Memory Icon of Sophia, the Wisdom of God (Kyiv) takes place in the Orthodox Church on September 21 according to the new style.
This iconographic image of Sophia, the Wisdom of God, has its own distinctive features and is widely revered among believers. The holy image depicts the Most Holy Theotokos with Her Divine Son. Sophia or the Wisdom of God in the naming of the icon designates the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is named by these words in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The wise King Solomon in his Proverbs uttered the following words: “Wisdom created for herself a House and established seven pillars” (9: 1). The temple of God and the habitat of the conceived Savior was the womb Holy Mother of God, that is why the Mother of God is called the House of God. IN apostolic letters, when talking about the Savior, He was also called in one place the Wisdom of God (1 Corinthians, 30) of Christ. These words contain an indication of Christ, the Son of God, Who in the Apostolic Epistles is called “the Wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1, 30) .
The iconographic composition itself is evidence of a fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. On the icon we can see the temple in which Blessed Virgin Maria. She is wearing a tunic, and the head of the Mother of God is covered with a special veil. The Most Holy Theotokos stands under a canopy that rests on seven pillars. The Lady holds her hands directed in different directions, with her palms turned towards the worshipers. The feet of the Mother of God rest on the crescent moon. In the hands of the Most Holy Theotokos is depicted the Infant Christ, who offers a blessing with his right hand and holds an orb in his left hand. On the cornice of the canopy, under which the Most Pure Virgin stands, are written the words from the Book of Proverbs of Solomon: “Wisdom created for herself a house and established seven pillars.” Above the canopy you can see a non-canonical image of the Holy Spirit and God the Father in the form of an old man, from whose mouth come the words: “I established Her feet.” On both sides of the Mother of God stand seven Archangels of God, whose wings are spread. Each of the Heavenly servants has their distinctive signs in their hands: Archangel Michael holds a flaming sword in his hands, Archangel Uriel has a downward-pointing lightning in his hands. Archangel Raphael is distinguished by the fact that he carries with him an alabaster vessel with fragrant myrrh. The above listed archangels are depicted with right side from the Most Holy Theotokos and Her Divine Son.
On the left side stands the Archangel Gabriel, in whose hands is a lily flower. According to Church Tradition, it was with this flower, symbolizing the purity and immaculateness of the Most Holy Theotokos, that Archangel Gabriel greeted the Blessed Virgin when he told Her the joyful news of the incarnation of the Son of God from Her. Next comes Archangel Selaphiel, who holds a rosary in his hands, denoting a special prayer for the human race. Archangel Jehudiel is depicted with a royal crown in his hands, and Archangel Barachiel holds flowers on a white piece of cloth.
The foot of the Mother of God is a cloud and a crescent moon, and under them there is an ambo, to which seven steps lead. On this staircase stand seven Old Testament righteous men, who symbolize the Church of Christ on earth.
Each step of the pulpit has its own special inscription, which denotes one of the main Christian virtues, the fulfillment of which leads to the Kingdom of Heaven: faith, hope, love, purity, humility, goodness, glory. The seven pillars depicted on this icon also have their own designs associated with the text of the Revelation of St. John the Theologian.

Troparion, tone 1:
Eternal Wisdom, Christ our God, / bowed the Heavens with His divine gaze, / you deigned to dwell in the womb of the Pure Maiden, / destroying the mediastinum of enmity, / you sanctified our nature / and you opened Your Kingdom to us; / for this sake of You, our Creator and Savior ,/ and who gave birth to Thee,/ who served the mystery of our salvation as the Pure Virgin, we orthodoxly magnify.

Kontakion, tone 4:
We are the forerunner, Orthodox people, / to the wisdom of God / and we see the miraculous icon of the Most Pure Mother of God, / And after the appearance we call Sophia, the Wisdom of God, / before the temple was animated by the Only Begotten Son and the Word of God. / This then shines like a ray of light in His most holy temple / and hearts ours rejoices those who come with faith / and look with fear and reverence at this most pure icon, / thinking in our hearts, / as truly the Wisdom of God is the village / and His sacraments, / for the hope of the faithful / we see Her fiery imagination / and we worship , as to Her true and immaculate virginity / at Christmas and after Christmas again; / from the Innocent came the Divine Fire, / scorching corruptible passions / and enlightening our souls and creating pure ones, / with whom the Father created the eyelids, / the same and Wisdom, the Word and The power will be called, / the radiance of glory and the Image of the Father Hypostasis. / And again we pray / and, falling down, we kiss the most venerable icon of the Wisdom of God to the Mother / and we cry loudly: / O Merciful Lady, / save Thy servants from the violence of the devil, / from the presence of foreigners and internecine warfare, / for You are the Giver and Protectress of all good things / to those who flow to You with faith and ask for great mercy.

Magnification:
We magnify You, / Most Holy Virgin / God-chosen Youth, / and honor Your holy image, / through which you bring healing / to all who come with faith.

Prayer:
Incomprehensible and All-sung by the Wisdom of God, Sophia the Preeminent, virgin souls, that is, the Only Begotten Son, the Word of God, accept this prayer song from our unworthy and vile lips. Even if the essence is written: the song is not beautiful in the mouths of sinners, but the thief was saved by one word, the publican was justified with a sigh, and the Canaanite daughter was healed with a mother’s petition, because You, O Lord, are Good and Lover of mankind, enlightening those who come into the world, and forgiving the sins of sinners, and with reason You fill the foolish, and make wise, and the souls that thirst for good words with Your teaching, like the Samaritan woman, you water with living water, you make the fornicator chaste, you open paradise to the thief, for You are the Giver of all good things, and the Giver of understanding, and the Guardian of the life, O Christ our God, and We send You glory and praise, honor and thanksgiving and glorification and worship with Your Beginning Father, and with Your Most Holy, and Good, and Life-Giving Spirit, and with Your Most Holy and Immaculate Matter, Our Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, now and ever , and forever and ever. Amen.

