Prophecies About Russia
1. St. Agathangelus, after describing the humbling of Rome before Byzantium, writes:
“For full fifty years peace shall reign. Truth shall triumph, and the sky will rejoice in true glory. The Orthodox faith will be exalted and will spring from East to West to be blessed and praised… Then God shall be glorified, and man shall see the works of His omnipotence. May it be so. It shall be so. Amen.”
2. Monk Abel the Prophet (+1831).
In a conversation with Tsar Paul I (+1801), after prophesying the destinies of all the Tsars from Paul I to Nicholas II:
“What is impossible for man is possible for God. God delays with His help, but it is said that He will give it soon and will raise the horn of Russian salvation. And there will arise a great prince from your race in exile, who stands for the sons of his people. He will be a chosen one of God, and on his head will be blessing. He will be the only one comprehensible to all, the very heart of Russia will sense him. His appearance will be sovereign and radiant, and nobody will say: ‘The Tsar is here or there’, but all will say: ‘That’s him’. The will of the people will submit to the mercy of God, and he himself will confirm his calling. His name has occurred three times in Russian history. Two of the same name have already been on the throne, but not on the Tsar’s throne. But he will sit on the Tsar’s throne as the third. In him will be the salvation and happiness of the Russian realm.”
“Russian hopes will be realized upon [the cathedral of Hagia] Sophia in Tsargrad [Constantinople]; the Orthodox Cross will gleam again; Holy Rus will be filled with the smoke of incense and prayer, and will blossom like a heavenly lily.”
3. St. Seraphim of Sarov (+1833):
“There will one day be a Tsar who will glorify me [Nicholas II glorified St. Seraphim in 1903], after which there will be a great disturbance in Russia, much blood will flow because they will rise up against this Tsar and autocracy, but God will magnify the Tsar.”
“More than half a century will pass. Then evildoers will raise their heads high. This will happen without fail: the Lord, seeing the impenitent evil of their hearts, will allow their enterprises for a short time. But their sickness will rebound upon their own heads, and the unrighteousness of their destructive plots will fall upon them. The Russian land will become red with rivers of blood…
“Before the birth of the Antichrist there will be a great, protracted war and a terrible revolution in Russia passing all bounds of human imagination, for the bloodletting will be most terrible: the rebellions of Ryazan, Pugachev and the French revolution will be nothing in comparison with what will take place in Russia. Many people who are faithful to the fatherland will perish, church property and the monasteries will be robbed; the Lord’s churches will be desecrated; good people will be robbed of their riches and killed, rivers of Russian blood will flow… But the Lord will have mercy on Russia and will bring her along the path of great sufferings to glory.”
“Everything that bears the label of ‘Decembrists’, ‘Reformers’ and, in a word, belongs to ‘the party for the betterment of life’ is genuine anti-Christianity, which, in evolving, will bring about the destruction of Christianity and, in part, of Orthodoxy, upon the earth; and which finally will end with the enthronement of the Antichrist over all the nations of the world, except Russia. She will come together into a single united body with the other Slavic nations and comprise a huge ocean ‘one mighty realm, fearsome to the foes of Christ’ before which all the other tribes of the earth will quail in fear. And this is as sure as 2+2=4.”
“The Lord has revealed to me, wretched Seraphim, that there will be great woes on the Russian land, the Orthodox faith will be trampled on, and the hierarchs of the Church of God and other clergy will depart from the purity of Orthodoxy. And for this the Lord will severely punish them. I, wretched Seraphim, besought the Lord for three days and three nights that He would rather deprive me of the Kingdom of Heaven, but have mercy on them. But the Lord replied: “I will not have mercy on them; for they teach the teachings of men, and with their tongue honour Me, but their heart is far from Me.'”
