All Saints' Day of the year. The day of all saints who shone in the Russian land. All saints day holiday
All Saints' Day in the Orthodox Church is celebrated immediately after Trinity. For unchurched people, this phrase immediately evokes associations with Western Halloween and its mystical characters, but real Christian reality is far from such horror stories. In Orthodoxy, All Saints' Day has its own characteristics.
The history of the holiday
The roots of this holiday can be traced back to the beginning of the 7th century AD, when in 609 Pope Boniface performed the rite of consecration of the Roman pantheon in honor of the Virgin and all Christian martyrs.
Many people wonder if there is All Saints' Day in Orthodoxy. After the division of the churches into Western and Eastern in the XI century, in Orthodoxy it became customary to celebrate this day immediately after the Trinity, which carries a deep historical meaning. On Trinity (or Pentecost) the first Christian community was formed. The sprout of the first church was planted in the ground. And the subsequent cloud of numerous martyrs who were ready to suffer for their faith are already bright colors of this sprout.
The Church was created by the Spirit of God, and every saint was filled with the same spirit. And it is worth remembering that he was not an alien or a mythical demigod, he was the same person as you and I, and lived in reality.
In the tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church, this holiday is called the Cathedral of All Saints, who shone in the Russian land.
You should know when All Saints Day is in Russia. For the first time, the church introduced this celebration in the 50s of the 16th century. With the accession of Peter the Great and the beginning of the synodal era in the management of the church, he was forgotten, but restored for a short time in 1918. Since 1946, the holiday in the Russian Orthodox Church began to be celebrated on the second week after Pentecost. All Saints Day in Orthodoxy 2018 will be celebrated at the same time.
First, the apostles were revered as martyrs in the early church, then their disciples and other Christians who died at the hands of the administrative power of the Roman emperors in circus arenas.
Not only martyrs are considered glorified, but also people of a righteous life, filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and glorified by their spiritual or military exploits. For example:
- Nicholas the Wonderworker;
- Alexander Nevskiy;
- Seraphim of Sarov;
- John of Kronstadt and many others.
A series of especially revered saints stretches up to our days and ends with the names of the martyrs who were shot during the years Soviet power- practically our contemporaries.
Throughout the history of Christianity there have been countless people who are ready to bring its light into the world and willingly give their lives for it. Therefore, it is impossible to accurately count all the saints. The Church has never set itself such a task, but has always sought to record the names of its ascetics for church history. Nevertheless, a great many martyrs remained unknown.
Canonization in the Church (that is, the official granting of this status to a saint) is not at all the reason why this Christian is glorified in a special way by God. In heaven, for a person, the fact of earthly canonization is absolutely not important and does not affect his posthumous fate in any way. Canonization is the usual recognition of the fact that one or another believer is approved by the mother church as a Christian saint, a man of pious life, famous for his exploits or miracles, or who gave his life for Christ.
For the rite of canonization, there are prerequisites:
- Righteous life and death.
- Strict adherence to the Orthodox faith.
- Wide respect among the people.
- Miracles performed through prayers to the saint (saint).
- Not less than fifty years have passed since the death of a man.
The last point is explained by the fact that, after a short time (20-30 years), one can succumb to temptation and see holiness where it was not. Sometimes they try to see holiness in this or that person, unworthy of this title, even after centuries. For example, today this is happening with Ivan the Terrible. Despite the church's repeated statements that this person cannot be canonized, many of our compatriots believe otherwise.
The oldest icon dedicated to the holiday dates back to the 10th century. This is the so-called sacramentary, stored in the library of the University of Göttingen. The icon shows many saints and angels worshiping Christ. Christ himself is depicted in the center as a lamb. The saints kneel and offer crowns to their King and Savior. From about the 14th century, the lamb in the center was replaced by God the Father or the Most Holy Trinity. Around him sit angels and the Mother of God on thrones.
On this day, a believer must come to church and defend the service dedicated to the holiday. And pray to your saint or all the martyrs together.