With. 40¦ 1. Sophia the Wisdom of God

Double-sided altarpiece icon
First quarter of the 15th century. Tver (?)
Turnover Crucifixion
19th century recording
Wood, tempera. 69 × 54.5
Comes from the altar of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin Museum, inv. Zh-1413 (480 events)

Painting in the process of unfolding. The undisclosed parts are under partial 19th-century writing and darkened linseed oil. The original light ocher background was replaced during the renovation with gold lying on a brown spacer. In the lower part of the composition, soil patches are visible.

The time of the emergence of a complex iconographic type, to which the icon of the Annunciation Cathedral belongs, in scientific literature starting from the 19th century, it was customary to refer to the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. The name of the “Novgorod” version of Sophia of the Wisdom of God was assigned to it, since in the St. Sophia Cathedral of Novgorod an icon of a similar type was revered as a temple image. Allegorical interpretations of the image of Sophia, available in texts of the 16th–17th centuries, led to the contradictory assessments that similar images received in literature, starting from the second half of the 19th century to the present day.

The icon was first published in prorisi by G.D. Filimonov in 1876 as a monument of the 16th century. The same prophecy was used by P. A. Florensky in his extensive essay devoted to the interpretation of the image of Sophia the Wisdom of God. A. I. Yakovleva turned again to the consideration of the Kremlin icon. She dated it to the 60s of the 16th century, noting features reminiscent of 14th century painting 1 . L. I. Lifshits was the first to draw attention to the connection of the icon with a wide range of Byzantine monuments of the 12th–15th centuries and pointed out that such icons were painted not only in Novgorod. In his opinion, the image of the Annunciation Cathedral is included in the circle of monuments of the early 15th century. Based on the peculiarities of color and a number of features of the compositional solution, the researcher attributed the icon to Tver painting, which in the first half of the 15th century acquired features characteristic of metropolitan art and for a short time became equal to the painting of Moscow 2.

1 Yakovleva A. I.“The Image of the World” in the icon “Sophia the Wisdom of God” // Old Russian Art: Problems and Attributions. M., 1977. pp. 388–404. Il. us. 389–391.

2 Lifshits L. I. Angelic rank with Emmanuel and some features of the artistic culture of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus' // Old Russian art: Artistic culture of the X - first half of the XIII century. M., 1988.

Among the numerous texts on which the creators of the iconographic version under consideration were based, first of all we should mention the 9th parable of Solomon: “Wisdom built herself a house and established seven pillars...” and the First Epistle to the Corinthians by St. Apostle Paul: “We preach Christ crucified... the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1: 23–24). This understanding of the image of Sophia is confirmed by the seven pillars on which her throne rests, and the image of the “Crucifixion” on the reverse side of the icon. The sources of iconography undoubtedly included the hymns of Maundy Thursday. They glorify the “All-Guilty [i.e. e. being the cause of all things. - E.O.] and giving life, the immeasurable Wisdom of God,” “The uncreated and supernatural Wisdom of God,” who created a temple for herself in the flesh of the Blessed Virgin (Sequence of Matins. Troparions 1–3 cantos 1).

Theologians of the 13th–14th centuries showed particular interest in the image of the hypostatic Sophia as the creative principle of the consubstantial Trinity and its action in the world. The Patriarch of Constantinople Philotheus, an author of the mid-14th century, calls the Wisdom of God and Christ, and “the Divine natural action and grace-filled gift of the great and consubstantial Trinity, through the Holy Spirit from generation to generation given to holy souls.”

Revealing the teaching of the Church about the action of Divine Providence in the world, the creators of the “Novgorod” version built the composition of the icon in three registers, which are equally read from top to bottom and bottom to top. The topmost one is occupied by an image of heaven with a throne erected on it - Etymasia - with the instruments of the passion of Christ, which are worshiped by angels. In the center in the round “glory” is depicted Christ Pantocrator, God the Word incarnate, and below him is a kind of deesis, which occupies the main part of the composition: the Mother of God and John the Baptist stand before Christ, the Angel of the Great Council, the Wisdom of God, seated on the throne.

The tradition of depicting Christ the Wisdom of God in the form of an angel is based on the text and interpretations of the prophecy of Isaiah: “For unto us a Son was born unto us, and was given unto us, and his principality is upon his frame: and the name of his Great Council is called Angel, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Prince peace, Father of the age to come” (Isaiah 9:6). Among the earliest images of Christ the Angel of the Great Council are miniatures of manuscripts of the Words of Gregory the Theologian of the 9th–12th centuries. They illustrate Word 2 for Holy Pascha: “I stood and looked: and behold a man ascended on the clouds, a very tall man, and his image was like the image of an angel (Judg. 13:6), and his clothing was like the flash of fleeting lightning . He raised his hand to the east and exclaimed in a loud voice... now is salvation for the world, the visible and invisible world! Christ from the dead, rise with Him you too; Christ in His glory, you too ascend; Christ from the grave - free yourself from the bonds of sin; the gates of hell are opened, death is destroyed, the old Adam is put away, the new is made: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17).

The Angel with red wings sitting on the throne is dressed in royal robes of a soft fawn color, decorated with a shoulder and a crown, and a jagged crown - a symbol of the anointed one on whom the Holy Spirit “rests”: “God reigned over the nations. God is seated on His holy throne” (Ps. 46:9). The invisible presence of the third person of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit, its incorporeality is indicated by the wings of Sophia, but the face of the Angel and the blond hair falling on the shoulders in two strands are reminiscent of images of the Youth Christ. IN right hand The Angel has a red staff ending with a cross, and in the left is a rolled up scroll. His figure is surrounded by a three-part “glory”, which symbolizes the light of the Trinity. It is dark blue on the inside and two shades of light blue around the edges. And from within it comes a radiance in the form of eight blue rays - a sign of eternity, attributed to the hypostasis of God the Father. The symbol of the incarnation of God the Word is the face and hands of an Angel, painted in a soft pink color: “just as the shell of a pomegranate is enveloped in ruddy skin, so the Only Begotten Son of God the Father was clothed in flesh having blood in it” (Interpretation of the “Song of Songs” by King Matthew Cantacuzina, late 14th century 3). The light illuminating the face of Sophia testifies to the unmerged and inseparable union of human flesh and divine nature: “When the Word of God becomes clear and bright in us, and His face shines like the sun, then His clothes appear white, that is, the sayings of the Holy Scripture [ are in us] clear, transparent” 4.

