What it smells like in a church: a scent that accompanies all church rites. Church incense: what it is and how it smells

One of the three gifts brought by the Magi as a gift to Jesus Christ was incense. Since then, this aromatic resin has been inextricably linked with the Church and temple activities. About the purpose of incense and other temple incense, about whether it is worth wearing them in everyday life, for example, as perfume, as well as what to do if you are disgusted with incense, we talked with the rector of the Kiev Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Archimandrite Alipy (Svetlichny).

- Father Alipy, tell us how the Church began to use incense?

The censing ceremony, in which various aromatic incense is used, including incense, did not appear in Christian worship at once. There are opinions that Christians got used to the smell of incense during the times of persecution - when they were forced to gather for their services in the burial catacombs. Not only Christians were buried there. Both pagans and Jews were buried in these catacombs. Traditionally, visitors burned incense near the graves. This was due to the fact that it was impossible to close the graves tightly with a stone slab, and perishable odors seeped out from the burial loci.

- What smells are used in today's worship? Is it only incense?

First of all, these are the smells of incense, the aromas of myrrh, oil, candles, scented water, flowers. We must not forget also about the fragrance of the Holy Gifts - in essence, the most important church fragrance, and the smell of icons. Applying to the icon, you feel its specific pleasant aroma. It is pleasant not only because the icon painters used natural paints, the best types of wood and linseed oil that covers the entire space of the icon. The smell of the icon is pleasant, since it is close to the liturgical ritual and incense. The smoking of incense and incense is the most ancient form of sacrifice to God. Incense was placed on hot coals and their smoke went under the dome of the temple or into the sky, carrying away with the aroma of incense all the requests of a person, tears, prayers and gratitude to God. Today the fragrance in the temple means neither more nor less - the presence of God. Now censing is beginning to be perceived as an important act of worship. The smoke reminds of the ancient righteous sacrifice of Abel. Smoke is associated with the presence of God, which accompanied the Ark of the Covenant in the form of a pillar of fire at night and in the daytime in the form of a pillar of smoke.

The aroma of this tree bark is for the Christian a symbol of the presence of God and the scent of the saints.

During the service in the temple, at one moment the priest with the censer symbolizes the walk of God among the first people in Paradise, at another moment the incense means the sacred sacrifice of Christ Himself to His Heavenly Father. Fragrance is a state of heaven. The smoke of the censer turns the Church into an image of the lost earthly Paradise. Paradise is lost, but the fragrance reminds of heavenly.

Indeed, Christian worship is saturated with fragrances. As Father Pavel Florensky writes: “Smells permeate the entire body, he floats in them, they flow and stream through him, as through a stretched muslin, the flow of air and the spiritual quality of the smell is then indisputable and obvious. And from these “ordinary” smells, like, for example, mint, incense, rose and so on, there is a direct transition to mysterious fragrances, in which their spirituality appears already for all consciousness. This is the well-known fragrance of the saints. " The value of aromatic products is extremely high. The Magi bring gifts to the baby Jesus, where there are incense - incense and myrrh - along with gold. The aroma carries a certain superphysical meaning for a Christian.

- And if a person does not tolerate church smells, then what does this mean?

A person may not be aware of this, but his state of mind may be in conflict with the value system of Christianity. Because of this, it is possible to reject what is associated with the Church even on the physical level, which externally manifests itself as a reaction to the smell. With the harmonization and spiritual development, this reaction will disappear.

- Is it good or bad to take church smells outside the church?

The Church has not usurped the ownership of certain scents. People can light lamps, burn incense in their home, so that the whole family can tune in to prayer, because a family is a small Church. And if one of the perfumers uses incense and other scents that we hear in the Church in their works, then there is nothing wrong with that. The smells themselves are not endowed with a sacred meaning, but in what conditions and for what they are used.

INCENSE IN PERFUME: which perfumes contain incense

Despite the fact that many world perfume brands cannot imagine themselves without notes of incense, in our latitudes, not every cosmetics consultant can tell which perfume will contain this biblical smell. At best, you will be offered a lavender or lemon balm scent with green tea. Whereas, alas, even having brought together these aromas, the bouquet will turn out to be just a pirate copy of incense. And the point is not the incompetence of the sellers, but the fact that perfumers really use this fragrance not as a dominant one, but as a subtle one, unobtrusively woven into a perfume composition. Of the world brands, Armani uses it most often, for example Bois d'Encens.

Giorgio Armani dedicated this perfume to the mysterious scents of Italian churches. Bois d'Encens claims to be called the revival of the world's oldest perfume "Kifi", created by the Egyptians 4000 years ago. The Kifi recipe is engraved on the stone walls of the temples and praises its extraordinary properties. This mysterious perfume was sacred to the Egyptians and was used for religious purposes. It served as a way to communicate with the gods and was used as an ointment for statues and fumigations. In Greco-Roman times, frankincense was known as an elixir with medicinal properties. He symbolized immortality. It only remains to add that Bois d'Encens is a tribute to Giorgio's childhood memories, the resurrection of the minutes spent with his grandmother in church. Since perfume prices are unmerciful these days, let's just go and smell incense. For a better experience, take some coffee beans with you and inhale their scent between the perfumes to hear the perfume better.

