Some characteristics of spiritual and symbolic space

The main religion (spiritual plane) and the main (local) culture (material plane) are distinguished as formative forces in each spiritual and symbolic space. For the cultural and historical heritage of the Zvirynets Caves, the Orthodox faith and monastic culture are formative

Approaches to describing the spiritual and symbolic space of a sacred complex

Spiritual and symbolic space (as a possible category of description of a sacred complex) consists of a set (system) of material and symbolic (temples, relics, monuments-symbols, sacred places) and intangible (beliefs, laws, place names, legends, etc.) phenomena of religion (spiritual culture) that form the appearance of the historical territory.

Criteria for the evaluation of sacred monuments and their territorial complexes

The system of registration of a sacred object in the form of an immovable “monument” (or “complex of monuments”) adopted in Soviet times records the “museum” – historical, cultural, architectural, aesthetic, – “universal” value of the object. This approach certainly has the right to exist, as it allows for the development of purely instrumental, “objective,” “national,” and “international” criteria for evaluating monuments.

The cross in the sacred topography of the Zvirynets Caves

Analyzing numerous historical images, photographs, and iconography of the Zvirynets Monastery, it is easy to see that the cross was one of the main elements of the sacred topography, the focal point of the spiritual and symbolic space of this monastery.

In the absence of a church or chapel, prayers to the Lord were offered near the cross. The cross denoted the desert lands’ belonging to the Orthodox world. The cross was a support and defense in the spiritual battle against evil spirits and enemies of Christianity.

Historical heritage

Touching upon the historical heritage of the Zvirynets Monastery, one realizes that it is not only a collection of monuments or cultural landscapes, caves. The context of perception of the monastery’s heritage is much broader and not always rationally interpretable, as evidenced by the impressions of numerous tourists and scholars (not to mention pilgrims). And this “unnamed”, “monastery world”, which has been developed and polished over the centuries, is also our national heritage and needs to be protected.

The sacred functions of the burial rite in the Christian context

In the Christian tradition, the transition of the soul to the next world takes place without the participation of people, but they are required to pray for the deceased to be spared the fate of the next world. These prayers take place both during the burial and during the rest of the relatives’ lives. “Feedback” between the dead and the living is possible only if the deceased was a righteous person or a saint, in which case he or she has the right to pray for the living, and they have the right to ask for his or her help.