All Saints Week or All Saints Day , a passing church holiday, is celebrated among Orthodox Christians on the first Sunday after the Trinity - Pentecost, thus completing the series of holidays associated with the feast of the Resurrection of Christ: Ascension, Trinity, Descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. A week in our usual perception is seven days from Sunday to Sunday, but in the Church Slavonic understanding Sunday is called a week, and these seven days are a week. So, in order to avoid confusion, we will immediately make a reservation: this holiday lasts one Sunday.
Immediately after the feast of the Week of All Saints on Sunday, Monday begins Petrov post. Its duration depends on the day of the celebration of Easter and, accordingly, the Trinity. Peter's fast goes on until July 11, inclusive, since it ends on July 12 - on the feast day of the holy apostles Peter and Paul.
The meaning of the holiday
On this day, we glorify and thank, and bless in the hymns of the festive services of all the saints in all their ranks: patriarchs, forefathers, prophets, apostles, martyrs, hieromartyrs, confessors, saints, reverend and righteous fathers and mothers and all saints, but more than all and in front of everyone - the Unbrideed Bride, the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven, Ever-Virgin Mary.
After the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, it is quite natural to glorify all those who received the special gift of the Grace of God, becoming His co-worker here on earth. Our saints - and revered by the entire Christian world, such as Equal-to-the-Apostles Tsar Constantine and Empress Elena, Saints Nicholas of Myra and Spyridon of Trimifuntsky, Mary of Egypt and Andrew of Crete, St. Sergius of Radonezh and Seraphim of Sarov, Thomas Aquinas and Francis of Assisi, and those who were almost by our contemporaries - the holy metropolitans John of Kronstadt and Luke of Crimea - a spiritual enlightener of a difficult time and a great surgeon, you can’t count everyone, they are an example to follow.
It is important, as many clergymen note on this day during sermons at the festive Divine Liturgy, to know the very deeds of the saints, to have their inspiring examples in front of you and to realize what graceful gifts the Lord rewards for ascetic and loving service to Him. Love means non-violent, not through “I don’t want, but I have to”, but voluntary, cordial, sincere, for He himself said: “I ask for mercy, not sacrifice.” “Mercy” in translation from some Slavic languages \u200b\u200bis “love”, but it means not a private feeling, not passion, but love both transcendental and universal to all things. Such a heartfelt feeling was brought to the Eternal God by all the saints from the first times, from the Old Testament prophets to the saints of our time, and it returned a hundredfold to them, giving strength and joy to overcome temptations, labors and frequent persecutions in earthly existence.
This is how our saints, their earthly life became living, historically real examples of how everyone living after Pascha, the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles is able to unite with God to such an extent that in a certain sense to find the Kingdom of God on earth. And in the praise of our saints on their feast, the words of St. John Chrysostom are recalled: “Do not praise us, do not sing about us, but become like us.” Of course, we will praise, and we will begin to sing - out of a grateful feeling, but to become like them is also a form of gratitude. Every saint is both a teacher and a mentor, and there is no greater joy for the teacher when he sees that the student follows him, as all of them, starting with the apostles, followed Christ.
The apostles of Christ were also once simple, ordinary people who had an ordinary biography, their life would have continued and would have ended “like everyone else,” if Christ had not called them to service and discipleship. On this occasion, Bishop Anthony of Surozh, in one of his sermons on the Sunday of All Saints, said: “This is not only the glory of the Church, this is a call addressed to each of us. Today we are called by the Gospel reading, inspired by the Apostolic message to love God so much as to become His true disciples. And this means that our faith in Him must be and from day to day become more and more real faithfulness, so that, seeing us, seeing how we live, who we are, other people could believe that Christ came to save the world and that it is worth following Him as a teacher and friend.”
It is known that God does not have time, as we imagine it, dividing earthly life into Past, Present and Future. God has only eternity. While glorifying all the saints, we also glorify those about whom, for the time being, there is only God's plan. He already exists in the eternity of the heavenly world, waiting for the hour when he should be embodied in earthly existence, in that human personality who has yet to live earthly life and perform his ascetic work for the glory of God until the second coming, which all souls are waiting for, as it is said. in the Creed: "I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come."
