Russian Monasteries Research Articles

Каменное храмостроительство в Вологде и в Троице-Сергиевом монастыре в последней трети XVI века

The article deals with the origin and history of stone construction in Vologda in the 16th century, especially in the last third of the century, when the St. Sophia Cathedral, the fortress and, judging by some information, several stone structures inside the fortress were built. Simultaneity and compactness of the construction allows us to assume the participation of one large brigade. Researchers drew attention to the participation of foreigners Razmysl and H. Locke in the building of the Vologda fortress. But the volumes of construction directly indicate the multiplicity of its participants. In the act of the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery of January 13, 1586 the Vologda mason Leonty (Pozdey) Vasilyev’s son is noted, who sold the yard to the largest Russian monastery according to this document. Finding the mason in Vologda allows us to assume with a high degree of probability his participation in the sovereign city construction of the last third of the XVI century. The fact that his neighbors sold another part of the courtyard to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery in 1584 leaves no doubt about his acquaintance with the authorities of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery already at that time. Taking into account that in 1585 in this monastery the construction of the largest monastery building at that time - the Dormition Cathedral - was being completed, one can have no doubt that around the time of the transaction with the Vologda mason, the most important Russian monastery needed such specialists. This gives grounds for assumption about the work of the Vologda mason Leonty (Pozdey) Vasilyev’s son not only on sites in Vologda, but also in the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery. Our assumption can be supported by architectural proximity of the Sofia Cathedral in Vologda and the Assumption Cathedral in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, oriented on the main Russian temple - the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. We take into account the interest of Tsars Ivan the Terrible and his son Fyodor Ivanovich in both the Vologda cathedral and the cathedral of the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery, their location in the same direction from Moscow, as well as the perception of both monumental buildings as typologically similar not only in our days, but already at the end of the XVII century, a century after their building. Attention is drawn to the fact that the yard of the Vologda mason Leonty (Pozdey) Vasilyev's son was white, i.e. free from sovereign taxes, which was usual for the yards of sovereign craftsmen, which is symptomatic, since stone architecture in Vologda and in the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery in the second half of the 16th century, which took place under vigilant sovereign control, was obviously carried out primarily by sovereign specialists.

Forced Penance in Russian Monasteries in the Second Half of the 18th Century: From Punishment of the Body to Correction of the Soul

Abstract This paper focusses on the use of the sacred space of monasteries for the punishment of criminals and their simultaneous spiritual purification. The uniqueness and therefore special heuristic value of study into this phenomenon is determined by the following circumstances. The ritual of tonsure has long been used by rulers to punish undesirable and dangerous individuals and remove them from proximity to the throne. However, the “honor” of such a manifestation of royal anger was only awarded to those belonging to the tsar’s inner circle, and disgraced courtiers did not find themselves locked behind monastic walls for the sake of their internal spiritual correction, but solely in order to isolate them. During the reign of Catherine II, the Empress’s own initiative saw a marked increase in the practice of penance in monasteries as punishment for serious crimes. It is noteworthy that such sentences first appeared in Catherine’s written confirmations of sentences, after which they began to be widely utilized by the secular courts. The conclusions of this work are based on royal confirmations of death sentences passed by the Senate, the archives of the local chancelleries, and reports submitted by the abbots of monastic foundations. These materials enable us to draw preliminary conclusions regarding the gradual humanization of punishments in Russia in the second half of the 18th century and the growing use of ecclesiastical practices in court sentences, all at a time in which the scope of spiritual jurisdiction was being reduced.

Несколько суждений о каноническо-правовых основаниях создания монастырей в домонгольской Руси

