1000 years presence on Mount Athos. "1000th Anniversary of Russian Monasticism on Mount Athos". Bright evening with Fr. Alexander Volkov (06/06/2016). – What is Athos for Russian monasticism
The year 1016 is the year of the exact presence of Russian monks on Athos. A little earlier, they arrived on the peninsula with the established monastic tradition and charter. They arrived in the real world of the monks. For their exploits, they chose a place remote from the coast and thus from ship navigation in the central part of Athos in the depths of the forests, closer to the eastern coast. The Russian millennium began on Athos.
Speech delivered on December 2, 2015 at the Filaret Evening in the Great Assembly Hall of the Moscow Theological Academy . website print it in abbreviated form.
Athos - "the abode of faith, where time has stopped"
Robert Byron
What is Athos? For a Russian person, this is one of the holiest places on earth. In the hierarchy of holy places, of course, the first place is occupied by Jerusalem and the Holy Land - as places of evangelical events, consecrated by the sojourn of the God-man Christ, the Mother of God, the apostles and the early Christian community. Holy place has a special grace - and is an exceptional and attractive place "by grace", as the greatest fathers of the period of iconoclastic disputes St. John of Damascus and St. Theodore Studite. According to oral Athos tradition, Athos is the exclusive lot of the Mother of God, which she visited during her lifetime. And the Savior Christ, constantly invoked in the main monastic work - the Jesus Prayer: from the beginning of asceticism he has been here with those purest monastic souls who are trying to serve Him. After Jerusalem, Athos is that special place on earth, for visiting which you don’t feel sorry for hours, days, money, or life itself. This is the place, visiting which can lead to a complete spiritual rebirth. Many, having entered the holy boundaries of Athos, remained here forever, not returning to the world, like the Russian monks who arrived here shortly before 1016.
But before the historical sketch, let's say a few words about the geography of Athos. For a person who has not been to Athos, it appears to be a mountain on which one or several monasteries are located. It is to this idea of Athos that the expression Holy Mountain pushes. In reality, a pilgrim entering the Holy Mountain finds himself on a peninsula with a length from northwest to southeast of about 60 km, a width of 7 to 19 km, in the southern part of which a mountain really rises 2033 meters high above sea level. This mountain is called Athos and is the spiritual center of Athos as a monastic state. From ancient times, Mount Athos with its surroundings was administered by the oldest and first monastery in the hierarchy of Athos monasteries - the Great Lavra, and on top of it stood a temple in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Transfiguration is a celebration of the Light of Tabor, a celebration of communion with the Divine energies of those who are worthy to receive them. On the slopes of Athos, in his youth, St. Gregory Palamas, defender of the doctrine of Divine energies and the uncreated light, despite the delusions of Varlaam, Akindin, Grigora and others who philosophize more according to the laws of the mind than the spirit. When Russian pilgrims arrived on Athos in the 19th century, they went around the entire peninsula, and climbed to the top with special trepidation.
So, in essence, Athos is a mountain and holy surroundings; the peak towards which everything aspires and from which everything diverges; true height, denoting that spiritual perfection that must be achieved by incredible labors; the center of monks leading an equal-angelic and heavenly way of life on earth. This holy space is especially distinguished as a lot of male monasticism - without the possibility of wives entering here, with the exception of the Mother of God. Monasteries that had the right to ἄβατον existed from ancient times. According to the legislation of the Byzantine emperors, persons of the opposite sex could not spend the night in the same monastery during the pilgrimage, and some cloisters became completely inaccessible. Athos received a special status of a monastic state under the first emperor of the Macedonian dynasty, Basil.
Thus, even before the Baptism of Rus', the Holy Mountain turned out to be a special ancient monastic inheritance and center, naturally concentrating in itself the ancient diversity of Eastern monasticism. The Arabs and then the Turks essentially abolished the freedom of the Egyptian Thebaid. The same fate was gradually approaching Asia Minor, which was still capable of preparing for Athos such great ascetics as St. Athanasius of Athos, the ancestor of the cenobitic Athos monasticism, - on Olympus of Bithynia under the leadership of St. Mikhail Malein - but was not able to maintain their centers for a long time under the onslaught of enemies. The persecution during the period of iconoclastic disputes also contributed to the spiritual impoverishment of Asia Minor, predating the Athos ἄβατον for several decades. Monks hiding from iconoclast persecution in the mountains of Asia Minor or Southern Italy will gradually comprehend the spiritual meaning of their stay on Mount Athos. The Iberian icon of the Goalkeeper will become a symbol of the triumph of Orthodoxy on Athos and of monastic freedom and security.
And finally, the last of the preliminary most general remarks: when Byzantium was torn through and through by civil strife, and the strongest Byzantine emperor Vasily II in his youth could not find constant support, he turned to the Russian and Iberian squads for help. The help of the Russians led to the fact that, as a token of gratitude and as a result of good cooperation, Rus' was baptized in 989, and the help of the Iberians led to the fact that ten years earlier, on the site of the ancient monastery of St. Clement, the Iberian Monastery was founded, which still exists today. Thus, our fatherland turned out to be a kind of twin brother of Athos.
Let's continue almost the historical chronicle.
In 1000, the founder of the Great Lavra, St. Athanasius of Athos: he fell down from the collapsed wing of the still unfinished cathedral church. About 3,000 monks gathered for the burial of the great abba, among whom there could have been and undoubtedly were Slavs - someone from Bulgarians, Serbs or Russians, because to St. Monks from Italy, as well as from various parts of the Balkans, Asia Minor, Georgia and Armenia, came to be tonsured Athanasius. The Great Lavra by that time was a powerful, walled fortress - and a port in which it had the right to keep several high-speed ships. At that time, this was a special exclusive monastic privilege, emphasizing what a huge step forward the Lavra had made since its creation in 964 at the initiative of its failed monk Nicephorus Focas, the emperor, who upheld extremely ascetic, non-possessive monastic ideals.
And now the year 1016 is the year of the exact presence of Russian monks on Athos. A little earlier, they arrived on the peninsula with the established monastic tradition and charter. They arrived in the real world of the monks. For their exploits, they chose a place remote from the coast and thus from ship navigation in the central part of Athos in the depths of the forests, closer to the eastern coast. The Russian millennium began on Athos.
In the act of the Great Lavra for February 1016, among the twenty-two signatures of the abbots of the Athos monasteries, there is the signature "Gerasimus of the monk, by the grace of God, presbyter and abbot of the Rosa monastery." This "abode of Rosa" was known as the "monastery of the Woodworker" (Xylourgou), the records of which from 1030 onwards were preserved in the archives of the monastery of St. Panteleimon. Until now, Xylourgu exists as a skete of the Mother of God, half an hour's walk from the Ilyinsky skete and an hour's walk from the seashore. Most likely, Gerasim was not just another hegumen, but hegumen-ktitor of the newly founded monastery. Perhaps he labored on Athos in parallel with St. Anthony of the Caves, who spent "enough" time here on a pilgrimage - about 10 years at the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century. In 1010-1013, St. Anthony was sent to Rus' to build a cenobitic monastery according to the Svyatogorsk model, but in 1015 he was again on Mount Athos. Most likely, hegumen Gerasimus tonsured St. Anthony - in this case, it is about him that the words of St. Anthony at the founding of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery: "May the blessing of Holy Mount Athos and the elder who tonsured me be in this place!" In the 40s of the 19th century, a legend arose in the Esfigmensky monastery about the stay of St. Anthony - they still show a cave outside the monastery walls on a cliff of a mountain as the place of his exploits. However, the monastery of Xilurgu, located deep in the forests, is more historically justified, although the relative proximity to it of the path leading through Vatoped to Esfigmen only emphasizes the real ascetic struggle of St. Anthony in these places.
The Russian researcher from emigration V. A. Moshin stated the hypothesis according to which the Russian monastery on Athos was built under St. Prince Vladimir. In any case, it is interesting that the first tithe church in Kyiv, as well as in the monastery of Xylourgou, was dedicated to the Assumption of the Mother of God. But unlike the capital, the temple in the Athos wilderness was small, most likely wooden in a manner unusual for the Greeks. No wonder the monastery was nicknamed by the profession of its first or its first inhabitants the monastery of the "Treemaker".
The monastery of Xilurgu is considered the first Slavic monastery on Mount Athos, the Bulgarian Zograf is the second (since 1169), and Hilandar is the third (since 1192). Thus, the following order of appearance of Slavic monasteries is built: Russians-Bulgarians-Serbs.
Very little is known about the early history of Xylourgus. There is no doubt that the rules of 1046, issued by decree of Emperor Constantine IX Monomakh, about the greater severity of life on Athos, were also known to the inhabitants of this small monastery. In these rules, for the first time, Athos was called the "Holy Mountain", which means that since then the Russian brethren could think of themselves as Russian Athonites.
In the imperial Pittakion of 1048, addressed to the archpriest of the Holy Mountain, the monastery is called Lavra, just like the monastery of Dometiev, which took away part of its property - namely, a pier with stone buildings and boats.
Since ancient times, Xylourga has been a place of both ascetic and scholarly labors - the inventory of 1142 lists 49 Russian books (nothing is said about Greek) for 25 brethren. In the list, in particular, "twelve minae" are noted. The author of the report happened to be in the modern Xylourgu library before the fire - when there were several old books and manuscripts in it - and after - when there was not a single one left.
In the act of 1169, it is called "the abode of the Russians." “We cut our hair in it and worked hard and spent a lot on its protection and dispensation, and in it our parents and middlemen, who supported us and gave us the means to live, died.”
From the second half of the 12th century, Stary Russik gradually became the center of the Russian presence on Athos. On August 15, 1169, on the patronal feast of the monastery, hegumen Xilurgu turned to the Cathedral of the Holy Mountain with a request to allocate one of the destroyed monasteries - suitable for the overgrown brethren. In response to the request of the Russian brethren, the monastery of Thessalonian was provided, arranged in the name of St. vmch. Panteleimon, built at the end of the 10th century in the northwestern part of the Athos Peninsula. And Xylourgou remained at the new main monastery in the role of a skete. In the XII century, prominent people labored in the monastery, such as, for example, "brother Lazar", perhaps one of the princes, who was fleeing from princely strife in Rus' in Byzantium.
In 1191 or 1192, a particularly significant event for its future took place in the new monastery - the youth Rastko took the tonsure in it, in the future St. Savva of Serbia, Archbishop of Serbia and founder of the autocephalous Serbian Church. Rastko was the youngest son of the great Župan of Serbia, Stefan Nemanja (1170-1196), his older brothers Vukan, King of Zeta (1195-1208), and Stefan the First Crowned, Župan Raška (1196-1217). While still in his father's house, Rastko could meet with Russian monks, which determined his choice of the monastery. A chase was sent to Rossikon - to return the royal youth, however - according to legend - while those sent carelessly slept, being hospitably received in the monastery, Rastko was tonsured a monk and named Savva in honor of St. Savva the Sanctified (+532). The further trajectory of Savva's life led to the revival of the Serbian monastery of Hilandara, which was recreated (in 1198-1199) as a Serbian monastery by his father, who took monastic vows with the name Simeon.
So, at that time the brotherhood of the monastery was mixed Russian-Serbian. The beginning of the 13th century is difficult both for Rossikon and for the whole of Athos, which had to temporarily - after the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204 - obey (until 1224) Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) and even seek his protection. At the end of the period of Latin dominance, the period of Bulgarian influence began, which lasted almost until the middle of the 13th century and was generally positive both for the whole of Athos and for Rossikon, who established ties with the monastery of St. John of Rylsky in Bulgaria. However, in general, Rossikon in those years was weakening both due to the weakening of the power of Byzantium during the period of Latin rule (1294-1261), and because of the catastrophe of 1237-1241 and the establishment of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Rus'.
The second desolation of Rossikon took place at the beginning of the 14th century after the devastation by the Catalan mercenaries-pirates, who were initially attracted by Emperor Andronicus II Palaiologos as help against the Turks. Having failed to achieve their goals during the siege of Hilandar, they rushed to Rossikon and demanded to give them the Hilandar abbot Daniel, who hid here from enemies with two blacks. The Catalans burned everything to the ground, including monastic documents, except for the stone tower in which he was saved as Fr. Daniel and his assistants. Subsequently, Fr. Daniel, known as the Serbian chronicler, became the archbishop of Serbia.
However, in the middle of the XIV century, the strongest ruler of Serbia, Stefan IV Dusan (1331-1355), did good both to the whole of Athos and Rossikon. In 1347 or the beginning of 1348, he gives the brethren the head of St. vmch. Panteleimon with the following words: “My kingdom dedicates to the monastery of Ross the head of the holy glorious passion-bearer, unmercenary and healer Panteleimon, who has flesh on herself and which is testified not only from my father and the king, but also from his former kings, also from patriarchs and others worthy synclitics." This year ended the long confrontation between John Cantacuzenus and John Palaiologos. The first solemnly entered Constantinople. The beginning of his reign meant the victory of St. Gregory Palamas and his supporters, the victory of the theology of Athonite hesychasm in spite of more Western and rational theological schemes and constructions. The gift of the greatest shrine of the Russian Monastery, which is kept there to this day, is especially significant in relation to the key milestones in Byzantine history.
Athos, which managed to be under the rule of the Latins and Bulgarians, in the years 1345-1371 began to be part of the possessions of the Serbian rulers. Athonites recognized Stefan Dushan as "King of Serbs and Greeks". At this time, the leading Athos monasteries - Vatopedi and Lavra - are filled with Serbs, and Rossikon remains Russian more in name than in composition, in connection with which it begins to be called "monastery, recommend Rus". But there is no evil without good. One of the abbots of Rossikon will be a disciple of the famous elder Arseny, the most learned Hilandarian ascetic Isaiah, a translator into the Slavic language of the Areopagite corps. Through such a learned abbot, Russian monks acquired second, but more often first, "spiritual universities" on Athos.
Despite the strife and civil strife, the complex relations between Byzantium and Serbia, Rossikon by 1380 had 60 farmsteads or other possessions outside Athos. The period from 1345 to the end of the 1380s is one of the most prosperous in the history of the monastery.
The last Serbian ktitor of Rossikon was the daughter of Despot George Brankovich, stepmother of Sultan Mohammed II the Conqueror (1421-1451) Mara Brankovich (1416-1487), the mother of the future Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror (1451-1481) - the one who donated the monastery of St. Paul Gifts of the Magi, recently brought to Russia. Thus, Rossikon finds itself at the center of not only spiritual, but also geopolitical processes - as a meeting place, in fact, of the three main religious and cultural traditions at that time: Byzantine, Greek, Ottoman, Turkish and Russian. Particular attention to Rossikon from the mother of the Sultan, who conquered Constantinople and put an end to Byzantine civilization, was due to the hopes that Orthodox world of that time, and even more strongly in a later era, laid on Russia.
The key date of this period is 1453 - the fall of Constantinople, after which the role of Athos as a center of inter-Orthodox and inter-Slavic communication and unity only increased. Athos monasteries were forced to adapt to the new conditions of power of the Ottoman Porte. In the archives of Rossikon, in particular, a certificate of the firman of Sultan Bayazet II (1481-1512) was preserved, which forbade interference in the monastery estates. Despite the economic and administrative pressure, Athos remained an "oasis" where persecuted Christians could inhale relative earthly freedom and absolutely indulge in the exploits of silence, asceticism and prayer.
From the middle of the 15th century, the rulers of the Moldavian and Wallachian principalities acted as the main patrons of the Athos monasteries, and from the 16th century onwards, Russia, as a united kingdom and the only Orthodox empire in the world. And in 1497, hegumen St. Panteleimon Paisios with three elders arrived in Moscow to the Grand Duke John III (1462-1505) - to ask for alms not only for his own, but for all the monasteries of the Holy Mountain. According to Academician M.N. Tikhomirov, this visit marked the beginning of the “patronal period” in relations between Russia and the Rossikon. A letter of commendation from Grand Duke John III of 1499 (in the list of the 18th century) about the free arrival of the monks of the Panteleimon Monastery to Russia to collect alms has been preserved. Among the brethren, whose number in the 16th century ranged from 25 to 170 people, there were special craftsmen-travelers who were ready to fulfill such a difficult obedience with joy. In response, more and more diplomatic embassies were sent from Moscow - both to Constantinople and to Athos.
Attempts to provide economic assistance to the Russian monastery often ended dramatically. So, in 1533, hegumen Rossikon Gabriel received huge help from Grand Duke Vasily III - 15 thousand gold coins, but on his way back to Minsk, which was then under the rule of the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund I the Old (1506-1548), he was robbed completely, but most likely partially - part of the funds brought was enough for the construction of part of the monastery wall. The year 1533 as a whole turned out to be gracious for the Athonites - St. Maxim Grek this year was transferred from strict confinement in the Joseph-Volotsk monastery to the Tver Otroch Monastery with the opportunity to engage in his scientific work. Although Maxim the Greek arrived in Russia from Vatopedi, he became the clearest example of the interaction between Greek and Slavic monasticism, which could not but be taken into account in the distant Rossikon.
Russian Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich the Terrible from 1543 to 1584 issued 10 letters testifying to his beneficence to Rossikon. And in 1547 - in the year of the wedding of the first Russian tsar to the kingdom - a district message was issued by Metropolitan of All Russia Macarius to the archbishops, bishops, princes, boyars and nobles, governors, guests, merchants, clergy, namely the entire Russian people - with a call to give alms to the hegumen Rossikon Savva I to his other elders, whom the king, after giving gifts, released to Athos. As a result of the collected funds, a huge debt to the Ottoman Porte was paid.
In a short speech it is impossible to describe all the relations between Russia and the Rossikon. Over time, the abbots of Rossikon not only briefly came to Russia, but also lived in it for a long time, such as, for example, Abbot Joachim (2 years from 1560), who during this time compiled the Epistle on Mount Athos.
Subsequently, Rossikon had to go through the Waqf reform of Suleiman I, namely, when all his property was declared state property and the property of Allah, and he had to be constantly redeemed through a huge tax - kharaj. In 1568, the monastery had to pledge all its metochs and property. The ideas of Nil Sorsky found an involuntary response in the fate of the Athos monasteries.
