Sergei Semak: biography and football career. Family and children of Sergei Semak

Awarded the title of "Honored Master of Sports"; he is the champion of domestic championships in the football field. In addition, Semak is an attentive father of seven children and a loving husband.

The beginning of life

The Russian football player was born in Ukraine in 1976, on February 27. His childhood years were spent in the village of Sychanskoye (now Lugansk). Here he received his secondary education and entered the Lugansk Olympic reserve school. There, the future champion was taught football skills by coach Valery Belokobylsky.

After graduating from the Lugansk School, Semak Sergey Bogdanovich at the age of 16 moves to Moscow. Here he begins to build a career, becoming a member football club"Presnya" (1992). Then the football player moves to the Karelia club, where his coach Konstantin Beskov notices his skills. So Sergey becomes a member of Asmaral, and then - CSK.

First achievements

Sergey Semak scored his first goal a year after joining the army club. And at the age of 19 he was appointed captain of the football team.

In 2002 and 2004 Russian football player was awarded the "Golden Horseshoe" - the main prize of the army fan community. And in 2003 he was awarded a similar statuette, but in bronze.

In 2005, Sergey accepted the offer of the French top football club Paris Saint-Germain, but he never managed to do it there. good career. Therefore, after a while he returned to Russia and became a member of FC Moscow. Very soon the player became the leader Russian club and the highest paid midfielder.

But Sergei Semak did not want to stop there and decided to transfer to the Kazan club Rubin. And becoming a member of the club in Tatarstan, the football player was able to lead him to the title of Russian champions. In 2007, the midfielder overcame the bar of 100 goals scored in the championships of Russia.

Awards

Sergei Semak, whose biography has always been of interest to the public, is a unique football player. For several years of his football career, he was able to achieve professional heights, well-deserved titles and honorary awards.

The famous football player is a five-time Russian football champion. The titles were awarded when he was a member of three different clubs: CSK, Rubin, Zenit.
Semak - three-time silver medalist Russian championships 1998, 2002, 2004; bronze medalist tournament in 1999.
As a member of the CSK, Sergei in 2002 became the owner of the Russian Cup.
The famous football player became the owner three times: 2004 - CSK, 2010 - Rubin, 2011 - Zenit.
The Russian midfielder is the owner of the UEFA Cup (2005).
In Euro 2008, Semak was declared a bronze medalist.

Personal life

Sergey Semak, whose photos do not leave fashion glossy magazines, distinguished himself not only in the football field, but also in his personal sphere. Today, the famous football player is raising seven children, six of whom are his own, and one is from his second wife's previous marriage.

With his first wife, Svetlana Demidova, Sergei met in a cafe when he was 17 years old. The young athlete liked the girl so much that he decided to get her attention at all costs. It took about a year, during which the football player skillfully looked after the beauty. Later, the lovers got married. Their marriage lasted 10 years. During this time, Svetlana gave her husband a son, Ilya.

But in 2006, Sergei had a fatal meeting. One evening, he went to sit in a Parisian cafe with his wife (then he played for Paris Saint-Germain). There, at the toilet room of the football player, a girl named Anna, who worked as an administrator of the institution, was on the lookout. She quickly handed Semak a piece of paper with her phone number and asked him to call. And after a while, Sergei called a fan. From that moment on, Anna became the "legitimate" mistress of the football player, later - his common-law wife. And after a divorce in 2007 from Svetlana Demidova, 22-year-old Anna began to claim the title of Semak's official wife.

The football player could not leave his wife Svetlana for a long time. He was tormented by the conscience that he could cause close person, and therefore for three years was torn between two women. But when Anna gave birth to a son to Sergei, everything was decided by itself.

Footballer's children

Anna Semak, although younger than Sergei, was able to surpass him in the number of official marriages. The girl was married twice. Sergey Semak became the third official husband of a burning brunette.