Introduction. This study focuses on the formation of ancient Russian monasticism in the 11th-13th centuries. The main emphasis of the article is on the recognition of foreign communities as fullyfledged monasteries by episcopal cathedrals, as well as on the administrative-canonical rights of ancient Russian bishops. The author is interested in how the relationship between the episcopate and monasteries developed and changed. Methods. The analysis of the information on the establishment of the first Russian monasteries allows for some preliminary judgments not only in the field of the history of relations between the episcopate and monastic communities, but also regarding the development of canonical concepts within the church organization, revealing the peculiarities of these processes in different lands. Materials and methods. The main sources for this work were published and well-known sources on the early history of the Russian Church: ancient Russian chronicles, a collection of texts related to the history of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, 25 graffiti, as well as sources on the early history of the Antonius Romanin Monastery. Results. As a result, the author comes to the following conclusions. Firstly, the process of recognizing monastic settlements and institutions by episcopal cathedrals was complex and reflected the extremely difficult canonical and administrative situation in Russia. If in the initial stage, in the first century after the events of the Baptism, there was maximum freedom, expressed in the fact that the majority of monastic settlements were founded solely at the desire of the monks or at the will of the princes, then over time there is a tendency to expand the rights of the hierarchs in the control of monastic life. Conclusion. The first successful experience of full influence of the hierarchs on monastic life for the cathedrals is observed in the time of Prince Vsevolod and Metropolitan John the Baptist. However, the participation of bishops in the foundation of monasteries and the consecration of monastery churches became the norm only from the end of the 12th century. An exception to this series was Novgorod, where monastic life was brought under the control of the bishops already in the early 12th century. Secondly, it is obvious that in the initial stage of the Christianization of Russia, most monasteries were established without recognition from the episcopate. They simply did not need it. The only authority to which such settlements resorted was the princely authority.

Chilandar monastery in the Athonias by Iakobos Neasketiotes

The article deals with descriptions of the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon and the Serbian monastery of Hilandar on Mount Athos in the monumental work ?Athonias? (1848-1865) by Athonite monk and historiographer Iakobos Neasketiotes. A comparison of the texts of the two most recent and complete manuscript copies of the work allows us not only to see the thematic expansion and the addition of the documents, but also to conceptually revise our insights into the history of Athonite monasteries. The six available Athos versions, including the Koutloumousiou codex gr. 516 and the non-catalogued codex Neasketiotes of 1842, both Greek autographs of Iakobos Neasketiotes, allow us to trace the expansion and deepening of Hilandarian themes in his fundamental historiographical work, ?Athonias?.

Кем был в миру Патриарх Иоасаф I (1634–1640 гг.)?

The article is devoted to the patriarch Joasaphus I’s (1634–40) origin and status in worldly life. Earlier he was the abbot of the Pskov-Caves Monastery (1621–27) and the Pskov archbishop (1627–34). Joasaphus became the metropolitan after the death of Philaret (Romanov) (1619–33). The researchers noted that they had a close relationship. The only earlier known historical source informing of Joasaphus’s origin is the Chronograph of the Astrakhan archbishop Pachomius (mid-17th century). It reports that Joasaphus was a descendant of servitors of Boyar scions (deti boyarskie). His parents’ names in religion (Julia and Bogolep) are known to researchers from the Synodic of the Cornelius Komelski monastery. The author of the article has managed to find new data. Synodic of the Yaroslavl Transfiguration of the Savior Monastery notes Joasaphus’s secular name: Ivan Borisov, son of Tonky (the Thin). The author has also established that, prior to taking his monastic vows (1609), Ivan made a donation (a 16th century manuscript) to the Siya Monastery of St. Antonius to commemorate his parents. In 1601–05 Philaret lived in this monastery in exile. Ivan’s father, Boris (Bogolep), might have lived in this monastery with him. The record of donation mentions Ivan’s status: he was a Boyar scion of the Rostov metropolitan Philaret. Considering absence of the names of Ivan and his father in the list of servitors of the Rostov metropolitan’s house (1591/92), the author supposes that Ivan had been connected with Philaret before the latter became the Rostov metropolitan. Probably he was a servitor of the Romanovs (aristocrats like Fedor Nikitich Romanov had a lot of them). Ivan might have taken the monastic vows in the Solovetsky monastery (ca. 1611-12) after his overlord Philaret had been captured by the Poles. After his returning in Moscow thanks to his relationship with Philaret, Joasaphus made a successful church career. Ivan/Joasaphus’s interest in books might have been instrumental in this. His donation to the monastery was not typical for a representative of service class people. As a rule, they donated the Gospel, Psalter, Menaion to churches and monasteries. Ivan possibly inherited his interest in books from his father. The Gift book of the Siya Monastery of St. Antonius informs that monk Bogolep (probably, the father of the future patriarch) gave no less than 6 books to the monastery in late 16th century. The research is based on the colophons, Synodics, Commemoration books of the Russian monasteries.

