It's cold and the [bone?]'s breaking.

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SCP-4841: St. John of the Blood-Smeared Cross

Author: Tufto. More of Tufto's work can be found here.

Image: The image is in the public domain and can be found here.

Photograph found attached to SCP-4841-2; caption on the reverse reads "Yakov Tsaanov, before 1905 war".

Item #: SCP-4841

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: In cooperation with the Russian government, SCP-4841 has been cordoned off from the rest of Svyatilishche and public access has been prevented under the guise of a military land seizure. Foundation archeological digs are planned in the vicinity of SCP-4841 for mid-2020.

Description: SCP-4841 is the Church of St. John in the village of Svyatilishche, Turukhansky District, Russia. SCP-4841 was constructed in the 1690s, and is believed to have been built on top of an earlier Ket1 structure used for an unknown religious purpose.

Any depiction of a human figure brought into SCP-4841 will, after an indeterminate period of time beneath one hour, begin to anomalously generate blood around the eyes and wrists in the painting2. Shortly afterwards, the eyes of the painting will appear to move independently; they most commonly look at people present in the church, other depictions of the human form, and at the altarpiece.

Although no corroborating documents were found, long-time Svyatilishche residents claim that SCP-4841 was abandoned at some point in the early 20th century. A new church was completed in January 1911, which served the community until an accidental fire damaged it in August 2018. SCP-4841's anomalous properties were thus only discovered on 29/09/2018, when Orthodox icons were taken into the building after it was temporarily reopened.

In addition to its anomalous properties, SCP-4841 also features several highly unusual iconographical and architectural elements:

Its construction in stone, a very rare occurrence in 17th century Siberia3. Analysis of the stone showed that it originated in northern Mongolia and had probably been reused from a previous structure on the site.

Carvings on the exterior showing St. John with multiple arms. Aside from his characteristic chalice, he is also holding a cross-staff.

An unusual inscription carved on a wall close to the church entrance. Although heavily damaged (apparently deliberately), it appears to be the words of a prayer to St. John which implores his aid against sin, temptation and "masters". Analysis of the carving dates it to the early 20th century.

Further analysis is planned.

Addendum 4841-1: On 06/06/2019, the Foundation recovered the collection of Henry Korsakov, an American businessman of Russian descent who was involved in several anomalous communities. Among his belongings were several pages of a journal belonging to an unknown individual and an attached photograph (see above). The journal was primarily written in Russian, but with some words believed to have originated in an unknown Yenisei dialect. A translation of the journal entries follows.

29th December, 1910 [11th January 1911 in the Gregorian Calendar]

Miss Elena from down in the village proper died the other day. People are very angry about it. I turned nine today but I don't feel very [happy?] about it, because they are blaming Charki[?] Miroslava for it. Mama says it's the new priest, the one from Moscow, because he doesn't understand why we love St. John so much.

I asked Charki Miroslava about it but she said that all she'd done was [making? crafting?] which I saw her do on Yakov when he came back from the war, and it worked on him. If that's what she did then it's not her fault, he didn't die.

3rd January, 1911 [16th January 1911 in the Gregorian Calendar]

They're going to build a new church, and abandon the old one. The new priest says that there's too much of the [pagan? scream?] around it. Mama called him a [demon? easterner?] and said that he'd be gone too, all the others that had tried had gone. She told me stories of John and Lyudmilla his consort, and the war against the masters in Christ's name, and then she [took?] the wart from my skin.

Boys started throwing stones today at me and Dmitry. Yakov and Afanasay told me that their fathers and grandfathers had loved St. John too, they'd just forgotten. Yakov said that when his grandfather was young, they had all loved St. John, and even the savages down the river had loved him, dozens of them. It's only three families now who remember how now.

9th January, 1911 [22nd January 1911 in the Gregorian Calendar]

I got chased away from the school today. The old teacher was a [lover?] but he had to leave after the stuff in Petrograd last year4 but the new one keeps telling Dmitry and I that we've been taught wrong.

I'm really scared and there's nobody to talk to, Mama keeps taking us to the church to listen to Afanasay talk when the priest is gone. He carved a prayer into the wall and taught it to us, to keep away the [demons? easterners?] away. I tried to talk to Yakov but he just told me to have faith, and to be like St. [Tsaan?] and to hide myself.

10th January, 1911 [23rd January 1911 in the Gregorian Calendar]

We're in the church, all of us, Tsaanovs and Korsakovs and us Petrovs. Yakov did something and they can't come through the door but it's cold and we don't have much food. Dmitry keeps looking pale and wanting to run away but Mama Korsakov said he couldn't, that the [bone?] on the door couldn't be broken or we'd all die

I just want to go home. There's not much food left. Yakov keeps talking about how nobody remembers but I don't think he does, or Afasanay, they just keep saying the words over and over again that Yakov's grandfather taught then but they're just words, words that do things, they've forgotten what they meant. I don't think St. John did the things they said. Nobody else thinks so but us.

I think Mama is

I think she's not

18th January, 1911 [31st January 1911 in the Gregorian Calendar]

It's cold and the [bone?]'s breaking.

Mama is sick and weak and Yakov just keeps chanting and Afasanay keeps chanting at the walls but we can't get out, they're all outside and their torches are aflame and there's no way out.

St. John will save us, Yakov says, he overthrew the [easterners? daeva?] and he led Lyudmilla to the light of the [flesh?] but we've all forgotten, we just need to remember what we were and it'll be fine.

Afanasay says he's found a way to cure us, cure us forever, but we won't like it, the [flesh?] must mix with the [loam? stone?] and become whole but I don't want to, he says we'll have to weep and weep and weep and the stigmata will keep pouring out and we'll just stare as the [flesh?] in the walls

Mama is sick and she keeps crying out. We can't leave. John save us, John save us, John save us.

Footnotes

1. An indigenous group to the area and the only surviving Yeniseian people as of 2019.

2. The latter is similar to the purported Christian miracle of stigmata, which the congregation initially mistook it for.

3. The only other known examples are secular buildings at Tobolsk and Abalak, which bear little resemblance to SCP-4841.

4. Presumably the 1905 revolution. Rural teachers were often involved in political activism during the revolution, but this swiftly declined after its suppression.