Male monastery Buryatia. Selenginsky Trinity Monastery
| Monastery | |
| Holy Trinity Selenginsky monastery | |
|---|---|
| Ensemble of the Selenginsky Trinity Monastery |
|
| 52°07′10″ s. sh. 107°10′38″ E d. HGIOL | |
| Country | Russia Russia |
| Village |
Buryatia, Pribaikalsky District With. Trinity |
| confession | orthodoxy |
| Diocese | Ulan-Ude |
| Type of | male |
| First mention | 1675 |
| Foundation date | 1681 |
| Main dates | |
|
- closed
- revived |
|
| abbot | abbot Alexy |
| Status | An object of cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation of federal significance. Reg. No. 031520240030006(EGROKN). Object No. 0410029000(Wikipedia DB) |
| State | current |
| Website | uud-eparh.ru/index.php/u… |
| Holy Trinity Selenginsky Monastery at Wikimedia Commons | |
Located 81 km northwest of Ulan-Ude on the left bank of the Selenga River. The first Orthodox monastery in Transbaikalia. Founded in 1681. Refers to the Monastic Deanery of the Ulan-Ude Diocese of the Buryat Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Story
Trinity Cathedral
Its top was a tetrahedral volume with two cross "barrels with one head", covered with a scaly plowshare. The church was crowned with a large wooden cross studded with white iron. On the north side, a five-walled altar was nailed to the main volume, on which a cross rose.
A stone bell tower was built, to which two one-story buildings adjoined. One of them was the monastery library.
In Soviet times, the bell tower was destroyed.
Trinity Cathedral is part of the architectural ensemble of the Selenginsky Trinity Monastery.
Nicholas Church
Later (1900-1905) a stone church was erected on this site, which received its original name - Nikolskaya.
St. Nicholas Church is part of the architectural ensemble of the Selenginsky Trinity Monastery.
Restoration work is currently underway.
Gate Michael-Arkhangelsk Church
Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Church is part of the architectural ensemble of the Selenginsky Trinity Monastery.
Restoration work is currently underway.
Church in the Name of All Saints (All Saints)
At the request of Archimandrite Misail, next to the western gate, in April of the year, a church was founded in the name of All Saints. Consecrated in a year.
Initially, its top was an octagonal barrel. Below are the other chapters. On one of the "domes" was depicted "The image of the Savior, sitting in a cloud."
Monastery
In August 1687, the plenipotentiary Russian ambassador, Count F. A. Golovin, visited the Trinity-Selenginsky Monastery, who made large donations for the monastery. In 1688, on his orders, Ilyinsky prison was built not far from the monastery upstream of the Selenga.
At the end of the 17th century, the regiment of F.I. Skripitsyn was located in the monastery, which defended Transbaikalia from the Manchu-Mongolian raids. According to the inventory of 1732, the monastery had 3 cannons, 65 self-propelled guns, edged weapons and ammunition.
In 1735, mail service began from the Posolsky Monastery to Kyakhta. Selenginsky Trinity Monastery contained a postal station.
From 1831 to 1876, the wooden fence around the Trinity-Selenginsky Monastery was replaced with a stone one.
On November 28, 1884, a school for boys was opened in the monastery. In 1885, 24 students studied at the school.
In 1920, after the establishment of Soviet power, the monastery was closed. A colony for criminals was located here, later for 70 years - a psychiatric hospital.
abbots
Economic activity of the monastery
At the beginning of the 18th century, the monastery was a major economic center of Transbaikalia. He owned 1,500 acres of land on the coast of Lake Baikal, in the lower reaches of the Selenga and its tributaries. In 1723, 5 villages were assigned to the monastery: Temlyui, Bui, Kunaley, Yelan, Khilotskaya Sloboda, with a total of 84 yards.
By decree of November 27, 1713, the Selenginsky Monastery transferred the Prorva Bay to the Posolsky Monastery, and in return, in 1714, it received Lake Kotokel with the rivers flowing into it "in perpetual possession". In addition, the rivers Mostovka, Cheremkhovaya, Golaya, Turka, Kotochik and Istok were assigned to the monastery. These possessions were located at a distance of 130-140 miles to the north-east of the monastery. The monastery also owned a coastal strip along Baikal from the Selenga to the northeast. All these possessions were preserved by the monastery until the beginning of the 20th century.
The main source of income for the Trinity Monastery was fishing. Fisheries were rented out. In the 19th-early 20th centuries, more than thirty species of fish were found in Baikal and the rivers adjacent to it on the eastern side. The annual profit of the Selenginsky monastery from its sale amounted to 40 thousand rubles. Fisheries declined catastrophically in the 1880s due to overfishing.
