Weight loss report. Losing weight and dieting. How to get rid of excess weight, lose weight after childbirth, choose a suitable diet and communicate with those who are losing weight. Lose weight tasty: the French diet teaches how the menu to taste reduces weight.
I can eat anything, but I eat purely plant-based foods - this is my choice based on regular study of research. I help people switch to the same food. I help them to lower this diet. What to eat during the fast? Diet of the Athos monks: you can and cannot.
Great fasting and proper nutrition: what do they have in common? Is it real to lose weight at this time? During the fast, you eat mostly carbohydrates. What to eat during Lent? The diet of the Athonite monks: it is possible and not. Lent traditionally attracts the attention of not only believers.
What to eat during Lent? The diet of the Athonite monks: it is possible and not. Great fasting and diet. What to eat during Lent? Dos and don'ts: products for fast and fast days. Orthodox Christians have begun the Nativity Fast.
There are 2 opinions about fasting in terms of food restrictions, and both those who are fasting and not have these opinions. 1. If you cannot fast strictly, then you should try to limit yourself at least a little, although What to eat during the fast? The diet of the Athonite monks: it is possible and not.
What to eat during Lent? The diet of the Athonite monks: it is possible and not. Remember to limit food as much as possible on fasting days. But in secular educational institutions they do not feed lean food. It is necessary to learn how to fast peacefully, taking into account the mistakes of your own and others.
Losing weight and dieting. How to lose weight, lose weight after childbirth, choose a suitable diet and communicate with Is it possible to please my son within the framework of my disabilities (about food)? What to eat during Lent? Diet of the Athos monks: you can and cannot.
Losing weight and dieting. How to lose weight, lose weight after childbirth, choose a suitable diet and communicate with those who are losing weight. Those. my weight loss will be on the fast. Is it real to lose weight at this time? During the fast, you eat mostly carbohydrates.
What to eat during Lent? The diet of the Athonite monks: it is possible and not. The diet is unchanged. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are fast days, when animal proteins, wine and vegetable oil are excluded from the diet.
Losing weight and dieting. How to lose weight, lose weight after childbirth, choose a suitable diet and communicate with those who are losing weight. What to eat during Lent? Dos and don'ts: products for fast and fast days. Weight loss and the Athonite diet.
Girls, yesterday I took my mother for examinations - veins, joints, flat feet - as a result, my legs are swollen and it hurts to walk. Doctors skzali - the first to lose weight, mom weighs 80-82 kg with a height of 156 cm. The fact is that she has long been concerned about this weight and eats almost nothing - she lives alone, drinks coffee, eats cheese, vegetables, meat not every day. Doesn't eat supper at night. BUT something weight only + - 2 kg walks .. I'm thinking - if we start from our rules - do I need to force her to eat 4-5 times a day? She has lost the habit and cannot do so much .. And drink water? Or how to remove 10 kg in old age ????
health resort of Belarus - a weight loss program ?. Losing weight after childbirth. Losing weight and dieting. health resort in Belarus - a weight loss program? I heard that everything is quite inexpensive and effective there, maybe someone knows which sanatorium to go to in order to start losing weight?
What to eat during Lent? Diet of the Athos monks: you can and cannot. Lent traditionally attracts the attention of not only believers. Many are trying to coincide with this time the next stage of weight loss or try a new diet based on vegetarian ...
Losing weight and dieting. How to get rid of excess weight, lose weight after childbirth, choose a health resort in Belarus - a weight loss program ?. Losing weight with the diet of the monks of Mount Athos. Athonite diet: alternation of lean and It turned out that Abkhazia is translated as "country of the soul", before ...
Food for the monks of Mount Athos. The fundamental principle of the Athonite diet is to divide the days of the week into fast and fast days, including the day of breaking the fast. What to eat during Lent? The diet of the Athonite monks: it is possible and not. Great Lent and Diet.
Looking for a diet to lose weight? Food for the monks of Mount Athos. The fundamental principle of the Athonite diet is to divide the days of the week into fast and fast days, including the day. What to eat during fasting? The diet of the Athonite monks: possible and not. Great Lent and Diet.
The diet of the Athonite monks: possible and not. Great Lent and Diet. What to eat during Lent? Do's and don'ts: products for fast and fast days. Quite physiological nutrition, in contrast to the Ducan and Atkins diets and a huge number of them. The survey, IMHO, is incorrect.
30.11.2012 Through the labor of the brethren of the monastery 15 873
A meal in a monastery is a sacred action, lunch is a continuation of the service. Before the beginning of the meal and at the end of it, all the brethren pray, thank the Lord for His good deeds, prayerfully remembering the living and deceased fathers and brothers. All food is blessed by the priest. There is a very noticeable difference between dining with all the brethren and eating the same dishes separately (due to illness or obedience). And if the heart of the temple is the altar with the Holy See, then the heart of the kelar service, which is responsible for feeding the brethren, is, of course, the kitchen.
The kelar service occupies a separate (northern) wing of the inner monastic square. A large bright refectory that can accommodate about 200 people, a kitchen, two dishwashers, warehouses, a dairy, confectionery and vegetable shop, a refectory room, office space and workshops, a small laundry room - everything is under one roof. In the kelar service, only brothers, mostly laborers, will obey.
The kitchen is a bright room with high ceilings with an area of about 40 sq. M. Food is prepared on an electric stove (there is always a full-fledged wood-burning stove in reserve) and in a miracle machine that can bake, fry, cook, steam. There is also an industrial meat grinder in the kitchen, comfortable steel cutting tables, its own small sink and a wide variety of kitchen utensils. In the kitchen, as in most rooms of the kelar service, there was a broadcast from the temple. Therefore, the brethren who are busy preparing food during the service do not feel cut off from the general prayer meeting.
Until recently, 2 meals were established for the monastery brethren: lunch (on weekdays at 13:00, on vigil holidays - immediately after the end of the service) and dinner (immediately after the end of the evening service, at about 19:30). About a month ago, by 8:00 am, they began to serve breakfasts, mainly for those who, due to obedience, carry significant physical activity.
Two "teams" of cooks are engaged in cooking in shifts. Each consists of a cook and two assistants. The cooks are engaged only in preparing ready-made meals. The vegetables they need are cleaned in the vegetable shop, and the cooks take the dirty kitchen utensils to the sink. Tables are laid, bread is cut and fruits are laid out - refectory.
The personality of the cook, his inner state, and his attitude to other brothers play a key role in the whole process. One of the cooks, novice Igor, tells about his attitude to this difficult and responsible obedience.
Igor, how long have you been in the monastery and how did you get into the fraternal kitchen?
Fourth year. For a long time I combined the obedience of a stoker in the "Igumenskaya" hotel and an assistant librarian, then I was a milkman on a farm, and after health problems arose, I was returned to the Central Estate and was appointed an assistant cook. Several times I had to replace the cook, and two months later I myself had to lead one of the shifts.
Before the monastery, did you have any cooking experience?
Professional - no. I could cook something in "home" volumes, but not for one hundred or two hundred people. Therefore, at first, the most difficult thing was to calculate the amount of food needed to prepare the right number of servings. But over time, he got his hands on it.
What is the obedience regime?
We go into obedience in the evening: we prepare dinner, some dishes for breakfast, we make preparations for lunch. The starting time of the evening shift depends on the volume and complexity of the meals. Therefore, in the evening, obedience begins in the interval from three to four hours. Recently, we have been steaming or baking almost all of our main courses in a hot oven. Kelare strives to make the brethren's food as healthy as possible; we fry almost nothing, we use mainly olive oil. And this wonderful cabinet holds a limited amount of food, so it takes more time to cook. The morning shift starts at nine. The difficulty lies in the fact that few of the assistants stay in the kitchen for a long time. As a rule, recruits are assigned to this obedience. Only such a young brother, who never cooked anything at home, will master our specifics a little, as the term of his obedience in the monastery ends, and the next one must be taught. Therefore, you constantly have to monitor everything. Of course, among the recruits there are also smart guys who really like this obedience. They quickly learn everything, and then I can purposefully deal with one dish while preparing dinner and observe the general process. The evening shift ends by dinner, unless you need to cut fish for tomorrow (this is another hour or two), the day shift lasts until about two.
What are the busiest times of the year for the kitchen?
The most stressful work is when the full range of ingredients is used - fish, eggs, dairy products. And this happens during continuous weeks (Bright week, Shrovetide, from Christmas to Epiphany). On the contrary, it is easiest during Lent, especially in the first week, when only lunch is being prepared, and even then starting from Wednesday.
How tightly is your activity regulated by Kelarem?