Проблемы русского церковного рассеяния в Финляндии на примере истории Валаамского монастыря межвоенного периода

The article examines the period of the history of the Transfiguration of the Valaam Monastery of 1918 - 1939, before the evacuation to Heyniavesi. The famous Russian monastery, which belonged to the Diocese of Finland and Vyborg of the Orthodox Russian Church, had to adapt to life in independent Finland. The conditions of the monastery existence had changed significantly after the declaration of independence of this country and the change of the state system in Russia. In 1918, the Finnish government awarded the diocese the status of the second state church of the national minority. Despite the difficulties of socio-political, economic and jurisdictional nature, active finnization, which included the imposed calendar reform, the monastery became a symbol of steadfastness, evidence of the greatness of Russian culture and loyalty to Orthodoxy for Russian emigration around the world. The monastery leadership managed to find a common language with the church and secular authorities of Finland, the monastery won the respect and love of ordinary Finlanders. It can be said that the monastery has found its place in a new Western society. However, the author believes that it is possible to assert about the "prosperity" or "flourishing" of the Valaam Monastery at that time only conditionally, in comparison with the sad fate of monasteries in the USSR. She recalls the contradictory events in the story of the Valaam Monastery in the period, which influenced the fate of its inhabitants and the monastery itself, contributed to the reduction in the number of the brotherhood and the appearance of a "split" in it, and proves that visible well-being was the attribute of an artificially created image, although it had a positive meaning.

Крестный путь подвижниц Православия (русская обитель на французской земле)

Публикация раскрывает связи православного монастыря во имя Покрова Пресвятой Богородицы, расположенного в бургундском селении Бюсси-ан-От, с Крымом и русским дворянством. В ней рассказывается о непростом жизненном пути послушниц и их попытках противостоять обновленчеству («Живой церкви»), затрагиваются острые проблемы о судьбах русской эмиграции, будущем мирового православия и влиянии веры на молодое поколение. Судьбы первой настоятельницы монастыря матери Евдокии (Екатерины Куртэн) и её ближайшей сподвижницы матери Ии (Татьяны Брунс) — яркие образцы преданности до конца своим идеалам и убеждениям, смирения перед Божьей волей, милосердия, самопожертвования, неутомимой любви к ближнему. Благодаря их каждодневным трудам во имя Господа, небольшая обитель в крохотной французской деревушке получила всемирную известность как оплот православной веры, а также благодаря миссионерской и благотворительной деятельности. В статье использовано много малоизвестных фактов, ранее не публиковавшихся архивных документов. При её написании использовались различные научные методы: сравнительно-аналитический, историко-генетический, ретроспективный, индукции, дедукции, принципы объективизма, историзма. Такой подход позволяет пролить свет на неизвестные страницы в биографиях монахинь, проследить, какими путями пришли они к Богу и какое влияние имели на окружение, в том числе — молодежь. Статья в очередной раз свидетельствует о живучести традиций канонического православия и идеалов российского дворянства в современном обществе.

Афонское греческое Житие преподобного Антония Печерского

The article introduces into scholarly circulation the Greek text of the handwritten Life of Anthony of the Caves, which has recently come to the attention of researchers and is preserved in the archives of Athos hardly available until recently. For the first time, a critical edition of the Greek text of the Life is being published, the translation of which was carried out recently and published in the 2018 Kapterevskie Chteniya paper collection. We consider six known copies of a newly discovered monument of Greek Athos literature – the approximately thousand-page “Athoniad” by Jacob Neasketiotes, through which the Life has come down to us. The appendix to the article contains the first critical edition of the Greek text of the Life. The article also discusses the obvious sources of the Greek text, from the Tale of Bygone Years and the Kiev Caves Patericon to the Greek hagiographic collections of the 18th and the 19th centuries. Another interesting question is the connection of the work of the Athonite monk, author and copyist Jacob Neasketiotes with Russian matter, which could be explained by his stay while working on the “Athoniad” in the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon on Athos and communication with the confessor of the Rossikon Fr. Jerome (Solomentsov). This also explains the presence of several codices with the Lives of Theodosius of the Caves, Mitrofan of Voronezh, and other texts related to Russia in the collection of manuscripts of St. Panteleimon Monastery. The original versions of the “Athoniad”, apparently, strongly depended on the historiographical works of another famous Athonite erudite, Theodoretos Lauriotes, who was a relative of Jacob Neasketiotes.