Anna was able to give birth to a wife of five children - sons Semyon, Ivan, Savva and daughters Varvara, Ilaria. The football player admits that he is very happy to be a father of many children. From his first marriage, Sergei left a son, with his new wife he has 5 children in common and 1 child from Anna from a previous marriage.

Semak grew up in that is why from a young age he dreamed of creating his own big family where he will have many children. And it seems that Anna was able to fulfill the dream of a football player.

Sergey is connected with his daughter Varvara interesting story. The girl was born on the day of the game of a football player in the "Rubin", whose opponent was "Barcelona". This game ended in a draw, and Semak decided to name his daughter Barcelona, in honor of the opposing team. These rumors quickly spread in the press, but they did not come true. The official name for the girl has already been chosen - Varvara.

Strict but kind father

Anna Semak has repeatedly admitted that next to Sergei she wanted to have many children. The second wife was able to give birth to her husband five, and it seems that the couple is not going to stop there. The couple plans to adopt another child in the future.

Sergei Semak, whose children look happy, admits that he really loves each of them. The footballer strongly supports his eldest son Ilya (from his first marriage), who loves to visit his father. Semak considers his daughter Maya, who remained with Anna after her first marriage, to be her own child. According to his wife, Sergei loves his children with all his heart, but does not forget about the severity in education.

Strictness and discipline are the fundamental principles that guide the footballer in training with young students.

Business

Sergey Semak is a football player and a successful businessman. During the years of his football career, he was able to open his own business - the Limo Club company for limousine rental. The idea to create a company began to be implemented by 2007. It was during this period famous football player started buying limousines. Initially, it was planned that the company would be owned by Semak's first wife, Svetlana Demidova. But after the divorce in 2007, Svetlana became only a representative of the interests of the ex-husband in the automotive business.

Today, the captain of the Russian national football team is the president of the Limo Club. His company rents out cars for celebrations and events.

Sergey Semak: about football

The titled Russian football player Sergey Semak became the coach of the famous football club. Zenit signed a contract with the Russian champion for 3 years.

But in last years the Zenit team does not please the fans with their victories. Semak explains this by the appearance of new players in the team, a change in the tactics of the game and the difficulties of "grinding" the players to each other.

Sergei admits that it is not easy for the youth of Zenit to play. And although the professional level of the players is high, young players cannot withstand the competition. The coach believes that young players should train more with the masters of sports and temper themselves morally.

Sergei argues that in the team, as in the family, you need to adhere to strict discipline. Players must have good self-control, hard work and determination. But the football player emphasizes that today's youth do not have willpower, patriotism, which would motivate them to success. Therefore, probably young football players do not live up to the coach's expectations.

Dossier

Sergey Semak - biography, personal life and major achievements.

The works of this artist have never been at auctions, and there were no Moscow exhibitions for 12 years. Nevertheless, one of his paintings is probably known to everyone who grew up in the USSR

Today, AI Auction exhibited for the first time a painting by the artist Sergei Borisovich Simakov (1949, Moscow) - an expressive expressionist still life of 1979. This is just the extremely rare case when our auction includes the work of an artist who does not have a history of auction sales. Why? There are two reasons. First, the work immediately takes to the quick. And secondly, the artist is painfully unusual. And one of his paintings is known to everyone who lived in the late USSR.

So, point by point:

1. Sergey Simakov - the author of the cover of the album by Alla Pugacheva and the group "Recital" "How disturbing this path" in 1981. Thoughtful Alla against the backdrop of a surreal landscape, and a large signature on the bottom of the reproduction: S. Simakov. It is he. And the illustrations on the spread are also him.

2. This is a "Gorkom" artist. From the late 1970s until 1991, Simakov exhibited in the basement hall of the famous Malaya Gruzinskaya, 28 - the patrimony of nonconformists and opposing youth. Simakov was a member of the 20 Moscow Artists group. Members of the G20 at different times were Vyacheslav Kalinin, Pyotr Belenok, Igor Snegur, Alexander Kharitonov and others. The artist recalls that time as follows: “We were shown in this basement like a zoo. To get into the Union of Artists at that time, one had to try very hard. Free artists were united on Malaya Gruzinskaya so that we would not wander around Moscow and could work.”