History of the celebration
The history of the celebration of All Saints' Day dates back to the end of the 4th - the beginning of the 5th centuries, and we find mention of it in the sermon of St. John Chrysostom, in the hymns of St. Christians celebrated this holiday on Friday of the Bright Easter week.
In the Roman Empire, All Saints Day was also celebrated according to Ephraim the Syrian - on May 13, on this day in 609 (according to other sources, 610), Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon, which in ancient times was a sanctuary of pagan Roman gods, and the temple became a temple in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos and all the martyrs. In the VIII century, Pope Gregory III changed the date of the celebration to November 1, consecrating one of the chapels of St. Peter's Basilica in the name of All Saints. A century later, Pope Gregory IV again changed the date of the holiday, setting it on October 31, and on the eve it was necessary to fast. But in the West, a holiday that was established to commemorate all the saints - and those who were already glorified and famous, and those whose name history hid from us, and even those who were just about to glorify the Lord's name with their holiness, degenerated in a strange way - otherwise it would not say - on Halloween, the day of revelry of any, by no means good, force. The holiday, in general, is comic, but it has rather the opposite attitude towards the memory of All Saints ...
In Orthodoxy, the praises of saints are full of beautiful epithets. Here is the kontakion and troparion from the festive service.
Troparion, tone 4
Even in the whole world your martyr, as if with purple and viss, your church adorned with blood, they cry out to you, Christ God: send down your bounties to your people, grant peace to your dwelling and great mercy to our souls.
Kontakion, tone 8
As the first principles of nature, the Planter of the creature, the universe brings Thee, Lord, God-bearing martyrs, those prayers in the deep world Thy Church, keep Thy habitation with the Theotokos, Many-merciful.
In other hymns, saints are praised as "uncharming luminaries." Uncharming - that is, those who cannot be seduced by temporary joys, which sooner or later will turn to dust. In the morning canon they are called the “divine cloud”, because their spirit, like a cloud, embraces, envelops the throne of God, and they “clarify the church sky”. For their patience, suffering and steadfastness, they are also called “patient-hearted”, and in the troparion we read that with their blood, shed for the true faith, the Church, which is meant here as all its members, is adorned with scarlet and viss - precious clothes symbolizing the garment of the Lord for "wonderful is God in his saints."
At Vespers, Old Testament saints who anticipated New Testament events are commemorated in paroemias, reading verses from the prophet Isaiah and Wisdom: “You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen” (Is. 43:9-14); “But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and torment will not touch them. In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to be dead, and their exodus was considered death, and their departure from us was destruction; but they are in peace” (Wisdom 3:1-9) - there is no fear of being destroyed on earth if Eternity is found in the hand of God, and in this passage one hears the prophecy about the Christian first martyrs. “The righteous live forever; their reward is in the Lord, and their care is with the Most High. Therefore they will receive a kingdom of glory and a crown of beauty from the hand of the Lord, for he will cover them with his right hand and protect them with his arm” (Wis. The Creed, which will receive its full approval at the Council of Nicaea and will sound for centuries under the vaults of temples and churches.
Iconography
By the beginning of the 18th century, a canonical image of the Week of All Saints had developed in the Eastern Orthodox Church. On the icons, the image of the Lord Jesus Christ in His second coming became the center of the composition. He is above, under heaven, on His throne. Around Him are holy angels and people, to the right and left are bowed Adam and Eve. It also depicts the Old Testament ancestors of the tribe of Abraham - Abraham and Jacob, and in the lower part of the icon, in the middle - a prudent robber who said: "Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom" (Luke 23:42). “And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43). This image reminds us that anyone who is imbued with faith, even an inveterate one,
Finally
Who are our saints? These are the ones who heard the call: “Whoever leaves houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for the sake of my name, will receive an hundredfold and inherit eternal life” (Matt. 19:27-30). This does not mean, of course, that all believers should literally leave everything and everyone and start the life of a monk, without feeling called to it. We are pointed to the arrangement of priorities, which in the lives of the saints were accentuated in the way that Christ called for. First to God, then to others, remembering that we live in the New Testament time, when the abyss between the world above and the world below is abolished by the feat of the Son, and our saints, who repeated this feat each in their own way, show us this blessed and sacred spiritual path.