«Скитское покаяние» в монастырских рукописях XV в.

The understudied text known as “The Skete Repentance” is a prayer related to the monastic penitential discipline. The author of this article identified two new copies of it in manuscript collections of Russian monasteries. Both copies date back to the end of the 15th century. One of them is located in Buslaev’s Psalter, a unique manuscript distinguished by outstanding quality of its calligraphy and ornament. A content analysis of the manuscript and of the text of “The Skete Repentance” allows us to shed light on the circumstances around the creation of the manuscript and on the evolution of the text of the repentance prayer.

Soviet-Greek church relations as a factor of post-war stabilization in the world (1946–1953)

We consider the role of religion and religious leaders in the Soviet foreign policy towards Greece. The reasons for the conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Greek Church were not rooted in religion, the cultural divide between the two autocephalous churches was transferred into the sphere of political regulation. On the issue of Russian monasteries on Mount Athos, we considered the Soviet-Greek church relations from 1946 to 1953. The events described took place during the Greek Civil War – 1944–1949, and the first years after it. Based on the documents of the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the letters of Patriarch Alexy I to the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, which are stored in it, the nature of the actions of Soviet representatives on the issue of Russian monasteries on Athos, we analyze and made an assessment of the actions of church representatives of the USSR in the line of external church relations. Based on the analysis of the source documentary material, we concluded that the USSR projected ideological dogmas on its foreign policy in the Orthodox world as well. Greek Civil War 1944–1949 showed the dependence of the confessional sector of Greek society on the political component. The political confrontation between the USSR and the USA turned out to be decisive in the adoption of the pro-Western state course of Greece, including in the religious society. It is shown that the peculiarities of the Russian and Greek Orthodox Churches, as participants in international relations, are the close coordination of their international activities with the work of the relevant state political institutions. The role of church diplomacy for establishing communications between the two states regarding the deplorable situation of Russian monasteries on Mount Athos is shown, and we make a conclusion about the peacekeeping potential of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is emphasized that based on the centuries-old experience of cooperation between politics and religion, we can talk about the existence of similar positions in the field of regulation of social activity.

Technological Peculiarities of Old Russian Books as Reflected in Early Modern Inventories of Monastic Libraries

The paper analyzes inventories of the late 15th–17th centuries from four major Russian monasteries: St Cyril’s of Belozersk, The Solovetsky monastery, Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery, and The Holy Trinity – St Sergius monastery. These inventories list the monasteries’ property for its safekeeping. The inventories of monastic libraries contain valuable information about the system of book keeping and the development of bibliography in Old Rus’. They also provide some clues for attribution of books, which can help in reconstructing the concepts of bookmaking technologies in Early Modern period. These technological notes in descriptions of books are organized according to the system created by the inventories compilers: the format, the binding, the artistic values, the type and technique of writing, the page’s composition, the writing material, the state of preservation. The paper shows that the major goal in creating these inventories was to single out the most important elements allowing to recognize the book. Yet the description of these elements was not uniform. The attention was mainly directed to external attribution of a book. From the second half of the 16th century the cursive writing and the so-called metnoe pismo (a sort of scrittura usuale) were already recognized as different from standard book writing and had to be distinguished and indicated in book inventories. The inventories reflected those characteristics of books that were important for the librarians and therefore shaped certain semantic structures in professional mentality of Old Russian bookmen. For modern scholars they can serve as markers that follow the process of the development of book technologies in Early Modern period.

