This is one of the most amazing spiritual places in the Russian North. The Solovetsky Islands fascinate and attract not only with its beauty and vastness of vastness, but also with its original history.
The local walls remember a lot of grief, but no less joys. Arriving here, you will plunge into a fairy tale with miracles and get acquainted with the very essence of the Russian soul.
The Pearl of Orthodoxy
Pledged by three hermits, the cell many centuries later became a world heritage. Millions of pilgrims annually come to see the amazing land. This temple during its existence managed to visit a military fortress, a prison and a camp, where they put experiments on people.
However, nothing could break the spirit of the monks. Today, after many years, restoration works are being carried out in the monastery, various goods for worship and pilgrims are being produced, services are being held and God's word is being given to the laity.
Geographic location
The Solovetsky Monastery is located on the four islands of the archipelago in the White Sea. Various buildings, facilities and sketches are located on large and small patches of land.
The severe beauty of the landscape automatically sets a person to think about the spiritual. Not without reason, according to legend, all the buildings in this monastery are in places where miracles took place and revelations occurred.
So, on the Big Solovetsky Island there are the Ascension and Savvatievsky Sketes, as well as the Filippovskaya, Makariyevskaya and Isaakovsky deserts.
On Bolshoi Muksalme is the Sergievsky monastery. Here a church was erected in the name of St. Sergius of Radonezh. There is also a monastery farm and buildings for workers. The two islands are connected by a dam called the Stone Bridge.
On Anzer there are the Eleazarova deserts, the Trinity and Golgotho-Crucifix sketes.
The Big Hare Island gave shelter to the St. Andrew Desert.
The bulk of the buildings dates back to the 17-18 centuries, but they were erected under the guidance of monks on the site of the old dilapidated buildings.
Also, the Transfiguration of the Solovetsky Monastery, if based on historical documents, owned fourteen farmsteads. They were located mainly in the northern volosts of the Russian Empire.
The compound is a kind of branch of the monastery. A community separated from the monopoly and living outside the canonical territory. But they honor the charter of the main monastery.
At present, only four courtyards operate - in Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Kemi and Faustov (a village located near Moscow).
For pilgrims, it is important to know that permission is required to travel to the Solovetsky Monastery. How to get to it? Paperwork and other concerns are usually assumed by 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 to go, trying to achieve everything yourself. The first way is more expensive and faster, the second one is cheaper and longer.
History of the Solovetsky Monastery
The Transfiguration of the Savior Solovetsky monastery dates back to the 15th century. It was in 1429 that three monks laid and built the first cell. After some time, one of them, the Monk Savvaty, died, and the other two - Herman and Zosima - returned to the Big Solovetsky Island.
Shortly afterwards, he had a vision of a magnificent church on the eastern edge of the island. A wooden temple was built, and in the sixties of the same century Zosima was awarded a diploma from the Novgorod Archbishop Jonah. According to the document, now the islands, nearby lands and future cloisters were given to the timeless possession of the monastery.
Over the next years, the venerable Zosima and Herman peacefully reposed. The monks of the Solovetsky monastery transferred their relics to a specially constructed monastery, as well as the remains of the Monk Savvaty, who died in 1435 in the village of Soroka, not far from the coast.
At the end of the fifteenth century, gifts from the powers that be are already beginning to flock here and the eyes of life-writers are turning. So, the oral legend of the Monk Herman, became the basis for the records of Dosipheus on the foundation of the monastery. On the basis of this document in 1503 the foundation was laid for the compilation of the life of the Solovetsky primal.
In 1478, the monastery received a “trophy of German casting bell” as a gift, which is today one of the oldest known military trophies in Russia.
And in 1479, Tsar Ivan the Terrible personally asserts the authenticity of the deed of possession and assures its timeliness of his granted.
What happened during the Russian tsars
A similar construction in the White Sea became an ace in the hands of Moscow rulers. Firstly, with the help of associates, the Solovetsky Monastery is putting in order the economic life of the region. The development of Pomerania without the help of the monastery would not be so fast and of high quality.
Based on this, the monastery is given all kinds of help. Its highest status can be seen on the cards of that time. Large cities were not marked at all, but the Solovetsky Monastery was invariably depicted on the map.
