Despite the fact that modern Old Believer calendars contain precise indications regarding fasting and fasting days of the year, the true Old Russian traditions of eating and fasting are still little known. Today we will talk about fasting in the monasteries of the Russian Church before the church schism, and on the basis of old documents we will reconstruct now forgotten monastic dishes.

Small home charter

The dietary guidelines of the modern Old Believer calendars of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, the Russian Old Orthodox Church, the Old Orthodox Pomeranian Church relate to the use of certain types of products on the days of the church year. Attention is concentrated mainly on five parameters of the meal:

fast food;
fish food;
food with oil;
food without oil(meaning without vegetable oil);
xerophagy(today this refers to uncooked food, fresh vegetables or fruits).

It is believed that all these instructions are taken from " Small house charter”- a book compiled in the 19th century and which became a kind of collection of statutory instructions regarding fasting, meals and cell prayer. And although there is an opinion that the “Small House Rule” unites a certain amount of pre-schism church tradition, including the customs ancient Russian monasteries and parish churches, in fact, his instructions go back mainly to one book - the Typicon ("Church Eye"), published in 1641 under Patriarch Joseph and, according to legend, associated with the ancient charter of the Jerusalem monastery. It should be noted that the New Believer charter in terms of fasting does not differ in any way from the Old Believer. They are completely identical because they have the same source.

Pea slurry

However, neither in the "Small House Rule", nor even more so in the modern Old Believer calendars, can one find information directly related to the food tradition of pre-schismatic Rus'. What did they eat in Rus' on holidays and fasts simple people, what is the clergy, and what is the boyars? What dishes were served in numerous monasteries? Almost nothing is known about this, and studies and documents that talk about it are not widely available. Small remarks, occasionally published in popular historical literature, provide very modest information on this topic and are mainly limited to general words about the piety of ancient Rus'. Usually in such cases they quote, oddly enough, foreigners. Thus, speaking of the diet of Great Lent, one usually recalls the writings of the archdeacon Paul of Aleppo who visited from Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch, at the invitation of Patriarch Nikon, Moscow in 1654-1656:

“In this post, we endured great torment with him, imitating them (Russians - approx. ed.) Against our will, especially in food: we did not find any other food, except for a smear similar to boiled peas and beans, because in this post, in general, it’s completely do not eat oil. For this reason, we experienced indescribable agony.”

Also, information sometimes slips that in northern monasteries, like Solovetsky, “dry” (dried fish) was allowed during Great Lent, because there was absolutely no bread in those places, and the monks were forced to eat fish. However, due to the lack of widely known and published historical documents, information about "sushi", like any other fish used in the Great and Assumption Lent, is criticized by some zealots. According to such authors, the Studite Charter, which indeed allowed the repeated consumption of fish during Great Lent (not only on the Annunciation, but also on the day of the 40 martyrs, the acquisition of the head of St. John the Forerunner, St. Alexis, the man of God, the righteous Lazarus and some others) has not been used in Rus' for a long time. They note that even centuries before the church schism, the ban on fish in monastic institutions fully met the requirements of modern church calendars, and during Great Lent, indeed, the main dish was pea mash, mentioned by Paul of Aleppo.

Secrets of the monastery habitants

Unfortunately, it so happened that there is no complete research work dedicated to the daily meal in ancient Rus', both monastic and parish, in different strata, different classes of the population. In order to compile such a study, you need to study dozens, if not hundreds of documents. To a greater extent, the documents of the monasteries have survived to this day. These are various kinds of inventories, daily routines and charters. It takes years to study all that have survived, so let's try to see what lies on the surface. On the website of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in the section "The main collection of the library of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra", we find the "Obykhodnik" of 1645. It contains not only liturgical instructions, but also food. We find there an indication of the food charter of the first Saturday of Great Lent:

« Boiled with butter for the brethren, and dry rubbed in a sour brew, and not fish. And we drink the wine set for the glory of God, if two cups are received. Likewise, in the evening, two bowls. In the evening shchi and dry peas mixed with a lot of butter».

What conclusions can be drawn from this? Sush (dried fish), apparently, was used not only in the regions of the far north, where there is “no bread at all,” but, as we see, in the central monastery of the Russian state. The indication “dry land, not fish” clearly means that in other places (which are not indicated) fresh fish was allowed, and the indication was made in order to avoid mistakes in cooking according to the monastery charter of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Unfortunately, “sush” (dried fish), popular before the schism, is not mentioned at all in church calendars today, although you can buy it in most Russian grocery stores. You can also pay attention to the solid number of bowls of wine consumed in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery.

In the "Obikhodnik" of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery there are not so many indications of a domestic nature. But there are other "Obikhodniki", with a more detailed description of household charters. One of them belongs to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery.

This document is well known and was even published by the Indrik publishing house in 2002. This "Obikhodnik" gives a detailed description of almost every day of Great Lent, as well as other days of the church year. Skip the liturgical instructions, let us look at the refectory regulations of this famous monastery concerning the second week of Great Lent.

On Monday: On that day, the brethren eat brotherly bread, retka, kvass, in bowls in large water, cabbage crumbled with horseradish, oatmeal, turnips, or mushrooms or milk mushrooms with garlic. And on which days the brethren are dry-eating, then there is no serving and a bowl of kvass.

On Tuesday: The brethren eat in tables for a quarter of brotherly bread, crackers, borscht shti with juice, kvass from a smaller cellar in large bowls, peas or porridge juicy. If on this Tuesday or on any other days of Great Lent the Finding of the head of Ivan the Baptist, or the 40th martyr, or new saints: Euphemia of Novgorod, Demetrius of Prilutsky, Alexei Metropolitan, Macarius Kolyazinsky, Jonah Metropolitan, then eat white bread, barley kvass in large bowls , shti, in a bowl, lips in juice or cabbage are heated with butter, grated peas with butter, caviar or korowai, porridge juicy or pea noodles with pepper, chetsu serving.

On Wednesday: Eat dry food: broth bread, retka, kvass, in large bowls water, cabbage with horseradish, oatmeal, turnips or mushrooms or milk mushrooms with garlic.

On Thursday: Eat in the tables for a quarter of bratskoy bread, shti borsch juicy, crackers, bratskoy kvass, peas or porridge juicy.

At five: Eat dry food: bracket bread, kvass, in large bowls, water, cabbage with horseradish in bowls, oatmeal, turnips or mushrooms with garlic.

On Saturday: They serve as a cathedral for Tsar Ivan, for his burial for the brethren of food: white bread, a bowl of fake kvass, shti with pepper, tavranchyug sturgeon or porridge with salmon, grated peas with butter, caviar or korovai, pies, but if there are korovai, otherwise there are no pies . They make food for people. In dinner, brotherly bread, shti, kvass in large bowls from a smaller cellar, at the rate of kvass.

In the 2nd week of fasting: Eat white bread, shti, in a bowl of barley kvass, in bowls, lips in juice or cabbage greta with butter, grated peas with butter, caviar or korowai, porridge or Gorokhov's lopsha with pepper. On the same day, in dinner, brack bread, shti, a bowl of kvass yachnovo in large bowls, kvass in staves.

What's interestnigwe seeabout the pre-schism monastic life, in terms of modern cliches?

Firstly, although the Kirillov Monastery belongs to the northern monasteries, there was bread at the meal of the monks. And there was no lack of it. On holidays, instead of rye, white bread or pies were served, the filling of which depended on the charter of the day.

Secondly. The monastic meal was very varied not only on fast days, but even on the most strict fast. On the harsh days of “dry eating”, a sufficient selection of dishes was offered: “bratsky bread, retka, kvass, in large bowls, water, cabbage with horseradish, oatmeal, turnips or mushrooms or milk mushrooms with garlic.” This, by the way, partly refutes the story of Archdeacon Pavel of Allepsky about the extreme severity and unbearability of the Russian fast.

On festive, fast days in the Cyril Monastery there was the following list of dishes. The first dish consisted of ear soup (soup), borscht or cabbage soup, cabbage soup with pepper, cabbage soup with pepper and eggs; tavranchuga (stew): fish and turnip. Second course: cereals, peas, pea flour noodles, mushrooms: salted, dried, in their own juice. A special article was a variety of fresh, dried, salted, dried fish, the quality of which was incomparably higher than modern; black and red caviar, kalachi, pies with various fillings: berry, vegetable, mushroom and fish; pancakes, milk, cheese, etc.

In addition, according to the decisions of the Stoglavy Cathedral, in some cases other indulgences were allowed in the monasteries:

Yes, in great and honest monasteries, princes and boyars and commanding people great and infirmities or in old age, and give in exchange great and patrimonial villages according to their souls and their parents in an eternal commemoration, and therefore, for infirmity and for old age, laws are not supposed to be refectory walking and cell eating; put them to rest after reasoning with food and drink, about such keep kvass sweet, and stale, and sour - whoever demands what, and the food is the same, or they radiate their own peace, or send from their parents and do not torture them about that.

Third. Kvass played an important role in the monastery meal.. It was served on almost all fasting days, not to mention fast days. Even on Holy Saturday, at sunset, the brethren gave counterfeit kvass and ukrukha (buns) at a rate of “strength for the sake of the body, and not for lust and satiety of the stomach.” Everyday kvass are called: ordinary, fraternal. As researcher T. I. Shablova writes, fraternal kvass probably means the simplest and most inexpensive oat and rye kvass. Festive kvass were of 4 varieties: honey (honey, honey), counterfeit (barley, mixed in half with honey), barley (barley, wheat) and semi-yan (probably barley, mixed with oatmeal or rye). Kvass was served in bowls or staves (glass-like vessels) with a volume of about 150 grams. Today, kvass and mead have practically disappeared from church life and have become secular drinks.

Fourth. In the middle of the weeks of Great Lent, on revered holidays, caviar was supplied. In the charter of the Kirillov Monastery, such holidays were: "heads of Ivan the Baptist, or 40 martyrs, or new saints: Euthymius of Novgorod, Demetrius of Prilutsky, Alexei Metropolitan, Macarius Kolyazinsky, Metropolitan Jonah." Also, caviar was supplied on Palm Sunday along with fish. Rudiments of this ancient tradition can be observed in some Old Believer parishes, in which it is allowed to cook fish “if the rector blesses” on patronal holidays.

Fifth. On all Saturdays of Great Lent (except Great Saturday, which, in fact, does not apply to Fortecost), fish was supplied to the Cyril Monastery. There are also indications about fish in the charter of Palm Sunday:

Food for the brethren: white bread, frying pans with ear or shti with pepper, fake kvass, two fish, pancakes with honey, similar bowls. On the same day, in dinner, brotherly bread, shti, to the extent of barley kvass in large bowls, two fish, topping.