3 See in the book: Psell M. Theological works. St. Petersburg, 1998. P. 323.

4 Works of St. Maximus the Confessor. M., 1993. Book. 1–2. Chapters on theology. 2 hundred. Ch. 14.

The light, decorated clothes of the Angel indicate that He is not only the King, but also the Bridegroom of the heavenly palace, whose throne in the person of the Mother of God will be With. 40
With. 42¦ Bride-Church: “He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He clothed me with the robe of righteousness, as he placed a crown on a groom, and adorned me with finery as a bride” (Isaiah 61:10). The chamber of the wedding feast - the Eucharist - is designed to resemble the throne of Wisdom, which has four carved legs and is supported on seven brown supports - pillars, according to the words of the Book of Proverbs quoted above. The Angel's feet rest on an oval stone of a smoky blue tone, indicating that the House of Wisdom - the Church has “Jesus Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20), “For no one can lay any other foundation than that which is laid. Christ" (1 Cor. 3:11).

The Mother of God and John the Baptist, convening the faithful to the feast of Wisdom, stand in front of the throne on special stools decorated with a golden assist. Their figures are partially included in the radiance surrounding the Angel, just as in the scene of the Transfiguration into the “glory” of Christ the figures of the Old Testament prophets - Elijah and Moses - are often included. “You should know,” wrote the Monk Maximus the Confessor, “that there are differences among those standing with the Lord, since for those with an inquisitive mind the words are important: “There are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God coming in power.” (Mark 9:1). To those who can follow Him, the Lord is revealed in the image of God, in which He was before the creation of the world" 5 .

5 Ibid. Ch. 13.

The Mother of God holds in front of her, like a medallion, a round “glory”, inside of which is depicted the seated infant Christ in robes decorated with an assist. His right hand is extended in a gesture of blessing, and in his left is a rolled scroll. That is, the infant Christ himself, Wisdom, testifies that He “built for Himself a material and animate house, that is, His bodily temple, from the immaculate blood and flesh of the all-holy Virgin Mother of God, by the good will of the Father and with the assistance of the All-Holy Spirit, one of two, one and the same perfect in Divinity, and the same perfect in humanity” 6. The “glory” around the figure of the infant Christ is painted in two colors - dark blue inside, like the “glory” of the Angel in the middle of the deesis, and pink around the edge, but it is also surrounded by a radiance of eight blue rays, indicating that Christ is “dual in nature , is singular in hypostasis.”

6 Arseny Bishop Philotheus, Patriarch of Constantinople in the 14th century, three speeches to Bishop Ignatius with an explanation of the saying in parables: Wisdom created a house for herself, etc. Novgorod, 1898.

John the Baptist is dressed in a mantle and a short cloak. His right hand is raised with a gesture of prophetic testimony, and in his lowered left hand there is a scroll with the text of the prophecy. Perhaps the text preserved in the recording repeated the original, traditional for images of the Forerunner: “Behold the lamb of God...” (John 1: 29). “For he is the one about whom it is written: “Behold, I send My angel before You, who will prepare Your way before You” (Matthew 11:10).

The half-figure of Christ Pantocrator, presented in two-part “glory,” is directly related to the theme of the Eucharistic meal-feast. It combines shades of lilac-pink inside and pink outside, which, like the pink face of the Angel, speaks of the mystery of the incarnation of God the Word, and eight blue rays of star-shaped radiance, the same as in the other images, indicate his consubstantiality with the Father . The outer lower edge of the “glory” of Christ intersects with both the halo and the blue radiance of Sophia’s “glory,” partially covering it, which is a sign of the commonality of the trinitarian light emanating from them.

The Almighty, dressed in a tunic with a golden clav and himation, like a bishop, blesses the Mother of God and John the Baptist with both hands: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven: whoever eats this bread will live forever; And the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). The image of the Prepared Throne established in heaven is also intended to remind us of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. The triple arc of heaven “bent to the earth” and the throne are in contact with the edge of Christ’s “glory”: “The throne of glory, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctification” (Jer. 17:12). The throne is presented both as a royal throne and as a church meal. On it lie the red-brown robe of Christ, the closed Gospel, and at the foot in front of it are symbols of Christ’s voluntary sacrifice on the cross, which he made for the salvation of mankind, and the instruments of passion - the Calvary Cross, a vessel with bile, into which a spear, a cane and four nails are inserted: “so that now through the church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers in heaven, according to the eternal purpose which He fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:10–11).

At the same time, the Gospel lying on the throne indicates the inseparable presence of Christ with the Father in heaven: “Everything below [on earth with people. - E.O.], and the indescribable Word departed from the highest” (Akathist to the Mother of God. Ikos 8); “He who descended, he is also the one who ascended above all the heavens, to fill all things” (Eph. 4:10). Thus, Christ, depicted three times on the icon “Sophia the Wisdom of God” in the form of the Angel of the Great Council, the Child and the Pantocrator, is here revealed as a victim and sacrifice-bearer and as a Trinitarian God who accepts sacrifice.

The complex composition of the icon acts as a kind of poetic commentary on the image of the “Crucifixion” on the other side of the icon, which was completely rewritten in the 19th century.

