Clement Church schedule of services. Church of Clement, Pope: description, history and interesting facts. The state of the temple at the beginning of the new millennium
- One of the most famous temples in Moscow located on Pyatnitskaya Street is a unique example of church baroque.
- Saint Clement (2nd century AD) was "an apostle from 70", 4th bishop of Rome. At that time, the division of the church into Orthodox and Catholic had not yet taken place.
- The temple, according to the main version, was built in the 17th century... one of the richest merchants in Moscow, Kozmoy Matveyev, whose estate was located on Pyatnitskaya Street.
- It is believed that the author of the project- Pietro Antonio Trezzini - Swiss architect, author of many palaces and temples in St. Petersburg.
- In the iconostasis of the temple and its external decoration manifested the rich architectural language of the Moscow Baroque.
The northern (left) side-altar of the refectory is dedicated to the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "The Burning Bush", placed to the left of the royal gates and protecting from fire and fires. To the left of the Preobrazhensky side-altar there is a side-altar in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "The Sign".
The southern (right) chapel of the refectory is dedicated to Pope St. Clement and Archbishop Peter of Alexandria. This side-altar takes the place of the original temple, near which Polish and Russian troops fought in 1612.
In the main part of the building there are five side-altars, which is a rarity for Moscow churches. The temple icon of St. Clement is usually placed on a lectern. In the wall-mounted icon cases under the arch, there are ancient icons of the 18th century.
The main part of the temple was built in 1770 and is made in the style typical for Western European temples. The statues of angels stand on pedestals at the level of the second tier, the icons are set in luxurious frames and are made in the style of Italian art of the 18th century. In the temple for the first time in Moscow, the "iconostasis" structure of the iconostasis was applied, when all five thrones of the central part of the temple were covered by a single iconostasis. The closest analogue is the iconostasis of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
Hieromartyr Clement, Pope of Rome, was born in Rome into a wealthy and noble family. Separated from his parents from childhood by force of circumstances, Clement was brought up by strangers. Living in Rome, the young man received an excellent education, was surrounded by luxury, close to the imperial court. But he was not pleased with joys, pagan wisdom did not captivate him. He began to think about the meaning of life. When news of Christ and His teaching reached the capital, Saint Clement left his home and estate and went to those lands where the apostles preached.
In Alexandria, Clement met, whose words he listened with deep attention, with all his heart perceiving the power and truth of the Word of God. Arriving in Palestine, Saint Clement received Baptism from and became his zealous disciple and constant companion, sharing with him his labors and sufferings. The Holy Apostle Peter, shortly before his sufferings, ordained Saint Clement to the bishop of the city of Rome. After the death of the Apostle, and after him, the Bishop of Rome (67–79), and his successor, Saint Bishop Anaclethus (79–91), Saint Clement (from 92 to 101) was at the Roman See.
The virtuous life, mercy and the deed of prayer of the holy Pope Clement converted many to Christ. So, once on the day of Easter, 424 people were baptized with it at once. Among the baptized were people of all classes: slaves, rulers, members of the imperial family. The pagans, seeing the successes of his apostolic preaching, denounced Saint Clement to the emperor Trajan (98-117), accusing the saint of blaspheming the pagan gods. The emperor expelled Saint Clement from the capital, sending him to the Crimea, to work in the Inkerman quarries near the city of Chersonesos. Many of the saint's disciples followed him, preferring voluntary exile to separation from their spiritual father. Arriving at the place of exile, Saint Clement met many Christian believers who were condemned to work in difficult conditions, completely without water. He prayed with the condemned, and the Lord, in the form of the Lamb, showed him the place of the fountain, from which a whole river poured out. This miracle attracted many people to Saint Clement. Hearing a zealous preacher, hundreds of pagans turned to Christ. Every day, 500 people or more were baptized. And there, in the quarries, the temple was cut down, in which he served as a priest.
The saint's apostolic activity aroused the wrath of the emperor Trajan, and he gave orders to drown Saint Clement. The martyr was thrown into the sea with an anchor around his neck. This happened in 101.
Through the prayers of the faithful disciples of the saint, Cornelius and Thebes and all the people, the sea departed, and people found the incorrupt body of their shepherd at the bottom in the temple not made by hands (the "Angelic Church"). After that, annually, on the day of the martyrdom of Saint Clement, the sea receded and for seven days Christians could worship his holy relics. Only in the 9th century, during the reign of the Constantinople emperor Nicephorus (802–811), by God's permission, the relics of Saint Clement became inaccessible for worship for 50 years.