3. In 1982, Simakov was admitted to the Union of Artists of the USSR.

4. In 1983, the artist and his wife bought a wooden house in the village of Zagainovo, near Uglich, not far from the Church of Michael the Archangel "that in the forest." The visit to these historical places became a fateful one for the artist. He radically changed the theme of creativity. Abandoning secular expressionism and surrealism forever, the artist turned to religious painting. In the period from 1984 to 1991, he painted nineteen large-scale oil paintings for the exhibition project Under the Holy Veil. Collections from exhibitions were received for the revival of the Church of Michael the Archangel. His last painting - "Solovki Saints" - the artist painted in 1991. More pictures the artist did not write.

5. In 1987, Simakov painted icons for the Church of the Resurrection of the Word in Moscow, on Nezhdanova Street, and also painted icons for the Church of Michael the Archangel and other churches.

6. In 1991, the archbishop of Yaroslavl and Rostov Vladyka ordained Sergei Borisovich to the priesthood. In 2004, Father Sergius was elevated to the rank of archpriest, and in 2005, after the death of his wife, he took monastic vows with the name Raphael.

7. Since 2007, the paintings by Sergei Simakov (by that time already Hieromonk Raphael) from the cycle “Under the Holy Veil” form the basis of the exposition of the Gallery of Contemporary Orthodox Art and Painting “Under the Holy Veil” - a separate museum as part of the Uglich Historical, Architectural and Art Museum.

8. In 2007-2012, Father Rafail had a significant impact on the latest projects of the author of the film "Brother", director Alexei Balabanov. In an interview in 2013, Father Raphael spoke about his role in the creation of his last two films: “After the death of my wife, I received a precious gift from God: I met an amazing person - director Alexei Balabanov. They became my serious friend, filled in me the void that remained when I abandoned the paintings. I became a co-author of his two films - “Morphine” and “I also want”. He came here to make movies because of me. I selected his nature, my friends organized an extras from the actors of the former local theater ... In the five years of our acquaintance, I tried to turn his brilliant cinematic essence to where I am. But not on purpose, he wanted it himself. And he begged me to act in a film in our church. He envied me: you, he says, abandoned everything, but I can’t. That I changed my art to the church. He wanted to make a film about the civil war, about how priests were killed. But no money was given - the producer said that the film would not be released. So Lyoshka does not have a single film for rent! They were simply not allowed to rent ... Of course, it was a shame. I consoled Lyosha. The Lord took him, although he was 10 years younger than me and, it would seem, could live and live. Now I am writing a story about him.

9. About the life path of Sergei Simakov, more precisely, already Father Sergius and the monk Raphael, several documentaries, including film works "Priests" (1999) and "Rib. Portrait of the artist's wife against the backdrop of the era "(2006).

Such is the artist without auction sales.

Vladimir Bogdanov,AI

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Artist, monk Raphael (Simakov)

Olga Savicheva, AIF-Yaroslavl:

Father Raphael, why are you a native Muscovite, a well-known metropolitan artist, in the 90s you decided to move from Moscow to a village near Uglich?

Father Raphael: Not true about fame. To become a famous artist, one must be constantly in front of the public.

Our paintings, Russians, even despite the state support, albeit weak, were not allowed abroad and were not shown anywhere.

Now, by the way, all this is coming back - that hostility towards the Russians, which was brought up at that time all over the world.

And I left Moscow because it became hard for me to live there.

(Sergey SIMAKOV Still life in white mountain. 1980 Oil on canvas Source: marsgallery.ru)

Everything has become alien in every sense - both externally and internally.

