Ilya Muromets is the most famous, but at the same time, the most mysterious hero of the Russian epic.

Our ancestors of the 16th - early 19th centuries. did not doubt that Ilya Muromets was a real historical figure, a warrior who served the Kiev prince. Meanwhile, the Russian chronicles do not mention his name.

But he is the main character not only of our epics, but also of the Germanic epic poems of the 13th century, based on earlier legends. In them, he is represented by a mighty knight, a princely family, Ilya the Russian. In a documentary source, the name of this famous hero was first mentioned in 1574.

The envoy of the Roman emperor Erich Lassot, who visited Kiev in 1594, left a description of the tomb of Ilya Muromets, which was located in the heroic side-altar of St. Sophia Cathedral. For the famous hero and his comrade, a special side-chapel was built, that is, they were given the same honor as the grand dukes. At that time, the heroic tomb was already empty; the remains of the famous Ilya were transferred to the Antoniev Cave of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. In 1638, these relics were described by the monk of this famous monastery Athanasius of Kalofoysky, who determined that Ilya of Muromets lived 450 years ago, i.e. in 1188.

What do we know about him?

Very little reliable information has survived. Born in Murom, in the village of Karacharovo, into a peasant family. In childhood and adolescence, he suffered from paralysis, but was miraculously healed. Before the tonsure he was a member of the prince's squad and became famous for his military exploits and unprecedented strength.

In 1643 he was officially canonized.

In 1988, the Intervezdomstvennaya Commission conducted a study of the relics of the Monk Ilya of Muromets. According to its results, it was established that he was a strong-built man of enormous growth for those times. It turned out that he died at the age of 45-55 years.

Examining the bones of Muromets, scientists found multiple fractures of the collarbones, broken ribs, traces of the blow of a spear, saber, sword. This confirmed the legend that Ilya was a warrior, a participant in fierce battles.

In the lumbar part of the body, there was a curvature of the spine and pronounced additional processes on the vertebrae, which impeded the movement of the hero in his youth. Thus, in his youth he suffered paralysis of the limbs. This discovery is fully consistent with the legend that in his youth Ilya could not move for many years: "Ilya was sitting in a sitting position for thirty years and had no walking around." But when Ilya turned 33, the day came that changed his life. Beggar wanderers entered the house - kaliki pedestrians and asked for water. He explained that he could not walk. But the guests repeated the request - it sounded like an order. And Ilya, suddenly feeling an unprecedented strength, got to his feet for the first time. And the Kaliki blessed him for feats of arms.

In addition to unprecedented strength, the examination confirms the fact that Ilya Muromets spent 30 years sitting on the stove. Changes in the spine indicate paralysis in the first half of life. All these facts are enough for the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra to say: here are the relics of that same epic Ilya of Muromets.

With what illness did Ilya Muromets lie on the stove for 30 years and 3 years?

Ilya Muromets (his other nickname (Ilya Chobitko) was also recorded in the books of the Lavra (Ilya Chobitko) had a disease of the spine that did not allow him to walk, but his strength of spirit did not allow him to sit "sydney", as it is said in the epics. large hands indicate that Ilya did not sit, he actively moved using his hands, so that when fate pushed him against the kalikas, he was an adult, well-developed person of extraordinary strength of mind and body.

Illness and healing of Ilya Muromets (epic):

"They say to him the passages:
- Rosteny now grow your legs, fast,
Get off the stove now they'll carry you
They will carry you, they will hold you fast. "

Fate did not spoil Ilya with easy victories. His remains bear traces of many wounds, intravital fractures of the ribs.

Judging by the results that the examination gave, the person whose mummy was examined had a bone disease, specifically - pinching of the sciatic nerve. In addition, Ilya's hands (palms) were enlarged, which speaks of the mighty strength of the man. (Smirnov, historian)

In 1988, the Interdepartmental Commission of the Ministry of Health of the Ukrainian SSR carried out an examination of the relics of St. Ilya of Muromets. To obtain objective data, the most modern technique and ultra-precise Japanese equipment were used. The research results are amazing. The age was determined - forty - fifty-five years, such defects of the spine were revealed, which allow us to speak about the transfer of paralysis of the extremities by a person in his youth; it was found that the cause of death was an extensive wound in the area of ​​the heart.