Literature

• Census book of the cathedral church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Annunciation... 1680 // Collection for 1873, published by the Society ancient Russian art at the Moscow Public Museum. M., 1873. P. 17.
• Ignatius, archbishop. About the icon of St. Sophia in the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral // Notes of the Imperial Archaeological Society. St. Petersburg, 1857. T. XI.
• Filimonov G. D. Essays on Russian Christian iconography. Sophia the Wisdom of God // Bulletin of the Society of Old Russian Art for 1874–1876. M., 1876. Research. P. 20 (shine the icons).
• Meyendorff J. L" Ikonographie de la Sagesse divine dans la tradition byzantine // Cahiers archéologiques. Paris, 1959. Vol. 10.
• Byzantium. Balkans. Rus': Icons of the XIII–XV centuries: Exhibition catalogue. M., 1991. No. 86. P. 250–251.
• Lifshiz L. Die Ikone "Sophia - Weisheit Gottes" aus der Moskauer Kreml". Haustein-Bartsch E. Munchen, 1999. S. 29–42.

E. Ostashenko With. 42
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Novgorod Icon of Sophia, the Wisdom of God

On either side of the Angel of Wisdom are depicted the Mother of God and Saint John the Baptist with a scroll on which it reads: “I am a witness.” Thus the icon represents a special type of Deisis. At the same time, the icon shows two more chest-length images of Christ - as the Infant of God in the medallion on the chest of the Blessed Mother, and as the blessing of the Savior in the medallion above the head of the Angel. In the upper case of the icon - etimasia. On both sides of the throne are three kneeling angels.

As a version of the iconographic type, sometimes those who are coming are also depicted with wings: the Forerunner, probably in connection with the prophecy of Malachi (Mal. 3:1); Our Lady as the Apocalyptic Wife (Rev. 12:14). On such icons there is often no medallion with the Infant God, and angels are written on the sides of the central medallion with the Savior.

Controversy

The Novgorod icon of Hagia Sophia is one of the symbolic compositions that have become common in Russian icon painting since the mid-16th century. In such icons, the illustration of texts and ideas comes to the fore; they have strong Western motifs. It is characteristic that, although this iconographic version is becoming widespread, it at the same time remains controversial. Disputes arise about both the content and the admissibility of the iconography. In the iconographic originals the “Tale of the Image of Sophia, the Wisdom of God” appears, which is found both separately and in various collections of mixed content of the 16th-17th centuries. In it, the icon is explained not as an image of Christ, but as an image of virginity: “The image of the Wisdom of God, Sophia, demonstrates the purity of the Most Holy Theotokos of unspeakable virginity; to have virginity is the fiery face of a maiden...”"The Legend" sees in the Angel a symbol of virginity “as the life of a virgin is equal to that of the angels...” “The face of fire shows how virginity is vouchsafed to God as the seat of being; for fire is God...” The upcoming ones are examples of virginity. Western influence is assumed to be behind this tale. At the end of the 17th century, the famous inquiry officer, the Miracle monk Euthymius - who saw the Hypostasis of Christ in the Angel-Wisdom - spoke out against the image of the Wisdom of God, demanding historicism instead of “fictitious likenesses.” The Likhud brothers, defending the icon, explained the paired image of Christ - as the Angel of Wisdom and as the Savior in the medallion - by the duality of natures in Christ.

Prayers

Troparion, tone 1

Eternal Wisdom, Christ our God!/ You bowed the Heavens with Your divine gaze,/ You deigned to dwell in the womb of the Pure Maiden,/ Having destroyed the mediastinum of enmity,/ You sanctified our nature/ and You opened Your Kingdom to us;/ For this sake of You, our Creator and Savior ,/ and who gave birth to Thee,/ who served the mystery of our salvation as the Pure Virgin, we orthodoxly magnify.

Troparion, tone 4

The great and inexpressible power of the Wisdom of God/ the vision of the carnal sacrament!/ Sophia the Preeminent,/ the virgin soul and the unspeakable purity of virginity,/ the humble wisdom of the truth,/ the chamber of the Holy Spirit,/ the most honorable temple of His incomprehensible glory,/ the fiery throne of Christ our God,/ in Thy for the Word of God dwelt ineffably, and the flesh came into being, / He appeared invisible, / and came forth untouchable from Thee, / and with man alive, catching the primordial enemy, / and freeing men from the ancient oath, / erecting packs, from where they had fallen. / We pray, O Lady, / have mercy on us who are burdened with our cruel sins / and save our souls, / and, like a humane and merciful Queen, / Mother of Wisdom God's Words,/ look upon us, Thy sinful people,/ and have mercy, intercede from the misfortunes and cruel sorrows/ and preserve our cities unharmed,/ where now Thy most holy name is gloriously glorified.

Kontakion, tone 4

We are the forerunner, Orthodox people, / to the wisdom of God / and we see the miraculous icon of the Most Pure Mother of God, / And after the appearance we call Sophia, the Wisdom of God, / before the temple was animated by the Only Begotten Son and the Word of God. / This then shines like a ray of light in His most holy temple / and hearts ours rejoices those who come with faith / and look with fear and reverence at this most pure icon, / thinking in our hearts, / as truly the Wisdom of God is the village / and His sacraments, / for the hope of the faithful / we see Her fiery imagination / and we worship , as to Her true and immaculate virginity / at Christmas and after Christmas again; / from the Innocent came the Divine Fire, / scorching corruptible passions / and enlightening our souls and creating pure ones, / with whom the Father created the eyelids, / the same and Wisdom, the Word and The power will be called, / the radiance of glory and the Image of the Father Hypostasis. / And again we pray / and, falling down, we kiss the most venerable icon of the Wisdom of God to the Mother / and we cry loudly: / O Merciful Lady, / save Thy servants from the violence of the devil, / from the presence of foreigners and internecine warfare, / for You are the Giver and Protectress of all good things / to those who flow to You with faith and ask for great mercy.

