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Holy Rus' orHoly Russia (Russian:Святая Русь,romanized: Svyatáya Rusʹ) - is an important religious and philosophical concept which appeared from the 9th century and developed gradually from the 16th century to the 21st century by people inGrand Duchy of Moscow,East Europe,Central Eurasia andGreat Russia. As a concept it has several meanings. It designates the Russian land as chosen by God and enlightened by theChristian faith. However, among the other spaces,[further explanation needed] Holy Rus' is not distinguished by geography, nor by the state it constitutes, nor by ethnicity, but byEastern Orthodox Christianity.[1][better source needed]
This religious concept developed through the ages in close connection withOrthodox Russian Christianity, which cannot be understood completely without the idea of Holy Rus'.[citation needed]
The idea of Holy Rus' can be explained as the idea ofKingdom of Heaven well-known to every Christian around the world, but developed in the realities of society of Central Eurasia under the strong influence of ancient East Slavic OrthodoxChristian culture.
The idea made great impact on the emergence and development of many states and societies in East Europe and Central Eurasia through the centuries: the ancient principality of Rus' (theKievan Rus'), theEastern Slavic principalities in the state structure of theMongol Empire, Empire of theGreat Horde, the Russian Czardom andRussian Empire of the 16th to 20th centuries and even on the emergence and development of the Soviet Union which gave birth to the modernRussian,Ukrainian andBelarusian republics:
As sons and daughters of the Russian Orthodox Church, we are all citizens of Holy Russia. When we speak of Holy Russia, we are not talking about the Russian Federation or any civil society on earth; rather, it is a way of life that has been passed down to us through the centuries by such great saints of the Russian Land as the Holy Great Prince Vladimir and Great Princess Olga, Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, Job of Pochaev, Seraphim of Sarov, and more recently, the countless New Martyrs and Confessors of the 20th century. These saints are our ancestors, and we must look to them for instruction on how to bravely confess the Faith, even when facing persecution. There is no achievement in simply calling oneself "Russian:" in order to be a genuine Russian, one must first become Orthodox and live a life in the Church, as did our forebears, the founders of Holy Russia!
— MetropolitanHilarion (Kapral) of New York[2]
