God, in Christ, has appeared to us in an unprecedented and incomprehensible way. The pagan peoples could imagine a great God, a heavenly God, as if embodying everything great, majestic, wondrous that a person can dream of on earth. But only God could reveal himself to man, as He revealed Himself in the Nativity of Christ: God became one of us. But not in glory, but in weakness; helpless and destitute; vulnerable and as if defeated; contemptible for all who believe only in strength and in earthly greatness. On this first night, when God became a man, when the Most Living God dwelt in the flesh among us on earth, He shared in the most severe human deprivation. No one took His Mother under their roof; everyone considered Him a stranger, everyone sent Him on a distant, endless path, which stretched out before the pilgrims without shelter and without greetings. And they went - and on that first night Christ shared with all those who from century to century go through life both bodily and spiritually rejected, despicable, unwanted, excluded from human society. And there are a myriad of such people in the history of mankind. Loneliness - a terrible, burning, murderous loneliness that gnaws at the hearts of so many people, was the fate of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Joseph the Betrothed and the newly born Christ. He was a stranger, not desired by anyone, excluded and thrown out. This is the beginning of His way; and on this path He became part, as I said, of all who live like this in our time, a stranger among people who should be brothers to them; they are contemptible, defeated - by meanness, cowardice and human malice. They are vulnerable because of their fragility, because of their defenselessness. Our task, Christians, is to see in them the image of the God whom we reverently revere today, and to accept such as we would now accept Christ if He appeared before us destitute, vulnerable, helpless, contemptible, hated, persecuted.
This is how God appeared before us, because He wanted to become one of us, so that not a single person on earth would be ashamed of his God: as if God is so great, so far away that there is no access to Him. He became one of us in our humiliation and in our deprivation; and He was not ashamed of us, “became like us all”, not only because of material, earthly, physical deprivation, not only because of spiritual abandonment by human love, but because He became related - through His love, through His understanding, through His forgiveness and mercy, - He also became related to those whom others repelled from themselves, because they were sinners. He did not come to the righteous, He came to love and seek sinners. He came so that not a single person who has lost respect for himself could think that God has lost respect for him, that God no longer sees in him someone worthy of His love. Christ became Man so that all of us, all without a trace, including those who have lost all faith in themselves, know that God believes in us, believes in us in our fall, believes in us when we have lost faith in each other and in himself, he believes in such a way that he is not afraid to become one of us. God believes in us, God stands guard over our human dignity. God is the guardian of our honor, and in order for us to believe it, to see it with our own eyes, our God becomes a destitute, helpless Man. Only those who believe in power and nothing else, only those who believe in their righteousness, will not find the way to Him until they repent, until they see that humility, love, pity, mercy are the law of life.
But in Christ, not only God appeared to us with His love, faith in us, as the guardian of our dignity, as the guardian of our truth - He showed us the greatness of man. If God could essentially become Man, do we not understand how great man is? Do we really not understand that man is so great that God can become Man and man remains himself? And why is the creature that God called into existence so great that a person can contain God in himself? And that substance, our flesh, our blood, our bone, all our substance is capable of being God-bearing, uniting with the Divine and remaining itself? And appear to us in glory, greatness, which we do not see, but which God sees, for the sake of which He created us and created everything?
Let us look at this image of the Incarnation: Christ showed us the humility and love of God, the faith of God in all creation, in us sinners, fallen ones, and showed us at the same time how great we can be and how deep, bottomlessly deep is the creation of the Lord. It is with this faith that we can live, we can become people to the full extent of Christ's incarnation, and consider the world in which we live, not only as dead material, but as something that is called upon to become in the end, as it were, a visible garment of the Divine, when God will become everything in everything.
What glory, what joy and hope! Let us sing with reverence, love and awe the Nativity of Christ; it is for us eternal life already on earth, and it is the glory of all created things in eternity in heaven. Amen!
Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh. Nativity. 1970
The Nativity of Christ, the day when the Savior appeared in our world, is a great event for every Christian. The church service of the holiday and numerous icons of the Nativity of Christ, which have repeatedly become the subject of attention of researchers, theologians and art historians, are filled with a feeling of joy and exultation, and the topic for art exhibitions.
The iconography of the Nativity of Christ developed gradually, as did the divine service of the holiday, however, its main features were already outlined in the early Christian period. The main sources of iconography were the Gospel and church tradition, including the apocryphal protoevangelium of James.
