The churches of the Kremlin

Bands [37] of Music men stationed in the grounds, and the fine looking mounted troops of the Emperor were stationed there to preserve order.  In the buildings of the Park some were amusing themselves with dancing thus in promenading and others still in looking at the illuminations and fire-works.  We returned home soon afterward and the next morning taking a guide, started out in a carriage to the Kremlin & its curiosities.  I never could learn with certainty the meaning of the word Kremlin.  It is I believe a [Slav?] word, and by some is said to be a Palace, and by others “The Holy Place.”  Whatever is the real meaning of the name however it in reality in itself comprises a great deal, being within the walls encircling it, a congregation of Palaces, Towers, Mosques, Churches, [illeg.].   From the Environs of the City this singular assemblage of singular & beautiful objects rises conspicuous, and is the first place visited as a matter of course [38] by the stranger.  On our entrance within one of its many gateways, guarded by sentinels, we visited one of the Churches.  Strikingly singular in appearance, and yet at the first glance so strangely reminding one of San Marco of Venice inasmuch as this has its whole sides & walls covered with pictures of the many saints of the Greek Church, covered in the usual manner with dresses of gold & silver ornaments, leaving only the few hands & feet visible.  As we entered, the priests were in the midst of Mass.  The church was crowded with rich & poor, some looking carelessly about, others kneeling and touching the marble pavement with their foreheads.  The priests of the Greek Church are in their general appearance a more cleanly racae at least than those of the Catholic (Roman) well dressed, and universally with long beards, moustache & carrying in their hands a long goldheaded baton, and dressed in [39]some dark colored frock bound tight around the waist.  The Church as we entered was filled with incense, and the choir (without instruments) singing in as fine a manner as I have ever heard out of St. Peter’s.  We remained till the music was over and passed out to visit one or more of the churches within the walls.  The next we entered was in a great degree similar to the one first visited, though not as rich, but the more interesting, as containing the tombs of the Tartar Tsars.  They were all arranged on either side of the Entrance in rows, being nothing more than small sarcophagi or stone-coffins, with a Persian pall thrown over each one.

The Greek Church

Though such wild furious looking fellows, they are said to be very harmless, and as I can say from experience are most strangely polite to every one.  In their small log villages you may see a crowd standing lazily about, and another of their acquaintance coming up on his dirty sheep skin is received by them all, with uncovered heads in fact as polite as a Frenchman.  In these poor starving towns, with no building there better than a dirty log hut, you universally on this route find one or more really noble looking churches and mosques.  In this part of Russia, as in Moscow they have copied the houses of worship from the Turks, and their church is generally formed like a mosque, with its half-a dozen colored & spangled [22] domes and minarets.  In the Greek Church, in most respects just like the Catholic, there is apparently much more superstition than in the Roman—certainly true in the lower classes of Society, or I should say life [?].  The people seem  completely devoted to the forms at least of religion. It is one canon of the Greek church to admit no images into their churches, yet walk into them and you will find them filled with pictures, of Saints, Madonnas, Christs, & yet almost universally with the bodies of the figures covered with silver or gold leaving the head, hands & feet only visible, and before one of these virgins, you will see some sheep-skin-clad serf placing his penny candle and prostrating his body ‘till his forehead touches the pavement, rising and crossing himself for an half hour at a time without cessation, and all the while muttering over some form of prayer to the Holy Mother, or other saint whose likeness [23] is before him.  As far as I can judge they are as much worshippers of idols as the Heathen of old.  You cannot in St Pg or in fact in any part of the Empire pass a church without seeing before it every minute of the day some one stopping taking off his hat and crossing himself frequently and apparently & I believe sincerely devoutfully and then going on his way.