Perfumes of world brands with a hint of incense:

Les Exclusifs de Chanel Coromandel, Chanel;
Private Blend: Tuscan Leather, Tom Ford;
Kenzo Perfums, Passage d'Enfer, L'Artisan Parfumeur;
Fahrenheit Absolute, Dior;
Encens et Lavande, Serge Lutens;
Poison, Dior;
Opium, Yves Saint Laurent;
Black Orchid, Tom Ford;
Un Jardin Sur Le Nil, Hermes;
Lacoste Pour Femme, Lacoste.

The material was prepared by the editorial staff of the PravLife portal especially for the newspaper Segodnya.

In the homes of Orthodox Christians, it is customary to hang or put icon lamps on a stand in front of the icons. It is an ancient godly tradition that symbolizes the unceasing prayer of Christians to God. If there is no lamp in the house, then this house is, as it were, spiritually blind, dark, here the Name of God is not always glorified.
A house can have one or more lamps. There is a pious tradition to light unquenchable lamps in houses, which burn both at night and when the owners are not at home. But in modern conditions this is not always possible and desirable, since it can become a temptation for unbelievers or low-believing family members. Most often, a Christian lights a lamp when he comes home and does not extinguish it until he leaves home. If there are no lamps, church candles are lit during prayer.

Modern ascetics say that a lit lamp cleans the air from all filth and then grace reigns in the house.

In no case SHOULD USE THE LAMP FIRE FOR DOMESTIC PURPOSES - this is disrespectful to the shrine.

IT IS NOT ACCEPTED TO LIGHT A LAMP FROM A MATCH, a church candle is used for this. It used to be said about the unrepentant monks in monasteries: "He lights a lamp from a match ..." Lamp oil (originally olive oil), like a wick, can be bought in a church shop or in an Orthodox store. You can make a wick yourself from a bandage or other rag: a narrow strip of thin matter is tightly twisted into a bundle and pulled through the float of the lamp. The lamps come in different colors - red, blue, green. There is a tradition in fasting to light darker colored lamps (blue, green), and on holidays - red.

The hanging lamp is attached to the ceiling or to the icon case. It is customary to hang it near the most revered icons. There is a pious tradition, in the event of illness or unsuccessful circumstances, to crosswise anoint children and loved ones with OIL FROM LAMPADES. So did the Monk Seraphim of Sarov, anointing everyone who came to him with oil from the lamp.

It is not necessary that the lamp light burns very strongly and smokes, it is enough that it be the size of one or two match heads. Children need to be taught to light the lamp.

CLEANING THE LAMP: it is better to have a separate container for this, you cannot pour the water in which you cleaned and washed the lamp into the general sewer, because there may be residues of oil in the lamp, and this is already a shrine. We pour the water somewhere under a tree where no one walks.

PRAYER READED WHEN THE LAMP IS ON
“Ignite, Lord, the extinguished lamp of my soul with the light of virtue and enlighten me, Thy creation, Creator and Benefactor, Thou art the immaterial Light of the world, accept this material offering: light and fire, and give me inner light to the mind and fire to the heart. Amen".

The Byzantine liturgical canon includes an important element - smells. Unlike other components of the canonical system, aromatization, its principles and ideology have changed very little throughout the history of the church. In fact, modern Orthodox churches use them in the same way as at the beginning of the history of Christianity.

Before considering the olfactory ( odor-related) aspects of the Christian cult, it is necessary to characterize the ones used in it aromatic substances... In fact, there are not so many scents in the church.

1. Incense (in Hebrew - lot) - aromatic wood resin ( fragrant tree sap, air-hardening). Collected from the plant cystus croticus (Boswellia, Burzer family) - a thorny tree that grows on about. Cyprus, Arabia, Syria, Palestine. One of the oldest incense, it is also used in perfumery. In ancient times, it was considered one of the most valuable gifts that were presented to kings and nobles as a sign of special reverence: the offering of incense to the baby Jesus by the magi, along with gold and peace, is evidence of recognition of his royal dignity (Matt. 2:11). Used for incense in the temples of various pagan religions. The first Christians used incense when conducting rituals of burying the dead ( according to Tertullian's testimony). It is currently mined mainly in India. Frankincense is mainly used for burning incense in liturgical ceremonies. Frankincense with additional aromatic additives is called incense... It must be assumed that censing in modern churches is carried out precisely with the use of various incenses.

Incense

2. Miro- aromatic oil used in the sacrament of anointing. According to the Old Testament regulations (Exodus, 30, 23-25), it was composed of self-flowing myrrh, fragrant cinnamon, fragrant reed (calamus), cassia and olive oil. In the modern Orthodox Church, myrrh includes about 50 components. World-making is carried out by the highest hierarchy in the Great Four and spreads to all dioceses. Confirmation is a sacrament in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to the believer by bringing peace to various parts of the body. The anointing with holy myrrh is used in the consecration of temples.