The fish table was timed, as a rule, for funeral fodder: Saturdays 1 and 2 - for Tsar Ivan the Terrible, 3 and 5 - for Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich (son of John IV and Anastasia Romanovna), and 4th - for Abbot Christopher (3- abbot of the monastery, student of St. Cyril). In addition, on the 1st Sunday of Great Lent there was a healthy fodder for the king, also with fish. In total, according to the Cyril Charter, fish was supplied 8 times during Great Lent.

Tavranchuk. Recipe

One of the most interesting and mysterious dishes mentioned in the "Obikhodnik" of the Kirillov Monastery is called "tavranchuk". Soviet historian V.V. Pokhlebkin(1923-2000) talks about this dish like this:

“Tavranchuks are both meat and fish, because the meaning of this dish is not in its nutritional composition, but in the method of preparation. It is more correct to call it taganchuk - something that is cooked in a tagan, that is, in a ceramic, clay pan-bowl, in a crucible. Tavranchuks were cooked in pots, in a Russian oven, with long languishing. The liquid environment was minimal: a little water for fish, sometimes half a glass of milk, onions, roots - parsley, dill; for meat - a glass of kvass, onions, pickles and the same spicy herbs. The fish was chosen differently: pike perch, pike, perch, carp; meat - mostly lamb brisket.

The pot was placed in the oven, and as soon as it warmed up (after a few minutes), it was poured over with beaten eggs (for fish tavranchuks) or, in addition, a rag was tied around the throat of the pot, which was covered with dough. Then the tavranchuk, sealed in this way, was placed in a heated oven for several hours to languish. The elimination of the Russian stove, first in cities and then in rural areas, led to the disappearance of tavranchuk as a dish, because in other conditions, in a different way, this dish did not turn out tasty».

In the "Obikhodnik" of the Cyril Monastery, tavranchuk is mentioned quite often. But interestingly, it was prepared for the Saturday meals of Great Lent as one of the options for a fish dish: “ tavranchyug sturgeon or porridge with salmon". Under the monastery tavranchuk, one must understand fish tavranchuk, without meat, sour cream and other products that can be used only on fast days. Here are the main ingredients of tavranchuk, a dish very popular in the monastic diet of the 17th century.

It is better to wash and soak salted milk mushrooms before cooking, because a sufficient amount is already present in pickles. Also, parsley root, celery root, black pepper, currant or bay leaf, onion are used as ingredients, depending on desire and taste.

All this is cut into cubes.

Prepared products are stacked in layers in a pot or cauldron, and then placed in a Russian oven, as an option - in an oven at a temperature of 170 degrees and languish for several hours. Some recipes suggest pouring additional water or kvass. Others advise languishing in their own juice, adding vegetable oil.

There are many tavranchuk recipes on the net with the indicated proportions of products, which, however, differ significantly from each other and not all of them are equally good. Much depends on the amount of liquid, temperature and languishing time in the oven. However, with due skill, experience and, most importantly, desire, you can try a real monastic dish that our ancestors ate in the 15th-17th centuries.

I always thought monastic food was bread and water. But one day I found myself in the monastery refectory - and my opinion completely changed. I have never tasted more delicious meals in my life. What's the secret? The monks of the Holy Panteleimon Monastery, on Mount Athos, always welcome pilgrims cordially. The law of hospitality is strictly observed here - first feed, then ask questions. However, no one will bother you with questions even after dinner: everyone, they believe, has his own way to the temple.

We were not at all surprised by the modesty of the meal: bread, buckwheat, seasoned with stewed vegetables, pea stew with herbs (which in worldly life you won’t even look at and certainly won’t look at), baked potatoes with sauerkraut, fresh cucumbers and kvass. There were also olives (by the way, as they explained to us, you can eat them with pits) and dry red wine (at the bottom of the mug). But the taste of these dishes… He amazed us!

The most appropriate word in this case is ‘unearthly’. I asked one of the monks about this. He silently raised his eyes to the sky and quietly, without the slightest hint of instructiveness and edification, answered: ‘It is important with what thoughts, not to mention words, a person starts preparing food and the meal itself. Here is what is written about this in the ‘Kiev-Pechersky Paterikon’: ‘It was given to one elder to see how the same food differed: those who blasphemed food ate sewage, those who praised honey. But you, when you eat or drink, praise God, because the one who blasphemes harms himself.

Sauerkraut was with carrots, beets and fragrant dill seeds. It was they who gave the usual for us, Russians, winter harvesting an amazing taste. And, as the monks said, such cabbage is very useful for the good functioning of the stomach. Above a mound of cabbage, laid out in simple aluminum bowls, rose a gleaming soaked apple. Several of these apples must be placed in each tub when sauerkraut is sauerkraut. They also give it a special flavor.

Meat delicacies and pastries are not for Athos monks. In their opinion, gluttony is a dangerous trait that entails diseases of the body and various mental ailments. Fatty foods ‘salt the soul’, and sauces and canned food ‘thinn the body’. For the monks of Athos, eating is a spiritual process, somewhat of a ritual act.

Prayer - during the preparation of this or that dish (in this case it will definitely succeed), a short prayer before sitting at the table, a prayer after eating food. And the very atmosphere of the spacious and bright refectory, the walls and ceiling of which are painted with paintings on biblical scenes, turns a modest monastic dinner into a festive feast and a feast of the soul. ‘Likewise, a layman’s kitchen,’ the monk told me, ‘should not be a place for family squabbles and political discussions, but only a refectory.’

Most recently, I happened to visit the Goritsky Resurrection convent which opened in 1999. In the monastery refectory, sisters Yulia and Nadezhda carried out their obedience. They were young, hardly more than twenty in appearance, but they handled the kitchen utensils confidently and without fuss. Novelties of technological progress, such as mixers and vegetable cutters, bypassed these holy places.

The nuns do everything themselves: and the dough is kneaded in large vats by hand, and the butter is churned with hand buttermilk. Yes, and the monastic meal is prepared not on gas in dishes with a non-stick coating, but on a wood-burning stove, in cast iron. Because, say the nuns, and it turns out more tasty, rich and fragrant.

I watched the younger Nadezhda shred the cabbage, and admired: the strips were thin, thin, one by one, as if each one was measured out. I salted it lightly, sprinkled it with vegetable oil, laid out a flower on top of thawed cranberry beads and dill sprigs - not a dish, but a picture, it’s even a pity to eat, and put it aside with the words; ‘Let the cabbage give juice, then you can put it on the table’.

I heard somewhere that monks shouldn't decorate their meals nicely, so I asked Sister Nadezhda about it. ‘Well, what are you,’ she replied, ‘God cannot be against the beautiful, as long as it comes from a pure heart, does not become an end in itself and does not lead to bitterness if something does not work out. I generally noticed,” she added, “that I have become very good at cooking here, although I have never studied it, and I have not yet accumulated much worldly culinary wisdom. It’s just that when there is peace in the soul and love for the world and those who live in it, everything you do turns out well.

As she said this, she was carving up a herring to prepare an aspic of salted herring minced with mushrooms. The nun soaked dried porcini mushrooms in advance in cold water and now put them on fire. After they were cooked, they passed through a meat grinder and mixed with finely chopped herring fillet. I added black pepper, chopped onion to the minced meat and ... began to paint a new culinary still life.

She formed a herring from the cooked minced meat, carefully attached the head and tail, put small, parsley, small water lilies of boiled carrots around and poured everything with mushroom broth mixed with swollen gelatin. It turned out a lake with an appetizing fish inside.

“You can,” she said, seeing my enthusiastic look, “decorate your dish as you like. Yes, and it is not necessary to cook it using dried mushrooms. It’s just that my sisters and I collected so many of them over the summer and autumn ... And you, if you don’t have dried ones, take ordinary champignons. Although, for me, not a single mushroom grown in ‘captivity’ can compare with forest ones.

Such a spirit comes from them! .. I must say that the dinner for which Sister Nadezhda prepared her 'culinary masterpieces' was not a festive one, and of the guests it was attended by only a few travelers like me, who were real then pilgrims can be called a stretch. But here they accept everyone and do not ask how strong your faith is: once you have come, it means that your soul asks.

In addition to aspic, Nadezhda prepared several more unusual mushroom dishes. For example, mushroom cheese, caviar and some unusually delicious cold appetizer. Dried mushrooms for her are soaked in water for an hour, and then boiled in salted water until tender. They, as the nuns said, can be replaced with fresh ones: champignons or oyster mushrooms.

In this case, it is enough to boil the mushrooms, finely chop, mix with chopped onions, add salt if necessary and pour over the sauce. It is prepared from grated horseradish diluted with a small amount of strong bread kvass and mushroom broth. The dish is not spicy, but only with a slight aftertaste of horseradish, which should not interrupt the taste of mushrooms.

Of the cold appetizers on the table, there was also boiled beetroot with a spicy sauce made from boiled egg yolks, grated horseradish and vegetable oil. This dish was very familiar to me, but I tried boiled beans fried in oil for the first time - very tasty. The dish, as the sisters told me, is prepared, albeit simply, but for quite a long time.

Beans must first be soaked in water for 6-10 hours, then boiled in salted water until tender, but so that it does not boil, put in a colander, dry slightly on fresh air and only then fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. A couple of minutes before readiness, add browned onions to the cauldron, salt, season with spices to taste and remove from heat. The beans are served cold.

While Nadezhda was conjuring (although such a word is not very suitable for a nun) over cold dishes, Julia was preparing the first and second. The first was the monastery borscht with beans and kalya (soup cooked in cucumber pickle) with fish. For the second - pilaf with vegetables and raisins, lean cabbage rolls, pumpkin repecha - something like a pumpkin casserole with rice: pumpkin and rice for this dish are pre-boiled separately from each other, then mixed, beaten whites and yolks are also added to the minced meat and spread everything in a greased form.

It turns out something between a pastry and a second course. For dessert, the sisters made an apple pie and poppy seed cakes with honey - poppy seeds. And although the dough was kneaded without the use of butter, it turned out lush, tender, and the filling ... Baking with poppy seeds is generally my weakness.

As you can see, the nuns ate and treated the pilgrims without meat at all. But believe me, we didn't even notice it. On the days of fasting, the number of dishes on the table, as the nuns said, decreases, fish, eggs, and dairy products disappear. But the meal at the same time does not become less tasty and, of course, remains just as satisfying.

