Eleven of the books I have read so far this year are by
Russian authors writing about life in Russia from the present back through the
last two centuries. This book goes several centuries further back into Russian history.
Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin showed me a Russia that I have
seen only in fleeting glimpses. We follow the title character, Laurus, from
when he loses his parents as a child until the end of his long life as a healer
and a holy man between the mid 1400s to the 1520s.
This is a medieval book by setting and by the parade of
wretched, reverent, hopeful, fearful and foul characters that people the pages
of this wonderful book. After Laurus
(Arseny in his early life) loses his parents he moves in with his grandfather,
a healer named Christopher. Arseny
follows his grandfather and becomes a healer, but as his life progresses,
Arseny relies less on the herbs and lore of Christopher and more on the healing
gift he has from God.
Arseny becomes adept at healing plague victims. He heals a young woman from far away named
Ustina. They fall in love and live
together. Ustina gets pregnant then she
and their son die in childbirth.
At that point, Arseny becomes an itinerant “Holy Fool” in
the city of Pskov. (Pskov is the northwest corner of modern Russia.) He shares Pskov with
two other Holy Fools. One is Holy Fool
Foma, who is very territorial. Foma is
one of the many brilliant bits of comic relief we get on the long life of
suffering of our very Russian hero Arseny/Laurus (also at various times Ustin
and Ambrosius).
In the middle of the book, we meet Ambrogio, an Italian from
Florence with a gift of Prophecy as strong as Arseny’s gift of healing. Ambrogio is convinced the world is ending
soon and the only place he can get exact knowledge of the coming Apocalypse is
in Pskov. In 15th Century
Florence, Ambrogio finds a trader willing to teach him Russian. Ambrogio learns Russian with an accent
perfect for Pskov in short order and sets out for Pskov.
In Pskov, Ambrogio meets the mayor. The mayor introduces the Italian to Arseny
and bankrolls their trip to Jerusalem.
All the horrors of the road befall them.
Ambrogio is killed near Jerusalem; a sword but lives and return to Pskov
slash Arseny.
Late in life Arseny goes to a monastery and finally lives in
a cave. He takes the blame for a sin he
did not commit and dies rejected by thousands who he healed. But when he finally dies, more than 100,000
people mourn his passing.
Laurus shows from beginning to end that the life of true
faith, the life truly given to others, means poverty, rejection and
suffering. Arseny, like the Bishop in
Les Miserable rejects this world out of habit and choice. Arseny, like the Bishop, illustrates the
passage called the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew. I am adding that passage at the end of this
review.
Laurus is the Book of Acts set in Russia with the
unrelenting suffering of the Apostle Paul set in a colder climate. Any televangelist who read and understood
Laurus would burn his mansion, his private jet and his TV studio to the
ground.
This book shows what the Christian life looks like and it is a good story well told.
Matthew
Chapter 5
The Beatitudes
10 f“Blessed are those who are
persecuted for righteousness' sake, forutheirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
11 g“Blessed are you when others revile you and
persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely hon my account. 12 iRejoice and be glad, for
your reward is great in heaven, for jso they persecuted the prophets who were before
you.
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