Coming to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra for the first time, many are surprised to learn that in one of its caves a saint is buried, whose name was Ilia Muromets of Pechersky. But isn't Ilya Muromets a fictional hero from Russian epics? Did this person live in reality? Let's try to figure it out ...

There is no exact data about when Ilya Muromets was born and when he died. But the fact that such a person really existed is a historically confirmed fact. "Whether from the city of Murom, whether from the village of Karacharov ..." - this is how almost all the epics about Ilya Muromets begin. In the village of Karacharovo - once it was located near the city of Murom, and later became part of it - in the XII century there really was a hero called Chobotok. Chobot - in Old Slavonic "boot". The hero received this nickname because once, when he was putting on a boot, a gang of robbers attacked him. Since there was nothing else at hand, he put the robbers to flight, armed with a boot that he did not have time to put on. Most likely, he was from the Gushchin family, he later adopted the Christian name Elijah. In any case, in Karacharovo, the Gushchins family, where all heroes are born, still lives. In Murom, they say that in the 19th century, one of the Gushchins - Ivan Afanasyevich - was officially forbidden to take part in the then widespread fist fights, because, without calculating the force of the blow, he could kill a person. It is believed that the house of one of the Gushchins stands on the very spot where Chobotka's house stood. And next to it is the Trinity Church, for the foundation of which, according to legend, the hero alone wore huge oak logs. Now there are ruins on the site of the temple. And Murom is one of the most ancient Russian cities - today the regional center of the Vladimir region. Ilya Muromets “lay on the stove for 30 years and 3 years” - this is how the epic narrates.

But how did it happen that at the age of 33 he got up and walked? One of the epics says that once wandering elders, monks, came to Ilya's house. There was no one at home except Ilya. The elders asked him for water, to which Ilya replied: "Why, I have neither arms nor legs, I have been sitting on the seat for thirty years." But the elders even more insistently asked for water. Then Ilya got up, went to the tub, poured water into a ladle and gave it to the elders. They did not drink, but asked Ilya himself to drink this water. He drank a ladle - and recovered completely, drank a second - and felt such remarkable strength that the guests asked him to drink and a third - so that his strength diminished a little. After that, the elders ordered Ilya to go “to the capital city of Kiev,” because Russia needs protection, his strength and courage. And Ilya went to Kiev. And on the way, as he was told, he found and tore off a huge stone from the ground, under which he found a sword, armor and a horse. On this horse the hero rode to Kiev.

To believe the epic or not to believe? Is it true that a bedridden person can recover from three buckets of water? Just from water - hardly. But through prayer, if it is sincere, the Lord sends healing. And it is not so important what or who is the instrument in the hands of the Lord. The bottom line is that the bedridden hero sincerely prayed to God to help him get back on his feet in order to benefit people. And, by the way, it is probably no coincidence that the word “God” is clearly heard in the word “hero”, although it is of Turkic origin.

Ilya got to Kiev, and, without any doubt, his strength was useful for protecting Russia from enemies. Presumably, Ilya Muromets died during the capture of Kiev by Prince Rurik Rostislavich with the support of the Polovtsians, which took place in 1204. Elijah Muromets was either already by that time a monk of Theodosiev Monastery, which later grew into the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, or became one immediately after being seriously wounded. In any case, he took the name Elijah when he became a monk. And we do not know the name that Elijah bore before taking monastic vows.

Undoubtedly, Ilya Muromets became one of the most famous Russian people thanks to epics. He fought a lot and died for the Motherland, he believed in God and dedicated his life to Him. On his image, year after year, century after century, more and more details, real and fictional exploits were layered. Saint Elijah and Epic Elijah are already inseparable from each other. The integral image of Ilya Muromets, which has developed over many centuries, is perhaps the most accurate embodiment of a real Russian hero: strong, courageous and sincerely believing in God.