There is no great freedom. There is a menu and recipe. The cook cannot invent and prepare new dishes without the blessing of the cellarer. The recipe is passed by word of mouth, so there are records. There is some freedom in the choice of spices and sauces. But in general, I have to cook exactly what is written in the menu and recipe, what was cooked before me, what the kelare says. I cannot go against obedience. Each chef, of course, has his own style: chop vegetables coarsely or finely, how much salt to add (I try to put less), but these are details.
Have you ever cooked a dish that you personally don't like at all?
- I somehow did not think about it. The process is more important to me. There are dishes that are more difficult for me - those that I have not cooked before. And I always get excited when I take a dish for the first time.
Is the reaction of the brothers important to you?
- Of course it is important. After all, everything is done with prayer and love. As the brother eats, so he will obey. With what mood he leaves the refectory, with such and will spend the rest of the day. Therefore, you try to cook both tastier and more, because the brothers are different in build and appetite.
Have you ever taken the initiative to cook some new dish?
- It happened to offer the kelare something new. He listens and accepts or does not accept my proposals.
You have two replacement assistants. How do you manage to get them to fulfill your requirements? After all, there are adults and independent people who believe that in their lives they have already learned "how to cut potatoes" and do not need additional instructions.
- Only patience. People did not come here to work, but to pray and learn to love their neighbor. In obedience I am an example for them. Up to fifteen times sometimes you have to say the same thing, to the point that you take the hand and say: "Let me show you how to cut." You cut out samples of vegetable preparations for him. If your brother is completely unbearable, then you simply entrust him with another matter. But I do not want to communicate sharply, to raise my voice. Maybe this is my personal opinion, but with what inner state a person leaves obedience (usually they are here for a short time), such will be his experience of communicating with people in the monastery. The more calmly and patiently you treat a person, the more patient he becomes, learns not to notice any human shortcomings and look more into himself and behind himself. It is also very important to establish relationships within the team, and if a person does not like something categorically, there is no need to force him. It is better to send him to pray once more than to achieve the fulfillment of the task at any cost. We are not in production, not at work, we are in a monastery, here the main tasks are completely different.
And it happened that the assistants let you down?
Everything happens to everyone. Especially at first, every beginner makes a lot of mistakes, you have to constantly watch, show and tell. If the assistant did something wrong, then you have to redo it for him, bring the dish to an "edible" state so as not to throw away the food. We are not professionals, and we did not come here to learn to "cut vegetables". If the assistant is mistaken, you start showing him several times, asking if he understood. Sometimes my brother gets nervous - yes, I understand, I understand - and then again he makes the same mistake. Obedience to cooking is very responsible. Although it is not visible to everyone. You do this not for one particular person, but for everyone. To make everyone like it. You do not expect praise, of course, this is not a monastery. But I really want everything to be always on the level.
Have you had any personal food problems? After all, you can eat as much as you like, choose the best piece for yourself. Do you eat with the brethren in the refectory or in the kitchen?
Personally, you cannot cook anything for yourself without the blessing of the cellarer, neither for me nor for the assistants. If there is no time, then you can eat in the kitchen, but only what is prepared for everyone. At the same time, the best is put on the table so that it looks beautiful and is pleasant, so that it is both appetizing and tasty. You take leftovers for yourself, substandard. I did not think about a tidbit for myself. Food is food.
But what if you are asked to eat by other "workers" of the kelar service: dishwashers, milkmen ...
- Give without refusal, but remind: take, but there is a common meal. Lunch at the monastery - continuation of the service. We should all go to lunch. Washers and refectory do not have time to eat properly, so you leave them. I cannot refuse. For those who are attracted by delicious smells - I give it a try, but I definitely ask you to go to a brotherly dinner.
What gives you the greatest joy in this obedience?
- When the brothers come out of the refectory and smile. We, unfortunately, do not lie crosswise at the exit from the refectory, as they write about it in the patericons. I would like to look brothers in the eye: did you like it? When the brothers are happy after the meal, it is a sign to me that obedience is well done.
What is the biggest burden?
- At first, when I myself became a cook, there was constant dissatisfaction with myself: I do not know how to do this, it would be better for me to do what is well given and bring great benefit monastery. When you come to the kitchen and do not know elementary things, an internal murmur arises, a desire to go to the confessor with the thought of changing obedience. Then, after praying, you say to yourself: “Who should do this? If I don't cook dinner today, then a hundred or two hundred people will go hungry. " From such thoughts it becomes very uncomfortable. After all, many of the brothers are tired, they are physically strenuous ... Therefore, most of all, the situation of uncertainty, fear of causing trouble for the brothers due to inexperience, is oppressive. Now the kelare is introducing new recipes. So I look at the menu for the week and see a new dish. How to cook it? Sometimes even familiar dishes may not work out due to the quality of the products. Again, an inner murmur and excitement rises. Having prayed to the Mother of God, you pull yourself together and do not relax. Obedience is very responsible. At first I even thought that it was one of the most difficult. Now, of course, it's easier. And at first it was very hard both physically and mentally, I had to constantly be on my toes. After all, assistants watch how you behave in stressful situations. You cannot answer rudely, look unfriendly. You try to do everything with a joke, with a smile: “It didn’t work out - don’t worry, it will work out next time, but remember that you have to do it this way, in this proportion.” When you do everything with prayer and do not give vent to negative emotions, everything eventually falls into place.
Considering all the difficulties you mentioned, did you have a desire to ask for another obedience?
This should be treated as obedience, not as an optional job.
Imagine that you will meet your monastic old age in this kitchen. Not sad from such thoughts?
Somehow I didn't think about it. If you take a responsible attitude even to an unloved business, then over time it becomes a favorite. There is also handicraft, so it’s not boring or sad.
Valaam monastery
Despite the fact that in modern Old Believer calendars there are precise indications regarding fasting and fast days of the year, the true Old Russian traditions of eating and fasting are still little known. Today we will talk about how we fasted in the monasteries of the Russian Church before the Church schism, and on the basis of ancient documents we will reconstruct the now forgotten monastery dishes.
Small Household Charter
The nutritional guidelines of the modern Old Believer calendars of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, the Russian Old Orthodox Church, the Old Orthodox Pomeranian Church relate to the use of certain types of products during the church year. Attention is focused mainly on five parameters of the meal:
food is meager;
food with fish;
food with butter;
food without oil(meaning without vegetable oil);
xerophagy(these days, this means uncooked food, fresh vegetables or fruits).
All of these indications are believed to be taken from " Small domestic charter»- a book compiled in the 19th century and became a kind of collection of statutory prescriptions concerning fasting, meals and cell prayer. And although there is an opinion that the "Small Domestic Rule" unites a certain amount of pre-schismatic church tradition, including the customs of ancient Russian monasteries and parish churches, in fact, its instructions go back mainly to one book - the Typikon ("Church Eye"), published in 1641 under Patriarch Joseph and, according to legend, associated with the ancient charter of the Jerusalem monastery. It should be noted that the New Believer charter in terms of fasting does not differ in any way from the Old Believer. They are completely identical, since they have the same primary source.
Pea brat
However, neither in the Small Domestic Statute, let alone in the modern Old Believer calendars, it is impossible to find information directly related to the food tradition of pre-split Russia. What did ordinary people eat in Russia on holidays and fasting, what did the clergy eat, and what did the boyars eat? What dishes were served in the numerous monasteries? Almost nothing is known about this, and studies and documents that speak about it are scarcely available. Small remarks, occasionally published in popular historical literature, provide very modest information on this topic and are mainly limited to general words about the piety of ancient Russia. Oddly enough, foreigners are usually quoted in such cases. Thus, speaking about the diet of Great Lent, one usually recalls the writings of the archdeacon Pavel Aleppsky visiting from Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch, at the invitation of Patriarch Nikon, Moscow in 1654-1656:
“During this post, we endured great torment with him, imitating them (the Russians - ed.) Against his will, especially in food: we did not find any other food, except for a smear, similar to boiled peas and beans, because in this post, in general, absolutely do not eat oil. For this reason, we experienced indescribable anguish. "
Also, information sometimes slips that in northern monasteries, like Solovetsky, “dry” (dried fish) was allowed during Lent, because there was absolutely no bread in those places, and the monks were forced to eat fish. However, in the absence of widely known and published historical documents, information about "sushi", like any other fish used in Great and Dormition fasts, is criticized by some zealots. According to such authors, the Studian Rite, which really allowed the repeated use of fish during Great Lent (not only on the Annunciation, but also on the day of 40 martyrs, the acquisition of the head of St. John the Baptist, St. Alexis, the man of God, the righteous Lazarus and some others) has not been used in Russia for a long time. They note that even centuries before the church schism, the ban on fish in monastic establishments fully corresponded to the requirements of modern church calendars, and in Great Lent, the main dish was really the pea brat, mentioned by Paul of Aleppo.