Saying goodbye to the hospitable sisters, I asked if they had heard of ‘Angel Curls’ jam? They say that this recipe was given to the abbess of one of the Spanish monasteries by the Virgin Mary on the night before Christmas. Pumpkin fibers (in which the seeds are hidden) are boiled in sugar syrup along with pureed hazelnuts. ‘No,’ said the nuns, ‘we haven’t heard, but we also make jam from pumpkin fibers, which most housewives simply throw away. You just need to separate the fibers from the pulp and seeds, dry slightly (air-dry).

Prepare sugar syrup, pour it with fibers, leave for a day, and then cook like our jams - five minutes: 3-4 times for five to seven minutes, (It is important to completely cool the jam after each cooking and only then put it on fire again.) and cook monastic cuisine at home. Perhaps then the upcoming post will not seem so insipid and difficult.

Everyday life Russian medieval monastery Romanenko Elena Vladimirovna

Chapter 9 The Monastic Meal

Monastery meal

The charter of deanery

Since ancient times, there has been a saying in Rus': “With your charter, you don’t go to someone else’s monastery.” The charters of different cenobitic monasteries really differed greatly from each other. But, despite all the differences, there were a number of common strict rules that formed the basis of order in any cenobia. These rules included a mandatory common meal: everyone from the abbot to the novice had to eat at the common meal and not even keep drinking water in their cells.

This rule greatly distinguished cinnamon from a special monastery, where everyone ate separately, according to their personal wealth, as well as from a suite, where the monks received food from the abbot, but cooked their own food each separately and ate in their cells, with the exception of major holidays.

The rules of conduct at a common meal were the same for all monks. The first and main thing is to always be satisfied with the proposed "nature": "whatever they put, don't grumble about it." Food and drink were supposed to be the same for everyone and in equal quantities. The monks began to eat only after the abbot "lays his hand on the brush or drink." Everyone sat in silence and attentively listened to the reader, who, with the blessing of the rector, read the lives of the saints or the writings of the holy fathers. For laughter and conversations in the refectory in the Volokolamsk monastery, they were punished with a penance of 50 prostrations or one day of dry eating. Only the rector, the cellarer and the servants were allowed to speak at the meal, and even then only about the necessary.

At the table, everyone looked in front of him, and not to the sides, he did not take anything from the other brother and did not put his own in front of him, so as not to lead the neighbor into the sin of gluttony. Those who showed inappropriate curiosity or concern for another monk, according to the charter of the Volokolamsk monastery, were punished with one day of dry eating or penance of fifty prostrations. The monk had to know “his satisfaction” (his measure) and “not to ask”, and also “not to ask for comfort (consolation, some kind of delicacy. - E.R.) or prigarinok ”(what burned and was not served on the table). In the event that the trapeznik himself (serving at the meal) offered an additive or some additional dish, he was supposed to answer quietly and humbly: “God's will, sir, and yours!” If the monk did not want an addition, he would say: “From me, sir” (that is, enough from me, sir).

Even if the monk was sick and could not eat what all the brethren ate, he did not dare to ask, but waited for the servant himself to ask him what he wanted. Hearing the question, the sick monk answered: "Give, for God's sake, this or that." If he didn’t want anything at all, then he would say: “I don’t want anything, sir” ( RSL. Und. No. 52. L. 365).

The following situation could well have happened in the monastery: the serviceman, out of forgetfulness or wanting to test the patience of his brother, carried around the monk, that is, did not give him any food or drink. There are many such stories in ancient patericons; in a similar way, the elders tested the patience not only of novice monks, but also of experienced ascetics. The Monk John of the Ladder observed in the monastery of St. John Savvait how the abbot called to him at the beginning of the meal the eighty-year-old elder Lavrenty, white with gray hair. He approached and, having bowed to the ground to the hegumen, took the blessing. But when the elder got up, the abbot said nothing to him, and he remained standing where he was. Dinner lasted an hour or two, but Elder Lavrenty stood still without an answer or a greeting. The Monk John of the Ladder writes in his Ladder that he was even ashamed to look at the elder. When dinner was over and everyone got up, the abbot dismissed the elder ( Ladder. S. 30).

According to monastic rules, if a monk was surrounded at a meal, he had to humbly sit at the table and not ask for anything. And only in case of extreme hunger or thirst could he say to the employee: “They didn’t give me, sir” ( RSL. Und. No. 52. L. 365v.). But this is only as a last resort.

Monks were forbidden to be late for a meal without a blessed reason. In the Volokolamsk Monastery, latecomers were punished with a day of dry eating or prostrations, 50 in number. If a monk did not have time for a meal for prayer for some worthy reason, then, upon entering, he silently stood and waited for the servants to put him. And if they didn’t, then he humbly chewed bread and salt and waited while all the brethren ate.

The most severe punishment was imposed on those who brought something of their own to the meal or, on the contrary, endured it, hiding it at lunch or dinner. The monk of the Volokolamsk monastery, who came to the meal with his "nature", received a penance of one hundred prostrations. If one of the monks took something at the meal without the blessing of the rector or the cellar and repented of it, he did not dare to touch the shrine: to eat antidor, “bread of the Virgin”, prosphora, until he received forgiveness. If a monk was convicted of sin by other monks, he was punished with dry eating for five days. In the case of repeated repetition of such a sin, the monk was expelled from the monastery or imprisoned in iron fetters ( VMC. September. Stb. S. 12).

Except for lunch and dinner, the monk was not allowed to eat or drink anything, not even berries in the forest or vegetables in the garden. In case of thirst, the monk could, after asking for blessings from the elder, go to the refectory and drink water there. If, after lunch or dinner, a monk needed to visit another monk or elder in his cell, and he wanted to treat him to some “eating, or drinking, or vegetable,” then the monk had to refuse such consolation: “I don’t dare, sir, I don’t compel me, for God's sake." The elders taught the novice that such hospitality is not brotherly love, but an enemy (demonic) attempt to lead the monk into sin; true monastic brotherly love consists in loving everyone equally and moving away from everyone ( RSL. Und. No. 52. L. 368v.).

It would seem that a simple rule is to eat only at a common meal. But from the lives of the saints it is clear how much strength the abbot needed to keep this order inviolable. In the Volokolamsk monastery, those who were seen in such a sin were deprived of the shrine until they received forgiveness from the abbot. And having received forgiveness, the monk had to make a hundred prostrations in the cell in order to completely blot out the sin. If a monk did not repent, but was convicted by someone else, then the punishment increased three times: the monk received a penance of three hundred prostrations or “dry food” for three days. If this happened again, then he was expelled from the monastery.

However, there were cases when gluttons were healed of sin miraculously. And this punishment turned out to be the most effective. Two monks from the monastery of St. Paul of Obnorsk left the monastery at one time and labored for a long time in the monastery of the Special Order. Then they returned to their monastery, but they did not leave their old habits. One day the monks decided to cook their own food in their cell. One remained to cook brew in a pot, and the other went to the refectory to secretly get bread. When the second monk returned, he saw that the friend was lying on the floor, and foam was flowing from his mouth. The terrified monk in an instant realized his sin and mentally appealed to the Monk Paul of Obnorsk, asking him to forgive them. As proof of his repentance, he grabbed the ill-fated pot and, throwing it over the threshold, began to kick it with his feet with the words: “I will never do this again for the rest of my life” ( VMC. January. Stb. 547). Another monk of the same monastery was obedient in a kvass brewery and decided to make kvass for himself. Taking a bucket of wort, he carried it to his cell, but he had to go past the tomb of St. Paul of Obnorsk. Here his arms and legs suddenly weakened, he screamed out of fear and began to beg the reverend for forgiveness. He ran to the cell safe and sound, but already without a bucket, and in the morning he repented to the abbot.

These stories ended happily, but another monk of the Obnorsky Monastery, Mitrofan, remained crippled until the end of his life because he secretly ate and drank in his cell. Once, when Mitrofan was standing in the church in the service, suddenly his arms and legs became weak, and he fell. The brethren served for his health a prayer service to St. Paul and the Holy Trinity, after which the monk felt better and was able to repent. As a result, he could move, but one of his arms and legs was never healed for the edification of the rest of the brethren ( There. Stb. 540).

In order to prevent idle curiosity, discontent and not to bring the monks to the sin of secret eating, the monks were not allowed to enter the refectory during the day without work and blessing. At the refectory there were so-called shegnushi - pantries in which they kept kvass and all sorts of food. At the appointed time, the monks gathered on the porch of the shegnushi to drink kvass, but at the same time, long standing at the shegnushi or idle conversations were forbidden. In addition, it was also not allowed to enter the shegnush itself. Shegnusha communicated with the refectory through a service passage, which was intended only for servants. The monks entered the refectory either from the courtyard through the porch, or through the church doors, if the refectory was arranged at the church.

About meal times

The time of the meal probably varied in different monasteries. But you can imagine an approximate schedule for a meal at the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow. This routine was entirely determined by the service: the more significant the feast was, the earlier the meal began on that day. On Sundays and great holidays, lunch was arranged quite early - at the end of the third hour of the day (that is, about ten in the morning according to our calculation), since on these days, according to the charter, dinner was also allowed. On Saturdays, lunch began a little later - at the beginning of the fifth hour of the day (that is, at the beginning of twelve, if the sunrise that day was around seven in the morning). On major holidays, the meal was at six o'clock in the afternoon, that is, about one o'clock in the afternoon (according to our calculation). On small holidays or fast days, when one meal was supposed to be, it was arranged in the middle of the day - at nine o'clock, that is, about four in the evening (according to our calculation) or even later. At the same time - at nine o'clock in the afternoon - lunch began at Christmas Lent (in reality, this meant about five or six in the evening) and on Peter's Lent (about two o'clock in the afternoon, if you count from sunrise).

In the monasteries, they always arranged two meals at different times. For the first, the monks with the rector ate, for the second (last) they ate the cellar, the reader and all the servants who served the monks at the meal: a large bearer, “smaller bearers”, a cup (a monk who was in charge of drinks and a cellar), a collar (a kind of clerk; the one who “turned things around”), as well as monks who were late for a meal. Weak or sick monks ate in their cells or in the hospital during the first meal. They were brought food by large and smaller carriers, and specially assigned servants served them in hospitals. If a sick monk wanted to taste something else during the day, then, with the blessing of the hegumen and the cathedral elders, a large bearer served him: taking food from the under-kalarnik, and drink from the chalice, he brought it to the patient. Also, the bearer, with the permission of the abbot, carried food to those monks who, for some reason, did not have enough food at the common meal.