Remarkable is the image of the Nativity on the famous throne of Maximian, the former archbishop of Ravenna in the middle of the 6th century. The throne is decorated with a large number of carved ivory plates. On one of them, the Child lies on a couch made of stone blocks, next to him is an ox, a donkey and Joseph the Betrothed, at the top is the Star of Bethlehem. In front of the bed, the Mother of God is reclining, to whom the woman addresses, showing her right hand. The plot goes back to the 20th chapter of the Proto-Gospel of James, which tells of Salome, who doubted the purity of the Mother of God. After that, the hand with which she touched the Blessed Virgin withered away. Salome received healing from touching the Savior.
The rectangular stone bed on which the Child lies in the scene on the throne of Maximian, as well as on the reliquary of the Sanctuary Sanctorium (Vatican) and the miniature from the Gospel of Rabula, according to the well-known researcher of Byzantine art K. Weizmann, is an altar with a niche in the center for storage relics. The image of Christ on the altar is connected with the theme of the Eucharist and can be interpreted as a prototype of the iconographic scheme melismos, which became widespread in Byzantine art, in which the Infant is depicted on the throne as a Eucharistic sacrifice.
On one of the ampoules (VI-VII centuries), which served the pilgrims to carry St. water or oil, and now known as the ampoules of Monza, the Nativity of Christ is represented in the center, among other feasts. This monument reflects important features of Byzantine iconography in comparison with the early Christian one - the canopy is no longer depicted, the exit from the cave is visible in the background, the star is located in the center at the top. Joseph sits at the manger in a thoughtful pose, the Mother of God lies. From now on, She will always be depicted with a halo.In general, the iconography of the Nativity of Christ took shape by the 7th century. After the Iconoclasm period, the subject would often be depicted in iconography, miniature, and decorative arts based on a common outline. The permanent elements of the composition will be the cave and the Star of Bethlehem, which led the Magi to Christ.
The first to mention the birth of the Savior in the cave was St. Justin Martyr, and in the time of Origen they already showed the cave in which the Savior was born. After the end of the persecution of Christians, Emperor Constantine the Great built a temple over this cave, about which the ancient historian Eusebius wrote. Thus, in the Eastern Christian tradition, the idea of the Nativity of the Lord in a cave was firmly entrenched, which influenced the images. In a symbolic interpretation, the mountain, in which the cave of the Nativity was located, began to correlate with the Mother of God herself, and the cave - with her womb, the receptacle of the Uncontainable God. According to another interpretation, the cave is understood as a dark place, meaning a fallen world, in which the Sun of truth, Jesus Christ, shone. As for the Star of Bethlehem, according to the explanation of the holy fathers, it was the embodiment of angelic power. Perhaps that is why on some late Russian icons and frescoes (for example, on a fresco of 1680 from the Church of Elijah the Prophet in Yaroslavl), the Nativity scene is crowned by the figure of a flying angel with a star in his hands. However, in the earliest monuments, primarily Byzantine, a star is depicted above the manger, and a sheaf of light descends on the Infant, as, for example, on the mosaic of the Palatine Chapel in Palermo of the 12th century.The main composition of the Nativity (the image of the swaddled Baby in a manger in a cave, animals at the manger, the reclining Mother of God and seated Joseph) in various monuments will be complemented by the image of angels praising the Lord, the scene of the Annunciation to the shepherds, scenes of the journey and worship of the Magi and the Bathing of the Infant.
The image of angels in the upper part of the icons of the Nativity of Christ has become widespread since the 8th-9th centuries, and in subsequent centuries their number has steadily increased - if at first two or three figures were depicted, then in later Russian monuments we already see a whole heavenly army glorifying the Lord. The number of shepherds who came to bow to the Child also varies. It is interesting to note the figure of a shepherdess dating from the 11th century, rejoicing at the event and playing the horn. This detail directly correlates with the Nativity service at Vespers: “I was born to the Lord Jesus from the Holy Virgin, all kinds of things were enlightened: a shepherd who sang (that is, playing the flute), and a sorcerer bowing, an angel singing, Herod was restless, as if God had appeared in the flesh ... "If the Gospel tells about angels, shepherds and sorcerers (Matthew 2, 1-12; Luke 2, 6-20), then the written source, which the artists relied on when creating the scene of the Bathing of the Infant Christ, has not been established. It is only known for certain that for the first time this detail of the iconography of the Nativity, which later became permanent, is found in the Christian art of the Western world and is present in the oratorio of Pope John VII in Rome (the turn of the 7th-8th centuries). The first examples of the image of Ablution in the art of Byzantium are book miniatures of the 8th-9th centuries, for example, the Armenian manuscript of San Lazaro in Venice and the Khlud Psalter.
