TEN SAINTS OF RUSSIA

Press, Volume C, Issue 29513, 13 May 1961, Page 3

TEN SAINTS OF RUSSIA

Saints of Russia. By Constantin de Grunwald. Hutchinson. 173 pp. Index.

The phrase which gives this work its title has an old-fashioned sound now-a days. It belongs, no doubt, with "Holy Russia,” two words that sound equally strange and obsolete. Nevertheless, for generations, “Holy Russia" was a most appropriate term for a country that could claim “to form a bastion of Christendom against the paganism of Asia, and to serve revealed religion with a fervour rarely reached elsewhere." There are about 385 canonised Russia saints and from this dumber Mr de Grunwald has chosen ten to describe and to discuss in his book. All of them were born before the year 1800. In a short epilogue the author has something to say concerning a nineteenth century figure of unique interest to readers of Dostoievsky. This is the Blessed Ambrose who. together with saint Tikhon, served as a model for Zosimus, . the outstanding figure in the- first part of “The Brothers Karamazov.” Ambrose also influenced Count Tolstoy, and it is a pity the author does not give more information about him. Constantin de Grunwald is fairly well-known in England as a historian and biographer, and these pursuits of his perhaps account for the fact that the saints he writes about in the present volume all seem to have played ■ a part in shaping Russian history. Saint Vladimir, for .instance, with whom this chronicle begins, and rightly so in that he christianised Russia, belonged to the famous race that claimed descent from the legendary Rurick, Prince of Novgorod. Vladimir himself was the warrior prince of Kiev -who was converted from heathenism, about the year 989 A.D. His charity knew no bounds. “He ordered all the poor and sick to come to his palace for food, drink and money. For those who were unable to come he loaded carts with bread, meat, fish and honey and had them taken to the sick and needy.” The monastic movement in Russia was furthered by Saint Theodosius, who was living at the time of the Norman conquest of Englands “In this man ancient Russia saw her ideal of religious life, and his cultus is now recognised by the Roman church." Another figure who stands out against one of the most sombre periods of Russian history is Saint Alexander Neosky, who like Vladimir was a member of a princely house. In him the claims of Christianity and patriotism were interwined and he lent to the authority of the Church the aid of the secular arm. He fought off enemies of many races during his sixteen years as ruler of Novgorod. These ineluded the Mongols, the Swedes, the Teutonic Knights and the Lithuanians. Even the Soviet rulers acknowledge him as one of the greatest of Russian heroes. Another saint whose name is not unfamiliar in the West is Saint Sergius who lived in the fourteenth century, and whose career resembles in some ways that of Saint Francis of Assisi. The monasteries founded as the result

of the teaching and example of Sergius could be counted by the dozen, and although centuries have passed, devout pilgrims in their tens of thousands have never ceased to flock to his tomb. Mr de Grunwald quotes from the Journal of the Patriots of Moscow 1946, “Here prayers rise up the whole day long. Here men remain for whole days kneeling before the shrine of the saint. Here is a woman in clogs, a haversack on her back, who has come from afar, a man with a grey moustache, a felt hat in his hand, a smartly dressed girl who has come to make her communion. Truly the glory of Saint Sergius of Radonezh is continually increasing throughout Russia.”

It will be clear to readers of “Saints of Russia” that the book, although seemly in tone, is not a work of credulous hagiography. The author speaks with authority, and the subjects he has chosen all influenced the secular as well as the spiritual life of their great country. Mr de Grunwald has written a volume of considerable distinction.