Anna Karenina (1981)

Visit of Vasco De Gama to Russia (1981)

Red Desert (1981)

It was about what is happening in Ukraine today that made me flee here. I was then a dissident, I talked with many people who were objectionable to the state. But it passed, I realized that if we start to destroy the state, then we are digging a hole for ourselves. And we began to support the communists: not those who leave here and with different parties shouts that everything is bad with us, and those who tried to prevent the destruction of the country.

In 1993, when they decided to drown us in blood, we simply did not kill each other, as it is now happening in Ukraine. We were trampled down so that there is nowhere else to go, trampled down by the people whom I once helped, and now they have come to power. And when I realized that the full finish was coming, I decided to hide. Here, in a village that was already dying. Probably, I came here also to correct my mistakes.

- Did you sell your paintings?

Yes, I sold it, with this money we restored and maintained this temple, in which I now serve. But now I don’t paint pictures and I can’t sell them. The last one in my life, dedicated to the Solovetsky Monastery, I finished on March 8, 1991, and then it streamed myrrh at an exhibition in Yaroslavl. A few weeks later, in Yaroslavl, Vladyka Platon ordained me a deacon, and 10 days later, a priest. Then I was taught for another 40 days, while my wife sang in the kliros. And then I became a priest in the church of the Archangel Michael "that in the forest." That's how I can pray, I serve our service.

- It was a sign - when the picture began to stream myrrh?

This is a sign that something serious may happen to you soon. Myrrh streamed three of my paintings at the exhibition, the bishops came and witnessed this. When I arrived, the myrrh had already frozen, turned into resin, and then completely disappeared. I was horrified by what happened next. My wife died from a serious illness. I loved her very much. Her name was Elena, a month before her death she was tonsured a nun, and she became a nun Anna. This I insisted. Any sacrament of the Church frees a person from many things that, let's say, he has done in life. Monks have the opportunity, with special prayers, very serious ones, to get rid of what they have accumulated. Then I was also tonsured a monk.

So much time has passed... But it's still hard to return to the past. I write books, memoirs, stories about my life, a lot of things have already been written. But now, these days, somehow I would not like to remember all this. (...)

What do you think is the meaning of life?

The holy fathers have determined for us what is the meaning - in the salvation of the soul, in order to earn the Kingdom of Heaven, which has no beginning and no end.

8 kilometers from Uglich along the Yaroslavl road, among the dense forest, there is an amazing temple - the Church of Michael the Archangel in the forest. The place is special.

Initially, there was a monastery here, the exact date of its foundation is unknown, but it is known that by the end of the 14th century it already existed, since its abbot, as recorded in the annals, was present at the consecration of one of the churches in the city of Uglich.

The history of the construction of this monastery is interesting. It was supposed to be roadside, on the road from Uglich to Yaroslavl. The builders, blessed, began to build. They build some part, they return in the morning - everything fell apart. And so several attempts.

We went to the elder: “Pray, father, we want to do a charitable deed, but nothing works out for us.” The elder replied that it was not God’s will to have a monastery in this place.

He said to build it in the forest, in the swamp, in the most swampy place. The blessing was fulfilled, a wooden monastery with a temple, cells and wooden buildings was built in the depths of the swamp.

This monastery stood for 300 years.

In ancient Uglich, at Abbot Raphael (Simakov) ...

In the photo, Father Raphael is together with his mother (wife). After her death, he became a monk

In 1610 Uglich was destroyed by the Polish-Lithuanian invaders. During the Time of Troubles, the Poles wiped many Russian cities off the face of the earth, and they especially raged, destroying Orthodox shrines. The city of Uglich was also destroyed. Then they went to look for the same monastery, hidden in the forest in the swamp.

300 residents of the surrounding villages, 40 monks, and Abbot Michael took refuge in the monastery. The Poles offered to accept their faith, the king. But none of the people spoke to them. All those who were caught were chopped to pieces by the Poles, the rest were burned alive in the monastery.

All this happened on the night of Easter on April 4, 1610. Only 180 years later, a stone church was built on the site of this monastery in the 1790s. It will be consecrated in honor of Michael the Archangel.