Very rarely in the icons of the Nativity of Christ there is an image of St. the prophet Isaiah, who predicted the birth of the Savior from the Virgin. So, in the manuscript of the XI century, originating from the monastery of Esfigmen on Athos, in an illustration to the text of the Word of St. John of Damascus at Christmas, one of the miniatures next to the manger of the Savior presents the prophet Isaiah. And on the icon of the Nativity of Christ by the Stroganov master Mikhail of the late 16th century from the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the prophet is depicted at the head of the Mother of God. In his hands he holds a scroll with the text of the prophecy: “Behold, the Virgin will conceive in the womb, and give birth to a Son ...” (Is. 7, 14)
Among the characters encountered in the Nativity scene, researchers are perplexed by the mysterious figure of an old man in skins talking with Joseph. N.V. Pokrovsky believed that this was one of the shepherds who came to bow to Christ. There is also an opinion that this is the son of Joseph, Jacob, who, according to legend, accompanied the holy family on the road to Bethlehem. However, he could not be depicted as an old man, since he was a young man and in other monuments is presented without a beard. According to another version, shared by E. Lukovnikova, the devil is depicted in the image of an old man in skins, tempting Joseph about the virginity of the Mother of God. Most often, the elder leans on a stick or staff, sometimes on it in a headdress in the form of a hat. In very rare cases, he does not talk with Joseph, but with the Mother of God herself, as, for example, on the tablet icon from the Sergiev Posad Museum-Reserve. |
In Russia, images of Christmas were extremely popular. Of course, Russian icon painters followed the Byzantine iconographic scheme, but supplemented it with various details and details. Already in the 11th-12th centuries, the Christmas cycle almost always appeared in an expanded version, which included, for example, not only the adoration of the Magi, but also their journey with the star. Thus, equestrian images of Eastern sages are present in the monumental painting of the Cathedral of the Antoniev Monastery in Novgorod, the Cathedral of the Mirozhsky Monastery in Pskov, the Borisoglebskaya Church in Kideksha and the St. Cyril Church in Kyiv (all from the 12th century), while in Greek mosaics and frescoes of this time examples are rare.
In connection with the review of monumental ensembles, it should be noted that in Byzantine and Russian painting, the plot we are considering was given a special place. Most often, the Nativity of Christ was depicted in tandem with the Assumption of the Mother of God - the plots were opposite each other, for example, on the southern and northern walls. This symbolic opposition of birth in the flesh and a new birth after death for life in heaven was emphasized by similar iconographic motifs. In Nativity, the Savior lies in swaddling clothes in a manger, and in the Assumption, Christ holds in his hands the soul of the Mother of God, represented as a swaddled baby. Just as the Lord entrusted Himself to the Blessed Virgin at Christmas, the Mother of God entrusted her soul to Christ in the Dormition. The visual comparison of these stories in the temple space is significant because they illustrate the beginning and end of the history of salvation - from the Incarnation to the ascension of the incorruptible flesh of the Virgin. Examples of such a solution to the church painting program exist in various regions of the former Byzantine world - in Cyprus, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Russia.
Icons depicting the Cathedral of Our Lady were especially popular in Russia. This holiday is celebrated on the day after the Nativity of Christ, and in terms of the meaning and nature of the service is closely connected with it. On December 26 (according to the new style - January 8), Christians honor the Blessed Virgin as the Mother of the Son of God, who served the mystery of the Incarnation.
The iconography of the Cathedral of Our Lady developed gradually, on the basis of the actual iconography of the Nativity, with changes under the influence of the text of the Nativity stichera: “What do we bring Thee, Christ, as if Thou hast appeared on earth, as a man for us: each former creature from You brings thanks: angels singing, the heavens are a star, the wolves are gifts, the shepherd's wonder, the earth is a den, the desert is a manger, we, the Mother of the Virgin ... ".
The center of the composition is the image of the Mother of God on the throne with the Child on her knees, behind the throne the manger of the Savior can be depicted. The Magi and shepherds worship the Mother of God, in the lower part the human race and the personifications of the Earth and the Desert are depicted in the form of women, one of whom, according to the text of the stichera, brings a den, a cave, and the other a manger. In the crowd of people praising the Mother of God, hymnographers usually stood out, the authors of the Nativity service - Sts. John of Damascus and Cosmas of Mayum, as well as other saints, kings and queens. The Balkan frescoes depicted historical characters, contemporaries of the artist.
