Love comes into our life in different forms, as the love for parents, friends and the closest ones. Sometimes we dont expect when it strikes us, but we are happy when it happens. It is the moving power that helps us to be better.
What is Love? Some people say it is when passion blinds our eyes and we can not do without the object of our Love, others say it is when we can feel peace and comfort in the confines of our home, soem people say it happens only once in a lifetime, others that it could happen again and again... Everybody feels Love in their own unique way...I want to show you the story of the Love that can endure the lifetime, all the obstacles the life puts on its way, the Love that doesnt die even after death but continue to inspire many generations of people... It is a fascinatinating story from the past from the ancient city in Russia, I wish you will truly enjoy it.
Foreword by Katherine Scherba
"I love Russian chronicles and legends so much that passages I like especially I read over again and again until I know them by heart. "There was a town named Murom... When the time came for them to die, these prince and princess begged the Lord to allow them to come to Him on one and the same day. And they were to be buried in one coffin. And They ordered a vault for the double coffin to be hewn out of a single rock. And together and at the same time he donned a monk's habit and she a nun's..."
Ivan Bunin, Chaste Monday, 1944
Like Romeo and Juliet of the Italian Renaissance narrative literature, which thanks to the involving drama of Shakespeare’s genius, has become a wide-recognized symbol of faithful love in the West culture, Leily and Medjnun of ancient Arabic songs, thanks to the greatest poetry of Nisami, Fisuli, Navoi and other poets, has been glorified as the same symbol in the culture of the East. But every country in the world admires and keeps its own legend of faithful love and has its own symbol.
For more than five centuries in Russia the legend of Peter and Fevronia lives as a story of invincible love and it’s also mentioned by the Church as an example of true married devotion – exactly on the 8th of July – when two spouses died the same day and hour (it was in 1228). The shrine with their holy remains is kept inside the Trinity cathedral in the old town of Murom that lays on the river Oka (about 300 km. South-East of Moscow). Many people go there to ask Peter and Fevronia for help in love and marriage matters.
Not long ago has been decided to introduce the 8th of July as the all-Russian day of family, love and faithfulness with annual celebrations and a special emblem – a camomile. On the occasion of this initiative, the main celebration took place in Murom itself, including various events such as a church Mass, folk performances, the unveiling of Peter and Fevronia's sculpture image by Nikolai Scherbakov and the honouring of some old married couples. Many young couples wished to marry exactly in that day to get a special blessings.
As it always happens to such long living legends, they began and first existed as narrations going from mouth to mouth, and people often attach some picturesque and even fantastic details to real historical basis, thus reflecting and symbolizing how those people regard the events they tell about. The truth is that prince Peter and his beloved wife Fevronia really lived in Murom in the beginning of the XIII century, they really ruled the town and they consequently were mentioned in history as an example of greatest spousal love, faithfulness, wisdom and devotion (they ended their earthly life as monk and nun).
The early oral version of the tale had been formed most likely in the second half of the XV century. The definitive version was written in the middle of the XVI century (as the couple was canonized by the Church in 1547) with the title “The story of new muromian saints, the venerable Prince Peter (David in monastic life) and his spouse, the venerable Princess Fevronia (Eufrosinia in monastic life)” by Ermolai-Erasm - a famous literary man of Ivan the Terrible's period. This text is regarded as a treasure of the ancient Russian literature. In the middle of the XX century the canonical plot had been re-edited by the writer Alexei Remisov (1877-1957) – a master of adaptation and polishing of old literature sources – who created a more vivid version of the tale about Peter and Fevronia, with a certain colourful spirit of folklore.
What does the story itself tells?