The monastery owned large tracts of land. He owned Timlyuiskaya, Khilotskaya and Kudarinskaya estates, estates in Irkutsk, Kyakhta, Selenginsk. By the 1730s, the monastery had about 1.5 thousand acres of land. There were 529 monastic peasants (334 according to other sources). In total there were about 10 villages where the peasants of the Selenginsky monastery lived. They were located along the rivers Khilok, Bui and Kunaley in
Orthodox Church in Buryatia
The official date of the annexation of Siberia to Russia Russian historiography
his process dragged on for nearly a century. It was during this period that
annexed to Russia Transbaikalia. For Cossack explorers it
was of interest as a place for the production of furs, searches and development of gold and
silver ores, and most importantly - as a territory for laying trade routes in
China and other eastern countries.
By the time the Russians arrived, Western and Eastern Transbaikalia were inhabited
Buryat tribes consolidating into a single ethnic complex, and
various groups of Tungus (Evenks), among which the dominant in the steppes
the place was occupied by the so-called equestrian Evenks, and in the south a strong
tribal grouping of Mongolian-speaking tabunuts, which later became part of
composition of the Buryat people. The Khori Buryats and tabunuts lived mainly
in Western Transbaikalia, where they were engaged in nomadic pasture cattle breeding. Them
population in the 1640s was about 60,000 people. According to
most researchers, the Buryats at the time under consideration were on
stages of patriarchal-feudal relations2.
Joining Russian state Transbaikalia began in the second
half of the 40s. XVII century AT 1646 . Cossack chieftain Vasily Kolesnikov
put at the mouth of the river flowing from the north into the lake. Baikal r. Upper Angara Ostrozhek
and began to explain the local Tungus population. In a short time it was
collected 4 forty 35 sables. However, due to the "bread poverty" V. Kolesnikov
was forced to release 40 servicemen and walkers (runaway, staggering, homeless
and nameless) people from their prison to the Yenisei prison. In view of this, in
same year, the Yenisei governor F. Uvarov sent a boyar son to help him
Ivan Pokhabov with service and willing people, and most importantly - with 200 pounds
rye flour. September 29 1647 . V. Kolesnikov himself arrived in the Yenisei
prison and brought with him 11 magpies 7 yasak sables, valued at 951 rubles.
The ataman reported to the governor that he had sent three servicemen from the Angarsk prison
people led by Kostka Ivanov Moskvitin with Tungus guides
down the rivers Barguzin and Selenga "to the Mungal land" to search for new
yasak people and information about silver ore. These Cossacks, the first of the Russian
1647 . the rates of the Mongolian prince Turukhay-tabun, who roamed with 20 thousand
his subjects between the right tributaries of the Selenga - the rivers Chikoy and Khilok.
The prince kindly received the Russians and their gifts: beaver skins, otters,
lynxes, a couple of sables and "cloth of azure tops". Turukhay-tabun transmitted from
servicemen as a gift to the king of a golden "truncated" and a silver cup, and V.
Kolesnikov - a silver plate. As a sign of his obedience to the Russian Tsar
the prince granted the Cossacks the right to collect yasak from 2 thousand of his ulus people,
who contributed 50 sables to them3.
Autumn 1648 . 40 versts from the mouth of the river flowing into Baikal from the east.
Barguzin, the Yenisei boyar son Ivan Galkin, founded the Barguzinsky prison,
which became one of the main strongholds of the Russian Cossacks. Started from here
to send new military expeditions to all ends of Transbaikalia and to the Far
East. In 1652 . Yakov Pokhabov built the Baunt prison, in 1658
Governor Pashkov founded near the lake. Telemba is a prison of the same name, and several
years later - the Yeravninsky prison near the Yeravninsky lakes. AT 1665 on the Selenga
against the mouth of the river Chika, the Selenginsky prison was founded, which is
for a century served as the administrative center of Transbaikalia, and in 1666 at the mouth of the river
Uda - Uda winter hut, which soon became a prison, and then the city of Verkhneudinsk
(now the city of Ulan-Ude is the capital of the Republic of Buryatia). AT 1689 were built
Itantsinsky, Ilyinsky and Kabansky prisons. Inside them were
main state buildings: command and customs huts, state barns,
voivodship yard, church4, prison. Selenga Cossacks led by
Pentecostal G. Lovtsov in 1666 . wrote that they put in 1665
"Under the Daurian land on the borders for the extension of land near the Selenga River Ostrog
Yes, four towers, and they covered the prison of that one, and the upper and sole battle
paved, and near the prison they put gouges, and the church with three thrones
built, but in the prison and behind the prison they set up 29 huts”5. Thus, in
built prisons or newly built churches were erected.
Unfortunately, church archives The seventeenth century has not been preserved. All of them
start in the 1720s or 1730s. and later. However, for some
According to sources, the initial history of some churches is available. Yes, from archives
materials, we know the name of the first priest of the Barguzin Church -
John Voronkin. Until now, not far from the village. Barguzin there is a locality
Voronkovo.
