CrimeaPRESS reports:
June 30, 2024 marks the 160th anniversary of the Church of All Saints in Simferopol. Its history, of course, cannot be compared with the history of the famous churches of Kievan and Moscow Rus’, but it is interesting because it the only temple on the entire Crimean peninsula that has never been closed.
Story.
On November 13, 1858, the rector of the Simferopol Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Archpriest Mikhail Rodionov, addressed the Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride Dimitri with a report that the church warden of the Transfiguration Church, merchant Vasily Maslyannikov, had expressed a desire to build a chapel in a new cemetery set aside from the city.
Archbishop Dimitri presented the project and drawing of the chapel to the Holy Synod with a request for its Highest approval. Much to the surprise of V.B. Maslyannikov, a completely new design for a church of “majestic proportions” was sent from the Holy Synod, for the construction of which the merchant simply did not have enough funds.
In 1863, prompted by good intentions, Vasily Borisovich again turned to Bishop Alexy of Tauride and Simferopol with a request to allow him to build a chapel or temporary house of worship in the new cemetery for the funeral of the dead there, postponing the implementation of the Highest approved project for an indefinite time.
The very next year a new small temple appeared. On June 14, 1864, it was consecrated in honor of the Dormition of the Holy Righteous Anna. The name of the church was not chosen by chance. Back in 1844, a benefactor was found in Simferopol — a widow, Colonel Alexandra Andreevna Brazhnikova. She took upon herself to build a left side chapel in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in honor of the Dormition of Righteous Anna. This saint was the heavenly patroness of her deceased daughter, the granddaughter of the Tauride vice-governor Andrei Ilyich Shostak. Unfortunately for her parents, sixteen-year-old Anya (+ December 26, 1842) caught a cold during the opening of the monument to Prince V.M. Dolgorukov and, after being ill for three days, died.
By the time the construction of the church in the new cemetery was completed, Tauride Bishop Alexy (Rzhanitsyn) ordered the vacation of the left side chapel of the cathedral in order to establish a sacristy in it for storing bishops and clergy vestments. In March 1864, the iconostasis with the icons of the Savior and the Mother of God was moved from the left side chapel of the Simferopol Alexander Nevsky Cathedral to the new cemetery church. Along with the iconostasis, the name of the Assumption of the Holy Righteous Anna was also transferred to the new church.
The Anninskaya Cemetery Church was supplied with utensils and sacristy from the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral of Simferopol, to which it was assigned until the beginning of the twentieth century, i.e. had neither a separate full-time clergy nor parishioners. Services there were performed alternately by the clergy of the cathedral on all memorial Saturdays and Sundays.
On August 13, 1901, by resolution of the Holy Synod, an independent clergy was opened at the new cemetery in Simferopol, consisting of a priest and a psalm-reader, and a literacy school with a 4-year training period was opened. It was probably then that the church received its new name — in honor of All Saints. With the beginning of autumn, a literacy school began its work at the church, later transformed into a four-year parochial school.
In 1912, with the blessing of the clergy, a construction committee was formed to build the New Cemetery bell tower and the clergy house. The committee included priests Nikolai Shvets and Stefan Shpakovsky, as well as the head of the church, Simferopol tradesman Nikita Filaretovich Fuksenbaum. On June 9, 1913, on the Sunday of All Saints, Tauride Bishop Dimitri (Abashidze) served in the New Cemetery church. After reading the hours, Vladyka sprinkled holy water on the newly built bell tower at the church. Thus, the Church of All Saints in Simferopol acquired the appearance familiar to all of us today.
Before the White Exodus in November 1920 and the subsequent establishment of Soviet power on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, the parish of the All Saints Church lived a relatively calm life, after which came a time of trials and tribulations. Having overcome them, the temple survived, preserving most of its shrines, and was honored to have such heavenly patrons as the Holy Martyr Timothy (Izotov) and the New Martyr Stefan (Nalivaiko).
The Church of All Saints is unique, because, let us recall, during all the years of its existence it was never closed, and from 1939 to 1941 it was the only functioning church in Crimea. On June 15, 1944, in the Church of All Saints, all Crimean clergy of the old ordination were reunited with the Russian Orthodox Church through repentance. During the life of St. Luke, the Church of All Saints was a place for the passage and testing of knowledge of newly ordained clergy and those who arrived from other regions. From 1944 to 1958, the baptism of adults in the Crimean diocese was performed only in the cemetery church of Simferopol. Outstanding people who entered the history of the Crimean peninsula in the 19th-20th centuries are buried in the cemetery near the Church of All Saints. The clergy and parishioners of the church honor the memory of the archpastors and pastors buried here: Metropolitan Gury (Egorov), Bishop Mikhail (Gribanovsky), Archimandrite Tikhon (Bogoslavets) and many others.
A sacred place for pilgrims, many of whom receive spiritual support and healing of their ailments, remain the graves where the relics of St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) and St. Gury (Karpov) once rested.
