Images of the Country, Church, the People and the Human Person in Prayers for Russia of the Revolutionary Era

Abstract

This article looks at prayers for Russia and for the Russian Church which were written or compiled during the period of Russia's revolutionary trials. These texts and rites were the fruits of the ecclesial and religious reflections of the faithful in response to the tragic events that were engulfing Russia's life and society; they give us a chance to see the events of the era as refracted through the lens of contemporary theological, ecclesial and religious thought. The authors of these prayers and rites lived at the time of the Revolution and witnessed events as they took place; everything they were seeing and participating in summoned forth an immediate response from deep within their living faith. The prayers contain not only a cry to God for help and repentance for the historical sins and faults within the authors' contemporary life, but also a real hope that the path of the nation and the church can be set aright.