The Alhambra and the Kremlin: The South and the North of Europe

by Samuel Irenæus Prime

On the wide area in front of St. Basil is the Golgotha, or skull place, a name given to a circular stone platform, said to be the place of public executions in old times, but if so, it has long since ceased to be used for any such purpose. Here the Czar sometimes stands in the midst of myriads of his subjects. Here the Patriarch blesses the people. Here the Patriarch has mounted an ass and the Emperor of all the Russias has led the beast by the bridle to the Cathedral of the Assumption. But the church has no such supremacy over the state now, as such a ceremony would imply. The Czar is a devout member as well as head of the Greek Church, and the Patriarch is his friend and coadjutor. The progress of the truth on the great question of religious liberty has made itself felt here as well as in western nations, and with all the ignorance and despotism and superstition, and the semi-civilization of this people, the government does not obstruct the spread of the Holy Scriptures, nor interfere with liberty of worship in any part of the mighty empire.

One of the priests of this church very kindly led us into the sacristy of the former patriarchs and now of the Holy Synod, where he would show us the treasury, the library, and the vestry of the ancient metropolitans of Russia and the patriarchs of Moscow. It was the same old story which had been told us over and over again in the cathedrals of the Romish Church, ad nauseam; and unless we had been advertised of the fact, we would not have supposed that we had taken a departure from Italy or Spain.

A reliquary containing a part of the purple robe which the Saviour of sinners was clad with in mockery of his kingship, and a bit of the rock of Calvary, are among the most precious relics which this rich collection boasts; yet they are not more admired by the faithful than the robes which were worn by the metropolitans five hundred years ago, and are now exhibited; a sakkos of crimson velvet, covered with great pearls, rubies, emeralds, almandines, garnets, and diamonds, making it weigh more than fifty pounds. And it is said that the Czar John the Terrible presented this priceless robe to the church as an expiatory offering after he had caused his own son to be murdered. The crimson garment, price of blood or not, is cherished with religious care as one of the most valuable things in the treasury of the Holy Synod.

But it is more wearisome to read of, than it is to see and note the robes and mitres and images worn by the bishops, figures of the Virgin and infant Saviour and St. John, cut in precious stones, the crucifixion scene done on an onyx stone, and others in gold and silver. Yet all these yield in value and religious interest to a few pots and kettles which are used in this chamber, and were now presented to what were presumed to be our admiring eyes. It may be that our instantaneous conversion to the Greek faith was anticipated as the effect of the sight. We stood it unmoved, and will venture to describe the things seen with no expectation that the perusal will make a convert of you.

Here is prepared the Holy Oil, or Mir, with which every orthodox Russian subject is baptized. The same mixture is used to consecrate every emperor who comes regularly to the throne, and to sanctify every church in the empire that is to be used for worship by the orthodox Greek communion. Now, if all the oil to be used for all these purposes, in an empire of sixty millions of people and by the adherents of the same church in other countries, is to be prepared in this room and by the priests here employed, it is plain they must have their hands and kettles full pretty much all the time.

The ceremony of oiling a child in the Greek Church, at its baptism, is performed by the priest taking a little brush or feather, dipped in the holy chrism, and touching with it the mouth, eyes, ears, hands and feet, back and breast; the eyes are thus anointed that the child may see only what is good, the ears to prevent him hearing the evil that is in the world, the lips that they may speak the truth, the hands and feet that they may be always found in the right way. Whence this oil that has such wondrous properties? When Christianity was first introduced into Russia, Constantinople furnished an infinitely little portion of holy oil that was then in use in the church for these sacred purposes; and this portion being used by the priests in preparing a large quantity, and some of that being used in preparing more, and thus from time to time each new supply being composed in part of what was prepared before, it comes to pass, on the strictly philosophical principle of the infinite divisibility of matter, some of the same unguent that came from Constantinople many centuries agone, is now used in anointing the eyes, ears, and mouth of every child that is baptized in Russia. If you do not believe it, it still comes to the same thing, and I do not see that it makes any difference.

The holy chrism is made by the clergy during Lent, with great care and solemnity; about thirty different ingredients being used, gums, balsams, and spices. These are put into two large silver kettles and a huge caldron, scrupulously clean; and when the mixture is thoroughly made it is poured out into sixteen silver jars, which are distributed among the several bishops of the empire. The silver utensils used in this work, and all of which are exhibited as the most sacred treasures of the church, are said to weigh thirteen hundred pounds. And with them is a vessel of copper with mother-of-pearl coating, that contained the original oil as it came from Constantinople; and each year a few drops are taken out of it, and as many of the new mixture returned, so that the supply is always kept good, and the faithful of the church believe that this is the true succession of the oil with which Mary anointed the feet of her Saviour.

CHAPTER XXIX.
PALACE AND INSTITUTIONS OF MOSCOW.

IF you are weary reading of royal palaces, you will be sorry to be invited to the one more gorgeously adorned and illustrated than any other which you and I have entered in company. You have often heard of, and perhaps have seen, some specimens of barbaric splendor! You have associated with the word barbaric, ideas of Oriental and excessive magnificence, laid on without the more refined and chastened taste of modern civilization. It is a word the old Romans used to define foreign people, and whatever came to Rome from foreign parts: all the world was barbarous or Roman. We do not use the word in the same sense as barbarous. But with it, in connection with gold and pearls and decorations of the palace, we associate a wealth of luxury and brilliancy of ornamentation, that would suit the meridian of Persia rather than of Paris.

Not having seen the palaces of the interior of Asia, I cannot draw a comparison between them and the royal residences of European monarchs. But we are now on the border between the East and the West, between Asia and Europe, between barbarism in its best estate and civilization. Take a map of the world and see where Moscow stands! What vast, uncultured, desolate regions lie at the east of it, and still further on, what empires and peoples that make up the bulk of the human race! Out of the barbarism of that eastern portion of the earth’s plane, Russia is emerging, and Moscow is her frontier town; a wall and a monument: a sign and guide, signifying what Russia has been, and leading on to something higher and better, though the future is still in the depths of political and moral uncertainties.