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History of the Church of Russia

A. N. Mouravieff, tr. Blackmore, 1842

Further Establishment of the Faith. The First Monasteries, A.D. 1015–72

Family quarrels broke out amongst the sons of St. Vladimir. After his decease the eldest brother Sviatopolk endeavoured by his intrigues to appropriate to himself the appanages of his younger brothers, and succeeded in treacherously murdering three of them. But the death or rather martyrdom of Boris and Gleb recoiled upon his own head, and crushed under him his bloody throne, which passed to Yaroslaff prince of Novogorod the avenger of his brethren.

The untimely end of the young princes, who tenderly loved each other, is described in an affecting manner by Nestor. The murderous sword cut them off both together while in the act of prayer: both together as pure sacrifices, sprinkled with their own innocent blood, they presented themselves before the Lord; and the Church being assured of their sanctity by the incorruption of their virgin bodies and by many signs of healing, soon began to ask their assistance in her prayers.

The long reign of the great Yaroslaff, notwithstanding his foreign wars with Boleslaus king of Poland, with the Greeks, the Pechenegians, and other neighbouring nations, and notwithstanding his domestic quarrel with his brother Mistislaff of Tmoutaracan¹, was decidedly the most flourishing period of antiquity for Russia, which was at length all united under his powerful sceptre. Christianity was established far and wide, as he himself was filled with the spirit of piety, and was ever anxious for the good of the Church. His two ordinances which are extant, the one exempting the spirituality from all civil duties and payments, the other confirming to the bishops the right granted them by St. Vladimir of judging in all causes of marriage, inheritance, and sacrilege, as well as in all that related to the external or internal discipline of the Church, bear witness to Yaroslaff’s good disposition in spiritual matters. Whilst he was desirous to secure the interests of his people by the enactment of a body of civil law, he gave no less attention to the subject of ecclesiastical legislation; and by his orders the Nomocanon was translated from the Greek, that our native bishops, now beginning to succeed into the places of those who had come at first from Constantinople, might be able to guide themselves by its rules. He himself gave much time and pains to the study and translation of a variety of Church books which he had collected into a library on the spot where the metropolitan resided²; and he set up schools in Kieff and Novogorod for the education of those of the children of clergy or laity who might be preparing themselves for holy orders.

Three magnificent monuments of the glorious times of Yaroslaff still remain to us; the cathedral of St. Saviour, which was founded at Chernigoff by the Prince Mistislaff, and is the most ancient of all the sacred edifices of Russia; the temple of St. Sophia in Novogorod, erected by Vladimir, son of Yaroslaff, who died while only a youth, and was buried there together with his mother; this church has not suffered materially either from wars or time, but has been preserved in all its grandeur, as a jewel above price to our country; lastly, in Kieff there is the metropolitical church of St. Sophia, which was built by the Great Prince Yaroslaff himself on the spot where he had gained the victory over the Pechenegians. The high-sounding name of St. Sophia pleased the prince, who wished to reproduce in his own capital the monuments of Byzantium, and was delighted that even in his time it already enjoyed the reputation of being a second Constantinople³. He had called one of its gates The Golden, as if in memory of those gates at Constantinople, on which his ancestor Oleg had hung his victorious shield; but Yaroslaff still more ardently desired that that temple of the Divine Wisdom, St. Sophia, in which his father’s ambassadors had first believed on the true God, should be copied at least in name, if not altogether in structure, in his two capitals of Kieff and Novogorod, as Vladimir had erected the cathedral of the most holy Virgin in memory of that at Cherson in which he was baptized. The Metropolitan Theopemptus, who had been sent by the Patriarch Alexis Studites⁴, consecrated the cathedral of St. Sophia, and it has stood even to our own times, together with the marble tomb of its founder, through all the storms of the Mongolian invasion, and the frequent sackings of Kieff. It is not indeed, it is true, in so perfect a state of preservation as that at Novogorod, but still it retains its original form and appearance, at least up to the arches, whilst the church of the Tithes, on the contrary, has been levelled to its foundations.

Theopemptus is the first of the metropolitans who is mentioned in the Chronicle of Nestor, which is silent respecting his three predecessors and speaks only of bishops, possibly because the title of metropolitan came more into popular use after the foundation of the metropolitical residence adjoining the church of St. Sophia. We must attribute it to the resentment which Yaroslaff entertained against the Emperor Constantine Monomachus for having put out the eyes of the Russian prisoners, that on the conclusion of his last war with the Greeks, the Great Prince called together the Russian bishops to elect a new metropolitan from among themselves in the room of Theopemptus who was dead, without taking any notice of the patriarch. The pious Priest Hilarion was chosen and consecrated by the synod: but this temporary infraction of ecclesiastical order was speedily made good by a benedictory letter which Hilarion sought and obtained from the Patriarch Michael Cerularius. During the time that this prelate occupied the metropolitical throne, there came three Greek chaunters from Constantinople and introduced the Churchsong called The Domestic⁵ for eight voices or tones, which in several places is still preserved in all its ancient simplicity. Yaroslaff also in his time founded two monasteries in Kieff, one for men by the name of his own angel St. George near the Golden gates, the other for women, which he called after St. Irene⁶ the angel of his consort.