During the reign of the emperor Michael and his mother Theodore (855–867) Chersonesos was visited. Learning about the hidden relics of Saint Clement, they prompted Bishop George of Chersonesos to a congregational prayer to the Lord for the discovery of the relics of the holy martyr. After the conciliar service of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the clergy who arrived with them from Constantinople and the fervent prayer of all those gathered on the surface of the sea, the holy relics of Bishop Clement miraculously appeared at midnight. They were solemnly transferred to the city to the Church of the Holy Apostles. Part of the relics was brought by Saints Cyril and Methodius to Rome, and the holy head was subsequently brought to Kiev (+ 1015) and placed in the Church of the Tithes together with the relics of Saint Thebes, where a chapel was built in the name of Saint Clement. The memory of the holy martyr is sacred in Russia. Since ancient times, many temples have been dedicated to him.
Saint Clement, who is considered to be an apostolic man, left us a spiritual legacy - two Epistles to the Corinthians - the first written monuments of Christian teaching after the writings of the holy Apostles. (They were published in Russian translation in the "Writings of the Apostolic Men.")
After the October Revolution in 1917, many ancient churches in Moscow were, unfortunately, destroyed. However, some religious buildings, almost miraculously, were still preserved. Among them is the Church of Clement, the Pope of Rome, in Zamoskvorechye, on the street. Pyatnitskaya. The peculiarities of this ancient temple are the architecture and decoration, which are quite unusual for the Orthodox Church. In another way, the church is also called the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior.
Minin and Pozharsky
Unfortunately, historians do not know anything about the exact time of the construction of the Church of Clement. For the first time, mention of this church is found in the chronicle, which tells about the battle of Minin and Pozharsky's troops with the Poles, which took place on August 24, 1612. Then Russian Cossack troops recaptured this temple and the nearby prison from Chodkevich, thereby disrupting the hetman's plans to prepare for the capture of the Moscow Kremlin ...
Temple before the revolution
According to the chronicle, in those days this structure had a completely different look. It was built, like most other churches in Moscow, of wood. However, already 40 years after the battle, the church of Clement, the Pope, was completely transformed. A stone one was built on the site of the old wooden structure. The first mention of the new temple dates back to 1657. At the beginning of the 18th century, the church was completely rebuilt. A refectory and a bell tower with two aisles were also erected next to it. The architects of the new church were presumably A. Evlashov or K. Blank.
In the middle of the 18th century. the church was again subjected to a global reconstruction. The main volume of the old building was demolished, and by 1769 the builders completed the construction of the five-domed Baroque temple. The reconstruction was financed by the Moscow Matveev. The architect was supposedly the Italian Pietro-Antonio Trezzini. It is in this form that this church has come down to our days.
Temple after the revolution
The decision to close the Church of Clement, Pope of Rome, on Pyatnitskaya by the Moscow authorities was made in 1929. As the priests say, they came to disperse the believers right on Good Friday. The parishioners were not even allowed to celebrate Easter. Archpriest Mikhail Galunov, who was appointed to this position in 1925 and who did a lot for the restoration of the temple, was taken to the NKVD. In the future, he was in the camps for 10 years.
In 1934, it was decided to destroy the empty church of Clement on Pyatnitskaya. Residents of a nearby house wrote a petition to the authorities about this. In it, they asked to equip a playground on the site of the temple. However, restorers Igor Grabar and Pyotr Baranovsky stood up for the church, saving thousands of ancient religious buildings in those days. Today the ROC calls them ascetics and venerates them in every possible way, even though they were unbelievers.
History of the Church of Clement, Pope: interesting facts
As it really was, no one knows for certain. But there is quite a bit about the salvation of the Church of Clement on Pyatnitskaya. It is believed that Baranovsky and Grabar went straight to see After all, it was this Soviet military leader and politician who was baptized in honor of the saint Pope as a child. According to rumors, by order of Voroshilov in 1934, the first complete edition of Lenin's works, just published at that time, was brought to the church on Pyatnitskaya. Huge shelves were quickly erected in the temple and they were forced with books, including the works of the leader of the revolution. That is, a library was urgently created here.
The book storage workers who came to destroy the temple were threatened with a call to the NKVD about sabotage. Seeing Lenin's books on the shelves, they, according to legend, retreated.
Thus, thanks to the intercession of two restorers, the Church of Clement, Pope, was almost not damaged during the Soviet years. To this day, it has been preserved almost in its original form.