In the second half of the 16th century, Rossikon fell into complete desolation, and its new revival was connected with the establishment of the Patriarchate in Rus' in 1591, when the abbot of Rossikon Neophyte, who arrived in Russia with Metropolitan Dionysius of Tarnovo with the decision to recognize Job for all the rights of the Patriarch of the Russian Church, received a donation. When visiting the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Archim. The neophyte received "an image, ... yes, 7 rubles", just like Archim. Gregory of Hilandar. The letter of Theodore Ioannovich says: “I sent with them my alms for the construction of the Panteleimon Monastery for five hundred rubles in junk, and robes and surplice with everything they sent me.”
Subsequently, the visits were repeated - in 1647-1648 Archim. Rossicon Nicodemus, cellarer Nicephorus and hierome. Pachomius and donated part of the relics of St. vmch. Panteleimon.
Another milestone - April-May 1654, when the learned monk Arseny Sukhanov, on behalf of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon, collected on Athos a whole library of books and manuscripts - about 500 Greek books from the libraries of Kinot, Rossikon, Hilandar, Iveron, Vatopedi and the Great Lavra . Within the framework of this report, the contribution of Rossikon should be especially noted - one handwritten book and two printed ones from Dikei Herman.
In the 17th century, the brotherhood of the monastery was mixed Greek-Russian with Greek dominance. In 1667, the number of brethren reached 200, but then dropped sharply. In the 1690s, the monastery fell into complete disrepair and was restored as Russian. To maintain the monastery, the brethren had to perform feats - in 1707, Archimandrite Varlaam and his comrades, having received alms in Moscow, near Galati (a port on the Danube) were captured by the Turks and were robbed.
In 1730, the monastery was completely devastated by the Turks: "... they expelled the monks from the monastery, called the great Rosi, and the Ishmaelites settled inside, and made a minaret in the church."
When Vasily Grigorievich Grigorovich-Barsky spent three days in the Panteleimon Monastery in 1726, he found two Bulgarians and two Russian monks there. According to his description, the monastery “has been standing empty for many years and has not even hitherto been able to supply it to anyone.” And in 1744, the traveler did not find a single monk in the monastery of St. Panteleimon - since 1735, Greek monks began to manage the monastery. The reason is that in Rus' itself “they did not begin to give letters of commendation and the Russians did not arbitrarily go abroad,” according to the description of another traveler, monk Parfeniy (Ageev). A. A. Dmitrievsky wrote: “Since 1735, the Greek element in this monastery has taken the final advantage over the Russian ...”
In the middle of the 18th century, another place of the Slavic presence on Athos appeared - the Ilyinsky Skete, revived as a skete on the site of an abandoned cell of the Pantokrator monastery of St. Paisiy Velichkovsky. Naturally, Rev. Paisius organized a scriptorium and a patristic library here, but in the summer of 1763 the Slavic-Moldovan brotherhood "as a whole council" moved to Moldavia.
And in 1777, the inhabitants of the Panteleimon Monastery moved to a coastal cell next to their pier after a devastating fire in 1773, the damage from which was completed by an earthquake in 1790. From the old monastery to the new 1.5 hours walk. The new monastery, like the old one, was named after St. vmch. Panteleimon. It has existed since the 17th century as a cell-cottage in honor of the Resurrection of Christ by the Greek bishop - Bishop Christopher of Ierissos, who bought a place next to the pier of Rossikon in 1677 for very little money.
However, in the new place, the monks began to lead an idiorhythmic way of life, which did not contribute to the welfare of the monastery. The decisive measure for the return to cenobia was the Sigillion of the Ecumenical Patriarch Kallinikos of 1803, who was zealous for the restoration of the traditions of cenobitic monasticism not only in various monasteries of Mount Athos, but also in other monasteries of the Church of Constantinople.
Turkish occupation units remained on Athos until 1830.
The history of the 19th - early 20th centuries is so rich in events that it is impossible to list them in a short speech. During this period, in fact, Russik turned into a huge monastic city with various craft workshops, a ship crew, a hospital, etc.
Throughout 19th century Panteleimon Monastery was a mixed Greek-Russian. The Greek community strove for autonomy and isolation, sometimes categorically denying the Russians the right to exist inside the monastery. However, this approach led to a strong weakening of the Greek monastic community both spiritually and economically. The formation of Russian monasticism as a single system of monasteries and cells and the growth of its numbers, especially in the second half of the 19th century, significantly changed the distribution of forces and priorities, which served both as appeasement and as problems of a different order. The defining personalities for the Russian monastery were its confessor and builder Jerome (Solomentsev) and hegumen Macarius (Sushkin).
The most tragic for Russian monasticism was the emergence of the so-called name-glorifying disputes at the beginning of the 20th century, which, as is known, led to the forcible removal of the name-glorifying people from Athos and a significant decrease in the number of the monastery, sketes and cells in the pre-revolutionary era, while after the revolution the influx of brethren stopped from Russia.
Athos entered the harsh realities of the 20th century, when not only Russian monasticism, but the entire cenobitic Athos tradition as a whole began to decline. When the Dionysian monk Theoclitus wrote a book in Greek between heaven and earth in the early 1970s, he tried to do the impossible - to revive interest in the almost forgotten Athos with the printed word.
However, another book about Elder Siluan, written by Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), a tonsured member of the Panteleimon Monastery, who for some time was the confessor of the monastery of St. Paul, and then the founder of a monastery in Essex. This book has become a true revelation about Athos and Christian life for many.
From Elder Siluan, who at the beginning of the 20th century worked at the monastery mill of Rossikon, through Father Sophronius, a continuous spiritual thread stretches to modern Russia - both within its own borders and abroad.
The Russian monastery had to endure complete desolation, the lack of replenishment of the brethren, the German occupation ...
In 1960-1970, the system of Russian sketes and cells - with the transfer of Andreevsky and Ilyinsky sketes to the subordination of Vatoped - finally collapsed. The places of Russian presence continued to include the Panteleimon Monastery, Stary Russik, which had fallen into complete desolation, and the skete of Xilurgu, or the Mother of God, which was also in an extremely abandoned state.
Since the late 1980s, a more active revival of the St. Panteleimon Monastery began at the expense of the sent brethren. The 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' was essentially marked by a fundamentally different attitude towards Russian Athos - with new perspectives and opportunities.
Subsequently, the revival of the Russian monastery was carried out incrementally. By the 1000th anniversary of the Russian presence on Mount Athos, namely by 2016, it was planned to revive the largest possible number of sketes and cells - from those located on the historical territory of the Panteleimon Monastery. In addition to the revival of the Panteleimon Monastery itself, the following were restored:
1. Stary Russik - a cathedral and a historical fraternal building.
2. Cell in honor of St. vkm. Demetrius.
3. New Thebaid (partially and without major jubilee tasks).
From the Panteleimon Monastery, a road was laid to Karyes for faster and more reliable communication.
At the end of 2015, a grandiose anniversary was celebrated in the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery - the 100th anniversary of its abbot Schema-Archimandrite Jeremiah (born October 9/22, 1915), the oldest among all Athos abbots. Many guests came to this anniversary ...
But the Russian presence goes beyond the territory of Rossikon. Virtually every large Greek monastery - one in twenty - has Russian or Ukrainian monks. Sometimes Russian monks restore Russian cells on territories belonging to other monasteries, such as, for example, on Karuli, which are under the jurisdiction of the Great Lavra. Sometimes they revive Greek cells - with Greek, Slavic, or a mixed type of charter and worship. As an example, we can cite the cell of Yiannopoul with a 1000-year history, located on the southern coast in the foothills of Athos, also on the territory of the Great Lavra and founded by St. Athanasius of Athos. According to an unwritten tradition in the 19th century, Elders of Athos, who were hiding in the mountain and unknown to anyone, came here for the celebration of the Liturgy and spiritual nourishment, the number of which was always seven ... It is being revived by a graduate of the Moscow Theological Academy and a former resident of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra Hieromonk Agafangel (Legach) , who defended his dissertation on the ascetic heritage of St. Barsanuphius and John...
Nothing in the world is random. In the library of the Moscow Theological Academy there is a book of the Questions of St. Barsanuphius and John, published in Venice in 1814. Soon after the publication, it came to Athos, and on October 8, 1847, it was presented by the confessor of the Pantokrator monastery, Hieromonk Joseph, to St. Philaret (Drozdov). The donor's autograph in Russian confirms this. After the death of St. Filaret, the book ended up, along with a huge library of manuscripts and rare books that belonged to the Saint, in the collections of the library of the Moscow Theological Academy. Then, after the revolution, it was withdrawn and must have ended up in the funds of the Rumyantsev Museum, from where it returned to the Academy in the late 1980s and was found a few years ago from complete oblivion. This material evidence of the connection of the now celebrated saint with Athos and his ascetic tradition (the Question-correspondences were first published by the Athos Saint Nikodim the Holy Mountaineer according to the manuscript of the Great Lavra 17, and the book almost acquired the status of such after the loss of the manuscript) can safely become a symbol of this evening and a kind of motivation - to keep and multiply the Athonite covenants ...
Hegumen Dionysius (Shlenov)
The Svyatogorsk path is always a surprise: an unforeseen meeting and a minute conversation can dramatically change all plans (however, in this region you clearly understand: nothing random happens in life). However, wherever the Russian traveler wanders, no matter what paths he walks, sooner or later they will lead him to the glorious Panteleimon Monastery.
Everyone, without exception, is struck by the grandiose view of the monastery, with a variety of buildings and domes. In essence, this is a whole monastic city. Unlike most Athos monasteries, Panteleimon is multicolored: Greek pilgrims call it “Prasini Moni”, “Green Monastery”, after unusual color its roofs. And on Athos this green color for a Russian pilgrim becomes native.
The monastery was founded at the beginning of the 11th century and was originally located in Xylourgu (see below the chapter "Skete of Xylourgu"). In the second half of the 12th century, Russian monks, due to their large numbers, moved from Xilourga to Nagorny (Old) Russik, originally called the Thessalonian Panteleimon Monastery. He is known for being tonsured here as a monk of St. Savva of Serbia in 1196 (the monastery subsequently received the status of a skete; here in 1925 a beautiful church was consecrated in the name of St. Panteleimon the Healer, with a high hipped bell tower).
During the Mongol-Tatar yoke, the connection between Rus' and Athos was interrupted. The "Old Monastery" of the Thessalonian was abandoned by Russian monks and settled by Greek ones. Despite the active assistance of the Moscow sovereigns in the 15th-17th centuries, Russian, Russian life in Rusik almost did not revive: the famous traveler Vasily Grigorovich-Barsky, who visited here in 1744, said that "the monastery has only a Russian name."
At the end of the 18th century, the monks from Russik moved to the seashore - to the current Panteleimon Monastery, founded in the 17th century by the bishop of the city of Ierissos on the site of a modest cell. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1827-1828, the monastery was temporarily empty, but in 1835 the Greek abbot Gerasim invited Russian inhabitants to the monastery, hoping to strengthen it. Fr. Anikita (Prince Sergei Alexandrovich Shirinsky-Shikhmatov), who became the monastery's ktitor. From the 1850s, the Russian brotherhood grew rapidly, and at the end of the 19th century, under Archimandrite Macarius (Sushkin), - before the Greeks were the abbots - the monastery finally passed into Russian hands and began to quickly rebuild.
In Constantinople, Odessa and Moscow, large panteleimon farmsteads with churches appeared, and at the beginning of the 20th century the monastery built a large monastery in the Caucasus, New Athos Simono-Kananitskaya, which became important link between the Holy Mountain and Russia. In those years, the monastery reached its greatest prosperity: its brethren numbered up to two thousand monks (including monks who lived in numerous small monasteries assigned to the monastery, as well as in farmsteads outside Athos). The monastery was then widely engaged in religious and educational activities, publishing many books, brochures and publishing the magazine "Emotionally Helpful Interlocutor". Huge attention was paid to pilgrimage: after all, at the beginning of the 20th century, up to 30 thousand Russians visited the Holy Mountain every year!
There is a whole literature about the great past of the St. Panteleimon Monastery. Now it resembles a city with an evacuated population, where a handful of guardians remained.
His story in modern times repeats the history of the entire Russian Athos. In the early 1900s, imyaglory spread among the monks (this doctrine initially took possession of the inhabitants of the New Thebaid), and in 1913, five thousand Panteleimonites were taken to Russia. The First World War cut off the monastery from the homeland, and the Turks seized the courtyard in Constantinople as "enemy"; At the same time, part of the brethren was called to the front. Since 1917, communication with Russia was finally interrupted.
It was not necessary to rely on the help of the new rulers of Russia - thank God that they were far away ... The Panteleimon community began to decrease sharply: in 1918 it numbered about eight hundred monks, in 1925 - five hundred and sixty, in 1945 - one hundred and eighty, in 1956 - seventy five, in 1965 only twenty. Many feared that here, too, Russian life would be interrupted... But the monastery, being one of the "dominants", managed to preserve its Russianness.
In 1966, half a century later, the Athos brethren again replenished with Russian inhabitants: by agreement between the spiritual and secular authorities, five monks entered the Panteleimon Monastery. Since then, the Moscow Patriarch has been officially considered a patron of the monastery, having received a real opportunity to help her. Since the beginning of the 1990s, this assistance, as well as the assistance of donors from Russia and Ukraine, has increased: the size of the brotherhood has slightly increased (now there are about 50 people), monastic buildings are being rebuilt and restored; in the Russian capital, the Panteleimon courtyard was revived.
Pilgrims usually arrive at the monastery by ferry. On the shore there is an arsenal and several buildings, one of which houses an archondarik, with the Church of the Transfiguration. Nearby, also outside the monastery walls, there is a fraternal tomb, the most well-groomed on the Holy Mountain.
Passing through a large port (gate), the pilgrim enters a vast monastery courtyard with a katholikon - a cathedral church in the name of St. Panteleimon, built in 1812-1821. Topped with eight domes, it is typical of Athos Byzantine and post-Byzantine temples, has large exonarthex and narthex (outer and inner vestibules). The interiors were painted by Russian artists at the end of the 19th century; cannot but admire the splendor of the carved gilded iconostasis. The katholikon contains the head of St. Panteleimon, particles of the relics of Saints John the Baptist, Stephen the New, Paraskeva, Marina, Joseph the Betrothed, the Apostle Thomas, John Chrysostom and other saints of God.
Opposite the cathedral is a giant refectory, for 800 people, the largest on Athos, painted, like the katholikon, by Russian masters at the end of the 19th century. Above the refectory is a beautiful bell tower in the Moscow style. Two dozen bells are hoisted on it, the main of which, weighing 13 tons, is one of the largest in the world.
Next to the cathedral church - churches of St. Mitrofan of Voronezh and the Assumption of the Mother of God, library building. There is also a huge northern building, where nine paraclises are located. Among them stands out the upper cathedral church of St. Alexander Nevsky and the Intercession of the Virgin, decorated by Russian craftsmen, with gilded iconostases and many icons. It contains many relics, including the honest head of St. Silouan of Athos, one of the greatest prayer books of the 20th century (the Saint carried obedience at a mill near the monastery). Daily monastic services are held in this church, alternately with the catholicon.
As the sun repeats its path in the sky, so the inhabitant of Panteleimon repeats his day.
The monks rise 7 hours in Byzantine style (in winter it 2am!), when early mass begins, and after it - late. At 11 o'clock, having drunk tea, everyone goes to various obediences: some to the gardens, some to the construction site, some to the office. At two o'clock they have lunch and again go to work - until 7 o'clock, when evening tea is supposed to be. After it, Vespers, then dinner, Compline, at the end of which the inhabitants disperse to their cells, where they need to read the set number of prayers and make the same number of prostrations. This is called "pulling the rosary". For schemniks - 12 rosaries (one hundred bows in each rosary), for ordinary monks - 7. Late at night they call for matins, which lasts two hours. And so every day, until death, which is expected here as a long-awaited transition to another world.
Athos for Rus' has always been a sacred source of monastic life, starting with the Monk Anthony, the founder of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The interest of our compatriots in the Holy Mountain has not waned for many centuries. Today, the pilgrimage to Athos is being revived with renewed vigor. But Russian Athos is, first of all, Russian monasteries, sketes and deserts, in which holy saints of God, ascetics of faith and piety shone.
Mikhail Talalay "Russian Athos". Guide in historical essays.
We offer our readers a collective article by the staff of the editorial staff of the Russian Athos portal, dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of ancient Russian monasticism on Mount Athos and the history of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos.
Russian Athos: 1000 years of standing in prayer
Russian Athos is an inseparable and important component of the heritage of the Holy Mountain as a universal Orthodox treasury.
Athos for many centuries played an exceptionally important role in the development of domestic spirituality and culture, both in the era of Kievan Rus, and in subsequent times. Particularly important was the formation under the influence of Athos of the Kiev Caves Monastery, which about 1000 years ago became a kind of "hotbed" and the center of monasticism, spirituality, literacy, culture and enlightenment throughout Rus'.
Since then, the influence of the Holy Mountain on the spiritual formation and development of Rus' has played a decisive role throughout its thousand-year history. Actually, it was the Holy Mount Athos, its heritage and traditions that significantly influenced the formation of the mystical and ascetic image of the original Russian Orthodoxy, as well as Holy Rus' itself. Therefore, to join the distant and at the same time native shrines of Athos has always been a cherished dream for many generations of Russian Orthodox people.
An exceptionally important role was played by the ties of Rus' with Athos in the era of the post-Horde invasion. At that time, an outstanding Athosite who made a significant contribution to the development of Russian spirituality and culture was St. Cyprian (Tsamblak), Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus'. During the time of his hierarchship, many books were brought to Rus' from Athos, translations of patristic works were carried out, liturgical reforms were carried out, etc. Under the influence of Athos, a period of “hesychast revival” begins in Rus', which deeply affected the formation of the original and deeply spiritual culture of Rus'.
The bright successors and bearers of the Athonite heritage in Rus' of this period were St. Sergius of Radonezh and St. Kirill Belozersky. The fruit of their spiritual labors was the new flowering of Russian monastic asceticism, which is commonly called the "Northern Thebaid".
The influence of the Athonite hesychast heritage in Rus' was most clearly reflected in ancient Russian art, in the works of Theophan the Greek, Andrei Rublev and Daniil Cherny, whose artistic masterpieces still do not cease to excite the eye and imagination with their harmony, depth and grandeur.
An important contribution to the restoration of ties between Russia and Athos was made by St. Nil Sorsky, who spent about 20 years on the Holy Mountain. Returning to his homeland, he promoted in every possible way the spiritual values acquired on Athos and acted as one of the ideologists of the “non-possessive” movement. Another important "connecting link" between Athos and Russia was the outstanding Greek theologian and Athos ascetic, St. Maxim Grek.