A wooden cross now stands on the site of the alleged mass grave. Here you can bow to the memory of the tragically lost Russian defenders of their land, ask for intercession and strength to always remain human and preserve your human appearance from those who showed us an example of Christian piety. This is a special place, this land is watered with blood, this is a special shrine and time here will never end.

St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk

Particularly revered icons in the Kazan and St. Cassian of Uglich. They went to the processions with them. Icon of St. Right-Believing Prince Roman. He had a difficult time in ministry. This is 14-15 centuries. He led a peaceful, very charitable way of life, a large number of churches were built in Uglich. His relics were burned in Soviet times. Another shrine of the temple is a particle of the relics of the infant martyr John Chepolosov, the son of the local merchant Nikifor, who lived in the 1660s.

An eight-year-old child was lured to him and tortured by the clerk of the boy's father Fyodor Rudak, a Jewish warlock. The body was found a month later. The savage pulled out a child's tooth every day, 20 stab wounds were found on the body, and the knife itself was stuck through and through the head from ear to ear.

They tried to pull out the knife - in vain. And only Rudak pulled out the knife easily and the wound immediately bled.

This was evidence that he was the killer. Izover confessed to everything.

He was sentenced to death by quartering, but on the eve of the baby began to dream of his father with a request to release the killer.

It is known that Rudak rotted alive, but could not die - "he was eaten alive by worms," as it is said in the life of St. mch. John. “Vengeance is mine and I will repay”: do not take revenge yourself, do not execute the spiteful critics, and then their fate will be in the hands of God.

From the relics of St. John there were many healings, but soon they were hidden under a bushel - this was a consequence of the struggle with the Old Believers.

The rector of the extraordinary church of Michael the Archangel in the forest is also an extraordinary person.

Hegumen Raphael, formerly a famous avant-garde artist Sergei Borisovich Simakov.

From childhood, he began to get involved in painting, but his parents did not welcome it. They were true supporters of communism, and, in their understanding, this hobby did not contribute in any way to building a bright socialist future.

Here is an architect - yes, this is a profession necessary for the country. The family was not religious, Sergey's parents, creative intellectuals, were very secular people, and very decent. Obedience to the parents was above all, therefore, out of respect and reverence for them and at their insistence, after graduating from school, Sergei entered the Moscow Institute of Architecture. Here he met his future wife- Elena, daughter of the famous General Alexander Georgievich Kotikov, who was the commandant of Berlin from 1946 to 1950. This man is infinitely respected by the Germans, in Berlin there is a school and a street named after him.

"Under the Blessed Cover"

Since childhood, the artist has faced many contradictions. He always said that art is an attempt to understand and in his paintings - questions and the search for answers to them. Sergey was fond of many, different religions, even mysticism. “But my wife, Elena, treated all this with such disgust,” says Fr. Raphael, - which didn’t drag me anywhere, as it could take away an addicted creative person.

These attempts to figure it out were finally crowned with success: at the age of 34, he and his wife were baptized, then they got married, and six months later they bought a house for a workshop in a village 12 km near Uglich and began their new life. Representatives of the elite of the Moscow intelligentsia arrived in the village, where their house turned out to be the only residential building and the nearest civilization is 12 km away.

The road is impassable. The first thing they did was to develop 70 acres of land. They began to grow all the crops known to our climate, and brought in all the known livestock: cows, calves, piglets, goats, sheep, chickens, geese.

Then they began to help Fr. John, who was the rector of the temple in the neighboring village. Once, at an exhibition of Sergei's paintings, a local priest asked him why he should not be ordained? The wife reacted to this as follows: “The Lord gave him such a talent, why should he be buried in the ground now ?!” To which the father replied: “The Lord is the artist of all artists!”, And he said this with such inspiration that a few months later the artist Sergei Simakov became a priest, then the rector of the church of Michael the Archangel in the forest, and mother Elena became the guardian angel of this temple .