Connected with the Church of Clement and another rather interesting fact. The priests say that Archpriest Mikhail Galunov, who served a ten-year sentence, after his release for a long time, together with his wife, secretly lived in the bell tower of the church. It is believed that this became possible due to the fact that believing librarians worked in the book depository organized in the church.
The state of the temple at the beginning of the new millennium
The Church of Clement, Pope (Savior of the Transfiguration) was destroyed in Moscow in the 30s, like many others, was not. However, of course, no one paid special attention to her in the future. By 2002, the library in the temple was still working, but it was in a terrible state. Most of the windows in the building were missing and the roof was leaking.
Temple restoration
The first to think about, of course, are the believers. With their money, a small reconstruction was carried out. To preserve the building, the first thing to do was to block the roof. The leaks have stopped. The believers also took care of most of the windows. Glasses were inserted into the openings. After some time, the clergy managed to draw attention to the state of the temple of the authorities. In 2008, at the initiative of Luzhkov, the building was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. The books were taken out of it. In 2014, the restoration of the church of St. Clement was almost completed. The Moscow authorities financed the reconstruction of this building, which is important for the spiritual life of the country.
Reviews of the Church of Clement, Pope
Of course, several years after the opening and restoration of the temple, many believers and history lovers have visited. There are only good reviews of the works carried out in it. The church looks, according to many parishioners, just great. Its interiors are unusual, but they set the believer in the right mood very well. This church also earned excellent reviews for the fact that there is a clean public garden next to it. Here you can sit in the shade, relax and breathe in the air of old Moscow.
Who is Saint Clement
Actually, the patron saint of this church himself lived in Rome at the time of Christ and the Apostle Peter. Saint Clement's parents were called Faustus and Matfidia. Both were of royal descent and were related to the Roman emperor. In addition to Clement, they had two more children - the twins Faustin and Faustinian. The saint's parents adhered to the pagan faith.
It so happened that because of the act of an impious person, this whole large family was confused. For a long time, its members considered each other dead. They were reunited only 24 years after separation thanks to the Apostle Peter. The twin brothers and Clement, independently of each other, believed in Christ and followed this saint.
Many people told the revered apostle sad stories of their lives. Clement and Matthidias did it both. Peter accidentally met her begging for alms at the entrance to one of the cities through which he was passing. Realizing that the woman and his disciple are each other's son and mother, the apostle arranged for them to meet. Other followers of Peter, including the twins Faustin and Faustinian, also learned about this happy story in detail. Of course, they immediately realized who Clement and Matthidias were, and hastened to meet them.
But the miracles did not end there. Happy Matfidia believed that Christ himself helped her find children, and asked Peter to baptize her. But one old astrologer heard about the upcoming ceremony in his city. The scientist began to persuade Peter not to baptize a woman, since there is no God in heaven. Yes, even if he was, then, according to the elder, he would not have allowed the death of his wife and children many years ago. After hearing the story of the astrologer, Peter realized that before him was the husband of Matthidias and the father of his three disciples. So the family was finally reunited.
Why the saint is called the Pope
The temple of the Holy Martyr Clement, Pope of Rome, was built in honor of this saint, of course, not because of his miraculous reunification with his family, but in memory of his deeds. Having met, Clement's parents returned to Rome and were showered with gifts and all kinds of blessings by their overjoyed relative - the Roman emperor. Of course, Matfidias and Faustus began to actively preach the new religion. After their death, this business was continued by Clement. During his life, this preacher was often persecuted and ultimately drowned by the pagans in the sea.
Today, the church reveres Saint Clement very much, believing that it was he who first spread Christianity among the Roman nobility. Before him, this religion was the faith of the poor. As a noble man, Clement baptized many wealthy Romans. As a result, Christianity has become a religion, including the military, and the most revered citizens. That is why priests, including the Orthodox, consider him a man worthy of bearing the title of the first pre-schismatic Pope.
Features of the architecture
Outwardly, the Church of Clement, Pope, looks very unusual. It looks like this building is more likely not an Orthodox church, but a Catholic one. The architecture of this building is very close to Western European style. However, the inner Orthodox essence of the temple, in the opinion of its clergy, has been completely preserved.
Interior decoration
The interiors of the Pope's temple are made in the Rococo style, which is also unusual for an Orthodox religious building. Its interior design is a bit like a Catholic one. However, unlike western temples, the church of St. Clement does not have images of chimeras and monsters. Orthodox priests consider their presence in the design as a sign of the departure of the Catholic Church from the true faith.