Also, the founders of the monastery at the Moscow Cathedral were recognized as saints, and the royal court took part in the offering of gifts. All this had a flip side, unfortunately.
Since the 16th century, the shoulders of the inhabitants of these lands have been confronted with a difficult task. In addition to the affairs associated with the normal work of the monastery, I had to deal with the construction of the fortress. The middle of this century dates from the first stone structures. Hegumen Philip was in charge of all the construction, it is his deserts located on the Big Solovetsky Island.
In the years 1560-1570 the monastery was proclaimed “a great state fortress”, the elder Tryphon (in the world of Kologriv), one of the most gifted architects and military engineers of that time, was sent here. It was he who directed the creation of most of the buildings and fortifications on the island dating from the sixteenth century.
Being the northern outpost of Orthodoxy and the border zone with European states, the Solovetsky Islands were repeatedly besieged by the enemy fleet. At first, the British ships approached, a few years later, the Swedish armada tried their luck. All were discarded.
In addition, secular authorities sought to use the strong walls of the monastery to the full. Therefore, from the end of the sixteenth century, disagreeable figures began to exile here. Thus, the islands partially assume the functions of a prison.
The compound of the Solovetsky Monastery accommodated more than one thousand armed archers. Such power was in need of maintenance, therefore, labor service and quitrents were removed from the monastery by royal decree. Everything was focused only on maximum battery life. That is, this fortress was supposed to function for a long time in a siege mode, until help came. And help to go far!
However, the kings did not assume that they would create a problem for themselves. It all started with church reform and schism. Most monks refused to accept the new rules, turning the Solovetsky Monastery into a stronghold of the old faith. Later, the remnants of the broken units of Stenka Razin joined their ranks.
By the great efforts of the tsarist troops in January 1676, the prison was nevertheless taken. All those guilty of leading the uprising were executed, the vaults were looted, and the status was withdrawn. Since that time - about twenty to thirty years - the monastery fell into disgrace.
The return to its former position began only during the reign of Peter the Great. The construction of the Golgotha-Raspyatsky monastery belongs to the same period.
Synodal period
However, the Solovetsky Monastery did not receive its former greatness and military power. During the reform of 1764, most of the lands, villages and possessions were seized. In addition, the population of the archipelago was strictly regulated. The tsarist government no longer wanted to face an inaccessible fortress, in which disgraced monks would settle.
In 1765, he became a stavropegy and became subordinate to the synod, however, the abbots were still archimandrites.
In 1814, the courtyard of the Solovetsky Monastery was freed from guns, the quantitative composition of the garrison was cut, and the monastery itself was excluded from the list of existing fortresses.
However, the walls constructed during the New Age era 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 mid-nineteenth century, the monastery begins to turn into the main 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 went beyond the threshold of the monastery. Since that time, the status of a fortress was out of the question. The monastery became in the full sense the spiritual center of the Russian North.
The twentieth century for Solovki began very successfully. In their possession were more than ten temples, thirty chapels, two schools, the choir of the Solovetsky monastery, a botanical garden. In addition, behind the cloister there were six factories, a mill, more than fifteen different craft workshops.
More than one thousand workers and several hundred hired craftsmen worked on its territory. For a year, the monastery hosted more than fifteen thousand believers, and women were not allowed inside. They lived in the suburbs. On top of that, there were 4 steamers in the possession of the monastery.
Years of Soviet Power
It seems that everything foreshadowed only a joyful and happy life for the monks. Money - do not count, bins are bursting with food and goods. It is full, comfortable, carefree.
However, the end of such a paradise life was put by the October Revolution of 1917. The power that came openly declared war on the church and its ministers. In 1920, a Red Army commission led by Kedrov abolished the Solovetsky Monastery, but proclaimed a state farm and the Solovki forced labor camp here.
In 1923, the elephant “Solovetsky special purpose camp” began to function in many buildings. All politically objectionable people were locked here. There were more bishops per square meter of this prison than in all of Russia in freedom.
The horrors of imprisonment were complemented by frequent executions and killings. Bullying and torment did not stop day or night. And the camp hospital in the Calvary-Raspyatsky monastery, fully consistent with the name.
At first, services were allowed in one church for the associates who remained of their own free will and worked on the state farm, but in 1932 the last monk was exiled to the mainland.