“The Lord has ordained that I, poor Seraphim, am to live much longer than 100 years [he died for the first time at the age of 73 in 1833]. By that time the Russian hierarchs will become so impious that they will not even believe in the most important dogma of the Faith of Christ – the resurrection of Christ and the general resurrection. That is why it will be pleasing to the Lord God to take me from this very temporary life for a time and then, for the establishment of the dogma of the resurrection, to raise me, and my resurrection will be like the resurrection of the seven youths in the cave of Okhlon. After my resurrection I will go from Sarov to Diveyevo, when I will preach universal repentance. At this great miracle people will assemble in Diveyevo from all the ends of the earth, and there, preaching repentance to them, I will open four relics. Then Diveyevo will be a universal wonder, for from it the Lord God will send the Light of Salvation not only for Russia, but also for the whole world in the times of the Antichrist.”
“I will open four relics and I myself will lie down between them as the fifth. But then will come the end of everything.”
“I think that the eighth thousand [of years: 1992 A.D. = 7500 since the creation of the world] will pass. I think that it will pass. Everything will pass and come to an end. And the monasteries will be destroyed, but at poor Seraphimâ’s in Diveyevo the bloodless Sacrifice [the true Eucharist] will be celebrated until the very day of the coming of Christ.”
“Constantinople and Jerusalem will be inhabited by the combined powers of Russia and the others. At the division of Turkey almost all will go to Russia, and Russia with the united forces of many other States will take Vienna, and about 7 million native Viennese will remain under the house of the Hapsburgs, and there the territory of the Austrian empire will be constructed.
“To France for her love for the Mother of God, the holy Madonna, will be given up to 17 million Frenchmen with its capital in the city of Rheims, while Paris will be completely destroyed.
1) Before the birth of the Antichrist an Eighth Ecumenical Council must be convened of all the Churches under the One Head, Christ and under the one Protecting Veil of the Mother of God [according to St. Nilus the myrrh-gusher: ‘a last and eighth Ecumenical Council to deal with the disputes of heretics and separate the wheat from the chaff’. Its aim will be to unite and reunite all the holy Churches of Christ against the growing antichristian tendency under a single Head, Christ the Life-Giver, and under a single Protecting Veil of His Most Pure Mother, and to deliver to a final curse the whole of Masonry and all the parties similar to it (under whatever names they may appear), the leaders of whom have one common aim: under the pretext of complete egalitarian earthly prosperity, and with the aid of people who have been made fanatical by them, to create anarchy in all states and to destroy Christianity throughout the world, and, finally, by the power of gold concentrated in their hands, to subdue the whole world to antichristianity in the person of a single autocratic, God-fighting tsar – one king over the whole world.
“Satan was the first revolutionary and through this fell from heaven. Between the teaching of his followers and the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ there is nothing in common, but a huge gulf. The Lord through the doing of the commandments given by Him calls mankind to heaven, where righteousness dwells. The spirit of darkness promises the building of paradise on earth.
“The Jews and the Slavs are the two peoples of the destinies of God, the vessels and witnesses of Him, the unbroken arks; but the other peoples will be as it were spittle which the Lord will spit out of His mouth. The Jews were scattered over the face of the whole earth because they did not accept and did not recognise the Lord Jesus Christ. But in the times of the Antichrist many Jews will be converted to Christ, since they will understand that the Messiah whom they mistakenly wait for is none other than he about whom our Lord Jesus Christ said: ‘I have come in the name of My Father, and they have not received Me, another will come in his own name, and they will receive him.’
And so, in spite of their great crime before God, the Jews were and are a people beloved before God. But the Slavs are beloved of God because they will preserve true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to the end. They will completely reject the Antichrist and will not accept him as the Messiah, for which they will be counted worthy of great blessings by God. They will be the first and most powerful people on the earth, and there will be no more powerful state than the Russian-Slavic in the world.
“Jesus Christ, the true God-man, the Son of God the Father by the descent of the Holy Spirit, was born in Israel, while the true antichrist-man-god will be born amidst the Slavs and Russians. He will be the son of a virgin adulteress of the tribe of Dan and the son of the devil through the artificial transfer to her of male seed, with which the spirit of darkness will dwell together in her womb. But one of the Russians who will live to the birth of the Antichrist will, like Simeon the God-receiver, who blessed the Child Jesus and announced His nativity to the world, curse the antichrist at his birth and will announce to the world that he is the true antichrist.” [4]
4. Archbishop Anthony of Voronezh (+1846):
“Constantinople and Jerusalem will be taken by the combined forces of Russia and others. During the partition of Turkey, almost all of it will be apportioned to Russia.”