Ingredients for the world

3. Lamp oil (spruce)- vegetable (primarily olive) oil, which is used for burning in lamps and for anointing believers. May contain aromatic additives (eg rose oil).

Lamp oil

4. Wax candles- a source of faint honey odor. Made from beeswax, Japanese, Chinese, carnauba wax. Beeswax candles burn longer and brighter than paraffin wax candles and are preferred by connoisseurs because they are natural.

Wax candle

5. Other fragrances are not strictly regulated. For example, it can be added hyssop(hyssopus officinalis) in holy water for sprinkling. In festive rituals, there are smells of fresh flowers (for example, for the Assumption of the Virgin), branches of trees and grass (for Trinity), etc.

Hyssop

We must also not forget about the fragrance of the holy gifts- in essence, the most important church aroma.

The Christian cult system is designed in such a way that it influences all human senses.

The semantic meaning of smells in the church

At all times, the air of the church has been a specific beauty of the ministry. Incense, having gone from the Old to the New Testament, has not lost its most important role in the spiritual life of the world.

As already noted, the smells of the church are, first of all, the fragrance of the Holy Gifts, incense, the aromas of myrrh, oil, candles, scented water, living plants. Some of these scents are canonized, others are not, however, even if there are no unambiguous characteristics of aromatic substances in the church life, tradition regulates the use of certain odorous substances at the level of the senses. It would never occur to anyone to use strong, pungent odors that are in conflict with others.

It should be noted in the church smells of icons... Applying to the icon, you feel its specific pleasant aroma. It is pleasant not only because the icon painters used natural paints, the best types of wood and linseed oil, which covers the entire space of the icon. The smell of the icon is pleasant, since it is close to the liturgical ritual and incense. The icon not only exudes a fragrance. The icon breathes the air of the church together with the faithful. The icon lives on. It seems that our gifts, brought to God, stand with us - transitory and fleshly. These gifts take on fragrances, thereby creating universal unity. The fragrances of icons invite a person to sanctify his life, to start living from the beginning.

Man accepts the heavenly presence with all his senses. God participates in the person who sacrifices from the excess of his love in taste and smell. The sense of smell is " which shows our thought directed towards Him and our disposition, due to the fact that through this feeling we have a perception of fragrance", Says St. John Damascene. The fragrances symbolize the various gifts of the Holy Spirit.

« When we smell, we make the most direct contact with the world around us ..., - writes the American odorologist R. Wright, - a more direct connection with the environment is difficult even to imagine«.

« Next to the olfactory brain is the limbic system, which is responsible for our emotions. That's why all smells are emotionally colored, all cause in us certain emotional experiences, pleasant or unpleasant, there are no “indifferent” smells ... It is smells that most quickly awaken memory, and not logical, but emotional»[Ryazantsev S. In the world of smells and sounds. - M., 1977. - S. 195].

The meaning of incense in the symbolism of Divine services

The smoking of incense, incense is the oldest form of sacrifice to God.... Incense was placed on hot coals, and their smoke went under the dome of the temple or into the sky, carrying away with the aroma of incense all the requests of a person, tears, prayers and gratitude to God.

« We bring the smoke of incense to You, O Christ our God, as the aroma of a spiritual scent, having received it into Your Altar, which is above all heavens, bestowed upon us the grace of Your Most Holy Spirit"- this is how, translated into Russian, a prayer sounds, which any priest must read before each censing in the church.

According to the ancient Russian tradition, the priest, while censing the people with the help of a special metal censer on chains, quietly says: “ The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you“, And the laity mentally answer:“ The same Spirit helps us all the days of our life (i.e. our life)«.

Here we see how important the Church of Christ attaches to censing, as a symbol of the power of the Holy Spirit that revives us and constantly helps us, One of the Hypostases of the Holy Trinity.

Actually, the canonical text of the Liturgy speaks about this. At the end of the proskomedia there are the words: “ We bring you a censer, O Christ our God, in the stench of a spiritual scent, a hedgehog reception in Thy heavenly altar, send us the grace of Thy Holy Spirit».

From the photo album of Priest Konstantin Parkhomenko

There are other semantic shades of incense. For example, censing during the reading of the Apostle "is established as a sign of reverence for the forthcoming reading of the Gospel and indicates that through the preaching of the Gospel grace of the Holy Spirit, spreading to all ends of the world, enveloped the hearts of people and turned them to Eternal Life."

Or in the prayer for the consecration of fragrant potions it is said: “ Fill their houses with all kinds of incense, in this hedgehog and all those who howl I keep, and those who burn them in observance, and I will deliver from all the enemy's incantations", - i.e. accentuated the value of censer smoke as a means of fighting evil spirits.

Censing is extremely important in the symbolism of the Liturgy. According to N. Gogol: “.. . as in the life of the home of all ancient eastern peoples, they were offered to every guest at the entrance of ablution and incense. This custom passed entirely to the heavenly feast - to the Last Supper, which bears the name of the liturgy, in which service to God is so miraculously combined with the friendly treat of everyone ...". You can also quote the words from the sermon of Pope John Paul II during the Coptic liturgy of the “incense prayer”: “ the rising waves of censer smoke, like a human spirit, ascends to heaven, a spirit bursting out of everyday life, in the hope of knowing the meaning of its existence and merging with God.<…>Waves of incense, relentlessly flying into the sky, carry along with them our prayer to God, emanating from the very depths of our hearts. Incense accompanies the raising of hands to heaven, expressing our thirst for God and at the same time calling on Him to look upon people and things, desires and aspirations».