The earliest illustration of the Nativity stichera in Russia is an icon created in Pskov at the beginning of the 15th century, and now kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery. Particular attention is drawn to the color of the icon, and three figures in white robes standing out against its background. It can be assumed that the Magi are represented here, who worshiped the Infant, and later, according to legend, received holy baptism. White robes thus symbolize their cleansing from original sin.Other examples of the iconography of the “Cathedral of Our Lady” in Russia are the fresco of the Pokhvalsky chapel of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, the icon “What We Bring Thee” from the collection of P.D. Korina. In the 16th century, the composition of the plot was complicated by the introduction of numerous additional characters, especially a large number of saints coming to the Infant and His Mother.
We have considered only some examples of the iconography of the Nativity of Christ show how reverently the icon painters treated these images, how important it was for them not only to present the gospel scene “historically”, in accordance with church tradition, but also to fill it with a deep symbolic content inherent in the icon. Comprehending the numerous details of iconography and understanding their meaning is important for understanding the depicted event, which is the beginning of our salvation.
| January 08, 2014 |
Author Vera Vsevolodovna Donets- art critic, lecturer, author of a number of monographs and articles on the history of Russian fine arts. Her lectures at the Tretyakov Gallery are invariably very popular.
A manger (feeder for cattle) with a swaddled Baby is shown in the cave, and the radiant whiteness of the swaddling clothes of the newborn is clearly opposed to the darkness of the cave and the space of the manger itself, which clearly resembles a tomb.
Again and again the icon reveals the thought of what great joy of triumph over death brings to the world the Nativity of Christ, His coming Redemptive Sacrifice. In addition, the darkness of the cave symbolizes the perishable world, in which the Sun of Truth shone - the Savior who came to earth.
An ox and a donkey, symbols of the Jewish and pagan peoples, to whom Christ brought salvation equally, look into the manger with the reclining Baby. The images of these animals correlate with the prophecy of Isaiah: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey knows its master's manger; but Israel does not know [Me], my people do not understand” (Isaiah 1:3). The ox and the donkey are not only listening to the preaching of Christ, but also touchingly show the service of every creature to its Creator - bending over the Infant, the animals warm Him with their breath.
Above the hills, on the left side, the Magi are shown riding horses (or, sometimes, on foot) - the first pagans who bowed to Christ. As a rule, they are led by an angel, pointing to the guiding star of Bethlehem, and the eyes and joyfully thrown up hands of the Magi are fixed on it. Its rays overshadow the Christ Child, reclining in a cave, as if pointing to the One Whom both people and angels rush to bow to. Sometimes, on the right, the Magi were once again shown, departing after worshiping Christ in "their own lands." But, as a rule, in the center and on the top right on the icons of the Nativity they wrote angels glorifying Christ, carrying the news of His Birth to the human race (depicted in the face of shepherds). As an image of jubilant humanity, appeared a little lower, on the right, the figure of a young beardless shepherd, blowing a horn and as if proclaiming: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and goodwill towards men” (Luke 2:14). Tradition has preserved the names of some shepherds (their number was different in different versions of the composition, from one to several) - Misail, Acheel, Kiriak and Stefan. The names of the three Magi (soothsayers, scribes, kings) are also known, who brought to the Infant Christ a gift of gold (a symbol of kingship), incense (a symbol of Divine grace and holiness) and myrrh (a fragrance for anointing the bodies of the dead, a reminder of the impending Sacrificial death). The Magi represented three ages, and according to some interpretations, three earthly races, in unity glorifying the Lord: the icons depicted the wise old man Caspar, the mature husband Baltazar and the young man Melchior.
In the lower part of the short icon-painting version of the Nativity of Christ, Joseph the Betrothed was depicted immersed in thought and, to the right, the scene of the washing of the Infant by two maids. A certain elder, called a shepherd (shepherd), stands in front of Joseph and talks with him: “the shepherd is gray-haired and bald [bald],” says the old guide for icon painters, “a robe of goat hair, a crutch in his hand, and extended the other to Joseph.”
There are several versions that interpret this rather strange figure: in the elder they see one of the shepherds, then the prophet Isaiah, who predicted the birth of the Savior, then an evil spirit tempting Joseph with doubts about the virginity of the Virgin Mary (and the crooked staff in this case symbolizes false conjectures).