5. Elder Porphyrius of Glinsk (+1868):
“In due course, faith will collapse in Russia. The brilliance of earthly glory will blind the mind. The word of truth will be defiled, but with regard to the Faith, some from among the people, unknown to the world, will come forward and restore what was scorned.”[5]
6. Archimandrite Jonah (Miroshnichenko) (+1902):
“You will see what will happen in fifty years’ time: everyone will forsake the Law of God and will fall away from the faith, but then they will again come to their senses and turn back and live in a Christian manner.”[6]
7. Elder Barnabas of Gethsemane Skete (+1906):
“Persecutions against the faith will constantly increase. There will be unheard-of grief and darkness, and almost all the churches will be closed. But when it will seem that it is impossible to endure any longer, then deliverance will come. There will be a flowering. Churches will even begin to be built. But this will be a flowering before the end.”[7]
8. St. John of Kronstadt (+1908):
“I foresee the restoration of a powerful Russia, still stronger and mightier than before. On the bones of these martyrs, remember, as on a strong foundation, will the new Russia we built – according to the old model; strong in her faith in Christ God and in the Holy Trinity! And there will be, in accordance with the covenant of the holy Prince Vladimir, a single Church! Russian people have ceased to understand what Rus is: it is the footstool of the Lord’s Throne! The Russian person must understand this and thank God that he is Russian.”[8]
“The Church will remain unshaken to the end of the age, and a Monarch of Russia, if he remains faithful to the Orthodox Church, will be established on the Throne of Russia until the end of the age.”[9]
9. Elder Aristocles of Moscow (+1918):
“An evil will shortly take Russia, and wherever this evil goes, rivers of blood will flow. It is not the Russian soul, but an imposition on the Russian soul. It is not an ideology, nor a philosophy, but a spirit from hell. In the last days Germany will be divided. France will be just nothing. Italy will be judged by natural disasters. Britain will lose her empire and all her colonies and will come to almost total ruin, but will be saved by praying enthroned women. America will feed the world, but will finally collapse. Russia and China will destroy each other. Finally, Russia will be free and from her believers will go forth and turn many from the nations to God.”[10]
“Now we are undergoing the times before the Antichrist. But Russia will yet be delivered. There will be much suffering, much torture. The whole of Russia will become a prison, and one must greatly entreat the Lord for forgiveness. One must repent of one’s sins and fear to do even the least sin, but strive to do good, even the smallest. For even the wing of a fly has weight, and God’s scales are exact. And when even the smallest of good in the cup tips the balance, then will God reveal His mercy upon Russia.”
“The end will come through China. There will be an extraordinary outburst and a miracle of God will be manifested. And there will be an entirely different life, but all this will not be for long.”
“God will remove all leaders, so that Russian people should look only at Him. Everyone will reject Russia, other states will renounce her, delivering her to herself.“ This is so that Russian people should hope on the help of the Lord. You will hear that in other countries disorders have begun similar to those in Russia. You will hear of war, and there will be wars. But wait until the Germans take up arms, for they are chosen as God’s weapon to punish Russia – but also as a weapon of deliverance later. The Cross of Christ will shine over the whole world and our Homeland will be magnified and will become as a lighthouse in the darkness for all.”[11]
10. Martyr-Eldress Duniushka of Siberia (+1918):
“Brother will rise up against brother! They will destroy everything acquired by their ancestors. They will sweep away religion, and — most importantly — there will be no master in the land!” The master in the land, of course, is the Tsar, God’s Anointed One! He cannot go anywhere. This trouble will come upon everyone and grind them up, as though in a meat-grinder. The war will end, and its end will turn the whole country upside-down. Insurgents will appear, leaders, who will incite the people against the Tsar. It will be terrible!