Secrets of monastic everyday life
Unfortunately, it so happened that there is no complete research work, dedicated to the daily meal in ancient Russia, both monastic and parish, in different strata, different classes of the population. In order to compile such a study, you need to study dozens, if not hundreds of documents. To a large extent, the documents of the monasteries have survived to this day. These are various kinds of inventories, everyday life and charters. It takes years to study all the surviving ones, so let's try to see what lies on the surface. On the website of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in the section "The main collection of the library of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra", we find the "Obikhodnik" of 1645. It contains not only liturgical instructions, but also food instructions. We find there an indication of the food regulations for the first Saturday of Great Lent:
« For the brethren, boiled with butter, and rubbed dry in a sour brew, not fish. And we will drink the wine that has been established for the glory of God, even if two cups each come. Likewise, in the evening, two bowls. For the evening cabbage soup and dry peas with a lot of butter mixed».
What conclusions can be drawn from this? Sushi (dried fish), as you can see, was used not only in the regions of the far north, where "there is absolutely no bread", but also, as we see, in the central monastery of the Russian state. The indication "dry, not fish" clearly means that in other places (which are not indicated) fresh fish was allowed, and the indication was made to avoid mistakes in the preparation according to the monastery charter of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Unfortunately, the popular before the split “sushi” (dried fish) is not mentioned at all in church calendars today, although you can buy it in most Russian grocery stores. You can also pay attention to the substantial number of bowls of wine used in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery.
In the "Obikhodnik" of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery there are not many indications of an everyday nature. But there are other "Obikhodniki", with a more detailed description of household regulations. One of them belongs to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery.
This document is well known and was even published by the Indrik publishing house in 2002. This "Obikhodnik" provides a detailed list of almost every day of Great Lent, as well as other days of the church year. Skipping divine service instructions, let's look at the refectory regulations of this famous monastery concerning the second week of Great Lent.
On Monday: In those days, the brethren eat bratsk bread, rocket, kvass in bowls, in bowls in large water, cabbage crumbled with horseradish, oatmeal, turnip, or mushrooms or milk mushrooms under garlic. And on which days the brethren are dry, then there is no serving and a bowl of kvass.
Tuesday: Brothers yasti in a table for loaf of bratsky bread, crackers, borscht soup with juice, kvass from a smaller cellar in large bowls, peas or porridge is juicy. If on this Tuesday or on which other days of Great Lent the Acquisition of the head of Ivan the Forerunner, or the 40 martyr, or new saints: Euthymius of Novgorod, Demetrius of Prilutskago, Alexei Metropolitan, Macarius Kolyazinsky, Metropolitan Jonah, then eat bread in large bowls of egg , shti, lips in juice or greta cabbage with butter, grated peas with butter, caviar or korowai, soaked porridge or pea noodles with pepper, serving cheetzu.
On Wednesday: Dry-eating yasti: bratskie bread, ratka, kvass in bowls, large bowls of water, cabbage with horseradish, oatmeal, turnip or mushrooms or milk mushrooms with garlic.
On Thursday: Yasti in a table for a loaf of bratsky bread, borscht soup, rusks, bratskoy kvass, peas or juicy porridge.
On the heels: Yasti is dry-eating: bratsky breads, after kvass, in large bowls of water, cabbage with horseradish, oatmeal, turnips or mushrooms with garlic in mies.
On Saturday: They serve as a cathedral for Tsar Ivan, for his burial for the brethren, food: white bread, a bowl of counterfeit kvass, shti with pepper, tavranchug sturgeon or porridge with salmon, grated peas with butter, caviar or korovai, pies, but if korovai, otherwise there are no pies ... They make food for people. In supper, bratskaya bread, shti, kvass in large bowls from a smaller cellar, according to the rate of kvass.
In the 2nd week of fasting: Yasti white bread, shti, egg kvass in a bowl, lips in juice or gheta cabbage with butter, grated peas with butter, caviar or korowai, Gorokhov's porridge or burdock with pepper. The same days in the supper, bratsky bread, shti, in a bowl of barley kvass in large bowls, in the stavtsekh kvass.
What's interestnigwe seeabout the pre-schismatic monastery life, in terms of modern clichés?
Firstly Although the Kirillov Monastery belongs to the northern monasteries, there was bread at the meal of the monks. And there was no shortage of it. On holidays, instead of rye, white bread or pies were served, the filling of which depended on the charter of the day.
Secondly... The monastic meal was very varied, not only on fast days, but even on the strictest fast. In the harsh days of "dry eating", a sufficient choice of dishes was offered: "bratskie bread, roretta, kvass in large bowls, water in large bowls, cabbage with horseradish, oatmeal, turnip or mushrooms or milk mushrooms under garlic." This, by the way, partly refutes the story of Archdeacon Pavel Allepsky about the extreme severity and intolerance of Russian fasting.
On holidays, fast days in the Cyril Monastery there was the following painting of dishes. The first dish consisted of ear soup (soup), cabbage soup or cabbage soup, cabbage soup with pepper, cabbage soup with pepper and eggs; tavranchuga (soup): fish and turnip. Second course: porridge, peas, pea flour noodles, mushrooms: salted, dried, in their own juice. A special article was a variety of fresh, dried, salted, dried fish, the quality of which was incomparably higher than the modern one; black and red caviar, rolls, pies with various fillings: berry, vegetable, mushroom and fish; pancakes, milk, cheese, etc.
In addition, according to the decisions of the Stoglav Council, in some cases, other indulgences were allowed in monasteries:
Yes, in great and honest monasteries, princes and boyars and commanding people, great and weak, or in old age, cut their hair, and give the great couples and patrimonial villages according to their souls and their parents in an eternal commemoration, and for those for weakness and old age, laws should not be put on refectory walking and eating in cells; Quiet them according to reason with food and drink, about such keep kvass sweet, and stale, and acidic - whoever demands what, and the food is the same, or they have their own peace, or a message from their parents and that they should not be tortured.
Thirdly. Important role kvass played at the monastery meal... It was served on almost all fast days, not to mention the sooner days. Even on Great Saturday, after the setting of the sun, the brethren would give counterfeit kvass at a rate and on an ukruh (bun) "for the sake of bodily strength, and not for love of love and nourishment of the gut." Everyday kvass is called ordinary, fraternal. According to the researcher T.I. Shablova, fraternal kvass probably means the simplest and most inexpensive oat and rye kvass. Festive kvass were of 4 varieties: honey (honey, honey), counterfeit (barley, mixed in half with honey), barley (yak, wheat) and polian (probably barley mixed with oat or rye). Kvass was served in bowls or staves (a glass-type vessel) with a volume of about 150 grams. Today kvass and mead have practically disappeared from church life, they have become secular drinks.
Fourth... In the middle of the weeks of Great Lent, on revered holidays, caviar was delivered. In the charter of the Kirillov Monastery, such holidays were: "the heads of Ivan the Baptist, or 40 martyrs, or new saints: Euthymius of Novgorod, Demetrius Prilutskago, Metropolitan Alexei, Makarii Kolyazinsky, Metropolitan Jonah." Also, caviar was supplied on Palm Sunday along with fish. The rudiments of this ancient tradition can be observed in individual Old Believer parishes, where it is allowed to cook fish on patronal holidays "if the abbot blesses".
Fifth. On all Saturdays of Great Lent (except for Great Saturday, which, in fact, does not apply to the four-month period), fish was supplied to the Kirillov Monastery. Instructions about fish are also found in the charter of Palm Sunday:
Food for the brethren: white bread, frying pans with ear or shti with pepper, fake kvass, two fish, pancakes with honey, bowls similar. The same days in the supper, bratsky bread, shti, as yak kvass in large bowls, two fish, topping.
The fish table was timed, as a rule, for funeral feeds: 1 and 2 Saturdays - according to Tsar Ivan the Terrible, 3 and 5 - according to Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich (son of John IV and Anastasia Romanovna), and the 4th - according to Hegumen Christopher (3- th abbot of the monastery, disciple of St. Cyril). In addition, on the 1st Sunday of Great Lent, there was healthy food for the king, also with fish. In total, according to Kirillov's charter, fish was supplied 8 times during Great Lent.