Saint Elijah Muromets was buried in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. His relics rest there to this day.

Troparion, voice 8

Thou art enlightened thy soul by fasting, Thou art the vessel of the Holy Spirit with ceaseless prayers, venerable our father Elijah, by the same to all the enemies of the militia thou hast strongly shamed and, as a true victorious one, thou hast received rewards from Christ God, to that pray for our souls.

It is interesting

When asked why Ilya Muromets lay on the stove for 30 years and 3 years, modern medicine answered. In 1988, a commission of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine carried out an examination of the relics of St. Elijah of Murom from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Studies have shown that this man was unusually strong and had a height of 177 cm (for the Middle Ages, this is very tall).

Ilya Muromets was found to have clear signs of a spinal disease. That is, the 33-year-old bogatyr, if he did not lie on the stove, was very much restricted in his movements. On the imperishable relics of the saint, traces of numerous wounds were found. And he died, according to the conclusion, from a wound received, most likely, in battle. The death of the hero came from a blow with a sharp weapon (spear or lance) in the chest, through the covering her left hand. The saint's right hand is folded in the sign of the cross.

Easter.ru

It is believed that the most important feature of traditional Russian cuisine is the use of Russian stove- with its slow languishing of food for many hours, a special temperature regime, etc. In principle, this opinion is correct. Indeed, oven cooking gives food the amazing personality that is characteristic of our historical culinary tradition. But not everything is so simple. And to reduce Russian cuisine to a Russian stove is a naive delusion.

We are not here about the fact that our gastronomy is not only peasant cabbage soup and pancakes. And also more elaborate dishes that require completely different technologies (open fire, stoves, etc.). There are, however, other, more important circumstances that allow us to speak about the relativity of the role of the Russian oven in the formation and development of Russian dishes.

Even today, building a stove in a house is a rather complex engineering and construction task. Correctly calculating how the smoke and hot air will go, laying out the chimney and the roof of the stove, picking up clay and brick (so as not to crack) - all this is almost impossible for a layman. That is why folding the stove in a country house now is a whole epic, accompanied by the search for the stove-maker, scandals and parting with him, new searches, cracking of the stove after the first furnace, its new repairs, etc.

This is with today's building technologies, more or less standard materials and tools. What can we say about the 15th century? So this doubt has been creeping in with us for a long time. Was it possible that such a complex engineering structure for that time, like the Russian stove, was so widespread and stood in almost every peasant house "from time immemorial"? So, it was impossible to imagine Russian cuisine without it?

In reality, of course, the Russian stove is a product of a long historical development. And far from immediately she acquired the form that is familiar to us from films and books. Moreover, a significant part of Russian history (at least, reflected in written sources) the oven in Russia did not allow performing even a small fraction of those culinary operations that are attributed to it today. Let's try to trace the evolution of this building, which has become an integral part of the Russian home and Russian history.

So, the most distant (but still left archaeological traces) times:

1st-5th centuries A.D.

There is little archaeological evidence of the construction and use of stoves in the Slavs' settlement area. But they are, and they allow us to draw the following picture. Houses were then heated by open hearths. Which, in turn, were either “round-shaped fireplaces with a diameter of 0.7-1 m on the floor of the building or in a small depression”, or “burnt under on the floor of a dwelling ”, which could rise up to 0.2 m above the floor. This picture of excavations in the Middle Dnieper region is typical of that era. Archaeologists found similar remains of hearths on the right bank of the Dnieper, and under the present-day Zhitomir, and near the Western Bug.

It is clear that they were poorly adapted even for baking bread. For this, then there were so-called. "Bread" ovens. In the southern Russian regions, they were arranged on the slopes of ravines and slopes in the form of caves dug in clay. In such a furnace, a strong fire was kindled, then they raked out the coals, planted bread inside and covered the mouth of the furnace with stones and clay to keep the heat.