“And later, they will seize upon religion. They will sweep away that which has been gathered through the ages and assiduously preserved by our ancestors. But it will be impossible for them to root it out; the roots will remain – and, after many years, they’ll give forth a most-beautiful bloom and fruit.
“The Tsar will leave the nation, which shouldn’t be, but this has been foretold to him from Above. This is His destiny. There is no way that He can evade it. For this, He will receive a martyr’s crown on earth, for which He’ll receive, subsequently, an eternal crown, a Heavenly one. He will be a prayerful Intercessor for the nation and the people, when the chastisement fallen upon dozens of generations for the harm done to God’s Anointed One will reach an end. The generations to come will bear the responsibility for this act on the part of their ancestors.
“The disaster in the land will disperse the people; they will be scattered to various countries, losing touch with one another. But, wherever Russians go, they will bring their culture and their religion.
“At the far end of Russia, there will be an enormous earthquake. The waters will break out of the ocean, flooding the continent, and many nations will perish. Many diseases beyond understanding will appear. The face of the earth will change. The people will comprehend their guilt; they will come to understand how far they have departed from God and from His teachings, and then they will begin to be reborn spiritually, gradually being cleansed physically, as well. People will become vegetarians. By that time, many animals will have vanished. The horse and the dog will only be seen in pictures; and later the cow, the goat, and the sheep will disappear forever from our planet. People will no longer be interested in politics, and the spiritual principle of each nation will predominate.
“Russia will be supreme in the world. Her name will be ‘Holy Rus’. All sects and religions will pour into Orthodoxy . But Orthodoxy, and — essentially speaking — religion, will draw closer to what it was in Apostolic times. . . . In those centuries to come, there will no longer be any tsars or kings. In ‘Holy Rus’ a Prince will reign, who will come from the nation that gave us our religion [i.e., Byzantium]. He will be a supremely spiritual person, who will provide the opportunity for uplifting the moral fibre and the spiritual principles of the nation.
“In the course of one of those centuries, Asia will bestir herself; she will try to penetrate into Europe, but her attempts will be futile. No one will ever overcome ‘Holy Rus’, and only through her will salvation come to the world.”[12]
11. Hieromartyr Andronicus, Archbishop of Perm (+1918):
For its oath-breaking God has for the time being taken reason and will from the whole people, until they repent. It will be slow, but they will repent, at first gradually, but then they will completely recover their spiritual sight, they will feel strength and, like Ilya Muromets, will cast off this horror which has wrapped round the whole of our country. Perhaps I will not be alive, but I do not abandon my hope and confidence that Russia will be resurrected and return to God.[13]
12. Elder Anatolius (Potapov) of Optina (+1922):
“There will be a storm. And the Russian ship will be destroyed. Yes, it will happen, but, you know, people can be saved on splinters and wreckage. Not all, not all will perish…” But he also prophesied that canonical unity would be restored: “A great miracle of God will be revealed. And all the splinters and wreckage will, by the will of God and His might, be gathered together and united, and the ship will be recreated in its beauty and will go along the path foreordained for it by God. That’s how it will be, a miracle manifest to all…”[14]
13. Elder Alexis (Mechev) of Moscow (+1922):
“When the time comes, God will send the necessary people, who will do this work [the salvation of Russia] and will annihilate the Bolsheviks in the same way that a storm breaks the wood of a mast.”[15]
14. Elder Nectarius of Optina (+1928):
“Russia will arise, and materially she will not be wealthy. But in spirit she will be wealthy, and in Optina there will yet be seven luminaries, seven pillars.”[16]
15. Hieroconfessor Priest George of Spas-Chekryak (+1928):
“The main cause of people’s woes is our sinful life and apostasy from God. But this will pass. Through sorrows and sufferings Russian will be purified from sins and will return to God. The Heavenly Queen will not abandon our people and will pray for us to her Son and our Saviour Jesus Christ. When this happens, the icon of the Kazan Mother of God will appear and will be glorified for a third time.”