Over the entire period of the existence of the parish community in the Church of All Saints, more than twenty rectors have changed. Since 2019, by decree of the ruling bishop, Archpriest Vladimir Kashlyuk has been appointed rector of the church.
Today, the main areas of parish activity are: preaching, worship, social and charitable service, church art, missionary work, spiritual and moral education, as well as renovation, icon painting and restoration work in the church.
Antique temple bells.
Among its eight bells, the bell tower of the All Saints Church also contains the oldest Simferopol bell, or rather three at once, with royal eagles, made back in the 19th century. One has the stamp of the largest bell manufacturer in the Russian Empire, P. I. Olovyanishnikov. The second is made by Muscovites. Finnish plant, which carried out orders of “prime importance” (in particular, a bell weighing 4,000 pounds was cast at this plant for the Ivan the Great bell tower in the Kremlin). And on the third there is the inscription: “Gift of Her Majesty Empress Maria Alexandrovna, 1872.”
A miracle at the end of the 20th century.
In 1998, in the Church of All Saints in Simferopol, during restoration work that took place in the autumn, the iconostasis of the small altar, consecrated (with the blessing of Archbishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) in honor of the Great Martyr and Victorious George, was removed from the icon case icon of Christ the Savior.
A few days later, the temple employees noticed that on the glass of the icon case, in front of which the icon stood, an image was visible repeating the image, which was reported to the rector of the temple, Archpriest Vyacheslav Tseshkovsky (+2014), who, in turn, reported this to the Administration of Simferopol and Crimean diocese. A commission was immediately created, headed by the ruling bishop, which included clergy, artists and other independent experts. After studying the situation, it was decided to contact scientists for an examination to find out whether ordinary diffusion of paints had occurred, or whether this was a phenomenon that required careful study.
A commission of experts who arrived from Kyiv in March 1999, having carried out chemical analyzes and photographic tests, as well as examining with ultraviolet and x-rays, confirmed the miraculousness of the image shown on the glass and its identity with the image of the Mother of God of the icon “Look at Humility”, which appeared on the glass, which is located in Kiev in the Holy Vvedensky Monastery.
It is impossible not to note the characteristic features of this miracle, not to mention the chemical composition and method of transferring the image to the glass, which is a mystery to all experts. Looking carefully at the glassgram, you can see that it is printed as if with thin rays. Experts came to the conclusion that the image on the glass is a miraculous imprint of icon painting, and is a thin coating consisting of two organic acids and wax. The analysis carried out by the research team showed that the image on the glass appeared under the influence of radiation of an unknown nature emanating from the image itself. We emphasize that the glass was attached at a certain distance from the icon board itself.
Initially, the composition was transparent in appearance and had a liquid-oily structure. The crystallization process took more than seven months, and we are currently examining the crystallized composition on the glass. But, as at first when it was discovered, so now, you can see the image in negative and positive. When creating a dark background behind the glass, a negative image is formed; when viewing the glass against a light background (the sky), a positive image is formed. Moreover, the image on the glass of the face and hands are more perfect than on the icon itself. The icon itself was painted in the 19th century in the artistic academic style. The clergy and God-loving people believe that since this is the only temple in Crimea that has never been closed, this is a manifestation of Divine mercy for us to strengthen our faith. This is especially important during periods of testing, so that believers especially feel the help of grace and receive miraculous healings, which is what has been happening in the Church of All Saints for more than a quarter of a century.
Without exaggeration, this miraculous phenomenon, sent to us by the grace of the Holy Spirit from the Higher World, the Orthodox Christians of Crimea with reverent boldness called the image of Christ the Savior not made by hands on the blessed Tauride land.
Shrines of the temple.
The miraculous icon of our Lord Jesus Christ, displayed on glass in 1998. The sacred grave of St. Luke of Crimea and Gury of Tauride. Icon of St. blgv. book Alexander Nevsky, kept in the Simferopol Cathedral until its destruction in 1930. Equal Apostles icons. Mary Magdalene, martyr. St. George the Victorious, martyr. Panteleimon, right. Simeon the Priest of God and martyr. Martha, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Joasaph of Belgorod, ap. John the Theologian, Archangel Michael, the Mother of God “Three-Handed” and “The Sign”. An ancient calvary, the Holy Sepulcher and the shroud of the 19th century, a reliquary icon, an ark with particles of the relics of Gury of Tauride and Luke of Crimea.
Also, through the efforts of the church parish community and with the support of the Presidential Grants Fund, in 2023 the parish museum “Christian Simferopol” was opened in the premises of the Antiquities Repository of the All Saints Church.
The basic exhibition, which presents vestments of the three-tier hierarchy of the Orthodox Church — bishop, priest and deacon, ancient icons, liturgical vessels and books, church utensils of the 18th-20th centuries, and other sacred objects, mainly taken from the funds of the temple’s ancient repository.
The most unique exhibit is the antimension of the Church of All Saints, personally signed by St. Luke of Crimea in 1947. The museum introduces visitors to the history of not only Orthodoxy in the capital of Crimea, but also other Christian denominations.
Press service of the Church of All Saints
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