INTRODUCTION
Russian culture is a huge variety of possibilities, coming from many sources and teachers. Among the latter are the pre-Christian culture of the Eastern Slavs, the beneficial lack of unity (Russian culture at birth is a combination of the cultures of many centers of the Kiev land), freedom (primarily internal, perceived both as creativity and destruction) and, of course, widespread foreign influences and borrowings.
In addition, it is difficult to find a period in our culture when its spheres developed evenly - in the 14th - early 15th centuries. Painting came into first place in the 15th – 16th centuries. architecture prevails, in the 17th century. the leading positions belong to literature. At the same time, Russian culture in every century and over several centuries is a unity, where each of its spheres enriches the others, suggests new moves and opportunities to them, and learns from them.
The Slavic peoples were first introduced to the heights of culture through Christianity. The revelation for them was not the “physicality” that they constantly encountered, but the spirituality of human existence. This spirituality came to them primarily through art, which was easily and uniquely perceived by the Eastern Slavs, prepared for this by their attitude to the surrounding world and nature.
Monasteries played a major role in the formation of spirituality and in the cultural development of the Russian people.
IN Rus'
Monasteries appeared in Ancient Rus' in the 11th century, several decades after the adoption of Christianity by the Kyiv prince Vladimir and his subjects. And after 1.5-2 centuries they were already playing important role in the life of the country.
The chronicle connects the beginning of Russian monasticism with the activities of Anthony, a resident of the city of Lyubech, near Chernigov, who became a monk on Mount Athos and appeared in Kyiv in the middle of the 11th century. The Tale of Bygone Years reports about him under the year 1051. True, the chronicle says that when Anthony came to Kyiv and began to choose where to settle, he “went to the monasteries, and did not like it anywhere.” This means that there were some monastic monasteries on the Kyiv land even before Anthony. But there is no information about them, and therefore the first Russian Orthodox monastery is considered to be Pechersky (later the Kiev-Pechora Lavra), which arose on one of the Kyiv mountains at the initiative of Anthony: he allegedly settled in a cave dug for prayers by the future Metropolitan Hilarion.
However, the Russian Orthodox Church considers Theodosius, who accepted monasticism with the blessing of Anthony, to be the true founder of monasticism. Having become abbot, he introduced into his monastery, which numbered two dozen monks, the charter of the Constantinople Studite Monastery, which strictly regulated the entire life of the monastics. Subsequently, this charter was introduced in other large monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church, which were predominantly communal.
At the beginning of the 12th century. Kievan Rus broke up into a number of principalities, which were, in essence, completely independent feudal states. The process of Christianization in their capital cities has already gone far; princes and boyars, wealthy merchants, whose lives did not at all correspond to Christian commandments, founded monasteries, trying to atone for their sins. At the same time, rich investors not only received “service from specialists” - monks, but could also spend the rest of their lives in familiar conditions material well-being. The increased population in cities also ensured an increase in the number of monks.
There was a predominance of urban monasteries. Apparently, the spread of Christianity played a role here, first among rich and wealthy people close to the princes and living with them in the cities. Rich merchants and artisans also lived in them. Of course, ordinary townspeople accepted Christianity more quickly than peasants.
Along with large ones, there were also small private monasteries, the owners of which could dispose of them and pass them on to their heirs. The monks in such monasteries did not maintain a common household, and investors, wishing to leave the monastery, could demand their contribution back.
From the middle of the 14th century. the emergence of a new type of monasteries began, which were founded by people who did not have land holdings, but had energy and enterprise. They sought land grants from the Grand Duke, accepted donations from their feudal neighbors “to commemorate their souls,” enslaved surrounding peasants, bought and bartered lands, ran their own farms, traded, engaged in usury, and turned monasteries into feudal estates.
Following Kiev, Novgorod, Vladimir, Smolensk, Galich and other ancient Russian cities acquired their own monasteries. In the pre-Mongol period, the total number of monasteries and the number of monastics in them were insignificant. According to chronicles, in the 11th-13th centuries there were no more than 70 monasteries in Rus', including 17 each in Kyiv and Novgorod.
The number of monasteries increased noticeably during the period Tatar-Mongol yoke: by the middle of the 15th century there were more than 180 of them. Over the next century and a half, about 300 new monasteries were opened, and in the 17th century alone - 220. The process of the emergence of more and more new monasteries (both male and female) continued until the Great October Socialist revolution. By 1917 there were 1025 of them.
Russian Orthodox monasteries were multifunctional. They have always been considered not only as centers of the most intense religious life, guardians of church traditions, but also as an economic stronghold of the church, as well as centers for training church personnel. Monks formed the backbone of the clergy, occupying key positions in all areas of church life. Only the monastic rank gave access to the episcopal rank. Bound by the vow of complete and unconditional obedience, which they took at the time of tonsure, the monks were obedient instruments in the hands of the church leadership.
As a rule, in the Russian lands of the 11th-13th centuries. monasteries were founded by princes or local boyar aristocracy.
monasteries in Rus'
The first monasteries arose near large cities, or directly in them. Monasteries were a form social organization people who have abandoned the norms of life accepted in secular society. These teams solved different problems: from preparing their members to afterlife before the creation of model farms. Monasteries served as institutions of social charity. They, closely connected with the authorities, became the centers of the ideological life of Rus'.
The monasteries trained cadres of clergy of all ranks. The episcopate was elected from the monastic circle, and the rank of bishop was received mainly by monks of noble origin. In the 11th-12th centuries, fifteen bishops emerged from one Kiev-Pechora monastery. There were only a few “simple” bishops.
THE ROLE OF MONASTERIES IN THE CULTURAL LIFE OF Rus'
Orthodox monasteries played a huge role in the cultural, political and economic history of Rus' and Russia. In our country - as, indeed, in other countries of the Christian world - the monasteries of monks have always been not only places of prayerful service to God, but also centers of culture and education; in many periods national history monasteries had a noticeable impact on the political development of the country and on the economic life of people.
One of these periods was the time of consolidation of Russian lands around Moscow, the time of flourishing of Orthodox art and the rethinking of the cultural tradition that connected Kievan Rus with the Muscovite kingdom, the time of colonization of new lands and the introduction of new peoples to Orthodoxy.
Over the course of the 15th and 16th centuries, the wooded north of the country was covered with a network of large monastic farms, around which the peasant population gradually settled. Thus began the peaceful development of vast spaces. It went simultaneously with extensive educational and missionary activities.
Bishop Stefan of Perm preached along the Northern Dvina among the Komi, for whom he created the alphabet and translated the Gospel. Reverends Sergius and Herman founded the Valaam Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior on islands in Lake Ladoga and preached among the Karelian tribes. Reverends Savvaty and Zosima laid the foundation for the largest Solovetsky Transfiguration Monastery in Northern Europe. Saint Cyril created a monastery in the Beloozersky region. Saint Theodoret of Kola baptized the Finnish tribe of Topars and created the alphabet for them. His mission in the middle of the 16th century. continued Saint Tryphon of Pecheneg, who founded a monastery on the northern coast of the Kola Peninsula.
Appeared in the XV-XVI centuries. and many other monasteries. A lot of educational work was carried out in them, books were copied, original schools of icon painting and fresco painting developed.
Icons were painted in monasteries, which, along with frescoes and mosaics, constituted that genre of painting that was allowed by the church and encouraged in every possible way by it.
Outstanding painters of antiquity reflected in icons both religious subjects and their vision of the world around them; they captured in colors not only Christian dogmas, but also their own attitude towards current problems modernity. Therefore, ancient Russian painting went beyond the narrow framework of church utilitarianism and became an important means of artistic reflection of its era - a phenomenon not only of purely religious life, but also of general cultural life.
XIV – early XV centuries. - This is the heyday of icon painting. It was in it that Russian artists managed to fully express the character of the country and people, and rise to the heights of world culture. The luminaries of icon painting, of course, were Theophanes the Greek, Andrei Rublev and Dionysius. Thanks to their work, the Russian icon became not only the subject of painting, but also of philosophical discussions; it says a lot not only to art historians, but also to social psychologists, and has become an integral part of the life of the Russian people.