During the second meal, those servants who were responsible for cooking also had lunch and dinner: a podkelarnik (assistant cellarer), who was in charge of the warehouse of kitchen utensils and a tent from which food was given out for part of the brethren - apparently, the "second shift" and for guests; “cooking vytchiki” (howl - share, plot; vytchik - the one who is responsible for a certain section of the cooking process); shtevar (we can definitely say that he cooked jelly, maybe also cabbage soup?); podchashnik (assistant bowler); dining rooms. All these servants ate in the closet. Separately, the last meal was served for the laity, servants, monastic artisans, Cossacks, who were served by the trappers. In addition, in the monastery refectories, general rule all the monasteries, always fed the poor. There was even such a thing as "recorded beggars", that is, those who were assigned and regularly fed at the monastery. In the 16th century, in the Volokolamsk monastery, from 20 to 50-60 “recorded beggars” or “as many as God sends” passers-by were fed daily.

Refectory interior

Refectory chambers in monasteries were liked to be arranged at temples. It was convenient: warm air from the basement of the refectory was supplied to the church and heated it. Such a church was called a warm, “winter” church, and all monastic services usually took place in it in the winter season. In the 16th century, stone one-pillar refectories were built in wealthy monasteries: cylindrical vaults rested on a large pillar in the center of the chamber. One of the first such refectories at the church was arranged in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery in 1519. It was a rectangle, the eastern wall of which separated the church and the refectory. In this wall there was a door through which the monks could immediately go to dinner after the church service. An iconostasis was always arranged on the eastern wall, so that the refectory itself was, as it were, a church, and some divine services, as we saw above, were held in it. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery in the iconostasis of the refectory there was a deesis, to the left and right of the door - local icons, and above the door - a large cross "The Crucifixion of the Lord", on a pillar - the image of Hodegetria with saints and reverends (according to the inventory of 1601). A large copper chandelier hung in front of the deesis, and a set candle stood in front of the local icons. So poor was the illumination of the rather large ward. In the refectory there were tables decorated with tablecloths (for ordinary days and holidays, they relied on their own tablecloths), and benches. According to some researchers, six people sat at each table in the Kirillovskaya refectory, since some dishes were prepared and served for exactly six people: on Easter, “six eggs in brine”, they baked “bratskoy shesterovaya bread” ( Shablova. About the meal. S. 27).

The quality of the dishes used at the meal depended on the prosperity of the monastery. They liked to paint wooden utensils: plates, brothers, ladles, spoons, ladle handles were decorated with carvings. In the monastery inventories, spoons and ladles of various shapes are listed: spoons - onion (similar in shape to a turnip, resembled a flattened ball decorated with cuttings from a fish tooth, “undercut”; ladles - burl (made from burl - a growth on a birch), onion, elm ( elm - one of the most flexible trees, in addition to dishes, rims, skids, etc. were made from it), "shadra", "small Tver", "tin", copper, "what yeast draws", "skortsy" (skobkari) - ladles hollowed out from the rhizome of a tree and covered with drying oil.In the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, the monks ate from birch plates, dishes; kvass was poured into ladles at stakes (stavets - a cup that looks like a glass, a cylindrical "vessel with a flat bottom" - see: Zabelin. S. 90) or brothers (brother - a large tub-shaped cup with a false lid). Feet were also used for drinking (large metal glasses without a handle, expanding upwards). Varivo was brought in “pickles” (a deep dish with a lid), “vessels”, “on a mise”; drinking - in "copper yandows" (yandowy - a copper vessel, tinned inside, with a handle and a stigma), bowls.

Favorite dishes

The invariable dish of the monastic diet was cabbage soup, which was eaten almost every day: both on fasting and non-fasting days (except for days of dry eating), on holidays. Shchi was cooked from fresh white cabbage, "borscht" (that is, with borscht - pickled beets), with sorrel (sorrel), seasoned with pepper, served with eggs on Easter and other holidays. Sometimes cabbage soup was replaced by tavranchug - a special stew made from fish or turnips or "ear" - ear.

If, according to the charter, two “brews” were allowed, then the second “boiled food” was usually porridge. The monastic table is aptly characterized by an old Russian proverb - "shchi and porridge are our food." Porridge could be replaced by other “foods”: “bat peas” or “chicken peas” (pea thick), cabbage, pea or sour noodles. The most varied was the meal on non-fasting and holidays.

The most important and favorite product was, of course, fish. The fish table of rich monasteries was very diverse. In the glaciers of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery in 1601, barrels of “sudochin, hazel, pike”, salmon, black caviar were kept; here lay "long sturgeon" from the Volga and Shekhon (from the Sheksna River). In the dryers above the glaciers there was a supply of dried and dried fish: “plasti bream, yaz, pike, sturgeon”, salmon, many bunches of elm (red fish tendon), small and smelt, and “four pray Zaozersky”.

The bikhodnik of the Novospassky Monastery mentions salmon, white salmon, sturgeon, beluga, stellate sturgeon, pike, pike perch, susch, sterlet, black and red caviar - whitefish. The sterlet in this monastery was considered a "common fish", it was served mainly to the monastery servants and wanderers ( CHOYDR. 1890. Book. 2. C. 2).

Fish dishes were also very varied, but most of all they loved fresh fried fish, which was served in pans on great holidays. In addition, fish was baked on grills, boiled and served with boiled water, mustard and horseradish. Freshly salted fish was a rare treat and was served only a few times a year, even in such a rich monastery as Iosifo-Volotsky. The favorite fish dish of the monks of the Kirillo-Belozero monastery was “crumbs”. The cellar's records especially note the days when "the krushki live on the brethren." It is difficult to say what this dish was, but judging by the fact that the word “crunchy” in the old Russian language means brittle, crispy, apparently, it was thinly sliced ​​fish fried until crispy. When the “crumples” were fried, they were hung with canvas, apparently from splashes of boiling oil.

Among the fish dishes in the monastic everyday life, “sturgeon heads”, fried bream “with a body with a boil and pepper”, “Ladozhina with vinegar”, pies with elm, “loaves” with fish, black caviar with onions and red with pepper are also mentioned. In the Novospassky Monastery, several varieties of porridge with fish were cooked: porridge with pieces of salmon, porridge with smelt, porridge “with vandysha” (small fish), porridge “with a head” (with heads and cartilaginous parts of fish), porridge “with navels”, “ porridge in the ear "( CHOYDR. 1890. Book. 2. p. 2).

Pies (with cheese, cabbage, carrots, peas, porridge, mushrooms), loaves (battered with carrots, turnips), kalachi, pancakes, fritters, and “brushwood” greatly diversified the monastic table of different varieties.

The favorite drink in the monasteries was traditionally kvass, on holidays they drank it at lunch and dinner and before Compline. In addition, in the Volokolamsk Monastery, starting from the Presentation and until the feast of the Intercession of the Mother of God (October 1), the brethren were allowed to drink kvass even at noon (except for the first and Holy weeks, as well as the fast days of Great Lent). On Candlemas, according to folk beliefs, the sun turns to summer, the day lengthens significantly, so the brethren received permission for an additional bowl of kvass. “And from Intercession to Sretenev, they don’t drink kvass at noon, ponezh (since. - E.R.) the day is small, ”the everyday life of the Volokolamsk monastery says ( Gorsky. S. 394).

Kvass was prepared in several varieties. In the Volokolamsky Monastery, barley and oat kvass was used as the most popular kvass, on more solemn days - “sychenoy” - from saty (sweet wort, which was prepared from flour and malt) and honey. There was also "molasses kvass", which was served on great holidays. Treacle kvass was prepared from pure, unmelted honey - gravity flowing from honeycombs. Monastic kvass was valued not only as tasty, but also as an extremely "energy" drink, necessary to maintain strength. So, on the days of extended services (on the Twelfth Feasts and days with an all-night vigil), priests, deacons, heads (kliros monks) and the usher received additional bowls of honey kvass “in the cellar”, and psalmists received “fake kvass”. The same kvass was relied upon by great servants and sick brethren in hospitals. The rest of the brethren received "like bowls." "Good" kvass was a consolation during the holidays. So, on the feasts of the Dormition, St. Cyril of Belozersky, the Introduction, on the days of the angels of the king and members of the royal family at dinner, an additional healthy bowl for a birthday with honey kvass was relied ( Shablova. About the meal. S. 31).

Honey kvass was fermented in two ways: 1) with hops and yeast; 2) a simple soft roll ( There. P. 41. Approx. 23). In the first case, intoxicated kvass was obtained, in the second - ordinary. In those monasteries where "drunk" drinking was forbidden, kvass was fermented with kalach. Domostroy tells recipes for making various kvass, including ordinary honey kvass: Yes, strain it cleanly with a sieve, and put it in a measuring cup (vessel. - E.R.), and ferment with a simple soft kalach, without yeast, and when it sours, pour it into barrels ”( There. P. 42. Approx. 23).

In 1550, the Stoglavy Cathedral forbade the preparation of intoxicated kvass in monasteries and keeping hot wine, but this rule was often violated. So, in the 17th century, some Solovetsky monks, contrary to the ancient charter of the monastery, used to take out sychyon kvass from the refectory and ferment it with yeast in their cells. Things got to the point that in 1637 Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich sent a special letter to the Solovki hegumen demanding that this pernicious custom be eradicated ( Dositheus. T. 3. S. 270). In those monasteries where intoxicating drinks were allowed (sometimes by special order of the bishop), intoxicated mead and beer were prepared. In the 17th century, Athanasius, Archbishop of Kholmogory and Vazhsky, allowed the Krasnogorsk monastery to brew five brews of beer a year for the brethren and "honor" visiting chiefs and noble people: the first - for the feast of the Nativity of Christ, the second - for the great spell, the third - for Easter, the fourth - on Trinity Day and on the fifth day - on the patronal feast of the Georgian Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, it was not allowed to buy wine in the monastery, both before and in the future ( Description of the Krasnogorsk Monastery. S. 31).

According to the ancient charters of the Joseph-Volotsky, Kirillo-Belozersky, Nilo-Sorsky, Korniliev-Komelsky monasteries, in these monasteries "drinking, which have drunkenness, did not keep anyone." However, in the 16th century in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery the covenant of its founder was no longer fulfilled, on the twelfth, great and great holidays, the brethren regularly received a cup of wine.