Tavranchuk. Recipe
One of the most interesting and mysterious dishes mentioned in the "Obikhodnik" of the Kirillov Monastery is called "tavranchuk". Soviet historian V.V. Pokhlebkin(1923-2000) tells about this dish this way:
“There are both meat and fish tavranchuks, because the meaning of this dish is not in its nutritional composition, but in the method of preparation. It is more correct to call it taganchuk - what is cooked in tagan, that is, in a ceramic, clay pan-bowl, in a crucible. Tavranchuks were cooked in pots, in a Russian oven, with long-term simmering. The liquid medium was minimal: for fish, a little water, sometimes half a glass of milk, onions, roots - parsley, dill; for meat - a glass of kvass, onions, pickles and the same herbs. Different fish were chosen: pike perch, pike, perch, carp; meat - mostly lamb brisket.
The pot was placed in the oven, and as soon as it warmed up (after a few minutes), it was poured on top with beaten eggs (for fish tavranchuk) or, in addition, they tied the throat of the pot with a rag, which was covered with dough. Then the tavranchuk sealed in this way was placed in a heated oven for several hours to simmer. The elimination of the Russian oven, first in the cities, and then in the countryside, led to the disappearance of tavranchuk as a dish, because in other conditions, in a different way, this dish did not turn out tasty».
In the "Obikhodnik" of the Kirillov Monastery, tavranchuk is mentioned quite often. But interestingly enough, it was prepared for the Saturday meals of Great Lent as one of the options for a fish dish: “ tavranchug sturgeon or porridge with salmon". By the monastery tavranchuk, one should understand the fish tavranchuk, without meat, sour cream and other products that can be used only on short days. Here are the main ingredients of tavranchuk, a dish very popular in the 17th century monastery diet.
It is better to wash and soak salted milk mushrooms before cooking, because there is already a sufficient amount in pickled cucumbers. Also, parsley root, celery root, black pepper, currant or bay leaves, onions are used as ingredients - depending on desire and taste.
All this is cut into cubes.
The prepared products are stacked in layers in a pot or cauldron, and then placed in a Russian oven, as an option, in an oven at a temperature of 170 degrees and languishing for several hours. Some recipes suggest adding additional water or kvass. Others advise simmering in their own juice, adding vegetable oil.
There are many tavranchuk recipes on the network with the indicated proportions of products, which, however, differ significantly from each other and not all of them are equally good. Much depends on the amount of liquid, temperature and simmering time in the oven. However, with the proper skill, experience and, most importantly, desire, you can try a real monastery dish that our ancestors ate in the 15th-17th centuries.
Everyday life Russian medieval monastery Romanenko Elena Vladimirovna
Chapter 9 The Monastic Meal
Monastic meal
Deanery charter
For a long time, there has been a saying in Russia: “They don’t go to someone else’s monastery with their own charter.” The statutes of different communal monasteries were really very different from each other. But, despite all the differences, there were a number of general strict rules that formed the basis of order in any cinematography. These rules included the obligatory common meal: everyone, from the hegumen to the novice, had to eat at a common meal and not keep anything, not even drinking water, in their cells.
This rule greatly distinguished the cynovia from the special monastery, where each ate separately, in accordance with his personal wealth, as well as from the suite, where the monks received food from the abbot, but each prepared their own food separately and ate in their cells, with the exception of large holidays.
The rules of conduct for a common meal were the same for all monks. The first and main thing is to always remain satisfied with the offered "food": "what they put on, do not grumble about that." Food and drink were given to all the same and in equal quantities. The monks began to eat only after the abbot "laid his hand on a meal or a drink." Everyone sat in silence and listened attentively to the reader, who, with the blessing of the abbot, read the lives of the saints or the works of the holy fathers. For laughing and talking in the refectory in the Volokolamsk monastery, they were punished with a penance of 50 bows or one day of dry eating. Only the abbot, the cellarer and the chaplains were allowed to speak at the meal, and even then only about what was necessary.
At the table, everyone looked in front of him, and not to the sides, he did not take anything from the other brother and did not put his own in front of him, so as not to lead the neighbor into the sin of gutting. Those who showed inappropriate curiosity or care for another monk, according to the charter of the Volokolamsk monastery, were punished with one day of dry food or penance of fifty prostrations to the earth. The monk had to know "his contentment" (his measure) and "not to ask", as well as "not to ask for comfort (consolation, some delicacy. - E.R.) or cakes ”(that which was burnt and was not served on the table). In the event that the refectory himself (the clerk at the meal) offered an addition or some additional dish, it was supposed to quietly and humbly answer: "God's will, sir, and yours!" If the monk did not want more, then he would say: “That's enough for me, master” (that is, that's enough for me, master).
Even if the monk was sick and could not eat what all the brethren ate, he did not dare to ask, but waited for the servant himself to ask him what he wanted. Hearing the question, the ailing monk answered: "Give, for God's sake, this or that." If he didn’t want anything at all, then he said: “I don’t want anything, sir” ( RSL. Und. No. 52. Sheet 365).
In the monastery, the following situation could well have happened: the service book, out of forgetfulness or wanting to test the patience of his brother, carried the monk around, that is, did not give any food or drink. There are many such stories in the ancient patericons; in a similar way, the elders tested the patience of not only new-born monks, but also experienced ascetics. The Monk John Climacus observed in the monastery of Saint John Savvait how the abbot called to him at the beginning of the meal the eighty-year-old Elder Lawrence, whitened with gray hair. He approached and, bowing to the abbot to the ground, took the blessing. But when the elder got up, the abbot said nothing to him, and he remained standing still. The dinner lasted an hour or two, and Elder Lavrenty still stood there without an answer or greeting. The Monk John of the Ladder writes in his "Ladder" that he was even ashamed to look at the elder. When dinner was over and everyone got up, the abbot dismissed the elder ( Ladder. P. 30).
According to monastery rules, if a monk was surrounded at a meal, he had to meekly sit at the table and not ask for anything. And only in case of extreme hunger or thirst could he say to the employee: "They did not give me, sir," ( RSL. Und. No. 52. L. 365 rev.). But this is only as a last resort.
Monks were forbidden to be late for a meal without a blessed reason. In the Volokolamsk monastery, latecomers were punished with a day of dry food or bows, number 50. If a monk did not have time to eat for prayer for some worthy reason, then, entering, he stood silently and waited for the servants to give him a meal. And if they didn’t, then he humbly chewed bread and salt and waited while all the brethren ate.
The most severe punishment was imposed on those who brought something of their own to the meal or, conversely, took it out, hiding it at lunch or dinner. The monk of the Volokolamsk monastery, who came to the meal with his "food", received a penance of one hundred prostrations to the earth. If any of the monks took something at the meal without the blessing of the abbot or cellarer and repented of it, he did not dare to touch the shrine: to eat the antidor, “the bread of the Mother of God,” prosphora, until he received forgiveness. If a monk was convicted of sin by other monks, then he was punished with dry food for five days. In the case of repeated repetition of such a sin, the monk was expelled from the monastery or imprisoned in iron chains ( VMCH. September. Stb. P. 12).
Apart from lunch and dinner, the monk was not allowed to eat or drink anything, not even berries in the forest or vegetables in the garden. In case of thirst, the monk could, after asking the elder's blessings, go to the refectory and drink water there. If after lunch or dinner a monk needed to visit another monk or elder in his cell, and he wanted to treat him with some kind of "food, or drink, or vegetable," then the monk had to refuse such consolation: "I dare not, sir, do not urge me, for God's sake. " The elders taught the novices that such hospitality is not brotherly love, but an enemy (demonic) attempt to lead a monk into sin; true monastic brotherly love consists in loving everyone equally and moving away from everyone ( RSL. Und. No. 52. Sheet 368 rev.).
It would seem a simple rule - there is only a common meal. But from the lives of the saints it is clear how much strength the abbot needed to keep this order inviolable. In the Volokolamsk monastery, those who were seen in such a sin were deprived of the shrine until they received forgiveness from the abbot. And having received forgiveness, the monk had to put a hundred bows to the ground in his cell in order to completely blot out the sin. If a monk did not bring repentance, but was denounced by someone else, then the punishment increased threefold: the monk received a penance of three hundred bows or "ate dryly" for three days. If this was repeated, then he was expelled from the monastery.
However, there were times when gluttons were miraculously healed of sin. And this punishment turned out to be the most effective. Two monks from the monastery of the Monk Paul of Obnorsk at one time left the monastery and asceticised for a long time in the monastery of the special nuns. Then they returned to their monastery, but did not abandon their old habits. One day the monks decided to prepare food for themselves in their cell. One stayed to cook in a pot, while the other went to the refectory to secretly get some bread. When the second monk returned, he saw that his friend was lying on the floor, and foam was flowing from his mouth. The frightened monk in an instant realized his sin and mentally called to the Monk Paul of Obnorsk, asking them to forgive. As proof of his remorse, he grabbed the ill-fated pot and, throwing it over the threshold, began kicking it with the words: "I will never do this again until the end of my life" ( VMCH. January. Stb. 547). Another monk of the same monastery was undergoing obedience in a brewery and decided to make kvass for himself. Taking a bucket of wort, he carried it to his cell, but he had to go past the tomb of the Monk Paul of Obnorsk. Here his arms and legs suddenly weakened, he screamed out of fear and began to beg the monk for forgiveness. He ran to his cell safe and sound, but without a bucket, and the next morning he repented to the abbot.
