The descent of the Holy Spirit to the apostles. Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles

In the traditions of the Orthodox Church there are many holidays. The Trinity is one of the most important holidays after Easter and Christmas.

The essence of the feast of the Holy Trinity

On the day of the Holy Trinity, the church recalls a grand biblical event - the descent of the Holy Spirit to the apostles. This event laid the foundation of the Church of Christ. On this day throughout the world, the Christian faith is being asserted, which encourages its spiritual children to strengthen and renew the gifts of the Holy Spirit received from the Sacrament of Baptism. The mysterious Grace of God renews and transforms the inner spiritual world of every believing person, gives him all the purest, most precious and sublime. On the feast of the Holy Trinity, Orthodox Christians rejoice and celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit to the apostles and the birth of the Church. Also on this day, another hypostasis of God was revealed. In the Old Testament times, people knew only about God, with the birth of Christ they saw His Only Begotten Son, and on the day of Pentecost, people could learn about the Third Face of the Most Holy Trinity - the Holy Spirit.

Waiting for the Holy Spirit

The descent of the Holy Spirit into the apostles on the day of Pentecost, as a grand turning point in world history, was narrated by the Evangelist Luke in the first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. This event was not a surprise to the audience - God predicted it through the mouth of the prophets, Jesus Christ explained the necessity of His crucifixion and consoled the sorrowful apostles, telling them about the coming of the Holy Spirit to complete the salvation of people. Looking forward to the coming of the Holy Ghost? The Virgin Mary, the disciples of Christ, the myrrh-bearer and even more than 100 people were in Jerusalem in the Zion chamber, where the Last Supper with the Lord had been held before. All those who were waiting expected the promises of the Father promised by Jesus, although they did not know how and when it would happen. After the event, when Jesus ascended to heaven, the tenth day came. Jews celebrated on this day the feast of the Old Testament Pentecost - the deliverance of Jews from slavery in Egypt and the beginning of life in union with God. The descent of the Holy Spirit to the apostles happened on this day not by chance: it liberated believers in Jesus Christ from the devil's power and was the basis for a new union with God in His Kingdom. It has replaced strict Old Testament written laws with the guidance of God in the spirit of love and freedom.

The Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles

At nine o'clock in the morning people who arrived in Jerusalem for the celebration of Pentecost gathered in temples for prayer and sacrifice. The descent of the Holy Spirit to the apostles happened suddenly: first, the noise from the stormy wind arose over the Zion room. The house with the holy apostles was filled with this noise, over their heads there appeared many bright but not burning tongues of flame. Even more unusual were their spiritual properties: everyone, to whom they fell, felt an extraordinary burst of spiritual strength, inspiration and joy. Feeling themselves pacified, full of strength and love for God, the apostles began to express their joy with loud exclamations and thanksgiving of God, discovering that they speak not only Jewish, but also other, previously unknown languages. Thus the descent of the Holy Spirit occurred to the apostles, who christened them with fire, as prophet John the Baptist predicted .

The first sermon of Peter

The noise from the apostolic house attracted a lot of people to him. The apostles with the prayers and glorifications of God came to the roof of this house. Hearing these joyful prayers and singing, people were amazed that the disciples of Christ, mostly simple, uneducated people, speak different languages. And each of those who came to celebrate in Jerusalem from different countries heard the native speech and understood what the apostles were saying. In addition to internal grace-filled spiritual changes, the apostles were able to spread the gospel to different peoples in different languages without studying them.
Seeing the bewilderment gathered around the house, the apostle Peter stepped forward and delivered his first brief sermon, in which he told that the ancient prediction of the miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit had come true and that it was in him the salvation of people that Jesus Christ suffered for this. The sermon was simple, but spoken through the mouth of men by the Holy Spirit. These words penetrated the hearts of people who listened to them, and they immediately publicly repented of their sins and accepted baptism. The church for one day increased from 120 people to three thousand. Thus, the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit to the apostles became the beginning of the existence of the Church of Christ - a blessed society of believing people who want to save their souls. According to the promise of the Lord, the Church will not be defeated by the enemies of faith until the very end of the world.

