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← Sermon on Law and Grace (Slovo o Zakone i Blagodati)/Book 1 · Слово о Законе и Благодати
Chapter 10IlarionZakon.1.10

Въстани, о честнаа главо, от гроба твоего

A Call to Awakening

Ilarion calls Prince Vladimir to rise from the tomb, assuring him of life in Christ and showing him his son George on the throne.

Rise, O honorable head, from your tomb! Rise, shake off your sleep! For you have not died, but sleep until the common resurrection of all.✦ Rise—you have not died! For it is not fitting for you to die, you who believed in Christ, the life of the whole world.✦1 Shake off sleep, lift up your eyes, so that you may see what honor the Lord has granted you there, and how on earth he has not left you forgotten among your sons.2 Rise, see your child George, see your own flesh, see your beloved, see the one the Lord brought forth from your loins, see him who adorns the throne of your land—and rejoice and be glad!✦3

The Fruit of Faith: Family and City

Ilarion shows Vladimir his descendants and the flourishing Christian city of Kyiv, all living the faith he handed down.

And look, too, at your faithful daughter-in-law Irene; look at your grandsons and great-grandsons: how they live, how the Lord keeps them, how they hold the true faith according to the tradition you handed down, how they frequent the holy churches, how they glorify Christ, how they bow before his name.45 Look also at the city, shining in its greatness; look at the churches flourishing; look at Christianity growing; look at the city, lit by the icons of the saints and gleaming, fragrant with incense, and filled with the sound of divine praises and holy hymns. And when you have seen all this, rejoice and be glad, and praise the good God, who has ordered all these things!6

Spiritual Sight and Harvest

The Lord shows Vladimir in spirit that his faithful sowing has borne abundant fruit through divine help.

So understand: even if not in the body, still in the spirit the Lord shows you all these things—rejoice and be glad for them, for your faithful sowing was not withered by the heat of unbelief, but by the rain of God's help it has brought forth abundant fruit.

Apostle of the Soul

Ilarion hails Vladimir as an apostle who raised souls from idolatry to know the Trinity.

Rejoice, O apostle among rulers—not one who raised dead bodies, but one who raised us who were dead in soul, us who had died of the sickness of idol-worship! For through you we were deified and came to know Christ the Life.✦✦7 We were bent double by demonic deceit, and through you we were straightened and set our feet on the path of life; we were blind in the eyes of the heart, darkened by blindness, and through you we looked out upon the light of the thrice-solar Godhead; we were mute, and through you we found our speech.✦✦8 And now both small and great glorify the consubstantial Trinity.

Armor of Virtue

Ilarion praises Vladimir as a teacher of the true faith, clothed in righteous virtues and merciful works.

Rejoice, our teacher and guide in the true faith! You were clothed with righteousness, belted with strength, shod with truth, crowned with understanding, and made beautiful with almsgiving as with a precious necklace and gold ornaments.9 You were, O honorable head, clothing for the naked; you were a feeder of the hungry; you were cool refreshment for the thirsty; you were a helper to widows; you were a resting place for strangers; you were a shelter for the homeless; you were a defender of the oppressed, and enrichment for the poor.10

Heavenly Intercession

Ilarion asks Vladimir to pray for his land and for his son George, that they may be kept in peace and faith and attain eternal glory.

Receiving in heaven the reward for those good works and for others—the good things “which God has prepared for you who love him”—and filled with the vision of his sweet face, pray for your land and for the people among whom you ruled in true faith: that he may keep them in peace and in the faith you handed down; that orthodoxy may be glorified in it; that every heresy may be cursed; and that the Lord God may preserve them from every war and captivity, from famine and every sorrow and affliction!11 And still more, pray for your son, our faithful kagan George: that in peace and in health he may sail across the deep of life and come to rest in the harbor of heaven’s calm, having kept the ship of his soul and the faith unharmed, and with the riches of good works, having guided without stumbling the people God gave him, that he may stand with you unashamed before the throne of Almighty God, and for the labor of shepherding His people receive from Him a crown of imperishable glory, together with all the righteous who have labored for His sake.1213

Read the original Church Slavonic

Въстани, о честнаа главо, от гроба твоего! Въстани, оттряси сонъ! Нѣси бо умерлъ, нъ спиши до обьщааго всѣмъ въстаниа. Въстани, нѣси умерлъ! Нѣсть бо ти лѣпо умрѣти, вѣровавшу въ Христа, живота всему миру. Оттряси сонъ, възведи очи, да видиши, какоя тя чьсти Господь тамо съподобивъ, и на земли не беспамятна оставилъ сыномъ твоимъ. Въстани, виждь чадо свое Георгиа, виждь утробу свою, виждь милааго своего, виждь егоже Господь изведе от чреслъ твоихъ, виждь красящааго столъ земли твоеи — и возрадуися и възвеселися!

Къ сему же виждь благовѣрную сноху твою Ерину, виждь вънукы твоа и правнукы: како живуть, како храними суть Господемь, како благовѣрие держать по предаянию твоему, како въ святыа церкви чястять, како славять Христа, како покланяются имени его.

Виждь же и градъ, величьством сиающь, виждь церкви цветущи, виждь христианьство растуще, виждь град, иконами святыихъ освѣщаемь и блистающеся, и тимианомъ обухаемь, и хвалами божественами и пѣнии святыими оглашаемь. И си вься видѣвъ, възрадуися и възвеселися и похвали благааго Бога, всѣмь симъ строителя!

Видѣ же, аще и не тѣломъ, нъ духомъ показаеть ти Господь вся си, о нихъже радуйся и веселися, яко твое вѣрное въсѣание не исушено бысть зноемь невѣриа, нъ дождемь Божиа поспѣшениа распложено бысть многоплоднѣ.