Father Sergius stopped painting, but began to paint icons.

It was the 1990s, when churches began to be returned to the bosom of the Church, which had been cruelly taken from her.

Everything was looted and destroyed. Father Sergius renovated frescoes, painted icons, and did all this absolutely free of charge.

Moreover, funds from his exhibitions went to the restoration of churches in Uglich, throughout the Uglich region and the most needy parishes throughout Russia.

In 2000, at an exhibition in Yaroslavl and Kostroma, several of his paintings became myrrh-streaming.

Myrrh-streaming is not just a miracle, it is evidence of future trials. O. Sergiy falls ill, the doctors make a diagnosis - cancer in the last stage, and the bill goes on for weeks, at best months.

Mother, always a strict general's daughter, suddenly became a quiet prayer book.

He will undergo surgery, six days he will be between life and death. Mother will be there all the time.

He will get up, and six months after that, Mother Elena will suddenly die of cancer.

A month before her death, she will take monastic vows with the name Anna in honor of Anna Kashinskaya, whom they especially revered.

Eight months after her death, Fr. Sergius will also take monastic vows with the name Raphael.

It has been 13 years since my mother is gone, and already 18 years since Fr. Raphael lives contrary to all the statements of doctors.

The Church of Michael the Archangel was restored and repaired. A chapel in honor of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos was attached to the main temple. Services are not reduced, even if there is not a single person in the church, only Fr. Raphael and the singers. Vespers continue until 6:00.

When the priest is offered to shorten the service, referring to the fact that there is no one in the church, Fr. Raphael replies: “Your business is to come to the service or not. I don't serve you." The temple is two-storey, two-altar. The lower temple, Vvedensky, is very cozy and warm.

The painting was renewed by Abbot Raphael himself and the Uglich artist Fyodor Kunitsyn. The summer upper temple was consecrated in honor of the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael and other powers of heaven.

On the patronal feast, November 21, up to 7 buses come to the service, the temple is full of people, but Fr. Raphael pays as much attention to everyone in confession as this person needs.

Batiushka calls his parishioners “newcomers” with a smile - it is difficult to get here except by car. All agricultural products are distributed to parishioners for the glory of God, nothing is sold. “We are all grown up on father's and mother's milk,” they say here. And if someone puts goose eggs in your pocket or tries to offer you a bag of cottage cheese - do not refuse - everything is natural.

Arkhangelsk has always existed as a desert.

There has never been a village here, only workers, novices, one or two monks lived here. This tradition continues to this day. The houses are built in the Russian style, they have only electricity and a stove. Those who wish can, having taken a blessing from the priest, come in the summer, work for the glory of God, live and pray in a holy place.

Father Raphael always lowers his eyes when he talks to people, he speaks in an apologetic voice. It is very real, simple, laconic and very soothing. When someone complains and about. Raphael really sees that these are obvious atrocities, lawlessness, he says: “Let's pray that they do not succeed. Be patient - we'll see. Everything is in the will of God."

Father Raphael donated his paintings to the city of Uglich, all of them are exhibited in the Gallery of Modern Orthodox Art. The gallery is located in a two-story house not far from the Uglich Kremlin. The building was repaired by 70% at the expense of Fr. Raphael.

Father Raphael says that art is not modern or non-modern, it is not Orthodox or non-Orthodox - it is good or bad. The exhibition is literally filled with light - it comes from the paintings, some kind of unearthly light splashes. I'll tell you about a few works, especially memorable ones.

On the ground floor, early paintings by the artist are exhibited. Portrait of Vysotsky. It was taken from a photograph shortly before the death of the poet.

(The artist Sergey Simakov, who exhibited in Malaya Gruzinka, painted this picture in 1981.)

The artist is very respectful of his personality. After watching the film "Vysotsky. Thank you for being alive, oh. Raphael said that this is a betrayal of loved ones - like this, to expose everything that is usually not said out loud without any attempt to figure out what was going on inside the person. Only Vysotsky's mother understood this.

