Myths and legends of Kyrgyzstan
An apostle and evangelist Matthew
Some arguments about a place of burying of some relics of saint apostle
Matthew in Issyk-Kul haven�t died down yet.
A church tradition says that Matthew`s body, after being killed cruelly,
was hidden by his followers from being outraged .There is a version that
the place of his burying was at the beach of Issyk-Kul. This is a point of
view of Metropolitan Tashkent and Central-Asian Vladimir .He says about this
undeniable fact: �The sanctity was kept in an abbey, located at the beach
of Issyk-Kul and all Christian world knew about this fact�. Saint Matthew
is one of the most enigmatic Christian characters. The place of his grave
hasn�t been identified for 2 centuaries. Several countries claimed having
Matthew relics.
Italians alleged that the relics of the evangelist after his deaf immediately
came to the Apennines peninsula in the 1 century and now they are still in
a cathedral San-Matteo in Salerno city. The representatives of Catholic Church
inclined to consider that the body of the apostle was found out while an
excavation of one Lang bard castle.
Nowadays the cathedral castle San-Matteo is included into all catholic
guides for many palmers. However there haven` been any documents for conformation
this fact until now.
As for the official Vatican, it`s representatives claim: �According to
an old catholic tradition, the relics in Salerno are the relics of the apostle
Matthew�. Thereby, it wasn`t alleged that the relics are certain relics of
Matthew.
The eastern version. In the middle of XIX century Russian scientist Semenov
Tian-Shansky, finding himself in Venetia, had an opportunity to study so
called katalon world map, had made in 1375-1377 years by Abraham and Iegudi
Kreskes. There was a building with a cross and if what was depicted is true,
the building was on the north beach of Issyk-Kul lake. The inscription nearby
said: �The place, called as Issyk-Kul .There is a monastery of armenian brothers
there , where the relics of saint Matthew, apostle ands evangelist, are tombed�.
First this map was translated into the Russian by Semenov Tian-Shansky.
It is noteworthy that the building with the cross was connected with Jerusalem
by straight line on the map. While traveling around Turkestan, Semenov Tian-Shansky
was trying to find �the monastery or Armenian brothers�. He heard a lot
of legends about a drowned town from Issyk-Kul kyrgyz people. The local people
showed him some different findings from the floor of the lake. The monastery
wasn`t found, but Semenov Tian-Shansky came up with an idea that the abbey
existed in the area of Kurmentinskaya bay and was drowned in due course.
Matthew - the only apostle, who�s deaf is covered by a pall of suspense.
And his relics haven`t been found until our days.
There is a place �Svetlyi Mys�on the north beach of Issyk-Kul lake, in
the area of Tyupsky bay.
There is Kurmenty village there (old name is �Belovodskoe�). There was
Svyato-Troitsky orthodox male monastery on �Svetlyi Mys�.
It is interesting that not far from that place where was the ancient Armenian
monastery, later in 1882 � was established Svyato-Troitsky monastery. Nowadays
there are only 2 buildings (refectory and tabernacle, made from so a solid
wood that it is hard to cut it with an ax. There is an orphanage there nowadays.
A head of the orphanage told a miracle story, that one day she saw a dream:
a bright column of light appeared from under the roof and crossed the darkness.
In a moment it turned into a flaming cross. In the morning the woman told
about this dream to some neighbors. It turned out that a lot of people saw
that event indeed. Many people of Tyupsky region watch some flaming crosses
above the assumed place of buried relics of Matthew.
While shootings, some operators of American television company, specializing
on making movies about enigmatic events, found out some remains of ancient
monastery on the floor of the lake and also a catacomb.
The scientist, who were in that expedition, alleged, that they determined
a metal subject, which is similar to a feretory for the relics on the deep
24 meters by an up-to date equipment.
Kyrgyzstan travel