During the mid-thirties, an unthinkable number of people died here, most of whom were innocent.
From 1937 to 1939, STON was located here - a special prison that fully justified its name. And during the years of the Great Patriotic War, there were educational buildings of the navy of the Soviet Union.
Recovery
Work 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 attraction grew on the island of Anser. Like a divine providence in a place where the authorities were forbidden to cross, a miracle appears. Look carefully at the photo, the Solovetsky Monastery is the only one that can boast of such a birch.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the monastic population of the monastery is reviving. On October 25, 1990, the restoration of the Zosimo-Savvatievsky Solovetsky Stauropegial Monastery was officially proclaimed. At the first tonsure, monks were given names according to the lot. Now it has become an integral tradition.
In 1992, the historical and architectural monument was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Restoration work continues and commemorative crosses are erected at the sites of greatest tragedies. Many martyrs of the era of the early Soviet Union were canonized.
In 2001, Patriarch of All Russia Alexy II personally consecrated the Solovetsky Monastery.
How to get to it, now cares for many pilgrims, because a prayed and so much-suffering place has incredible energy.
For reference: you can get to the islands either by water or by air. There are two main routes that are used by residents, pilgrims, tourists - through Arkhangelsk and through Kem (the latter only during the navigation period).
The base of the compound in Moscow
The second name of this monastery is the Temple of the Great Martyr George the Victorious in Endovo. It is located beyond the Moscow River. This area is called Lower Gardeners.
The first wooden church here was laid back in the time of Ivan the Terrible. But at the request of Archbishop Elassonsky, who arrived with the embassy in the courtyard in 1588, a stone temple was erected in its place.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, as in many churches, a prison was created in this for the "troublemakers".
The temple expanded over time. For a century, from the middle of the 17th century, two chapels were added here - in the name of the Virgin and Nicholas the Wonderworker.
However, due to the underground water channel lying under the bell tower, it collapsed at the end of the eighteenth century, and fell to the refectory. For 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 solid place, so the courtyard 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 survived the catastrophe. Due to the spill of the river, the foundation was flooded, cracks formed on the walls.
The murals, which began to crumble, were restored only after two years.
In addition, the temple was a hospital, a school and an almshouse for the former military.
The church operated until 1935, and during the years of the Soviet Union an art department was located here.
Realities of our day
The Solovetsky monastery in Moscow today has been revived as part of the courtyard of the main monastery on the White Sea. Recovery took place in 1992.
Its main activity is related to the support and provision of the monastery on the islands. In the early 1990s, preparations were underway for service in connection with the transfer of the relics of the saints to Solovki. Further, the premises were restored, put in order.
In the ten years after its opening, all rooms were consecrated, a Poklonnaya Cross, ten meters high, was erected.
In 2003, the great celebration of the 350th anniversary of the founding of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was held, which provided the basis for the subsequent development of the temple.
And on Easter 2006, the newly made five-tier iconostasis was presented to the public.
The main shrine is the icon of the Solovetsky miracle workers with relics. Each worship is crowned with an appeal to them, and parishioners are attached to the image.
There is also a printing house engaged in the production of the Solovetsky Gazette, postcards and other festive printed matter for Christmas and other significant church holidays. Calendars containing photos, the Solovetsky Monastery produces very beautiful and original.
Parish Life
The basis of the Moscow compound is the education and training of younger parishioners. There is a Sunday school on the territory where children from 6 to 13 years old study together. The schedule of classes is drawn up in accordance with Christian canons and is confined to all church holidays.
Parents have their own meals for the students.
A photo club also works, and cooperation with the Moscow film school is ongoing.
In addition, since 2011, walking and bus tours of Moscow sights have been arranged. One of the topics of excursions, for example, John the Terrible and St. Philip.
Departures take place in the neighboring courtyard, in Faustovo, as well as in Kolomenskoye. All trips are connected exclusively with the history and functioning of the monastery. Also, once every few months, associates carry pilgrims to the Solovetsky Islands.
The purpose of such excursions is not only educational, but also spiritual. After the tour, everyone can stay and ask the minister all questions of interest. He will either answer them or invite them to the appropriate event.
Divine services are held daily, and the Liturgy - several times a week. And on Lent, on Thursdays, unification takes place.