Textual Study of the Latin-graphic Book of Psalms in the Church Slavonic Language from Norov´s Book Collection

This article is devoted to the research of the Book of Psalms manuscript from A.S.Norovʼs book collection stored in the Manuscripts Department at the Russian State Library. The manuscript was written in the beginning of the 18th century in Church Slavonic language Polish letters. The manuscript is of interest primarily as a Latin-graphic text, which is a transliteration of the originals inChurch Slavonic.The article presents the results of a textual analysis of the manuscript, which has made it possible todefine it as a collection consisting of several independent parts, each of which may have had its ownprotograph. A comparison of the text of the manuscript with printed liturgical books published in Moscow,Kiev and in the Polish-Lithuanian state has enabled the identification of possible protographs ofthe manuscript, most of which date back to prayer books published in Ukraine.Since one of the protographs is the Moscow Book of Psalms of 1718, it can be assumed that the authorsof the manuscript are nuns of one of the Southwestern Russian Uniate monasteries who at that timemoved to one of the Russian monasteries, supplementing the already existing collection with textsnecessary for home prayer.Since the authors of the transliteration themselves had very good command of Church Slavonic, it canbe assumed that the text was written to order.

A Handwritten Greek Hagiography of Russian Saints from Mount Athos: The Life of St Mitrofan of Voronezh

Modern methods for studying old Russian texts are based on the reconstruction of foreign translations: this makes it possible to define the extent to which the world of the Middle Ages and the early modern period was acquainted with them. Post-Byzantine translations of the hagiographic works of old Rus’ and later periods are rare cases of such texts. The archive of the Athos Russian Monastery of St Panteleimon contains a text which makes up part of the Greek manuscript Cod. Athos. Panteleemon. gr. 283 (1848): it speaks of the life of St Mitrofan of Voronezh (†1703), a famous associate of Peter the Great canonised by the Russian Church in 1832. At the time of his canonisation, a handwritten abridged hagiography was released: this was followed a few years later by a longer version which the Greek text relies on. A codicological investigation has helped to identify the codex’s author and scribe: the monk Jacobos Neaksytiotes (1790s–1869), an outstanding theologian and historian (his opus magnum was Athonias) of Athos. The reconstruction of his biography and legacy allows the author of this article to understand this monk’s interest in Russian history and his translations of some hagiographic works from Russian into Greek. The article also contains a Russian translation of the Greek hagiographic text.

The Oldest Russian Monastery in Hungary

The Oldest Russian Monastery in Hungary

The Soviet Presence in the Middle East in the Context of the Unfolding Cold War: Church Institutions and Actors of Influence in Palestine in 1940–50th

The Soviet diplomacy in the second half of the 1940s included the Russian Orthodox Church and its institutions of international presence in its sphere of activity. At that time the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) began to play a significant role in the Soviet Union's foreign policy. The Middle Eastern direction becomes one of the most significant areas of “church diplomacy”. The first visit of Patriarch Alexy (Simanskiy) to the Holy Land in 1945 was part of a “package” of diplomatic steps made by Soviet diplomacy in partnership with the Moscow Patriarchate in 1945–1955 to restore the property of the ROC in Palestine. The analysis of the documents on the ROC (State Archive of the Russian Federation, F. R-6991) and the materials on the foreign policy of the USSR Council of Ministers (State Archive of the Russian Federation, F. R-5446), as well as the extensive historiography of historical relations between Russia and the Holy Land, allows the authors to consider joint efforts to consolidate the presence of the ROC in the region. The research allows tracing the “birth of tradition” of foreign policy mission of the Moscow Patriarchate and its foreign structures, which became points of influence of the USSR in the post-war world. It allows one to reconstruct the social image of Moscow's “agents of influence” in the Middle East, both the new emissaries and the traditional agents of Russian influence in the region – the pilgrims and nuns of the Russian monasteries of the Holy Land.