On some icons, the name of the elder is indicated - Anen, which is similar to the Latin "anonymous" and means "someone" or "no one". The scene of the bathing of the Infant very expressively complements the conversation of the elder with Joseph - the image of the font, the proclamation of the future Baptism, becomes a sign of victory over sin, the purification of human souls from all doubts and filth. Sometimes the figures of servants bathing the Christ Child were placed in the center, between the elder and Joseph, and this decisive intrusion of the image of spiritual purity seemed to break the fetters of the tempting conversation (or, in a different reading of the figure of the shepherd, filled the conversation with a completely different, bright content).
A DETAILED EXECUTION OF THE ICON OF THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST
The detailed version of the icon of the Nativity of Christ, in addition to the scenes already listed, also showed other plots related to the Christmas story. Complicated multi-figure compositions consisted of many plots, united into a single whole in the space of the icon, but read completely independently.
There could be scenes of veneration of the Magi and their offering of gifts, their dream, in which an angel appeared to them and ordered them to leave Bethlehem by another way, without returning to King Herod. Joseph's dream was also often depicted, in which an angel informed him of Herod's intention to beat the babies in Bethlehem and ordered him to hide with the Infant Christ and His Mother in Egypt. On the right side, the icons usually showed the Flight into Egypt. In the lower part of the composition, tragic scenes of the beating of infants and the righteous by King Herod were presented, sometimes on the left they depicted the king discussing his sinister plan with scribe-advisers under the shadow of the palace chambers. On the right, they also depicted a canopy - there, in the temple, the scene of the murder of the priest Zechariah, the father of the prophet John the Baptist, unfolded. John was older than Christ by half a year and also had to be killed on the orders of Herod, who ordered the destruction of all babies under two years old. John's mother, righteous Elizabeth, managed to escape with her son into the desert, and on the icons of the Nativity they often show how she is saved in a cave, pursued by a warrior. Next to the image of Elizabeth, they usually wrote the so-called Lamentations of the Wives of Jerusalem, reminiscent of the prophecy of Jeremiah: “Weeping and sobbing and a great cry, Rachel weeps for her children and does not want to be comforted, for they are not” (Matthew 2: 17-18).
Nativity of Christ with Saints Diy and Evdokia in the margins. Goose. End of the 19th century Wood, gesso, tempera. 165x125 cm. // The icon belongs to the expanded iconography of the Nativity of Christ, which includes many episodes before and after this event. Up-the scene of the Nativity, interpreted rather as the Adoration of the Child. In front of the cave, the Mother of God is depicted, on a couch turned vertically. In the middle register, the appearance of an angel to the sleeping Joseph and the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. Lower part of the icon-Massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem. On the side margins - the saints, turned in prayer to the Mother of God and the infant Christ from the main scene of the Nativity, on the left-Reverend Diy, on the right-Reverend Evdokia. Expanded iconography of the Nativity of Christ, similar to that shown in this icon, has been popular in Russian art since the 16th century. The depiction of the Nativity of Christ as the Adoration of the Christ Child in Russian icon painting has been spreading since the middle of the 17th century. influenced by Western European iconography. V.M. Forty. ()
With all the festive, melodious brightness of the expanded Christmas compositions, the main theme of such icons was sacrifice - the God-man and the righteous man, but innocent victims lead to salvation, to heavenly joy, and the radiant space of the icons of the Nativity of Christ breathes with it.