At first, Siberian Christians, both Russians and a few baptized foreigners,
with their clergy, with their churches and monasteries, and even according to church
management, depended directly on the Moscow Patriarch: the patriarch (and
sometimes the sovereign himself, as can be seen from the letters of that time), now to this, then
to another bishop, for example, Rostov, Kazan, and more often Vologda
ordered to send one or more priests for those under construction in
Siberian cities and prisons, as well as send for the consecration of one or another
the built Siberian church of the holy world, to give a letter for consecration, etc.
or did this or that order himself6. But such an order, with extremely
distant church administration and the influx of people walking into Siberia had
a consequence of terrible riots in the departure of the Siberian clergy of their
duties and extreme licentiousness of the customs of Siberian Christians7. Learning about
these sad phenomena in the country conquered and inhabited by Russians, and about
that Christianity between the Siberian peoples almost does not spread at all
or if it spreads, then very weakly, and after consulting with his son
by his Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich and with his Consecrated Cathedral, Patriarch
Filaret in September 1620 . established a special diocese in Siberia with a chair in
Tobolsk. Cyprian became the first archbishop of Siberia and Tobolsk
(Starorusennikov). Shortly after his arrival, he called the survivors to him.
Ermak's comrades in order to collect information from them about the campaign in Siberia, and ordered
write down this information (they formed the basis of subsequent Siberian chronicles,
but did not reach us). Archbishop Cyprian recorded in the Synod of Tobolsk
cathedral, the names of the companions of Yermak who fell in battles and ordered them to be commemorated in
churches annually on "communal Sunday", or Sunday of the first week
Lent, when the memory of the first conquerors of Siberia was proclaimed (before
changes in 1869 . Holy Synod of the Order of the Triumph of Orthodoxy). AT
The Cherepanov Chronicle has the following passage with the names of the conquerors
Siberia: “Remember, Lord, those who suffered for Your sake for the sake of the name of the saint and the blood
who shed their piety, who defeated the godless king Kuchum in Siberia,
chieftains: Yermolai, John, Nikita, Jacob, Matthew and their squads: Sergius,
John 3, Andrew 3, Timothy 2, Joachim, Gregory, Alexy, Nikon, Michael,
Titus, Theodore 2, John 2, Artemy, Login, Jacob, Savva, Peter 2 and others
their retinue, and you, Lord, weigh the names.
Archbishop Cyprian ruled the diocese for a short time: in 1624 . he was appointed
Metropolitan of Sarsk and Podonsk, and then Metropolitan of Novgorod and
Velikolutsky - with 1626 . on the day of his death 1634 After him
the archbishops of the Siberian and Tobolsk diocese were Macarius (Kuchin),
Nektary (Telyashin), Gerasim (Kremlev), Simeon, Cornelius, archbishop since 1664
In 1668 . the Siberian and Tobolsk metropolis was established and the archbishop
Kornily was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan of the reigning city of Tobolsk and all
Siberia. The new metropolis was the fourth - after Novgorod, Kazan and
Astrakhan. The metropolitan was given sakkos, white cowl and trikiriya for
autumn. In the week of waiy, or Palm Sunday, a holiday reminiscent of
the entry of the Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem (in Moscow on this day, according to custom,
the patriarch solemnly sat on the donkey, and the tsar himself led the donkey by the bridle), he
mounted a donkey, which was led by the first governors of the city of Tobolsk, but the rite
this one was canceled in 1677 . Metropolitan Kornily died in Tobolsk 23
December 1677, having accepted the schema8.
From 1678 to 1692 . Metropolitan of Siberia and Tobolsk was Pavel,
who showed special concern for the construction of temples of God in Eastern Siberia.
It was with him in 1681 . by order of Tsar Theodore Alekseevich and by
blessing of Patriarch Joachim (Savelov) church cathedral decided: "In
distant cities, to the Lena in Daura, to send spiritual people, archimandrites,
abbots or priests, kind and instructive, for the enlightenment of unbelievers
was from Moscow to Tobolsk the first full mission in the history of Siberia under
superiors of the hegumen of the Temnikovsky Sretensky Monastery (Tambovskaya
diocese) Theodosius, consisting of 12 brethren, including
Hieromonk Macarius, Hierodeacon Misail, Elders Jonah, Tikhon, Theodosius, Filaret
and others. Metropolitan Pavel of Siberia and Tobolsk, having met them, gave them
instruction to which they were to adhere in the holy work of preaching
gospel: “Having arrived in Daur, in Selenginsky and in other Daurian cities and
prisons of all kinds of Gentiles ... to the true Orthodox Christian faith
to call, teaching from the Divine Scriptures with all diligence and diligence,
without laziness, and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and bring them to
to that saint and God's work Gentiles, without vanity and pride, with
pious intention, without any bitterness ... so that from what words
you can’t excommunicate obstinate foreigners, but you can’t turn away a holy cause ”10, and
“Where will they find - to build a monastery in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity on
Selenge River, and in other Daurian cities and prisons, to call and baptize in
Orthodox faith foreigners ... "11 The abbot and the brethren received money,
church utensils and set off on a long, difficult journey.