Sophia The Wisdom of God is a sacred concept of Orthodox theology. Born in the silence of mystical contemplation, it acquires not only religious, but also social, moral, and general cultural meanings in the history of Eastern Christian civilization.

In Byzantium, Sophia is the name of the main temple - a symbol of the dedication to God of the Christian empire, organized by the Providence of the Almighty. Harmony and proportionality of spaces, the golden shimmer of smalt, majestic mosaic figures, as if united by the rhythm of the heavenly liturgy, images of emperors humbly offering to God the fruits of their state activities - models of the cities they founded and the temples they built... The iconographic and architectural program of Hagia Sophia of Constantinople with special strength and convincingly expresses the idea of ​​the presence of God in history, the action of the Divine Logos in the world that lasts “here and now.” At a time when the purity and spontaneity of the perception of temple art were not yet clouded and erased, people felt the beauty and splendor of Sophia as the clearest proof of the truth of Orthodoxy. The words of the ambassadors of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, preserved by the Tale of Bygone Years, are famous: “... we don’t know whether we were in heaven or on earth, because there is no such view and beauty on earth, and we are not able to describe them; We only know that God dwells there with people... We cannot forget this beauty, for every person, having tasted the sweet, turns away from the bitter.” Sophia of Constantinople became, as it were, the “godmother” of Orthodox Rus', who perceived, in the words of Sergei Averintsev, “beauty as holiness.”
It is widely believed that the dedication of the churches of Sophia to the Wisdom of God began only in the 6th century, during the era of Justinian the Great. Indeed, after Sophia of Constantinople, in the key cities of the Byzantine Empire (Trebizond, Thessaloniki, Nicosia, Ohrid, Edessa, Chersonesus - the place of baptism of Prince Vladimir, Sugdei - Sudak), Sophia churches appeared one after another. But the majestic Justinian Temple itself was erected on the site of the ancient Church of Sophia, which burned down during the Nika uprising. Also known is the early, pre-Justinian Church of Sofia, built in the city of Sredets (Serdika, now Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria) and preserved to this day.
And yet, it is with Sophia of Constantinople that the embodied idea of ​​Sophia of the Wisdom of God is firmly connected. Let's say a few words about this prototype of the Russian Sophia churches, about which the architectural historian Choisy wrote that “never have the geniuses of Rome and the East produced such a striking and harmonious work in their combination.” Emperor Justinian made the decision to build a new vast temple forty days after the pacification of the Nika rebellion. The development of the project was entrusted to two architects, Anthimius of Thrales and Isidore of Miletus, who were fully aware of the principles of wisdom known at that time (today we would call them specialists not only in the field of architecture, but also in the field of physics). The most significant cities of the empire in which monuments were still preserved ancient art, participated with voluntary and forced sacrifices in the decoration of Hagia Sophia of Constantinople. Eight porphyry columns taken from the Temple of the Sun were brought from Rome; Ephesus donated eight green marble columns. From Cyzicus, Troas and Athens they were brought to the capital best jewelry. But precious marbles did not satisfy Justinian - he used gold, silver, ivory... 10 thousand people built a grandiose cathedral over the course of just over four years, and on December 27, 537, the temple was consecrated. Under Justinian, the staff at the temple was designed for 555 people. This number later increased to 600.
The famous dome, more than 30 meters in diameter, dominates the average ship and rests on four concave triangle-sails, in turn supported by four massive pylons. To ensure that the support points did not give way and the entire building did not fall apart, divine services were performed daily during construction, and particles of relics were placed into the very body of the building. A contemporary of the construction, Procopius of Caesarea, wrote about the temple as an image of the cosmos, inspired by the invisible presence of God: “This place is not illuminated by the sun from the outside, but the brilliance is born within it.” The dome, surrounded at the base by a ribbon of windows, gave the impression of hanging in the air - as if it had been lowered from the sky on a golden chain...
Tradition says that an angel suggested the name of the temple to Justinian. “The Legend of Sophia the Wisdom of God,” preserved in the Novgorod Patericon (17th-century copy), tells: the king “was offended by this, when he named the church, and an angel appeared in the form of a youth, and called by the name of Saint Sophia, who are the Wisdom God's." In the altar of Sophia of Constantinople there was an image of the Archangel Michael as the guardian of the temple (the image of the archangel-commander of the “bodiless heavenly forces” also begins to be associated with Sophia themes).

THE FACE OF RUSSIA ITSELF
After restorers uncovered ancient icon paintings Our Lady of Vladimir Maximilian Voloshin wrote the following lines:

...From under the vestments and pious scabs
You showed your true face,
The bright face of the Wisdom of Sophia,
A ray of hope in a sad fate,
And in the future - the face of Russia itself,
Despite slander and struggle.