16. Martyr-Eldress Agatha of Belorussia (+1939):
“The atheist Soviet power will vanish, and all its servants will perish. The True Orthodox Faith will triumph, and people will be baptised as at one time they were baptized under St. Vladimir.”[17]
17. Archbishop Theophan of Poltava (+1940):
“The coming of the Antichrist draws nigh and is very near. But before the coming of the Antichrist Russia must yet be restored – to be sure, for a short time. And in Russia there must be a Tsar forechosen by the Lord Himself. He will be a man of burning faith, great mind and iron will. This much has been revealed about him….[18]
“He will not be a Romanov, but he will be of the Romanovs according to the maternal line.”[19]
“I do not speak from myself. But that which I have heard from the God-inspired elders, that I have passed on… The Lord will have mercy on Russia for the sake of the small remnant of true believers. In Russia, the elders said, in accordance with the will of the people, the Monarchy, Autocratic power, will be re-established. The Lord has forechosen the future Tsar. He will be a man of fiery faith, having the mind of a genius and a will of iron. First of all he will introduce order in the Orthodox Church, removing all the untrue, heretical and lukewarm hierarchs. And many, very many – with few exceptions, all – will be deposed, and new, true, unshakeable hierarchs will take their place. He will be of the family of the Romanovs according to the female line. Russia will be a powerful state, but only for ‘a short time’… And then the Antichrist will come into the world, with all the horrors of the end as described in the Apocalypse.”[20]
18. Hieroschemamonk Seraphim (Vyritsky) of Moscow (+1942):
“When the East will get stronger, everything will become shaky. Numbers are on their side. But not only that: they have sober workers and industrious people, while there is such drunkenness with us. There will come a time when Russia will be torn into pieces. At first they will divide it, and then they will begin to steal its wealth. The West will do everything to help the destruction of Russia and for a time will give its eastern part to China. The Far East will fall into the hands of Japan, and Siberia – to the Chinese, who will begin to move into Russia, marry Russian women and in the end by cunning and craftiness will seize the territory of Siberia as far as the Urals. But when China will want to go further, the West will resist and will not allow it. The East will be baptised in Russia. The whole heavenly world, together with those on earth, understand this, and pray for the enlightenment of the East.”
19. Elder Theodosius (Kashin) of Minvody (+1948), shortly after the outbreak of war with Germany in 1941:
“Do you really think that that was the war (1941-45)?! The war is still to come. It will begin from the east. And then from all sides, like locusts, the enemies will spread over Russia… That will be the war!”
“During that memorable conversation,” wrote Schema-Archimandrite Seraphim (Tyapochkin), “a woman from a Siberian town was present. The elder said to her:
‘You will receive a martyr’s crown from the hands of the Chinese in your town’s stadium, where they will drive the Christians who live there and those who do not agree with their rule.’
This was the reply to her doubts with regard to the words of the elder that practically the whole of Siberia will be captured by the Chinese. The elder told what had been revealed to him about the future of Russia, he did not name dates, he only emphasized that the time for the accomplishment of his words was in the hands of God, and much depended on how the spiritual life of the Russian Church would develop, insofar as the strength of faith in God among the Russian people would correspond to the believers’ struggles in prayer.
The elder said that the collapse of Russia, in spite of her apparent strength and the cruelty of the authorities, would take place very quickly. At first the Slavic peoples will be split off, then the Union republics will fall away: the Baltic, Central Asia and Caucasian republics and Moldavia. After this central power in Russia will weaken still more, so that autonomous republics and regions will begin to separate themselves. Then a great collapse will take place: the power of the Centre will cease to be recognized de facto by the autonomous regions, which will try to live independently and will no longer pay any attention to orders from Moscow. The greatest tragedy will be the seizure of Siberia by China. This will not take place through military means: in consequence of the weakening of the authorities and the open frontiers, masses of Chinese will move into Siberia, will snap up property, enterprises and flats. By means of bribery, intimidation and agreements with the authorities, they will gradually take control of the economic life of the towns. Everything will take place in such a way that one morning the Russians living in Siberia will wake up in a Chinese state. The destiny of those who remain there will be tragic, but not hopeless. The Chinese will deal cruelly with every attempt at resistance. (That was why the elder prophesied a martyric end in the stadium of the Siberian town for many Orthodox and patriots of the Homeland.)