These stories ended well, but another monk of the Obnorsky monastery - Mitrofan - remained a cripple until the end of his life for secretly eating and drinking in his cell. Once, when Mitrofan was standing in the church at the service, suddenly his arms and legs became weak and he fell. The brethren served a prayer service for his health to the Monk Paul and the Holy Trinity, after which the monk felt better and was able to repent. As a result, he could move, but one arm and leg were never healed for the edification of the rest of the brethren ( In the same place. Stb. 540).
In order not to allow idle curiosity, discontent and not to lead the monks to the sin of secret feeding, the monks were not allowed to enter the refectory during the day idle and blessing. At the refectory, there were so-called shegnushi - pantries in which kvass and all kinds of food were kept. At the appointed time, the monks gathered on the porch of the shegnushi to drink kvass, but at the same time, long standing at the shegnushi or idle conversations were forbidden. In addition, it was also not allowed to enter the shagnusha itself. Shegnusha communicated with the refectory through a service passage, which was intended only for servicemen. Monks entered the refectory either from the courtyard through the porch, or through the church doors, if the refectory was arranged at the church.
About meal time
The meal time probably differed in different monasteries. But you can imagine a rough schedule for the meal at the Moscow Novospassky Monastery. This routine was entirely determined by the divine service: the more significant the holiday was, the earlier the meal began on that day. On Sundays and on great holidays, dinner was arranged quite early - at the end of the third hour of the day (that is, about ten in the morning according to our calculation), since on these days, according to the charter, dinner was also allowed. On Saturdays, lunch began a little later - at the beginning of the fifth hour of the day (that is, at the beginning of twelve, if the sunrise on that day was about seven in the morning). On major holidays, the meal was at six o'clock in the afternoon, that is, at about one in the afternoon (according to our calculation). On small holidays or fast days, when one meal was supposed to be held, it was arranged in the middle of the day - at nine o'clock, that is, at about four in the evening (according to our calculation) or even later. At the same time - at nine o'clock in the afternoon - lunch began with the Nativity Fast (in reality it meant about five or six in the evening) and Petrov Lent (about two o'clock in the afternoon, if you count from sunrise).
In monasteries, two meals at different times were always held. For the first, the monks and the abbot ate, for the second (last) the cellarer, the reader, and all the ministers who served the monks at the meal: a large stretcher, "smaller stretchers", a chalice (a monk in charge of drinks and a cellar), a collar (a kind of clerk; the one who "turned up the business"), as well as the monks who were late for the meal. The weak or sick monks ate in their cells or in the hospital during the first meal. They were brought food by large and smaller stretchers, and specially assigned service workers served them in hospitals. If the sick monk wanted to taste something else during the day, then with the blessing of the hegumen and the elders of the cathedral, he was served by a large stretcher: he took food from the sub-calary, and from the cup he brought drink to the patient. Also, the carrier, with the permission of the abbot, carried food to those monks who, for some reason, did not have enough food at the common meal.
During the second meal, the servants who were responsible for preparing food also dined and dined: the sub-kelarnik (assistant to the cellarer), who was in charge of the kitchen utensils warehouse and the tent, from which food was handed out for part of the brethren - apparently, the “second shift” and for guests; "Cookery vytchik" (howl - length, section; vytchik - the one who is responsible for a certain section of the cooking process); shtevar (you can definitely say that he cooked jelly, maybe also cabbage soup?); podashnik (assistant to the cup holder); refectory. All these service books were eaten in the closet. Separately, the last meal was served for the laity, servants, monastery artisans, Cossacks, who were served by the refectory. In addition, in the monastery refectory, on general rule of all monasteries, the beggars were always fed. There was even such a thing as "note beggars", that is, those who were assigned and regularly fed at the monastery. In the 16th century, in the Volokolamsk monastery, from 20 to 50-60 "noteworthy beggars" or "as many as God will send" passing by were fed daily.
Refectory interior
They liked to arrange refectory chambers in monasteries at temples. It was convenient: warm air from the basement of the refectory was supplied to the church and heated it. Such a church was called warm, "winter", and usually all the monastic services were held in it in the winter season. In the 16th century, stone one-pillar refectories were built in rich monasteries: the cylindrical vaults rested on a large pillar in the center of the chamber. One of the first such refectory at the church was arranged in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery in 1519. It was a rectangle, the eastern wall of which divided the church and the refectory. In this wall there was a door through which the monks, after the church service, could immediately go to lunch. An iconostasis was always arranged on the eastern wall, so that the refectory itself was like a church, and some of the services, as we saw above, were held in it. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, in the iconostasis of the refectory, there was a deesis, to the left and to the right of the door - local icons, and above the door - a large crucifixion of the Lord, on the pillar - the image of Hodegetria with saints and monks (according to the inventory of 1601). A large brass chandelier hung in front of the Deesis, and a set candle stood in front of the local icons. The illumination of a rather large chamber was so meager. In the refectory there were tables, decorated with tablecloths (for ordinary days and holidays, their own tablecloths were relied on), and benches. According to some researchers, there were six people at each table in the Kirillov refectory, since some dishes were prepared and served for six people: for Easter, “six eggs in a rassol”, baked “six-loaf bread” ( Shablova. About the meal. P. 27).
The quality of the dishes used at the meal depended on the wealth of the monastery. They liked to paint wooden dishes: plates, brothers, ladles, spoons, ladle handles were decorated with carvings. The monastery inventories list spoons and ladles of various shapes: onion spoons (similar in shape to a turnip, resembled a flattened ball, decorated with fish-tooth cuttings, "padded"; ladles - burls (made of burls - a growth on a birch), onions, elms ( elm - one of the most flexible trees, except for dishes made of it rims, runners, etc.) - ladles, hollowed out of the rhizome of a tree and covered with linseed oil. In the Kirillo-Belozersk Monastery, monks ate from birch plates, dishes; kvass was poured in ladles into the staves (stavets is a cup, like a glass, a cylindrical "vessel with a flat bottom" - see: Zabelin. P. 90) or bros (bro - a large tub-shaped cup with an overhead lid). The feet were also used for drinking (large metal glasses without a handle, expanding upward). Cooked was brought in "pickles" (a deep dish with a lid), "pots", "on a mise"; drink - in "copper yandov" (yandova is a copper vessel, aged inside, with a handle and a stigma), bowls.
Favorite dishes
An invariable dish of the monastic diet was cabbage soup, which was eaten almost every day: both on fasting and non-fasting days (except for dry eating days), on holidays. Cabbage soup was cooked from fresh white cabbage, "borscht" (that is, with borscht - sauerkraut), with sour (sorrel), seasoned with pepper, served with eggs on Easter and other holidays. Sometimes cabbage soup was replaced by tavranchug - a special stew of fish or turnip or "ear" - ear.
If, according to the statute, two "brews" were allowed, then the second "boiled food" was usually porridge. The monastery table is aptly characterized by the old Russian proverb - "cabbage soup and porridge - our food." Porridge could be replaced by another "food": "baty peas" or "gypsy" peas (thick peas), cabbage, pea or sour noodles. The most varied was the meal on non-fasting days and holidays.
The most important and favorite food was, of course, fish. The fish table of rich monasteries was distinguished by a great variety. In the glaciers of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery in 1601, barrels of "sudochina, hazel, pike", salmon, black caviar were kept; here were the "long sturgeons" from the Volga and Shekhonskie (from the Sheksna River). In the dryers above the glaciers, there was a stock of dried and dried fish: "lamellus, cane, pike, sterlet", salmon, many bunches of vyzigi (tendon of red fish), noun small and smelt, and "I pray for Zaozersky".
In the everyday life of the Novospassky Monastery, salmon, white fish, sturgeon, beluzhina, stellate sturgeon, pike, pike perch, noun, sterlet are mentioned, black and red caviar - whitefish. Sterlet in this monastery was considered a "common fish", it was served mainly to monastery servants and wanderers ( CHOIDR. 1890. Book. 2.S. 2).