Special note

Russian monks never used meat. According to ancient charters, it was strictly forbidden to even bring meat to the territory of the monastery or cook it in the monastery kitchen. How strict this rule was is confirmed by a miracle from the Life of St. Paphnutius of Borovsky, which happened to the famous icon painter Dionysius. He was invited along with his retinue to paint a new stone church in the monastery. The icon painters lived in a village not far from the monastery. Since they were worldly people, the Monk Paphnutius ordered them not to bring any of their food to the monastery. Once the icon painters forgot about the commandment of the monk and, going to the monastery to work, they took with them a leg of lamb stuffed with eggs. In the evening they sat down to supper, and Dionysius ate first. It is not difficult to imagine his state when he saw worms instead of eggs in a leg of lamb. The leg was thrown outside the monastery to the dogs, but after this meal the artist fell seriously ill. His whole body was covered with scabs, so that he could not move. Realizing his sin, Dionysius repented before the monk. He, having taught the icon painter an edification not to violate the monastery rules in the future, ordered to hit the beater and call the brethren to a water-blessed prayer service. Dionysius wiped his whole body with consecrated water and, exhausted after the service, fell asleep. He woke up completely healthy Life of Pafnuty Borovsky. S. 125). Lay people who worked for the monastery, on non-fast days, when hard work happened, were fed with meat dishes. In the Cyril Monastery, they were given meat “for a hryvnia” (there were 51 days in a year when a meat-eater was allowed - see: Shablova. About the meal. S. 27). But if in the 16th century meat was cooked and eaten outside the monastery, then in the 17th century this prohibition was no longer in effect, and lay monastic people could eat meat at the second monastic meal.

Bread, cooks, kvass

The preparation of “nature” in large monasteries with numerous brethren and pilgrims was a laborious and difficult task. Therefore, hot food was prepared only once - for dinner. If dinner was supposed to be on that day, then the brew left after dinner was put in the oven on coals and served warm for dinner.

Many monks, novices, and all kinds of monastic servants worked in the cloister cookhouses and bakeries. Obedience here was considered the most difficult, and if a monk endured it patiently, without grumbling, then this work in the eyes of the abbot and brethren was worthy of the deepest respect. Before his death, the Monk Daniel of Pereyaslavsky called his disciple Cassian to him and, handing him two of his sackcloths, ordered them to be handed over to the monastery cooks - monk Eustratius and monk Irinarkh. Explaining his choice, the monk said: “You yourselves know the virtues of Eustratius. From the time he took the tonsure, he achieved perfect obedience, fasted and prayed without laziness, and went through all the monastic services without grumbling, and most of all, the cooking service. And then the abbot told how at one time he wanted to change obedience to Eustratius, but he fell at his feet and begged him not to change anything and not to deprive him of great spiritual benefit. The Monk Daniel was surprised at such zeal and left Eustratius in the kitchen. Now, before his death, he asked Cassian to convey to the new hegumen Hilarion his order not to transfer Eustratius to another service. Another monastic cook, Irinarkh, according to the hegumen, labored in the same industrious way, following the example of Eustratius. Giving them his sackcloths, the monk said: “I hope that they will pray to God for me, a sinner, and for their prayers, the merciful and philanthropic Christ Our God will forgive me many of my sins” ( Smirnov. pp. 70–71).

The refectory, together with the kitchens, bakeries, glaciers, barns, dryers and all sorts of tents adjoining it, formed a separate city on the territory of a large monastery. Under the refectory of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery were the famous bread-baskets. Their dimensions were almost the same as those of the refectory itself: in length - seven fathoms with a half fathom, and across - seven fathoms with a quarter. Here they baked bread in two large ovens of three “kvashons”. 500 kilograms of flour were dissolved in each sourdough, the sourdough was covered with canvases sewn into four panels, and allowed to approach, then three sours were dissolved in the fourth ( Nikolsky. P. 191. Approx. 2). Fourteen linen scrolls, in which flour was sifted, and twelve pairs of mittens were kept in the breadboxes. Apparently, the same number of people were employed in the process of baking bread. All the necessary utensils were in the bakery: a copper cauldron in which water was heated, two “scratches, than they scrape kvass”, a scraper, a chisel, a spade, a mowing knife, with which they pinched a torch to kindle a fire in the furnace, copper washstands with tubs, a Kumgan (a copper washstand in the form of a jug, with a spout, a handle and a lid), an ice pick (with a pick they went to the lake for water; it was an iron pointed tool, at the top there was a tube that was mounted on the handle). The “bread elders” were in charge of the bread, they lived not far from the refectory, in three cells near the barns, where rye flour was stored ( Nikolsky. S. 195). One of the elders gave out scrolls and mittens to the workers. Shtevars were located in a separate room, they had at their disposal a cauldron, a copper frying pan in which jelly was cooked, and two kumgans. Not far from the bakery, near the monastery wall overlooking the lake, there was a small tent in which water was heated when it was necessary to put the sourdough. Next to the bakery, under the refectory, there was a tent where already baked bread was stored.

The large bakery of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery was built along with the refectory in 1519, but very soon its capacity became insufficient, and then several more bakeries were set up in the lower tier of the Church of the Transfiguration, where they baked prosphora and kalachi, and at the same time cookies and pies. The Church of the Transfiguration was not chosen by chance for these purposes. It is located near the fortress wall overlooking the lake; “small gates” were arranged on the wall, through which water flowed through the gutters into the bakery.

The basement of the Church of the Transfiguration consisted of two rooms: in the first large tent they baked cookies, rolls and prosphora, in the second - pies. To that part of the room where the prosphora was made, a small tent was attached, where the prosphora were stored in winter. And another tent adjoined the church porch near the fortress wall, in which kalachi were kept. On its upper floor lived the elders who were in charge of the kalakh, and there was also a closet where they kept crackers. Against the wall stood a barn in which flour was sifted. In the bakeries there was a variety of kitchen utensils: sieves for sifting flour, “hooks” for removing pancakes from butter, long frying pans, “cloth nasovs in which they cook a circle of rolls” (nasovs - armlets worn during cooking; aprons, work clothes) , ladles-skobkari, aspen boxes.

Food was prepared in the kitchen, located next to the refectory. At the end of the 16th century, in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, in addition to the main kitchen, there was also a kitchen, a shooting room, a princely room (food was prepared for guests in it), and others. Cooking elders who lived nearby were in charge of the kitchens. In the large kitchen of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, six hearths of boiler rooms and an oven were arranged. Cauldrons hung over the hearths on iron chains, in addition, large iron tagans (a hoop with legs) were placed on the hearths - bases for boilers. A large number of utensils were stored in the kitchen: "ladles", iron grates for baking fish, large boilers and "small pots", ladles, knives and service clothes. Food was cooked, apparently, in special "service cassocks". The functional variety of kitchen utensils is striking, there were several types of knives alone: ​​“onion mowers”, “cabbage axes”, “maples” for cutting fish (knives with a short and wide blade, slightly bent to the butt), “large knives, but they cut them noodles and fish."

More than a dozen knives, axes, copper frying pans, copper baking sheets with straps, several dozen “birch plates” and “rossimilar dishes”, “stavs”, “wooden dishes stands”, a washstand, a tub, a hand-held iron pepper mill, “dining vessels”, salt shakers, “tin pickles”, a copper milk pot. The main stock of cereals and fish necessary for the needs of the cookery was in the dryer: “a few quarters of hemp seed, peas, barley groats, buckwheat and millet groats, five “sagging” sturgeons, 250 layers of yazevy, one hundred bunches of vyaziga, dried mole loskovo (mol - small fish; sometimes also called dried smelts; the mentioned fish were caught in the area called Loza-Altushevo. E.R.) ten quarters, five quarters I pray Belozersky "( Nikolsky. S. 222. Approx. 1).

Kvass was prepared in a special room - a kvass brewery. The ancient kvass brewery of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery has survived to this day: “In the middle of the cover ... a tent is square in plan and hollow inside, serving as a conductor for steam and smoke accumulating in the building from the kvass hearth. At the top, this tent ended with a quadrangular pipe in plan, and at the bottom it rested on a closed vault with two strippings along each wall ”( Nikolsky. S. 226).

In the middle of the kvass brewery stood a copper cauldron (it held 300 buckets) and three large vats: in one vat, 20 quarters of malt were mashed (grain that was allowed to germinate in warmth and dampness, which gave it a sweet taste), the other two contained wort, and three large troughs were placed under the vats. Behind the kvass cookery was a barn where the wort was chilled, there were five vats and six troughs. And near the kitchen there was a three-story building, Bottom part which was adapted for a kvass glacier, where they kept "kvass about the brother of wheat." In the Cyril Monastery there were five more stone glaciers, in which kvass was cooled in the summer, fish and various products were stored. Kvass was kept in one glacier: “medvenoy” (honey), molasses, sycheny, oatmeal, “polyyan kvass”. Various ladles, feet, yands, a copper ladle, “what yeast scoops up”, a copper cauldron for 12 buckets, “and they boil satiety in it” and a small copper “kettle, in which molasses is heated for pancakes”, were also stored here. In the other three glaciers they kept fish, above one of them there was a tent where they kept honey and molasses, and in the fifth cellar - sour cream, milk, eggs and cow's butter.

Cooking in monasteries, like any other business, was necessarily sanctified by prayer. Early in the morning, before matins, the cook and baker came to the church and bowed to the earth three times in front of the Royal Doors. After that, they asked the ecclesiarch for fire, he lit the "torch" from the lamp in the altar of the temple and passed it to the cook and baker. And already from this “honest fire” logs were lit in the ovens of the cookery and bread, so that everyone who eats food would receive Divine grace and sanctification along with it. It is no coincidence that the preparation of a meal was always a purely monastic obedience; worldly people in this matter could only be helpers.

Especially reverent in the monasteries were baking bread. This process is detailed in the Studio Charter. In Russian monasteries, everything was done, most likely, in exactly the same way. Since the prosphora should be baked already for the liturgy, and bread for dinner, they started baking bread very early. At the very beginning of Matins, after the Six Psalms, the kutnik, having bowed to the ground near the abbot, went to gather the brethren for obedience to the bakery. First, he approached the monks who stood on the right side of the church, then crossed to the other side. Everyone gathered in the center of the temple in front of the Royal Doors and went to be blessed by the abbot. Having made a bow to the earth, they said: “Bless, pray for us, holy father.” The abbot answered: “God will save,” and the monks went to the bakery. Here, while kneading the dough, they sang psalms, the canon, and other prayers that were supposed to be at matins. In addition, in Russian monasteries they also read a special prayer “always knead the dough for bread in the monastery” ( Prilutsky. S. 355). Having put the dough, the monks went to the church, where they continued to pray with the rest of the brethren, but the senior monk remained in the bakery to monitor how the dough fit. After the service, he went around the cells of the monks who kneaded the dough, and they again gathered in the bakery to now bake bread ( Pentkovsky. S. 387). Perhaps, thanks to these prayers, the bread baked in the monastery was especially tasty, and the monastery's kvass cured the most incredible diseases.