Providence extremely rarely orders in such a way that for 150 years, great cultural figures live and create one after another. Russia XIV-XV centuries. in this regard, she was lucky - she had F. Greek, A. Rublev, Dionysius. The first link in this chain was Feofan - a philosopher, scribe, illustrator, and icon painter, who came to Rus' as an already established master, but not frozen in the themes and techniques of writing. Working in Novgorod and Moscow, he managed to create completely different frescoes and icons with equal sophistication. The Greek did not disdain adapting to circumstances: frantic, amazing with irrepressible imagination in Novgorod, he bears little resemblance to the strictly canonical master in Moscow. Only his skill remains unchanged. He did not argue with time and customers, and taught the life and tricks of his profession to Russian artists, including, probably, Andrei Rublev.
Rublev tried to make a revolution in the souls and minds of his viewers. He wanted the icon to become not only an object of cult, endowed with magical power, but also a subject of philosophical, artistic and aesthetic contemplation. Not much is known about the life of Rublev, like many other masters of Ancient Rus'. Almost his entire life path is connected with the Trinity-Sergius and Andronnikov monasteries in Moscow and the Moscow region.
Rublev’s most famous icon, “The Trinity,” caused controversy and doubt during the author’s lifetime. The dogmatic concept of the Trinity - the unity of deity in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - was abstract and difficult to understand. It is no coincidence that it was the doctrine of the Trinity that gave rise to a huge number of heresies in the history of Christianity. Yes, and in Rus' XI-XIII centuries. they preferred to dedicate churches to more real images: the Savior, the Mother of God, and St. Nicholas.
In the symbol of the Trinity, Rublev distinguished not only an abstract dogmatic idea, but also a vital idea for that time about the political and moral unity of the Russian land. In picturesque images he conveyed a religious periphrasis of a completely earthly idea of unity, “unity of equals.” Rublev's approach to the essence and meaning of the icon was so new, and his breakthrough from the canon so decisive, that real fame came to him only in the 20th century. Contemporaries appreciated in him not only a talented painter, but also the holiness of his life. Then the Rublev icons were updated by later authors and disappeared until our century (let’s not forget that 80-100 years after their creation, the icons darkened from the drying oil covering them, and the painting became indistinguishable.
We also know little about the third luminary of icon painting. Dionysius, apparently, was the favorite artist of Ivan III and remained a secular painter without taking monastic vows. In fact, humility and obedience are clearly not inherent in him, which is reflected in his frescoes. And the era was completely different from the times of Grek and Rublev. Moscow triumphed over the Horde and art was instructed to glorify the greatness and glory of the Moscow state. The frescoes of Dionysius do not perhaps achieve the high aspiration and deep expressiveness of the Rublev icons. They are created not for reflection, but for joyful admiration. They are part of the holiday, and not an object of thoughtful contemplation. Dionysius did not become a prophetic predictor, but he is an unsurpassed master and master of color, unusually light and pure tones. With his work, ceremonial, solemn art became leading. Of course, they tried to imitate him, but his followers lacked some small things: measure, harmony, cleanliness - what distinguishes a true master from a diligent artisan.
We know by name only a few monks - icon painters, carvers, writers, architects. The culture of that time was to a certain extent anonymous, which was generally characteristic of the Middle Ages. Humble monks did not always sign their works; lay masters also did not care too much about lifetime or posthumous earthly glory.
This was the era of cathedral creativity. Metropolitan Pitirim of Volokolamsk and Yuryev, our contemporary, wrote about this era in his work “The Experience of the National Spirit” as follows: “The spirit of conciliar work touched all areas of creativity. Following the political gathering of Rus', simultaneously with the growth of economic ties between various parts of the state, a cultural gathering began. It was then that the works of hagiographic literature multiplied, general chronicle collections were created, and the achievements of the largest provincial schools in the field of fine, architectural, musical and singing, and decorative and applied arts began to merge into the all-Russian culture.”
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Monasteries- these are communal settlements of believers who live together, withdrawing from the world, while observing a certain charter. The oldest are Buddhist monasteries, which arose in India in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. In the Middle Ages, Christian monasteries in Europe were built as fortresses or castles. Since ancient times, Russian Orthodox monasteries have been characterized by a freer, picturesque layout.
Monasteries began to appear in Rus' at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th centuries. One of the first - Kiev-Pechersk- was founded by Saint Theodosius in 1051 on the banks of the Dnieper in artificial caves. In 1598 it received the status of a monastery. The Monk Theodosius laid down a strict monastic rule according to the Byzantine model. Until the 16th century, monks were buried here.
Trinity Cathedral- the first stone building of the monastery, erected in 1422-1423 on the site of a wooden church. The temple was built at the expense of Dmitry Donskoy’s son, Prince Yuri of Zvenigorod, “in praise” of Sergius of Radonezh. His remains were transferred here. So the cathedral became one of the first memorial monuments of Moscow Rus'.
Sergius tried to spread the veneration of the Holy Trinity as a symbol of the unity of all Rus'. Icon painters Andrei Rublev and Daniil Cherny were invited to create the iconostasis of the Trinity Cathedral.
At the end of the 12th century, instead of the ancient chambers, a refectory was erected - an elegant building, surrounded by a gallery, decorated with columns, ornaments and carved platbands.
Trinity Monastery(XIV century) founded by the brothers Bartholomew and Stephen on the northern approaches to Moscow. When he was tonsured, Bartholomew received the name Sergius, who began to be called Radonezh.
“Reverend Sergius, with his life, the very possibility of such a life, made the grieving people feel that not everything good in them had yet extinguished and froze... The Russian people of the 14th century recognized this action as a miracle,” wrote historian Vasily Klyuchevsky. During his life, Sergius founded several more monasteries, and his disciples founded up to 40 monasteries in the lands of Rus'.
Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery was founded in 1397. Legend has it that during a prayer, Archimandrite Kirill of the Simonov Monastery was commanded by the voice of the Mother of God to go to the shore of White Lake and found a monastery there. The monastery developed actively and soon became one of the largest. From the first half of the 16th century, great princes came here on pilgrimage. Ivan the Terrible took monastic vows in this monastery.
Ferapontov Monastery was founded in 1398 by the monk Ferapont, who came to the North with Cyril. From the middle of the 15th century, the Ferapontov Monastery became the center of education for the entire Belozersky region. From the walls of this monastery came a galaxy of famous educators, scribes, and philosophers. Patriarch Nikon, who lived in the monastery from 1666 to 1676, was exiled here.
Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery was founded at the end of the 14th century on the site of the Zvenigorod watchtower (hence the name - Storozhevsky). During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, he used the monastery as a country residence.
Dionysius the Wise- this is what the contemporaries called this famous ancient Russian icon painter. At the end of his life (in 1550) Dionysius was invited to paint a stone Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary at Ferapontov Monastery. Of all the painting ensembles of Ancient Rus' that have come down to us, this is perhaps the only one that has survived almost in its original form.
Solovetsky Monastery was made of wood, but from the 16th century the monks began construction in stone. At the end of the 17th century, Solovki became an outpost of Russia.
In the Solovetsky Monastery, the water-filling dock, dams, and fish cages are amazing. The panorama of the monastery is unfolded along the sea. At the entrance to the Spassky Gate we see Assumption Church.
Solovetsky Islands - nature reserve in the White Sea. The distance from the mainland and the severity of the climate did not prevent the settlement and transformation of this region. Among the many small islands, six stand out - Bolshoi Solovetsky Island, Anzersky, Bolshaya and Malaya Muksulma and Bolshoi and Maly Zayatsky. The monastery, founded in the first half of the 15th century by settler monks, brought glory to the archipelago.
Suzdal is one of the first monastic centers of Rus'. There were 16 monasteries here, the most famous - Pokrovsky. It was founded in 1364 by the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod prince Andrei Konstantinovich and went down in history as an aristocratic one. Starting from the 16th century, noble women were exiled here: the daughter of Ivan III, the nun Alexandra; wife of Vasily III - Solomonia Saburova; daughter of Boris Godunov - Ksenia; the first wife of Peter I - Evdokia Lopukhina, as well as many other women from famous families.
Spassky Monastery was founded in 1352 by the Suzdal prince Konstantin Vasilyevich. In the 16th century it was one of the five largest monasteries in Russia. Its first rector was Euthymius, an associate of Sergius of Radonezh. After the canonization of Euthymius, the monastery received the name of Spaso-Evfimiy. Under the Poles there was a military camp here.