Of course, icons are the basis of the interior decoration of the temple. Five old images in the Church of Clement have survived. The most revered at the same time is the icon of the Sovereign Mother of God. This image is considered even older than that found in Kolomenskoye, which was once used during the abdication of Nicholas II.
This icon, like the other four, was created by Italian masters. Compared to traditional Orthodox, all these images look rather unusual. There is even an image of St. Catherine in the church, which depicts not herself, but the Empress Catherine II. Such liberties were sometimes taken by the icon painters of the 18th century. The modern Church does not approve of this. Nevertheless, the icon adorns the walls of the temple, and anyone can look at it.
How to find a temple
Getting to the Church of Clement, the Pope, in Moscow will not be difficult. It is located right in the center of the city, on the site of the former Cossack settlement. You can get there by metro. This church is located right between two large stations - "Tretyakovskaya" and "Kuznetskaya" - and occupies almost the entire Klimentovsky lane. The exact address of the temple looks like this: Moscow, st. Pyatnitskaya, 26, bldg. 1.
Church of Clement in Pskov and other cities
Of course, in honor of this revered saint in Russia, more than one church on Pyatnitskaya was built. There are such churches in other cities of Russia. You can visit the saint's temple, for example, in Pskov. The Church of Clement, Pope of Rome, in this city is located on Olginskaya embankment, 16.
Such a temple was also built in Veliky Novgorod. You can find it at the address: st. Bolshaya Moskovskaya, 36. Another saint's church operates in the village of Kostyurino, Yaroslavl region.
After 70 years of silence, prayers were heard at the Church of the Holy Martyr Clement on Pyatnitskaya in Moscow. They were held in the open air, in any weather - be it rain, snow or wind - as a hope for the revival of the great Russian cathedral. And the temple revived - first with the Znamensky side-chapel transferred to the parishioners in 2005. And in 2008, after the return of the entire church to the faithful, a grandiose restoration began.
History
A monument of world art, "Zamoskvoretskoye miracle", as the Pope's Cathedral of St. Clement was called in the old days, is the only church in the Moscow Posad that survived after the Napoleonic fire of 1812. 2 centuries earlier, the place on which the then stone church stood was glorified by the battle, which was given by the militias of Minin and Pozharsky in defense of the Kremlin from the Poles. "The battle at the Klementovsky prison was, as it were, the seed of the salvation of Moscow and Russia" - noted later historians, and the temple itself, as a witness to an important event, acquired "special historical significance for the Fatherland."
Clement Church stood until 1756 and fell into complete disrepair. The resumed history of the temple is also associated with a military victory, this time within the state. The new cathedral was built under the patronage of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, who came to power by the forces of the Preobrazhensky regiment. The accession to the throne of the new Russian empress took place on December 8, 1740, on the day of commemoration of the Holy Martyr Clement of the Pope. Therefore, the newly erected cathedral was called the temple of the Holy Martyr Clement, and the main altar was erected in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The new Moscow cathedral, which arose during the period of rapid construction of St. Petersburg, was markedly different from the temple buildings both in the first capital and throughout the empire.
The governor of Crimea, Count Pyotr Vorontsov, put a lot of effort into creating the appearance of the temple - it was he who initiated the creation of a unique multi-tiered iconostasis, which became the heart and main ensemble of the cathedral. The huge height - about 30 meters - the five-aisled iconostasis was designed by the Italian architects invited by the count, and it was brought to life by Russian craftsmen who performed exquisite complex carving and further gilding according to primordial Russian technologies.
The baroque architecture of the facade conveys the luxurious plastic lines and outlines of the cathedral, and the interior of the temple in the rococo style has no analogues.
“This is a unique monument of world art,” says Leonid Kalinin, rector of the Church of the Holy Martyr Clement of the Pope. “Despite the fact that it looks like a Western European one, our temple is completely different in meaning and image. This is not a palace rococo, but an amazing embodiment of the architectural style in the richness of forms as an attempt to convey all the diversity of God's creation. "
Hieromartyr Clement
The Church of the Holy Martyr Clement of the Pope of Rome is unique not only in its external and internal appearance, but also in its spiritual content. For most of our contemporaries, his name does not mean anything, but this was not always the case. In the pre-Mongol period, Clement, a disciple of the Apostle Peter, was one of the saints most revered by our ancestors. Churches were built in his honor, images of the saint can be seen on many ancient frescoes and icons. A righteous life, apostolic feat and many thousands of followers made Clement revered, both in the Catholic and Orthodox world. But since ancient times, Saint Clement has been considered the great patron saint of the Russian land.