Meal order

When the brethren, singing the 144th psalm, entered the refectory, everything was already ready: the necessary utensils were on the tables, on a separate large table, also called the "meal", there were warm bread, salt shakers with salt and drink. The abbot blessed the meal with the cross and read the prayer: “Christ God, bless the brew and drink of your servant now, and forever, and forever and ever.” After that, everyone sat down, and the priest, standing up, blessed the reading of the lives of the saints: "Blessed is our God always, and now, and forever, and forever and ever." The reader answered: "Amen" - and began to read. This custom has long existed in all monasteries so that the monks listen to what they read with much more pleasure than eat food and drink, so that “the mind is visible, not preoccupied with bodily pleasures, but rejoicing more with the words of the Lord” ( Basil the Great. S. 254).

Having received the blessing, the servants brought the brew and put it on the refectory table. The cellar and the chalice keeper approached the abbot and bowed before him in turn, asking for a blessing for the distribution of the brew. Then the cellar personally brought the abbot a brew in a vessel, and a cup of drink (honey or kvass). The rest of the servants were distributing the same brew to the brethren, and the cup-bearer was bringing drinks to everyone. After everything was distributed, the servant closest to the abbot handed him a spoon, and the cellarer said: “Lord bless”, the abbot hit the “candea” (a metal vessel like a small bowl on a leg with a pallet, used as a bell).

The monks got up, and the priest read the prayers set before the meal: “Our Father”, “Glory, and now”, “Lord have mercy” (twice), “Lord bless”. At the end of the prayers, the abbot blessed the food and drink: “Christ God, bless the food and drink of your servant now and forever and forever and ever.” Everyone sat down and began to eat, but only after the abbot had begun to eat. A separate blessing was required for each “brashno”, therefore, during the meal, the “candea” was usually struck “thrice”: the first time after the introduction of the variva, the second after the introduction of the second food - sochiva, the third time - at the end of the meal. After each call, everyone prayed, as before tasting the brew.

If there was a “consolation” at the meal - a bowl of intoxicating drink, then the cellarer would say before eating it: “Lord bless.” The monks stood up, holding bowls in front of them. The abbot blessed, and the monks, mentally reciting the Jesus Prayer, drank them. At the end of the meal, the cellarer said a prayer: “For the prayers of our saints, our fathers (the modern pronunciation of the prayer: “Through the prayers of our saints, our fathers ...”. - E.R.), Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. The abbot struck the "candea", the reader stopped reading, made three bows to the earth in front of the abbot and, having taken a blessing, left. The abbot, taking the “Bread of the Virgin”, handed it over to the deacon to perform the rite of the Panagia. After eating the “Bread”, the hegumen read thanksgiving prayers: “Blessed be God, merciful and nourishing us from His rich gifts, with His grace and philanthropy, always, and now, and forever, and forever and ever.” The brethren answered, "Amen." The abbot thanked the servants for the meal: "God will forgive and have mercy on those who served us." The brethren bowed to the ground before the abbot and dispersed to their cells, not stopping in the refectory.

Fasts and holidays

The monastic meal, as we have said above, is closely connected with worship. The number and composition of dishes, meals during the day - all this depended on what icon marked this day in the liturgical charter. If the great holiday happened on Wednesday or Friday, then it was allowed to eat fish, oil and wine (where intoxicating drinks were allowed). On an average holiday there was permission for wine, oil and noun. If a small holiday with doxology happened on a fast day, then they did not eat fish, but only food cooked with oil and wine. There were also such small holidays in which there was permission only for wine at the meal, and the food was cooked “without sweetness” - without oil. This is how this statute was actually embodied in the everyday life of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery. On the twelfth holidays there was always a dinner with fish, even if this day fell on Wednesday or Friday. On a great holiday, for example, in memory of St. John the Theologian (September 26), fish and rolls were also relied on, but if it coincided with Wednesday or Friday, then dinner was canceled, although fish was left at dinner. On the holidays of St. Sergius of Radonezh, Savvatiy of Solovetsky, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Alexy of Moscow, the brethren ate fish on the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. But, again, if the holiday fell on a fast day, then there was only lunch, and for dinner they served no longer fresh fish, but existing fish. In memory of St. Paul of Obnorsk, the charter of the meal was the same as on the feast of St. Savvatiy of Solovetsky, but on fasting days, caviar was served instead of susch (that is, the feast was rated an order of magnitude lower).

Most of the days of the Orthodox calendar are fast days: Wednesday, Friday (with the exception of continuous weeks - those weeks when fasting is canceled), and in monasteries it is still Monday, as well as four long fasts: Great (seven weeks before Easter), Christmas or Philippov ( from November 15 to December 24), Petrov or Apostolic (begins a week after the Trinity and ends on July 11) and Assumption (from August 1 to 14). In addition, the feasts of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Beheading of John the Baptist, and Epiphany Christmas Eve (Eve of Theophany) are also fast days. Each post has its charter, but in different monasteries it acquired its own characteristics.

Monastic food, according to the charter, was supposed to be simple and inexpensive. From the canteens of the monasteries, it can be seen that the food was quite varied and as useful as possible, such as to restore strength even in the most exhausting fast. Moreover, it was necessarily taken into account that not everyone can eat the same food, therefore, equivalent food was offered for exchange. For example, milk porridge or milk could be exchanged for eggs, turnips for cucumbers, etc. Duplication of dishes was not allowed at the meal: if loaves were served, then kalachi were canceled.

In the monasteries they ate once or twice a day. According to the general rule, on fast days - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - there was only lunch, dinner was not supposed even on the fast days of Pentecost.

The usual Lenten lunch of a monk of the Volokolamsk Monastery consisted of half soft bread for a brother and two boiled dishes without butter: cabbage soup with white cabbage or borscht and porridge (instead of porridge, sometimes “bat peas” or “tsyzhenoy peas”, that is, pea thick) were served, or “porridge in the ear”, the second dish could be changed for cucumbers. Before Compline, the monks of the Volokolamsk Monastery gathered to drink kvass at the shegnush. However, according to the charter of the Monk Kornily Komelsky, the monks of his monastery were not allowed to drink kvass on fast days either after dinner or before mephimon; these days everyone except the sick drank only water. If on a fast day there was a big or small holiday with a doxology, then soup with butter was served: cabbage or noodles, or “chickpeas” and, in addition, a quarter of kalach as a festive dish (if fed with noodles, then kalachi was not served ).

On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday there were two meals: lunch and dinner. The diet of dishes varied greatly depending on whose healthy or funeral food fell on that day (food was not satisfied on fasting days). In the Volokolamsk Monastery, the sterns were also divided into several ranks: the sovereign is large, medium, small. When they fed for the health or repose of the sovereign, the monks had fresh fried fish on the table, two brews with butter, two fish dishes with “broth” and mustard, white kalachi “too much” (that is, unlimited), pies of two types: some - with egg and pepper, others - with cheese - and two pancakes with honey per brother.

If the food was average (princely, boyar or great people), then the monks were supposed to have two brews with butter, three types of fish dishes (one serving for two), cheese pies, pancakes with honey, rolls in excess and honey kvass. If the food was smaller, then the brethren dined with one brew with butter (for example, cabbage soup), two fish dishes, pies and rolls beyond measure, but they drank sychen kvass at such a dinner. In the books of the cellar of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, large and large sterns are mentioned "from the crumbs" (crushes). The large feed corresponded in importance to the Volokolamsk average, it was arranged on the days of memory of especially revered saints (for example, St. Sergius of Radonezh), for the repose of the boyars and princes, on special memorial Saturdays, and the large one with flasks was usually arranged on the twelfth holidays. So, on September 1, on the feast of St. Simeon the Stylite, in the monastery there was food for Prince Semyon Ivanovich Velsky. The brethren served kalachi, fish with an additive, a bowl of sycheny kvass and a bowl of barley kvass. On the memorial Dmitrov Saturday, a large meal consisted of kalachi, two types of pies, large fried fish, which was served in pans, and two types of kvass: honey and barley. On Sabbath meat-fare, in addition to the food of the brethren, alms were also given to the monastic workers who worked in numerous courtyards: people were given three bowls of kvass poluyan (probably barley kvass, mixed half with rye or oatmeal) and "overcooked" from honey. On the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, they arranged a large fodder with grains, on this day kvass was better than on September 1: one bowl of honey kvass, the other - barley ( RNB. Cyrus. - Bel. No. 84/1322. L. 46–46 rev.).

At dinner on a non-fasting day, cabbage soup and milk were served at a fraternal meal; this dish could always be replaced with three eggs or porridge or kvass; drank barley kvass at dinner. On Sundays, the monastic table differed in variety and abundance of dishes from other non-fasting days. For lunch, they served a quarter of bread, cabbage soup with white cabbage or borscht, or sour soup with garlic or onions, two eggs or “beaten cows” (loaf - wheat bread with milk, butter and eggs) or lisni (perhaps puff pies) - one for four brothers, or loaves with fish - one for two brothers; the second brew for the Sunday meal was scrambled eggs (then eggs were canceled for cabbage soup) and milk porridge (if desired, the monk could change it for the same two eggs), instead of loaves and foxes, kalachi were sometimes served.

In the Orthodox calendar, there are two twelfth feasts when strict fasting is observed - the feasts of the Exaltation of the Cross and the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. At the Exaltation in the Volokolamsky Monastery, they served a quarter of bread, cabbage soup with fresh white cabbage, carrots or turnips with butter (they could be replaced with cucumbers), a quarter of kalach and honey kvass. If the holiday fell on Saturday or Sunday, then the charter allowed dinner and the food was somewhat more varied. At the Kirillo-Belozero monastery, at a festive dinner, the brethren ate kalachi, cabbage soup with pepper, noodles, caviar, and a bowl of honey kvass. On this day, dinner was served, at which the monks received kalachi or white bread, cabbage soup and honey kvass.

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Recently, I began to notice that when talking about products, dishes “monastic ...”, or “like a monastery ...”, people mean: “high-quality”, “real”, “delicious”. Honey, bread, lunch...