Svmch. Seraphim Zvezdinsky discusses smells in an even more sublime way, considering the Liturgy itself as an image of the Divine aroma: “... women who followed Christ - Mary Magdalene, Salome and others - after the burial of Christ the Savior, prepared aromas in order to anoint the Most Pure Body of the Lord the next day. My friends, my beloved, my flock, these scents have survived to this day, we smell their fragrance, we experience their comforting power; these aromas are Divine, secret, great, wonderful, beautiful, healing, revitalizing, most precious, holy Liturgy. These are the aromas that the first followers of the Lord gave us ... If it were not for this gift, we would have perished in this world full of impurities and all kinds of filth, we would have rotted alive in it, suffocated in malice».

Repetitive small and great incense begins in the Holy of Holies - the altar of the church. Rising under the dome, mixing during the morning reading of psalms with the rays of the rising sun, and at the evening service gliding past the icon lamps and burning candles, the fragrant smoke of the censer turns the church into an image of the lost earthly Paradise. Paradise is lost, but the fragrance reminds of heavenly.

Indeed, Christian worship is saturated with fragrances. As Fr. P. Florensky: “ Smells permeate the entire organism, it floats in them, they flow and stream through it, as through a stretched muslin, the flow of air and the spiritual quality of the smell is then indisputable and obvious. And from these "ordinary" smells, like, for example, mint, incense, rose and so on, there is a direct transition to mysterious fragrances, in which their spirituality appears already for all consciousness. This is the well-known fragrance of the saints ...«.

If we delve deeper into the texts of the Old Testament, we will find that the meaning of sacrifice in the Pentateuch looks exactly like creating a special kind of smell. " Offer it for a sweet scent, as a sacrifice to the Lord"[Ref. 29.41]. "On it Aaron will smoke fragrant incense"[Ref. 30.7]. “Take for yourself the best fragrant substances ... This will be ointment for the sacred anointing"[Ref. 30,23-25], - we read in the book "Exodus". This is the very heart of worship. Similar definitions are found everywhere when it comes to sacrifice.

As you know, Catholics have reduced the use of aromatic substances in their worship, and Protestants have practically excluded them from their everyday life. The reason for this, presumably, is that the rationalization of religion in the West makes the forms of sensory influence irrelevant (the logic of the transformation of the musical and cult canon testifies to the same), and this, in turn, distracts attention from them in theological practice as well.

Due to the fact that Christian odorology (the science of odors) is poorly developed, today we only know the basic substances (and even then not in full measure) that are used in worship. So far, neither the reasons for the selection of these particular substances, nor the principles of their compatibility, nor the relationship with other canonical means in the process of service are clear.<…>

The value of fragrances for God and man

The value of aromatic products is extremely high. Let us recall that the wise men bring gifts to the baby Jesus, where there are incense - incense and myrrh - along with gold.

It is quite clear that the aroma carries a certain superphysical meaning for the Christian.

The Bible contains a long list of aromatic substances used for burnt offerings. Among them, besides incense, are onikha, stakti, halvan and others. Obviously, this is not just an optional additive that can be neglected.

For whom are these fragrances intended: for God or for man? This is not an idle question. If the substance of fire or censer smoke is transformed into spiritual power and can be understood as a transformation into the physical plane of Divine power, then the smell as such is more difficult to interpret in this way.

Perhaps one can get closer to understanding this issue by paying attention to the fact that the grain sacrifice has a different name - offertory... In this regard, the Agad (part of the Talmud) contains the following reasoning: “ Why does the law on gift-giving, in contrast to sacrifices, say “soul” (instead of the usual “person”). Because: “By whom,” the Lord said, “is the gift usually performed? Poor man. And this is as valuable to Me as if He sacrificed His soul to Me"[Haggadah, p. 176]. In this case, we can assume that the combination of flour, oil and incense should be understood as the transformation of the soul that is burned for the Lord... Obviously, the smell of incense contains something that expresses a connection with spiritual purity, holiness. How else to explain that one of the main signs of a person's holiness before the Lord is the fragrance of holy relics?

Thus, the aroma, apparently, should be understood as a testimony equally carried out for the Lord and for the people standing before Him, like fire and incense smoke.

On the intolerance of the smell of the Church

— "Oh, you know, but I can't go to church at all!" - an agitated woman in her 30s complains , - “I immediately faint from the smell of incense. As soon as the incense smoke reaches me, it immediately becomes bad!»

