you, but I live with you receive the immaculate me, I will exterminate myself with love: with your prayers, as Gracious, save our souls.

Kondak, voice 4th
Thou shalt light in thy misery, thou torpedo torment, replete with thy blood, and like a red dove flew up to heaven thou, Tatiano. The same moth is present for reverence.

Prayer to the Martyr Tatiana of Rome
O holy martyr Tatiano, now receive us, praying and falling to your holy icon. Pray for us, the servant of God (names), that we will rid ourselves of all sorrows and illnesses of our souls and body and live piously in this life, and in the next century, bless us with all the saints in the Trinity to the glorious God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and ever. Amen.

Second Prayer to the Martyr Tatiana of Rome
Oh, holy martyr Tatiano, bride of your sweetest bridegroom of Christ! The Lamb of the Lamb of the Divine! Dove, chastity, a fragrant body, dressed like tsar’s clothes, respected by the face of heaven, now rejoicing in eternal glory, from the days of youth a servant of the Church of God, observing chastity and, more than all the blessings of the Lord, who loved the Lord! We pray to you and we ask you: heed our heartfelt petitions and do not reject our prayers, grant purity to our bodies and souls, breathe love for Divine truths, lead us on a virtuous path, ask God for protection from us, heal our wounds and sores, youth protect, grant old age painless and comfortable life, in the hour of death help us, commemorate our sorrows and give joy, visit us who are in the dungeon of sin, instruct us to repent soon, light the flame of prayer, don’t leave us orphans, glorify your suffering, we praise the Lord, now, and well, and till the end of time. Amen.