Typology of Russian Monasteries depending on the Form of their Organization

Typology of Russian Monasteries depending on the Form of their Organization

Феодосий Вятка – духовник Ивана Грозного: портрет на фоне эпохи

On the base of the different historical sources (chronicles, acts and household books of the Russian monasteries) the author examines the biography of the confessor of Ivan IV Theodosius of Vyatka. In the works of predecessors (A.A. Zimin, R.G. Skrynnikov, B.N. Florya) only some facts of his biography were mentioned. The study shows that Theodosius had no connections with influential groups in the Russian Church of the period. The historical sources have nothing to say on his close contacts with the Joseph Volokolamsk Monastery, the Kirillo-Belozerskii Monastery, Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius (until he became the abbot of the last one). Before his acquaintance with the tsar, Theodosius worked his way from monk to elder monk to abbot. In the second half of 1566 – first half of 1567 he became the head of a significant Moscow monastery — the Andronikov Monastery of the Saviour. No later than in autumn 1567, Theodosius became acquainted with the tsar. During the tsar’s conflict with metropolitan Phillip (Kolychev), Theodosius was included in the commission that investigated Phillip’s activities at the Solovetsky Monastery (along with prince V.I. Temkin-Rostovsky and bishop of Suzdal Paphnutius). The materials gathered by the commission were used at the Church Council in the autumn of 1568. As a result, Phillip was condemned and displaced. Soon afterwards, Theodosius became archimandrite of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius (about 1569/70-1572). Quite close relationship was established between him and the tsar. Because of that Theodosius – a representative of the black clergy – became the confessor of Ivan IV in about 1572. (At the time it was the lot of the white clergy representatives, usually protopopes of the Kremlin Annunciation Cathedral.) Wishing to see Theodosius as his confessor, the tsar had broken from this tradition and reestablished the practice of an earlier time (the confessors of Vasily II and Ivan III were the abbots of the monasteries of Moscow and the Moscow region). Being the closest person to the tsar, Theodosius knew the desires of his penitent and followed the eye of the tsar. When at the turn of the 1570s the tsar showed an interest in Vologda, fitting out a reserve residence there, Theodosius made donations for requiems for the soul of Josef, the bishop of Vologda, and to the Spaso-Kamenny and the Spaso-Prilutsky Monasteries. Till tsar’s death, Theodosius remained very close to Ivan IV. The tsar didn’t want to be parted from him. Thereby Theodosius headed no diocese in that period, as it meant leaving the capital. After the death of Ivan IV, he was consecrated as bishop of Ryazan, probably, in October of 1585.

РОЛЬ НАСТОЯТЕЛЕЙ МОНАСТЫРЕЙ В ЦЕРКОВНО-ПЕНИТЕНЦИАРНОЙ СИСТЕМЕ РОССИИ XIX - НАЧАЛА XX ВЕКА

The author examines subjective (personal) and regional peculiarities influencing exiled prisoners’ residing in the Russian monasteries in the XIX - at the beginning of the XX century. In the period of intensive modernization and reforms of the second half of the XIX - the beginning of the XX century, the society and the state tried to change the penitentiary system mitigating confinement conditions. The author identified and justified hegumens’ role in the ecclesiastical-penitentiary system. Using previously unknown archival materials the paper reveals the peculiarities of reforming the domestic penitentiary system at the local level and provides a possibility to reconsider this experience in the modern context.

SERBO-RUSSIAN CONTACTS IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

This paper tries to determine the period when the first contacts between Serbs and Russians happened and to follow their development, as well as the parallels between the two nations up until the end of the Early Middle Ages, i.e., the end of the 12th century. It is needless to say that the sources on this topic are extremely scarce. We shall rely on the data provided by Cosmas of Prague because there was some confusion over the similarity of the names Russian (Serbian: Rus) and Ras (citizen of Raška). We shall try to answer the question when the first encounters between the two nations could have happened.We shall point out the importance of worship in the Slavic language, the intertwining of the culture of both these nations, and the similarities when it comes to establishing the cults of the first saints. The first recorded arrival of a Russian to Serbia dates form the end of the 12th century. A monk came to Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja’s court, and after that Rastko left and went to a Russian monastery on Mount Atos.

Русский остров на православном Востоке: Афон в XIX – начале ХХ века

Mount Athos holds a special place in the East Christian world. The Russian monastery foun-ded in the 11th century experienced its height in the 19th – early 20th centuries, when it received an official title “Russian” and its brethren numbered up to 1800 people. The deep respect towards the Holy Mount in Russia, the diplomatic support from the Russian Embassy at Constantinople and the rich donations contributed to the prosperity of “Russian Athos”. The systematic indepth study of the sources made it possible to rewrite the history of this unique phenomenon on the Balkans.