Радуйся, въ владыкахъ апостоле, не мертвыа тѣлесы въскрѣшав, нъ душею ны мертвы, умерьшаа недугомь идолослужениа въскрѣсивъ! Тобою бо обожихомъ и Живота Христа познахомъ. Съкорчени бѣхомъ от бѣсовьскыа льсти и тобою прострохомся и на путь животныи наступихомъ; слѣпи бѣхомъ сердечныими очима, ослѣплени невидѣниемь, и тобою прозрѣхомъ на свѣтъ трисолнечьнаго Божьства; нѣми бѣхомъ, и тобою проглаголахомъ. И нынѣ уже мали и велицѣи славимъ единосущную Троицу.

Радуйся, учителю нашь и наставниче благовѣрию! Ты правдою бѣ облѣченъ, крѣпостию прѣпоясанъ, истиною обутъ, съмысломъ вѣнчанъ и милостынею яко гривною и утварью златою красуяся. Ты бѣ, о честнаа главо, нагыимъ одѣние, ты бѣ алчьныимъ кърмитель, ты бѣ жаждющиимъ утробѣ ухлаждение, ты бѣ въдовицамъ помощник, ты бѣ странныимъ покоище, ты бѣ бескровныимъ покровъ, ты бѣ обидимыимъ заступникъ, убогыимъ обогащение.

Имъже благыимъ дѣломъ и инѣмь възмездие приемля на небесѣхъ, блага, «яже уготова Богъ вамъ, любящиимъ его», и зрѣниа сладкааго лица его насыщаяся, помолися о земли своеи и о людех, въ нихъже благовѣрно владычьствова, да съхранить á въ мирѣ и благовѣрии прѣданѣѣмь тобою, и да славится въ нем правовѣрие, и да кленется всяко еретичьство, и да съблюдеть á Господь Богъ от всякоа рати и плѣнениа, от глада и всякоа скорби и сътуждениа!

Паче же помолися о сынѣ твоемь, благовѣрнѣмь каганѣ нашемь Георгии, въ мирѣ и въ съдравии пучину житиа прѣплути и въ пристанищи небеснааго завѣтрия пристати, неврѣдно корабль душевны и вѣру съхраньшу, и съ богатеством добрыими дѣлы, безъ блазна же Богомъ даныа ему люди управивьшу, стати с тобою непостыдно прѣд прѣстоломъ Вседръжителя Бога и за трудъ паствы людии его приати от него вѣнець славы нетлѣнныа съ всѣми праведныими, трудившиимися его ради.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Mark.5.39;Matt.9.24;John.11.11 — And he went in and said to them, 'Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but is sleeping.' Matt.9.24 — He said, 'Make room. For the girl has not died but is sleeping.' And they laughed at him. John.11.11 — He said these things, and after this he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him up."
  2. ↩John.11.25;John.6.33;John.14.6 — Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live." John.6.33 — For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
  3. ↩Matt.5.12 — Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in the heavens; for in this way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
  4. ↩2Pet.1.4 — Through these he has granted to us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
  5. ↩John.11.25 — Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live."
  6. ↩Ps.16.11 — You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
  7. ↩Eph.1.18 — having the eyes of your heart enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Notes

  1. 1 ↩«лѣпо» here means what is fitting or seemly; the point is not that death is impossible, but that final death is unfitting for one who trusted Christ, who is life for the world.
  2. 2 ↩«не беспамятна оставилъ сыномъ твоимъ» can mean either that the Lord has not left Vladimir without remembrance among his sons, or that he has not left him forgotten to his sons; the rendering keeps the shared sense of enduring memorial in his line.
  3. 3 ↩«Георгиа» is the baptismal name of Yaroslav (Yaroslav the Wise), Vladimir’s son; «столъ» is the princely throne/seat of rule, not a piece of furniture.
  4. 4 ↩Ерину: conventionally identified as Yaroslav's wife Irene (Ingegerd); kept as the source form Irene rather than a modern Russian Irina.
  5. 5 ↩благовѣрие: rendered 'true faith' (orthodox/pious faith), not generic 'belief'.
  6. 6 ↩строителя rendered as 'who has ordered' (providential arranger/provider); could also be 'the architect' or 'the disposer' of all these things.
  7. 7 ↩обожихомъ is theosis language ('we were deified' / made partakers of the divine). Rendered with the traditional theological term rather than a weaker paraphrase.
  8. 8 ↩трисолнечьнаго Божьства is the Byzantine/Slavic Trinitarian image of the Godhead as thrice-solar (three suns); kept as 'thrice-solar Godhead' to preserve the metaphor.
  9. 9 ↩гривною: a grivna was a precious metal neck-ring or torque of high status; rendered as 'precious neck-ring' rather than left untranslated.
  10. 10 ↩жаждющиимъ утробѣ ухлаждение is literally 'cooling for the belly of those who thirst'; rendered as 'cool refreshment for those who thirst' to keep the bodily mercy sense without awkward English.
  11. 11 ↩The twice-repeated form á is treated as pronominal ‘them’ (я), referring to the land and people; the surface form looks like a transmission/encoding artifact.
  12. 12 ↩«каганѣ» is retained as kagan, the Turkic-imperial title Ilarion applies to the Rus’ Christian rulers; George is Yaroslav (baptismal name Georgii).
  13. 13 ↩«безъ блазна» rendered “without stumbling” (without scandal/offense in rule); «завѣтрия» as “calm” (lee/shelter from wind) within the seafaring metaphor of life’s deep and the heavenly harbor.

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