On 03/22/2023 at 12.05 we watched the documentary film “Holy Archipelago” at the Khudozhestvenny cinema. I haven’t been to the cinema for a hundred years and completely forgot that the hall is small and the screen is also not very widescreen. There are five rows and four seats. The room is quite cool. By the way, the sequel “Cross” will be released in 2024 and we took note of the advertising, since we liked the first film. “The Holy Archipelago” leaves a strong impression on itself, and then all day long you find yourself somewhere far away, there, thinking about Russia and the fate of the Russian people. Nature is shown very beautifully, a bird's eye view of the monastery and the island. The topic of “Monasticism” has always been of interest to believers, scientists, philosophers, architects, icon painters and historians. It is filled with secrets that are accessible only to initiates. Here you can see the work of the monks during prayer and in the field, in haymaking. Here you can feel and become a participant, a witness, an eyewitness, a participant in the tonsure that is performed on men within the walls of the monastery. Here you can learn different sciences and gain knowledge about how candles are made, how prosphora is prepared, how cows are looked after, how order is maintained, how water is blessed and tanks are filled from the source. The monks walk around the island, admire nature, feed the birds, appreciate their freedom and mission, the choice to serve God. Their lips say the Jesus Prayer, thank the gifts and creations of the Heavenly Father, remember the path of the great martyrs who suffered here, and honor the memory of the dead and reposed on the island. What was interesting? Find out what the Holy Cross symbolizes: a person’s path from birth to the end, the entrance to eternity; past present and future which are governed by the Spirit; The spirit that controls the human body - the donkey, its will and emotions, aspirations, desires. Two bags on a donkey are a load, pounds of salt, problems that a person solves in his life. The donkey can move slowly, be stubborn, and resist stopping in place. The owner's task was to guide him with a whip, tapping the bags with the load. The main thing is that a person is aware of his path on earth and lives his days in joy. The donkey can go astray, and this is serious and can bring trouble to itself. Aligning your earthly path is not an easy task. Whoever knows this will know happiness on earth. And this can only be known through God. Tonsure (tonsure) is a symbolic and ritual action in historical churches, consisting of cutting hair as a sign of belonging to the Church. In the Western tradition, tonsure was performed only on clergy and monks who wore a shaved circle on the top of their heads - tonsure (from the Latin tonsura “haircut”). In the Russian tradition, an analogue of the tonsure was the humentso. In the ascetic Byzantine aristocracy and Russian princes, dying tonsure was also practiced. It was not clear why the novices crawled along the carpet in their long white robes, like military soldiers, on their bellies, forward, and why scissors were thrown in front of them, with the words “take the scissors.” The scissors were picked up from the floor and handed over to the person doing the cutting, then they used them to cut the hair. Some kind of ritual-rite unknown to me. I compared it to the passage of a baby through the birth canal of the mother, it is difficult to exit through it into the world. The second version, the assumption that these actions are some kind of transition from the world of the living to death. Another option was that it was a renunciation of earthly, worldly life, a change in the name and essence of a person’s destiny. As it were, the new path is monasticism. A question arose in my head: - do nuns also crawl on the carpet before being tonsured? Probably yes, but I’ll study this topic. So far these actions are unclear to me. Logic could not find a more correct answer to the question. Before tonsure, the novice crawls along the floor from the vestibule of the temple to the pulpit, where the abbot awaits him. The accompanying monks shield the crawling novice from prying eyes with their robes. The hegumen tests the firmness of the tonsured person with questions and warnings about the difficulties of monastic life, for which it is necessary to give an answer to God forThe Last Judgment. The person being tonsured pronounces his vows. Prayers are said. Then the abbot throws the scissors three times and demands that the person being tonsured humbly pick them up. Each time, the person being tonsured humbly hands them over and kisses the abbot’s hand. Having accepted the scissors for the third time, the abbot tonsures the initiate in a cross shape, pronouncing the words: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” and gives him a new name, thereby signifying the final renunciation of the tonsured person from the world. After tonsure, the initiate puts on a tunic, paraman, cassock, belt, mantle, hood, sandals and receives a rope (rosary). How does a woman's tonsure differ from a man's? Perhaps, by statutes and living and working conditions. The Worldly Name changes three times for everyone: the cassock name, the robe name (of the small monastic image), and the schema name (of the great monastic image). Schema clothing: schema, kukol, schemamonk, schemanik. An accessory to the nun’s vestment is the mantle, and the paraman, invisible to the prying eye, is absent from the nun’s vestment. Essentially, monastic tonsure differs from monastic vows. It was scary to hear historical data about how many priests, believers, and various people suffered here, about the torture of martyrs, about the conditions of their work and “rest,” to see the sites of murders, to hear about the brutal treatment of people. We will never undo this. This will always be in the memory of the people. The Holy Archipelago is a place of shed blood, suffering, groans, great feats of innocent people, and the whole earth there screams about it. Our task is to remember them and not forget what happened there. And there are many such places: concentration camps, a place of crying and grief, terrible atrocities, about which you shudder inside and are surprised that their creators are earthly people. Or maybe they were “non-humans”, but servants of the devil. It is enough to look at their photographs and see their eyes, lips, understand their physiognomy, their accentuations and mental disorders. Mentally healthy people would not be able to live, sleep, or exist in peace after such actions. Even if they were forced to. Even if they were afraid of this and for their own skin, traitors, criminals, cruel killers. We don't understand them. We will never understand this. I think that an adequate person would not be able to drown out his conscience with alcohol, drugs and remain healthy in body - mind - spirit and not go crazy. Two old, destroyed ships remember everything. They haven't forgotten anything. After all, they were filled to capacity with people and drowned along with them. Hellish conditions, cold, hunger, sleeping conditions, when they were put to sleep on an ice floor, on top of each other, hard labor of martyrs and for any offense or refusal of obedience the punishment was death in agony. Many people have questions: - Has God left this earth? Why did this happen? Why did this happen? For what sins, transgressions of their ancestors, were people punished in this way? Or is this from the same series of stories as about the Titanic, when people were selected over several years to complete the mission. “The chosen ones” are drowned people, rescuers, those who were saved by a miracle. This information is hidden from us. It is kept by the dead. What is there today? In the village of Solovetsky there is a secondary school. Also on the territory of the Solovetsky archipelago, the Solovetsky Islands educational center has been organized, which consists of a summer university, a summer cultural and environmental school, a summer crafts school, a volunteer agency, and a plein air center. It is very interesting to make candles from wax. At first I thought it was a millstone - a wheel for grinding flour. Amazing work, reminiscent of the work of a pasta factory. The wheel cuts the pasta, the wax heats up, drips into the mold, and wicks appear on the candles. Candles are packed in 200 - 500 -1000 pieces. I saw this in the Sofrino church shop and bought it there. There are wax and paraffin candles, which are more useful. How are prosphora baked? They cut out circles from the dough, stamp them with a cross, pierce them with an iron stick, like pyramid wheels, children's toys, place them in several rows on a baking sheet and send them to the oven to bake. Then the finished prosphora is placed on