IN Transfiguration Cathedral The monastery was the family tomb of the Pozharsky princes. Next to the altar apses there was a crypt where representatives of this ancient family were buried. The crypt was destroyed by the monks themselves in response to the monastic reform of Catherine II.
Rizpolozhensky Monastery was founded in 1207. This monastery is the only one that has brought to us the names of its builders - “stone builders” - Suzdal residents Ivan Mamin, Ivan Gryaznov and Andrei Shmakov. The Rizpolozhensky Monastery played a major role in preserving the topography of ancient Suzdal: the oldest Suzdal road passed through the monastery gates, coming from the Kremlin through the settlement along the left bank of the Kamenka River. The double-tented Holy Gate of the monastery, built in 1688, has been preserved.
Church of the Assumption of Gethsemane Skete- one of the most interesting buildings of Valaam. It is made in the “Russian style”, which has undergone changes under the influence of the architecture of the Russian North. It stands out for its complex decor.
On March 14, 1613, representatives of the Zemsky Sobor announced to Mikhail Fedorovich, who was in the Ipatiev Monastery, of his election to the kingdom. This was the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty. Associated with his name is the feat of the peasant Ivan Susanin, who led Polish soldiers into the forest who were looking for the way to the monastery in order to take the young king prisoner. At the cost of his life, Susanin saved the young monarch. In 1858, at the request of Emperor Alexander II, the monastery cells of the 16th-17th centuries were rebuilt. The emperor ordered the creation of a family nest for the reigning dynasty here. The reconstruction was carried out in a style stylized in the 16th century.
Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma was founded around 1330 by Khan Murza Chet, who converted to Christianity, the ancestor of the Godunov family. The Godunovs had a family tomb there. The most ancient part of the monastery - the Old Town - has existed since its foundation.
Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery on Valaam was a major center of religious life. It is believed that it was founded no later than the beginning of the 14th century. The monastery was repeatedly attacked by the Swedes. After the end of the Northern War, according to the Treaty of Nystadt in 1721, Western Karelia was returned to Russia. The buildings of the monastery belong to different eras and styles.
Monastery in Optina Hermitage founded in the 16th century.
the most ancient monastery in Russia? The oldest monastery
In 1821, a monastery arose at the monastery. This event predetermined his future fate and fame. In the second quarter of the 19th century, such a phenomenon as “elderhood” arose here. Among the elders there were many educated people involved in religious and philosophical problems. The elders were visited by N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.A. Akhmatova.
Archipelago of Lake Ladoga Valaam- an amazing corner of Karelia. Everything here is unusual: boulders, mighty trees, rocks... Each of the ensembles has its own appearance, interesting architectural structures and agricultural buildings, dozens of chapels, crosses. IN clear weather the outlines of the archipelago are visible from afar.
The architects of Valaam knew how to reveal the character of nature, and modest buildings turned into memorable landscapes. The painting of the cathedral is close to the naturalistic art of Western countries.
Emergence and initial construction Resurrection Monastery near Istra is associated with Nikon - the Orthodox reformer churches XVII century. Voskresenskoye was purchased by Nikon in 1656. In addition to the serfs of the patriarch himself, craftsmen from all over the country were involved in the construction. The white stone was delivered from the village of Myachkova along the Moscow River and its tributary Istra. Nikon set out to create a semblance of the Jerusalem Temple (hence the second name - New Jerusalem).
One of the most famous monasteries - Joseph-Volokolamsky- founded at the beginning of the 15th century in the city of Volok Lamsky, known since 1135. The city was founded by Novgorodians on the site of an ancient portage (dragging overland) of ships from the Lama River to Voloshna.
Spaso-Borodinsky Monastery- one of the best monuments to the War of 1812. Architect M. Bykovsky organically integrated the fence, bell tower and tomb of General Tuchkov into the monastery.
Literature
- Russian Great Children's Encyclopedia, Modern Writer, Minsk, 2008
The appearance of the first monasteries in Kievan Rus
In the oldest Russian sources, the first mentions of monks and monasteries in Rus' date back only to the era after the baptism of Prince Vladimir; their appearance dates back to the reign of Prince Yaroslav (1019–1054). His contemporary, Hilarion, from 1051 Kyiv Metropolitan, in his “Sermon on Law and Grace,” said that already in the time of Vladimir, monasteries appeared in Kyiv and monks appeared. It is likely that the monasteries that Hilarion mentions were not monasteries in the proper sense, but simply Christians who lived in separate huts near the church in strict asceticism, gathered together for divine services, but did not yet have a monastic charter, did not take monastic vows and did not receive the right tonsure, or, another possibility, the compilers of the chronicle, which includes the “Code of 1039”, which has a very strong Grecophile overtones, tended to underestimate the successes in the spread of Christianity in Kievan Rus before the arrival there of Metropolitan Theopemptos (1037), probably the first hierarch of Greek appointment and Greek origin in Kyiv.
Under the same year 1037, the Old Russian chronicler reports that Yaroslav founded two monasteries: St. George (Georgievsky) and St. Iriny (Irininsky convent) - the first regular monasteries in Kyiv. But these were the so-called ktitorsky, or, better said, princely monasteries, for their ktitor was the prince. Almost all monasteries founded in the pre-Mongol era, that is, until the middle of the 13th century, were precisely princely, or ktitorsky, monasteries.
The famous Kyiv cave monastery had a completely different beginning - Pechersky Monastery. It arose from the purely ascetic aspirations of individuals from the common people and became famous not for the nobility of its patrons and not for its wealth, but for the love that it gained from its contemporaries thanks to ascetic deeds their inhabitants, whose entire life, as the chronicler writes, was spent “in abstinence, and in great fasting, and in prayers with tears.”
Simultaneously with the flourishing of the Pechersky Monastery, new monasteries appeared in Kyiv and other cities. From what is placed in the Paterikon we learn that in Kyiv even then there was a monastery of St. Mines.
Dimitrievsky Monastery was founded in Kyiv in 1061/62 by Prince Izyaslav. Izyaslav invited the abbot of the Pechersk Monastery to manage it. Izyaslav’s rival in the fight for Kyiv, Prince Vsevolod, in turn also founded a monastery - Mikhailovsky Vydubitsky and in 1070 ordered the construction of a stone church in it. Two years later, two more monasteries arose in Kyiv.
Thus, these decades were a time of rapid monastic construction.
Old Russian monasticism and the first monasteries in Rus'
From the 11th to the middle of the 13th century. Many other monasteries arose. Golubinsky has up to 17 monasteries in Kyiv alone.
In the 11th century Monasteries are also being built outside of Kyiv. Monasteries also appeared in Pereyaslavl (1072–1074), in Chernigov (1074), in Suzdal (1096). Especially many monasteries were built in Novgorod, where in the 12th–13th centuries. there were also up to 17 monasteries. Just until the middle of the 13th century. in Rus' you can count up to 70 monasteries located in cities or their environs.
Monastery
Monastery noun, m., used compare often
Morphology: (no) what? monastery, what? monastery, (see) what? monastery, how? monastery, about what? about the monastery;
pl.
What? monasteries, (no) what? monasteries, what? monasteries, (see) what? monasteries, how? monasteries, about what? about monasteries
1.
Monastery is a religious community of monks or nuns that accepts common rules of life (charter) and practices economic activity. Valaam Monastery. | Monastery, convent. | Go to a monastery.
2. Monastery are called members of such a religious community.
He was seen off on his last journey by the entire monastery.
3. Monastery- this is a building or a series of buildings with adjacent territory in which monks or nuns live.
Walls of the old monastery.
4. If you say that someone let me down you under a monastery, you mean that because of this person you find yourself in a very difficult situation that threatens you with punishment; colloquial expression.
Life is unfair, and the best friends can lead a person to a monastery.
monastic adj.
Monastic charter. | Monastic life.
Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language by Dmitriev. D. V. Dmitriev. 2003.