Fish dishes were also very varied, but most of all they loved fried fresh fish, which was served in pans on great holidays. In addition, the fish was baked on wire racks, boiled and served with broth, mustard and horseradish. Freshly salted fish was a rare treat and was served only a few times a year, even in such a rich monastery as Joseph Volotsky. The favorite fish dish of the monks of the Kirillo-Belozersk monastery was "krushki". At the cellarer's notes, the days when "the crucifixes live on the brethren" are especially marked. It is difficult to say what this dish was, but judging by the fact that the word "crunchy" in the old Russian language means brittle, crunchy, apparently, it was thinly sliced fish, fried until crispy. When they fried the "krushki", they were hung with a canvas, apparently from splashes of boiling oil.
Among the fish dishes in monastic everyday life are also mentioned "sturgeon heads", fried bream "with a body with broth and pepper", "ladoghina with vinegar", pies with vyzigas, "loaves" with fish, black caviar with onions and red with pepper. Several varieties of porridge with fish were cooked in the Novospassky Monastery: porridge with pieces of salmon, porridge with smelt, porridge with vandyshi (small fish), porridge with a head (with heads and cartilaginous parts of fish), porridge with navels, porridge in the ear "( CHOIDR. 1890. Book. 2.P. 2).
The monastic table was significantly diversified by different sorts of pies (with cheese, cabbage, carrots, peas, porridge, mushrooms), loaves (beaten with carrots, turnips), rolls, pancakes, pancakes, "brushwood".
The favorite drink in the monasteries was traditionally kvass; on holidays it was drunk at lunch and dinner and before Compline. In addition, in the Volokolamsk Monastery, starting from the Meeting and until the very feast of the Intercession of the Virgin (October 1), the brethren were allowed to drink kvass even at noon (except for the first and Passion weeks, as well as fast days of Great Lent). At the Meeting, according to folk signs, the sun turns to summer, the day is significantly lengthened, so the brethren received permission for an additional bowl of kvass. “And from Pokrova to Sreten'ev, they don't drink kvass at noon, pamper (because. - E.R.) the day is small ”, - said in the daily routine of the Volokolamsk monastery ( Gorsky. P. 394).
Kvass was prepared in several varieties. In the Volokolamsk monastery, barley and oat kvass was used as the most popular, on more solemn days - "sychenoy" - from sity (sweet wort, which was made from flour and malt) and honey. There was also "treacle kvass", which was served on great holidays. Treated kvass was prepared from pure, unheated honey - gravity flowing from combs. Monastic kvass was appreciated not only as a tasty, but also extremely "energetic" drink, necessary to maintain strength. So, on the days of extended services (on the twelve great feasts and days with an all-night vigil), priests, deacons, head-bearers (kliros monks) and the preceptor received additional bowls of honey kvass “in the cellar”, and the psalmists received “fake kvass”. The same kvass was relied on for large servicemen and sick brethren in hospitals. The rest of the brethren received "similar bowls". "Good" kvass was a consolation on holidays. So, on the feasts of the Dormition, the Monk Cyril of Belozersky, the Introduction, on the days of the tsar's angels and members of the royal family at dinner, an additional cup of health was relied for the name-book with honey kvass ( Shablova. About the meal. P. 31).
Honey kvass was fermented in two ways: 1) hops and yeast; 2) a simple soft roll ( In the same place. P. 41. Approx. 23). In the first case, hop kvass was obtained, in the second - ordinary. In those monasteries where "drunken" drinking was forbidden, kvass was fermented with kalach. In "Domostroy" recipes for the preparation of various kvass, including the usual honey kvass, are described: “And honey sate kvass is simple: take molasses for honey in four; Yes, strain with a sieve cleanly, and put in a measuring vessel (vessel - E.R.), and add a simple mash of kalach, without yeast, and when it turns sour, pour it into barrels ”( In the same place. P. 42. Approx. 23).
In 1550, the Stoglavy Cathedral banned the preparation of intoxicating kvass in monasteries and keeping hot wine, but this rule was often violated. Thus, in the 17th century, some of the Solovetsky monks, contrary to the ancient charter of the monastery, used to take out sympathetic kvass from the refectory and ferment it with yeast in their cells. It got to the point that in 1637 Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich sent a special letter to the Solovetsky abbot demanding to eradicate this pernicious custom ( Dosifei. T. 3.P. 270). In those monasteries where alcoholic beverages were allowed (sometimes by special order of the bishop), they made intoxicated honey and beer. In the 17th century, Athanasius, Archbishop of Kholmogorsk and Vazhsky, allowed the Krasnogorsk Monastery to brew five brews of beer a year for the brethren and "honor" of visiting bosses and noble people: the first - for the feast of the Nativity of Christ, the second - for the Great Zagovna, the third - for Easter, the fourth - to Trinity Day and the fifth - to the patronal feast of the Georgian Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, but it was not allowed to buy wine in the monastery, both before and in the future ( Description of the Krasnogorsk monastery. P. 31).
According to the ancient statutes of Iosifo-Volotskiy, Kirillo-Belozerskiy, Nilo-Sorskiy, Kornilievo-Komelskiy monasteries, in these monasteries "drinking, which has drunkenness, did not keep anyone." However, in the 16th century, in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, the behest of its founder was no longer fulfilled; on the twelve great and great holidays, the brethren regularly received a cup of wine.
Special note
Russian monks never used meat. According to ancient regulations, it was strictly forbidden to even bring meat to the territory of the monastery or cook it in the monastery kitchen. How strict this rule was is confirmed by a miracle from the Life of the Monk Paphnutius of Borovsky that happened to the famous icon painter Dionysius. He was invited along with his retinue to paint a new stone church in the monastery. The icon painters lived in a village not far from the monastery. Since they were worldly people, the Monk Paphnutius commanded them not to bring any of their food to the monastery. Once the icon painters forgot about the commandment of the monk and, going to the monastery to work, took with them a leg of lamb stuffed with eggs. In the evening they sat down to supper, Dionysius was the first to taste. It is not difficult to imagine his state when he saw worms instead of eggs in a ram's leg. The dogs threw their leg outside the monastery, but after this meal the artist fell seriously ill. His whole body was covered with scabs so that he could not move. Realizing his sin, Dionysius repented before the monk. He, who taught the icon painter the edification not to violate the monastic rules in the future, commanded to hit the beater and call the brethren for a prayer service for water. With blessed water, Dionysius wiped his entire body and, exhausted after the service, fell asleep. He woke up already completely healthy ( Life of Pafnutiy Borovsky. P. 125). The worldly people who worked for the monastery, on non-fast days, when hard work happened, were fed meat dishes. In the Kirillov Monastery, they were given meat "for a hryvnia" (in total there were 51 days a year when a meat-eater was allowed - see: Shablova. About the meal. P. 27). But if in the 16th century meat was cooked and eaten outside the monastery, then in the 17th century this prohibition no longer worked, and secular monastic people could eat meat at the second monastic meal.
Breads, cooks, breweries
The preparation of "food" in large monasteries with numerous brethren and pilgrims was laborious and difficult. Therefore, hot food was prepared only once - for dinner. If supper was supposed to be on that day, then the brew left over after dinner was put in a stove over coals and served warm for supper.
A multitude of monks, novices and all kinds of monastic attendants worked in the kitchens and bakeries of the monasteries. Obedience here was considered the most difficult, and if the monk endured it patiently, without murmuring, then this work in the eyes of the abbot and the brethren was worthy of the deepest admiration. Before his death, the Monk Daniel of Pereyaslavsky summoned the disciple Cassian to him and, having handed him two of his hair shirts, ordered them to be handed over to the monastery cooks - the monk Eustratius and the monk Irinarkh. Explaining his choice, the monk said: “You yourself know the virtues of Eustratius. From the time he took his tonsure, he achieved perfect obedience, fasted and prayed unceremoniously, and without murmuring went through all the monastic services, and most of all, the cooking service. " And then the abbot told how at one time he wanted to change Eustratia's obedience, but he fell at his feet and begged him not to change anything and not to deprive him of great spiritual benefit. The Monk Daniel was surprised at such zeal and left Eustratius in the cookery. Now, before his death, he asked Cassian to convey to the new abbot Hilarion his order not to transfer Eustratius to another service. Another monastery cook, Irinarkh, according to the abbot, labored just as hard, following the example of Eustratius. Giving them his hair shirts, the monk said: “I hope that they will pray to God for me as a sinner, and for their prayers the merciful and humane Christ Our God will forgive me many of my sins” ( Smirnov. P. 70–71).