For Rus'-Russia, the theme of Sophia the Wisdom became an expression of faith in the Universe-Creating Word, incarnate for the salvation of humanity. The emphasis on the incarnation brought the image of the Mother of God closer to the Sophia theme. The service of the Ever-Virgin Mary was interpreted by medieval authors as the “temple of Wisdom.” The St. Sophia churches in Rus' were a visible confirmation of the continuation of the tradition of sacred, God-centered statehood: it is noteworthy that Ivan the Terrible, who at one time planned to move the capital to Vologda, ordered the construction of the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which received the name of St. Sophia. The icons of St. Sophia, known in several versions, or “translations” (Kiev, Novgorod, Yaroslavl - Polotsk probably also existed, but its monuments have not survived), are complex allegorical compositions showing high level theological and symbolic consciousness of Ancient Rus'.
Art critic Vera Bryusova gives the following classification of Sophia’s images. In Kyiv iconography, Sophia appears as the Mother of God, Mother of Emmanuel. In Novgorod iconography she has the appearance of the Virgin, but in different translations, and also appears in the image of Emmanuel. In the Yaroslavl version (in particular, on the fresco of the Church of St. John Chrysostom, dating from the 16th-18th centuries), the main place belongs to the Mother of God in the seven-pillar Solomon Temple, with Christ on the cross (the Crucifixion becomes like the seventh pillar). The ciborium temple is crowned with the image of the Lord of hosts and is surrounded by several tiers of images of saints: prophets, apostles, saints, martyrs and martyrs. Later, this composition - going back to biblical verses from the book of Proverbs of Solomon (9:1 et seq.) - is expanded, supplemented and given the name “Wisdom created a temple for herself.”
The most famous and widespread version of the icon of Sophia the Wisdom of God has been known since the mid-15th century as a temple image of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod. It is most likely that this iconographic version arose during the time of Archbishopric Euthymius II and became especially widespread under Gennady of Novgorod, and then under Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow. This image spread widely throughout North-Eastern Rus' (including the Yaroslavl land). On it we see a “fire-like” (“fire-like”), fire-winged angel (sometimes described as a Virgo), seated on a four-legged golden throne with a pillow of fiery color, against the backdrop of a round radiance - “glory”. The angel is depicted wearing a royal crown, wearing a royal dalmatic. In his right hand is a staff with a radiant cross at the top, in his left hand is a scroll. On the sides are the Mother of God and John the Baptist; above Sophia's head is a half-length figure of Christ. At the top, the composition embraces the scroll of heaven, where Etimasia, the Prepared Throne, is located. The temple feast of the icon was established on the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God.
The biblical and iconographic theme of Wisdom gave rise to many interpretations that were lively and relevant reading. Already in one of the first monuments of East Slavic writing - the Izbornik of Svyatoslav of 1073 - one can find the so-called interpretation of Hippolytus-Anastasius. Especially for Novgorod icon, as its interpretation, the “Tale of Wisdom” was written, preserved in three copies of the 15th and 16th centuries. “The Tale is Known about Sophia the Wisdom of God” belongs to the pen of the famous spiritual writer of the 16th century, Zinovy ​​​​of Otensky. In the second quarter of the 17th century, Semyon Shakhovsky wrote “The Service of Hagia Sophia” for the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral. Finally, in 1687, Ignatius Rimsky-Korsakov, archimandrite of the Moscow Novospassky Monastery, the family tomb of the Romanovs, composed a detailed “Explanation of Sophia” in the style of a court panegyric (the text was presented to Princess Sofya Alekseevna when sending troops to the Crimea)…
“Overflowing” across theological boundaries, the semantics of Sophia was associated with such concepts as creative construction, creative knowledge, spiritual unity. According to the fair remark of the famous Byzantinist A. N. Grabar (1896-1990), no subject is so closely connected with the religious history of Russia as Sophia the Wisdom of God: from ancient times to the present day, it has been a topic that tests the insight of commentators.