Imel Athos importance and in the matter of preserving Orthodoxy in Ukraine, during the period of the infamous Union of Brest. Among the Ukrainian ascetics of that time who labored on the Holy Mountain, the most famous are the elders John Vishensky, Job Knyagininsky, Blessed Cyprian Ostrozhanin, Isaac Boriskevich, Afanasy Mezhigorsky, Joasaph Gustynsky, Joseph Koriyatovich-Kurtsevich, Grigory Golubenko, Samuil Bokachich and many others. The influence of Athos on the struggle against the union and the Orthodox revival in Ukraine was so great that at the Kiev Local Council in 1621, in a special resolution known as the "Advice on Piety", it was prescribed: "Send for blessing, help and advice to the Holy Mountain Athos, in order to call and bring from there the reverend men of Russia: blessed Cyprian and John with the nickname of Vishensky and others, prospering in life and piety, and also to continue to send Rusyns, disposed towards piety, to Athos, as to a spiritual school.
At that time, the Zaporizhian Cossacks also maintained close ties with Athos, invited experienced mentors and elders from there, made generous donations to the monasteries of the Holy Mountain, carried out pilgrimages, and often many Cossacks themselves took monastic vows on Athos and labored in the monasteries of Athos. In particular, after the Greeks took possession of Rusik (an ancient Russian monastery on Mount Athos), with the support of the Zaporizhian Cossacks, an attempt was made to recreate a new Rusik on the Holy Mountain. Its role for almost a century was played by the Svyatogorsky monastery “Black Vyr” (or “Russian Mavrovyr”) founded by the Cossacks in 1747.
A natural continuation of this tradition was the founding of the Svyato-Ilyinsky skete on Athos, at the origins of which was an outstanding native of a family of Cossack priests, the Monk Paisius Velichkovsky. The monastic-ascetic school he founded, the titanic labors she carried out in translating patristic works into Slavonic, the revival of the lost traditions of Orthodox eldership and hesychasm gave a powerful impetus not only to the revival of genuine monasticism and spirituality in Holy Rus', but also to the revival of Orthodox Russian culture, its return to traditional Christian customs and values. It was the followers of the Athos school of St. Paisia (Velichkovsky) - the famous elders of Optina Hermitage seriously influenced the formation of the worldview of many Russian cultural and public figures of the 19th century, which significantly affected their work and activities.
Especially close and fruitful were the traditional ties with the Fatherland at the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon on Athos. After a short stay of the monastery in the hands of the Greek monks, at the beginning of the XIX century. it is reborn as the indisputable center of Russian monasticism on the Holy Mountain. This holy monastery is rightfully considered the stronghold of Holy Rus' on Mount Athos, in the Lot of the Mother of God. Another citadel of Russian Orthodoxy on Mount Athos in the 19th century was St. Andrew's Skete.
Under the spiritual guidance of the experienced elders of the St. Panteleimon monastery, Jeremiah (Solomentsov) and Macarius (Sushkin), in the 19th century, the process of the revival and rise of Russian monasticism on Athos began. By the end of the 19th century, the number of Russian monks on the Holy Mountain became equal to the number of Greek ones, and then it grew rapidly and began to significantly exceed it. In 1913, the number of Russian monks on Mount Athos was 5,000 (of which over 2,000 were in the Panteleimon Monastery), while there were 3,900 Greeks on the Holy Mountain, 340 Bulgarians, 288 Romanians, 120 Serbs and 53 Georgians.
Thus flourished such a spiritual and historical phenomenon as "Russian Athos". In 1913, even the issue of granting the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery the status of a Lavra, and the Russian Andreevsky and Ilyinsky sketes - independent monasteries, was on the agenda. However, subsequent unfortunate events did not allow these plans to come true.
It is important to note that by the end of the 19th century, all three Russian monasteries on Mount Athos - the Panteleimon Monastery, St. Andrew's and Ilyinsky sketes actually united into one large community. Having gone through internal temptations and disagreements, both sketes recognized the spiritual authority of Rusik, whom they even turned to for help in settling internal disputes. By this time, very close, fraternal and unanimous relations had developed between them. One of the abbots of the Ilyinsky skete even wrote to the abbot of the Panteleimon Monastery, Fr. Andrey: we, the three Russian Monasteries on Athos, are like the Holy Trinity - consubstantial and inseparable!
Unfortunately, after the tragic events of 1917 and the beginning of the theomachic persecution of Orthodoxy in Russia, Russian Athos also suffered greatly. Due to the absence of an influx of new monks from the Fatherland for 80 years, all three Russian monasteries on the Holy Mountain became impoverished numerically. As a result, Andreevsky and Ilyinsky sketes, as well as numerous Russian cells and kalyvas on Athos, were deserted, destroyed, or passed to the Greeks. The same threat hung over the St. Panteleimon Monastery, but by a miracle of God the monastery survived, remaining today the only island of Holy Rus' on Athos.
Now, when Russian monasticism is being revived on the Holy Mountain, and all Orthodox Rus' is preparing to solemnly celebrate its 1000th anniversary in 2016, it is very important to restore the memory of the role and significance of Athos in the history of the Russian Church and Holy Rus'. Indeed, a true revival is possible only through an appeal to one's own spiritual heritage and primary sources, where Mount Athos has always occupied one of the leading places.
As the confessor of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos, Hieromonk Macarius, rightly notes: “The Russian land is connected with the Holy Mountain by direct spiritual kinship, since the Russian monastic tradition is a summer plant, or offshoot, of Svyatogorsk monasticism, transplanted to the Russian land by God, and not by a human hand. By virtue of this spiritual kinship, Rus' from time immemorial had a haven, a God-given corner in the Lot of the Blessed Virgin Mary - a Russian monastery, which apparently was kept for centuries by the Providence of God, which judged and determined to be the property and fatherland of our compatriots seeking salvation on the Holy Mountain.
CORNER OF HOLY Rus' ON ATHO
The Russian monastery on Mount Athos is a truly unique spiritual and cultural treasure that simultaneously belongs to both Holy Rus' and the Holy Mountain. It is rightfully considered the oldest Russian spiritual stronghold in the Lot of the Mother of God, on Mount Athos.
The first known written mention of ancient Russian monasticism on Mount Athos dates back to 1016. Under this date, in one of the Svyatogorsk documents stored in the library of the Great Lavra of Athanasius of Athos, we find the signatures of the abbots of all the monasteries of the Holy Mountain. Among them is such an inscription: “Gerasim is a monk, by the grace of God, presbyter and abbot of the Rosov monastery. handwritten signature."
As early as 1030, the monastery's own name, "Virgin Xylourgou", was added to the name of the "Abode of Rosov". The last word (from the Greek ξυλουργός - carpenter or woodworker) means that the main occupation of the local monks was carpentry. This fact also testifies to the Russian roots of the monastery, because only the Russians initially equipped their dwellings, temples and monasteries from wood, while the Greeks - from stone.
In fact, the Holy Dormition Monastery "Ksilurgu" is the oldest Russian Orthodox monastery not only on Mount Athos, but also in the world, established shortly after the Baptism of Kievan Rus.
According to legend, "Xylourga" was founded by the care of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir of Kyiv, the Baptist of Rus', and his wife, the Byzantine princess Anna.
From The Tale of Bygone Years we learn that in 988 Grand Duke Vladimir sent an embassy to Jerusalem, and in 989 to Constantinople. Soon, near Jerusalem and on Mount Athos, two monasteries appeared with the same name: the Russian Mother of God Monastery. The Russian monastery in Palestine ceased to exist three centuries later, but the monastery on the Holy Mountain still exists.
Now it is a cenobitic skete belonging to the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos. It is located on the eastern side of the Holy Mount Athos at a distance of one hour from Karyes.
The cathedral church of the Russian Mother of God Monastery of Xylourgu is dedicated to the Dormition Holy Mother of God. As is known, the Kiev-Pechersk monastery, founded by the Monk Anthony of the Caves upon his return from Athos, as well as the cathedral church of the monastery, were also symbolically dedicated to the Assumption of the Mother of God. Later, under the influence of Rev. Anthony, a similar Holy Dormition Monastery of the Theotokos is also founded in Chernigov, where the “father of Russian monasticism” moves to live for some time, and where he digs a new cave monastery on the Boldin Hills, which has survived to this day.
Such a coincidence in the names is not accidental. Within the limits of the Russian land, this was, as it were, a symbolic projection of the prototype - the Holy Dormition Russian Svyatogorsk monastery "Ksilurgu" and its cathedral church on the Holy Mountain, where, according to legend, the future abba and "head of Russian monasticism" grew spiritually and took tonsure.
Continuing this tradition, in the future, the main church of the Russian Holy Assumption Monastery of the Theotokos "Ksilurgu" served as a prototype for many Assumption Cathedrals of the Russian Land, in particular in Vladimir and Moscow.
All these temples were of particular importance for Rus'. The majestic monumental buildings of the Great Caves Church in Kiev, the Assumption Cathedrals in Chernigov, Vladimir and the Moscow Kremlin were not just the inheritance of the traditions of the ancient Russian monastery on Athos, but also, through it, an attempt to sacralize the space of the newly converted Russia, the creation, so to speak, of the “Russian icon” Athos - as the Lot of the Mother of God in Russia, thanks to which the Russian land received the right to such a responsible name - Holy Russia.
It is noteworthy that on the Holy Mountain, among the Russian monks, the significance of the Assumption Church of the Xilurgu monastery was so symbolic and sacred that, gradually moving from monastery to monastery, they erected its analogue there as well. During the resettlement of the Russian brethren to Nagorny Russik in 1169, under Abbot Lavrenty, the Assumption Cathedral of the Theotokos Monastery will be reproduced there as well. And more than six centuries later, at the beginning of the 19th century, under Abbot Savva, when a new Coastal Russik was erected, the Assumption Church would again be moved there, and with the preservation of the status of a cathedral.
This temple is memorable and sacred in that it was in it that the first Russian lampada on Athos was lit; the fact that at the altar of this cathedral the monastic vows were taken by the founder of Russian monasticism, the Monk Anthony of the Caves; the fact that it was from here that he received and endured the blessing of the Holy Mount Athos and his elder, Hegumen Gerasim, who tonsured him, to the Russian Land and, thus, forever united Holy Rus' and Holy Athos by bonds of spiritual grace-filled succession.
According to the words of the confessor of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos, Hieromonk Macarius: “The first Russian monastery on the Holy Mountain - the monastery of Drevodel or Xylourgou - is the greatest shrine of Russian Orthodoxy and Russian Athos. It is the cradle of Russian monasticism. The importance of the Mother of God Monastery of Xylourgou for Holy Rus' is evidenced not so much by the influx of inhabitants and material resources into it, but by the huge reverse influence that the monastery had on our Fatherland.
Rev. Anthony - the father of Russian monasticism
Recently, the idea has been established in the literature that the Monk Anthony of the Caves on Athos labored in the monastery of Esfigmen, which, as confirmation, is shown a small cave with a church built over it at the end of the 19th century in the name of St. Anthony of Esfigmen.
However, did this cave really belong to the Kievan Anthony? And is Anthony of Esfigmen really identical with the Monk Anthony of the Caves? This question still remains open, since no weighty evidence of the Esfigmen hypothesis, which has spread since the middle of the 19th century, has been presented.
In addition to the now well-known cave of Anthony of Esfigmen, there was another cave on Mount Athos in the 19th century, which was also attributed to St. Anthony of the Caves, not far from the Great Lavra of St. Athanasius.
According to most researchers, there was an attempt by pious Russian pilgrims, who actively began to come to Athos in the 19th century, to independently find the place of the feat of the “chief of all Russian monks” revered in Rus'. But if the Great Lavra refused to recognize the pilgrimage identification of the cave located within its boundaries, then the monastery of Esfigmen considered this possible and allowed the Russian pilgrims to erect a temple above the cave in the name of St. Anthony of Esfigmen.
Immediately after its appearance in the 19th century, the Esfigmene hypothesis was sharply criticized by a number of well-known church historians and archaeologists. In particular, doubts about its authenticity were expressed by Bishop Porfiry (Uspensky), who worked hard in the archives of the Svyatogorsk monasteries; Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin), who studied the monasteries of the Holy Mountain in 1859; Professor Evgeny Golubinsky and others. All of them, independently of each other, came to the conclusion that the Esfigmene biography and the cave presented by the Esfigmenians were not authentic and were “invented” on the eve of the arrival of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov on the Holy Mountain in 1843 in order to draw the attention of noble Russian pilgrims to their monastery.
The Esphigmenian biography of St. Anthony, published during this period, in its original version suffered from significant chronological inaccuracies, so that the question involuntarily arose: are the Greek and Russian lives talking about the same saint? So, in accordance with the Greek version, the Monk Anthony was not a Rusyn, but a Greek by nationality and came to the monastery in 973, and received tonsure himself in 975 from the Abbot of the Esfigmen Monastery Theoktist.
However, the Russian lists of life unequivocally state that the Monk Anthony of the Caves was not a Greek, but a Rusyn, and he was born in 983 in Lyubech in the Chernihiv region. Thus, the Greek Anthony Esfigmensky cannot be identical with the Lubechan Anthony of the Caves, since the first one came to Esfigmen 10 years earlier than our Anthony of the Caves was born.
Most likely, Anthony of Esfigmen really existed and even labored in a well-known cave on a slope not far from the Esfigmen monastery. However, there is no reason to identify him with St. Anthony of the Caves.
As it was said, in addition to the rather late legends about the existence of the caves of St. Anthony of the Caves near the Great Lavra and the Esphigmen Monastery, there is another, older and plausible legend on Athos that the future father of Russian monasticism initially labored on the Holy Mountain not in Greek, but in the Russian monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin "Ksilurgu".
The archivist and librarian of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos, Schemamonk Matthew (Olshansky), back in the 19th century, shortly after the “Esphigma hypothesis” was first published, expressed bewilderment on behalf of the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery and its elders, Hieroschemamonk Jerome (Solomentsov) and Schema-Archimandrite Macarius (Sushkin). Indeed, among the Russian monks on the Holy Mountain, the legend has long been popular that the Monk Anthony of the Caves asceticised precisely in the ancient Russian monastery of Xilurgu.
According to the legend of the monastery, it was here that the ancestor of ancient Russian monasticism, a native of the Chernigov land, Reverend Anthony of the Caves, took tonsure, and later from here, with the blessing of the elders of the monastery, he transferred the Athos charter to Rus', founding the Kiev-Pechersk monastery following the Athos model, which became the center and school of ancient Russian monasticism and enlightenment for all Rus'.
“Lord, let the blessing of Holy Mount Athos and the prayer of my father, who tonsured me, be in this place,” said the Monk Anthony at the site of the founding of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery.
Who was this great elder-abbot, who tonsured the monk and whose blessing played such a decisive role in the fate of not only the Kiev-Pechersk monastery, but also the entire Russian Church and Rus' itself? This question remains open. However, most likely, he was the same Reverend Elder Gerasim, “the presbyter and abbot of the Rosov monastery”, the first rector of the “Xilurgu” monastery, who left his signature on the aforementioned Svyatogorsk act of 1016.
It is known from hagiographic records that the Monk Anthony (in the world of Antipas; born 983) arrived on Athos at a very young age (c. 1000). Already in 1013 he returned to Kyiv from the Holy Mountain for the first time. After spending a little time in Kiev, in 1015, as a result of internecine turmoil after the death of the holy prince Vladimir and the murder of saints Boris and Gleb, he again returned to Athos, where he labored until his final return to Kiev (according to some sources, this happened after 1030, according to others - after 1051).
It is obvious that the ancestor of ancient Russian monasticism begins to labor on the Holy Mountain until 1013. It was impossible to make such trips from Rus' to Athos in those days on your own. Therefore, undoubtedly, other companions had to accompany the Monk Anthony on such distant and unsafe wanderings. All this confirms that the first Russian monks appeared on Athos long before 1013. Apparently, it was they who in 1016 made up the brethren of the first ancient Russian Athos monastery, the abbot of which was the aforementioned Gerasim. Apparently, it was he who was the spiritual mentor and elder of the young Anthony, who tonsured him into monasticism and later blessed him to establish a “representation” of the Russian Svyatogorsk Monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin in Kyiv.
The successor of the venerable hegumen Gerasim was, apparently, hegumen "Rusik" Theodulus, who left his signature on the mutual act of the monasteries of Esfigmen and Xylourgu for the year 1030. An analogue of this charter is still kept in the archives of St. Panteleimon's Russian Monastery on Athos. Probably, it was under the new hegumen Theodulus that the Monk Anthony finally returned to Rus' and founded here the Kievo-Pechersk monastery in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God, in imitation, or perhaps at the initial stage, and as a “farmstead” or “representation” of the Athos Holy Assumption Mother of God monastery "Xylourgou".
Missionary value of "Rusik"
It is known that the Russian monastery on Mount Athos originally had the status of the Royal monastery, which at that time not all monasteries had. Perhaps the monastery was a gift from the Byzantine emperors to the prince of Kyiv. The Russian monastery had the right to directly address the emperor himself, bypassing the Protat of the Holy Mountain. From 1030 he was given the title of Abbot, and in the royal decree of 1048 he was called Lavra. Already during this period, "Rusik" had a developed economy and kept workers. He had a pier, ships, arable land, a mill, his own road from the pier to the monastery.
What was the significance of Rusik for his Fatherland, Kievan Rus, during the considered period of time? To answer it, it is necessary to remember how and why this multinational monastic state was created. According to St. Athanasius of Athos, monasteries not only had to represent the peoples from which they were composed in the pan-Orthodox center of monasticism, but also had a reverse spiritual and educational influence. The monasteries were spiritual forges that trained the bearers of the Svyatogorsk tradition of monasticism. And the Russian monastery was no exception to this rule.
Since the beginning of the 11th century, the Holy Dormition Monastery “Xylourgou” began to carry out its mission of spreading holy Orthodoxy and Athos spiritual heritage in Eastern Europe. In addition to St. Anthony of the Caves, the monastery gave other ascetics who brought spiritual enlightenment and Athos traditions to the Slavs. Based on the life of St. Moses Ugrin († 1043), it can be argued that after 1018 a Russian hieromonk from Athos was sent to Poland, who tonsured Moses a monk there. In 1225, on Mount Pochaev, the Russian Holy Mountain Saint Methodius founded the future glorified Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. The place where it is located is still called the Holy Mountain. In the 11th-13th centuries, some Athos monks also settled in the chalk mountain on the banks of the Seversky Donets, laying the foundation for another Assumption Lavra, also later called Svyatogorsk.