Observing it on purpose, it struck me that this trend is not only expanding, but is already being used by various product manufacturers, conscientious and not so good. Then the question arose: what is modern monastic food, monastic products? What stands behind the recognition of the consumer - traditional respect for the religious way of life, which excludes deceit and laziness, or the absence of intelligible state quality guidelines, the same GOSTs, for example?

For answers to these questions, we turned to Father Micah, Hieromonk of the Holy Danilov Monastery. The path that led this remarkable man to the church was not easy.

Our interlocutor

Hieromonk Micah, in the world Alexander Petrovich Gulevsky, was born on 11/22/1964 in Rostov-on-Don. After leaving school in 1980. enrolled in Rostov School Arts, specialization "Accordion", graduated in 1984. 1984-1986 - military service in the Airborne Forces. From 1987 to 1988 Father Mikhey served as a sexton in the temple, and in 1988. He entered the seminary and graduated in 1991. In the same year he entered the Trinity-Sergius Lavra as a novice, and in 1992 he was transferred to the Danilov Monastery. Obedience in the monastery: 2 years in the icon shop, for 10 years since 1994. construction of a skete and apiary in the Ryazan region, since 2004. - a cellarer in the Danilov Monastery, currently an obedience in a honey shop, in 2 monastery shops, as well as in the department for making posters of spiritual and patriotic content by modern and classical artists.

Let's start with the fact that Father Mikhey was a paratrooper and knows the concept of "hot spot" firsthand. Already, while in the monastery, Father Mikhei performed difficult obediences: setting up a skete in the Ryazan region, organizing a monastery apiary, acting as a cellarer in the St. Danilov Monastery itself, and many others that I don’t know about.

As a result, we managed to build a picture of how a Russian Orthodox monastery lives today from questions and answers: what it produces, what it eats, whom and how it feeds.

website:It is known that the vast majority of monasteries in Rus' were self-sufficient in the production, storage and distribution of products. The monasteries owned gardens, fields, orchards, ponds and apiaries. Also, since ancient times, the tradition of feeding monastic products not only to the brethren, but also to workers, pilgrims, students, and guests has been preserved. Is this tradition alive in St. Daniel's Monastery today?

O. Mikhey: From a century in Rus', monasteries were not only centers of spiritual life, but also economic ones. Not only did they feed themselves, but they also carried out selection work, grew new varieties of plants, searched for and found new ways to store and preserve food. For many hundreds of years, monasteries not only fed themselves, but also widely helped those in need. As in normal times, and especially in war years, during lean periods, during epidemics.

There is no other way in the monastery: today the economy of the St. Danilov Monastery feeds up to 900 people daily. We have a little over 80 brethren, almost 400 laity workers. And also pilgrims, guests of the monastery, those in need - every day the monastery kitchen, with God's help, provides food for all these people.

Most of the products we have are our own production. This is flour, from the monastic fields in the Ryazan region, and vegetables, and fruits, and honey. For the time being, we mainly buy fish, but we want to dig ponds in the same place, on the lands of the skete, and start raising fish. We keep cows - for butter, cottage cheese, milk. They don't eat meat in the monastery.

website:How did the revival of the monastic economy begin?

O. Mikhey: The revival of the monastic economy began from the moment it was handed over to the Church in 1983. Over the next five years, the monastery as a whole was restored, and the economy providing it began to function along with it. However, up to a truly independent structure that produces, preserves and nourishes - we are still just going to this all.

Until 1917, the monastery had vast lands, arable land, apiaries, and ponds. There were many good products. The monastery sold a lot, incl. in their own shops and stores. People have always loved them - both Muscovites and pilgrims. Then everything was destroyed, literally - to the ground.

But over the past 17 years, of course, a lot has been done. If you look back today, you see how much we, with God's help, have achieved! And we ourselves grow wheat on the monastery lands, grind flour, bake our famous muffin. And we grow and preserve all the vegetables we need: we preserve, sour, salt.

And now the monastery has more than one apiary - in the suburbs on the monastery farm, near Ryazan, near Anapa and from Altai, honey is also supplied from the apiaries of the Church of the Archangel Michael. Near Ryazan is the largest apiary. Now we have about 300 hives here, and during the season we manage to get more than 10 varieties of honey in apiaries. This is sweet clover, and linden, and buckwheat, and forest and field forbs honeys. Every new season before the departure of the bees, special prayers are performed for the consecration of the apiary, and the beekeepers receive a blessing for the upcoming work.

Honey is such a product - God's blessing. He should be treated that way. After all, if you put an apiary, for example, near the road, then there is nothing coming out of the exhaust pipes: both lead and all kinds of heavy metals. And the bees also collect all this and transfer it to honey. We are responsible before God for the fact that we have apiaries in good, ecologically clean places, and now we offer pure honey to people.

We love our people and want people to be healthy and beautiful and that children are born healthy. Beekeeping is a traditional Russian craft. Back in the 16th century, they said: "Russia is a country where honey flows." Almost every house was engaged in honey. It was also supplied abroad with wax. All Russian people ate honey. It is a necessary product for every person.

It is now customary for us to eat honey only when we are sick. Only this is wrong. Honey should be eaten three times a day: a spoonful in the morning, afternoon and evening. Honey contains everything the body needs, including vitamins. After all, honey is a natural product that people have been eating for centuries to improve their health. Warriors of the past on campaigns always had honey with them. Tasting it, they increased their strength before the upcoming battle.

They began to revive the tradition of monastic bread. People come for our pastries from all over Moscow and even from the Moscow region. A variety of pies, which are prepared according to old monastic recipes, are very popular. Made with passion and people love it!

From a sermon

The Kiev prince Izyaslav came to the Monk Theodosius, and after the conversation the guest was offered a monastic meal. Having tasted it, the Grand Duke was amazed at how tasty the simple monastic food was, that he did not have such dishes in the Grand Duke's palace. To this, the Monk Theodosius replied: “This happens because the food in our monastery is prepared with the blessing of the rector. Therefore, despite the simplicity, with the blessing of God, received through the blessing of the rector, it turns out to be so nutritious, healthy and tasty. Sermon of the Vicegerent of the New Jerusalem Monastery, Hegumen Theophylact on the 20th Sunday after Pentecost. Great catch of fish.

Our parishioners and guests of the monastery really appreciate the fact that we use recipes not only from our monastery, but also from other holy places: for example, we have yeast-free bread baked according to Athos recipes, we eat bread from sisters from the Serpukhov Convent.

website:And all this is managed by a small brethren of St. Danilov Monastery?

O. Mikhey: Of course not! Lay workers and volunteers help us. There are really few monks, especially those who know how to work on earth. Many came to the monastery from the cities, some are not able to do physical labor. But work in honey apiaries is called "sweet hard labor" ...

Not everyone knows how much work has to be done to get good products on the table and the monastery.

website:Please tell us about the monastic food system. What products and dishes make up the monastic table for the brethren?

O. Mikhey: We do not come to the monastery to eat delicious food - we come to reach the Kingdom of Heaven through labor, prayers and obedience. The highest virtue is fasting, prayer, rejection of worldly temptations and obedience.

By the way, according to the monastic charter, there are about 200 fasting days a year. Fasts are divided into multi-day (Great, Petrovsky, Assumption and Christmas) and one-day (Wednesday, Friday of each week). It was during the days of abstinence from fast food that thousands of original, simple, accessible to the population dishes were developed in the monastery refectories.

Lunch menu for the brethren of St. Danilov Monastery
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
No post 7	No post 8	Oil 9	No post 10	Firs 11	No post 12	No post 13
Vegetable salad squid salad Sliced ​​cheese	Beet salad with mayonnaise Sliced ​​cheese Salad of cucumbers, eggs and greens. Luke	Vegetable salad Daikon with carrots	Vegetable salad Sliced ​​cheese Salad with shrimp	Vegetable salad Cabbage salad with carrots	Beet salad with mayonnaise Greek salad Sliced ​​cheese	Fish cut Squid salad with egg
Soup Rassolnik	cabbage soup	Mushroom soup	Soup with meatballs	Pea soup	ear	Borsch
Fried fish Pasta tomato sauce	Fish fried in egg and breadcrumbs Puree bechamel sauce	Broccoli with onions and carrots Buckwheat	Fish fried in egg and breadcrumbs Pasta tomato sauce	Ratatouille Rice tomato sauce	Fried perch Pasta tomato sauce	Fried pike perch Mashed potatoes
Compote Milk Sour cream	Compote Milk Sour cream	-	Compote Milk Sour cream	-	Compote Milk Sour cream	-
Tea Cookie Apples	Tea Cookie Apples	Compote Tea Cookie Apples	Tea Cookie Apples	Compote Tea Cookie Apples	Tea Candies Apples	Morse Tea Candies Apples

Dinner menu for the brethren of St. Danilov Monastery
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
No post 7	No post 8	Oil 9	No post 10	Firs 11	No post 12	No post 13
Vegetable salad	Vegetable salad Egg with mayonnaise	Lobio Squash caviar	Salad of crab sticks	rustic salad Vegetable salad	Herring with onions and green peas Vegetable salad	Tomato salad with onions Egg with mayonnaise
Zrazy Millet porridge Sauce	Marinated fish Rice	Potato meatballs Stewed cabbage	Stuffed cabbage in a leaf	Potatoes with mushrooms and onions	Meatballs with sauce Fried potatoes	Fried fish Rice with vegetables
Compote Milk Sour cream	Compote Milk Sour cream	-	Omelette	-	Compote Milk Sour cream	Compote Milk Sour cream
Cottage cheese casserole	Syrniki	-	-	-	-	Casserole
Tea Candies	Cocoa Candies	Tea Candies Compote	Tea Candies Compote	Tea Candies Compote	Tea Candies	Tea Candies

The main difference between the monastic table and the worldly table is that we do not eat meat. In the monastery they eat vegetables, cereals, dairy products, pastries and fish, mushrooms. A lot of sauerkraut, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms are always prepared in the storerooms of the monastery.

The cellar supervises this, and the monk brothers and the laity workers do it. And it goes to the table for everyone without exception. According to the charter, the monks eat only twice a day: at lunch and at dinner. The cellar of the monastery especially makes sure that the meals are both tasty and varied and supportive - after all, the interval before meals is long, and no one sits idly by, everyone has their own housework - obedience.