Notwithstanding that the foundation of the Vidoubetz⁷ Monastery is ascribed to the first Metropolitan Michael, and notwithstanding that there were other religious houses in Kieff; founded by the zeal of the boyars, still to a simple and obscure hermit belongs the glory of having been the father of religious celibacy in Russia, and of having made his own poor retreat a nursery for the monastic life: and this during a period both of many external alarms, and of civil feuds caused by the three sons of Yaroslaff, who purpled with gore the soil of Russia, which was only preserved by the prayers of St. Anthony and St. Theodosius. “Many monasteries,” says Nestor, as he is describing the origin of the Pecherskay Lavra⁸, “have been founded by princes and nobles, and by wealth, but they are not such as those which have been founded by tears, and fasting, and prayer, and vigil; Anthony had neither gold nor silver, but he procured all by prayer and fasting.”

It is very remarkable that at the beginning of monasticism in our country there should have been a recurrence of the names of those great Hermits Hilarion, Anthony, and Theodosius, who once flourished in the deserts of Palestine and Egypt, and were now reflected, as in a mirror, in the pure lives of their Russian imitators and namesakes. The Metropolitan Hilarion when he was as yet only priest of the Church of the holy Apostles in Berestoff, the favourite residence of the Princes Vladimir and Yaroslaff, was accustomed to retire for seclusion and prayer into the silent forest on the beautiful banks of the Dnieper; and there, having taken an affection to a certain picturesque site on a hill, he dug himself out a dark cave or Pesch, the germ of the future Lavra, and of all the religious houses of Russia. Not long afterwards another hermit came and settled himself in it, for the place was already consecrated by the holy life of Hilarion.

An individual named Anthony, a native of Lubetch⁹, travelling abroad, visited Mount Athos, and conceived a desire to finish his days there in the monastic state: but the hegumen who gave him the tonsure, as if foreseeing his high vocation, enjoined on him to return to his own country. The humble Anthony obeyed, and brought with him the blessing of the Holy Mountain. He went over all the monasteries of Kieff; but his soul, thirsting for contemplation, could find no resting-place for itself any where but in the deserted cave of Hilarion. There Anthony established himself; though during the forty years continuance of his spiritual course he was twice driven away by the disturbances caused him by the princes and boyars, who soon discovered that he was living among the woods in the neighbourhood of Kieff. The Great Prince himself, Isyaslaff the son of Yaroslaff, on one occasion paid him a visit with his suite; and the hermit foretold to him, and to his two brothers, their disastrous defeat by the Poloftsi, on the banks of the Alta. Twelve disciples having collected themselves together about him, he set Barlaam over them as hegumen, and gave them his blessing to begin building a wooden church, to be called after the Rest or Assumption of the Mother of God, on the site of the former one, which was under ground: but he himself, to avoid the interruptions and disquietudes of governing, shut himself up in another cell, which he had excavated at a little distance, and there spent the rest of his days in prayer. But in the mean time, before this took place, when the Great Prince had taken the Hegumen Barlaam to preside over his newly-founded Monastery of Demetrius, Anthony proposed to the brethren for their superior the humble Theodosius, to whom was to belong the glory of finally establishing the monastery, and of completing the blessed beginning of Anthony.

Theodosius seeing the brethren continually multiplying around him and already amounting to a hundred, wrote out for them the Rule of the Studium Monastery, the strictest of all in Constantinople, which a monk, who came with George the new metropolitan, had brought with him from that city. The manner in which the monks were to chaunt, the bowings and prostrations, the reading, and the whole order of Church service, and even their diet, was fixed by this Rule; Theodosius added to it a supplement which consisted of spiritual instructions of his own, on praying without ceasing, on the means of preserving one’s self from evil thoughts, on mutual charity, obedience, and diligence in labour; and it passed afterwards as a model into all the religious houses of our country, many of which were founded by monks from the Pechersky, whilst the rest looked up to it and sought to imitate so illustrious an example. In this manner the blessing of Athos was spread abroad from it on all sides, together with the Rule of Studium. The annalist Nestor, who has preserved to us in his simple but authentic narrative the traditions of the sacred antiquity of Russia, was an eyewitness of the life and actions of Theodosius, when he established the Lavra, and entered himself into its retirement in the seventeenth year of his age, so making it the cradle of our history.