The refectory, along with the adjoining cooks, bakeries, glaciers, barns, dryers and all sorts of tents, formed a separate city on the territory of a large monastery. Under the refectory of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, there were famous bread buns. Their dimensions were almost the same as those of the refectory itself: in length - seven fathoms with a half-sazhen, and across - seven fathoms with a four. Bread was baked here in two large ovens of three "kvashons". In each dough, 500 kilograms of flour was dissolved, the fermentation was covered with canvases sewn into four panels, and allowed to come up, then three doughs were dissolved in the fourth ( Nikolsky. P. 191. Approx. 2). The bread bins contained fourteen linen rolls in which flour was sifted, and twelve pairs of mittens. Apparently, the same number of people were employed in the baking process. The bread contained all the necessary utensils: a copper cauldron in which water was heated, two "scrapers, with which they scrape the sourdough", a scraper, a chisel, a spade, a mower knife, which pinched a torch to kindle a fire in the oven, copper washstands with tubs, Kumganets (a copper washstand in the form of a jug, with a spout, a handle and a lid), an ice pick (with an ice pick they went to the lake for water; it was a pointed iron tool, at the top there was a tube that was mounted on the handle). The bread elders were in charge of the bread; they lived not far from the refectory, in three cells near the barns, where rye flour was kept ( Nikolsky. P. 195). One of the elders gave out scrolls and mittens to the workers. A separate room housed the pins, at their disposal were a boiler, a copper frying pan in which jelly was cooked, and two kumganets. Not far from the bread, near the monastery wall overlooking the lake, there was a small tent, in which the water was warmed when it was necessary to put the dough. Next to the bakery, under the refectory, there was a tent where the already baked bread was stored.
The large bakery of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery was built together with the refectory in 1519, but very soon its capacity began to be insufficient, and then several more bakeries were built in the lower tier of the Church of the Transfiguration, where prosphora and rolls were baked, as well as cookies and pies. For these purposes, the Transfiguration Church was not chosen by chance. It is located near the fortress wall overlooking the lake; small little knobs were arranged on the wall, through which water flowed through gutters into the bakery.
The basement of the Transfiguration Church consisted of two rooms: in the first large tent, cookies, rolls and prosphora were baked, in the second - pies. A small tent was attached to the part of the room where the prosphora was made, where the prosphora was kept in winter. And another tent adjoined the church porch near the fortress wall, in which the rolls were kept. On its upper floor lived the elders who were in charge of the kalachnaya, and here there was a closet where crackers were kept. There was a barn against the wall, in which flour was sifted. In the bakeries there was a variety of kitchen utensils: sieves for sifting flour, "hooks" to take pancakes out of the butter, long frying pans, "cloth nasovs, in which a circle of rolls is cooked" (nasovs are oversleeves worn during cooking; aprons, work clothes) , scoop buckets, aspen buckets.
The food was prepared in a cookery located next to the refectory. At the end of the 16th century in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, in addition to the main cookery, there was also a restaurant, a streletskaya, a prince, a drawing room (where they prepared food for guests), and others. The cooks were in charge of the elders who lived nearby. In the large cookery of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, six hearths of boiler rooms and a few were arranged. The cauldrons were hung over the hearths on iron chains; in addition, large iron tagans (hoop with legs) were placed on the hearths - stands for the cauldrons. A large number of utensils were kept in the cookery: “ladles”, iron grates for baking fish, large and “small kettles”, ladles, knives and service clothes. The food was cooked, apparently, in special "service duckweed". The functional variety of kitchen utensils is striking, there were several types of knives alone: "onion mowers", "cabbage axes", "maples" for cutting fish (knives with a short and wide blade, slightly bent towards the butt), "large knives, but they cut noodles and fish. "
More than a dozen knives, axes, copper pans, copper baking trays with handles (belts), several dozen “birch plates” and “dew-like dishes”, “stavas”, “wooden dishes”, washstand, tub, hand iron pepper mill, "table dishes", salt shakers, "tin dew-pots", copper milk pot. The main stock of cereals and fish needed for the needs of the cookery was in the dryer: “several hemp seeds, peas, yachts, buckwheat groats and millet, five" sagging "sturgeons, 250 layers of yazy sturgeons, one hundred bunches of elm, dried loskovo moth (moth - small fish; sometimes also called dried smelt; the said fish was caught in an area called Loza-Altushevo. E.R.) ten quarters, five quarters I pray Belozersky "( Nikolsky. P. 222. Approx. one).
Kvass was prepared in a special room - a brewery. The ancient brewery of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery has survived to this day: “In the middle of the cover ... rises a square in plan and hollow inside a tent that serves as a conductor for steam and smoke accumulating in the building from the leavened hearth. Above, this tent ended with a rectangular pipe, and below it rested on a closed vault with two strikings on each wall "( Nikolsky. P. 226).
In the middle of the brewery stood a copper cauldron (it could hold 300 buckets) and three large vats: in one vat, 20 mash of malt were mash (grain, which was allowed to germinate in warmth and dampness, which gave it a sweet taste), the other two contained wort, and three large troughs were placed under the vats. Behind the leavened cookery there was a barn where the wort was chilled; there were five vats and six troughs. And near the cookery there was a three-story building, the lower part of which was adapted for a leavened glacier, where they kept "kvass about the brothers Zhitnaya." In the Kirillov Monastery, there were five more stone glaciers, in which kvass was cooled in summer, fish and various products were stored. In one glacier they kept kvass: "medvenoy" (honey), treacle, sychenny, oat, "polyan kvass". There were also kept various ladles, feet, yandovy, a copper ladle, "what yeast is drawn from", a copper pot for 12 buckets, "and they cook well in it" and a small copper "cauldron, in which molasses is heated for pancakes." In the other three glaciers they kept fish, over one of them there was a tent where honey and molasses were kept, and in the fifth cellar - sour cream, milk, eggs and cow butter.
Cooking in monasteries, like any business, was necessarily sanctified by prayer. Early in the morning, before matins, the cook and baker came to church and bowed to the ground three times before the Royal Doors. After that, they asked the ecclesiarch for fire, he lit a "torch" from the lamp in the altar of the temple and handed it over to the cook and baker. And already from this "honest fire" logs were kindled in the ovens of the cookery and bread, so that everyone who eats food would receive Divine grace and sanctification with it. It is no coincidence that the preparation of the meal was always purely monastic obedience; worldly people in this matter could only be helpers.
Bread baking was especially reverent in monasteries. This process is detailed in the Studio Charter. In Russian monasteries, everything was done, most likely, in the same way. Since the prosphora should be baked already for the liturgy, and the bread - for dinner, they began to bake bread very early. At the very beginning of Matins, after the Six Psalms, the kutnik, bowing to the ground near the abbot, went to gather the brethren for obedience to the bakery. First he approached the monks who were standing on right side church, then crossed to the other side. Everyone gathered in the center of the church in front of the Royal Doors and went to be blessed by the abbot. Having made an earthly bow, they said: "Bless, pray for us, holy father." The abbot answered: "God will save," and the monks went to the bakery. Here, kneading the dough, they sang psalms, canon and other prayers that relied on matins. In addition, in Russian monasteries they also read a special prayer "Always knead the dough for bread in the monastery" ( Prilutsky. P. 355). After putting down the dough, the monks went to church, where they continued to pray with the rest of the brethren, but the senior monk stayed in the bakery to see how the dough came up. After the service, he walked around the cells of the monks, kneading the dough, and they again gathered in the bakery to now bake bread ( Pentkovsky. P. 387). Perhaps, thanks to these prayers, the bread baked in the monastery was especially tasty, and the monastery kvass healed from the most incredible diseases.
The order of the meal
When the brethren, singing the 144th Psalm, entered the refectory, everything was already ready here: the necessary utensils were on the tables, on a separate large table, also called the “meal,” there were warm bread, salt shakers and drink. The hegumen blessed the meal with a cross and recited the prayer: "Christ God, bless the drink and drink with your servant now, and ever, and forever and ever." After that, everyone sat down, and the priest, standing up, blessed the reading of the lives of the saints: "Blessed is our God always, now, and ever, and forever and ever." The reader answered: "Amen" - and began to read. This custom has long existed in all monasteries in order for monks to listen to what they read with much greater pleasure than to eat food and drink, so that “the mind can be seen, not preoccupied with bodily pleasures, but more amused by the words of the Lord” ( Basil the Great. P. 254).
Having received the blessing, the servants brought the brew and set it on the refectory table. The cellarer and the chalice went up to the abbot and took turns bowing to him, asking for a blessing for the distribution of the brew. Then the cellarer personally brought to the abbot the brew in a vessel, and the chalice drink (honey or kvass). The rest of the servants distributed the same brew to the brethren, and the chalice served all the drink. After everything had been handed out, the official closest to the abbot handed him a spoon, and the cellarer said, "God bless," the abbot struck a kandeya (a metal vessel like a small bowl on a leg with a tray, used as a bell).