The West will assist this creeping conquest of our land and in every way support the military and economic might of China out of hatred for Russia. But then they will see the danger for themselves, and when the Chinese try to conquer the Urals, this time by military might, and go even further, they will by all means hinder this and will even be able to help Russia in deflecting the invasion from the East. Russia must stand her ground in this battle; after sufferings and complete impoverishment she will find in herself the strength to recover. And the coming regeneration will begin in the lands conquered by the enemies, in the midst of Russians left in the former republics of the Union. There Russian people will realise what they have lost, will recognise themselves to be citizens of that Fatherland which is still alive, and will want to help her rise from the ashes. Many Russians living abroad will begin to help the re-establishment of life in Russia. Many of those who are able to flee from persecutions will return to the immemorial Russian lands so as to fill up the abandoned villages, till the neglected fields and use the mineral resources that remain untapped. The Lord will send help, and, in spite of the fact that the country will have lost its main seams of raw materials, they will find the oil and gas without which a contemporary economy cannot work, in Russia.
The elder said that the Lord would permit the loss of huge territories given to Russia because we ourselves were not able to use them worthily, but only spoiled and polluted them. But the Lord will leave in Russia’s possession those lands which became the cradle of the Russian people and were the base of the Great Russian state. This is the territory of the Great Muscovite Principality of the 16th century with outlets to the Black, Caspian and North seas. Russia will not be rich, but still she will be able to feed herself and force others to reckon with her.
To the question: What will happen to Ukraine and Belorussia? The elder replied that everything is in the hands of God. Those among those people who are against union with Russia even if they consider themselves to be believers will become servants of the devil. The Slavic peoples have one destiny, and the monastic Fathers of the Kiev Caves [Lavra] will yet utter their weighty word – they together with the choir of the new martyrs of Russia will by their prayers obtain a new Union of the three brother peoples. They posed one more question to him on the possibility of the restoration of a monarchy in Russia. The elder replied that this restoration must be earned. It exists as a possibility, but not as something predetermined. If we are worthy, the Russian people will elect a Tsar, but this will become possible before the very enthronement of the Antichrist or even after it for a very short time.”[21]
20. Blessed Pelagia of Ryazan (+1968):
“The bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church will fall away from the truth of the Orthodox Faith, they will not believe in the prophecies of the resurrection of Russia. To reprove them St. Seraphim of Sarov will be raised from the dead. He will reprove the clergy for their treachery and betrayal, and will preach repentance to the whole world. Seraphim of Sarov will explain the whole of history, will recount everything and will reprove the pastors like children, will show them how to cross themselves, and much else. After such wonderful miracles the clergy will have a devotion for the Lord, that is, it will teach the people to serve the batyushka-tsar with all their heart.
“The Antichrist will come to power and will begin to persecute Orthodoxy. And then the Lord will reveal His tsar in Russia. He will be of royal family and will be a strong defender of our faith. When the Lord will give this very intelligent person, life will be good. The Antichrist will declare himself from America. And the whole world will bow down to him except Tsarist Orthodox Russia.
PROPHECY OF Saint Lavrenty of Chernigov
FOR A SHORT WHILE
“The Russian people will repent of deadly sins: that they allowed Jewish impiety [to hold sway] in Russia; that they did not defend God’s Anointed Tsar’, the Orthodox churches and monasteries, and all that is holy and sacred in Russia. They despised piety and came to love demonic impiety. But there will be a spiritual upheaval! And Russia, together with all the Slavic nations and lands, will constitute a mighty Tsardom. She will be governed by an Orthodox Tsar’, by God’s Anointed One. Because of him, all schisms and heresies will vanish away in Russia. There will be no persecution of the Orthodox Church. The Lord will have mercy on Holy Rus’ because the dreadful time preceding that of antichrist has already taken place in her. Even antichrist himself will fear the Russian Orthodox Tsar’-Samoderzhets [Tsar’-Autocrat].