Christians zealously honor the traditions of their ancestors, not disregarding any holiday that the church has prescribed to remember and celebrate.
One such day is All Saints' Day. This holiday exists not only among Catholics, but also in Orthodoxy. From this article you will learn when and how they will celebrate All Saints' Day in different Christian denominations (in Catholicism and Orthodoxy) in 2017 and what traditions exist that have been formed during the long history of this holiday.
In the Catholic world there is a feast of all saints, which believers celebrate on November 1st. People believe that on All Saints' Day the souls of the dead come to their homes and demand food from the living.
The pagan roots of this holiday are closely intertwined with the traditions of the Celtic tribes who celebrate their holiday Samhain on this day, or in our opinion New Year. It was believed that on this day all the "impure" could be in our world and any person could also fall into the other world.
For the first time, All Saints' Day was talked about back in the 4th century. And 2 thousand years ago, during the reign of Pope Boniface IV, at his insistence, the Roman Pantheon was consecrated in honor of the memory of the Mother of God, so that, as one English historian mentioned, “in the future this memory could be fulfilled even in those places where people worship not gods, but demons."
In Britain, this holiday is known as "All Hallows Eve" ("Commemoration of all Saints"), which in its name is so similar to modern Halloween.
This is not surprising, because it is actually "Allhollius Eve", which appeared due to the widespread celebration of All Saints' Day in many countries, the site reports. That is why today, on Halloween Day, on the streets you can see representatives of evil spirits and witches arranging a sabbath.
Almost every inhabitant of our country is well aware that in the middle of autumn, Catholics celebrate a holiday called Halloween, which heralds the onset of another interesting event - All Saints' Day.
The meaning of the holiday for Catholics is the same as for Orthodox Christians: honoring all those who dedicated their lives to serving Christianity and somehow suffered because of their faith. However, Catholics have a slightly different attitude to this event.
On this day, it is customary to dress up in scary costumes, make noise, sing and have fun in every possible way. And the reason for this behavior was the pagan roots of the holiday. Previously, it was believed that on Halloween, all evil spirits crawl out of their hiding places and look for a victim for their dark plans.
Therefore, the ordinary population tried to reincarnate as dark forces as plausibly as possible, so as not to attract attention to themselves, or not to show out of the house at all.
On All Saints Day 2017 - November 1, Catholics will try to visit the cemetery to honor the memory of their deceased relatives. Those who did not have time to do it on this date can do it the next day - on November 2, on the Day of Remembrance of All the Dead.
HISTORY OF THE HOLIDAY ALL SAINTS DAY
In the 4th century, the first mention of this holiday begins to appear. In the sermon of St. John Chrysostom (4th century), he glorifies " all saints, all over the world affected” and indicates a special day for their veneration. Also, this holiday is mentioned in his hymns by St. Ephrem the Syrian (4th century).
Around the 5th century, the celebration in honor of All Saints began to take place on the first Sunday after the Trinity, later this holiday was officially assigned by the Church to this date.
HOLIDAY ALL SAINTS DAY
The Church considers the main idea of this day to be the glorification of all the Saints, who are our intercessors before God and helpers in prayers to the Lord throughout our lives. We often turn to this or that Saint and ask them to help the Lord pray for us, and the Saints often respond to these requests, because they see our efforts in search of our spiritual path, in forgiveness and repentance.
It is no coincidence that All Saints Day is celebrated immediately after. After all, the Trinity is considered the Birthday of the Church, and like a small sprout planted in the ground, She blossomed in the person of the holy martyrs and confessors, reverends, saints and holy fools.
None of these people were born holy. They were not sinless, they all had some sins, but the most important thing is to realize them and sincerely repent. Church canons warn the Orthodox that saints cannot be considered sinless.
The Gospel says that even sinners enter Paradise. To the right of the crucified Savior, a robber hung on the cross, who in the last minutes of his life repented to God and asked Jesus Christ:
"Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom"
In this short sentence, faith in Jesus, in His Divinity, and the thief's readiness for repentance were felt. She turned out to be sincere, otherwise this man would not have gone to heaven.
People came to their holiness in different ways, but the result was God's grace, which, according to St. John of Damascus, made them " clean dwellings of God».
