ПРАКТИКИ ПОЧИТАНИЯ МУЧЕНИКА ФИЛИППА, МИТРОПОЛИТА МОСКОВСКОГО, В СОЛОВЕЦКОМ МОНАСТЫРЕ XVII – НАЧАЛА XVIII В.

Abstract

Drawing on a variety of sources, the article shows that the cult of St. Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow first appeared in the Solovki monastery in 1616, made possible by the new Romanov dynasty’s ascension to the throne in 1613. During the 17th and early 18th centuries, and especially after Philip’s canonization in 1636, the veneration of this saint gradually developed in the Solovki monastery. A significant part of these veneration practices involved visual representation of the cult and its propaganda among the population. In this, the monastery was following the traditional patterns of venerating its founders St Zosima and St Savvatiy of Solovki, which had taken shape in the 16th century. It was a peculiar feature of the Solovki monks’ religiosity that, throughout most of the 17th century, they were committed to honoring their ‘old’ saints Zosima and Savvatiy, but remained indifferent to the new cult of Philip the Metropolitan. Thus for a long time there was a gap between the official, public veneration of St. Philip and the private veneration by the monks. It was not until the turn of the 18th century that they began to treat Philip as truly ‘their own’ saint worthy of addressing prayers and requests in everyday life.