“But all the other nations, save only Russia and the Slavic lands, will be ruled by antichrist and will undergo all the horrors and torments written of in Holy Scripture. In Russia, however, there will be rejoicing and a blossoming of faith – but only for a short while, for the Dread Judge will come to try both the living and the dead.
P.S. “It seems, that this means that after this closely aproaching great world war of within of time frame of war, for period of few decades a short blossom of PURE faith-ressurection in Russia will occur with one more-last Tsar on throne, WHO WILL BRING ORDER IN CHURCH AND STATE. It seems that it will be ESTABLISHED some kind of Orthodox commonwealth of three allied kings in one Orthodox Block with RUSSIA that will be in stand off position with unified NATO counterpart. It seems that of these three- one king will rule in area of Balkan region, one in Russia (Tsar) and one far eastern part… , while in rest of world Forces of Antichrist will impose heavy yoke of demonic enslavment on humanity devastated after war and work on enthronment of antichrist…it seems that after such short period than antichrist will atack Russia and its allies and will ruin them and thus, this will mark begining of his short but absolute rule in world…..before Judgment day and ressurection of dead.”
————————————————–
————————————————–
THE THIRD ROME IN HISTORY AND IN PROPHECY
source: http://www.geocities.com/kitezhgrad/prophets/rom3.html
Can it really be that no one today is even slightly familiar with the “Povest’ o belom klobuke” (“The Tale Of The White Cowl”) — that very same Cowl which was placed upon the head of Patriarch St. Tikhon, nearly a century ago?
The “Povest'” (which is an integral part of Russian Church history) clearly states that St. Constantine was baptized by Pope St. Sylvester shortly after the miraculous victory that Christ gave him over his pagan rival, Maxentius, at the battle on the Milvian Bridge (AD 312) and not “on his deathbed” by Eusebius of Nicomedia, as modern “scholarship” so likes to assert.
For that service, in gratitude, Constantine bestowed upon St. Sylvester the dignity of wearing a White Cowl, which is symbolic of the purity of the Orthodox Faith and the Radiant Third-day Resurrection of Christ.
Soon after the Church in Rome fell to the Appollinarian heresy, the then-Pope, commanded to do so by an Angel of the Lord who appeared to him in a threatening dream, sent the Cowl to the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Later, a “radiant youth” (also an Angel of the Lord) appeared to the then-Patriarch of Constantinople and commanded that he send the Cowl on to the Holy Russian Land:
“For Old Rome hath fallen away from the glory and the faith of Christ through pride and self-will; in New Rome, which is in the City of Constantine, the Christian faith will likewise perish through Hagarene (Muslim) violence; while upon the Third Rome, which is in the Russian Land, the Grace of the Holy Spirit hath shone forth” … for “there truly is the faith of Christ glorified” … “and honoured … more than anywhere else on earth”.
“The Tale Of The White Cowl” further predicts the establishment of a patriarchate in Rus’ (“… and the great rank of Patriarch … will be given to the Russian Land in its time, and that nation will be called radiant [or: Holy] Rus'”).
This prophecy would only find fulfillment in 1589, one hundred thirty six years after the “infidel Turks” broke down the gates of the City of Constantine and a century and a half after the Greeks had betrayed their Faith in Florence.
With the establishment of the Russian Patriarchate, the White Cowl became the headgear of Russia’s Patriarchs (St. Tikhon being the last to wear it legitimately).
Thus, the Third Rome was spiritually linked with the First, by way of the Second (II [IV] Esdras 11). And, inasmuch as “a Fourth [Rome] there shall not be”, the “Povest'” informs us that “at the end [of the Age] all Christian realms will come together into a single Russian Tsar’dom [i.e., the Third Rome resurrected], on account of the Orthodox Faith … and the Lord will exalt the Russian Tsar’ over many nations…”.
This prophecy was also passed on to us by, among others, St. Seraphim of Sarov, who informs us that even the antichrist will tremble at the mere mention of the Russian Tsar’!