The service of Pentecost

On the feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, one of the most colorful and beautiful services in the year is performed in the temples. Temples are decorated with summer greens - parishioners come with wildflowers, branches of birch. The floors of the temples are often sprinkled with freshly mown grass, the ineffable aroma of which, mixed with the smell of incense, creates the atmosphere of an extraordinary holiday. The colors of the servants' attire are matched to the decoration of the temple - also of green colors.
After the Liturgy, a great evening is often held in the temples. Despite the fact that the supper is usually served in the evening, on this day, because many believers can not attend it, an exception is made. The chants of the evening celebrate the Holy Spirit. While the service is going on, the priest reads three special prayers: the Church, the salvation of all the prayers, the repose of the souls of all the departed, even those who are in hell. All parishioners are kneeling at this time. With such a kneeling prayer, the fifty-day period ends after Easter, during which earthly and kneeling bows were not performed.

The Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. Iconography of the holiday

The composition and type of iconography of Pentecost is one of the examples of changes in the artistic form of the icon under the influence of Christian theology over the centuries. The division of the celebration of the Ascension and Pentecost began in the IV century. Until this time, the celebration was in one day, which affected the icons of the Ascension-Pentecost. After the fifteenth century, the celebration was divided, respectively, when the need for a separate display of Pentecost appeared, the artists divided the icon into the upper part - "Ascension" - and the lower part - "Pentecost". At the same time, the icon of the Virgin remained on the icon of Pentecost, which was illogical. Therefore, in the East, the icon was not displayed on the icons, and Western artists continued to paint Her in the center of the icon of Pentecost. In the XVII century, Russian masters began to rely on Western models and again began to put the Virgin on the icons of the descent of the Holy Spirit.
Between the apostles, instead of the Theotokos, Ethymes is sometimes depicted - the throne of promise, symbolizing God the Father, with the revealed gospel on it - the symbol of God the Son, and above them a floating dove - the symbol of the Holy Spirit. All together it means the symbol of the Trinity.
This "half-hearted" decision suited not all artists, the search for the best form continued. The descent of the Holy Spirit had no analogues in history. To create a new iconographic composition, the scheme "Christ the Master among the Apostles" was taken as a basis. On this icon Christ is located in the center, on the sides are the apostles. In the free space of the "arc" is a table, a basket with scrolls. After some changes metamorphoses led to the version of the icon, the kind of which we know now.

Icon of Pentecost

The earliest of the surviving images of the Descent of the Holy Spirit refers to us in 586 AD. This miniature of the Russian Gospel was created by the monk Rabula from Syria. Also, the icon is present in the Psalms and facial Gospels, in ancient manuscripts, in the frescoes of many of the ancient temples of Mount Athos, Kiev, Novgorod and other churches. In the Sinai icons of the seventh and ninth centuries, the apostles are depicted in a sitting position, and they receive the Holy Spirit in the form of rays of flame from the Savior who blesses them from heaven.
The icon "The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles", the photo of which is presented above, traditionally depicts the apostles in the Zion room with fiery tongues above their heads. Seated in a semicircle of the 12 disciples of Christ (instead of Judas Iscariot the apostle Matthew is depicted , who was chosen to replace him), they hold books and scrolls in their hands - symbols of church teaching. Their fingers are folded into gestures of blessing. Among the disciples of Christ who are present, the icon depicts the apostle Paul, who was not in Zion's room that day. This shows that the Holy Spirit fell not only on those who were in the Zion chamber, but on the whole Church, consisting at that time of the twelve apostles. Present on the icon between Paul and Peter, the empty space shows the presence of the Holy Spirit at the head of the Church. From the XVII - XVII centuries on the icon affirms the image of the Mother of God. Although it is not mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles at this event, Luke writes that after the Ascension of Jesus Christ all the apostles remained in prayer with their wives and the Mother of God. During one such meeting, the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles. Iconography has established a place for the Mother of God, surrounded by apostles in the center of the icon.

Temples dedicated to the Holy Trinity

Although in the Creed, the relationship of the Holy Trinity was finally formulated in the IV century, the first temples in the name of the Holy Trinity in the Christian world appeared not earlier than the XII century. In Russia, the first temple of the Descent of the Holy Spirit to the apostles was built in 1335 by a modest monk Sergius in the middle of the deaf Radonezhsky Bohr. It became the basis of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, one of the largest centers of spiritual life in Russia. Initially, a small temple was built of wood in the name of the Holy Trinity and several small cells. After the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the apostles and the territory around it became part of the monastery, and eventually the spiritual center of Moscow and a number of the lands that were located. Now on the site of that temple from 1423, towers a beautiful cruciform-domed cross-domed white stone Trinity Cathedral, around which the architectural ensemble of the Lavra was formed over many centuries.