Founded more than a thousand years ago, Murom is the archetypal small town, with its quiet, dreamy life. Strangers are rare here, let alone VIPs. Imagine how townspeople gasped when Svetlana Medvedev, the incoming First Lady, appeared in Murom this spring. Church and secular authorities outdid themselves to receive her, because she is known for piety and reverence of religious and historical heritage.
MrsMedvedev visited the recently restored Transfiguration Monastery and the Trinity Convent, where she attended a service.
The Trinity Convent became an international pilgrimage site in 1991, when it acquired the relics of Saints Peter and Fevronia from the local history museum.
Prince Peter and his wife, Princess Fevronia, who ruled Murom in the 13th century, were known for charity and miracles.
They are heavenly patrons of their town, of Russia and its Royal dynasty.
Tsar Ivan the Terrible took pride in being descended from them, and did much for their canonisation in 1547.
Svetlana Medvedev came to Murom to promote the idea of Love, Family and Fidelity Day, a new festival on July 8, the feast of Saints Peter and Fevronia. The initiative came from a group of statesmen led by Sergei Stepashin, head of the Audit Chamber and president of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society, and was first voiced in the Federation Council, parliament’s upper house. It seemed natural, because 2008 is the Year of the Family in Russia. The Church approved the idea because Murom began to celebrate July 8 far beyond the parish as a result of the religious revival.
Sergei Ryabukhin, prominent in Stepashin’s group, is an Audit Chamber member, chairman of the board of trustees for the revival of the Transfiguration Monastery, and an honorary citizen of Murom.
As he said to our correspondent, “Support for our initiative at this high level is wonderful.
We were glad to see Mrs Medvedev here. She displayed great interest in the history of the town and the fate of its Christian shrines, and said that the feast of Saints Peter and Fevronia had every chance of becoming one of Russia’s most cherished, red-letter days.We fully agreed.” Sergei Ryabukhin told me how he got involved in Murom’s affairs. It all started in the summer of 2003, when the Association of Audit Institutions of Russia, or AKSOR, held a conference in Vladimir.
After the meeting ended, the participants came on a tourist trip to Murom. “They held their breath as they entered the Transfiguration Monastery, the oldest in Russia. It was not so much the majesty of the monastery that impressed them, as it was the state of its dilapidation that shocked them. They went to see Stepashin as soon as they were back in Moscow, and asked him to help Murom.” Stepashin considered Ryabukhin, with his degrees in economics and construction engineering, to be the man for the job. He had heard about the plight of the Murom shrines long before. Scholar Dmitry Likhachev, already known as Russia’s Conscience in his lifetime, was the first to call the authorities’ attention to them. He wrote letters to Patriarch Alexy II and President Boris Yeltsin in 1990, asking them to return the Transfiguration Monastery to the Church and to remove the army unit stationed there.
His dreamcame true – the last troops left themonastery in spring, 1995, and Easter was celebrated there for the first time in years. Now is the time for miracles worked by human hands.
The monastery must rise from the ruins.Ryabukhin thinks it is a task for the entire community, not for the Church alone. A nation cannot survive unless it cherishes its old shrines and traditions.
He went to Murom in September 2003, and immediately visited the monastery.
“It looked awful – nothing but ruins. The soldiery who had been there for 50 years had left it in an appalling state. The outer wall was all holes. Only the church walls proved too solid for them. The drill square was in the graveyard. They paraded on holy monks’ bones! What I saw was depressing – a dozen monks clearing away the rubbish. What could they do singlehanded?” A council of trustees was established to supervise monastery restoration in 1995, and received the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II and Archbishop Eulogius of Vladimir and Suzdal. Now that Ryabukhin heads the council, on Stepashin’s orders, it includes not only priests, but also Murom and Moscow industrial managers.
“We decided against setting up any foundations; I made it a point. Donations come straight to the monastery account, so we keep an eye on every kopeck,” Ryabukhin says.
Government mammoths also untied their purse strings. State-controlled nuclear power corporation Rosenergoatom was the first, with three million roubles ($128,000, or €80,700), to restore the outer wall. Energy giant Gazprom and arms exporter Rosoboronexport followed.
Private companies – Metropol, Interros and others – soon joined them.
“Not only Orthodox believers are helping us. Holcim, a major Swiss cement manufacturer, made a big donation. There is an inscription about it on the church, above the gate,” Ryabukhin says. “Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov is also generous, although he is not a Christian. This is a cause for everyone – themonastery is part of a global, not only a Russian, heritage.
When we take good care of it, we contribute to the revival of spiritual values.” Revival endeavours occasionally bear unexpected fruit. Ilya Muromets, the knightly hero of ancient legends and ballads, was recently canonised. The Kiev Cave Monastery agreed to cede a part of his relics to Murom. Ryabukhin suggested constructing an impressive tomb with the saint’s sculpture, a part of the relics in his left hand. A replica of his sword is on display near the tomb.
“A new tradition has been born – military school graduates come to Murom for blessing, and Father Cyril, the monastery superior, blesses them with the sword as he would with the cross,” the official says.
Ancient Murom is once again the symbol of Russia and its cherished values – conjugal bliss with Saints Peter and Fevronia, who “lived a long and happy life, and died on the same day”, and valour with Ilya Muromets, canonised St Elias.