She then said about. Raphael: "I thank you that you saw in my son not an actor, not a poet, not a singer - a person." A very fragile person, deeply rooted in the Russian land, no doubt having talent, but not having a foundation on which he was supposed to rely. Personal tragedy.

Everyone is interested in dirty laundry, no one is interested in what kind of struggle is going on inside a person. Genius, talent - this is a gift that also needs to be dealt with. This is exactly what the artist Simakov understood in him. Vysotsky, unfortunately, did not manage to find the basis that would help him cope with all the violence that was happening inside.

St. Sergius of Radonezh blesses St. Dmitry Donskoy

The seemingly uncomplicated plot depicted in the painting “Russian Life” sets you up for reflection. For many, this picture is perplexing. How so?

In a Russian peasant hut it is always so clean, despite the fact that there is a yard nearby. Everything is very well maintained. And the stove is always whitewashed for Easter and the curtains on it are always clean and ironed. And what is shown here? Everything is scattered, scattered .... What kind of "Russian way of life" is this? But it is very clear to me what the artist wanted to say, it is very close to me. The picture reflects the internal organization of a creative person.

Creative people can't tidy up the table, you can't put all the books on the shelves. Everything is scattered, some kind of Masha ran there - a spider ....

For some, this is a mess, dirt, and, by the way, this Masha is a co-author, if you like. It is impossible to remove all this, clean it up - this creates the life of a creative person. Any attempt to smooth everything, streamline, deprives of naturalness. Everything becomes lifeless. We look at some: everything is laid out beautifully, but it is clear that no one reads it, it is clear that no one ever touches it. It is all dead life, unnatural.

In one of the sermons, Fr. Raphael said: “Here we see a person with wrinkles, facial features, and we can already say about this person that, for example, he often smiles if there are wrinkles near his eyes.

The good ones have wrinkles in one place, the evil ones in another. And only when a person dies, everything is smoothed out for him, you won’t see a single wrinkle. Everything is perfectly even only with a corpse - everything has smoothed out, the eyes no longer squint, the nose does not wrinkle .... Everything is even, smooth, it's nice to look at. But there is no life in it. So it turns out that the artist did not want to depict the sloppy Russian life, but he wanted to show that in this movement there is real life.

Questions, what are they, these Russians, how they differ from others and why Russia cannot be understood with the mind, also worried the artist, and he began to look for the answer to them in the primary sources - the lives of the saints.

All these searches are reflected in his paintings. Couldn't o. Raphael did not paint a picture dedicated to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. In fact, this is the first monastic monastery in Holy Rus'.

In the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery in the 11th century, a certain young man, the monk Leonty, was tonsured.

And immediately after the tonsure, he goes to the city of Rostov Veliky to establish Orthodoxy there. It was not an easy task, Rus' was baptized not so long ago. Residents of Rostov vowed to stand to death for pagan beliefs. And this is also a Russian person - in his sincerity: "I am sincerely convinced and believe in what I believe in."

A young monk, he has no life experience, no monastic skill. How can he show everyone that Christianity is the truth? Just by personal example. God is love, and Christianity is love.

And this love people felt in him. Christian love endures for a long time, forgives everything, never passes away, and requires nothing in return. An example of Christian love is an example of a mother's love for her child, a Creator for his creation. That's what the Rostovites found what was not in their beliefs. For 70 years of Leonty's life in Rostov, the city turned from pagan into Orthodox.

And here it does not matter how many percent of people were baptized in Rostov, the spirit of the people has already changed under the influence of love - the only weapon that conquers everything, and against which there is no reception.

In Byzantium, there were 4 percent Orthodox and this was enough for it to become the First Rome. Leonty was martyred. At the origins stood one person, one personality.

