The Solovetsky Monastery. History of the Solovki Monastery

This is one of the most amazing spiritual places in the Russian North. Solovetsky islands are fascinating and attractive not only for their beauty and vastness of space, but also for their distinctive history.

The local walls remember a lot of grief, but no less joy. Having arrived here, you will plunge into a fairy tale with miracles and get acquainted with the very essence of the Russian soul.

Pearl of Orthodoxy

The cell, laid by three hermits, turned into a world heritage after many centuries. Millions of pilgrims come to see the amazing land every year. This temple during its existence had time to visit the military fortress, prison and camp, where they put experiments on people.

However, nothing could break the spirit of the monks. Today, after many years, restoration work is carried out at the monastery, various goods are produced for worship services and pilgrims, services are held and the word of the laity is heard.

Geographical location

Solovetsky Monastery is located on the four islands of the archipelago in the White Sea. Different buildings, rooms and sketes are on large and small shreds of land.

The harsh beauty of the landscape automatically sets the person to think about spiritual things. Not without reason, according to legend, all the buildings in this monastery stand on the places where miracles happened and revelations happened.

So, on the Great Solovki Island there are the Voznesensky and Savvatievsky skete, as well as the Filippovskaya, Makarievskaya and Isaakovskaya deserts.

On Bolshaya Maksalma there is the Sergius Skete. Here a temple was erected in the name of St. Sergius of Radonezh. There is also a monastery farm and a building for workers. These two islands are connected by a dam called "Stone Bridge".
On Anzere there are Eleazarova desert, Troitsky and Golgotha-Crucifix skete.
The Great Hare Island gave shelter to St. Andrew's Desert.

Most of the buildings belong to the 17-18 centuries, but they were erected under the guidance of monks in place of old dilapidated buildings.

Also to the Transfiguration Solovki Monastery, if based on historical documents, belonged to fourteen farmsteads. They were located mainly in the northern volosts of the Russian Empire.

Compound is a kind of branch of the monastery. A community that has separated from the monopoly and lives outside the canonical territory. But they honor the charter of the main monastery.

To date, only four farmsteads operate in Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Kemi and Faustov (a village not far from Moscow).

It is important for pilgrims to know that permission is required for a trip to the Solovetsky Monastery. How to get to it? Documentation and other concerns are usually taken over by the agencies. Therefore, two options are possible: to pay an experienced tour operator, as a result of which all the work will be done for you, or go, trying to achieve everything yourself. The first way is more expensive and faster, the second is cheaper and longer.

History of the Solovki Monastery

The Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery of Solovetsky dates back to the 15th century. It was in 1429 that three monks laid down and built the first cell. After a while one of them, the Reverend Savvaty, reposed, and the other two - Herman and Zosima - returned to the Great Solovetsky Island.

Shortly thereafter, they had a vision of a magnificent church on the eastern edge of the island. A wooden church was built, and in the sixties of the same century, Zosima was awarded a diploma from the Novgorod Archbishop Iona. According to the document, now the islands, nearby lands and future monasteries were given to the timeless possession of the monastery.

During the following years the Reverend Zosima and Herman reposed peacefully. The monks of the Solovetsky Monastery transferred their relics to a specially constructed abode, as well as the remains of the Monk Savvaty, who reposed in 1435 in the village of Soroka, near the coast.

At the end of the fifteenth century, gifts from the powers that are now beginning to flow up and the eyes of the biographers are turning. Thus, the oral legend of the Monk Herman, became the basis for the records of Dositheus about the foundation of the monastery. On the basis of this document, in 1503, the beginning of the compilation of the life of the Solovetsky priests was laid.
In 1478, the monastery was given a "trophy German casting bell", which is by far one of the oldest known military trophies in Russia.

And in 1479 Tsar John Vasilyevich Grozny personally approves the authenticity of the charter for possession and assures her of the timelessness of her gratuity.

What was under the Russian tsars

Such a construction in the White Sea became a trump card in the hands of the Moscow rulers. First, with the help of the associates, the Solovetsky Monastery monks the economic life of the region. The development of Pomorze without the help of the monastery would not be so fast and of high quality.

Proceeding from this, the monastery finds all kinds of help. His highest status can be seen from the maps of that time. Not all were marked by fairly large cities, but the Solovetsky Monastery on the map was invariably portrayed.

