Anti-Easter - Fomino Sunday (Red Hill)

As soon as the first Sunday after Easter arrives, Christians celebrate Antipascha This day is also called Red Hill or St Thomas Sunday Despite the fact that the prefix “anti-” usually denotes opposition or negation, this holiday is rather an addition to Easter, its kind of mirror image The fact is that the Gospels describe the first resurrection after Easter as the day on which one of the apostles believed Thomas perceived all the convictions of the other disciples that his Teacher had resurrected with skepticism The death of the Savior incredibly depressed the apostle, and he considered the teaching of Christ to be untenable, and his loss irrevocable Only his own senses could convince the student To be convinced of the Miracle, Thomas needed to “see the wounds of the nails in His hands” and “put his fingers into His side” Otherwise, he considered the resurrection to be false This is what happened a week after the Holy Resurrection of Christ On the eighth day, Christ exposed all the wounds, and did this on his own initiative, without waiting for requests In none of the Gospels, neither canonical nor apocryphal, is there any mention of Thomas “putting his fingers into gaping wounds” However, using this plot as the theme of their canvases, artists often depicted the distrustful follower in the characteristic pose of a person examining the skin They painted the Savior's injuries in close-up, with varying degrees of detail At the same time, the apostle stretched out his fingers to the wounds in an attempt to verify their authenticity Whether this happened or not is impossible to determine Such venerable painters as Caravaggio or Guercino are allowed some artistic liberties in describing the Miracle In this case we mean the miracle of assurance The Apostle Thomas, having seen the living Savior and examined his body, was imbued with such deep faith in his teaching that he subsequently suffered for it For his deeds in the mission of spreading Christianity, the apostle was canonized and canonized The saint organized numerous churches in Ethiopia, Parthia (most of its lands are now occupied by Iran and Afghanistan), Palestine, Mesopotamia and India It was in India that the apostle found martyrdom There, Thomas, with a heartfelt sermon, successfully converted many people to the Christian faith, including the son of the ruler of one of the Indian cities and his wife For such acts, the apostle was subject to imprisonment, torture and execution The exact place of the sermon, torture and subsequent burial could not be established According to some sources it is Kalamine, according to others it is Melipura Be that as it may, followers of the Christian faith in India consider Thomas the Apostle to be their teacher And together with all Christians they celebrate Antipascha The expression “Doubting Thomas” has become a common noun, often used to denote misplaced distrust It is noteworthy that during the Soviet era, the poet Mikhalkov used the theme of the gospel plot when writing the poem “Thomas” The young character depicted in the work was also distinguished by strong suspicion and questioned everything And not everyone understood that the prototype of the Soviet boy was the Apostle Thomas