The Trinity Selenginsky Monastery was intended to be the official
religious center in the recently annexed to the Russian state
wooded ridges of mountains, on a fairly flat and elevated place, on the shore
mill river Drunk (named so for its winding course) missionaries
found an old monastery building with St. Nicholas Church, built
Nerchinsk service people back in 1675 . This is where they decided to settle.
On the royal salary, taken out of Moscow and supplemented in Yeniseisk from
Siberian income, they re-equipped the Selenginsky monastery with the main
temple in the name of the Holy Trinity. In the same, 1681 . construction was started
the first church - Trinity, which laid the foundation for the monastery. "The first cathedral
1684 Genvara 31, the second in the name of Nicholas the Wonderworker 1685 May 9
number of His Sovereign treasury built to perfection many infidels
baptized" 12. In description 1732 . Trinity Church was said to be "with
a meal on the western and northern sides, with a porch "has" the top
tetrahedral on cross barrels with one head, the cross is upholstered in white
iron. And the head is upholstered with a scaly plowshare, and on that church from the north
side of the image of the Lord of Hosts. And to that church there is a prirubny altar
five-walled"13. Trinity Church for its time was remarkable thanks to
wealth of contributions made for him by Tsar Feodor Alekseevich and
Tobolsk governor and stolnik Feodor Golovin, who was in it in
August 1687 . during the passage of the Russian embassy Golovin in
Selenginsk14. So, one of the robes, embroidered with gold, brocade and silver, was
presented to the founder of the monastery Theodosius by the wife of Tsar Feodor Alekseevich,
Tsarina Marfa Matfeevna, when sending a mission to Siberia. "King's Doors
were ornamented with skillful carvings, gilded and silvered
crowns. In addition to a large number of icons and paintings painted on boards and on
"canvas painting", in the church there were many utensils and attributes
divine services. Some of them were samples of chased and
jewelry art, very fine work of the 17th-18th centuries. For example, on
on a special stand lay the festive gospel on Alexandrian paper.
Covers and tucks were of hammered silver with gilding. Multiple sheets in
the middle of this book with brocade and color engravings were also silver.
The silver weight of this unique edition was one pound 30 spools
(537 grams)"15.
In the same, 1687 . abbot Theodosius on Baikal, on the allotted monastery
lands, built a castle and deserts for the habitation of monks on the Cape of Ambassadors,
at the place where he was killed on October 7 1650 . Moscow Ambassador Yerofey
Zablotsky with his son and companions. (Subsequently, over their graves was
a stone chapel was erected.) “In October 159, on the 7th day, the boyar son
Yarofei Zablotskoy with his son Kiril, and his assistant Vasily Chaplin, yes
Cossacks Vaska Beznoskov, Trenka Sosnin, Ofonka Sergeev, Yakunka
Skorokhodov, and the industrial man Sergushka Mikhailov, only 8 people,
went out of the plank, and withdrew a hundred fathoms, roared the fire, and by the fire
warmed up. And the interpreter Panfilko Semenov and the Mughal ambassador Sedik and industrial
12 people from Yarofey with their comrades remained with the sovereign's treasury in the ship.
And the same days ran into Yarofei with comrade brotherly people, and Tarukaya the herd
yasak people, an unknown man with a hundred, and Yarofey Zablotsky, and the son of Evo
Kiril, and Vasily Chaplin, the clerk, and the Cossacks Vaska Beznoskov with
comrades, and an industrial man was beaten to death and robbed, and a gun that
it was with them, they caught, and Panfilk and his comrades approached the ship, and from
bows on a plank were fired at them. And the interpreter Panfilko from those thieves in the plank
sat out, and the sovereign's salary, which was sent with them to Tsysan-kan and son-in-law
evo Turukai-herd, saved "16.
For the monks who lived there, hegumen Theodosius erected a wooden
chapel in the name of St. Nicholas. In the letter of the Metropolitan of Siberia and
Tobolsk Pavel from 1687 . hegumen Theodosius was instructed to "be in charge of church
dogmas and spiritual matters” among other places and in the Nikolaevskaya Zaimka. So
thus, she already had a brotherhood and laity. Then he was nailed to the chapel
altar, and in 1700 . the first church on the banks of the lake. Baikal - Posolskaya -
was consecrated by the blessed letter of Metropolitan Ignatius
(Rimsky-Korsakov)17. According to the same charter, a church in Beijing was consecrated.
for Russians, during the ruin of Albazin, captured with a priest
Maxim Leontiev, to whom Metropolitan Ignatius wrote consolation:
be troubled, let your soul be offended, and all those captivated with you about your
In such a case, after the will of God, who can resist? And your captivity is not
without benefit to the Chinese residents, as the Orthodox faith of Christ is light to them by you
opens, and your soul's salvation and heavenly recompense are multiplied"18. This same
Saint Ignatius produced in 1700 . to the rank of archimandrite rector
Trinity-Selenga monastery Misail19 and blessed him to make
clergy with the right to wear a gaiter, a club, and then a mitre.