Also the founders of the monastery at the Moscow Cathedral were recognized as saints, and the royal court increased the gift giving. All this had the opposite side, unfortunately.
Since the 16th century, the task of the inhabitants of these lands has been a daunting task. In addition to the cases connected with the usual work of the monastery, I had to deal with the erection of the fortress. The middle of this century is the date of the first stone structures. All construction was headed by the hegumen Philip, it is his deserts that are located on the Great Solovetsky Island.

In 1560-1570 the monastery was proclaimed "the great state fortress", here is sent the elder Tryphon (in the world Kologriv), one of the most gifted architects and military engineers of the time. It was he who led the creation of most of the buildings and fortifications on the island, dating back to the sixteenth century.

As the northern outpost of Orthodoxy and the border zone with European states, the Solovetsky Islands were often besieged by the enemy fleet. At first, the British ships approached, a few years later the Swedish armada tried to bring happiness. All of them were discarded.

In addition, the secular authorities sought to use the strong walls of the monastery to the fullest. Therefore, from the end of the sixteenth century, unwelcome figures begin to be sent here. Thus, the islands partly take on the functions of the prison.

The metochion of the Solovetsky Monastery hosted more than one thousand armed archers. Such power needed maintenance, so the royal decree from the monastery was removed labor service and obrokki. All accentuated only on maximum autonomous work. That is, this fortress was to function for a long time in the siege regime, until help comes. A help go far!

However, the kings did not expect to create a problem for themselves. It all started with church reforms and split. Most monks refused to accept the new rules, turning the Solovki monastery into a stronghold of the old faith. Later, the rests of the broken squads Stenka Razin joined their ranks.

By the great efforts of the tsarist troops in January 1676, the prison was nevertheless taken. All the guilty of the leadership of the insurrection were executed, the storehouses were plundered, and the status was taken away. From that time - about twenty to thirty years - the monastery fell into disgrace.

Return to the former position began only during the reign of Peter the Great. By the same period, the erection of the Golgotha-Crucifix skete was included.

Synodal period

However, the former greatness and military power Solovetsky Monastery never received. During the reform of 1764, most of the lands, villages and possessions were confiscated. In addition, the population of the archipelago was strictly regulated. The royal power no longer wanted to face a hard-to-reach fortress, in which the disgraced monks would settle.

In 1765 he became a stauropegic and passed under the authority of the synod, but the abbots were still archimandrites.

In 1814, the monastery of the Solovetsky Monastery was freed from implements, the quantitative composition of the garrison was cut, and the monastery itself was removed from the list of active fortresses.

Nevertheless, the walls built in the era of the New Time withstood the Anglo-French siege during the Crimean War. This was the last attack of external enemies on the walls of the monastery.

After the middle of the nineteenth century, the monastery began to turn into the main tourist attraction of the region for pilgrims. The Tsar himself comes here personally with his retinue, artists and diplomats. The Holy Trinity Cathedral is being built.
In 1886, the last soldier from the garrison left the threshold of the monastery. From that time on the status of a fortress could not be a question. The monastery became in full sense the spiritual center of the Russian North.

The twentieth century for Solovki began very successfully. In their possession there were more than ten temples, thirty chapels, two schools, a choir of the Solovetsky Monastery, a botanical garden. In addition, for the abode there were six factories, a mill, more than fifteen different craft workshops.

On its territory worked more than one thousand workers and several hundred hired craftsmen. For a year the monastery hosted more than fifteen thousand believers, and women were not allowed inside. They lived in a suburb. In addition, in the possession of the monastery there were 4 steamships.

Years of Soviet Power

Like all foreshadowed only a joyous and happy life for the monks. Money - do not count, the bins are bursting with food and goods. Sated, comfortable, carefree.

However, the end of such a paradisiacal life was laid by the October Revolution of 1917. The coming power openly declared war on the church and its ministers. In 1920, the Red Army Commission, headed by Kedrov, abolished the Solovetsky Monastery, but proclaimed here a state farm and a camp for forced labor of "Solovki".

Since 1923 in many buildings the ELEPHANT - "Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp" began to function. All politically displeased people were locked here. The square meter of this prison bishops was more than in all of Russia at large.

Horrors of imprisonment were supplemented by frequent executions and murders. Bullying and torment did not stop day nor night. And the camp hospital in Golgotha-Crucifix monastery, fully corresponded to the name.

At first, divine services were allowed in one church for the remaining companions who were on their own accord, who worked on the state farm, but in 1932 the last monk was exiled to a large land.

During the mid-thirties an unthinkable number of people fell here, most of whom were innocent.

From 1937 to 1939 there was located STON - a special prison, fully justified its name. And in the years of the Great Patriotic War, there were training corps of the Soviet Navy.