The monks got up, and the priest read the prayers laid down before the meal: "Our Father", "Glory, and now", "Lord have mercy" (twice), "Lord bless". At the end of the prayers, the abbot blessed the drinking and drinking: "Christ God, bless the drinking and drinking with your servant now, and ever, and forever and ever." Everyone sat down and started eating, but only after the abbot had begun to eat. Each "brushno" required a separate blessing, therefore, during the meal, the "kandeya" was usually hit "three times": the first time after adding the brew, the second time after adding the second food - oozing, the third time - at the end of the meal. After each call, everyone prayed as before eating a brew.
If at the meal there was "consolation" - a bowl of intoxicating drink, then the cellarer, before eating it, would say: "God bless." The monks stood up, holding the bowls in front of them. The abbot blessed, and the monks, mentally saying the Jesus Prayer, drank them. At the end of the meal, the cellarer said a prayer: "For the prayers of our saints, our fathers (modern pronunciation of the prayer:" Through the prayers of our saints, our father ... "- E.R.), Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. " The abbot struck the kandeya, the reader stopped reading, made three bows to the earth before the abbot and, taking the blessing, left. The hegumen, taking the "Bread of the Mother of God", handed it over to the deacon to perform the rite of offering to Panagia. After eating Khlebts, the abbot read prayers of thanks: "Blessed is God, having mercy and nourishing us from his rich gifts, by His grace and philanthropy always, now, and ever, and forever and ever." The brethren answered: "Amen." The hegumen thanked the servicemen for the meal: "God will forgive and have mercy on those who served us." The brethren bowed to the ground before the abbot and dispersed to their cells, not lingering in the refectory.
Fasts and Holidays
The monastic meal, as we have said above, is closely related to the divine service. The number and composition of dishes, meals during the day - all this depended on what icon this day was marked in the liturgical charter. If the great holiday happened on Wednesday or Friday, then it was allowed to eat fish, oil and wine (where intoxicating drinks were allowed). On the middle holiday there was permission for wine, oil and n. If a small holiday with praise happened on a fast day, then they did not eat fish, but only food cooked with oil and wine. There were also such small holidays in which the meal was allowed only for wine, and the food was cooked "without a favor" - without oil. This is how this charter was actually embodied in the everyday life of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery. On the twentieth holidays, there was always a dinner with fish, even if that day fell on Wednesday or Friday. On the great holiday, for example, in memory of St. John the Theologian (September 26), fish and rolls were also relied on, but if it coincided with Wednesday or Friday, then dinner was canceled, although the fish was left at lunch. On the feast days of St. Sergius of Radonezh, Savvaty of Solovetsky, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Alexy of Moscow, the brethren ate fish on the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. But, again, if the holiday fell on a fast day, then there was only lunch, and for dinner they served no longer fresh fish, but noun. In memory of the Monk Paul of Obnorsk, the meal rules were the same as on the feast of Saint Savvaty of Solovetsk, but on fasting day they served no longer real, but caviar (that is, the feast was estimated an order of magnitude lower).
Most days of the Orthodox calendar are fasting: Wednesday, Friday (except for continuous weeks - those weeks when fasting is canceled), and in monasteries there is still Monday, as well as four long fasts: Great (seven weeks before Easter), Christmas or Filippov ( from November 15 to December 24), Petrov or Apostolsky (starts a week after Trinity and ends on July 11) and Uspensky (from August 1 to 14). In addition, the feasts of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Beheading of John the Baptist and Epiphany (Eve of the Epiphany) are also fast days. Each post has its own charter, but in different monasteries it acquired its own characteristics.
Monastic food, according to the charter, had to be simple and inexpensive. From the dining rooms of the monasteries, it can be seen that the food was quite varied and as useful as possible, such as to restore strength even during the most exhausting fast. Moreover, it was necessarily taken into account that not everyone can eat the same food, so an equivalent meal was offered for exchange. For example, milk porridge or milk could be exchanged for eggs, turnips - for cucumbers, etc. Duplication of dishes was not allowed at the meal: if loaves were served, then the rolls were canceled.
In monasteries, they ate once or twice a day. According to the general rule, on fast days - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - there was only lunch, supper was not supposed even on the fast days of Pentecost.
The usual lenten lunch of a monk of the Volokolamsk monastery consisted of half soft bread for his brother and two boiled dishes without butter: cabbage soup with white cabbage or borscht and porridge (instead of porridge, sometimes they served "bat peas" or "gypsy peas", that is, thick peas), or "Porridge in the ear", the second course could be exchanged for cucumbers. Before Compline, the monks of the Volokolamsk Monastery were going to drink kvass at the Shegnusha. However, according to the ustav of the Monk Korniliy of Komelsky, the monks of his monastery were not allowed to drink kvass on fasting days either after dinner or in front of Methimon; on these days everyone except the sick drank only water. If on a fast day there was a big or small holiday with glorification, then they served cooked with butter: cabbage or noodles, or “gypsy peas” and, in addition, a quarter of a roll as a festive dish (if they were fed noodles, then no rolls were served ).
On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday there were two meals: lunch and dinner. The food ration varied greatly depending on whose healthy or funeral food was on that day (on fasting days, food was not arranged). In the Volokolamsk Monastery, the stern was also divided into several ranks: the sovereign is large, medium, small. When they were feeding for the health or repose of the sovereign, the monks had fresh fried fish on the table, two cooks with butter, two fish dishes with "broth" and mustard, white rolls "too much" (that is, unlimited), pies of two types: some - with egg and pepper, others - with cheese - and two pancakes with honey per brother.
If the food was average (princely, boyar, or great people), then the monks were supposed to cook with butter, three types of fish dishes (one serving for two), pies with cheese, pancakes with honey, over-sized rolls and honey kvass. If the food was smaller, the brethren dined with one brew with butter (for example, cabbage soup), two fish dishes, pies and rolls too much, and drank sychen kvass at such a dinner. In the books of the cellarer of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, large and large sterns are mentioned "with krushki" (krushki). The large food corresponded in importance to the Volokolamsk average, it was arranged on the days of the memory of especially revered saints (for example, the Monk Sergius of Radonezh), for the repose of boyars and princes, on special memorial Saturdays, and a large one with buckwheat was usually arranged on twelve holidays. So, on September 1, on the feast of St. Simeon the Stylite, there was food in the monastery for Prince Semyon Ivanovich Velsky. The brethren served kalachi, fish with additives, a bowl of boiled kvass and a bowl of egg. On the memorial Dmitrov Saturday, a large food consisted of rolls, two types of pies, large fried fish, which was served in frying pans, and two types of kvass: honey and egg. On Saturday, in addition to the fodder of the brethren, alms were also given to the monastery workers who worked in numerous yards: people were given three cups of kvass poliyana (probably barley kvass, half mixed with rye or oatmeal) and honey “digestion”. On the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, they arranged a large food with buckwheels, on this day, kvass was relied better than on September 1: one bowl of honey kvass, the other - yak RNB. Cyrus. - Bel. No. 84/1322. L. 46–46 rev.).
At supper on a non-fasting day, at a brotherly meal, they served cabbage soup, milk, this dish could always be replaced with three eggs or porridge, or kvass; drank barley kvass at supper. On Sundays, the monastic table differed in the variety and abundance of dishes from the rest of the non-fasting days. For lunch, they served a quarter of the bread, cabbage soup with white cabbage or borscht, or sour soup with garlic or onion, two eggs each, or "beaten korovai" (loaf - wheat bread with milk, butter and eggs) or fox (possibly puff pies) - one for four brothers, or loaves with fish - one for two brothers; the second brew at the Sunday meal was scrambled eggs (then eggs were canceled for cabbage soup) and milk porridge (if desired, the monk could replace it with the same two eggs), instead of loaves and foxes, sometimes rolls were served.
In the Orthodox calendar there are two twelve feasts, when a strict fast is observed - the feasts of the Exaltation of the Cross and the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. At the Exaltation in the Volokolamsk Monastery, they served a quarter of the bread, cabbage soup with fresh white cabbage, carrots or turnips with butter (they could be replaced with cucumbers), a quarter of kalach and honey kvass. If the holiday fell on Saturday or Sunday, then the charter allowed dinner and the food was somewhat more varied. At the Kirillo-Belozersk monastery, at a festive dinner, the brethren ate kalachi, cabbage soup with pepper, noodles, caviar and a bowl of honey kvass. On this day, a dinner was served, at which the monks received rolls or white bread, cabbage soup and a portion of honey kvass.
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