All three glorified monasteries are connected with the Holy Mountain, they are named, like the monastery of Xylourgou, in honor of the Assumption and are marked by the special providence of the Mother of God. All of them were founded by Russian ascetics of the Holy Mount Athos and approximately at the same time interval - in the pre-Mongolian period of the history of Kievan Rus. The sources do not indicate exactly from which monastery of the Holy Mountain they came. But the time of their mission coincides with the heyday of ancient Russian monasticism in the monastery of Xilurgu on Mount Athos. Therefore, most likely, all these Russian Athonites came from one ancient Russian Lavra on Athos - the Holy Dormition Monastery of the Virgin "Ksilurgu".
So, it was this ancient Russian monastery on Mount Athos that became the spiritual and historical link that closely connected the newly enlightened Kievan Rus and Holy Mount Athos. From it, 1000 years ago, the Monk Anthony of the Caves was the first to transfer and establish Orthodox monasticism in Rus'. In addition to St. Anthony, the monastery "Xilurgu" gave Rus' and many other ascetics and educators who played a decisive role in spiritual enlightenment and the formation of Holy Rus'.
Nagorny Rusik
The Russian monastery on the Holy Mountain in the X-XIII centuries, during the gradual weakening of Byzantium, continued to develop thanks to the support of the Fatherland, thanks to which it quickly reached its peak. The donations and contributions of the Russian Princes gave her not only the possibility of existence, but also the opportunity to defend her positions in those difficult conditions that created the Middle Ages as an island of a foreign ethnic group in a foreign environment.
During this period, the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery was so often replenished with new inhabitants from Rus' that, not being able to fit in the original monastery, it began to acquire impoverished and deserted cells and small monasteries in the area.
The growth in the number of brethren forced Abbot "Ksilurga" Fr. Lawrence in 1169 to apply for assistance to the Holy Kinot. The governing body of Athos, after long meetings, decided to transfer the Russian monastery to the nearby ancient Thessalonian monastery, which by that time had been abandoned by the Greek monks. Thus, at the end of the 12th century, the main part of the Russian brethren from Xylourgou moved to the larger monastery "Thessalonian" in the name of the holy healer Panteleimon (now known as "Old Rusik", or "Mountain Rusik"), which old road, connecting the administrative center of Athos - Karei with the current coastal Russian on Athos St. Panteleimon Monastery.
At the same time, cells in the capital of Athos, Kareia, were allocated to the Russian monastery by the Holy Kinot. As for the former location of the monastery - Xylourgou, it did not remain abandoned. The monastery was transformed into a skete, which remained under the jurisdiction of the Russian monastery. It still belongs to the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos.
In a new place, on a beautiful hill, surrounded by virgin nature, the brotherhood "Rusika" stayed for about 700 years.
An interesting fact: when the Russian monastery on Mount Athos under Abbot Lavrenty in 1169 moved to a new, more comfortable spot, then here, according to tradition, the Assumption Cathedral, symbolically important for Rus', was recreated, which in the Russian church consciousness had a special spiritual significance.
With the resettlement to a new place, the Russian monastic brotherhood continued to fulfill its traditional function of spreading the Svyatogorsk monastic heritage. In 1180, the Serbian prince Rastko, the future Saint Savva, the founder of the autocephalous Serbian Church, was tonsured in the Russian monastery. Orthodox Church. He made his choice to become a monk on Mount Athos as a result of a conversation with a Russian Athonite, a resident of Rusik, who went on obedience to the Serbian Land. Thus, Rusik was of exceptional importance not only in the Orthodox enlightenment of Rus', but also in Serbia and all Slavs. In 1382, the Russian Svyatogorsky Monastery, with the permission of the Serbian King Lazarus, built a daughter monastery in Serbia on the Drencha River. The monk Dorotheos, a resident of Rusik, became the builder. Back in 1950, the ruins of this monastery on Drença were shown in the vicinity of Trstenik.
In the 13th century, the ties between Russian Athos monasticism and Russia, which suffered from the Mongol-Tatar invasion, were temporarily interrupted. At this time, the monastic brotherhood of the Athos monastery from Rus' was not replenished and mostly consisted of Serbs. In 1307, Catalan pirates burned the Russian Monastery on the Holy Mountain, leaving only the tower of St. Savva. "Rusik" fell into decay, but thanks to the fraternal help of the Serbian princes and kings, it was revived. Through their own efforts, he was later returned under the patronage of the Russian princes. Beginning with Grand Duke Vasily III, the Russian rulers considered it their important duty to provide material and political support to the monastery.
In 1508, the widow of the Serbian despot Stefan and the mother of the last despot John, nun Angelina, later canonized, arrived in Moscow to Grand Duke Vasily III Ioannovich (1479-1533) and solemnly transferred to him the right to an ancient and glorious fatherland - The Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery, about which there was no one else to take care of, except for his royalty. It was from this moment that the close relationship of the Russian Sovereign with the St. Panteleimon Monastery began. The Grand Duke helps Rusik, makes donations and generous contributions. Through the Russian monastery, during this period of time, by the will of the Grand Duke, alms were delivered for Prot himself and other monasteries of Athos. This could not but lead to an increase in the significance of the Russian monastery on Athos, as it was in former times in the pre-Mongolian period.
The mutual attraction of Holy Rus' and the Holy Mountain at that time was also due to the fact that together they remained the only stronghold and the only support of Orthodoxy in the world. All other Orthodox powers, all other Local Churches were in captivity. Moreover, Rus' itself, by analogy with the Holy Mountain, began to be perceived as the Lot and House of the Mother of God, because it is there, on Mount Athos, that the prototype or prototype of all the Assumption Cathedrals of Russia is located: the small and modest Assumption Church of the Russian monastery of Xylourgou, where the first Russian lampada on the Holy Mountain was lit 1000 years ago and is still burning.
At the end of the 16th century, the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery, thanks to the accumulated centuries-old spiritual potential, again begins to gain strength. In the era of the activation of Catholic expansion, he becomes an active defender of Orthodoxy, and not only in Rus': the monastery feeds the Russian Orthodox population on the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. And in 1596, at the Anti-Uniate Council in Brest, the Abbot of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery, the Holy Archimandrite Matthew, took an active part, as an authorized Bishop of Mukachevo, Amfilohiy. In 1621, at the Orthodox Council in Kiev, called the "Council of Piety", where measures were developed to establish Orthodoxy, it was decided "to send Russians who are sincerely inclined towards a virtuous life to be sent to Athos, as to a spiritual school."
Thus, at the end of the XIV - beginning of the XV centuries, the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery is experiencing a new period of its revival.
Having healed the wounds from the heavy Mongol yoke, Russian monks again begin to arrive on Athos from different parts of Rus', both northeastern and southwestern.
But after the fall of Constantinople and the spread of Turkish rule over the entire territory of the former Byzantine Empire, the Russian monastery on Athos underwent new serious trials, sometimes the monastery was completely abandoned.
With the intensification of the confrontation between Russia and Turkey at the beginning of the 18th century, the Turkish authorities began in every possible way to prevent the access of Russian monks to the Holy Mountain, which led to a new decline in the Russian monastery.
In addition, one of the main reasons for the suppression of Russian monasticism on Mt. In 1721, the last Russian Abbot Varlaam died.
In 1725, when the life of Emperor Peter I was interrupted, only four monks remained in Russik, but only two of them were Russians, while the other two, one of whom was hegumen, were Bulgarians. Ten years later, in 1735, after the death of the last of the Russian monks, the monastery was proclaimed Greek. After another 10 years, the Kiev monk-traveler Vasily Grigorovich-Barsky, who visited the monastery, will find here an already organized Greek brotherhood, in which there will not be a single Russian. According to the Charter of the Holy Mountain, from now on the monastery was hopelessly lost for the native brethren...
Coastal Rusik
In connection with the economic decline experienced by Rusik in the middle of the 18th century, the Greek brethren of the monastery decided to leave the monastery on the mountain and move it closer to the sea, to the pier of the monastery, where it was much easier to organize accommodation. Thus, in 1760 the main center of the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon, for economic reasons, is transferred from the “Thessalonian” monastery to a more convenient area nearby, on the seashore, where at the end of the 17th century, the retired Bishop Christopher of Jerisoi built a cell, a small church in honor of the Ascension of the Lord and a pier (arsana). This new, third in a row, location of the center of the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery remains the main one to this day.
The monastery, moved closer to the sea, received the unofficial name "Coastal Rusik", while the previous, second center of the Russian monastery, "Thessalonian", began to be called "Old Russik" or "Nagorny Rusik" and was transformed into a skete, located, like the monastery "Xilurgu ”, depending on the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos.
It is noteworthy that with the transfer of the center of the monastery to a new place, according to tradition, the Holy Assumption Church was also transferred here, and with the preservation of the status of a cathedral. Thus, the spiritual continuity of the Assumption Cathedral, which is key for Rus', symbolizing the uninterrupted connection with the ancient Russian Assumption monastery “Xilurgu”, was also preserved in the new location.
The organizers of the new Rusik center were shiigumen Savva and the Moldavian ruler John Callimachus.
Despite the transfer of the monastery to a more economically advantageous place, its decline continued due to exorbitant debts and lack of funds. Then, in 1803, the Ecumenical Patriarch Kallinikos received a report from the Holy Mountain Protat on the deplorable state of affairs in Rusik, where a request was made to the Patriarch to completely abolish the monastery.
However, His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Kallinikos, in his pastoral wisdom, foreseeing the future revival of the Russian monastery, decisively rejected the proposal of the Holy Kinot to abolish the Russian monastery and transfer its estates to other monasteries for unpaid debts. Moreover, the Patriarch instructed the Protat by his special letter to take care of the restoration of the Russian cenobitic monastery, promising from his side help in raising funds. His Holiness the Patriarch especially insisted on the restoration of the cenobitic charter, for the first time in the 600 years of the existence of the monastery, abolished in it by the Greek monks who settled there since 1740.
The executor of his will, the Patriarch, by lot, appointed the already 70-year-old elder hieroschemamonk Savva from the current Xenophic skete, which previously belonged to the Russian monastery. Three times the elder refused the position of hegumen, apologizing for his old age, but His Holiness threatened him with the judgment of God for opposing God's will. And the Great Martyr Panteleimon himself showed his help to the old builder Savva, who was in poor health.
Having assumed the abbotship in the monastery, Elder Savva managed, with the help of God, to achieve not only the expansion of the monastery, but also the improvement of its financial situation. In this difficult field, he was supported by another circumstance. The dragoman (translator) of the Turkish Sultan Mahmud II Callimachus was bedridden with a serious illness and in desperation turned to healing power Great Martyr St. Panteleimon, whose honest and miraculous head has been kept in Rusik since ancient times. He invited Abbot Savva to Constantinople with a request to take with him the miraculous relics of the saint. After applying to them, his health improved dramatically, and he was appointed by the sultan to the place of the ruler of Wallachia.
Remembering the miracle with gratitude, he began to actively finance the restoration of the monastery and the construction of its new buildings. For this purpose, he sends to the Russian monastery the chief engineer of the Turkish Sultan, a Christian by religion. Thanks to the efforts of Callimachus, many buildings are being built here (chapels, cells, a hotel, a hospital) and, first of all, the cathedral church of the monastery. The end of the life of the Greek benefactor Rusik was crowned with a martyr's crown: after the start of the Greek national liberation uprising in 1821, an angry Turkish crowd hanged him together with Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory V.
A new stage in the revival of the Russian monastery begins in 1835, when Russian monks were able to arrive at the monastery from Russia for the first time in many decades. Among them is Prince Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, who took the tonsure with the name Anikita and did a lot for the improvement of St. Panteleimon's monastery. But the main merit of the revival of the Russian monastery belongs to the elder-hieroschemamonk Jerome (Solomentsov). At the invitation of the Greek brethren of the St. Panteleimon Monastery and with the blessing of the spiritual father of the Russian Athonites, Elder Arseniy Athos, he came to the monastery with seven of his associates, and when he died in 1885, 600 Russian monks labored in the monastery.
Since that time, the number of Russian monks on Athos has been growing rapidly and multiplying, so that soon the researchers started talking about the formation of such a spiritual and historical phenomenon as "Russian Athos". Already at the beginning of the 20th century, the number of Russian monks on Athos was 5,000 (of which over 2,000 were in the Panteleimon Monastery), while there were 3,900 Greeks on the Holy Mountain, 340 Bulgarians, 288 Romanians, 120 Serbs and 53 Georgians.
In 1875, the spiritual son of Elder Jerome Father Macarius (Sushkin) became the new abbot of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery, who remained in this post until 1889. Under him, the monastery strengthened its spiritual and financial position, expanded significantly and moved to a leading position among other Athos monasteries.
In Odessa, St. Petersburg, Moscow and Constantinople, the monastery had courtyards through which the material support of the monastery was provided and the flow of pilgrims to its shrines from all over was organized. Russian Empire.
A particularly massive flourishing of pilgrimage to the shrines of the St. Panteleimon Monastery was observed in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. During this period, up to 30 thousand people came to the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos every year through the Russian Athos courtyards in Odessa, where the gathering of pilgrims took place. All of them found shelter in the monastery, were accommodated in a hospice (archondarik) and received free food. Pious Russian Christians, of course, did not remain in debt, making generous donations for the needs of the monastery and thereby materially ensuring its full functioning.
To ensure convenient and affordable pilgrimage to Mount Athos by Russian people, the St. Panteleimon Monastery opened its own representative offices (farmsteads) in Russia and Constantinople, its own hotels for pilgrims, and even purchased its own steamboats, which year-round, once a month, in an organized manner delivered pilgrims from Russia to Athos.
After the tragic events of 1917, the pilgrimage infrastructure established by the Russian Monastery was lost, and the pilgrimage of believers from Russia to Athos was impossible for about 80 years.
The October Revolution of 1917 had extremely tragic consequences for the entire Russian monasticism on Mount Athos. From now on, all help from Russia ceases to come here, and Russian monks are cut off from their homeland. During this period, an insignificant replenishment in the Panteleimon Monastery occurred at first only at the expense of the population of Transcarpathia, and later Russian White emigrants living in Western Europe and USA.
In the Soviet Russia the well-being of the Russian Monastery on Athos was also dealt a serious blow: the communist regime confiscated all the property of the St. Panteleimon Monastery (compartments, metochs, chapels), the inhabitants of the courtyards themselves were repressed, and some of them were martyred for Christ.
Completely cut off from the motherland, the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery gradually fell into decay. The once rich and majestic buildings of the monastery were derelict and destroyed. Of the former 2,000 inhabitants, about 20 infirm old people remained in the monastery, after whose death there would be no one to pass on and preserve the traditions of Russian Athos. On the agenda was the question of settling Rusik with Greek monks and turning it into a Greek monastery, as had previously happened with the former Russian Skete of St. Andrew.
Russian Svyatogorsky monastery today
For all outward signs The Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon on Mount Athos was to gradually come to a complete decline, left without Russian inhabitants. But the Providence of God was pleased to develop differently.
In the 1960s a new page opens in the history of Rusik. With the end of the Cold War, the previous barriers for those wishing to leave for Athos from the USSR, which was squeezed in the grip of atheism, also weakened. In 1965, the Greek government granted Greek citizenship to five monks from Soviet Russia and allowed them to come to the Holy Mountain.
Among the new inhabitants from the USSR was the current abbot of the St. Panteleimon Monastery, Father Jeremiah (Alekhine), who is now 99 years old. In the 1930s - 1940s. he passed through Soviet and German concentration camps, drank the bitter cup of atheistic persecution of faith. For 14 years he had to wait for permission to move to Athos. And yet, despite all the difficulties, on August 26, 1974, Patriarch Demetrius of Constantinople announced that out of the six declared monks from the USSR, only two were given permission to settle on the Holy Mountain. And in April 1975, Father Jeremiah came to Athos for permanent residence. Three years later, in December 1978, he was elected hegumen hegumen, and on June 5, 1979, he was confirmed as hegumen of the Russian Athos monastery by Patriarch of Constantinople.
Through the efforts of Father Jeremiah and the newly arrived young brethren, the revival of Rusik begins.
A new period in the life of the St. Panteleimon Monastery opened in the early 1990s. with the fall of the atheist-communist system in the homeland. The number of Russian monks in the monastery gradually increased and today it is more than 80 people (in total, there are about 2000 monks on Athos now). Over the past few years, work has been actively carried out on the overhaul and restoration of dilapidated buildings of the monastery.
The lost traditions of the pilgrimage of Orthodox Russian people to the shrines of Rusik are also being revived. For these purposes, a hotel for pilgrims (archondarik) operates at the monastery, free meals are provided, excursions are held, combined with worship of the numerous shrines of the monastery and participation in divine services.
Shrines of the monastery
The Russian Athos St. Panteleimon Monastery is a centuries-old invaluable spiritual and national treasury of the Russian people, its national pride and spiritual and cultural stronghold, embodying the 1000-year history of the stay of Russian monks on Mount Athos.
But, besides this, the monastery is also valuable because since ancient times it has kept numerous miraculous and healing shrines of pan-Orthodox significance, to which any of the pilgrims can freely venerate and pray.
Thus, in the main cathedral of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery in honor of the Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, pilgrims at divine services have access to worship and pray to the honest head of this great saint - a priceless decoration and treasure of both the temple and the Russian monastery, and the entire Holy Mount Athos. As you know, numerous pilgrims have repeatedly received and continue to receive healings and miracles from the head of St. Panteleimon the Healer, deeply revered both in Greece and in Rus'.
Also in this temple you can venerate a part of the Tree of the Cross of the Lord and St. relics of St. John the Baptist and Baptist of the Lord, head of St. Venerable Martyr Stephen the New, head of St. Venerable Martyr Paraskeva, St. Great Martyr Marina, a particle of the relics of St. Joseph the Betrothed, St. Apostle Thomas, St. Simeon the Stylite, St. Martyrs George the Victorious, Demetrius of Thessalonica and many others. A significant part of the stone, rolled away from the tomb of the Lord, from which the septenary was made, also remains here.
