The Russian land has been trodden by the Mother of God’s feet

Russian theologian and economist Serge Bulgakov, who, at the height of the atheistic wave, asked Patriarch Tikhon to become a priest and was ordained on the day of Pentecost 1918, published a curious dialogue, "The Feast of the Gods", in the collection De profundis (1), written by Russian theologians and intellectuals about the Revolution. In the dialogue between the Scholar and the Wanderer, we find this excerpt:

The Scholar: "Why look among the dead for the one who lives? Russia is alive. Christ walks in it, as in the past, in the guise of a slave, with neither a striking appearance nor beauty. Not the Christ that Blok showed, the Christ in the snowstorm, but the gentle Gardener who said to Mary Magdalene, "Mary!" [Cf. Jn 20:16]. And the Russian soul recognizes his voice and with ineffable joy throws itself at his feet. Apart from this faith and this hope, there is nothing left for us. The Russian land has been trodden by the Mother of God’s feet.

The Wanderer concludes, "A man close to me told me that in October 1917, while he was fervently praying to the image of the Mother of God, the following words resounded in his heart with absolute clarity: Russia is saved.

- How and why?

- Yes, there is no need to fear for Russia, because Russia is saved by the strength of the Mother of God. And this, believe it, all of Orthodox Russia feels it clearly."

Serge Bulgakov, Iz Gloubiny

This collection, published in October 1918 in Moscow and of which only two copies are known in the West, was republished in Paris by Ymca Press, 1967. The Feast of the Gods is on pages 107-171.

See also: Marian Encyclopedia