Nativity. 17th century Nizhny Novgorod. Wood, gesso, tempera. 91.5x59.5 cm // The iconography belongs to the expanded version of the Nativity of Christ, which includes numerous scenes accompanied by black inscriptions. The story of the journey of the Magi consists of several scenes. In the scene of the washing of the baby Christ, the name of the nanny is signed: "Solomonia". A rare detail is the inscription "annin"-the name of the shepherd standing before Joseph. This name corresponds to the idea that this shepherd is the same scribe Anen who discovered that Mary was pregnant and informed the high priests about it. Below is a scene of the appearance of an angel to the sleeping Joseph, who warned him of the danger threatening the baby. to the right-scene of the flight of the holy family to Egypt, with water in the foreground, apparently depicting the Nile. At the bottom left is King Herod in the rich chambers, in front of him are the "nobles". In the lower right corner is the scene of the murder of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, in the altar of the temple. Higher-weeping Rachel and a swaddled baby lying under a tree. Above the scene of the beating of babies, two "wives" sitting in a ward with swaddled babies wipe their tears with handkerchiefs. Such detailed depictions of the Nativity became particularly widespread in the second half of the 17th century. Many icons of the Nativity of this iconography and this time are connected by their origin with the Volga region, in particular, with Yaroslavl and Kostroma. The composition of the icon is well balanced. Landscape plays an important role in it, in which separate scenes and groups of characters are rhythmically placed. The zigzag strokes representing the breezes form an ornamental filling of the space around them. The armor of the warriors, parts of the robes of the Magi and Herod, mangers, vessels, wings of angels and the roofs of buildings are executed on a silver substrate with black shading, reminiscent of engraving. The style of the icon makes it possible to date it to the second half of the century. It originated in a somewhat conservative environment. The colors of the icon, their consistency and color composition as a whole are reminiscent of the icon painting of Nizhny Novgorod. Probably the monument belongs to the art of this art center. The icon is of artistic, historical, cultural and museum value. ()
CATHEDRAL OF THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD
Closely connected with the plot of the Nativity of Christ are icons called
"Cathedral of the Most Holy Theotokos" - this feast takes place the day after Christmas (December 26 / January 8). It was established at the VI Ecumenical Council (681) and united the glorification of Jesus Christ, “who came down from heaven for our salvation”, and the praise of the Mother of God who gave birth to Him.
Cathedral of Our Lady; Russia. Tver; XV century; location: Russia. Moscow. House-Museum of P.D. Korin ()
Despite the fact that the composition of the "Cathedral of the Virgin" has long been known in Byzantium, its full iconographic embodiment appeared just in Russia.
The plot of the icon goes back to the text of the Nativity Stichera: “What will we bring to Christ, as if you appeared on earth like a man? , the desert is a manger, we are the Mother of the Virgin.
On the icons, the Mother of God with the Child in her arms is presented in full growth, sitting on a throne in the radiance of heavenly Glory. On both sides shepherds and wise men with gifts are turned to Her, in the upper part of the icon are depicted angels bringing the gift of singing. In the lower corners, figures are shown in jerky movement, personifying the "awakened" earthly elements - the Earth (with a cave-nativity scene) and the Desert with a manger. Sometimes personalized images of the seas, winds and cardinal points were also placed here.
Below, under the throne of the Mother of God, a human cathedral is depicted, symbolizing the Church on earth. The Most Pure Virgin is glorified by prophets and reverends, the entire earthly race, represented in a cathedral unity with the heavenly world, with the angelic race. This fullness of the Church, earthly and heavenly, is personified by the Theotokos, through whose veneration the entire Divine Universe has been united.
And that universal joy in the Lord, which is filled with Christmas hymns, breathes in the colors of the icons: “Rejoice, all the earth, and rejoice all, righteous ones ...”
Cathedral of Our Lady. The image is reproduced according to the publication: Palekh icon painting from the collection of the State Museum of Palekh Art. Palekh Icon Painting. State Museum of Palekh Art. Moscow: Progress, 1994. ()
Christmas fell on the reign of Emperor Octavian Augustus. Octavian ordered a complete census of the population in his empire, which included Palestine. According to the tradition of the Jews, the census was conducted in those places where the tribes, clans and tribes of the Jews were from. Since Bethlehem was the city of David, both the Mother of God and Saint Joseph, who came from the family of David, had to appear in Bethlehem for the census to be included in the lists, and they did not remain outside the state, which means outside the law.
But in Bethlehem, overflowing with the same antechamber citizens, there was no place for them in the inns. Nobody accepted into the house either, it was since then that Christians, especially Western ones, have preserved the custom of putting a candle in the window at Christmas so that the Mother of God sees that She and Her Baby will have a haven in this house, unlike the times when He should was to come into being. But then He was born in a cave (in Greek - a nativity scene), which was intended for the stall of livestock. On armfuls of hay and straw for his food, the Savior was born, Who was then laid in a rough manger from which cattle were fed. And the bright star of Bethlehem shone over the city, signifying the place where He came into the world, Whom the world was waiting for, and Who from now on changed the fate of mankind, giving it a different, exalted and deep meaning of brotherhood with Him (Matt. 1, 18-25; Matt. 2:1; Luke 2:1-20). In the cave with the holy family there was an ox, which was brought by Saint Joseph, as a tribute for the census, and a donkey - Mary, waiting for the Firstborn, rode on a donkey, according to the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 1, 3).
These animals warmed the cave with their breath in the cold snowy winter. This cave was already shown in the 3rd century as the birthplace of Christ, and in the 4th century Equal-to-the-Apostles Empress Elena, who, at the request of her son Constantine the Great, found many memorable places associated with the earthly life of the Lord, laid a temple over this place.