The second cathedral of the Russian Svyatogorsky monastery - Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. Here are parts of the Life-Giving Tree of the Cross of the Lord, parts of the relics of St. John the Baptist and Baptist of the Lord, St. The Apostles Peter, Andrew the First-Called, Matthew, Luke, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Barnabas, Ioakov Alfeev, Timothy, Prochorus, Thaddeus, St. Anna - Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, St. First Martyr Archdeacon Stephen, St. Archdeacon Lawrence, St. Righteous Joseph the Betrothed, St. Dionysius the Areopagite, St. equal to apost. Tsars Constantine and Helena, Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose of Milan, John the Merciful, Gregory Palamas and many others.
In total, the St. Panteleimon Monastery, Russian on Athos, contains parts of the relics of more than 300 Greek, Russian, Georgian saints, to most of which during the days of my stay in the monastery I was able to freely venerate, pray and ask for help.
Particularly revered are the chapters and parts of the chapters of St. vmch. Panteleimon the Healer, St. Silouan of Athos, the upper part of the head of St. Apostle and Evangelist Luke, schmch. Anfima of Nicomedia, prmch. Ignatius of Athos, Euthymius of Athos and Akakios of Athos, part of the left foot of St. ap. Andrew the First-Called in a silver ark, part of the right hand of St. rights. John the Russian and many other shrines. Therefore, I tried to spend as much time as possible at these shrines.
In the Russian Athos Monastery, the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, called "Jerusalem", the icon of the Mother of God "Kazan", the icon of the Mother of God "Abbess of the Holy Mount Athos", the icon of St. Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John, an ancient icon of St. Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, icon of St. Hieromartyr Charalambius and others. Before them, each of the pilgrims can pray all the days of their stay in the monastery.
In addition to the Panteleimon and Pokrovsky churches, pilgrims in the Russian monastery especially remember the ancient church in the name of St. Mitrofan, as well as the chapel or the smaller Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos. In addition, there are about 30 small churches (chapels) on the territory of the Russian monastery, including the only church in the world in honor of All Holy Russian Princes and Tsars.
The Cathedral of Holy Russian Sovereigns includes 160 representatives of two dynasties that ruled in Rus': the Ruriks and the Romanovs. Its celebration was established in the monastery in 2013 with the blessing of the abbot of the St. Panteleimon Monastery, Schema-Archimandrite Jeremiah, in connection with the consecration of the temple in honor of all the famous Princes and Tsars of Rus': from Prince Vladimir to Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich. So far, this is the only church in the world dedicated to all the holy Russian sovereigns.
An important shrine of the monastery is a tomb located near the monastery with a church in the name of the Apostles Peter and Paul, where the brethren rest, and where, according to the ancient Athos tradition, there is a ossuary with numerous heads of the ascetics of the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery. Night services in the ossuary, furnished on all sides of the walls from floor to ceiling with shelves with the skulls of holy monks, evoke especially unforgettable inner experiences and impressions.
Library and archive Rusik
The library and archive complex of the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon on Athos, being the place of concentration of monastic collections of manuscripts, books, archival documents, music, photographs, etc., is an invaluable center for the preservation and study of domestic and pan-Orthodox spiritual culture and heritage.
To date, the library has registered more than 42 thousand titles of books; more than 88 thousand volumes, as well as more than 40 thousand copies of various brochures on spiritual topics published by the Panteleimon Monastery in the pre-revolutionary period.
The deadlines for the release of publications stored in the library: for printed books - from 1492 to the present day, for handwritten books - from the 7th to the 20th centuries.
Also in the monastery are stored ancient manuscripts, numbering 2399 items. All of them are conditionally divided into four groups according to the language of the text: Greek (1595 titles); Slavic-Russian (1434 titles); foreign language (45 titles).
The collection of Church Slavonic manuscripts contains manuscripts of the 11th-19th centuries. Many of the Greek manuscripts are rare examples of calligraphic art and contain a large number of miniatures and ornaments. Russian manuscripts contain the works of the monks of the monastery and various Russian authors of the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century: texts of a dogmatic, homiletic, catechetical and generally general theological nature, spiritual writings and historical notes. An important part of this department of manuscripts is the manuscripts of St. Theophan the Recluse, transferred to the Panteleimon Monastery at the end of the 19th century.
Most of the rare books department consists of publications in Latin, Greek, French, German. Among the ancient incunabula: "Conversations of St. Gregory the Dialogist" in Latin, published in Rome in 1492 by the printing house of the Vatican. The oldest printed edition of the Holy Scriptures (Old and New Testament) in ancient Greek, presented in the library of the St. Panteleimon Monastery, is a book of 1518, published by the printing house of Andrei Sotseri in Florence.
In the department of periodicals of the library of the Panteleimon Monastery, all the spiritual periodicals of pre-revolutionary Russia are collected. Periodicals of the post-revolutionary period also deserve special attention. Russian emigrants, wherever they were: in China, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, France, Germany, Argentina and the USA, everywhere sought to publish spiritual magazines and newspapers. Almost all of them considered it their duty to send their publications to Russik. Thus, a unique collection of emigrant periodicals was assembled, according to which one can study not only the history of the White emigration, but, in particular, the history of Russian emigrant publishing.
Recently, in parallel with the process of cataloging the book fund, the library of the Panteleimon Monastery has begun the process of transferring the manuscripts and rare books stored here to digital media. It is planned to completely scan the entire manuscript fund and the fund of rare books. The creation of a database of digitized texts will make it possible in the future to issue to researchers not original manuscripts (sometimes extremely dilapidated), but their digital copies.
The archival fund of the Russian on Athos St. Panteleimon Monastery is mainly a collection of documents that have historically developed over the past 300 years of the monastery's history. Among them there are documents from an earlier era, the oldest of which is dated 1030.
The archive of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos contains materials convincingly confirming the fact that there has never been a gap in the spiritual life between Russia and Athos. Russian Athos monks, far from their homeland, have preserved and brought Russian spiritual culture to this day. And after the promulgation of the spiritual heritage of the Russian ascetics of Athos, their lives and teachings, all this will become one of the powerful factors in the spiritual revival not only of Russia and other Slavic states, but of the entire Orthodox world.
Museum of Russian Athos
In addition to the library and archive, there is another remarkable place where a pilgrim should definitely go - this is a unique museum complex of the monastery, dedicated to the thousand-year heritage of Russian monasticism on Athos.
The Museum of Russian Athos has a rich collection of exhibits: ancient manuscripts, rare books, liturgical vestments, church utensils, icons, paintings, figurines, mechanisms, tools, household items, photographs and much more. All this is connected with the history and heritage of the Holy Mountain. Presented here are both exhibits from the era of antiquity: the times of the Greco-Persian wars, Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire, when ancient Greek cities-polises were located on Athos, as well as exhibits from the times of the Byzantine Empire and Turkish rule.
Acquaintance with the museum and its unique collection allows pilgrims to join the rich heritage, culture, spirituality and history of the Holy Mountain and Russian Athos.
Here, in one place, its entire history and all the centuries-old heritage of the Holy Mountain are presented.
Pilgrimage to Russian Athos
Orthodox pilgrimage is a significant component of a full-fledged church life, which is a form of worship of God and is the realization of the spiritual need of the flock to worship shrines, participate in worship at holy places, prayerful communion with believers as an expression of the unity and catholicity of the Orthodox Church.
For this reason, the pilgrimage to the shrines of Athos has been and remains the oldest spiritual and historical tradition of Russian Orthodoxy. It is known that among the first ancient Russian pilgrims was the founder of monasticism in Rus' - Rev. Anthony of the Caves, who received on Mount Athos, in the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery "Ksilurgu", a blessing for the creation of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Since then, the influence of Mount Athos on the spiritual formation and development of Rus' has played a decisive role throughout its thousand-year history. So, to join the distant and at the same time native shrines of Athos has always been a cherished dream for many generations of Russian Orthodox people. Among such pilgrims it is worth highlighting St. Arseny Konevsky, teacher Nil Sorsky, Rev. Paisius Velichkovsky and many others, who, through familiarization with the shrines and heritage of Athos, inflamed with the desire for asceticism and holiness, transferring them to their homeland, thereby spiritually and culturally enriching and transforming their native land.
A particularly massive flourishing of pilgrimage to the shrines of Athos was observed in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period, on Athos, to worship the miraculous relics of St. Panteleimon and other shrines of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery received a huge number of Russian pilgrims. Every year, up to 30 thousand people came to the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon on Athos through the Russian Athos metochions in Odessa, where the gathering of pilgrims took place. All of them found shelter in the monastery, were accommodated in a hospice (archondarik) and received free food. Pious Russian Christians, of course, did not remain in debt, making generous donations for the needs of Rusik and thereby financially ensuring its full-fledged independent functioning.
To ensure convenient and affordable pilgrimage to Mount Athos by Russian people, the St. Panteleimon Monastery opened its own representative offices (farmsteads) in Russia and Constantinople (now Istanbul), its own hotels for pilgrims, and even purchased its own steamships, which all year round, once a month, in an organized manner delivered pilgrims from Russia to the Holy Mountain.
After the tragic events of 1917, the pilgrimage infrastructure established by the Russian monasteries of Athos was lost, and the pilgrimage of believers from Russia to Athos was impossible for about 80 years.
Now, with the revival of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos, the once lost traditions of the pilgrimage of Orthodox Russian people to the shrines of Rusik are being revived. For these purposes, a hotel for pilgrims (archondarik) operates at the monastery, free meals are provided, excursions are held, combined with worship of the numerous shrines of the monastery and participation in divine services.
In addition to worshiping shrines, pilgrims have the opportunity to visit the unique museum complex of the monastery, dedicated to the thousand-year heritage of Russian monasticism on Mount Athos and which contains a rich collection of exhibits closely related to the history and heritage of the Holy Mountain.
Excursions around the monastery, acquaintance with the exhibits of the museum and the history of Athos, which are organized by specialists from the monastery museum, are combined with an equally valuable introduction to the greatest shrines of Russian Athos.
In addition, in the Russian monastery, pilgrims have the opportunity to book a tour of other monasteries of St. Athos. To do this, the Panteleimon Monastery has a comfortable bus for 30 people, which, accompanied by an experienced guide with a theological education, provides a trip for the pilgrimage group to other ancient monasteries of the Holy Mountain.
As one of the pilgrims Igor Mikhailov notes: “Pilgrimage to the Panteleimon Monastery, participation in divine services and worship of its numerous healing and miraculous shrines and relics leave an indelible mark, transforming both spiritually and physically. This experience of visiting Russian Athos, the heart of Holy Rus' in the Lot of the Mother of God, is unforgettable. It cannot be compared to anything. In addition, it is pleasant to feel the traditional Slavic hospitality, openness and cordiality in the Panteleimon Monastery, and also the Russian language, both in communication and in worship. On Athos, this is felt especially sharply, since none of the Greek monasteries speak Russian. So the Panteleimon Monastery is truly a stronghold and stronghold of Holy Rus' on Athos.”
2016 marks the 1000th anniversary of the first written mention of the existence and activities of the ancient Russian monastery on Mount Athos, through which spiritual and cultural relationships were established between Russia and the center of Orthodox monasticism and spirituality on Athos. Despite all the difficulties that our Fatherland is going through today, this anniversary is very important. After all, a true revival of society is possible only through an appeal to one's own spiritual heritage and primary sources, where Russian Holy Mountain monasticism has always occupied one of the most important places.
“Only by walking with your own feet on these hills, you can get a true idea of the land on which the Mother of God once stepped.”
We bring to the attention of readers a conversation with the vicar of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC, Bishop Barsanuphius of Borodya.
Your Eminence, You have repeatedly visited Mount Athos, the most famous center of Orthodox monasticism, and recently again visited the Holy Mountain. What is Athos for you?
Holy Mount Athos is a special place for an Orthodox person. It is not always possible for a Christian to visit this holy place, but everyone treats Athos with a quivering sense of reverence, appreciates this pinnacle of spirituality. After all, there, for centuries, lived the elders and spiritual ascetics. This is very important in our time, since after the communist regime this tradition was almost not preserved in our area, therefore we draw and strengthen our spiritual strength precisely thanks to the experience of the elders, thanks to the prayer books of Mount Athos.
Athos is also called the monastic republic, on the territory of which there are twenty male monasteries. One of them is Russian, there are Serbian, Bulgarian and seventeen Greek. In each monastery live monks who are engaged in prayer, obedience, labor. The monks pray not only for the salvation of their souls, the salvation of the brethren of the monastery, but also for peace throughout the world. As many say, thanks to the prayers of the Athonite elders, peace is maintained, Orthodoxy is maintained, and spirituality is preserved, therefore this is a special and fertile place for every Orthodox Christian.
How different are the traditions of the monastic republic from the traditions and charter of our monasteries, for example, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, where you lived and studied for a long time, and carried obedience?
Monastic traditions, of course, differ, but we must not forget that the founder of all Russian monasticism, the founder of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the Monk Anthony of the Caves, was tonsured just on the holy Mount Athos, it was from there that the saint brought monastic traditions. We took the church charter from Byzantium, but St. Anthony borrowed the very traditions of monasticism in many respects from the centuries-old experience of the monasteries of Athos.
The main distinguishing features of Athos are the time and duration of church services. I think that this is unusual for pilgrims - very long services, which are performed mostly at night. This comes from the fact that the monasteries of Athos live in Byzantine time. In the tradition of Athos, this is expressed as follows - the inhabitants believe that if nature falls asleep at sunset, then a person should also rest at this time. On Athos, 12 o'clock at night most often happens with sunset. Depending on the season, there is a discrepancy with Byzantine time from three to eight hours. Prayer for Athos monks begins at midnight, this is midnight, matins, hours, they are just read at the moment when night falls on the mainland of Greece itself and all of Europe. When the world surrenders to Snui, silence sets in, on Athos the hour of prayer begins. And this has been happening continuously for centuries.
Athos also has a special tradition of burial of monks. If we are buried in cemeteries, in graves, then everything happens differently with them. This, I think, is also caused by the place - since most of the territory of the peninsula is rocky soil, mountains, traditional burials are difficult. Therefore, a year after the funeral of the deceased monk, they dig out the remains and lay them out in special rooms - ossuaries. Moreover, the skulls are stored separately, and all the other bones are folded in another room. By the color of the bone remains and the skull, the monks determine the degree of virtue and holiness of the deceased.
According to their rules, if the skull is yellowish, then the monk was an ascetic, white - it is believed that the degree is slightly lower than the first, and if the skull is black, then the monks bury it and continue prayers for the repose of the soul of the deceased, asking the Lord to forgive his sins, which he allowed in his life. A year later, they dig it up again, look at the color of the bones, and if it turns white or yellow, they put it in the ossuary.
Divine services are essentially no different from ours, i. matins, midnight office, evening service, all-night vigil, hours or liturgy. In the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery, the service is performed in Church Slavonic, which is accessible to us, in the Serbian monastery of Hilandar, in the Bulgarian Izograph of the Service, also in Church Slavonic. In the remaining seventeen monasteries, in Greek. Yes, of course, this complicates the understanding of prayer for our pilgrims. I read the Jesus Prayer in Greek monasteries, although I can already hear a little Greek. It is all the more easier when you know the order of worship, then you automatically mentally translate where which part or prayer is, and you say to yourself, a lot is clear from the structure. A churched person easily navigates the temples of Athos, despite the different language of worship and the unusualness of the charter.
Judging by the photographs of Athos from the sea, the nature there and the views are excellent. Isn't this one of the factors that you want to visit there again? But there are many beautiful places on Earth, and there are also many Christian shrines. Why Athos?
First of all, Athos is the abode of the Mother of God, the lot of the Mother of God. Like the apostles, she had a lot to preach the Gospel in another country - according to Tradition, she had to go to Iberia (Georgia). But during the transition, when the ship was moving to Cyprus, it was carried by the wind to the peninsula, which later will become for Orthodox Christians the Athos that we know today. The Mother of God, having stepped with her feet on this mountain, said that this is a garden and her promised land.
This land is really beautiful and is one of the most fertile places, I think so for myself. Whoever visits Athos at least once, I am sure, will think the same way. When you look at Athos from the sea, landscapes marvelous in their harmony open up, and when you are in the mountains, you see ancient monasteries, cells of monks on sheer cliffs. The combination of man-made buildings with a unique natural landscape is impressive and leaves a deep imprint in the memory. Photos cannot fully convey the spiritual delight of everything seen on the peninsula. Is it possible to convey the smell of the sea, vegetation, the atmosphere of Athos and the atmosphere of being present at a divine service with a picture? Only by walking with your own feet on these hills, you can get a true idea of the land on which the Mother of God once stepped.
The organic nature and buildings on Mount Athos are to some extent natural. A person with prayer cannot damage the primordial beauty created by God, but only keeps it and tries not to disturb it with his man-made things. Construction in such a place is difficult, and one must understand that it is very problematic to deliver any of the materials to the Holy Mountain, necessary tools, even products, because connection with the world is carried out only by sea. There are no highways that would connect the Greek mainland with the peninsula. Everything is imported only by ferries, as it used to be in ancient times, and so it is now. Without any special technical devices in antiquity, such amazing monasteries were built in such difficult places, in mountains and rocks, that it is difficult to imagine the process of creation by the monks themselves.
How it was necessary to think over and strengthen everything so that everything would stay above the sea, because it is incredibly difficult and no less amazing than the miraculous views around. From the sea it great views monasteries that fit perfectly into Athos nature. Of course, this attracts many people, and not only Orthodox pilgrims, Catholics also come, even non-believers who later become believers. I once met a novice from Poland. He also came to Athos because he had read about such a beautiful and unusual place, and he came as a tourist just to see the sights and the ascetic life of the monks. But still, the grace of God acts there, it touched his heart, and he remained a novice in the Constamonite monastery.
In what monasteries on Mount Athos did you serve? Is it easy to serve with the Greek clergy, were there any difficulties in liturgical practice?
He had the opportunity to serve both in the Russian Panteleimon Monastery and in Greek monasteries. I was at the Athos All-Night Vigil. Athos prayer in all monasteries is beautiful, and the heart is simply touched by prayers, although there are difficulties, of course, when they serve in Greek. But, I repeat, when the structure of the service is known, it becomes clear that now, for example, there should be small vespers, vespers, etc. There is a break for dinner, then Compline, an akathist is read, and at 12 midnight the Midnight Office begins. The structure in all monasteries is approximately the same, where you know - you remember the texts of prayers in Church Slavonic, where it is not clear - you read the Jesus Prayer. Everything is a little more complicated for pilgrims, who do not always know the structure of services well, and in Greek they do not quite understand prayers and appeals. But I always say in this case - pray simply, from a pure heart and in your own words, and every pilgrim knows what to pray for when he directs his feet to Holy Mount Athos. In addition to asking for mercy, participation in the sacraments of Penance and Communion is also very important. It is easy to serve with the Greek clergy, and there are no difficulties. I also served in the Xenophon Monastery, in the Evsigmen Monastery, in the Vatopedi Monastery...