God's grace comes with the Holy Spirit, so the people who prayed earnestly to the Lord and labored to "acquire" the Holy Spirit were strong in their faith. They were given a lot, but this gift of God was honestly “earned” by them and they did not “keep” this gift for themselves, with God’s help they helped people.
At the time when Russia was conquered by the Mongol-Tatars, the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky visited the Horde more than once, all the time, softening the Tatar Khan with his meekness. Thus, he practically saved Russia from the extermination of Christianity by the Tatars, the invaders practically did not touch Orthodox churches and did not force our people to worship their gods.
The revered Russian Saint Sergius of Radonezh came to the princes more than once and asked them for mercy in the form of indulgence for his peasants, and it was not surprising that the requests of the Saint were fulfilled, because he was strong with the Holy Spirit.
It is not known how many Saints there are in Christianity. The feat of many people will remain unknown to people. Only God knows about this. He knows everything - about deaths for faith in Christ, about torment, about the work of ascetic monks who lived in difficult conditions, having renounced the world, and prayed for us, people, before the Lord.
After the godless time, the exploits of many thousands of ordinary people who ended up in Soviet camps for their faith became known. These people “only” preached the Gospel, love for God and people, honesty and decency in their lives, and not Marxism-Leninism. While tortured, they were tempted to be free for signing a piece of paper that said there was no God. At the cost of their health or even their lives, they did not renounce God. These are the real Saints!
But after all, in our understanding, they were ordinary people, they also went to shops, studied, worked, lived a simple life, these people lived quite recently and there are still those who saw them, who talked to them.
It turns out that God's grace does not go back to the early or Middle Ages, it is very close to us.
To be closer to God, it is necessary, as with everything in life, to make an effort, as did those people whose memory is honored on All Saints' Day, who acquired the Holy Spirit and received the anointing of grace.
All Saints' Day is not a holiday in the sense in which we perceive this word. This, to be more precise, is veneration, thanksgiving to them, pure and bright people who worked miracles for the glory of God. Who did not spare their lives for the glory of Christ, won the love and reverence of people.
We are all under someone's protection and patronage, each person at baptism received a name in honor of some saint. It is very useful to read about your patron, how he lived, why he became a saint. Perhaps his example will help us become at least a little like him, correct our lives and learn how to live the way your patron saint did.
In his sermon on All Saints' Day, Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh said:
“If we want to give glory to the saints, to glorify our saint, to justify that this name is entrusted to us, we must learn to live the way he lived, the way Christ lived, the way we are called to live. Otherwise, every praise that we pronounce to the saint will someday be a reproach to us: he knew - and did not create ... "
ALL SAINTS' DAY SERVICE
On Sunday, at the morning service, eleven Gospels are read that tell about the resurrection of Christ. And at the Sunday evening service, excerpts from the Old Testament are read to the Glory of the Saints.
At the morning service of the next day, on Monday, a liturgy is held at which the Gospel of Matthew and the Epistle to the Romans are read (during the Easter period, the Acts of the Holy Apostles and the Gospel of John were read).
On the same day, Orthodox Christians begin the Apostolic (Petrov) fast.
WHO ARE THE SAINTS
In our prayers we turn to the Lord God, to His Most Pure Mother, to the Holy Angels and Holy people.
The Mother of God stands above all Saints, she is closest to God. Angels are "messengers" from God, incorporeal spirits that do His will.
Pleasers of God These are holy people who have pleased God with their righteous life on earth. They pray to God for us and help us.
prophets- the saints who lived before the coming of Jesus Christ predicted the future, mainly about the Savior.
Apostles - disciples of Jesus Christ, after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them, they preached the Christian faith in all countries. The apostles closest to the Lord were at first twelve, and then seventy more were called. Peter and Paul are the Chief Apostles, they worked more than others in spreading Christianity. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John the Evangelist are the Evangelists who wrote about the life of Jesus Christ.
Equal-to-the-Apostles - saints who, like the apostles, spread the faith of Christ on Earth (blessed tsars Konstantin and Helena, pious Holy Prince Vladimir).