The Cathedral Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior was built later, "by the merchant
Beijing caravan" by Grigory Afanasyevich Oskolkov, who equipped the entire
monastery, and subsequently the Ambassadorial Monastery began to be called after it
Spaso-Preobrazhensky.
Trinity-Selenginsky and Posolsky monasteries initially used
privileges of the government and the patriarch. Shortly after their founding, they were given
large estates, zaimkas and fishing grounds. In addition to state grants
monasteries expanded their possessions at the expense of lands and property of private individuals -
contributors. Acceptance and rejection letters gave them the opportunity to get yards,
land plots, mills, estates of some residents of Irkutsk,
Selenginsk, Kyakhta, Verkhneudinsk and other places.
Most of the allotted land was intended for the newly baptized Buryats. So
how the initial development of Transbaikalia was carried out by Russian Cossacks
detachments and "walking" people, then after the expiration of time, resigning,
many "serving and walking" people "married newly baptized applied and
bought girls and women ", built houses" and sat on those lands in
peasantry"20. There were also cases of abduction of Buryat women or flight
Buryats in Russian villages. The monastic clergy did not interfere
this, realizing how important the “feminine element” is in strengthening the settled way of life and
housekeeping, and married women with their kidnappers21. The fact of baptism
cut off the way back for the Buryat woman. In December 1757 . Khorinsky Buryat
Khazui Banbaraev complained to the Board of Border Affairs about his wife Mokui:
“I don’t know from what occasion ... at night I ran out of my yurt and took away one horse,
yes, she took with her a women's sheepskin coat, one new half-length zipun,
saddle, etc. On the fourth day, the old husband found a young fugitive in
the house of the monastic peasant of the Khilotsky estate Ivan Lazarev. Myself
the victim, apparently knowing the consequences of baptism, wrote in a petition: “And
asked this Khazui to find this wife and her holder Ivan Lazarev, and
if that wife has not been baptized until now, then do it according to decrees, but if
baptized, then the horse she had taken away and the belongings from her must be collected for him, Hazuyu,
return." In the end, having learned from the monastery priest that her
baptized, the offended husband was satisfied with the returned “shkarb”22. Shel
mutual process of both Russification of the Buryat population and Buryatization
Russian. According to census records 1710 ., Russian population in Transbaikalia
was 6964 people23, and the Buryat population at the beginning of the eighteenth century. - near
40,000 people24.
Missionary work brought significant benefits to the state, since under its
educational influence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. whole villages were formed and
parishes from new Christians in different places of Transbaikalia, mainly in
monastery estates, for example, the villages of Baikal-Kudara, Treskovo, Timlyuy,
Podlopatki, Yelan, Karymsk, Maly Kunaley and many others. And these processes
mixtures of the population, little studied by science, are clearly visible on the faces
many Russians and Buryats beyond Baikal, called here Karyms or
guranami25. Gradual settlement of Transbaikalia by archers, Cossacks and others
groups of Russian people, on the one hand, and on the other, the conversion of part of the Buryats
and Evenks to Orthodoxy increased the number of parishes and churches. To the moment
creation of the Irkutsk and Nerchinsk vicariates under the Siberian and Tobolsk
metropolis ( 1707 .) on the territory of Buryatia, there were 14 churches and 2
monastery. These are the churches: Barguzin Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya, Verkhneudinskaya
Bogoroditse-Vladimirskaya, Verkhneudinskaya Spasskaya, Staro-Selenginskaya
Pokrovskaya and Staro-Selenginskaya Spasskaya, Ilinkinskaya Bogoyavlenskaya,
Kabanskaya Nativity, Itantsinskaya Spasskaya, Khilokskaya
Bogoroditse-Vladimirskaya, Kolesnikovskaya Bogoroditse-Kazanskaya, Treskovskaya
Mikhailo-Arkhangelskaya, Kudarinskaya Blagoveshchenskaya, Chikoiskaya
Petro-Pavlovskaya, Tunkinskaya Intercession and two monasteries - Selenginsky
Holy Trinity and Posolsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky. All churches and monasteries
were wooden.
By the time the Transbaikal monasteries were founded, the Siberian and Tobolsk
the metropolis occupied the area from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean. Was it possible
Metropolitan to supervise properly the clergy subordinate to him,
fill empty vacancies in churches, “is it also easy to survey
to him, at least occasionally, such a diocese, especially for the purpose of appealing to
the faith of those who are among her unbelievers, and the admonishment of those who err at the expense of
faith and because of their delusions sometimes rampant?!”26. Higher
the spiritual authorities understood the need to increase the number of dioceses in Siberia.