- How do they treat our priests - with joy or simply endure the constant presence of visitors?
Very good and welcoming.
Do they know about Ukrainian reality on Mount Athos, are they interested in politics, where do they get the news from, and how do they relate to the events in our country?
I try to political topics not to communicate, because the main purpose of being here is prayer. And what can we ask God on the Holy Mountain? We ask the Lord to have mercy on our country, our people, so the main communication is prayer. Yes, many are interested in reality outside Athos. I think they learn the main information in the news from pilgrims and brothers in faith, from visitors from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, and from other countries. The Greeks know about their country from their co-religionists. There are no big talks about politics here, no disputes, life here is a bit different.
In the Orthodox environment, interest in the Athos theme has been preserved thanks to pilgrimage stories from past times. A certain mystical interest is fueled by simple human curiosity. Did you see any special people there, hear anything unusual, and did miracles happen during your stay?
The history of Athos has at least 10 centuries, a whole millennium, although the first monasteries arose there in the 3rd-4th centuries, and Athos itself as a monastic republic has existed for more than ten centuries. Next year, Athos marks the 1000th anniversary of the Russian presence, Russian monasticism on the Holy Mountain. In the Great Lavra (the leading monastery on Mount Athos - Author's note), the acts that were signed by the abbot of the first Russian monastery have been preserved. And since then, many pilgrims, according to the tradition of St. Anthony of the Caves, went there on foot to pray in order to receive and acquire the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The heyday of pilgrimage was in the XYII-XIX centuries. Steamboats with numerous pilgrims departed from Odessa, because. it was a state-sponsored program, and people got the opportunity to visit these holy places. Today, a lot of people come to Athos who go there for spiritual support. There are, of course, those who come out of curiosity, they want, they say, to visit the monastic republic. But nothing happens by chance, everyone benefits from visiting Athos monasteries.
Athos is also unique in that there are absolutely no women on the peninsula, this is an ancient tradition. IN male monasteries women were not allowed in, and men were not allowed into the women's rooms, respectively. And so to this day there are completely closed monasteries, and women are not allowed on Mount Athos, and in Greece there are monasteries where men are not. Therefore, on the vast territory of the peninsula, and this is approximately an area of 80 by 40 km, there are only men. This is a place where you are not distracted by any phone calls, everyday problems. Pilgrims have the opportunity to focus on their internal problems, see their inner self and know themselves - this is the most important thing for a person. There are also special people on the Holy Mountain, as they are also called - elders, people of grace, close to God. They have the opportunity to help a person see, feel the will of God in his life, suggest how to act correctly in a given situation. Such people exist and thank God!
Why do Orthodox Christians fail to create a “big Athos” in Ukraine? Why are there no authorities in the country like Athos, where pilgrims from all over the world would like to go to pray?
We have the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in Ukraine, a world-class monastery. There are not so many laurels in the world: three laurels in Ukraine, three laurels in Russia, a laurel on Mount Athos, in the Holy Land not far from Jerusalem there is a Lavra of Savva the Sanctified. Therefore, the title speaks volumes, and as they wrote in the 19th century, the Lavra is the second Jerusalem. There are no less pilgrims here than on Athos. It’s just that the mystery of Athos, remoteness, creates a particularly good one, I won’t say excitement, but rather a person’s desire to visit this holy place. Well, it should be noted that on Athos monasteries have not been closed for 10 centuries, traditions have not been interrupted, they have their own charter of the Holy Mountain, which is not violated. The last charter was adopted in the 19th century and is observed by all monasteries.
The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra also had very great authority at one time, had many sketes, farmsteads, had its own printing house and workshops, theological works were written by learned monks, but the communist regime destroyed a lot, traditions were practically interrupted, because. Lavra was closed more than once over the past century. And since 1988, from the moment of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', it was necessary to renew everything, as they say, from scratch, lighting this lamp of prayer, which is still burning to this day. But in order to restore all these traditions of our Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, a long time is needed.
Is there a pilgrimage organization at the Cathedral that, under your leadership and blessing, organizes trips to Athos?
There is a Pilgrimage Department of the UOC on the territory of the Cathedral under construction, which organizes pilgrimage trips to the Holy Mountain, the Holy Land and other holy places. Anyone can choose for themselves an interesting route for travel, which will combine relaxation and benefits for the soul, the opportunity to enrich their spiritual experience.
Interviewed by Andrey German
Photo from the personal collection of Bishop Barsanuphius and Greek photographer Kostas Asimis.
We offer our readers a collective article by the editors of the Russian Athos portal dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of ancient Russian monasticism on Mount Athos and the history Russian on Athos St. Panteleimon Monastery.
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Russian Athos: 1000 years of standing in prayer
Russian Athos is an inseparable and important component of the heritage of the Holy Mountain as a universal Orthodox treasury.
Athos for many centuries played an exceptionally important role in the development of domestic spirituality and culture, both in the era of Kievan Rus, and in subsequent times. Particularly important was the formation under the influence of Athos of the Kiev Caves Monastery, which about 1000 years ago became a kind of "hotbed" and the center of monasticism, spirituality, literacy, culture and enlightenment throughout Rus'.
Since then, the influence of the Holy Mountain on the spiritual formation and development of Rus' has played a decisive role throughout its thousand-year history. Actually, it was the Holy Mount Athos, its heritage and traditions that significantly influenced the formation of the mystical and ascetic image of the original Russian Orthodoxy, as well as Holy Rus' itself. Therefore, to join the distant and at the same time native shrines of Athos has always been a cherished dream for many generations of Russian Orthodox people.
An exceptionally important role was played by the ties of Rus' with Athos in the era of the post-Horde invasion. At that time, an outstanding Athosite who made a significant contribution to the development of Russian spirituality and culture was St. Cyprian (Tsamblak), Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus'. During the time of his hierarchship, many books were brought to Rus' from Athos, translations of patristic works were carried out, liturgical reforms were carried out, etc. Under the influence of Athos, a period of “hesychast revival” begins in Rus', which deeply affected the formation of the original and deeply spiritual culture of Rus'.
The bright successors and bearers of the Athonite heritage in Rus' of this period were St. Sergius of Radonezh and St. Kirill Belozersky. The fruit of their spiritual labors was the new flowering of Russian monastic asceticism, which is commonly called the "Northern Thebaid".
The influence of the Athonite hesychast heritage in Rus' was most clearly reflected in ancient Russian art, in the works of Theophan the Greek, Andrei Rublev and Daniil Cherny, whose artistic masterpieces still do not cease to excite the eye and imagination with their harmony, depth and grandeur.
An important contribution to the restoration of ties between Russia and Athos was made by St. Nil Sorsky, who spent about 20 years on the Holy Mountain. Returning to his homeland, he promoted in every possible way the spiritual values acquired on Athos and acted as one of the ideologists of the “non-possessive” movement. Another important "connecting link" between Athos and Russia was the outstanding Greek theologian and Athos ascetic, St. Maxim Grek.
Athos was also of great importance in the preservation of Orthodoxy in Ukraine, during the period of the infamous Union of Brest. Among the Ukrainian ascetics of that time who labored on the Holy Mountain, the most famous are the elders John Vishensky, Job Knyagininsky, Blessed Cyprian Ostrozhanin, Isaac Boriskevich, Afanasy Mezhigorsky, Joasaph Gustynsky, Joseph Koriyatovich-Kurtsevich, Grigory Golubenko, Samuil Bokachich and many others. The influence of Athos on the struggle against the union and the Orthodox revival in Ukraine was so great that at the Kiev Local Council in 1621, in a special resolution known as the "Advice on Piety", it was prescribed: "Send for blessing, help and advice to the Holy Mountain Athos, in order to call and bring from there the reverend men of Russia: blessed Cyprian and John with the nickname of Vishensky and others, prospering in life and piety, and also to continue to send Rusyns, disposed towards piety, to Athos, as to a spiritual school.
At that time, the Zaporizhian Cossacks also maintained close ties with Athos, invited experienced mentors and elders from there, made generous donations to the monasteries of the Holy Mountain, carried out pilgrimages, and often many Cossacks themselves took monastic vows on Athos and labored in the monasteries of Athos. In particular, after the Greeks took possession of Rusik (an ancient Russian monastery on Mount Athos), with the support of the Zaporizhian Cossacks, an attempt was made to recreate a new Rusik on the Holy Mountain. Its role for almost a century was played by the Svyatogorsky monastery “Black Vyr” (or “Russian Mavrovyr”) founded by the Cossacks in 1747.
A natural continuation of this tradition was the founding of the Svyato-Ilyinsky skete on Athos, at the origins of which was an outstanding native of a family of Cossack priests, the Monk Paisius Velichkovsky. The monastic-ascetic school he founded, the titanic labors she carried out in translating patristic works into Slavonic, the revival of the lost traditions of Orthodox eldership and hesychasm gave a powerful impetus not only to the revival of genuine monasticism and spirituality in Holy Rus', but also to the revival of Orthodox Russian culture, its return to traditional Christian customs and values. It was the followers of the Athos school of St. Paisia (Velichkovsky) - the famous elders of Optina Hermitage seriously influenced the formation of the worldview of many Russian cultural and public figures of the 19th century, which significantly affected their work and activities.
Especially close and fruitful were the traditional ties with the Fatherland at the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon on Athos. After a short stay of the monastery in the hands of the Greek monks, at the beginning of the XIX century. it is reborn as the indisputable center of Russian monasticism on the Holy Mountain. This holy monastery is rightfully considered the stronghold of Holy Rus' on Mount Athos, in the Lot of the Mother of God. Another citadel of Russian Orthodoxy on Mount Athos in the 19th century was St. Andrew's Skete.
Under the spiritual guidance of the experienced elders of the St. Panteleimon monastery, Jerome (Solomentsov) and Macarius (Sushkin), in the 19th century, the process of the revival and rise of Russian monasticism on Athos began. By the end of the 19th century, the number of Russian monks on the Holy Mountain became equal to the number of Greek ones, and then it grew rapidly and began to significantly exceed it. In 1913, the number of Russian monks on Mount Athos was 5,000 (of which over 2,000 were in the Panteleimon Monastery), while there were 3,900 Greeks on the Holy Mountain, 340 Bulgarians, 288 Romanians, 120 Serbs and 53 Georgians.
Thus flourished such a spiritual and historical phenomenon as "Russian Athos". In 1913, even the issue of granting the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery the status of a Lavra, and the Russian Andreevsky and Ilyinsky sketes - independent monasteries, was on the agenda. However, subsequent unfortunate events did not allow these plans to come true.
It is important to note that by the end of the 19th century, all three Russian monasteries on Mount Athos - the Panteleimon Monastery, St. Andrew's and Ilyinsky sketes actually united into one large community. Having gone through internal temptations and disagreements, both sketes recognized the spiritual authority of Rusik, whom they even turned to for help in settling internal disputes. By this time, very close, fraternal and unanimous relations had developed between them. One of the abbots of the Ilyinsky skete even wrote to the abbot of the Panteleimon Monastery, Fr. Andrey: we, the three Russian Abodes on Athos, are like the Holy Trinity - consubstantial and inseparable!
Unfortunately, after the tragic events of 1917 and the beginning of the theomachic persecution of Orthodoxy in Russia, Russian Athos also suffered greatly. Due to the absence of an influx of new monks from the Fatherland for 80 years, all three Russian monasteries on the Holy Mountain became impoverished numerically. As a result, Andreevsky and Ilyinsky sketes, as well as numerous Russian cells and kalyvas on Athos, were deserted, destroyed, or passed to the Greeks. The same threat hung over the St. Panteleimon Monastery, but by a miracle of God the monastery survived, remaining today the only island of Holy Rus' on Athos.
Now, when Russian monasticism is being revived on the Holy Mountain, and all Orthodox Rus' is preparing to solemnly celebrate its 1000th anniversary in 2016, it is very important to restore the memory of the role and significance of Athos in the history of the Russian Church and Holy Rus'. Indeed, a true revival is possible only through an appeal to one's own spiritual heritage and primary sources, where Mount Athos has always occupied one of the leading places.
As the confessor of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos, Hieromonk Macarius, rightly notes: “The Russian land is connected with the Holy Mountain by direct spiritual kinship, since the Russian monastic tradition is a summer plant, or offshoot, of Svyatogorsk monasticism, transplanted to the Russian land by God, and not by a human hand. By virtue of this spiritual kinship, Rus' from time immemorial had a haven, a God-given corner in the Lot of the Blessed Virgin Mary - a Russian monastery, which apparently was kept for centuries by the Providence of God, which judged and determined to be the property and fatherland of our compatriots seeking salvation on the Holy Mountain.
CORNER OF HOLY Rus' ON ATHO
The Russian monastery on Mount Athos is a truly unique spiritual and cultural treasure that simultaneously belongs to both Holy Rus' and the Holy Mountain. It is rightfully considered the oldest Russian spiritual stronghold in the Lot of the Mother of God, on Mount Athos.
The first known written mention of ancient Russian monasticism on Mount Athos dates back to 1016. Under this date, in one of the Svyatogorsk documents stored in the library of the Great Lavra of Athanasius of Athos, we find the signatures of the abbots of all the monasteries of the Holy Mountain. Among them is such an inscription: “Gerasim is a monk, by the grace of God, presbyter and abbot of the Rosov monastery. handwritten signature."
As early as 1030, the monastery's own name, "Virgin Xylourgou", was added to the name of the "Abode of Rosov". The last word (from the Greek ξυλουργός - carpenter or woodworker) means that the main occupation of the local monks was carpentry. This fact also testifies to the Russian roots of the monastery, because only the Russians initially equipped their dwellings, temples and monasteries from wood, while the Greeks built from stone.
In fact, the Holy Dormition Monastery “Ksilurgu” is the oldest Russian Orthodox monastery not only on Mount Athos, but also in the world, established shortly after the Baptism of Kievan Rus.
According to legend, "Xylourga" was founded by the care of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir of Kyiv, the Baptist of Rus', and his wife, the Byzantine princess Anna.
From The Tale of Bygone Years we learn that in 988 Grand Duke Vladimir sent an embassy to Jerusalem, and in 989 to Constantinople. Soon, near Jerusalem and on Mount Athos, two monasteries appeared with the same name: the Russian Mother of God Monastery. The Russian monastery in Palestine ceased to exist three centuries later, but the monastery on the Holy Mountain still exists.
Now it is a cenobitic skete belonging to the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos. It is located on the eastern side of the Holy Mount Athos at a distance of one hour from Karyes.
The cathedral church of the Russian Theotokos Monastery of Xylourgu is dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As is known, the Kiev-Pechersk monastery, founded by the Monk Anthony of the Caves upon his return from Athos, as well as the cathedral church of the monastery, were also symbolically dedicated to the Assumption of the Mother of God. Later, under the influence of Rev. Anthony, a similar Holy Dormition Monastery of the Theotokos is also founded in Chernigov, where the “father of Russian monasticism” moves to live for some time, and where he digs a new cave monastery on the Boldin Hills, which has survived to this day.
Such a coincidence in the names is not accidental. Within the limits of the Russian land, this was, as it were, a symbolic projection of the prototype - the Holy Dormition Russian Svyatogorsk monastery "Ksilurgu" and its cathedral church on the Holy Mountain, where, according to legend, the future abbot and "head of Russian monasticism" grew spiritually and took monastic vows.
Continuing this tradition, in the future, the main church of the Russian Holy Assumption Monastery of the Theotokos "Ksilurgu" served as a prototype for many Assumption Cathedrals of the Russian Land, in particular in Vladimir and Moscow.
All these temples were of particular importance for Rus'. The majestic monumental buildings of the Great Caves Church in Kiev, the Assumption Cathedrals in Chernigov, Vladimir and the Moscow Kremlin were not just the inheritance of the traditions of the ancient Russian monastery on Athos, but also, through it, an attempt to sacralize the space of the newly converted Russia, the creation, so to speak, of the “Russian icon” Athos - as the Lot of the Mother of God in Russia, thanks to which the Russian land received the right to such a responsible name - Holy Russia.
It is noteworthy that on the Holy Mountain, among the Russian monks, the significance of the Assumption Church of the Xilurgu monastery was so symbolic and sacred that, gradually moving from monastery to monastery, they erected its analogue there as well. During the resettlement of the Russian brethren to Nagorny Russik in 1169, under Abbot Lavrenty, the Assumption Cathedral of the Theotokos Monastery will be reproduced there as well. And more than six centuries later, at the beginning of the 19th century, under Abbot Savva, when a new Coastal Russik was erected, the Assumption Church would again be moved there, and with the preservation of the status of a cathedral.
This temple is memorable and sacred in that it was in it that the first Russian lampada on Athos was lit; the fact that at the altar of this cathedral the monastic vows were taken by the founder of Russian monasticism, the Monk Anthony of the Caves; the fact that it was from here that he received and transferred the blessing of Holy Mount Athos and his elder, Hegumen Gerasim, who tonsured him, to the Russian Land and, thus, forever united Holy Rus' and Holy Athos by bonds of spiritual grace-filled succession.
According to the confessor of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos, Hieromonk Macarius: “The first Russian monastery on the Holy Mountain - the monastery of Drevodel or Xylourgou - is the greatest shrine of Russian Orthodoxy and Russian Athos. It is the cradle of Russian monasticism. The importance of the Mother of God Monastery of Xylourgou for Holy Rus' is evidenced not so much by the influx of inhabitants and material resources into it, but by the huge reverse influence that the monastery had on our Fatherland.
Rev. Anthony - the father of Russian monasticism
Recently, the idea has been established in the literature that the Monk Anthony of the Caves on Athos labored in the monastery of Esfigmen, which, as confirmation, is shown a small cave with a church built over it at the end of the 19th century in the name of St. Anthony of Esfigmen.
However, did this cave really belong to the Kievan Anthony? And is Anthony of Esfigmen really identical with the Monk Anthony of the Caves? This question still remains open, since no weighty evidence of the Esfigmen hypothesis, which has spread since the middle of the 19th century, has been presented.