The women of different ages present during the conversation nod sympathetically, and only one, a parishioner of a well-known monastery compound in the city, solemnly says, looking somewhere to the side with a clear sense of superiority: “ She needs a report! It is known who is afraid of incense!«

Why do people who consider themselves Orthodox sometimes do not tolerate the smell of incense, sometimes they even faint? Probably, the reasons should be looked for in the following:

1. The intensity of the spiritual influence of the atmosphere of the Church is such that without habit (and most often people who rarely visit the Church fall into swoon) a person, especially sensitive, can find it difficult to withstand it physically.

2. A person may not be aware, but his mental structure, determined by passions, may be in such contradiction with the value system of the Church that a conflict arises, and by opening himself to church influence, a person receives disharmony, which externally manifests itself as a reaction to a smell.

As a person develops spiritually in the direction of church values, this reaction disappears.

The material is based on the book Andrey Lesovichenko, prot. Sebastian Lycan "The Smells of Christian Worship"

Viewed (4902) times

The following types of incense are used in temples:

Spruce- oil (usually olive) for anointing during the Sacrament of Unction.

Miro- aromatic oil with the addition of aromatic herbs.

Myrrh (Smyrna)- hardened resin of the bark of a tree of the Burzerovy family.

Incense- the hardened resin of the Boswellia tree.

There is a separate article about incense. This article will focus on aroma oils.

Types of church oils

All the aromas from the church shop have a pleasant, persistent, but unobtrusive scent. The aromas are so harmonious that they not only do not distract from important thoughts, but also do not violate someone else's personal space.

There are fragrances with floral names, as if the producers remind us of the diversity of our flora: Lily of the Valley, Gardenia, Linden Blossom. There are fragrances with the names of holy places: Byzantium, Athos, Jerusalem. The names of the oils also mention the church holidays "Trinity", "Rozhdestvenskoe", "Easter". There are also scents with “fantasy” names such as “Paradise bouquet”, etc.

Priest Evgeny Stupitsky:

“Orthodoxy is sympathetic to the use of spirits. It all depends on the purpose for which you will use this perfume. It's one thing to seduce and attract another individual of the opposite sex, another thing to exude a delicate aroma, to be pleasant for your beloved spouse. And this is your choice: to become the object of temptation, using perfume, or not. To become an adversary to God, or to be with Him together ... "

"Linden Blossom" exudes the honey scent of linden;

"Lily of the valley" - has the typical scent of May lily of the valley. It is very similar to the famous “Silver Lily of the Valley” perfume from the Novaya Zarya factory;

"Strawberry" smells like fragrant forest berries;

"Byzantium" wraps up in warm incense smoke;

"Altai" oil with a herbal-balsamic accent;

“Needles” has a woody-resinous aroma.

Application

Like perfume on your skin

If incense is used as a perfume, then it is applied to the "pulse points" - behind the ears, neck, wrists. It should be remembered that oil is consecrated and therefore cannot be used for worldly purposes.

Fortunately, the clergy are tolerant of the aromas of the parishioners.

Archpriest Viacheslav Bregeda:

“The Scriptures say,“ Saturday is for man, not man for the Sabbath. ” So it is the rules for the person, and not the person for the rules. As for the spirits, you shouldn't dwell here on the fact that this is such a terrible sin. Even in the Holy Scripture it is written, “that if we fast, then we did not seem to be fasting, on the contrary, smear your body” so that you do not feel that you are in such despondency. That is, even the Holy Scripture says that a person should take care of his appearance, look good and beautiful, not be somehow obsessed ... "

In lamp oil or icons

In church shops, candlesticks also mention such a method as sprinkling icons with this fragrant oil, as well as adding it to lamp oil to scent the premises.

How to choose and light a lamp, read the article.

Prayer for sore spots

Some grandmothers add oil to holy water, but most likely this is not recommended, since the oil, although natural, is still not an oral medicine.

As oil

Olive oil is called oil, and now any vegetable oil that is used in Orthodox church life. The priests anoint the parishioners with it at morning and evening services.

It is possible to use church incense at home during prayer to prepare your thoughts and feelings for turning to God. If church oil is used as oil, then it should be applied on the body in a cruciform manner with reverence and prayer (preferably: "Our Father..."). The oil must be applied with clean hands or using a cotton swab.

In aroma lamps

Many people use oils in aroma lamps to create a "cosiness and warmth" scent at home.

Archimandrite Alipy (Svetlichny):

“The Church has not usurped the ownership of certain scents. People can light lamps, burn incense in their home, so that the whole family can tune in to prayer, because a family is a small Church. And if one of the perfumers uses incense and other scents that we hear in the Church in their works, then there is nothing wrong with that. The smells themselves are not endowed with a sacred meaning, but in what conditions and for what they are used ... "

An aromolamp is an earthen or ceramic vessel with a bowl - an aroma-burner and a hollow under it for a candle. Water is poured into a bowl, to which a few drops of aromatic oil are added. The incense should not be used without water, as the oil can easily catch fire when exposed to an open flame.

Use a household paraffin or stearic candle. Then it is not so easy to remove such a melted candle, but you can first grease the "window" for the candle with Vaseline and when the candle breaks up and hardens, it is easy to remove it.

Our store sells church incense from Russia and Greece. It contains only natural components. Incense is consecrated.