In 1682 . Patriarch Joachim intended to give the Metropolitan of Tobolsk 4
vicar bishops - for Tyumen, Verkhoturye, Yeniseisk and Transbaikalia, but not
was able to do this due to lack of funds.
In 1702 . The Tobolsk cathedra was headed by St. Philotheus (Leshchinsky,
1650-1727). It was Philotheus, according to Vladyka Philaret,27 who
belongs to the name of the Enlightener of Siberia. He christened up to 40,000 "foreigners" and
built up to 37 churches. Churches in the region were arranged with state money and
part of those donated by St. Philotheus himself and the then
Governor Prince Gagarin. To affirm the Christian doctrine, Vladyka
took children from the Ostyaks to teach Russian literacy and the Law of God in schools
missionaries, and sent the best of the students to the Tobolsk Slavic-Latin
school. In 1705 . he sent the first spiritual mission to Kamchatka under
the leadership of Archimandrite Martinian, whom he brought with him from Kyiv,
around 1707 . — the first spiritual mission to Mongolia. FROM 1711 at rest, in
schema with the name Theodore.
In 1707 . at the insistence of St. Philotheus at the Siberian and Tobolsk
Metropolis was opened Irkutsk and Nerchinsk vicariate. Vicar
consecrated the Tikhvin wooden church in Irkutsk, founded a year before his
arrival, in 1710 ., before leaving for Moscow, consecrated behind Baikal in
Selenginsky Trinity Monastery a wooden church in the name of All Saints over
western gate. With his blessing, already upon departure, was consecrated in
Irkutsk, the first stone church - Spasskaya. Undoubted merit of his
ministry in Eastern Siberia in that he, through the laying on of hands, provided her
priests.
After leaving in 1710 . His Grace Varlaam from Irkutsk to Moscow
Christians of Eastern Siberia with their clergy, with their churches and
monasteries again became part of the Siberian and Tobolsk metropolis. After
St. Philotheus John (Maximovich) came to the Tobolsk cathedra. Previously, with
1697 to 1711 ., he was the archbishop of Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky and in
1702 . founded the first in Russia school of higher spiritual sciences. managed
the first spiritual mission to China under the command of Archimandrite Hilarion
(Lezhaysky). He sent a list to the Irkutsk flock with the miraculous Abalatskaya
icons Mother of God with the appendix of his syllabic verses:
The Most Pure Virgin is coming from Abalak,
In a miraculous icon, merciful to everyone,
Brings a blessing to the city of Irkutsk.
Health to all citizens, good multiplication
Metropolitan John of Tobolsk wishes
Do not stop praying to the Most Pure Virgin:
O! All-singing Mati, save the city and people,
Like the apple of the eye of all living people,
Grant many years to all citizenship,
Save and cover from evil libel,
Produce and for the good every desire,
Grant a safe stay to all,
Vouchsafe the sinful city to visit them,
Donel this will be, if you please keep them
In safe and good health,
Let them live in the Kingdom of Heaven29.
This icon was in the Irkutsk Cathedral (old) Cathedral, in the aisle
All Saints, by left side from the Royal Doors.
Transbaikalia in the 18th - mid-19th centuries saw and hospitably met
four saints.
After the death of Metropolitan John, the administration of the Siberian and Tobolsk
By the decree of Peter I, the metropolis was again entrusted to St. Theodore
(Philothea), despite neither the declination of his years, nor the schema. April-May
1719 . Saint Theodore visited Transbaikalia: Verkhneudinsk, Selenginsk,
Nerchinsk. In Verkhneudinsk, at the request of the parishioners of the Church of the Savior, he ordained
Archimandrite Hilarion (Lezhaysky) and Metropolitan Theodore died in Beijing
wrote from Transbaikalia on April 4 1719 . Siberian Governor Prince M.P.
Gagarin, who was then in St. Petersburg: “And henceforth there is hope (for
glorification of the name of God among the Chinese), if Your Excellency, please accept
Bose jealousy and with Bishop Stefan (Yavorsky) having advised, report
His Royal Majesty and, having chosen a kind and wise man, there in
The kingdom (Chinese) will be sent without delay. And even though the rank of bishop,
honor the archbishop and send 15 people to the clergy with him; better then they
the Chinese understand that His Royal Majesty, in order to strengthen eternal peace
send such people." Such an idea of the saint found the full approval of Peter
I, because he had long planned to enlighten China with Orthodoxy. FROM
the appearance of an Orthodox bishop in Beijing could begin
distribution and establishment of the Orthodox faith in the heavenly state
through initiation into clergy and worthy persons from among themselves
Chinese, but this began to be carried out only after more than 160 years - from 1882
"For the service of this great and laborious cause -" preach the word of God and
propagation of Orthodox Christian Eastern piety faith" in China
Cathedral Hieromonk Innokenty (Kulchinsky) was elected (or, as
usually wrote, Kulchitsky). According to the Irkutsk chronicler
Pezhemsky, he was called from the south of Russia, among other "virtuous"
monastics to replenish the then newly founded Nevsky Lavra.