In addition to the now well-known cave of Anthony of Esfigmen, there was another cave on Mount Athos in the 19th century, which was also attributed to St. Anthony of the Caves, not far from the Great Lavra of St. Athanasius.
According to most researchers, there was an attempt by pious Russian pilgrims, who actively began to come to Athos in the 19th century, to independently find the place of the feat of the “chief of all Russian monks” revered in Rus'. But if the Great Lavra refused to recognize the pilgrimage identification of the cave located within its boundaries, then the monastery of Esfigmen considered this possible and allowed the Russian pilgrims to erect a temple above the cave in the name of St. Anthony of Esfigmen.
Immediately after its appearance in the 19th century, the Esfigmene hypothesis was sharply criticized by a number of well-known church historians and archaeologists. In particular, doubts about its authenticity were expressed by Bishop Porfiry (Uspensky), who worked hard in the archives of the Svyatogorsk monasteries; Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin), who studied the monasteries of the Holy Mountain in 1859; Professor Evgeny Golubinsky and others. All of them, independently of each other, came to the conclusion that the Esfigmene biography and the cave presented by the Esfigmenians were not authentic and were “invented” on the eve of the arrival of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov on the Holy Mountain in 1843 in order to draw the attention of noble Russian pilgrims to their monastery.
The Esphigmenian biography of St. Anthony, published during this period, in its original version suffered from significant chronological inaccuracies, so that the question involuntarily arose: are the Greek and Russian lives talking about the same saint? So, in accordance with the Greek version, the Monk Anthony was not a Rusyn, but a Greek by nationality and came to the monastery in 973, and received tonsure himself in 975 from the Abbot of the Esfigmen Monastery Theoktist.
However, the Russian lists of life unequivocally state that the Monk Anthony of the Caves was not a Greek, but a Rusyn, and he was born in 983 in Lyubech in the Chernihiv region. Thus, the Greek Anthony Esfigmensky cannot be identical with the Lubechan Anthony of the Caves, since the first one came to Esfigmen 10 years earlier than our Anthony of the Caves was born.
Most likely, Anthony of Esfigmen really existed and even labored in a well-known cave on a slope not far from the Esfigmen monastery. However, there is no reason to identify him with St. Anthony of the Caves.
As it was said, in addition to the rather late legends about the existence of the caves of St. Anthony of the Caves near the Great Lavra and the Esphigmen Monastery, there is another, older and plausible legend on Athos that the future father of Russian monasticism initially labored on the Holy Mountain not in Greek, but in the Russian monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin "Ksilurgu".
The archivist and librarian of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos, Schemamonk Matthew (Olshansky), back in the 19th century, shortly after the “Esphigma hypothesis” was first published, expressed bewilderment on behalf of the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery and its elders, Hieroschemamonk Jerome (Solomentsov) and Schema-Archimandrite Macarius (Sushkin). Indeed, among the Russian monks on the Holy Mountain, the legend has long been popular that the Monk Anthony of the Caves asceticised precisely in the ancient Russian monastery of Xilurgu.
According to the legend of the monastery, it was here that the ancestor of ancient Russian monasticism, a native of the Chernigov land, Reverend Anthony of the Caves, took tonsure, and later from here, with the blessing of the elders of the monastery, he transferred the Athos charter to Rus', founding the Kiev-Pechersk monastery following the Athos model, which became the center and school of ancient Russian monasticism and enlightenment for all Rus'.
“Lord, let the blessing of Holy Mount Athos and the prayer of my father, who tonsured me, be in this place,” said the Monk Anthony at the site of the founding of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery.
Who was this great elder-abbot, who tonsured the monk and whose blessing played such a decisive role in the fate of not only the Kiev-Pechersk monastery, but also the entire Russian Church and Rus' itself? This question remains open. However, most likely, he was the same Reverend Elder Gerasim, “the presbyter and abbot of the Rosov monastery”, the first rector of the “Xilurgu” monastery, who left his signature on the aforementioned Svyatogorsk act of 1016.
It is known from hagiographic records that the Monk Anthony (in the world of Antipas; born 983) arrived on Athos at a very young age (c. 1000). Already in 1013 he returned to Kyiv from the Holy Mountain for the first time. After spending a little time in Kiev, in 1015, as a result of internecine turmoil after the death of the holy prince Vladimir and the murder of saints Boris and Gleb, he again returned to Athos, where he labored until his final return to Kiev (according to some sources, this happened after 1030, according to others - after 1051).
It is obvious that the ancestor of ancient Russian monasticism begins to labor on the Holy Mountain until 1013. It was impossible to make such trips from Rus' to Athos in those days on your own. Therefore, undoubtedly, other companions had to accompany the Monk Anthony on such distant and unsafe wanderings. All this confirms that the first Russian monks appeared on Athos long before 1013. Apparently, it was they who in 1016 made up the brethren of the first ancient Russian Athos monastery, the abbot of which was the aforementioned Gerasim. Apparently, it was he who was the spiritual mentor and elder of the young Anthony, who tonsured him into monasticism and later blessed him to establish a “representation” of the Russian Svyatogorsk Monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin in Kyiv.
The successor of the venerable hegumen Gerasim was, apparently, hegumen "Rusik" Theodulus, who left his signature on the mutual act of the monasteries of Esfigmen and Xylourgu for the year 1030. An analogue of this charter is still kept in the archives of St. Panteleimon's Russian Monastery on Athos. Probably, it was under the new hegumen Theodulus that the Monk Anthony finally returned to Rus' and founded here the Kievo-Pechersk monastery in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God, in imitation, or perhaps at the initial stage, and as a “farmstead” or “representation” of the Athos Holy Assumption Mother of God monastery "Xylourgou".
Missionary value of "Rusik"
It is known that the Russian monastery on Mount Athos originally had the status of the Royal monastery, which at that time not all monasteries had. Perhaps the monastery was a gift from the Byzantine emperors to the prince of Kyiv. The Russian monastery had the right to directly address the emperor himself, bypassing the Protat of the Holy Mountain. From 1030 he was given the title of Abbot, and in the royal decree of 1048 he was called Lavra. Already during this period, "Rusik" had a developed economy and kept workers. He had a pier, ships, arable land, a mill, his own road from the pier to the monastery.
What was the significance of Rusik for his Fatherland, Kievan Rus, during the considered period of time? To answer it, it is necessary to remember how and why this multinational monastic state was created. According to St. Athanasius of Athos, monasteries not only had to represent the peoples from which they were composed in the pan-Orthodox center of monasticism, but also had a reverse spiritual and educational influence. The monasteries were spiritual forges that trained the bearers of the Svyatogorsk tradition of monasticism. And the Russian monastery was no exception to this rule.
Since the beginning of the 11th century, the Holy Dormition Monastery “Xylourgou” began to carry out its mission of spreading holy Orthodoxy and Athos spiritual heritage in Eastern Europe. In addition to St. Anthony of the Caves, the monastery gave other ascetics who brought spiritual enlightenment and Athos traditions to the Slavs. Based on the life of St. Moses Ugrin († 1043), it can be argued that after 1018 a Russian hieromonk from Athos was sent to Poland, who tonsured Moses a monk there. In 1225, on Mount Pochaev, the Russian Holy Mountain Saint Methodius founded the future glorified Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. The place where it is located is still called the Holy Mountain. In the 11th-13th centuries, some Athos monks also settled in the chalk mountain on the banks of the Seversky Donets, laying the foundation for another Assumption Lavra, also later called Svyatogorsk.
All three glorified monasteries are connected with the Holy Mountain, they are named, like the monastery of Xylourgou, in honor of the Assumption and are marked by the special providence of the Mother of God. All of them were founded by Russian ascetics of the Holy Mount Athos and approximately at the same time interval - in the pre-Mongolian period of the history of Kievan Rus. The sources do not indicate exactly from which monastery of the Holy Mountain they came. But the time of their mission coincides with the heyday of ancient Russian monasticism in the monastery of Xilurgu on Mount Athos. Therefore, most likely, all these Russian Athonites came from one ancient Russian Lavra on Athos - the Holy Dormition Monastery of the Virgin "Ksilurgu".
So, it was this ancient Russian monastery on Mount Athos that became the spiritual and historical link that closely connected the newly enlightened Kievan Rus and Mount Athos. From it, 1000 years ago, the Monk Anthony of the Caves was the first to transfer and establish Orthodox monasticism in Rus'. In addition to St. Anthony, the monastery "Xilurgu" gave Rus' and many other ascetics and educators who played a decisive role in spiritual enlightenment and the formation of Holy Rus'.
Nagorny Rusik
The Russian monastery on the Holy Mountain in the X-XIII centuries, during the gradual weakening of Byzantium, continued to develop thanks to the support of the Fatherland, thanks to which it quickly reached its peak. The donations and contributions of the Russian Princes gave her not only the possibility of existence, but also the opportunity to defend her positions in those difficult conditions that created the Middle Ages as an island of a foreign ethnic group in a foreign environment.
During this period, the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery was so often replenished with new inhabitants from Rus' that, not being able to fit in the original monastery, it began to acquire impoverished and deserted cells and small monasteries in the area.
The growth in the number of brethren forced Abbot "Ksilurga" Fr. Lawrence in 1169 to apply for assistance to the Holy Kinot. The governing body of Athos, after long meetings, decided to transfer the Russian monastery to the nearby ancient Thessalonian monastery, which by that time had been abandoned by the Greek monks. So the main part of the Russian brethren from Xylourgou at the end of the XII century moved to a larger monastery "Thessalonian" in the name of the holy healer Panteleimon (now known as "Old Rusik", or "Nagorny Rusik"), which is on the old road connecting the administrative center of Athos - Karei with the current coastal Russian on Athos St. Panteleimon Monastery.
At the same time, cells in the capital of Athos, Kareia, were allocated to the Russian monastery by the Holy Kinot. As for the former location of the monastery - Xylourga, it did not remain abandoned. The monastery was transformed into a skete, which remained under the jurisdiction of the Russian monastery. It still belongs to the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos.
In a new place, on a beautiful hill, surrounded by virgin nature, the brotherhood "Rusika" stayed for about 700 years.
An interesting fact is that when the Russian monastery on Athos under Abbot Lawrence moved to a new, more convenient place in 1169, here, according to tradition, the Assumption Cathedral, symbolically important for Rus', was recreated, which in the Russian church consciousness had a special spiritual significance.
With the resettlement to a new place, the Russian monastic brotherhood continued to fulfill its traditional function of spreading the Svyatogorsk monastic heritage. In 1180, the Serbian prince Rastko, the future Saint Savva, the founder of the autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church, was tonsured in the Russian monastery. He made his choice to become a monk on Mount Athos as a result of a conversation with a Russian Athonite, a resident of Rusik, who went on obedience to the Serbian Land. Thus, Rusik was of exceptional importance not only in the Orthodox enlightenment of Rus', but also in Serbia and all Slavs. In 1382, the Russian Svyatogorsky Monastery, with the permission of the Serbian King Lazarus, built a daughter monastery in Serbia on the Drencha River. The monk Dorotheos, a resident of Rusik, became the builder. Back in 1950, the ruins of this monastery on Drença were shown in the vicinity of Trstenik.
In the 13th century, the ties between Russian Athos monasticism and Russia, which suffered from the Mongol-Tatar invasion, were temporarily interrupted. At this time, the monastic brotherhood of the Athos monastery from Rus' was not replenished and mostly consisted of Serbs. In 1307, Catalan pirates burned the Russian Monastery on the Holy Mountain, leaving only the tower of St. Savva. "Rusik" fell into decay, but thanks to the fraternal help of the Serbian princes and kings, it was revived. Through their own efforts, he was later returned under the patronage of the Russian princes. Beginning with Grand Duke Vasily III, the Russian rulers considered it their important duty to provide material and political support to the monastery.
In 1508, the widow of the Serbian despot Stefan and the mother of the last despot John, nun Angelina, later canonized, arrived in Moscow to Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich (1479-1533) and solemnly transferred to him the right to an ancient and glorious fatherland - The Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery, about which there was no one else to take care of, except for his royalty. It was from this moment that the close relationship of the Russian Sovereign with the St. Panteleimon Monastery began. The Grand Duke helps Rusik, makes donations and generous contributions. Through the Russian monastery, during this period of time, by the will of the Grand Duke, alms were delivered for Prot himself and other monasteries of Athos. This could not but lead to an increase in the significance of the Russian monastery on Athos, as it was in former times in the pre-Mongolian period.
The mutual attraction of Holy Rus' and the Holy Mountain at that time was also due to the fact that together they remained the only stronghold and the only support of Orthodoxy in the world. All other Orthodox powers, all other Local Churches were in captivity. Moreover, Rus' itself, by analogy with the Holy Mountain, began to be perceived as the Lot and House of the Mother of God, because it is there, on Mount Athos, that the prototype or prototype of all the Assumption Cathedrals of Russia is located: the small and modest Assumption Church of the Russian monastery of Xylourgou, where the first Russian lampada on the Holy Mountain was lit 1000 years ago and is still burning.
At the end of the 16th century, the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery, thanks to the accumulated centuries-old spiritual potential, again begins to gain strength. In the era of the activation of Catholic expansion, he becomes an active defender of Orthodoxy, and not only in Rus': the monastery feeds the Russian Orthodox population on the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. And in 1596, at the Anti-Uniate Council in Brest, the Abbot of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery, the Holy Archimandrite Matthew, took an active part, as an authorized Bishop of Mukachevo, Amfilohiy. In 1621, at the Orthodox Council in Kiev, called the "Council of Piety", where measures were developed to establish Orthodoxy, it was decided "to send Russians who are sincerely inclined towards a virtuous life to be sent to Athos, as to a spiritual school."
Thus, at the end of the XIV - beginning of the XV centuries, the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery is experiencing a new period of its revival.
Having healed the wounds from the heavy Mongol yoke, Russian monks again begin to arrive on Athos from different parts of Rus', both northeastern and southwestern.
But after the fall of Constantinople and the spread of Turkish rule over the entire territory of the former Byzantine Empire, the Russian monastery on Athos underwent new serious trials, sometimes the monastery was completely abandoned.
With the intensification of the confrontation between Russia and Turkey at the beginning of the 18th century, the Turkish authorities began in every possible way to prevent the access of Russian monks to the Holy Mountain, which led to a new decline in the Russian monastery.
In addition, one of the main reasons for the suppression of Russian monasticism on Mt. In 1721, the last Russian Abbot Varlaam died.
In 1725, when the life of Emperor Peter I was interrupted, only four monks remained in Russik, but only two of them were Russians, while the other two, one of whom was hegumen, were Bulgarians. Ten years later, in 1735, after the death of the last of the Russian monks, the monastery was proclaimed Greek. After another 10 years, the Kiev monk-traveler Vasily Grigorovich-Barsky, who visited the monastery, will find here an already organized Greek brotherhood, in which there will not be a single Russian. According to the Charter of the Holy Mountain, from now on the monastery was hopelessly lost for the native brethren...
Coastal Rusik
In connection with the economic decline experienced by Rusik in the middle of the 18th century, the Greek brethren of the monastery decided to leave the monastery on the mountain and move it closer to the sea, to the pier of the monastery, where it was much easier to organize accommodation. Thus, in 1760 the main center of the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon, for economic reasons, is transferred from the “Thessalonian” monastery to a more convenient area nearby, on the seashore, where at the end of the 17th century, the retired Bishop Christopher of Jerisoi built a cell, a small church in honor of the Ascension of the Lord and a pier (arsana). This new, third in a row, location of the center of the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery remains the main one to this day.
The monastery, moved closer to the sea, received the unofficial name "Coastal Rusik", while the previous, second center of the Russian monastery, "Thessalonian", began to be called "Old Russik" or "Nagorny Rusik" and was transformed into a skete, located, like the monastery "Xilurgu ”, depending on the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos.
It is noteworthy that with the transfer of the center of the monastery to a new place, according to tradition, the Holy Assumption Church was also transferred here, and with the preservation of the status of a cathedral. Thus, the spiritual continuity of the Assumption Cathedral, which is key for Rus', symbolizing the uninterrupted connection with the ancient Russian Assumption monastery “Xilurgu”, was also preserved in the new location.
The organizers of the new Rusik center were shiigumen Savva and the Moldavian ruler John Callimachus.
Despite the transfer of the monastery to a more economically advantageous place, its decline continued due to exorbitant debts and lack of funds. Then, in 1803, the Ecumenical Patriarch Kallinikos received a report from the Holy Mountain Protat on the deplorable state of affairs in Rusik, where a request was made to the Patriarch to completely abolish the monastery.
However, His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Kallinikos, in his pastoral wisdom, foreseeing the future revival of the Russian monastery, decisively rejected the proposal of the Holy Kinot to abolish the Russian monastery and transfer its estates to other monasteries for unpaid debts. Moreover, the Patriarch instructed the Protat by his special letter to take care of the restoration of the Russian cenobitic monastery, promising from his side help in raising funds. His Holiness the Patriarch especially insisted on the restoration of the cenobitic charter, for the first time in the 600 years of the existence of the monastery, abolished in it by the Greek monks who settled there since 1740.
The executor of his will, the Patriarch, by lot, appointed the already 70-year-old elder hieroschemamonk Savva from the current Xenophic skete, which previously belonged to the Russian monastery. Three times the elder refused the position of hegumen, apologizing for his old age, but His Holiness threatened him with the judgment of God for opposing God's will. And the Great Martyr Panteleimon himself showed his help to the old builder Savva, who was in poor health.
Having assumed the abbotship in the monastery, Elder Savva managed, with the help of God, to achieve not only the expansion of the monastery, but also the improvement of its financial situation. In this difficult field, he was supported by another circumstance. The dragoman (translator) of the Turkish Sultan Mahmud II Callimachus was bedridden with a serious illness and in despair turned to the healing power of the Great Martyr St. Panteleimon, whose honest and miraculous head has been kept in Rusik for a long time. He invited Abbot Savva to Constantinople with a request to take with him the miraculous relics of the saint. After applying to them, his health improved dramatically, and he was appointed by the sultan to the place of the ruler of Wallachia.
