Early on Thursday morning, as the city of Kyiv was fast asleep, the distant thud of missiles landing could be heard in the centre of Ukraine’s ancient capital. All through the day, the people of Kyiv heard the blood-curdling sound of air-raid sirens urging them to seek shelter in renovated and improvised bunkers.
Kyiv is no stranger to onslaughts and invasions. It has been on the frontline of numerous conflicts that have wreaked havoc across nations in that contentious region. However, few assaults on Ukraine’s beleaguered capital have warranted the nocturnal ringing of the colossal bells of St Michael’s Cathedral.
The ringing of the bells occurred once in the 13th century and once again in our century.
In 1240, the Mongol Horde continued its bloody progress westward, toppling and subjugating various hetmans and princes in Russia and the Baltics. Kyiv was the most prosperous stronghold of Christian power in the vicinity and a great prize in the apathetic eyes of the Mongol Khanate.
The famously brutal Mongol general, Subtuai, was charged with capturing or destroying Kyiv by his Khan. His army came into view of the holy city in early November in 1240 and began to build catapults out of an adjacent forest to conduct a siege.
When the priests of St Michael’s saw the bright torches of the Mongol’s amassing forces they rang every bell in the belfry of the cathedral, producing the loudest peal that had ever been heard by the people of Kyiv.
The efficient viciousness of the Mongol troops eventually overwhelmed the isolated defenders, and of the 50,000 population of Kyiv, only 2,000 survived to relay what they had witnessed.
The church was ransacked and left in ruins by the invaders, but over the following decades, the sacred sanctuary was lovingly restored by the denizens of Kyiv.
At witching hour on 11th December 2013, almost 800 years after the Mongol siege, an enormous number of riot police began to engage barricades democratic protesters had erected that afternoon in central Kyiv.
At 1 am, a 24-year-old graduate student from the Orthodox Theology Academy, called Ivan Sydor, was woken up by incessant calls and texts to his mobile phone. His number was on the cathedral website, and Kyivans were calling to ask him to sound the alarm.
Not only were people ringing him from within the city, Ukrainians abroad in the US, UK and Poland also attempted to rouse him as they watched the fight for their country unfold live on tv.
The young seminary received 70 calls in a single hour, unanimously insisting that he produce a sound that had not been heard since the Mongols converged on the Lyadski Gates.
Ivan climbed the steps to the belltower and single-handedly rang each bell until his fellow seminaries joined him. By this time, his hands were red from tugging the strings attached to the bells, and his feet were swollen from furiously pressing down on the modulating pedals.
As the bells of St Michael’s started to chime, the sleeping people of the city were alerted to the predicament of their fellow citizens. Thousands rushed to the struggle against the riot police while St Michael’s bells rang on until 5 that morning.