Synonyms:
See what a “monastery” is in other dictionaries:
- (Greek monasterion, from monos solitary). Dormitory for brothers and sisters who have accepted monasticism, monastery. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. MONASTERY Greek. monasterion, from monos, secluded. The building, in... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
Husband. monastery, hostel for brothers and sisters, monks, nuns, monks, monastics, converts to monasticism, monastic lunch. | yarosl. A cemetery is also called a monastery, and schismatic cemeteries in Moscow are, in fact, monasteries. | Moscow churchyard, graveyard... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
- (from the Greek monasterion hermit's cell), in a number of religions communities of monks (monasteries) or nuns (nunneries), accepting common rules of life (rules). The architecture of the monastery is associated with national regional... ... Art encyclopedia
Lavra, monastery, hostel, hermitage, monastery. Cm … Synonym dictionary
MONASTERY, monastery, man. (Greek: Monasterion). 1. Land church organization, which is a community of monks or nuns. Monasteries are an instrument of political oppression and exploitation of the masses. Monastery. Convent. Leave... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
MONASTERY, me, husband. 1. A religious community of monks or nuns, which is a separate church economic organization. Male m. Female m. 2. Territory, temple and all premises of such a community. M. on the shore of the lake. Monastery fence. IN… … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
monastery- MONASTERY, lavra, monastery, hermitage, skete MONASTERY, Lavra, monastery ... Dictionary-thesaurus of synonyms of Russian speech
Monastery- (monastery), religious. a community of monks or nuns living in prayer and work according to uniform rules (rules), often in secluded and remote places. Monasticism is characteristic of almost all religions. Buddha (c. 563 c. 483 BC) founded the monastic... ... The World History
Monastery- (Bitoliya). See Slavic Greco Turkish war 1912 13 1 The dictionary material containing the information referred to in this link was not published... Military encyclopedia
MONASTERY- (from the Greek monasterion hermit's cell) in Buddhism, Christianity (Orthodoxy and Catholicism) communities of monks (male mos) or nuns (female mos), accepting common rules of life (rules). In the Russian state, before secularization, M. were large... ... Legal encyclopedia
Place someone at the monastery. Jarg. corner, arrest Shoot someone. Homeowners' Home, 142. Carefree monastery. Don. 1. About a carefree, carefree life. 2. About a carefree, carefree person. SDG 2, 141. Devy (maiden, girls) monastery. Arch. Iron. ABOUT… … Large dictionary of Russian sayings
Trial(test) - established for persons wishing to enter monasticism: the subject is required to perform for a certain period of time, at the discretion of the abbot of the monastery, one or another monastic “obedience”.
Cell(Greek – room) – living room monk in the monastery. Sometimes - a small separate house.
Lavra(Greek - street, village) - a large and important Orthodox monastery in its position. Currently, there are two Lavras in Russia: in Sergiev Posad near Moscow and in St. Petersburg. Two more Lavras: and - are located on the territory of Ukraine.
Mantle- monastic robe: long, sleeveless, cape with one fastener - at the collar.
Silent Man- a person who has taken a vow of silence.
Monk(Greek - lonely) - a person who has abandoned worldly life for the sake of serving God and taken vows of chastity, non-covetousness and obedience.
Vow- a promise made to God.
Abode- monastery.
Novice- a person preparing to accept. He has not yet taken monastic vows, does not belong to the monastic brotherhood, is not called a monk, and does not wear monastic vestments. His duties are to perform obediences with the blessing of the abbot: to help during divine services, to perform work on the monastic household.
tonsure- a divine service performed upon acceptance of monasticism.
Deserts- a secluded monastic settlement.
Skeet- a small secluded monastery where monks live, struggling in prayer, fasting and labor. The rules of monastic life, in comparison with the general monastery, are distinguished by greater severity.
Stavropegial Monastery- a monastery reporting directly to the patriarch.
Schima(Greek - monastic vestments) - the highest degree of monastic feat, prescribing seclusion in a monastery and adherence to especially strict monastic rules.
Beads– glass, wood, bone, plastic, amber, thread and other balls strung on a cord or connected to each other with loops. Serve for counting prayers and bows. In the Orthodox Church they are a mandatory accessory for monastics.
Avraamiev Pokrovsky Gorodetsky Monastery- a monastery, near the city of Chukhloma, Kostroma region. Founded in the 14th century by the Monk Abraham of Chukhloma (Galich). During the years of Soviet power it was severely destroyed. Returned to the Church and being restored.
- an Orthodox male monastery founded in St. Petersburg in 1710 by order of Peter I.
St. Andrew's Transfiguration Monastery- a male monastery founded in 1648 in Moscow, at the foot of the Sparrow Hills. In the 17th century, the first school in Moscow was located here, and at the beginning of the 18th century - a shelter for foundlings and street children. The monks were translating books from foreign languages. Currently returned to Russian Orthodox Church.
Athos(Holy Mountain) is a narrow mountainous peninsula in the Aegean Sea. One of the most revered places in the entire Orthodox world. This way is ok. 44 years ago, the Mother of God Herself arrived to preach the gospel teaching. According to legend, She ended Her sermon with the words: “Let this place be My lot, given to Me by My Son and My God! May His grace rest upon this place and on those who live here.” Presumably, the first monks began to settle here in the 7th century, and the 9th century is the official time of the establishment of monasticism on Athos. Now there are 20 large monasteries here, and among them is the Russian monastery of the holy great martyr and healer Panteleimon (founded, according to legend, during the time of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir after the Baptism of Rus'), 12 hermitages and up to 700 individual cells. There are several thousand monastics. There are no cities or villages on the peninsula. Women are not allowed on Mount Athos.
Valaam Monastery, Spaso-Preobrazhensky - located on the island of Valaam, in the northwestern part of Lake Ladoga. Founded in the 12th century by the holy monks Herman and Sergius. Located on the border of the Novgorod and Swedish possessions, the monastery was often attacked by the Swedes, who ravaged and burned it to the ground, but each time it was restored to become even more majestic and beautiful.
Vysokopetrovsky Monastery- male monastery in Moscow, on the street. Petrovka. Founded in 1380 by Grand Duke Dimitri Donskoy after the victory on the Kulikovo Field. The ancestral tomb of the Naryshkin boyars, relatives of Peter I, who made many donations to the monastery.
David's desert- a monastery, located eighty-five kilometers from Moscow and twenty-four kilometers from Serpukhov, not far from the city of Chekhov. Founded at the beginning of the 16th century by the Monk David, who labored in the monastery for more than half a century.
Pilgrimage trip to David's hermitage in August 2005
Danilov Monastery(St. Danilov) is a monastery founded at the end of the 13th century by Prince Daniil of Moscow. The monastery-fortress defended Moscow from the Serpukhov direction, from where the Horde usually came. Already in 1293, the monastery was plundered and burned by the Tatars, in 1606 it defended the city from Bolotnikov’s troops, and in 1610 it was fired upon by the troops of False Dmitry II. There was a small cemetery at the monastery, where they found N.V.’s final resting place. Gogol, poets M.A. Dmitriev and N.M. Yazykov, artist V.G. Perov, Slavophile A.S. Khomyakov. In 1931, the cemetery was destroyed, the ashes of Gogol, Khomyakov and Yazykov were transferred to the Novodevichy Cemetery, the ashes of Perov were transferred to the Donskoy Monastery. In 1929, the St. Daniel Monastery was closed, and a children's reception center was set up on its territory. In 1983, the monastery was restored and reopened; on its territory is the residence of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.
Donskoy-Bogoroditsky Monastery- a male monastery in Moscow, founded by Tsar Theodore Ioannovich in 1591. It was closed in 1921. In 1922-1925, Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', was detained here. In the 1950s, the Museum of Architecture was located in the premises of the monastery. Currently returned to the Church. Many prominent figures of Russian culture are buried in the old monastery cemetery, including the writer A.P. Sumarokov, philosopher P.Ya. Chaadaev, historian V.O. Klyuchevsky, architect O.I. Bove, artist V.G. Perov and others .
Joseph-Volokolamsky Monastery- one of the largest and richest Russian monasteries. Founded among the forests near Moscow in 1479 by the holy Venerable Joseph of Volotsky. Pilgrimage trip to the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery in June 2007
Ipatiev Trinity Monastery- in Kostroma. Founded approx. 1330 at the site of the appearance of the Mother of God to the Tatar Murza Cheta (in holy baptism of Zechariah) - the ancestor of the Godunovs, who subsequently contributed greatly to the splendor of the monastery. It gained historical fame due to the stay of Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov, who agreed to accept the royal crown in 1613.