The Christian cult system is designed in such a way that it influences all human senses. Studying it, it is extremely interesting to observe how natural receptors become conductors of Christian ideas, how they are synergistically combined to achieve a single goal, while each reveals its unique capabilities. The visual images of the cult have been studied most consistently. Quite rich materials are associated with the world of sounds. much less has been written about smells. The anthology "Aromas and Smells in Culture" does not single out a single independent material on the problems of olfactonics in Christian worship. Nevertheless, starting from the reflections on this topic of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, St. righteous John of Kronstadt, svmch. Serafim Zvezdinsky, Fr. Pavel Florensky, A.F. Losev, and other Orthodox theologians, one can get some idea of the semantic load of the olfactory components of the cult.

The smells of the church are: 1. Incense(in Hebrew - lot) - fragrant tree sap that hardens in the air. Collected from the plant cystus croticus (Boswellia, Burzer family) - a thorny tree that grows on about. Cyprus, Arabia, Syria, Palestine. In ancient times, it was considered one of the most valuable gifts that were presented to kings and nobles as a sign of special reverence: the offering of incense to the baby Jesus by the magi is evidence of recognition of his royal dignity (Matt, 2.11). Used for incense in the temples of various pagan religions. The first Christians used incense when conducting rituals of burying the dead (according to the testimony of Tertullian). It is currently mined mainly in India. Frankincense with additional aromatic additives is called incense. It must be assumed that censing in modern churches is carried out precisely with the use of various incenses.

2... Miro- a special composition of fragrant substances for the sacred anointing. According to the Old Testament regulations (Exodus, 30, 23-25), it was composed of self-flowing myrrh, fragrant cinnamon, fragrant reed (calamus), cassia and olive oil. In the modern Orthodox Church, myrrh includes about 50 components. World-making is carried out by the highest hierarchy on Holy Week and is consecrated in the Great Four. After that it is distributed to all dioceses. Confirmation is a sacrament in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to the believer through the application of peace to various parts of the body. The anointing with holy myrrh is used in the consecration of temples.

3. Lamp oil (spruce)- vegetable (primarily olive) oil, which is used for burning in lamps and for anointing believers. May contain aromatic additives (eg rose oil).

4. Wax candles- a source of faint honey odor.

5. Other fragrances are not strictly regulated. For example, it can be added hyssop(hyssopus officinalis) in holy water for sprinkling. Festive ceremonies contain the smells of the living flowers(for example, on the Assumption of the Virgin), tree branches and grass(on Trinity), etc.

6. We must not forget also about the fragrance. Holy gifts- in essence, the most important church aroma.

Some of these scents are canonized, others are not, however, even if there are no unambiguous characteristics of aromatic substances in the church life, tradition regulates the use of certain odorous substances at the level of the senses. It would never occur to anyone to use strong, pungent odors that are in conflict with others.

The aromas of the church in a meaningful sense are in close interaction with all means of influencing the human senses. Smell and sound are especially closely related. This point is important for understanding both the music and the aromas of worship, so let's dwell on it in more detail.

One gets the impression that music unfolds according to the principle of an olfactory resource, as if overcoming the temporal direction of development. The main task is to create a kind of sound flicker in the temple space, which provides a constant impact on the hearing of worshipers during the service and maintains them in a certain emotional state. In fact, the analytical ability of hearing, which is the main strength of this sense organ, is extremely poorly realized.

Of course, one might think that the reason is to direct the analytic activity of the ear towards the perception of the content of the text. However, this conclusion does not seem so obvious. First, many church recitations are carried out in such a way as to focus attention on the melody of the reading, and not on its content; secondly, in the most solemn moments the chant becomes so complex and self-sufficient that the meaning of the text is not perceived at all, but the “flickering statics” of the singing still turns out to be unshakable. to consciousness (preaching, reading the Gospel, some exclamations of the deacon, reciting key prayers), are intoned either without a musical component at all, or subordinating it to the meaning of the text.

One has to think that the analytical possibilities are not consciously involved, that this is precisely the task of the musical means of the cult canon. From the point of view of the world, this situation is explainable, however, there is also a psychological parameter. Why is it traditionally optimal for a person who prays in church to have such an effect on the senses that minimally involves intellectual activity?

The answer, it seems, does not lie in the plane of the analysis of the sounding material, but in the characteristics of the organ of perception itself - hearing. As you know, the nerve analyzers of the auditory organs are the strongest means of human adaptation in the world. Sounds act primarily at the physiological level, causing a certain emotional reaction, and only after that they lend themselves to rational processing. This is what brings hearing closer to other non-analytical systems of perception - smell and taste. The ancient forms of cult singing in Christian practice are undoubtedly organized similar to the methods of influencing these organs, which was well understood by medieval thinkers. "Melos got its name from the sweetness of honey (melle)," says Isidore of Seville. "There are so many types of harmony that neither thought can observe them, nor can speech be easily explained, but they all serve the ear and are created for its joy. It is the same with the sense of smell. Incense has its own smell, ointments have its own smell, rose flower beds have its own smell, shrubs, meadows, steppes, groves, flowers have its own smell, and everything that exudes a pleasant aroma and breathes sweet aromas - all this serves the sense of smell and was created for him. joy, ”teaches Hugo of St. Victor.