“SPIRITUAL SWONSE”
The problem is that since the end of the 19th century, after several philosophical and poetic works (and even more personal conversations-revelations) by Vladimir Solovyov, the category of Hagia Sophia became the object of mystical and magical speculation, which gave rise to an entire “sophiological” literature. Echoes of sophiological disputes can be heard to this day, and sometimes it is difficult to immediately understand which interpretation of the image of Hagia Sophia is professed by this or that respected author. Thanks to the activities of emigrant philosophers and theologians, the term “Sophia” abroad has firmly become one of the “Russian brands”: when it is difficult to say anything intelligible about the “Russian soul”, they talk about its sophia...
Solovyov came to the theme of Sophia as the World Soul, the Eternal Feminine from metaphysical optimism, from the justification of the cosmos: “On dark base discord and chaos, an invisible force brings out the bright threads of universal life and reconciles the disparate features of the universe into bright images.” The cosmic principle governing existence in one of Solovyov’s poems is called “the bright daughter of dark chaos”... In the 1890s, towards the end of his life, Vladimir Sergeevich was literally captured by a magical whirlwind that had a distinct erotic overtones: it postulated the existence of a certain female aspect of the Deity (“feminine shadows of the Divine"), which has a personal existence.
The work “The Meaning of Love” states that “eternal Femininity, striving for realization and embodiment, is not only an inactive image in the mind of the Divine, but a living spiritual being, possessing all the fullness of strength and action. The whole world and historical process there is a process of its realization and embodiment in a great variety of forms and degrees.” It turns out that it is to this strange cosmic creature (strongly reminiscent of a pagan goddess - the wife of the demiurge god) that all lovers and lovers raise their feelings, without realizing it: “The heavenly object of our love is only one, always and for everyone the same but the eternal femininity of God.” Priest Georgy Florovsky, who possessed an amazing quality of spiritual sobriety, characterizes the “Sophia” opuses of the celibate philosopher as “a terrible occult project of connecting humanity with God through heterosexual love.” Indeed, Vladimir Sergeevich asserts that “the transformation of an individual female being into a ray of eternal Divine femininity, inseparable from its source, will be a real, not only subjective, but also an objective reunification of an individual person with God, the restoration in him of the living and immortal image of God.”
There is no doubt that behind such constructions is Solovyov’s personal visionary experience, which raises strong doubts about its good quality. The merciless Florovsky writes about Solovyov’s later years: “It was, it seems, the darkest period in his life, “spiritual fainting,” temptation by erotic magic, a time of rotten and black passion.” Obviously, the son of the great historian in his youth experienced something that he interpreted as a meeting with the Soul of the World (this spiritualistic experience is described by him in the poem “Three Dates”). Throughout his life, Solovyov remained faithful to the “Virgin of the Rainbow Gate” of his visions, sang her in poetry and awaited her coming in an “imperishable body.” Shortly before the death of the philosopher, a tragicomic episode occurred to him, perceived by some authors as “retribution to the mysticist.” One day, an elderly lady, Anna Schmidt, appeared to Vladimir Sergeevich and decisively and in all seriousness declared that she was the incarnation of Sophia, and Solovyov was the incarnate Logos. The alarmed philosopher asked the lady not to talk to anyone about him, but rather to pray more... However, Mrs. Schmidt did not calm down and after Solovyov’s death, being already a completely insane old woman, she annoyed Blok with her visits.
But Alexander Alexandrovich had his own candidate for the role of the Virgin of the Rainbow Gate - his wife Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva. “Eternal Femininity” became one of the favorite themes of the Silver Age; it was especially popular in the circle that met at Blok’s Shakhmatovo estate. Today it may seem somewhat pathological and wild, but adult, educated and talented people (among whom, by the way, was the poet Andrei Bely) in the summer of 1904 declared Blok’s young wife the embodiment of Eternal Femininity and began to ritually honor her (the most interesting thing is that her husband was also not against). But one cannot amuse oneself with mysteries. The gaming cult ended in nervous breakdowns and psychological breakdowns. However, it should be recognized that Blok and his friends exactly followed Solovyov’s program, which provided for the “epiphany” of Sophia’s imperishable features in an ordinary woman... As one of the eyewitnesses of the events and moods of those years, Georgy Chulkov, recalled, “such haze arose around the “eternally feminine” that Not only weak heads were spinning, but also quite strong heads were spinning. And the “highest” sometimes turned out to be “the abyss below.”
Vladimir Solovyov was a rather unchurch man, and his constructions for the time being did not affect the theological consciousness of the Church. The situation changed when thinkers invested with pastoral rank began to speak from a sophiological position—priest Pavel Florensky, archpriest Sergius Bulgakov. The theological work of Father Paul was interrupted (as was his life later) by Bolshevik repressions, but Sergei Bulgakov managed to turn the Theological Institute in Paris, which he led, into a real stronghold of sophiology. It should be noted that disputes about Hagia Sophia poisoned not only the philosophical and intellectual, but also the moral atmosphere of the Parisian island of the Russian Abroad. Consider one well-known episode dating back to the apogee of the discussions (November 1935). One of the participants in the religious-philosophical debate, the sophiologically inclined Boris Vysheslavtsev (author of the book “Ethics of Transformed Eros”), after the end of the controversy, completely lost his composure, beat his opponent Maxim Kovalevsky until he bled. Apparently, his eros was far from completely transformed... It is characteristic that Vysheslavtsev’s friend, Nikolai Berdyaev, made a highly critical remark: “People who believed in Sophia, but did not believe in Christ, could not distinguish between realities.”
Among the definitions of Hagia Sophia, scattered in the works of Florensky and Bulgakov, in addition to purely artistic images (“The Great Root of the Whole Creature,” etc.), there are many that evoke a feeling of some kind of new god-building: “the idea of ​​God,” “creative the beginning of the world", "Kingdom, Power and Glory of God", "holiness of creation", "the truest, purest and fullest humanity", "Great, Royal and Feminine Being" and, finally, especially unfortunate: "goddess" and "fourth hypostasis " Sophia turns out to be a living being with a personal existence, “neither God, nor the eternal Son of God, nor an angel, nor a holy man” (Florensky, “The Pillar and Ground of Truth”) and at the same time “the line that lies between God and the world, Creator and creature, she herself is neither one nor the other, but something completely special, simultaneously connecting and separating both” (Bulgakov, “The Non-Evening Light”).
At a certain point, sophiological constructions began to really threaten the religious and cultural identity of the Russian emigration. It is necessary to name the names of those who showed in their works the actual isolation of sophiologists from the Christian tradition. After the appearance of the brilliant church-historical study “On the Veneration of Sophia the Wisdom of God in Byzantium and Rus',” the insufficient level of competence of Bulgakov, Florensky and their followers became obvious. In the fight against the “newly invented temptation,” the forces of foreign countries and the Church remaining in the Fatherland united. The theologian Vladimir Lossky, who lived in exile, prepared the materials of the Decree of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius (who himself was an outstanding theologian). A document condemning sophiology as a heretical teaching appeared in 1935. For that part of the emigration that did not recognize the “sub-Soviet” church leadership, the opinion of the ardent monarchist Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) mattered. His book “The New Teaching of Sophia by the Wisdom of God,” containing a detailed, point-by-point, critical analysis of the writings of sophiologists, was published in the same 1935 in the capital of Tsarist Bulgaria, Sofia. After the publication of these studies, sophiological debates began to decline and practically died out during the Second World War.