In the very beginning of the XIII century Murom was ruled by Prince Paul. He was a good and fair ruler, but a wicked deed fell on his family: a devious serpent (that probably means an hypostasis of the devil) would fly secretly to his wife, to seduce her, and she couldn’t help. This fact recurred many times. The serpent would appear in her chamber in the guise of Paul. The wife told everything to her husband and he asked her to try to learn what could kill it. When the serpent flew in again, the Princess used all her flattering words and in that way she managed to hear from it the following words: “ My death could be caused by Peter’s hand and Agric’s sword.” (Agric is a warrior hero of Russian folk epics.) She reported the serpent’s words to Paul, but he didn’t understand their exact meaning. Paul shared his trouble with his younger brother Peter. Peter used to go to church and pray in loneliness. One day an adolescent appeared before him and showed him the place in the church wall where the sword was kept hidden. Paul took it and killed the serpent, but its poisonous blood splashed out and got on Paul’s skin causing a bad disease: all his skin was covered with scabs (it might has been a sort of leprosy in reality). He succeded in overcoming the serpent’s evil power but he was not able to overcome the disease, and nobody knew how to help him. Then someone told him about a girl living in Laskovo village, near the town of Ryasan on the same river Oka. The girl named Fevronia was very wise and she could cure different diseases. Paul went with his servants to Laskovo, the girl looked at him and said that she could heal him, but he had to marry her after that (she could know at first sight their future, while he couldn’t). He agreed; she gave him an ointment and told him to use it on the whole skin except on one scab. He did so and recovered soon, but he didn’t want to fulfil his promise because he was a Prince and she was a peasant girl, a daughter of a bee-keeper. He went away and returned to Murom. But very soon the same disease arose again and he was forced to go back to the girl. Fevronia helped him again and this time he took her to Murom and made her his wife and Princess. Together they realized their great love and led a very happy marriage. Soon Prince Paul died and Peter became the ruler of the town. But his courtiers' wives hated Fevronia because of her origin and they put their husbands up to going to Peter and ask him to send Fevronia away from the town and to take another spouse. They said that she could take with her what she 
wanted, but she chose only her dear husband, and he chose his dear wife, so they both left the town with a few faithful servants. They went down the river by ship, and Fevronia comforted and encouraged Peter all the time. One evening they stopped in a place to eat a bite and to have a rest. They fixed up a fireplace to have a meal and their cook used two branches to hang a pot. Fevronia said to her beloved that God would have surely sent them his blessing and help. Next morning they found out that those dry sticks had turned into two green trees. It was a sign. The same day some of the courtiers found them and addressed to them a passionate request – to come back and to rule them and the town, because it had happened that without Peter and Fevronia the dignitaries fought for the throne and many of them were killed, so the town was in unrest. Peter and Fevronia were very kind, they returned to their town, ruled it for many years according to God’s will and became an ideal of spousal love and faithfulness for the people. Once old, they both decided to live their remaining years in devotion to God, and so they left the Court and entered two monasteries in the same town of Murom, receiving the names of David and Eufrosinia. Their bequeathed to be buried in the same tomb, having prepared a stone coffin with a thin partition in the middle. On the last day of their earthly life Peter gave a sign to beloved Fevronia, his dear sister Eufrosinia in God, telling her: “I’m nearly to pass away.” In that moment she was sitting embroidering a decoration on a sacred shroud for the church. She said: “Dear lord, please wait until I finish my work.” He answered: “I will wait for a while.” After some time he sent a sign again: “I’m ready to leave.” And she answered him: “ Please wait for a minute.” He said: “I can’t wait anymore, I’m dying.” She answered: “I 'll go with you”, then she fixed her needle in the shroud and with a prayer followed her dear lord.
Local people didn’t dare to lay them down together into the same coffin, as they were a monk and a nun. There was no such a precedent at that time. So it was decided not to use the double coffin and to lay Peter's body in the city Cathedral of the Virgin Mary and of Fevronia's body in the church inside the monastery. Next morning the people found the two different coffins empty and saw Peter and Fevronia laying together in the coffin they had prepared. They separated them again, but the following morning they were found laying again in their shared coffin. Seeing such a miracle, the people decided to bury them together according to their will. In 1565 tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered to erect in that place a stone Cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary in which the holy couple rested for many years. Now the relics are kept inside the Trinity Cathedral of Murom. In Moscow the icon of the saints Peter and Fevronia is in the Church of the Ascension of God that is situated in Bolshaya Nikitskaya street.
Olga Nikolaeva
The final Curious © phrase:
“Those whom true love has held, it will go on holding”
(Seneca)