However, neither in those centuries, nor in modern times, such parallels were not taken into account in the understanding of the cult system. Thomas Aquinas emphasized that “the feelings that are most effective in cognition and being in the service of reason, it is sight and hearing that have a connection with the beautiful ... wonderful tastes and smells ”.

This attitude has affected the fact that in theology and the humanities, relatively little reflection of non-analytical means of influencing a person is reflected, however, it is difficult to talk about the nature of the cult canon and not take into account their existence: the role of these means in the formation of the whole is too great.

Man accepts the heavenly presence with all his senses. God participates in the person who sacrifices from the excess of his love in taste and smell. Smell is that "which shows our thought directed towards Him and our disposition, due to the fact that through this feeling we have a perception of fragrance," says St. John Damascene Fragrances symbolize the various gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paradise itself is filled with fragrances, as the great seer of St. Ephraim the Syrian in the book “On Paradise”: “No matter how high paradise is set, those who ascend there are not tired, those who inherit it are not burdened with labor. With his beauty he fills the joys and attracts the walkers to him, shines upon them with the shining of rays, delights with his fragrance<…>Its colors are brilliant, fragrances are marvelous, beauty is longed for, food is of great value.<…>There I saw the righteous, who exude fragrant ointments from themselves, pour out a fragrance, decorated with flowers, crowned with delicious fruits ”

At all times, the air of the church has had a specific beauty of service. Incense, having gone from the Old to the New Testament, has not lost its most important role in the spiritual life of the world.

The scent of incense permeates everything that surrounds it: walls, shrines, the robes of priests. The fragrance seems to be absorbed into the psalmody and prayer. This is the manifestation of the words: “I am everything and in everything.” Fragrance is a state of heaven. This is especially evident in the ritual of incense and is well understood by theologians. bringing and uplifting it to Christ with a prayer that the censer of sorrow may be received, and may the grace of the All-Holy Spirit be sent down to us, ”says Bl. Simeon Solunsky. Actually, the canonical text of the Liturgy speaks about this. At the end of the proskomedia there are the words: "We bring you a censer, O Christ our God, into the stench of a spiritual scent, a hedgehog reception into Thy heavenly altar, send us the Grace of Thy Most Holy Spirit." There are other semantic shades of incense. For example, censing during the reading of the Apostle "is established as a sign of reverence for the forthcoming reading of the Gospel and indicates that through the preaching of the Gospel grace of the Holy Spirit, spreading to all ends of the world, enveloped the hearts of people and turned them to Eternal Life." Or, in the prayer for the consecration of fragrant potions, it is said: "Fill their houses of every kind of incense, in this hedgehog and all those who howl will I keep, and who cense them for observance, and I will deliver them from all enemy incantations" - that is, the importance of censer smoke as a means of fighting evil spirits is emphasized.

Censing is extremely important in the symbolism of the Liturgy. According to N. Gogol: “... as in the home life of all ancient Eastern peoples, every guest was offered ablution and incense at the entrance. To God, together with a friendly treat of all ... ”One can also quote the words from the sermon of Pope John Paul II during the Coptic liturgy of“ censer prayer ”:“ the rising waves of censer smoke, like a human spirit, ascends to heaven, aspirations to know the meaning of their existence and to merge with God.<…>Waves of incense, relentlessly flying into the sky, carry along with them our prayer to God, emanating from the very depths of our hearts. Incense accompanies raising our hands to heaven, expressing our thirst for God and at the same time calling on Him to look upon people and things, desires and aspirations. "

Svmch. Seraphim Zvezdinsky discusses smells in an even more sublime way, considering the Liturgy itself as an image of the Divine aroma: “... the women who followed Christ - Mary Magdalene, Salome and others - after the burial of Christ the Savior, prepared aromas in order to anoint the Most Pure Body of the Lord the next day ... My friends, my beloved, my flock, these scents have survived to this day, we smell their fragrance, we experience their comforting power; these aromas are Divine, secret, great, wonderful, beautiful, healing, revitalizing, most precious, holy Liturgy. These are the aromas that the first followers of the Lord gave us ... If it had not been for this gift, we would have perished in this world full of impurities and all filth, we would have rotted alive in it, suffocated in malice ”.

Smell has an important place in the rites of anointing and anointing. Performing each anointing, the priest says: “The Seal of the Gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Seal helps us to feel the presence of the Spirit through the smell. replace the Glory of the Spirit: an invisible but sensual mystery.

One cannot fail to note the smells of icons in the church. Applying to the icon, you feel its specific pleasant aroma. It is pleasant not only because the icon painters used natural paints, the best types of wood and linseed oil, which covers the entire space of the icon. The smell of the icon is pleasant, since it is close to the liturgical ritual and incense. The icon not only exudes a fragrance. The icon breathes the air of the church together with the faithful. The icon lives on. It seems that our gifts, brought to God, stand with us - transitory and fleshly. These gifts take on fragrances, thereby creating universal unity. The fragrances of icons invite a person to sanctify his life, to start living from the beginning.