- the oldest of Russian monasteries, founded under Yaroslav the Wise in 1051. In the artificially created caves, to which the monastery owes its name, monastic cells and underground temples. The burials of the dead inhabitants of the monastery were also carried out here. Later, above-ground structures were also erected. In the caves of the monastery rest the relics of the holy monks Anthony and Theodosius - the founding fathers of the monastery, St. Elijah of Murom, St. Nestor the Chronicler and many other Russian saints.
- a convent on the western outskirts of Vladimir land. The emergence of this monastery is inextricably linked with the name of the great ascetic and abbot of the Russian land - St. Sergius of Radonezh.
Pilgrimage trip to Kirzhach in the summer of 2005 Pilgrimage trip to Kirzhach in the summer of 2007
Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery- a men's monastery on the shore of Lake Siverskoye outside Vologda, founded in 1397 by St. Cyril of Belozersky. This monastery quickly became a center of education, a zealot of Orthodoxy and a model of community life. The monastery fortress withstood the siege of the Polish-Lithuanian invaders in 1612-1613.
Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent– convent, community of sisters of mercy. Founded in 1908 by Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna. The Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, the walls and buildings of the monastery were built in 1908-1912 according to the design of the architect A.V. Shchusev, who used elements of medieval Pskov-Novgorod architecture. In 1926, the monastery was closed and has now been returned to the Church. Inside the temple, frescoes by M.V. have been preserved. Nesterov and P.D. Corina.
- a monastery on the Stolobny island of Lake Seliger, a few kilometers from the city of Ostashkov. Founded at the end of the 16th century on the site of the exploits of St. Neil of Stolobensky. Pilgrimage to Seliger in the summer of 2006
- a convent on the banks of the Moscow River, in Luzhniki. Founded in 1524. In 1812, retreating from Moscow, Napoleon tried to blow up the monastery churches, but the nuns managed to defuse the planted charges. The monastery cemetery has long been a particularly honorable burial place for noble residents of the capital.
- a monastery near the city of Voskresensk (Istra). Founded in the 17th century by Patriarch Nikon. The main cathedral of the monastery (Resurrection) was copied from the Resurrection Cathedral in Jerusalem - hence the name of the monastery. In 1941, the cathedral, like other buildings of the monastery, was blown up by the Nazis; currently restored. Pilgrimage to New Jerusalem in May 2007
Novospassky Monastery- a men's monastery in Moscow, founded in the 14th century, initially (until the end of the 15th century) was located in the Kremlin, then was transferred beyond Taganka. One of the Moscow fortress monasteries, covered Moscow from the south and southeast. It was rebuilt in the 17th century.
Optina Pustyn Vvedenskaya- a monastery near the city of Kozelsk, near Kaluga, a famous center of spiritual life in pre-revolutionary Russia, famous for the restoration of eldership and holy elders. Gogol and Dostoevsky came to Optina Pustyn for prayer help and spiritual strengthening. Tolstoy also visited (the latter, unfortunately, only to present Saint Ambrose with the “gospel” of his own composition). The monastery was actively involved in book publishing, with the help of the Kireevsky brothers, writers Konstantin Leontyev and Sergei Nilus and other writers and journalists. Currently returned to the Church and is a favorite place of pilgrimage.
- a monastery in the town of Pochaev (Ukraine), famous for its shrines: the miraculous Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God and the relics of St. Job of Pochaev. Pilgrimage trip Kyiv-Chernigov-Pochaev in July 2000
- a monastery in the city of Pechory, not far from Pskov. The first inhabitants of the caves (around the middle of the 15th century) were hermits: in 1473, the Orthodox priest John, who fled Dorpat (Tartu) from the oppression of Catholics, founded a church here in the name of the Dormition of the Mother of God. Located on the western approaches to Pskov, the monastery was repeatedly attacked and sieged. However, in the history of our Fatherland, the monastery became famous not as a fortress, but as an important spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Pyukhtitsa Assumption Monastery- a convent founded in 1891 with the active participation of John of Kronstadt as a stronghold of Orthodoxy in northwestern Russia. Now - on the territory of Estonia. The main shrine is the miraculous Pyukhtitsa Icon of the Mother of God.
Savvin-Storozhevsky Nativity of the Bogorodsky Monastery- a men's monastery near Zvenigorod, founded by the Monk Savva around 1380. It reached a special peak after the appearance of the relics of St. Savva in 1652. In 1812 it was destroyed and plundered by the French. Restored. IN Soviet time- museum. Now returned to the Church. Pilgrimage trip to the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery in May 2007
Sarov Desert- a monastery founded in the 17th century. The hermitage gained fame primarily thanks to St. Seraphim of Sarov, who asceticised there for many years.
- a monastery located seventy kilometers north of Moscow in Sergiev Posad. Recognized spiritual center of Russian Orthodoxy. Founded in the 14th century by St. Sergius of Radonezh. In 1380, Dimitri Donskoy received the blessing of St. Sergius at the Lavra for the Battle of Kulikovo, and two monks, Peresvet and Oslyabya, went with him. In 1608, the monastery withstood a long siege by the Poles, playing an important role in the war against them, as it helped Moscow with prayers, money, and people. Peter fled here, fleeing from assassins sent by his sister, Princess Sophia. And many times, even in the most difficult days for our Fatherland, both prayerful and material help from the monastery turned out to be literally life-saving. The Lavra houses several churches, a museum, the Moscow Theological Seminary and the Moscow Theological Academy.
Simonov Monastery- a monastery in Moscow, founded in 1379. It served as a fortress protecting the approaches to the city. During the XIV-XVII centuries it was one of the most famous and influential monasteries in Russia in church affairs. From among his monks came four Patriarchs of Moscow and All Rus' (Job, Hermogenes, Joseph II and Joseph). Monk Kirill became the founder of the monastery. Among the monks of the monastery were famous spiritual writers Vassian Patrikeev and Maxim the Greek. The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, in which Peresvet and Oslyabya were buried, has survived to this day.
- a male monastery founded by Saint Savvaty (see Zosima and Savvaty) in 1429 on the Solovetsky Island of the White Sea. A major spiritual center of Russian Orthodoxy and an important defensive point that repelled attacks by the Swedes, Finns, and British. During the years of Soviet power - a camp for prisoners, the first of whom were several bishops and hundreds of Orthodox priests - all of them were shot in the late twenties. Currently returned to the Church. Pilgrimage to Solovki in August 2005
Spaso-Andronikov Monastery- a male monastery founded in the 14th century in Moscow. Served as a fortress to protect against raids by nomads. Named after the first abbot, Abbot Andronik, a student of Sergius of Radonezh. Spent here last years and Andrei Rublev, who painted the Spassky Cathedral of the monastery, was buried.
Sretensky Monastery- a male monastery in Moscow. Founded in 1395 on the spot where the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was met. Currently returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. He is actively involved in book publishing.
Tikhvin Dormition Monastery- a monastery in the city of Tikhvin, founded in the 15th century. In 1611 it was occupied by the Swedes, but in 1613 the monks rebelled against them and, with the support of the Moscow army, drove the invaders out of the monastery.
Tolga Monastery- a convent near Yaroslavl, on the left bank of the Volga, at the confluence of the Tolga River. Founded in 1314 in the place where the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God was revealed.
Miracles Monastery(Miracle of Michael the Archangel) - a monastery located in the Moscow Kremlin. Founded in the 14th century. It was a major center for the translation and rewriting of books.
; 2) a community of monks (nuns) of a monastic monastery.
As a community, the monastery has its own internal organization. The main officials of the monastery include the treasurer, confessor, dean, sacristan, and housekeeper. Officials of the monastery are also the regent, the ecclesiarch (senior sexton), the candle maker, the shopkeeper, the sexton, the bell ringer, the clerk, the librarian, the steward, the prosphora keeper, the refectory keeper, the hotel keeper, the sick person.
Following the 43rd rule of the VI Ecumenical Council, no previous moral way of life prevents a Christian from leaving the world and entering monasticism for the sake of correction and soul. Anyone who enters the monastery becomes a novice and undergoes a test. If after the test he turns out to be worthy, he is tonsured into the monastic rank. The highest rank of monastic life is great.
