Dear Readers:
When I first glimpsed this piece whilst skimming my favorite Russian-language sites, I initially jumped to the conclusion that this Saint who lived with a bear was the same holy man in the Godunov TV series, whereof I reviewed in this series of posts last month.
Loyal Readers will recall one of the plot arcs, in which Fyodor Romanov (father of future Tsar Michael Romanov) was sent by his head monk (from the monastery where he was posted) to some much-needed anger-management training out in the woods. Romanov ended up living and training (and probably learning some cool kung-fu moves) with an old one-eyed guy who lived with a bear. Hence my confusion when I saw the picture of the bear, but it turns out that Saint Serafim was not that same guy. In fact, he lived well over a century later, from 1754-1833.
“What? No pic-a-nic basket?”
It just turns out, that more than one Russian saint has danced with bears and thus earned the respect of what the author (Konstantin Kudryashov) calls the “Deep People” (глубинный народ) of Russia. This is an interesting term, and is the main reason why I am penning this post about an obscure eccentric. Together we will work through this example and see if we can figure out who the “Deep People” are, I think they exist in every society, but in different formats. More to the point, we shall see whether or not they exert influence over important events in the societies wherein they dwell.
But first a note about modern Orthodoxy: When the Communists were in charge of Russia, they attempted to wean the Russian people off religion, but were only partially successful. After the Yeltsin/Putin Counter-Revolution, Religion was re-introduced as a Good Thing, and pounded back into people’s brains. On the whole, though, Russia is a secular society, and there are even indications that many Russians nowadays are getting quite sick of the constant harping and crossing oneselves, and the like.
Father Foty does his shtick with a screaming baby.
Not to mention the excesses of the priests. Russian society can be provincial in some ways, and was actually shocked to the core when a bad baby baptism turned into a national scandal. The sensation was all over the Russian tabloids, and the priest, Father Foty, has been suspended for a year. Personally, I don’t “get it” why any mom would hand her baby over to some guy with a long beard and wearing a dress, who claims to be a conduit for God but could, in fact, be a sadist or pedophile, or worse. But let’s face it, all of the so-called “Abrahamic Religions” are the same in this respect. You are supposed to just believe that Guy A is invested with true authority and knows something about mystical things that are beyond your own comprehension. And people are supposed to bow and scrape to this beardy caste, showing utmost respect and humility, under the assumption that they are being humble before God, whereas in actuality they, like Uriah Heep (the literary figure, not the band), are merely being obsequious before man. Hocus-pocus – bah humbug!
But I digress and editorialize too much. Returning to our story about this kindly forest-dweller who did not violently dunk babies (that we know of), and who befriended a hungry bear. And kudos to the bear, as well, who could have feasted on “the other white meat” for dinner, but settled for a bowl of porridge. Provided it was cooked “just right”.
A Saint Is Born
So, on July 30, 1754 there came into this world a little Russian boy named Prokhor, the son of a wealthy merchant, Isidor Mashin. Prokhor Mashin could have grown up to be a wealthy merchant himself and had pretty everything the world had to offer at that time. Instead, he abandoned the world and went off to live in the woods with a bear.
[to be continued]
Awful Avalanche 