The everyday menu usually consists of fish soup, if allowed on that day, pickle, vegetable, mushroom or milk soup, and fish with a side dish. For dessert - tea, compote or jelly, pies, cookies. The Sunday menu consists of fish borscht, fried fish with a side dish of mashed potatoes or rice with vegetables, fresh vegetables, cold cuts of fish and products from the monastery courtyard - cheese, sour cream and milk. On the holidays of Christmas and Easter, a festive menu is served at the meal.

We have Father Hermogenes - he was the cellar of the monastery for more than 10 years, so he even wrote a book about the monastery meal, "The Kitchen of Father Hermogenes." On this moment cellar in the monastery of Fr. Theognost. I was a cellarer for several years, and before that I carried out obedience in the construction of the skete, the restoration of the Church of the Archangel Michael, the care of apiaries, the bakery ...

Now I have an obedience - I offer monastic products for Muscovites, in a honey shop and 2 monastic stores "Monastyrsky honey" and "Monastic grocery store", where you can buy our products: honey, beekeeping products, honey jam, an assortment of fish, cereals, monastery pastries, yeast-free bread, pies, health products: alcohol-free balms, sbitni, teas, herbs.

And also I have an obedience in the department of making posters of spiritual and patriotic content by modern and classical artists.

website:We thank you, father Micah for your attention and story. We wish you joy in your work!

PRAYERS BEFORE AND AFTER EATINGFOOD

BEFORE TASTING

Our Father, Who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as in heaven and on earth. Give us our daily bread today; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. The eyes of all in Thee, O Lord, trust, and You give them food in good time, You open Your generous hand and fulfill every animal goodwill.

AFTER TASTING

We thank Thee, Christ our God, for Thou hast satisfied us with Thy earthly blessings; do not deprive us of Your Heavenly Kingdom, but as if in the midst of Your disciples, Thou hast come, Savior, give them peace, come to us and save us.

SECRET PRAYER BEFORE EATING FOOD FOR THE UNMODERN IN DIET (prayer for weight loss)

I also pray to You, Lord, deliver me from satiety, voluptuousness and grant me in the peace of my soul to reverently accept Your generous gifts, so that by eating them, I will receive strengthening of my spiritual and bodily strength to serve You, Lord, in the little rest of my life on Earth.

Editor's note

Dear readers!

On November 28, Orthodox Christians begin the Nativity Fast. This is one of the four multi-day fasts in Orthodoxy, which prepares believers for the bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ. This post is less strict than the Great and Assumption, but even here questions arise: what can and cannot be eaten, what Orthodox holidays every believer must know about at this time, who are allowed relief, is there any benefit to the soul if you observe only physical fasting? Micah. These days about. Micah. And then at the meeting you will receive exhaustive answers to them.

Potatoes “in uniform” in the monastery are jokingly called “in cassock” - after all, monks do not wear uniforms

Recently, I began to notice that when talking about products, dishes “monastic ...”, or “like a monastery ...”, people mean: “high-quality”, “real”, “delicious”. Honey, bread, lunch...

Observing it on purpose, it struck me that this trend is not only expanding, but is already being used by various product manufacturers, conscientious and not so good. Then the question arose: what is modern monastic food, monastic products? What stands behind the recognition of the consumer - the traditional respect for the religious way of life, which excludes deceit and laziness, or the absence of intelligible state quality guidelines, the same GOSTs, for example?

For answers to these questions, we turned to Father Micah, Hieromonk of the Holy Danilov Monastery. The path that led this remarkable man to the church was not easy.

Let's start with the fact that Father Mikhey was a paratrooper and knows the concept of "hot spot" firsthand. Already, while in the monastery, Father Mikhei performed difficult obediences: setting up a skete in the Ryazan region, organizing a monastery apiary, acting as a cellarer in the St. Danilov Monastery itself, and many others that I don’t know about.

As a result, we managed to build a picture of how a Russian Orthodox monastery lives today from questions and answers: what it produces, what it eats, whom and how it feeds.

AIF.RU: It is known that the vast majority of monasteries in Rus' were self-sufficient in the production, storage and distribution of products. The monasteries owned gardens, fields, orchards, ponds and apiaries. Also, since ancient times, the tradition of feeding monastic products not only to the brethren, but also to workers, pilgrims, students, and guests has been preserved. Is this tradition alive in St. Daniel's Monastery today?

O. Mikhey: From a century in Rus', monasteries were not only centers of spiritual life, but also economic ones. Not only did they feed themselves, but they also carried out selection work, grew new varieties of plants, searched for and found new ways to store and preserve food. For many hundreds of years, monasteries not only fed themselves, but also widely helped those in need. As in normal times, and especially in war years, during lean periods, during epidemics.

There is no other way in the monastery: today the economy of the St. Danilov Monastery feeds up to 900 people daily. We have a little over 80 brethren, almost 400 laity workers. And also pilgrims, guests of the monastery, those in need - every day the monastery kitchen, with God's help, provides food for all these people.

Most of the products we have are our own production. This is flour, from the monastic fields in the Ryazan region, and vegetables, and fruits, and honey. For the time being, we mainly buy fish, but we want to dig ponds in the same place, on the lands of the skete, and start raising fish. We keep cows - for butter, cottage cheese, milk. They don't eat meat in the monastery.

- How did the revival of the monastic economy begin?

— The revival of the monastic economy began from the moment it was handed over to the Church in 1983. Over the next five years, the monastery as a whole was restored, and the economy providing it began to function along with it. However, up to a truly independent structure that produces, preserves and nourishes – we are still just going to this all.

Until 1917, the monastery had vast lands, arable land, apiaries, and ponds. There were many good products. The monastery sold a lot, incl. in their own shops and stores. People have always loved them - both Muscovites and pilgrims. Then everything was destroyed, literally - to the ground.

But over the past 17 years, of course, a lot has been done. If you look back today, you see how much we, with God's help, have achieved! And we ourselves grow wheat on the monastery lands, grind flour, bake our famous muffin. And we grow and preserve all the vegetables we need: we preserve, sour, salt.

And now the monastery has more than one apiary - in the suburbs at the monastery farm, near Ryazan, near Anapa and from Altai, honey is also supplied from the apiaries of the Church of the Archangel Michael. Near Ryazan is the largest apiary. Now we have about 300 hives here, and during the season we manage to get more than 10 varieties of honey in apiaries. This is sweet clover, and linden, and buckwheat, and forest and field forbs honeys. Every new season, before the departure of the bees, special prayers are performed to consecrate the apiary, and the beekeepers receive a blessing for the upcoming work.

Honey is such a product - God's blessing. He should be treated that way. After all, if you put an apiary, for example, near the road, then there is nothing coming out of the exhaust pipes: both lead and all kinds of heavy metals. And the bees also collect all this and transfer it to honey. We are responsible before God for the fact that we have apiaries in good, ecologically clean places, and now we offer pure honey to people.

We love our people and want people to be healthy and beautiful and that children are born healthy. Beekeeping is a traditional Russian craft. Back in the 16th century, they said: "Russia is a country where honey flows." Almost every house was engaged in honey. It was also supplied abroad with wax. All Russian people ate honey. It is a necessary product for every person.

It is now customary for us to eat honey only when we are sick. Only this is wrong. Honey should be eaten three times a day: a spoonful in the morning, afternoon and evening. Honey contains everything the body needs, including vitamins. After all, honey is a natural product that people have been eating for centuries to improve their health. Warriors of the past on campaigns always had honey with them. Tasting it, they increased their strength before the upcoming battle.

They began to revive the tradition of monastic bread. People come for our pastries from all over Moscow and even from the Moscow region. A variety of pies, which are prepared according to old monastic recipes, are very popular. Made with soul - and people love it!

Our parishioners and guests of the monastery really appreciate the fact that we use recipes not only from our monastery, but also from other holy places: for example, we have yeast-free bread baked according to Athos recipes, we eat bread from sisters from the Serpukhov Convent.

- And all this is managed by a small brethren of St. Danilov Monastery?

— Of course not! Lay workers and volunteers help us. There are really few monks, especially those who know how to work on earth. Many came to the monastery from the cities, some are not able to do physical labor. But work in honey apiaries is called "sweet hard labor" ...

Not everyone knows how much work has to be done to get good products on the table and the monastery.

— Tell us, please, about the monastic food system. What products and dishes make up the monastic table for the brethren?

— We do not come to the monastery to have a tasty meal - we come to reach the Kingdom of Heaven through labor, prayers and obedience. The highest virtue is fasting, prayer, rejection of worldly temptations and obedience.

By the way, according to the monastic charter, there are about 200 fasting days a year. Fasts are divided into multi-day (Great, Petrovsky, Assumption and Christmas) and one-day (Wednesday, Friday of each week). It was during the days of abstinence from fast food that thousands of original, simple, accessible to the population dishes were developed in the monastery refectories.

The main difference between the monastic table and the worldly table is that we do not eat meat. In the monastery they eat vegetables, cereals, dairy products, pastries and fish, mushrooms. A lot of sauerkraut, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms are always prepared in the storerooms of the monastery.

The cellar supervises this, and the monk brothers and the laity workers do it. And it goes to the table for everyone without exception. According to the charter, the monks eat only twice a day: at lunch and at dinner. The cellar of the monastery especially makes sure that the meals are both tasty, varied and supportive - after all, the interval before meals is long, and no one sits idly by, everyone has their own housework - obedience.

The everyday menu usually consists of fish soup, if allowed on that day, pickle, vegetable, mushroom or milk soup, and fish with a side dish. For dessert - tea, compote or jelly, pies, cookies. The Sunday menu consists of fish borscht, fried fish with a side dish of mashed potatoes or rice with vegetables, fresh vegetables, cold cuts of fish and products from the monastery courtyard - cheese, sour cream and milk. On the holidays of Christmas and Easter, a festive menu is served at the meal.

We have Father Hermogenes - he was the cellar of the monastery for more than 10 years, so he even wrote a book about the monastery meal, "The Kitchen of Father Hermogenes." At the moment, the cellar in the monastery of Fr. Theognost. I was a cellarer for several years, and before that I carried out obedience in the construction of the skete, the restoration of the Church of the Archangel Michael, the care of apiaries, the bakery ...

Now I have an obedience - I offer monastic products for Muscovites, in a honey shop and 2 monastic stores "Monastyrsky honey" and "Monastic grocery store", where you can buy our products: honey, beekeeping products, honey jam, an assortment of fish, cereals, monastery pastries, yeast-free bread, pies, health products: alcohol-free balms, sbitni, teas, herbs.

And also I have an obedience in the department of making posters of spiritual and patriotic content by modern and classical artists.

— We thank you, father Mikhey for your attention and story. We wish you joy in your work!