CHRIST IS THE WISDOM OF GOD
Why did conservative-minded Orthodox Christians consider the thoughts of Solovyov, Bulgakov, Florensky not just heresy, but outright blasphemy? The fact is that the mysterious, esoteric symbolism of Hagia Sophia has a very clear dogmatic dimension. And dogmas, according to the same Bulgakov, are “the ledger of religious experience” - a fence designed to protect the shrines of faith. Who does Christian tradition mean by Sophia? The answer is quite clear. The Church calls Christ the hypostatic, personal Wisdom of God.
The concept of Divine Wisdom is expressed in a number of books of the Old Testament - in particular, the book of Proverbs of Solomon and the non-canonical Wisdom of Solomon and the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach tell about it in detail. Let us cite one of the most famous passages telling about Wisdom (Prov. 8:22 - 31): “The Lord made me the beginning of His way, before His creatures, from time immemorial; I have been anointed from everlasting, from the beginning, before the existence of the earth. I was born when there were no deeps yet, when there were no springs abundant with water. I was born before the mountains were erected, before the hills, when He had not yet created either the earth, or the fields, or the initial specks of dust of the universe. When He prepared heaven, I was there. When He drew a circular line across the face of the abyss, when He established the clouds at the top, when He strengthened the sources of the abyss, when He gave the sea a charter so that the waters would not cross its borders, when He laid the foundations of the earth: then I was an artist with Him, and I was a joy every day, having fun before His face all the time, rejoicing in His earthly circle, and my joy was with the sons of men.”
Summarizing the work of many generations of interpreters, the “Explanatory Bible” notes: “In this section, the fathers and teachers of the Church, not without reason, saw under the eternal and peace-giving Wisdom the hypostatic Wisdom, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Son of God, bringing the concept of it closer to the concept of the Word of God, which, according to the teaching of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, was with God from the beginning, was God himself, through whom “all things came into being, and without whom nothing that came into being began to be” (John 1:1-3, cf. Heb. 1 :2; Rev. 3:14). The next chapter of Proverbs opens with verses that formed the basis of one of the translations of the Sophia icon: “Wisdom built herself a house, hewed out its seven pillars, slaughtered a sacrifice, dissolved her wine and prepared a meal...” The sacrificial “Feast of Wisdom” is perceived as a prototype of the New Testament Eucharistic meal and Christ's atoning sacrifice. The image of a house founded by Wisdom is a symbol of the establishment by Hypostatic Wisdom of the Kingdom of God or the Church among people, for their spiritual nourishment, enlightenment and sanctification. The seven pillars were interpreted as the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, godliness, fear of the Lord - see Isa. 11: 1 - 3), seven sacraments of the Church, seven apocalyptic churches, seven Ecumenical Councils.
In the first centuries of Christianity, the doctrine of Jesus Christ as the Wisdom of God was not yet fully established in the general church consciousness. Saint Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch (died in the 80s of the 2nd century) and Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (130-202) identified Wisdom with the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Later, Hippolytus (3rd century), a student of Irenaeus of Lyons and the great Origen, created a classic interpretation of the 9th chapter of Proverbs. In the Izbornik it is included in the questions and answers of Anastasia Sinaita: “Christ of God and the Father wisdom and power (created) his flesh; The Word became flesh and dwelt in us and established the seventh pillar of the Holy Spirit with the sevenfold figure, just as Isaiah spoke...” The interpretation of Wisdom as the Second Hypostasis was developed by Saints Cyprian of Carthage, Athanasius of Alexandria, and Basil the Great.
Archbishop Seraphim Sobolev in the book “New Teaching about Hagia Sophia” provides an overview of the acts of the Ecumenical Councils, clearly indicating that the understanding of Wisdom as the Logos - Christ was firmly established in the dogmatic consciousness of the Church. This same understanding is reflected in the liturgical practice of Orthodoxy. The canon for Maundy Thursday of the Venerable Kozma of Mayum contains the following words, linking the images of Christ and the Mother of God within the framework of the Sophia theme: “The infinite Wisdom of God, which created and preserved all living things, created for itself a dwelling from the pure unmarried Mother, for having clothed itself in the bodily temple, Christ our God, solemnly became famous."
The same perception of Sophia is reflected in icon painting and temple construction. One of the earliest images of Sophia was in the catacombs near Alexandria. It was described by the Russian researcher Kondakov at the beginning of the twentieth century, but now, unfortunately, it has been lost. Wisdom had the appearance of Immanuel with wings and the inscription “sofha”. Later (mainly in the West) Sophia is depicted both as the Hypostatic Wisdom - Christ, and as the personification of wisdom - sometimes the confusion of these categories leads to a darkening of the meaning of the compositions.
The spiritual program of Sophia of Constantinople was also Christological. The temple holiday there was Monday of St. Thomas Week, in commemoration of the confession of faith in Christ by the Apostle Thomas, expressed in the words: “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). During the services in the St. Sophia Church before the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, the troparion of the Wisdom of God was sung: “The Wisdom of the Father, the Radiance of Glory and the Image of His Hypostasis, who founded the heavens and the earth in the beginning, bless Thy heritage, preserve our King in peace, save the Church, Thy city and Thy people " Especially for his temple, Emperor Justinian composed the prayer “Only Begotten Son,” which is still performed in Orthodox churches. Despite the difference in the iconographic programs of the Kyiv and Novgorod Sophia, both churches, according to Vera Bryusova, “reveal an understanding of Wisdom as Christ.” Sophia Christology was adopted and developed in Rus'. Maximus the Greek's student Zinovy ​​Otensky, explaining the confusion of his contemporaries regarding the concept of Hagia Sophia, decisively distinguishes names, showing that Wisdom, Logos, Word and Power of God refer to the Son of God; Comforter, Paraclete - to the Spirit of God. The Mother of God (which some also began to identify with Sophia after the establishment of the temple holiday of Sophia of Novgorod on the day of the Dormition) is accompanied by other “words” - the Most Pure One, the Mother of the Heavenly King, the real Mother of God...
The fiery Angel of the Novgorod icon is interpreted by the Orthodox consciousness as the Son of God - “Angel of the Great Council”, in accordance with the prophecy of Isaiah: “For to us a child is born - a Son is given to us; the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). The icon itself caused controversy in the 16th century - some conservatives were inclined to see in it a “fictitious likeness”, “Latin wisdom”. Indeed, a certain overload of this composition with symbols, its “literary quality” evoke analogies with Western, Catholic monuments. However, popular veneration of the shrine (the image was considered miraculous) received high support from the Archbishop of Novgorod, later Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow.
...One of the semantic fields of the inexhaustible theme of Sophia of the Wisdom of God is associated with the concept of wholeness, integrity - the Divine simplicity of the Logos. Perhaps it was precisely this moral and spiritual line that determined the high demand for icons and legends dedicated to Sophia in those periods when Rus' especially needed unity. As V. G. Bryusova writes, completing her large-scale study “Sophia the Wisdom of God in Old Russian Literature and Art,” “in admiration of the divine miracle one feels the mysticism of the mystery of resurrection Orthodox man after innumerable disasters." This hope is given by faith, from the absurdity and “madness” of which the “apostle of tongues” taught to draw strength: “For when the world through its wisdom did not know God in the Wisdom of God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. For both the Jews demand miracles, and the Greeks seek wisdom; But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks, Christ, the Power of God and the Wisdom of God” (I Cor. 1:21-24).

Sergei ANTONENKO, Rodina magazine