The primitive nature of the hearth undoubtedly affected the limited culinary possibilities. Yes, you could fry meat, boil stew, porridge in a pot. But something more complicated is unlikely.

But the evolution of such a focus gradually took place. Probably, the common opinion for experts is that in most of the Central Russian Plain by the 6th century, an open hearth gave way to an adobe stove or a stove (depending on the availability of certain materials in the area).

VIII-XII centuries

Excavations of the cultural layers of the times of Kievan Rus (around Kiev) consistently give one result: the most ancient inhabitants of this region used oval-shaped adobe ovens for heating and cooking. Naturally, they were heated "in black". The smoke, without any chimney, entered the house and was “drawn out” through a small window in the wall / ceiling. Famous Soviet historian and archaeologist Mikhail G. Rabinovich(1916-2000) gives in his work the following graphic reconstruction of housing of that era:

Similar evolutionary processes took place in other areas. For example, in the Novgorod region. The Slavic tribes that settled no later than the turn of the 760-770s on the lower banks of the Volkhov (Staraya Ladoga) "brought with them a developed technique for the construction of ground log houses, heated by a stove-stove, located in the corner."

This was undoubtedly a step forward in the possibilities for the culinary use of the hearth. But it had little in common with the classic Russian stove. Let's say more: there was nothing specifically Russian (or Slavic) in such a furnace. Similar structures were found a little earlier or later throughout Europe. You can compare them in the illustrations:

As you can see, such a furnace design was a mass phenomenon for the early Middle Ages. Moreover, somewhere analogs have survived to this day (having turned, for example, into a focaccio oven in Italy), somewhere they have evolved much more. But let us repeat: there was nothing specifically “ours” in them, peculiar only to Russian culinary practice.

Yes, now someone can say that you can put a pot of cabbage soup in such an oven. Forced to disappoint. According to archaeologists, the mouth of those furnaces was very narrow - 20-30 cm and did not allow putting anything more or less voluminous inside. Let us note in parentheses that the families were then large and did not cook less than 3-4 liters of stew. What's the matter? The solution was unexpected.

Accidentally found remains of the upper part of the furnace provided an answer to this question. The roof of the stove turned out to be with a hole, which at first was mistaken for a chimney. But then it became obvious that a pot was installed on this hole in the roof of the furnace, completely covering it with its bottom. Just tell us now, how is it so radical different from cooking on the stove? By the way, in one of the previous images (Bohemia, 1340) almost the same hole is visible. Maybe the author of the ancient miniature slightly distorted the perspective (Well, really, why a hole a little on the side - for the release of smoke? So it comes out through the mouth, as you can clearly see in the picture). So, perhaps, in that original Bohemian stove, the hole in the vault was on top, and it was for this purpose - to install a pot, a frying pan ... However, this is just an assumption.

But this is no longer guesswork, but a more important detail. More precisely, culinary subtlety. The fact is that it was extremely inconvenient to bake bread in such an oven with a hole on top. It is known that a closed oven roof is needed for it, since water vapor accumulates under this roof, which is so necessary for the correct baking process. After all, even in later ovens with pipes, the view was closed when baking bread ... This means, again, not a universal culinary device.

Well, and so at once - about all the stereotypes. Tell me, how could you sit on such a round oven for 33 years Ilya Muromets? So we will try to understand this in the next few materials, as well as understand how our oven developed and what was used for.

(to be continued)

# history of Russia # history # Muromets # Ilyamuromets # Nightingale # robber

We have long been accustomed to thinking that Dobrynya Nikitich, Nightingale the Robber, Tsar Saltan, Koschey the Immortal and other characters in Russian folk tales are mythical heroes that never really existed. However, in fact, they not only really existed, but some of them could even be looked at relatively recently.

- Yes, - told us a resident of Kiev, an amateur researcher Alexander Stankov, - I saw them myself ...