The Princes Isyaslaff, Sviatoslaff, and Vsevolod, who successively ascended the throne of Kieff, were all full of veneration for the holy recluse Theodosius, and paid attention to his godly instructions, although he hesitated not to rebuke one of them, Sviatoslaff, for unjustly usurping his brother’s throne. With his assistance, Theodosius procured skilful architects from Greece, and founded the spacious stone Church of the Assumption¹⁰ in the place of the original poor one of wood. But like nearly all great founders, who have seldom been permitted to see the outward magnificence of their foundations, Theodosius was obliged to content himself with the inward beauty of the Lavra, and departed to his rest in the cells which he had dug out with Anthony. His successors Stephen, and Nikon, the great assistant of Anthony, continued the building, which was finished by the Hegumen John, and consecrated before the end of the reign of the Great Prince Vsevolod by the Metropolitan John III. By order of the same hegumen the annalist Nestor opened the cell or cave in which were the uncorrupted relics of Theodosius, and an assembly of bishops and princes solemnly translated them into the new temple. The names of Anthony and Theodosius began to be invoked in prayer from the time of the reign of Sviatopolk as the guardians of Kieff, and the fathers of all who lived a life of religious retirement in our country; for the Lavra shot its roots deep into the soil of Russia, and its beneficent influence shewed itself not only in monastic seclusion, but also in the halls of princes, and on the thrones of prelates. It gave its monks to the Church; Stephen to be bishop of Belgorod, St. Isaiah to be the first illuminator of Rostoff, St. Nicetas to be Lord of Novogorod, and, according to some accounts, Ephraim to be metropolitan of all Russia. Some of them preached the name of Christ to the heathen, and died the death of martyrs; as Gerasimus, the first illuminator of the savage Vess in the northern quarters, as Kouksha and Pimen, who suffered for the word of God on the banks of the Oka, while engaged in the conversion of the Viatichi. Others, whose names are too many to be reckoned, and whose uncorrupted bodies still tenant the same caves, supplied examples in their seclusion of the practice of all the virtues. Among these latter was a son of Nicolas prince of Chernigoff, who was surnamed The Devout from his sanctity and humility. He however was not the first of Russian princes who adopted the monastic life: Soudeslaff, the unfortunate son of the great Vladimir, who was thrown into prison at Pskoff by his brother Yaroslaff, and after twenty-eight years’ confinement was set at liberty by his nephews, received the tonsure in the monastery at Kieff before any other of his rank, and so became the first of the line of princely recluses in our country. But I have been seduced by the glories of the Pechersky into a digression from the regular course of ecclesiastical events.

Notes

Sviatopolk I. is said by Oustreloff, (from whose History I have taken this and other statements respecting the sovereigns of Russia,) to have been the son of Yaropolk, the elder brother of Vladimir, adopted by Vladimir into his family and therefore called by our author brother of Vladimir’s own sons. He took violent possession of the throne in 1015; was finally expelled from it in 1019; and died in his flight to Poland A.D. 1020.
Mistislaff of Tmoutaracan was prince of the modern Tamar, then a powerful kingdom between the sea of Azoff and the Black sea.
Which adjoined the church of St. Sophia and his own palace, in the centre of the city.
The Russian word generally used for Constantinople is “Tsaregrad,” which may be translated literally “the city of the Tsar,” “the imperial or royal city.”
Alexis became patriarch of Constantinople A.D. 1025, and died in 1043. His successor was Michael Cerularius, who sat till 1058, and in whose time the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches was finally completed. For an account of the rules of the Studium monastery, the reader may consult a work published at Leipsig, by J. Emmanuel Müller, A.D. 1721, entitled “Studium Cænobium Constantinopolitanum ex monumentis Byzantinis erutum.”
“Domestic,” i. e. which was used by the emperor’s own singers at Constantinople.
“His” or “Her Angel” is the customary phrase in the Russian language to designate the patron saint after whom any one is named. At the same time the Russians have also the belief that an angel, properly so called, is set over every baptized person in the Church, whom they call, as in the West, the guardian angel, without confounding him with the angel or saint from whom they have their Christian name.
The name means “Come out,” in memory of the cries made by the people to the idol which had been thrown into the river, in the same way as is related afterwards to have been done at Novogorod (p. 17). The people cried “Come out, our Lord God.” The monastery was built on the spot where the current of the river threw the idol ashore.
“The Pecherskay Lavra” means the Lavra or Monastery of the Caves or Catacombs, afterwards so celebrated in the annals of Russia, which stood outside of the town. It was entirely destroyed by Batius the Tartar in 1240; was rebuilt and again destroyed by the Tartars; and lastly, in 1718, it was reduced to ashes by a dreadful fire, in which many valuable ancient manuscripts perished. It was again rebuilt by its archimandrite Joannicius, assisted by Peter the Great, and re-consecrated in 1729. It contains numerous churches and other buildings, and is surrounded by a high wall 550 fathoms in length. It is at present under the immediate rule of the metropolitan of Kieff, who is its archimandrite, as the metropolitans of Moscow and St. Petersburgh are the archimandrites respectively of the Trinity and Nefskay Lavras.
A district of Russia to the south of Kieff.
The word in the Russian signifies “Rest” or “falling asleep,” and is a literal translation of the word always used in the Greek, κατακοίμησις. I have generally, however, rendered it by the Latin term “Assumption,” because this term would always be employed in writing or speaking any language but their own by the Russians and Greeks themselves.