Annunciation in the Kremlin

History is made by individuals. At prp. Sergius of Radonezh had a large number of students, there is even such a thing as "the phenomenon of the Volga elder." The monk went into the forest to pray in solitude. But it did not work out - the monks gathered around him, the monastery was built, people came with their families, they built a whole city around the monastery - Sergiev Posad. Kirill Belozersky came to the north - the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery and the city of Kirillov grew up there. His companion Ferapont subsequently founded the Ferapont Monastery nearby.

Russian people have always strived for purity and holiness.

Holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian

Several paintings about. Raphael was streamed with myrrh - "Cyril of Belozersky", "Anthony the Roman".

The painting "Solovki Saints" was the last painted by the artist Simakov and his last painting that streamed myrrh. In 1991, he became a priest and no longer painted a single secular painting - only icons.

Solovetsky Monastery. SLON - Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp.

There, in the 20-40s of the 20th century, they destroyed the best people our country. Boris Shiryaev wrote the book "The Unquenchable Lampada" about this period of his life. He had the death penalty commuted to ten years of Solovki. The writer then said to his friend artist Mikhail Nesterov: "I was replaced by a quick death with a slow one." And he said to him: “I am so happy for you. Don't be afraid of Solovki. There Christ is near."

The annotation to his book contains the following lines: “It is not the camp horrors that the Solovetsky prisoner describes, not the atrocities of the chiefs against the prisoners - all this is relegated to the background and, as it were, muffled, in the front there are consolation and saving “pearls of the spirit” that do not allow a person to lose the form bestowed upon him by the Lord.” Why do people remember the most terrible persecutions, best years own life?

St. Alexander Oshevensky

I remember a little story. One person has a dream. He walks through the desert and two pairs of footprints remain in the sand: his footprints, and next to him are the footprints of God. Suddenly, the person notices that only one chain of footprints has stretched. And it was the most difficult time in his life. The man wept, “Lord, why did You leave me when I needed You the most?”

And he gets the answer: “Then, when it was most difficult for you, and you saw one pair of footprints, it was I who carried you in my arms, because you yourself could not walk ...” When some terrible situations happen to us, we begin live as if on the machine, we do not even understand what is happening.

We do something, we somehow live. Some time passes, and we suddenly begin to realize, and do not understand how we could survive all this. This is exactly the moment when God took us off His hands and said, “Now you can move on. You have already gone through the most difficult time, and I was next to you. It is impossible to go through life without hardships and trials, you need to endure these hardships with dignity and understand that everything is possible to survive, but only with God.

Saint Seraphim of Sarov denounces the Decembrist-Mason

("Kicked out for trying to get a blessing on the coup. The novice monk, which is visible in the picture, was quite surprised - it is known that none of the pilgrims received a rude or harsh word from the saint. Seeing this, the elder pointed to the well, in which the water suddenly turned cloudy and began to seethe, and explained: “This is how this man wanted to anger Russia.”)

The painting is dedicated to Seraphim of Sarov, and depicts the triumph of Orthodoxy - the Resurrection of Christ. Evil is defeated once and for all eternity by the Sacrifice of Christ. The main condition for the struggle between good and evil is good will. Now in films, it is no coincidence that it often sounds - “Do you agree?” A person must say terrible words: "I agree." From this moment the whole nightmare begins.

Somehow I was struck by the answer of a Sunday school teacher to a child's question, when will the end of the world be: “There are scales in the world - evil and good. Every second, deeds, thoughts, actions, desires of people fall on these scales. Good and bad. For the world to exist as it does now, these scales must be in balance. Each person chooses this or that act freely.

If I was offended, and I hatch plans for revenge, then this falls into the cup of evil. And if in the same second no one does an act and a good thought, then the scales will be pulled over and in this very second the end of the world will happen.

The prophecy will someday be fulfilled, but it may be many thousands of years from now. Our action can be decisive. We cannot afford to do badly, because at that moment no one on earth may want to do well, and the balance will be upset. Then all. That is why it is important to suppress evil and resentment in oneself. Always remember this."

Agree, these words are useful to hear not only for children ...