Monasteries are divided into male and female. Particularly large monasteries are usually called laurels. The first monasteries appeared in the 4th century. in Egypt and Palestine. Kiev-Pechersk Monastery- the first monastery in Rus' (XI century).
From the Charter of the Holy Trinity Tyumen Monastery:
« Orthodox monastery is a Christian community that strictly lives according to the commandments of God, seeking spiritual perfection in the deeds of Christian life.
The basis of the monastic spirit are the words of the Lord Himself: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your property and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow Me” () which form the basis of the vow of non-covetousness.
He who makes a vow of obedience and renunciation of his will and his wisdom must base it on the word of the Lord: “If anyone wants to come after Me, deny himself, take up your cross and follow Me” (). One who takes a vow of chastity must heed the word of Christ: “Whoever can accommodate, let him accommodate” () and the word of the Apostle: “An unmarried man cares about the Lord’s things, how to please the Lord” (I Cor. 7, 32).
One must encourage oneself to faithfully and unremittingly fulfill these vows with the word of Christ: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God” (). About the beneficialness of obedience, about the need for spiritual guidance, about the dangerous desire to live according to one’s own will, one should admonish oneself with the words of the wise Solomon: “With a lack of care, a people falls, but with many advisers they prosper” ().
Monastic life must be well-ordered on the unshakable foundation of the Word of God, with the assistance of the instructions and examples of the Holy Fathers. The saint in one of his conversations gives a detailed description of monastic life: “A monk,” he says, “must, first of all, acquire a non-covetous life, bodily solitude, a decent appearance, have a moderate voice and modest speech, food and drink that does not cause rebellion, eat in silence; to remain silent before elders, to listen to the wise, to have love for equals, to give loving advice to inferiors; avoid worthless, carnal and vain people, think more and speak less, do not be impudent in words, do not allow excesses in conversation, avoid laughter, adorn yourself with modesty, lower your gaze and lift up your soul to grief, do not respond to contradiction with contradiction, be submissive ; work with your own hands, always remember death, rejoice with hope, endure sorrow, pray unceasingly, give thanks for everything, be humble in front of everyone, hate arrogance; be sober and guard your heart from evil thoughts..., take care of the suffering, cry with them..., admonish the disorderly, console the faint-hearted, serve the sick..., take care... of brotherly love.”
A monk must more fully and completely strive to embody in his life one of the most important commandments of Christ - the commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind; ...and love your neighbor as yourself” (). The monk creates love for God through unceasing prayers, talking with Him, confessing to Him his weaknesses, sins and glorifying His goodness and mercy in everything. A monk develops love for his neighbors in patience with their shortcomings, in constant prayer for them, in various assistance and mercy to them.
True workers of God, who keep the name of God in honor, carry It in their hearts as the greatest shrine, feed on it, enjoy it, and in this Name they have a guarantee of future bliss. The name of Jesus Christ contains everything: our Orthodox faith, and all church services, every rite, its ritual and order, and all prayerful follow-up - and every Christian, when praying, is obliged to unfailingly offer his prayer to the One Son of God, Who is the One Intercessor before God for men (), and only to Him and through Him is our prayer effective. He Himself commanded, saying: “Whatever you ask from the Father in My Name, I will do it” ().
The Lord Jesus Christ contains the entire universe, and all creation, visible and invisible, and every breath, and especially brings joy to those who bear this most precious Name within their hearts. If we removed the name of Jesus Christ from ourselves, then everything would disappear: the Orthodox faith, and Divine services, all the Sacraments and rituals, all spiritual service and the Gospel itself. This is what we need to understand about a person: if Jesus Christ does not live in him by His power, then there is nothing spiritual there - here only spiritual and physical life moves, according to the elements of this age, because the root and boundless fullness of spiritual life is Jesus Christ, Whom and one must love more than one’s soul, and with all one’s might, throughout one’s entire life, strive to install His most dear name in one’s heart and so that it will be a root, active principle there and occupy a dominant position, so that, according to the word of the Apostle, “It was not we who lived, but Christ who lived in us” (). From the sincere union of the heart with the Lord, when the Lord Jesus Christ makes His abode in us, tangibly and effectively dwells in the heart, and His Divine presence is heard clearly and tangibly, which is called, according to the Holy Fathers, living communion with God. And then Christ God, being our Redeemer and Savior, descends into man with His Divine powers, like life and piety () and, as it were, creates a permanent abode for Himself in him (), so that man becomes the temple of the Spirit of God (), the church of God Alive (). The Spirit is one with the Lord (). There is a God of Love. Being in Love abides in God, and God abides in him (); and the hedgehog lives - God lives (
We have collected all (or almost all) preserved and even poorly preserved monasteries founded by Sergius of Radonezh and his disciples.
Sergius of Radonezh, the most revered Russian saint, founded ten monasteries during his life. Numerous disciples continued his work and founded 40 more monasteries. These students had their own students, many of whom also founded monastic communities - in the 15th century, Muscovite Rus' became a country of monasteries.
Ferapontov Monastery, Kirillovsky district, Vologda region
In 1397, two monks of the Simonov Monastery - Kirill and Ferapont - came to the Belozersk Principality. The first dug a cell near Lake Siverskoye, the second - between lakes Passky and Borodavsky, and over the years the most famous monasteries of Northern Thebaid grew from these cells. The Ferapontov Monastery is much smaller, but ancient (there are no buildings at all younger than the mid-17th century), and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site thanks to the complex of Dionysian frescoes in the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (1490-1502).
Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Sergiev Posad, Moscow region
Sergius founded the main Russian monastery while still a devout layman Bartholomew: with his brother-monk Stephen he settled on Makovets Hill in the Radonezh Forest, where he built the Church of the Holy Trinity with his own hands. A couple of years later, Bartholomew became a monk with the name Sergius, and then a monastic community developed around him, which by 1345 had formed into a monastery with a cenobitic charter. Sergius was revered during his lifetime, walked around Rus' and reconciled warring princes, and finally in 1380 he blessed Dmitry Donskoy for the battle with the Horde and gave him two monastic warriors Alexander Peresvet and Rodion Oslyabya to help him.
In the Trinity Monastery in 1392, Sergius reposed, and thirty years later his relics were found, to which the people reached out. The monastery grew and became more beautiful along with Russia, and survived the devastation of Edigei's horde in 1408, and the siege of Pan Sapieha by the Polish-Lithuanian army in 1608-10. In 1744, the monastery received the status of a monastery - the second in Rus' after the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Nowadays it is a grandiose architectural complex worthy of the largest Russian Kremlins - about 50 buildings behind an impregnable wall 1.5 kilometers long. The oldest churches are the Trinity Cathedral (1422-23) and the Holy Spiritual Church-Bell Tower (1476), and it was for the first that Andrei Rublev wrote his great “Trinity”. The Assumption Cathedral (1559-85) is one of the largest and most majestic in Rus'. The bell tower (1741-77) is taller than Ivan the Great, and on it hangs Russia's largest 72-ton Tsar Bell. Temples, residential and service chambers, educational and administrative institutions, relics and graves of historical figures, a museum with unique exhibits: the Lavra is a whole city, as well as a “city-forming enterprise” of the rather large city of Sergiev Posad.
Annunciation Kirzhach Monastery. Kirzhach, Vladimir region
Sometimes Sergius left the Trinity Monastery for several years, but wherever he settled, a new monastery arose. So, in 1358, on the Kirzhach River, Sergius and his disciple Simon founded the Annunciation Monastery, where another disciple Roman remained as abbot. Nowadays it is a small cozy convent on a high bank - on one side the city of Kirzhach, on the other - endless meadows. In the center is the white stone Annunciation Cathedral of the early 16th century and the Church of the All-Merciful Savior (1656).
Bobrenev Monastery. Kolomna, Moscow region
One of the heroes of the Battle of Kulikovo, Dmitry Bobrok-Volynsky, came to Moscow from what is now known as Western Ukraine and became so close to Prince Dmitry that together they prepared a plan for the battle with Mamai. Bobrok was given military cunning: when after 5 hours of battle the Russians began to retreat, his ambush regiment hit the rear of the Tatar army, thereby deciding the outcome of the battle. Returning victorious, Bobrok, with the blessing of Sergius, founded a monastery near Kolomna. Nowadays it is a small cozy monastery in a field between the Novoryazanskoe highway and the Moscow River with the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (1757-90) and other buildings of the 19th century. The best way to get to the monastery is from the Kolomna Kremlin along the most picturesque path through the Pyatnitsky Gate and the pontoon bridge.