To admit that we were somewhat puzzled by this message. Maybe it was worth sending such an "informed interlocutor" straight to a psychiatrist?

“Don’t believe me?” - Alexander Vladimirovich smiled, - and I myself would not have believed, but I saw them all with my own gases! Where? In the caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. True, that was a long time ago, when I was still a schoolboy. We were taken there on excursions. We walked for a long time along the dark corridors with candles, and then the monks showed us the crayfish in which the ancient relics lay. The princes wore armor, helmets and swords. For example, we saw the relics of Prince Alexander Nevsky. I still remember that I was struck by his helmet, which turned out to be completely different from the one worn by the actor in the famous film. There were also the relics of Princess Olga, Yaroslav the Wise, Prince Vladimir and other famous characters of Russian history. Their faces were all brown, wrinkled like a dried pear. But the clothes are rich, there are precious rings on the fingers. I also noticed that some of the grown nails pierced their shoes! In the same caves lay the relics of Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Nestor the chronicler, Sadko, Tsar Saltan ...

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Some researchers are still skeptical about the reality of Ilya Muromets - his biography seems too fabulous to scientists, - says Sergey Khvedchenya, Doctor of Geographical Sciences, researcher at the Institute of History of Ukraine at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kiev).

However, the materials collected by the researcher made it possible not only to completely restore the biography of the Svyat Russian hero, but also to answer controversial questions about the life of Ilya Muromets, which puzzled many researchers.

Ilya's healing

According to the epics of Elijah, God sent his parents to old age. Until the age of 30-33, he, distinguished by his heroic physique, "sat on the stove with a sydney", because "there was no walking at his feet," until the "kaliki perezhikh" were healed, after whose visit the hero immediately entered military service. Studies of the remains of St. Elijah from the city of Murom, which were carried out in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra by scientists, fully confirmed the epic version of the life of Ilya Muromets.

Ilya's height was 177 cm - for that time he was a very tall man (the growth of other saints from the Lavra is 160-165 cm). Well-developed tuberosities were found on the bones of the mummy, which means that a person had a well-developed muscular system during his lifetime. X-ray examination revealed changes characteristic of acromegaly - a disease that violates the proportional growth of bones and internal organs) - such people have disproportionately large limbs, a large head, "oblique fathom in the shoulders." Studies have shown that the hero also had spondyloarthrosis, a disease similar to sciatica and impeding movement. A good chiropractor can, by straightening the vertebrae, quickly put a person on their feet. The kaliki pedestrians were, most likely, chiropractors who restored Ilya's mobility.

Fight with the Nightingale the Robber

The most famous feat of Ilya Muromets is the fight with the Nightingale the Robber, who seized the direct road to Kiev and did not give anyone a pass - "neither horse nor foot." The liberation of the epic hero of the path to Kiev (1168) is confirmed by historical facts. During Ilya's arrival in Kiev, the throne was occupied by Prince Mstislav, who set the task of organizing the protection of trade caravans, which were mercilessly plundered by the Polovtsians. Most likely, the prince entrusted this to Ilya Muromets, who is in the prince's squad.

The Nightingale, it seems, was a robber who hunted theft on the road, and he was nicknamed the Nightingale for his ability to whistle well. Ilya Muromets, having defeated the whistler, cleared the straight road, which was of great economic importance. If a straight road is five hundred miles, then a roundabout way is "one thousand". Cleansing the straight path from robbers was equated by the people with a heroic deed.

Ilya's departure to the monastery

If the feats of arms of Ilya were widely reflected in the epics, then little is known about the monastic period of his life. Most likely, the wound caused him to leave for the monastery. The holy relics of the Monk Elijah testify to serious injuries - a fracture of the right collarbone and two right ribs after being struck with a battle club. Scientists have established that the hero-monk died in battle! At the end of the XII century. attacks on Kiev became more frequent, and the monks had to defend their monastery. The Svyatorussky hero died from a wound in the area of ​​the projection of the heart, penetrating into the chest cavity. Death, apparently, came instantly.