Martyrs - accepted cruel torment or death for the faith of Christ.
Confessors- saints who died peacefully later, after enduring torment.
Great Martyrs- saints who died after severe suffering (Holy Great Martyr George (Victorious), Holy Great Martyrs Barbara, Catherine).
Saints - bishops or hierarchs who have pleased God with their righteous lives (St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow).
Hieromartyrs Saints who suffered martyrdom for Christ.
Universal Teachers- these are the teachers of the entire Christian Church (St. Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom).
Reverends- these are righteous people who have retired from worldly life and observed the vow of celibacy, who pleased God. They mostly lived in deserts and monasteries (Sergius of Radonezh, Seraphim of Sarov).
Reverend Martyrs- Saints who endured martyrdom for Christ.
righteous - lived as we do in the world, were family people and led a righteous life pleasing to God (Holy Righteous Joachim and Anna).
Unmercenaries - without any payment, they healed people, healed bodily and mental illnesses (healer Panteleimon, Cosmas and Damian).
Holy fool for Christ's sake - people who, for the sake of Christ, show the world strange deeds, but in fact are filled with deep wisdom. They are also called blessed (Xenia of Petersburg).
All Saints' Day was known in the early Christian Church. Then all Christians were called saints, as having received new life in baptism and now belonging to Christ.
“To the saints who are at Ephesus,” “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi,” was how the apostle Paul addressed his epistles, addressing the first Christians. The first Christians to be honored by the church in a special way were those who died for their faith. The first known venerated martyr is considered to be St. Polycarp of Smyrna, whose martyrdom was described in detail in the "Circumferential Epistle of the Church of Smyrna to Other Churches", dated 155. In this document, the remains of the martyr are called more valuable than gold and gems. The message testified to the existence of a custom to preserve the relics of the martyrs as a precious relic, to honor the burial place. Such celebrations and prayers at the graves of martyrs for the faith were accepted everywhere where their burials were. The day of veneration of these holy ascetics was usually considered the day of death, which began to be called the day of their birth for heaven.
Subsequently, the cult of the martyrs spread to all local churches, and in addition to the days of memory of individual martyrs, a common feast in their honor began to be celebrated. Saint John Chrysostom testifies that the Byzantine Church honored the memory of all the martyrs on the first Sunday after Pentecost. In East Syrian worship, the day of remembrance of the martyrs was the first Friday after Pascha.
In the Roman church, the holiday was celebrated on May 13, which was associated with the day of the consecration of the temple in Rome in 609 (under other data in 610) in honor of the Virgin Mary and the martyrs. To this day, 28 carts of the remains of Christians who gave their lives for the faith were transported from the catacombs to the church. The annual commemoration of this event became the first celebration of the day, which is now known as the Feast of All Saints. Some time later, under Pope Gregory III, the concept of holiness expanded and began to include those who endured persecution and suffering for their faith in Christ, even when the persecution did not end in martyrdom, and then the ascetics who became famous for their virtuous life - "all the immaculate the righteous who have fallen asleep in the whole circle of the earth."
Pope Gregory IV officially introduced the feast of all saints into church practice, moving it to November 1. The time of the celebration was moved from spring to autumn, following the example of England and Ireland, where by this time for more than a hundred years it had been customary to remember all the saints on this day.
Until the 11th century, popular veneration of this or that ascetic or martyr testified to holiness. The first officially canonized saint was Ulrich of Augsburg - the process of his canonization was completed in 1093, 120 years after his death.
The celebration of all saints is one of the obligatory holidays of the Catholic Church, all Christians should participate in it, except for those who cannot do this for serious reasons.
The liturgical prayers of All Saints' Day glorify God - the only source of holiness, express faith in the immortality of the saints, and also appeal to their intercession. Readings from Holy Scripture, in turn, reproduce the ethical code of Christianity (eight "beatitudes" from the Sermon on the Mount) and testify to the presence of countless hosts of saints.
All Saints' Day is followed by All the Faithful Souls' Day, which is celebrated on November 2nd. In addition, for eight days, starting from November 1, it is customary to serve funeral masses, and the faithful are invited to especially intense prayer for the departed dear to their hearts.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