Epiphany Staro-Golutvin Monastery. Kolomna, Moscow region
The large monastery on the outskirts of Kolomna is clearly visible from railway, attracting attention with the thin false-Gothic turrets of the fence (1778), similar to minarets. Sergius founded it in 1385 at the request of Dmitry Donskoy, and left his student Gregory as abbot. Until 1929, there was a spring in the monastery, which, according to legend, flowed where Sergius said. In the Middle Ages, the monastery was a fortress on the road to the Steppe, but most of the current buildings, including the Epiphany Cathedral, date back to the 18th century.
Holy Trinity Monastery, Ryazan
One of Sergius’ missions was a kind of “diplomacy of general authority” - he walked around Rus', reconciling warring princes and convincing them of the unity of the Russian cause. The most rebellious was Oleg Ryazansky: on the one hand, Ryazan competed with Moscow for leadership, on the other, it was open to the attacks of the Horde, and therefore Oleg played a double game on the verge of betrayal. In 1382, he helped Tokhtamysh, seized Kolomna from Dmitry... Things were heading towards a new collapse of Rus', but in 1386 Sergius came to Ryazan and by some miracle prevented the war, and as a sign of peace he founded the small Trinity Monastery. Nowadays it is a modest city monastery with a decorative fence and churches of the 17th (Troitskaya), 18th (Sergievskaya) and 19th (Icon of the Mother of God "Znamenia-Kochemnaya") centuries.
Boris and Gleb Monastery. Pos. Borisoglebsky (Borisogleb), Yaroslavl region
Sergius founded several more monasteries as if “in collaboration” - not with his disciples, but with the monks of his generation. For example, Borisoglebsky, 18 versts from Rostov, where Sergius was born, together with the Novgorodians Theodore and Paul in 1365. Later, the recluse Irinakh, who lived here, blessed Kuzma Minin for the defense of Rus'. The magnificent architectural complex developed in the 16th-17th centuries, and from the outside, especially when looking at the gates (of which the monastery has two), towers or a three-span belfry, it resembles a slightly simplified Rostov Kremlin. There are several churches inside, including the Cathedral of Boris and Gleb from the 1520s.
Mother of God Nativity Monastery. Rostov Veliky
This monastery was founded by the disciple of St. Sergius, the monk Fyodor, in the teacher’s homeland, and in the fabulous landscape of Rostov it took its place a block from the Kremlin. The first stone church was founded by Metropolitan Jonah Sysoevich in 1670. Nowadays it is a large, but at first glance not very spectacular (especially against the background of the Rostov Kremlin!) ensemble of temples, buildings and fences of the 17th-19th centuries. Moreover, it is worth approaching it and taking a closer look.
Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery. Zvenigorod, Moscow region
After the death of Sergius, the new abbot of the Trinity Monastery, Nikon, almost immediately went into a six-year retreat, leaving Sergius’s other student Savva as abbot. Immediately after Nikon's return in 1398, Savva went to Zvenigorod and, at the request of the local prince, founded a monastery on Mount Storozhka. As the name suggests, the place was strategic, and in the 15th-17th centuries the monastery turned into a powerful fortress. But this monastery was especially revered by the Russian tsars, who sometimes retired to it for prayer and peace: the road here from Moscow was called the Tsar’s Road, and now it is nothing more than Rublyovka. The monastery stands in an extremely picturesque place, and behind the impregnable walls hides an exemplary “fairy-tale city” from the time of Alexei Mikhailovich - elaborate chambers, elegant bell towers, kokoshniks, tents, tiles, a white and red ensemble. It even has its own Royal Palace, as well as an excellent museum. And in the center is the small white Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, consecrated in 1405, during the life of Savva the Wonderworker.
Nikolo-Peshnoshsky Monastery. Lugovoe village, Dmitrovsky district, Moscow region
One of the most beautiful monasteries in the Moscow region, founded in 1361 by Sergius’s disciple Methodius, was undeservedly forgotten - since 1960, a psychoneurological boarding school, closed to outsiders, lived within its walls. Hidden inside are St. Nicholas Cathedral from the early 16th century, a very elegant bell tower, and several more churches and chambers. The boarding school is now in the process of moving, and the churches are at the beginning of restoration.
Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery. Vologda
The Vologda region was called the Northern Thebaid for the abundance of secluded and fabulously beautiful monasteries, founded during the heyday of the Russian North - a country of merchants, fishermen and monks. The Prilutsky Monastery on the outskirts of Vologda, with its powerful faceted towers, looks like a Kremlin much more than the Vologda Kremlin itself. Its founder Dmitry met Sergius in 1354, being the founder and abbot of the Nikolsky Monastery in Pereslavl-Zalessky, and not without the influence of Sergius’ ideas he went to the North, hoping to find solitude somewhere in the wilderness. In 1371, he came to Vologda and built a large monastery there, funds for which were allocated by Dmitry Donskoy himself, and for all subsequent centuries the monastery remained one of the richest in Russia. From here Ivan the Terrible took shrines on his campaign against Kazan; During the Time of Troubles, the monastery was destroyed three times; in 1812, relics of monasteries near Moscow were evacuated here. The main shrines are the icon of Dmitry Prilutsky with his life and the Cilician Cross, which he brought from Pereslavl, and are now kept in the Vologda Museum. Behind the powerful walls of the 1640s there is the Spassky Cathedral (1537-42), the Vvedenskaya Church with a refectory chamber and covered galleries (1623), a number of buildings of the 17th-19th centuries, a pond, the grave of the poet Batyushkov, a wooden Assumption Church (1519), brought in 1962 from the closed Kushtsky monastery - the oldest tented church in Russia.
Pavlo-Obnorsky Monastery. Gryazovets district, Vologda region
The monastery in the upper reaches of the Obnora River in the Vologda region was founded in 1389 by Sergius’ disciple Pavel, who had a 15-year retreat behind him. He lived here alone for 3 years in the hollow of an old linden tree... Once upon a time, the Pavlo-Obnorsky Monastery was one of the largest in Rus', but it was especially unlucky under the Soviets: the Trinity Cathedral (1510-1515) with the iconostasis of Dionysius perished (4 survived icons, sold to museums), the Assumption Church was beheaded (1535). In the surviving buildings there was an orphanage, later a pioneer camp - that’s why the village where the monastery stands is called Yunoshesky. Since the 1990s, the monastery has been revived; on the site of the Trinity Cathedral, a wooden chapel with a shrine of the relics of Pavel Obnorsky was built.
Resurrection Obnorsky Monastery. Lyubimovsky district, Yaroslavl region
A small monastery in deep forests on the Obnor River, 20 kilometers from the town of Lyubim, was founded by Sergius’ disciple Sylvester, who lived in this place for many years in solitude and was accidentally discovered by a lost peasant, after which the rumor about the hermit spread, and other monks flocked there. The monastery was abolished in 1764; the holy spring of Sylvester of Obnor and the Church of the Resurrection (1825) were preserved.
Spaso-Preobrazhensky Nuromsky Monastery. Spas-Nurma, Gryazovets district, Vologda region
Spaso-Preobrazhensky Nurom Monastery
Another monastery on the Nurma River, 15 kilometers from Pavlo-Obnorsky, was founded in 1389 by Sergius of Nuromsky, a student of Sergius of Radonezh. Abolished in 1764, the Spaso-Sergievskaya Church in the “northern baroque” style was built in 1795 as a parish church. Now monastic life in this abandoned forest monastery is gradually being revived, the buildings are being restored.
In Kaluga Borovsk, the most famous, of course, is the Pafnutiev Monastery, but its founder came from another, now disappeared Intercession Monastery in the suburb of Vysokoye, founded in 1414 by Sergius’s disciple Nikita, and abolished again in 1764. All that remains is the wooden Church of the Intercession from the 17th century in the monastery cemetery.
