Re: Feodorovsky Cathedral

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

Hello Elisa, the restoration is in process and it´s an amazing feeling to see it better each year. Since the cathedral was given back to the church, there must be religious services.

[pers]

When I was there in the summer of 1999, they already held services in the cathedral.  I attended the Saturday evening Vigil service.

[BobAtchison]

I was lucky to see it when it was a total wreck.  Seeing it in that condition helps one to appreciate how far the Russians have come in restoring the church.


In the 80's there was no floor in the church, holes in the roof, signs of fires, graffiti and garbage everywhere. It looked like a devils lair and made tears come to one's eyes.  Here was one of the great  monuments of Russian art and architecture lying in ruins before you.  When you looked up into the dome and saw the rooks flying in and out of the shattered windows it was fair to wonder if the Cathedral's fate was to simply crumble into the ground through further neglect.

One of the advantages the building had is that is was constructed at the beginning of the 20th century and the foundations were solid and firm, otherwise it would probably had collapsed into dust long before.

This ruin was evidence of so much hate for art, religion, Russia, the Romanovs... the scarred remains of the cathedral were a monument to evil and destruction.  When you drove from Leningrad to Pushkin the hulking black mass of the church loomed like a ghost on the right of the road - a reminder of the past and all the bad things that had happened here.

Back in the 80's nobody thought the Feodorovsky would be restored in our lifetime - if anything was done the facade might be renewed, but the dream that it might be a working church again - well that seemed impossible.

So much as changed since then.....

Thanks to God, the people of Tsarskoe Selo and the clergy of the church a 'resurrection' has happened.  Little money has meant much has had to be done on a shoestring budget and volunteers did much of the work.  In the midst of all this goodness unscrupulous people - even criminals - who wanted to defraud the church and use the sobor for their own venal purposes appeared.  They descended upon the church like 'sheep in wolves clothing', but they were stopped!  People sometimess laugh about the 'babushkas' of the sobor, but their eagle eyes could spot these people a mile off!

So the struggle and the resurrection continues - thanks to Antonio we will soon have some beautiful new pictures to see what the Russians have accomplished....

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

 When you drove from Leningrad to Pushkin the hulking black mass of the church loomed like a ghost on the right of the road - a reminder of the past and all the bad things that had happened here.

Well Bob, these words are especially moving for me. I´ll never forget the first time i went to Tsarskoe. The first sign that made me realize i wasn´t just dreaming was that black cupola to the right of the road. I had dreamt and imagined that road so many times that i felt as if i was coming back and not going for the first time. Just coming back after so many years, to this beloved place.....
I wish i can live to see that cupola glimmering again...

[BobAtchison]

I can't wait for people to be able to see your pictures of the Sobor and the Gorodok.  The recent restoration is amazing - and they have done it themselves despite the problems and challenges.

The Russians are an amazing people.  You don't see them bragging about their accomplishments or grabbing for attention.  For the people it has been a spiritual endevour and naturally they would think it wrong to boast about something done for God.  Still, they deserve all the credit.

It seems like was such a long time ago when they came to us and asked us to help with the bust of Nicholas - there were so many things that needed to be done - but then they hadn't even started on the interior.

Bob

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

I totally agree with you Bob. There´s so much love in everything done in the cathedral, i think the way they are restoring it would make the cathedral even more beautiful, at least as a monument to the memory of those who first built it.

[BobAtchison]

Here's a picture Antonio took of the crypt chapel of the Feodorovsky Sobor in 2003.  The Imperial family stood on the right in the front near the iconostasis.  There was a chair there for the Empress and a passage along the apse that allowed the Empress to observe the liturgy in absolute privacy in her own prayer chapel.

Bob

[BobAtchison]

Here is the right-hand arch of the nave of the crypt.  The Imperial Family gave their own ikons for this chapel.  There were many rare images here.

Bob

[BobAtchison]

Here's a picture Antonio sent us showing the Empress's private prayer chapel before the revolution.

Bob

[BobAtchison]

Here's a picture showing the state of the private chapel today.

Bob

[BobAtchison]

Here's a close-up of the ikonostasis in the crypt.

Bob

[BobAtchison]

Here is a view Antonio has sent us of the upper church from before the revolution.  The Imperial family stood on the right hand side close to the ikonostasis.  You needed a ticket to enter the church which was easy to get, parish members had a pass.  Foreigners liked to come to the church which had a fantastic choir.  The church was flooded with light - being there during a service was like being transported back in time to the 16th century.  People who visited the church were surporized to see how fervently the family prayed and was involved in the service.  Americans and English people thought it admirable, Petersburg high society called it supersition.

Bob

[Allison]

Dear Antonio:

Thank you for sharing your photos with us! They are beautiful!

[BobAtchison]

Here is a picture of the Feodorovsky Sobor before the restoration began in the 1980's.

Bob

[Louise]

Antonio and Bob. Words can't express how much I appreciate those pictures. What amazing works of art. I was holding my breath as I took in those pictures.

Thank you

Louise