Recovery

Works on the restoration of the monastery complex began in the sixties of the twentieth century. In 1974, historical and natural reserves were founded here.

A very interesting and unusual sight grew on the island of Anzer. Like a divine providence in a place where the authorities were forbidden to put crosses, such a miracle appears. Look closely at the photo, the Solovetsky Monastery is the only one who can boast such a birch tree.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the monastic population of the monastery also revives. On October 25, 1990, the restoration of the Zosimo-Savvatievsky Solovetsky Stauropegic Monastery was officially proclaimed. At the first monastic vows, names were given according to the lot. Now it has become an inalienable tradition.

In 1992, the historical and architectural monument was included in the UNESCO World Heritage.

Reconstruction work continues and memorial crosses are erected on the sites of the greatest tragedies. Many martyrs of the era of the early Soviet Union were canonized.

In 2001, the Patriarch of All Russia Alexy II personally sanctified the Solovetsky Monastery.
How to get to it, now worries a lot of pilgrims, for a soaked and so suffered place has incredible energy.

For your information: you can get to the islands either by water or by air. There are two main routes used by residents, pilgrims, tourists - through Arkhangelsk and via Kem (the latter only during the navigation period).

The foundation of the metochion in Moscow

The second name of this monastery is the Church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious in Endov. It is located behind the Moscow River. This area is called the Lower Gardeners.
The first church was made of wood here in the days of John Vasilyevich Grozny. But at the request of Archbishop Elasson, who arrived together with the embassy to the court in 1588, a stone church was erected in its place.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, as in many churches, a prison for "troublemakers" was created in this church.

The temple grew with time. For a century, from the middle of the 17th century, two side-chapels were built here - in the name of the Virgin and Nicholas the Wonderworker.

However, in view of the passage of the channel of underground water under the bell tower, it collapsed at the end of the eighteenth century, and fell to the refectory. About half a century the monks dispensed with these two structures, until one of the parishioners set out to set up the bell tower.

It was erected on a firm place, so the metochion of the Solovetsky Monastery in Moscow was a little further from the turret.

The porch, which today operates in the monastery, was built in 1836.
In 1908, the church again experienced a catastrophe. Due to the flood of the river, the foundation was flooded, cracks formed on the walls.

The paintings, which began to crumble, were restored only two years later.
In addition, the temple was administered by a hospital, a school and an almshouse for former soldiers.
The church operated until 1935, and in the years of the Soviet Union there is an art department.

The realities of our days

The Solovetsky Monastery in Moscow today was revived within the framework of the monastery's main monastery on the White Sea. Recovery took place in 1992.

Mainly his activities are associated with the support and maintenance of the monastery on the islands. In the early 1990s, there was a preparation for the ministry in connection with the transfer of the relics of the saints to Solovki. Then the rooms were restored and put in order.

For ten years after its opening, all the premises were consecrated, a Poklonnaya Cross 10 meters high was erected.

In 2003, a great celebration of the 350th anniversary of the foundation of the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos took place, which provided the basis for the subsequent development of the church.

And for Easter 2006, a new iconostasis in five tiers was presented for public viewing.

The main shrine is the icon of Solovetsky miracle-workers with relics. Each worship is crowned by an appeal to them, and the parishioners are attached to the image.
Also there is a printing house that produces the "Solovetsky Herald", postcards and other festive printed products for Christmas and other significant church holidays. Calendars containing photos of the Solovetsky Monastery produce very beautiful and original.

Life of the parish

The main activity of the Moscow metochion is the education and training of parishioners of younger age. On the territory there is a Sunday school where children from 6 to 13 years old study together. The calendar of classes is compiled in accordance with the Christian canons and timed to all church holidays.
Parents themselves arrange a meal for the students.

Also there is a photo circle, cooperation with the Moscow Film School is being conducted.
In addition, since 2011, there are hiking and bus tours around Moscow attractions. One of the topics of the excursions, for example - John the Terrible and St Philip.

Departures take place in the neighboring compound, in Faustovo, as well as in Kolomenskoye. All trips are related solely to the history and functioning of the monastery. Also, every few months, companions carry pilgrims to the Solovetsky Islands.

The purpose of such excursions is not only enlightening, but spiritual. After the tour, everyone can stay and ask the attendant all the questions of interest. He will either respond to them, or invite them to an appropriate event.

Divine services are held daily, and the Liturgy is held several times a week. And in Great Lent, on Thursdays, there is a sobor.