Spaso-Andronikov Monastery. Moscow
"Joint project" of Sergius - Andronikov Monastery on the Yauza, now almost in the center of Moscow. It was founded in 1356 by Metropolitan Alexy in honor of miraculous salvation from a storm on the way to Constantinople. From Sergius he received a blessing and the help of his disciple Andronikos, who became the first abbot. Nowadays the Andronikov Monastery is famous for its white-stone Spassky Cathedral (1427) - the oldest surviving building in all of Moscow. In those same years, Andrei Rublev was one of the monks of the monastery, and now the Museum of Ancient Russian Art operates here. The second large church of St. Michael the Archangel is an example of Baroque, 1690s; the ensemble also includes walls, towers, buildings and chapels of the 16th-17th centuries, and a few new buildings, or rather, restored buildings.
Simonovsky Monastery, Moscow
Another " a joint project" - Andronikov Monastery on the Yauza, now almost in the center of Moscow. It was founded in 1356 by Metropolitan Alexy in honor of a miraculous rescue from a storm on the way to Constantinople. From Sergius he received a blessing and the help of Andronik's disciple, who became the first abbot. Nowadays the Andronikov Monastery is known its white-stone Spassky Cathedral (1427) - the oldest surviving building in all of Moscow. In those same years, one of the monks of the monastery was Andrei Rublev, and now there is a Museum of Ancient Russian Art. The second large Church of Michael the Archangel is an example of Baroque, 1690s, also in The ensemble includes walls, towers, buildings and chapels of the 16th-17th centuries, and a few new buildings, or rather, restored buildings.
Epiphany-Anastasia Monastery. Kostroma
The brainchild of Sergius’s disciple, Elder Nikita, is the Epiphany Monastery in Kostroma. Not as famous as Ipatievsky, it is older and in the very center of the city, and its shrine is the Fedorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God. The monastery survived a lot, including devastation by Ivan the Terrible and the Poles during the Time of Troubles, but the fire of 1847 was fatal. In 1863, the temples and chambers were transferred to the Anastasinsky Convent. The cathedral now consists of two parts: the white-stone old church (1559) turned into the altar of the new red-brick one (1864-69) - this structure has 27 domes! In place of the corner towers there is the Smolensk Church (1825) and a hipped bell tower. If you manage to look inside, you can see the former refectory (now a seminary) from the 17th century and a very beautiful abbot’s building.
Trinity-Sypanov Monastery. Nerekhta, Kostroma region
The picturesque monastery on Sypanov Hill, 2 kilometers from the town of Nerekhta, was founded in 1365 by Sergius’s student Pachomius - like many other students, and the teacher himself, he went into the forests to seek solitude, dug a cell... and soon the monastery formed around him by itself. Nowadays it is essentially just the Trinity Church (1675) in a fence (1780) with towers and a chapel - in 1764-1993 it was a parish church instead of the abolished monastery. And now - again a monastery, for women.
Jacob-Zheleznoborovsky Monastery. Village Borok, Buysky district, Kostroma region
The village of Borok, near the town of Bui, a large railway junction, was in the old days called Iron Bork, as bog ores were mined here. Founded by Sergius’ disciple Jacob in 1390, the monastery played a role in two Russian Troubles: in 1442, Vasily the Dark made it his “base” in the campaign against Dmitry Shemyaka, and at the beginning of the 17th century, Grishka Otrepiev, the future False Dmitry I, took monastic vows here. In the 19th century, the monastery remained the churches of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (1757) and the Nativity of John the Baptist (1765), the bell tower - a “pencil” between them, the fence and cells.
Avraamiev Gorodetsky Monastery. Nozhkino village, Chukhloma district, Kostroma region
One of the brightest successors of Sergius’s work was the monk Abraham, the founder of four monasteries in the remote Galician side (we are, of course, not talking about Galicia, but about Galich in the Kostroma region). Only the Avraamiev Gorodetsky Monastery in the village of Nozhkino, where the saint rested, has survived. Temples are visible from Chukhloma and from the Soligalich road beyond the lake surface: the Intercession and St. Nicholas churches of the 17th century and the Cathedral of the Icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness” with a bell tower, built by Konstantin Ton in the style of his Moscow “masterpiece”. The ruins of two churches of another Avraamiev Novozersky monastery have been preserved opposite Galich, in the village with affectionate name Tenderness.
Cherepovets Resurrection Monastery. Cherepovets
It’s hard to believe that the industrial giant Cherepovets was once a quiet merchant town that grew up in the 18th century near the monastery founded by Sergius’ disciples Theodosius and Afanasy. The monastery was abolished in 1764, but its Resurrection Cathedral (1752-56) remains the oldest building, the historical heart of Cherepovets.
Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Vologda region, Kirillovsky district
In 1397, two monks of the Simonov Monastery - Kirill and Ferapont - came to the Belozersk Principality. The first dug a cell near Lake Siverskoye, the second - between lakes Passky and Borodavsky, and over the years the most famous monasteries of Northern Thebaid grew from these cells. The Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery is now the largest in Russia, and on an area of 12 hectares there are fifty buildings, including 10 churches, only two of which are younger than the 16th century. The monastery is so large that it is divided into “districts” - the Great Assumption and Ivanovo monasteries make up the Old Town, to which the vast and almost empty New Town adjoins. All this is protected by powerful walls and impregnable towers, and once the monastery had its own Ostrog citadel, which also served as an “elite” prison. There are also many chambers here - residential, educational, hospital, economic, also almost entirely from the 16th-17th centuries, one of which is occupied by a museum of icons. In the New Town there is a wooden mill and a very old (1485) Church of the Deposition of the Robe from the village of Borodavy. Add here a glorious history and a beautiful location - and you get one of the most impressive places in Russia. The Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery gave the most “third-order students”: its monks were the ideologist of “non-covetousness” Nil Sorsky, the founder of the Solovetsky Monastery Savvaty and others.
Luzhetsky Ferapontov Monastery. Mozhaisk, Moscow region
Belozersky Prince Andrei Dmitrievich owned several cities in Rus', including Mozhaisk. In 1408, he asked the monk Ferapont to found a monastery there, and Sergius's disciple returned to the Moscow region. Nowadays the Luzhetsky Monastery on the outskirts of Mozhaisk is a small but very solid ensemble with the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (1520), a couple of younger churches and a hipped bell tower behind decorative but impressive walls and towers.
Assumption Borovensky Monastery. Mosalsk, Kaluga region
Ust-Vymsky Michael-Arkhangelsk Monastery
Stefan of Perm was born in the merchant Veliky Ustyug in the family of a priest and a baptized Zyryan woman (as the Komi were called in the old days), and went down in history by single-handedly annexing an entire region to Russia - Lesser Perm, the country of the Komi-Zyryans. Having taken monastic vows and settled in Rostov, Stefan studied the sciences, and more than once talked with Sergius of Radonezh, adopting his experience, and then returned to the North and went beyond Vychegda. The Komi were then a warlike people; their conversation with the missionaries was short, but when they tied Stefan up and began to cover him with brushwood, his calmness so shocked the Zyryans that they not only spared him, but also heeded his sermons. So, converting village after village to the faith of Christ, Stefan reached Ust-Vym - the capital of Lesser Perm, and there he met with the pama - the high priest. According to legend, the outcome was decided by a test: a monk and a priest, chained to each other, had to walk through a burning hut, dive into an ice hole on one bank of the Vychegda and emerge on the other... Essentially, they were going to certain death, and the essence of preparedness for it was: Pama was afraid, retreated and thereby saved Stefan... but immediately lost the trust of his people. This was the year of the Battle of Kulikovo. On the site of the temple, Stefan built a temple, and now in the center of Ust-Vym there is a small but very landscaped monastery consisting of two churches from the 18th century (and a third from the 1990s) and a wooden monastic monastery, similar to a small fortress. From two other monasteries of Stephen, the current Kotlas and Syktyvkar grew.
Vysotsky Monastery. Serpukhov, Moscow region
The monastery on the outskirts of Serpukhov is one of the main attractions ancient city. It was founded in 1374 by the local prince Vladimir the Brave, but to select the place and consecrate it he called Sergius with his disciple Afanasy, who remained with the abbot. The monastery is small, but beautiful: walls with towers from the 17th century, an elegant gate bell tower (1831), the Conception Cathedral from the time of Boris Godunov and several other churches and buildings. But most of all, the monastery is famous for the “Inexhaustible Chalice” icon, which relieves alcoholism, drug addiction and other addictions.