Here he was soon appointed naval chief hieromonk. And since by
sea charter, inscribed by the hand of Peter himself, on the chief hieromonk lay
the obligation to visit each ship within a week, manage ship
hieromonks and resolve their perplexities, then for this alone Father Innokenty
could not but be well known to the reformer of Russia”31.
of the Holy Synod was consecrated Bishop of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. 19
April 1721 . Bishop Innokenty with retinue (two hieromonks, two
hierodeacon, five choristers, two ministers and one cook) left
Petersburg, more than 11 months later, March 5 1722 . arrived in Irkutsk and 7
March Baikal moved, "settling in the Selenginsky Trinity Monastery,
where he began to wait for the decision of the Chinese authorities to allow the mission to Beijing. it
the wait dragged on for five years, as the Chinese authorities under various
they tried in every possible way to delay the decision to let the mission to China pass”32. In these
for years, the archpastor lived in the Selenginsky monastery, communicating with
Archimandrite Misail, then in Staro-Selenginsk, where until the middle of the nineteenth century.
legends were preserved about how he skillfully engaged in icon painting, then on
monastery estate on the river. Khilok, where he preached Orthodoxy among the Buryats,
studied their way of life and customs33.
In 1725 . was sent to China for emergency and plenipotentiary negotiations
Envoy Minister Savva Lukich Vladislavich-Raguzinsky about permission
several controversial articles of the Nerchinsk Treaty, the delimitation of border
points. In the course of his conversation with the Chinese ministers, it became clear that
“the Bogdykhan will never order such a great person to accept: after all, they
the great master is called their papa or kutukhta. And what for evo (Sava)
diligence ... maybe the archimandrite and the priests were accepted to Beijing
will, but the bishop will never be allowed.”34 Thus the bishop
Innokenty seemed to be out of work. This circumstance prompted the Holy
Synod to return to the unrealized idea of forming an independent
diocese with the center in Irkutsk.
on the formation of the Irkutsk diocese and the appointment of St. Innocent
(Kulchinsky) Bishop of Irkutsk, Nerchinsk and Yakutia. To Irkutsk on
ministry he arrived from Transbaikalia on August 26 1727 . Then the diocese had: in
Irkutsk - 8 churches and 2 monasteries; in the Irkutsk district - 13 churches, 1
monastery and 1 hermitage; in the Selenginsky district - 13 churches and 2 monasteries;
in the Nerchinsk district - 7 churches and 1 monastery. They were serving
priestly, monastic and clerical order 286 people, of which
Buryatia - 113. St. Innocent served at the cathedra for a short time, he died
Holy Synod of December 1 1804 . commemoration was established
Saint Innocent November 26. February 9th 1805 . postponed
relics of the saint from the cave to the cathedral church. In January 1921 they were opened
militant atheists, put up for public viewing, and then took away
from Irkutsk. For a long time the relics were in Yaroslavl
returned to Irkutsk. They are currently resting in Znamenskoye
cathedral city of Irkutsk.
By the middle of the 18th century, the missionary activity of the Orthodox Church in
Buryatia began to weaken. We believe this was due to a number of reasons.
One of them came from the center, from St. Petersburg. According to Ambrose Yushkevich
and Dmitry Sechenov, “the reign of Anna Ioannovna (1730-1740) was the most
hard time for preaching. Taking all power into their hands, the Germans,
the expression of contemporaries, "piety and faith have come." insulting,
humiliating and condemning the "Orthodox priesthood", the Germans completely suppressed and
weakened church preaching and “everyone was so frightened that even the most
the shepherds, the very preachers of the word of God, were silent and could not speak of
piety open. In the Orthodox state about the faith of his mouth
it was dangerous to open: immediately hope for troubles and persecutions. Then it's not true
Christ reigned, and the truth sat under guard; and the word of God knitted
and the way to the Kingdom of Heaven was concluded; true dogmas leading to life
eternal, disobeyed, and temptations and vomiting on the Orthodox Church in
the death of many was glorified everywhere; the shepherd was silent; preachers
afraid"36.
Other reasons for the weakening of Orthodox preaching in Transbaikalia were
local - the death of 112-year-old missionary elder Archimandrite Misail in 1742
d., one of the 12 members of the first Dahurian spiritual mission and an eyewitness
missionary labors of St. Innocent (Kolchitsky), and the death of the first
energetic preachers of Christianity, as well as secularization in 1764,
when the monasteries lost their estates and lands. All the efforts of subsequent
years to strengthen missionary work for lack of funds and the ability to lead fruitfully
holy work remained in vain.
