New e-collection of the Presidential Library marking the 705th anniversary of Sergius of Radonezh

May 3, 2019 marks the 705th anniversary of the birth of one of the most revered saints of the Russian Orthodox Church, St. Sergius of Radonezh. To this memorable date, the Presidential Library presents a new electronic collection that includes rare editions, including chronicles of the life and deeds of the devotee of the Russian land, images of the saint and monuments to him, materials dedicated to the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius and much more.  

Sergius of Radonezh was born in 1314 and was baptized under the name of Bartholomew. According to the 1894 edition, “Memory of the 500th anniversary of the holy and God-bearing father Sergius of Radonezh and All Russia, the wonder worker, his life and deeds, miracles”: “One day his mother came to church to the liturgy and stopped, as usual, with other wives in the vestibule. Before reading the Gospel, the baby suddenly cried out in her womb, so that his mother was embarrassed by this. <...> Other women, hearing a loud cry, wanted to see the baby, and she was forced to reveal that the baby was shouting not in her arms, but in her womb”. According to the authors of the book, this event made a woman especially attentive to her body, she refused meat, fish, milk, ate bread and seeds, drank one water, often prayed: “Thus, the fruit of her womb, in her very womb, was already cleansed and was consecrated by fasting and prayer".

Indeed, the child grew up different from other children. “The more the youth Bartholomew grew, the clearer and more revealed were his special spiritual qualities; more often his extraordinary heart cravings and desires affected. As a boy, he was not like other children. So, he completely avoided children's games and fun, avoided jokes, laughter and idle talk. But he especially surprised his parents with his fasting and temperance”, - writes John Morev in his work “St. Sergius of Radonezh, the great ascetic and sorrow of the Russian land” of 1893.

After the death of his parents, the young man took the monastic vows under the name Sergius. In September 1892, the newspaper “Tambov Gubernia Gazette” wrote: “St. Sergius’s deserts nurture is one of the best pages of Christian asceticism. Lonely among the dense forest filled with wolves and bears, deprived of the most necessary food, deep into the study of scripture, contemplative life and prayer, which came to the wisdom and clairvoyance through asceticism, the monk soon began to read in human hearts, as in an open book.

Over time, people were drawn to the hermit from all over the country. “Those who wanted to have an example and leadership in spiritual life, having heard about the holy life of Sergius, began to ask permission to settle down and live near it”, - we read in the rare book “Memory of the 500th anniversary of the holy and God-bearing father Sergius of Radonezh and All Russia, the wonder worker”.

Sergius of Radonezh became such a ray: in his life he was accompanied by numerous miraculous phenomena, which is described in the Book on the Miracles of St. Sergius, 1888, from the Presidential Library’s collections, and it is his prayers that are credited for winning the Battle of Kulikovo, the most important event for the Moscow State. Before Moscow, the Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy arrived at the Trinity Monastery to ask for the blessing of Abbot Radonezh which is described in "St. Sergius of Radonezh, the great ascetic and sorrowful of the Russian land".

 “Being himself the supreme bearer of the Christian spirit, he — by example, edification, his prayers — contributed a lot and assisted in feeding this spirit of the entire Orthodox Russian people — the spirit that constitutes the leadership principle, strength and glory of the popular Russian life”, - Archbishop Nikon summarizes.

The Presidential Library as a center for storing documents on the history of Russian statehood pays much attention to materials telling about the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. This theme is reflected in a separate electronic collection, which is available on the portal of the institution. The Presidential Library collections contain unique publications - the Ostromir Gospels, the Laurentian Chronicle, the Eleazar Gospel, rare books on the spiritual exploits of Alexander Nevsky, John of Kronstadt and other saints. Big job is being done on digitizing the archives of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the Alexander Svirsky Monastery, the documents of the Holy Synod, which from 1837 to 1917 were located in the building where the Presidential Library is housed today.