Indeed, Christian worship is saturated with fragrances. As Fr. P. Florensky: "Smells permeate the entire body, it floats in them, they flow and stream through it, as through a stretched muslin, the flow of air and the spiritual quality of the smell is then indisputably and clearly. And from these" ordinary "smells, like, for example , mint, incense, roses and so on - a direct transition to mysterious fragrances, in which their spirituality appears already for all consciousness. This is the well-known fragrance of the saints ... ”.

If we delve deeper into the texts of the Old Testament, we will find that the meaning of sacrifice in the Pentateuch looks exactly like creating a special kind of smell. "Bring it up for a sweet scent, as a sacrifice to the Lord." sacred anointing ”[Ex. 30,23-25], - we read in the book “Exodus.” This is the very core of worship. Similar definitions are found everywhere when it comes to sacrifice.

Naturally, the question arises: why, with such a great importance of smells both in Scripture and in the practice of worship, the odorological aspect is so poorly represented in scientific works devoted to understanding the cult. When characterizing the liturgical canon, this aspect in most cases is bypassed as if it did not exist. In fact, apart from rather lengthy arguments about. Pavel Florensky, there are very few special works on this topic. Famous works on odorology deal with chemical, biological, medical, forensic, but not religious issues.

It seems that much can be explained by the tendency in the handling of incense in Western Christianity. As you know, Catholics use odors in the church much more moderately than in Orthodoxy, and Protestants have almost excluded them from their everyday life.

The reason for this, presumably, is that the rationalization of religion in the West makes the forms of sensory influence irrelevant (the logic of the transformation of the musical and cult canon testifies to the same), and this, in turn, distracts attention from them in theological practice as well. Orthodox theology of recent centuries, when the cult process began to undergo reflection, develops primarily in dialogue with Western confessions, within the framework of the problematic that is relevant there.

This situation does not mean at all that the odorological aspect of the canon is not worthy of independent study. On the contrary, in our opinion, it should be considered the first in a series of temporal parameters of the Christian cult. "When we smell, we make the most direct contact with the world around us ..., - writes the American odorologist R. Wright, - it is difficult to even imagine a more direct connection with the environment"<...>

Cartesian “cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore, I am) was originally supposed to look like “Olfacio ergo cogito” (“I smell, therefore I think”). Obviously, this property of smell is of exceptional importance for the cult, since “going back to of one or another step of the ascent of the mountain, the empirical descends from there no longer empirical, but noumenal, by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God ”(P. Florensky). Here we have the opportunity to pose theological, ontological questions in the plane of the sensible.

However, a purely associative approach also works. As W. James noted: “Organ, antique bronze, frescoes, marble and colored glass serve to decorate the temple. They create a favorable atmosphere for our worship in prayer. They like incense and praises ... ". Of course, no super-meaning arises in this case.

Due to the fact that Christian odorology is poorly developed, today we have to state the absence of even the most general methods for considering the odorological aspects of the canon. In essence, we only know the basic substances (and even then not in full measure) that are used in worship. So far, neither the reasons for the selection of these particular substances, nor the principles of their compatibility, nor the relationship with other canonical means in the process of service are clear. Biblical and patrological odorology has not been developed at all, which is extremely important for understanding the nature of the Christian cult.

In other words, there is a problem, without the development of which further comprehension of the nature of the cult canon, at least in its temporal positions, in our opinion, is difficult.

NOTES:

1. Aromas and smells in culture. - M., 2003. Certain information is collected in reference publications, for example, the Illustrated Complete Bible Encyclopedia (M., 1991). The brochure is devoted directly to the problem under consideration: Lesovichenko A., Likan S. Questions of Christian odorology. - Novosibirsk, 2003. There is a book: Albert J. Odeurs de saintete. La mythologie cheretienne des aromates. - P., 1996.

2. About this: A. Lesovichenko. European musical and cult canons. - Novosibirsk, 2004.

3. Western European musical aesthetics of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. - M., 1965 .-- S. 174.

4. Ibid, p. 300.

5. Ibid, p. 304.

6. St. John of Damascus. An accurate statement of the Orthodox faith. - M., 1998 .-- S. 103

7. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian. About paradise. -

8. Quoted from: All-night vigil. Liturgy. - M., 1982 .-- P. 77

9. Ibid, p. 80

10. Trebnik. - M., 2000. - S. 508-509

11. Gogol N.V. Reflections on the Divine Liturgy. - M., 1990 .-- S. 25-26

12. John Paul II. Unity in diversity. - Milan-M., 1991. - S. 196-197.

13. Svmch. Seraphim Zvezdinsky. Liturgy. Sermons delivered in the temple of the Diveyevo monastery. - M., 2002. - S. 70].

14. Florensky P. Philosophy of cult // Theological works. - M., 1977 .-- S. 209-210.

15. Wright R.H. The science of smells. - M., 1966 .-- S. 122.

16. Florensky P. Cit. slave., p. 213.

17. James V. Diversity of religious experience. - M., 1910 .-- S. 448.