But the very concept of a cave - a den where the Lord was born, began to be symbolically compared with the womb of the Mother of God herself, which contained God himself. Otherwise, it is interpreted as a place of sorrow and darkness - our world, where the Sun of Truth - Jesus - shone. And the first to see him were not the Pharisees and not high-ranking Jews, but simple shepherds, to whom an angel appeared and told about the One who came into the world. And they came to worship him (Luke 2:10-11). There is also deep symbolism in this event - not for the sake of special, privileged citizens, He was sent by the Father, but for the sake of saving everyone, down to the lowest and poorest, for their sake - first of all, for they were given special humility.
The sorcerers who saw the star of Bethlehem - oriental connoisseurs of science and sages, who also hastened to bow to Him, symbolize the eastern world, which already bowed before the Savior. In their journey to Bethlehem, they carried gold to His manger - a sign of His royal power, frankincense - His spiritual supremacy, myrrh - this substance was usually used in preparation for burial, and here it was a sign of prophecy about His death in the flesh as atonement for the sins of the world ( Matthew 2:11). Images of the Magi usually correspond to three age archetypes: an old man, a mature husband, a young man. This emphasizes that "revelation is given to people regardless of age and life experience." According to legend, one of them was from Persia, the other from the Arab lands, the third from Ethiopia, their names were Gaspar, Melchior and Belshazzar. Later, they accepted Baptism - they were baptized by the Apostle Thomas and also preached the name of Christ. Their holy relics were found in the 3rd century. They rest in Cologne Cathedral in Germany.
The gifts of the Magi were partially preserved in Athos in the form of 28 square and triangular plates 5x7 cm in size, they consecrate water. They are covered with ornaments. Also frankincense and myrrh - fragrant dark balls, similar to olives. There are about seventy such fragrant beads. The gifts of the Magi have the ability to cast out demons; they are very rarely taken out of Athos.
On the eighth day after his Nativity, Jesus Christ, according to the Old Testament law, accepted circumcision, which was established for all male babies as a sign of God's Covenant with the forefather Abraham and his descendants (Gen.17:11-14). During the performance of this rite, the Divine Infant was given the name Jesus (Savior), proclaimed by the Archangel Gabriel on the day of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to theological interpretations, the Savior did not need an external sign of union with God, since He and the Father are one. By his circumcision, Jesus Christ teaches us to fulfill the commandments of God, without looking for pretexts for their violation and without justifying our evasion from their fulfillment. In honor of this event, the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord is established, celebrated by the Orthodox Church on January 14. The times of the Old Testament have passed, circumcision has been abolished, and instead the Sacrament of Holy Baptism has been established - spiritual circumcision, which consists in cutting off carnal passions from the soul.
According to legend, King Herod, who ruled in Bethlehem, learned that the One who would be the cause of his overthrow and death was born and ordered all babies up to a year old to be found and killed in Bethlehem. This terrible night went down in history under the name of the Bethlehem night. However, the Holy Virgin and Saint Joseph were warned by an angel and left the city, and the Magi, called to the court of Herod in order to find out where Christ and His Mother were, left the city in a different way than they entered, so that Herod's spies would not track down the place where the Baby was. He was saved, but Herod perished, cast into hell.
This story from century to century in later times, approximately from the Middle Ages, began to be played out by wandering crib puppeteers, who went around Christmas with their den box from house to house and played out this simple but wonderful story. And what is interesting - centuries pass, and everyone who happens to see these short-lived, naive performances, every time they watch them with exciting interest. Today, festivals of crib theaters are being organized, where this biblical story, which has the same scenario, is shown in different interpretations, and the audience every time freezes with delight, seeing the Star of Bethlehem in a variety of performances, they are horrified by the deceit, and then the terrible death of Herod.
Iconography of the holiday
The most ancient images are attributed to the fourth century, in the catacomb churches they find drawings of the Infant in the manger and His Mother, reclining next to her loose hair. The nimbus over the head of the Most Pure One began to be depicted only in the 6th-7th centuries, by which time the iconography of the holiday in the Byzantine tradition had finally taken shape.
By the 12th century, the entire cycle of images associated with Christmas included not only the adoration of the Magi and shepherds, but also the journey of the Magi with the star, which lasted two years - they calculated the position of the Star of Bethlehem at the time of Christmas in advance and set off on their difficult journey.