Remembering the miracle with gratitude, he began to actively finance the restoration of the monastery and the construction of its new buildings. For this purpose, he sends to the Russian monastery the chief engineer of the Turkish Sultan, a Christian by religion. Thanks to the efforts of Callimachus, many buildings are being built here (chapels, cells, a hotel, a hospital) and, first of all, the cathedral church of the monastery. The end of the life of the Greek benefactor Rusik was crowned with a martyr's crown: after the start of the Greek national liberation uprising in 1821, an angry Turkish crowd hanged him together with Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory V.
A new stage in the revival of the Russian monastery begins in 1835, when Russian monks were able to arrive at the monastery from Russia for the first time in many decades. Among them is Prince Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, who took the tonsure with the name Anikita and did a lot for the improvement of St. Panteleimon's monastery. But the main merit of the revival of the Russian monastery belongs to the elder-hieroschemamonk Jerome (Solomentsov). At the invitation of the Greek brethren of the St. Panteleimon Monastery and with the blessing of the spiritual father of the Russian Athonites, Elder Arseniy Athos, he came to the monastery with seven of his associates, and when he died in 1885, 600 Russian monks labored in the monastery.
Since that time, the number of Russian monks on Athos has been growing rapidly and multiplying, so that soon the researchers started talking about the formation of such a spiritual and historical phenomenon as "Russian Athos". Already at the beginning of the 20th century, the number of Russian monks on Athos was 5,000 (of which over 2,000 were in the Panteleimon Monastery), while there were 3,900 Greeks on the Holy Mountain, 340 Bulgarians, 288 Romanians, 120 Serbs and 53 Georgians.
In 1875, the spiritual son of Elder Jerome Father Macarius (Sushkin) became the new abbot of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery, who remained in this post until 1889. Under him, the monastery strengthened its spiritual and financial position, expanded significantly and moved to a leading position among other Athos monasteries.
In Odessa, St. Petersburg, Moscow and Constantinople, the monastery had courtyards through which the material support of the monastery was provided and the flow of pilgrims to its shrines from all over the Russian Empire was organized.
A particularly massive flourishing of pilgrimage to the shrines of the St. Panteleimon Monastery was observed in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. During this period, up to 30 thousand people came to the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos every year through the Russian Athos courtyards in Odessa, where the gathering of pilgrims took place. All of them found shelter in the monastery, were accommodated in a hospice (archondarik) and received free food. Pious Russian Christians, of course, did not remain in debt, making generous donations for the needs of the monastery and thereby materially ensuring its full functioning.
To ensure convenient and affordable pilgrimage to Mount Athos by Russian people, the St. Panteleimon Monastery opened its own representative offices (farmsteads) in Russia and Constantinople, its own hotels for pilgrims, and even purchased its own steamboats, which year-round, once a month, in an organized manner delivered pilgrims from Russia to Athos.
After the tragic events of 1917, the pilgrimage infrastructure established by the Russian Monastery was lost, and the pilgrimage of believers from Russia to Athos was impossible for about 80 years.
The October Revolution of 1917 had extremely tragic consequences for the entire Russian monasticism on Mount Athos. From now on, all help from Russia ceases to come here, and Russian monks are cut off from their homeland. During this period, an insignificant replenishment in the Panteleimon Monastery occurred at first only at the expense of the population of Transcarpathia, and later Russian White emigrants living in Western Europe and the USA.
In Soviet Russia itself, the well-being of the Russian Monastery on Athos was also dealt a serious blow: the communist regime confiscated all the property of the St. Panteleimon Monastery (farmsteads, metochs, chapels), the inhabitants of the farmsteads themselves were repressed, and some of them were martyred for Christ.
Completely cut off from the motherland, the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery gradually fell into decay. The once rich and majestic buildings of the monastery were derelict and destroyed. Of the former 2,000 inhabitants, about 20 infirm old people remained in the monastery, after whose death there would be no one to pass on and preserve the traditions of Russian Athos. On the agenda was the question of settling Rusik with Greek monks and turning it into a Greek monastery, as had previously happened with the former Russian Skete of St. Andrew.
Russian Svyatogorsky monastery today
According to all outward signs, the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon on Athos should have gradually come to a complete decline, left without Russian inhabitants. But the Providence of God was pleased to develop differently.
In the 1960s a new page opens in the history of Rusik. With the end of the Cold War, the previous barriers for those wishing to leave for Athos from the USSR, which was squeezed in the grip of atheism, also weakened. In 1965, the Greek government granted Greek citizenship to five monks from Soviet Russia and allowed them to come to the Holy Mountain.
Among the new inhabitants from the USSR was the current abbot of the St. Panteleimon Monastery, Father Jeremiah (Alekhine), who is now 99 years old. In the 1930s - 1940s. he passed through Soviet and German concentration camps, drank the bitter cup of atheistic persecution of faith. For 14 years he had to wait for permission to move to Athos. And yet, despite all the difficulties, on August 26, 1974, Patriarch Demetrius of Constantinople announced that out of the six declared monks from the USSR, only two were given permission to settle on the Holy Mountain. And in April 1975, Father Jeremiah came to Athos for permanent residence. Three years later, in December 1978, he was elected hegumen hegumen, and on June 5, 1979, he was confirmed as hegumen of the Russian Athos monastery by Patriarch of Constantinople.
Through the efforts of Father Jeremiah and the newly arrived young brethren, the revival of Rusik begins.
A new period in the life of the St. Panteleimon Monastery opened in the early 1990s. with the fall of the atheist-communist system in the homeland. The number of Russian monks in the monastery gradually increased and today it is more than 80 people (in total, there are about 2000 monks on Athos now). Over the past few years, work has been actively carried out on the overhaul and restoration of dilapidated buildings of the monastery.
The lost traditions of the pilgrimage of Orthodox Russian people to the shrines of Rusik are also being revived. For these purposes, a hotel for pilgrims (archondarik) operates at the monastery, free meals are provided, excursions are held, combined with worship of the numerous shrines of the monastery and participation in divine services.
Shrines of the monastery
The Russian Athos St. Panteleimon Monastery is a centuries-old invaluable spiritual and national treasury of the Russian people, its national pride and spiritual and cultural stronghold, embodying the 1000-year history of the stay of Russian monks on Mount Athos.
But, besides this, the monastery is also valuable because since ancient times it has kept numerous miraculous and healing shrines of pan-Orthodox significance, to which any of the pilgrims can freely venerate and pray.
Thus, in the main cathedral of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery in honor of the Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, pilgrims at divine services have access to worship and pray to the honest head of this great saint - a priceless decoration and treasure of both the temple and the Russian monastery, and the entire Holy Mount Athos. As you know, numerous pilgrims have repeatedly received and continue to receive healings and miracles from the head of St. Panteleimon the Healer, deeply revered both in Greece and in Rus'.
Also in this temple you can venerate a part of the Tree of the Cross of the Lord and St. relics of St. John the Baptist and Baptist of the Lord, head of St. Venerable Martyr Stephen the New, head of St. Venerable Martyr Paraskeva, St. Great Martyr Marina, a particle of the relics of St. Joseph the Betrothed, St. Apostle Thomas, St. Simeon the Stylite, St. Martyrs George the Victorious, Demetrius of Thessalonica and many others. A significant part of the stone, rolled away from the tomb of the Lord, from which the septenary was made, also remains here.
The second cathedral of the Russian Svyatogorsky monastery - the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. Here are parts of the Life-Giving Tree of the Cross of the Lord, parts of the relics of St. John the Baptist and Baptist of the Lord, St. The Apostles Peter, Andrew the First-Called, Matthew, Luke, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Barnabas, Ioakov Alfeev, Timothy, Prochorus, Thaddeus, St. Anna, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, St. First Martyr Archdeacon Stephen, St. Archdeacon Lawrence, St. Righteous Joseph the Betrothed, St. Dionysius the Areopagite, St. equal to apost. Tsars Constantine and Helena, Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose of Milan, John the Merciful, Gregory Palamas and many others.
In total, parts of the relics of more than 300 Greek, Russian, Georgian saints are kept in the St. Panteleimon Monastery, Russian on Athos, most of which each of the pilgrims can freely venerate, pray and ask for help.
Particularly revered are the chapters and parts of the chapters of St. vmch. Panteleimon the Healer, St. Silouan of Athos, the upper part of the head of St. Apostle and Evangelist Luke, schmch. Anfima of Nicomedia, prmch. Ignatius of Athos, Euthymius of Athos and Akakios of Athos, part of the left foot of St. ap. Andrew the First-Called in a silver ark, part of the right hand of St. rights. John the Russian and many other shrines. Therefore, I tried to spend as much time as possible at these shrines.
In the Russian Athos Monastery, the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, called "Jerusalem", the icon of the Mother of God "Kazan", the icon of the Mother of God "Abbess of the Holy Mount Athos", the icon of St. Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John, an ancient icon of St. Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, icon of St. Hieromartyr Charalambius and others. Before them, each of the pilgrims can pray all the days of their stay in the monastery.
In addition to the Panteleimon and Pokrovsky churches, pilgrims in the Russian monastery especially remember the ancient church in the name of St. Mitrofan, as well as the chapel or the smaller Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos. In addition, there are about 30 small churches (chapels) on the territory of the Russian monastery, including the only church in the world in honor of All Holy Russian Princes and Tsars.
The Cathedral of Holy Russian Sovereigns includes 160 representatives of two dynasties that ruled in Rus': the Ruriks and the Romanovs. Its celebration was established in the monastery in 2013 with the blessing of the abbot of the St. Panteleimon Monastery, Schema-Archimandrite Jeremiah, in connection with the consecration of the temple in honor of all the famous Princes and Tsars of Rus': from Prince Vladimir to Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich. So far, this is the only church in the world dedicated to all the holy Russian sovereigns.
An important shrine of the monastery is a tomb located near the monastery with a church in the name of the Apostles Peter and Paul, where the brethren rest, and where, according to the ancient Athos tradition, there is a ossuary with numerous heads of the ascetics of the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery. Night services in the ossuary, furnished on all sides of the walls from floor to ceiling with shelves with the skulls of holy monks, evoke especially unforgettable inner experiences and impressions.
Library and archive Rusik
The library and archive complex of St. Panteleimon Monastery, Russian on Athos, being the place of concentration of monastic collections of manuscripts, books, archival documents, notes, photographs, etc., is an invaluable center for the preservation and study of domestic and pan-Orthodox spiritual culture and heritage.
To date, the library has registered more than 42 thousand titles of books; more than 88 thousand volumes, as well as more than 40 thousand copies of various brochures on spiritual topics published by the Panteleimon Monastery in the pre-revolutionary period.
The deadlines for the release of publications stored in the library: for printed books - from 1492 to the present day, for handwritten books - from the 7th to the 20th centuries.
Also in the monastery are stored ancient manuscripts, numbering 2399 items. All of them are conditionally divided into four groups according to the language of the text: Greek (1595 titles); Slavic-Russian (1434 titles); foreign language (45 titles).
The collection of Church Slavonic manuscripts contains manuscripts from the 11th-19th centuries. Many of the Greek manuscripts are rare examples of calligraphic art and contain a large number of miniatures and ornaments. Russian manuscripts contain the works of the monks of the monastery and various Russian authors of the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century: texts of a dogmatic, homiletic, catechetical and generally general theological nature, spiritual writings and historical notes. An important part of this department of manuscripts is the manuscripts of St. Theophan the Recluse, transferred to the Panteleimon Monastery at the end of the 19th century.
Most of the department of rare books are editions in Latin, Greek, French, German. Among the ancient incunabula: "Conversations of St. Gregory the Dialogist" in Latin, published in Rome in 1492 by the printing house of the Vatican. The oldest printed edition of the Holy Scriptures (Old and New Testament) in ancient Greek, presented in the library of the St. Panteleimon Monastery, is a book of 1518, published by Andrei Sotseri's printing house in Florence.
In the department of periodicals of the library of the Panteleimon Monastery, all the spiritual periodicals of pre-revolutionary Russia are collected. Periodicals of the post-revolutionary period also deserve special attention. Russian emigrants, wherever they were: in China, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, France, Germany, Argentina and the USA, everywhere sought to publish spiritual magazines and newspapers. Almost all of them considered it their duty to send their publications to Russik. Thus, a unique collection of emigrant periodicals was assembled, according to which one can study not only the history of the White emigration, but, in particular, the history of Russian emigrant publishing.
Recently, in parallel with the process of cataloging the book fund, the library of the Panteleimon Monastery has begun the process of transferring the manuscripts and rare books stored here to digital media. It is planned to completely scan the entire manuscript fund and the fund of rare books. The creation of a database of digitized texts will make it possible in the future to issue to researchers not original manuscripts (sometimes extremely dilapidated), but their digital copies.
The archival fund of the Russian on Athos St. Panteleimon Monastery is mainly a collection of documents that have historically developed over the past 300 years of the monastery's history. Among them there are documents from an earlier era, the oldest of which is dated 1030.
The archive of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos contains materials convincingly confirming the fact that there has never been a gap in the spiritual life between Russia and Athos. Russian Athos monks, far from their homeland, have preserved and brought Russian spiritual culture to this day. And after the promulgation of the spiritual heritage of the Russian ascetics of Athos, their lives and teachings, all this will become one of the powerful factors in the spiritual revival not only of Russia and other Slavic states, but of the entire Orthodox world.
Museum of Russian Athos
In addition to the library and archive, there is another remarkable place where a pilgrim should definitely go - this is a unique museum complex of the monastery, dedicated to the thousand-year heritage of Russian monasticism on Athos.
The Museum of Russian Athos has a rich collection of exhibits: ancient manuscripts, rare books, liturgical vestments, church utensils, icons, paintings, figurines, mechanisms, tools, household items, photographs and much more. All this is connected with the history and heritage of the Holy Mountain. Presented here are both exhibits from the era of antiquity: the times of the Greco-Persian wars, Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire, when ancient Greek cities-polises were located on Athos, as well as exhibits from the times of the Byzantine Empire and Turkish rule.
Acquaintance with the museum and its unique collection allows pilgrims to join the rich heritage, culture, spirituality and history of the Holy Mountain and Russian Athos.
Here, in one place, its entire history and all the centuries-old heritage of the Holy Mountain are presented.
Pilgrimage to Russian Athos
Orthodox pilgrimage is a significant component of a full-fledged church life, which is a form of worship of God and is the realization of the spiritual need of the flock to worship shrines, participate in divine services at holy places, prayerful communion with believers as an expression of the unity and catholicity of the Orthodox Church.
For this reason, the pilgrimage to the shrines of Athos has been and remains the oldest spiritual and historical tradition of Russian Orthodoxy. It is known that among the first ancient Russian pilgrims was the founder of monasticism in Rus' - Rev. Anthony of the Caves, who received on Mount Athos, in the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery "Ksilurgu", a blessing for the creation of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Since then, the influence of Mount Athos on the spiritual formation and development of Rus' has played a decisive role throughout its thousand-year history. So, to join the distant and at the same time native shrines of Athos has always been a cherished dream for many generations of Russian Orthodox people. Among such pilgrims it is worth highlighting St. Arseny Konevsky, teacher Nil Sorsky, Rev. Paisius Velichkovsky and many others, who, through familiarization with the shrines and heritage of Athos, inflamed with the desire for asceticism and holiness, transferring them to their homeland, thereby spiritually and culturally enriching and transforming their native land.
A particularly massive flourishing of pilgrimage to the shrines of Athos was observed in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period, on Athos, to worship the miraculous relics of St. Panteleimon and other shrines of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery received a huge number of Russian pilgrims. Every year, up to 30 thousand people came to the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon on Athos through the Russian Athos metochions in Odessa, where the gathering of pilgrims took place. All of them found shelter in the monastery, were accommodated in a hospice (archondarik) and received free food. Pious Russian Christians, of course, did not remain in debt, making generous donations for the needs of Rusik and thereby financially ensuring its full-fledged independent functioning.
To ensure convenient and affordable pilgrimage to Mount Athos by Russian people, the St. Panteleimon Monastery opened its own representative offices (farmsteads) in Russia and Constantinople (now Istanbul), its own hotels for pilgrims, and even purchased its own steamships, which all year round, once a month, in an organized manner delivered pilgrims from Russia to the Holy Mountain.
After the tragic events of 1917, the pilgrimage infrastructure established by the Russian monasteries of Athos was lost, and the pilgrimage of believers from Russia to Athos was impossible for about 80 years.
Now, with the revival of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos, the once lost traditions of the pilgrimage of Orthodox Russian people to the shrines of Rusik are being revived. For these purposes, a hotel for pilgrims (archondarik) operates at the monastery, free meals are provided, excursions are held, combined with worship of the numerous shrines of the monastery and participation in divine services.
In addition to worshiping shrines, pilgrims have the opportunity to visit the unique museum complex of the monastery, dedicated to the thousand-year heritage of Russian monasticism on Mount Athos and which contains a rich collection of exhibits closely related to the history and heritage of the Holy Mountain.
Excursions around the monastery, acquaintance with the exhibits of the museum and the history of Athos, which are organized by specialists from the monastery museum, are combined with an equally valuable introduction to the greatest shrines of Russian Athos.
In addition, in the Russian monastery, pilgrims have the opportunity to book a tour of other monasteries of St. Athos. To do this, the Panteleimon Monastery has a comfortable bus for 30 people, which, accompanied by an experienced guide with a theological education, provides a trip for the pilgrimage group to other ancient monasteries of the Holy Mountain.
As one of the pilgrims Igor Mikhailov notes: “Pilgrimage to the Panteleimon Monastery, participation in divine services and worship of its numerous healing and miraculous shrines and relics leave an indelible mark, transforming both spiritually and physically. This experience of visiting Russian Athos, the heart of Holy Rus' in the Lot of the Mother of God, is unforgettable. It cannot be compared to anything. In addition, it is pleasant to feel the traditional Slavic hospitality, openness and cordiality in the Panteleimon Monastery, and also the Russian language, both in communication and in worship. On Athos, this is felt especially sharply, since none of the Greek monasteries speak Russian. So the Panteleimon Monastery is truly a stronghold and stronghold of Holy Rus' on Athos.”
2016 marks the 1000th anniversary of the first written mention of the existence and activities of the ancient Russian monastery on Mount Athos, through which spiritual and cultural relationships were established between Russia and the center of Orthodox monasticism and spirituality on Athos. Despite all the difficulties that our Fatherland is going through today, this anniversary is very important. After all, a true revival of society is possible only through an appeal to one's own spiritual heritage and primary sources, where Russian Holy Mountain monasticism has always occupied one of the most important places.
The editors of the portal "Russian Athos"