Several centuries after the martyrdom of Clement in Chersonesos, the preachers Cyril and Methodius, taking the holy relics of the Apostle, went with them to Rome. Upon learning of this, Pope Adrian himself came out to them. What happened next was tantamount to a miracle. The liturgical books translated by the preachers into the Slavic language were consecrated by the Pope, although at that time in the Western Church only three languages were considered liturgical: Hebrew, Greek and Latin. So, for the first time prayers were sounded in the Slavic language, and the Russian land received its own writing and culture.
Later, Prince Vladimir transported the relics of the Hieromartyr Clement to the Tithe Church, and baptized Russia with this apostolic shrine. The first Christian shrine in Russia became exclusively revered, and the image of the Holy Martyr Clement is still associated with the defender of the Russian land.
Revival of the temple
One of the most beautiful churches in Moscow was closed in 1934 and miraculously survived destruction. The building was transferred to the State Library. Lenin for stock storage, thanks to which unique icons and a multi-tiered iconostasis have been preserved.
In 2008, restoration and restoration work began in the temple.
“The temple was in ruins: the façade was badly damaged, the roof was leaking, the windows were broken, birds nested on the iconostasis,” rector Leonid Kalinin recalls the state of the temple before restoration. “The first thing we did was patch up the holes, put in order the facade and vaults of the cathedral, and then proceeded to restore the interior of the temple.”
One of the most difficult stages of the restoration was the restoration of the unique iconostasis. Rotten in places, with a large share of losses of varying degrees, the iconostasis demanded the masterly work of restorers.
"A clean, meticulous restoration," says Alexander Zuev, head of the decorative and applied workshops of the RSC "Vozrozhdenie", about the project. - “For each fragment of this unique object, an artistic council was collected. We discussed each tier, made a decision, and then proceeded to rebuild. They removed dirt, strengthened and revived the author's levkas (soil). "
After the base was restored, the craftsmen started the final process - gilding. For this, special "scaffolding" was set up so as not to damage the original gilding on the iconostasis, and gilding works were carried out from top to bottom, neatly along each tier of the 30-meter iconostasis.
The task of not re-gilding, but of restoring it became the main one for the restorers. In order for the gilding to be performed in the manner of the original, and also to match the color of the coating, the gilders used gold leaf from the Russian manufacturer NPP Raritet.
It took the craftsmen about a year for the iconostasis to shine with its splendor again, as for the first time in 1772. Luxurious composition, exquisite forms, expressive lines, streaming golden light: an amazing harmony of earthly style in the embodiment of the Greatness of God.
The two most serious stages of restoration of the Church of the Holy Martyr Clement have been completed; subsequently, the cathedral will have to restore the unique icons of the temple.
From the middle of the 16th century, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Streltsy settled along the line of the present Klimentovsky Lane. Apparently, in the center of their Zarechensk settlement was the St. Clement Church, because this place was called Klimentovsky town, or ostrozhts, cautious.
Already on the first map of Moscow - "Godunov's drawing", the wooden Klimentovskaya church is marked. She is also present on subsequent plans - "Sigismundov", Oleariy, Meriana, and others.
In 1770 Matveev donated a large bell to the temple. The temple got another bell after 12 years. There were eight bells in total.
According to the main throne, the new temple began to be called the Preobrazhensky, but even in official documents its ancient, original name - Klimentovsky is much more common. It became an adornment not only of Zamoskvorechye, but of the entire ancient capital. According to the inventory carried out in 1770-1771, the unique creation of an unknown architect was among the five "best in all of Moscow" temples. The authorship was attributed to F.B. Rastrelli, A.P. Evlashev, S.I. Chevakinsky, I.F. Michurin, I.P. Zherebtsov, I. Ya. Yakovlev. The most convincing seems to be the assumption about the participation of the Italian architect P.A. Trezzini in the development of the project of the Zamoskvoretskaya shrine, later embodied by Moscow architects.
Active since the beginning of the XX century. under the church, the parish trusteeship diligently sought opportunities to increase its income. So, in 1901, a narrow three-story building was attached to the house, erected in 1882, from the east, with its end to Pyatnitskaya Street. In this apartment building, in addition to all kinds of trade, handicraft "establishments" and apartments, a parish school was opened on the ground floor.
After the war, the temple looked depressing. On the site of the former churchyard, a public garden was laid out, in the center of which an underground public toilet was erected.
In the second half of the 1940s. in the bell tower of the church lived its former rector, Archpriest M.F. Galunov, who served in churches in those years