We know, for example (according to the prophecies of St. Feofan of Poltava) that “[i]n Russia, the startsy [elders] used to say, through the will of the people, the Monarchy and Autocratic rule will be restored. The Lord has forechosen the future Tsar’.
“He will be a man of burning faith, of brilliant mind and of iron will. First of all, he will bring about order in the Orthodox Church by removing all the false, heresy-preaching and lukewarm hierarchs. And very many indeed — almost all, with few exceptions — will be those removed by him: while new ones, true and steadfast hierarchs, will take their place.
“Through the female line, he will be from the lineage of the Romanovs. Russia will be a mighty state, but only for ‘a short time’. … After that, the antichrist will come into the world, with all the horrors of the end, as described in the ‘Apocalypse’.”
Elsewhere, St. Feofan states:
“Oh, Russia, Russia! How terribly has she sinned before the loving kindness of the Lord.
“The Lord God favoured Russia, and He gave her that which He had not given to a single other nation on earth. And this nation turned out to be so ungrateful.
“She left Him; she rejected Him; and it is therefore that the Lord has given her over to be tormented by devils. The devils took up their residence in the souls of men, and the nation of Russia became possessed; literally, devil-ridden.
“And all the terrible things that we hear about what went on — and what continues to go on — in Russia: all the sacrilege, all the militant atheism and theomachy, — all of this stems from her being possessed by devils.
“But, through the inexpressible mercy of God, this possession will pass and the nation will be healed. The nation will turn to repentance; to faith.
“That will occur, which none expects. Russia will be resurrected from the dead, and the entire world will be astonished.
“Orthodoxy in her will be reborn and triumph. But that Orthodoxy which had existed formerly will be no more.
“The great startsy have said that Russia will be reborn; that the people themselves will restore the Orthodox Monarchy. A mighty Tsar’ will be placed upon the Throne by God Himself.
“He will be a great reformer, and he will be strong in the Orthodox faith. He will cast down the unfaithful hierarchs of the Church.
“He himself will be an outstanding personality, with a pure and holy soul. He will possess a strong will. He will be of the Romanov Dynasty, through the maternal line.
“He will be God’s Chosen One, obedient to the Lord in all things. He will transform Siberia.
“But this Russia will exist only for a very short time. Soon thereafter will come to pass that of which the Apostle John speaks in his ‘Apocalypse’.”
samizdat:
Issue #50, May – June 1973, Vol. 9, No. 3: Saint Herman of Alaska and the Future of Holy Russia
89 The 50th Issue of The Orthodox Word by Fr. Seraphim
91 The Meaning of the Russian Diaspora by Archbishop John Maximovitch, translated by Fr. Seraphim
95 Is Holy Russia Alive Today? (An Open Letter to Nikita Struve of the Vestnik of the Russian Student Christian Movement by Gennady Shimanov), introduced by Fr. Herman, translated by Fr. Seraphim from Nasha Strana
103 The Fall and Resurrection of Russia: The Words of Nine Prophets of Holy Russia on the Destiny of Russia: 1. St. Seraphim of Sarov (From Notes of Motovilov), 2. Schema-Archimandrite Heliodorus of Glinsky Hermitage, 3. St. John of Kronstadt, 4. Hiero-Schema-Monk Aristocleus, 5. Hiero-Schema-Monk Alexius of Zosima Hermitage, 6. Hieromonk Anatole the Younger of Optina, 7. Elder Nectarius of Optina, 8. Hieromonk Barnabas of the Gethsemane Skete, 9. Archbishop Theophanes of Poltava
105 A Treasury of St. Herman’s Spirituality (XVI-XVIII), translated by Fr. Herman
118 Will These Human Bones Come to Life? by Archbishop John Maximovitch, a Sermon of 1948, translated by Fr. Seraphim
123 The Great Mystery of Diveyevo from “Conversation of St. Seraphim with Motovilov,” introduced and translated by Fr. Seraphim
127 Conclusion
also see:
Leave a Comment