Often the Nativity of Christ in churches is depicted on the southern wall, and the Assumption of the Mother of God on the northern. This pairing indicates the close connection of both phenomena - His birth according to the flesh and Her resurrection for Eternal life. In the image of the Nativity, the Christ-Child lies in swaddling clothes in a manger, and in the Dormition he often holds the swaddled soul of the Mother of God. They entrusted Themselves to each other forever - He is in the Nativity, She is in the Dormition. In this mutual trust is the inseparability of the whole being going into Eternity from the beginning of time. The connection between Christ and the Most Pure, Son and Mother is also emphasized by the fact that on the day after Christmas, on January 8 BC. Art., we celebrate the day of the Cathedral of Our Lady.
What a miracle happened
The main miracle that happened is on the icon itself. The miracle of the Incarnation, which produced a miracle with all of us. This is a miracle proof of the deification of man through God, who has found an earthly incarnation. The one who suffered, slept on the ground, ate meager food, got tired, but healed, comforted, taught, worked miracles, but only with words of praise to the Father on his lips. He loved us all and, in the end, died alone on the cross, surrounded by criminals, Accused himself as a criminal, misunderstood and unaccepted during his lifetime, calling from the cross "Father, Father, why did he leave me!" in order to atone for our sins, past and present, with the pure, divine blood of the Lamb. Is this not a miracle of the God of love for us, Who so loved us that, as it is said, He sent His Only Begotten Son to save everyone who came into this world from its Creation? This miracle is worth thinking about in front of this icon. And when we understand and accept this miracle, and plant gratitude in our hearts to the Father, and the Savior, and the Mother of God, Whose feat is indescribable, because She knew everything from the beginning: isn’t that why Her face, bowed over the Infant Jesus, is always so mournful? – That's when the miracle of the fulfillment of everything that we pray to him will happen - with love and gratitude for the sacrifice in the name of the all-human love of God for people.
The meaning of the icon
The icon depicts the Nativity of Christ. This event is special. For the first time in the history of mankind, God became inseparable from man in a completely literal sense. In the Old Testament, Paradise was separated from Hell by an unbridgeable chasm. Anyone who did not fall into God after leaving life was doomed to eternal torment. With the Incarnation of God, the abyss between the Kingdom of Heaven and Gehenna was already potentially abolished for all who followed Him, for Christmas itself became a pledge of the future Pascha of Christ. He defended, admonished, taught, showed his presence and, nevertheless, was somehow there and we were all here. Here He was here, among us, and among the poorest, outcast, lonely, His Mother did not find shelter to give birth to Him in the house, like the poorest of the ordinary residents of Bethlehem, no one helped Her to give birth. Almost immediately after the Nativity of the Savior, His family was persecuted by the danger of killing the Infant. But, as Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh says in one of his Christmas sermons, He became one of the persecuted, destitute precisely so that, having seen the persecuted and destitute in his life, they would accept him, as they would accept Christ Himself. Why did the majority of saints, becoming like Him, renounce everything that we are chasing after in material life and cannot imagine our existence without it - such is the world? Yes, because they, like He, wanted those who had lost everything to come to them first of all. Wished that those who cling too much to earthly things would see that yes, it is needed, take it as much as you like, if you cannot otherwise, but it is nothing compared to the love between all whom He has loved. The Savior has cast aside all boundaries between Him and us. He was born for us. And he died for us. And ascended - for us. And he returned - for our sake, to go back to the Father before the beginning of new times, but to remain until then in us and between us - "among us and is and will be."
And one more thing - the Incarnation - and the fathers of the church spoke about this more than once, its reverse side is the deification of a person, raising his significance to incredible heights, for he is a person who is able to contain God, which we see in the example of the reverence of our saints . If we realize this for the most part, then this is our saving path, since a person will finally realize that measure of trust and responsibility for the whole world that God has entrusted to him. Maybe then we will be able to turn our vale of sorrow to the Kingdom of Heaven, for the sake of life in which we are, in general, called - live.
So the very icon of the Nativity - and the icon painter Yuri Kuznetsov, it is just like that - joyful, lively, bright, despite the apparent sadness of the biblical story, this is an occasion, first of all, to love and thank everyone - God, the Blessed Virgin, who is especially magnified in these holidays, singing Her feat at festive services, and each other, for He is in us, we must open our hearts to Him in love for our neighbor. And the days of Christmas - the triumph of the light of the star of Bethlehem shining over the whole world - is the most suitable time for this.