In addition, the mission has strong opponents: in 1756 from Mogilev
and Chernigov provinces in Transbaikalia, the Old Believers were exiled, who
settled throughout its territory.
A dangerous opponent and competitor, not without the help of the tsarist government,
became Buddhism, or rather, its variety - Lamaism. Prisoners with China
general treatise signed by Russia S.L.
Vladislavich-Raguzinsky, allowed the missionary activity of the Mongolian
and Tibetan lamas in the territory of Transbaikalia. They were then 5-6 people. In my
turn, the Chinese guaranteed the unimpeded operation of the Russian
Orthodox mission in Beijing and allowed to send from Russia for study
local dialects six students. Later, in 1734 ., Russian government
“banned the missionary activity of the Orthodox Church in Transbaikalia,
fearing complications in relations with China. "Russian officials informed
government about the arrival here (in the 1730s - A.Zh.) 50 Tibetan and 100
Mongolian lamas. In the 1740s Empress Elizaveta Petrovna approved the state
at 150 lamas. They were released from all taxes and duties ... From this
great privileges and privileges. This led to an increase in the number of huvaraks and
widespread dissemination of the Lamaist religion.
drawing up a new regulation on the various religions admitted in
Russia. The chief bandid was included in the council as a Buddhist deputy
Hambo Lama Zayagin. After being presented to Catherine II, he was granted
an annual allowance of 50 rubles and "the permission of free
professing one's religion." At the request of the Buddhist clergy, Russian
the government began to persecute those Buryats who performed shamanic
rites.
Emperor Alexander Pavlovich dated July 22 1822 . (articles relating to
management of aliens in Eastern Siberia) was again confirmed and allowed
free practice and active dissemination of the Buddhist religion.
During the time of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich "was specially sent to the Eastern
Siberia for the purpose of compiling a regulation on Buddhists, a valid state
adviser and holder of various orders, Baron Schilling von Canstadt. His
Excellency arrived and drove through all the local Buddhist datsans and
each area and made an audit. The Buddhist religion was recognized
the right to distribute it. Von-Kanstadt has compiled a new
provision from article 281, where, in particular, it was noted that the Buddhist
the population of Eastern Siberia is supposed to have numerous lamas”40. AT
as a result of such support from the tsarist government to 1741 in Eastern
Siberia had 11 datsans and 150 lamas, to 1846 . — 34 datsans, 144 small temples and
4546 lamas, according to other sources, 5545 lamas.
During the decline of the activities of the Trans-Baikal Orthodox Mission in 1818
English spiritual mission appeared, sent by the London Missionary
society for the preaching of Christianity among the Buryats. Her appearance was
associated with the institution 1804 . in England British and Foreign
Bible Society, which set as its goal the reproduction of the Bible and books
Holy Scriptures in all languages and distribution of their reading throughout the world.
In December 1812 . on the model of the British arose St. Petersburg
Bible Society (Moscow was then occupied by Napoleon's troops),
headed by President Prince A.N. Golitsyn, Minister of Spiritual Affairs and
public education. Thanks to the favor of Emperor Alexander I,
ordered Golitsyn to provide "special patronage" of the Irkutsk
civil governor N.I. Treskin to the messengers of the London Missionary
society - to pastors Cornelius Ramn and Eduard Stalibras (1795-1884), they
were met upon arrival in Irkutsk (in March 1818 .) favorably. And in
late 1819 . the Irkutsk branch of the St. Petersburg
Bible Society. Bishop Mikhail (Burdukov) and
Siberian Governor-General M.M. Speransky41. Ramn soon left
Eastern Siberia, and Stalibras in June 1820 . went beyond Baikal to found
missions in Selenginsk. In the end of January 1820 . arrived from London to Irkutsk
two more missionaries - Robert Yuille (1786-1861) and William Swan (1791-1866).
They founded three camps - one on the left bank of the Selenga opposite the city
Staro-Selenginsk and two in the department of the Khorinsky Steppe Duma - on the river. Kodun and
R. She is. The English missionaries possessed solid scholarship, enormous
material resources that provided them with ample opportunities. Yes, at
they had big houses, schools, a printing house. They collected a rare composition
a library in European and Oriental languages and opened a large pharmacy.
Engaged in teaching literacy and some crafts to Buryat children,
healing of the local population. Studied intensively Mongolian, Tibetan,
Manchu languages, dialects of Buryat. Translated Christian books into
"Mongol-Buryat language" and prepared these translations for publication for
spreading them among the Buryats42. But despite all the education
English missionaries, their successes were negligible. During the period from 1820 to 1841
they christened no more than three Buryats. The reasons for this phenomenon are seen in the fact that
missionaries tried not to convert the Buryats to Christianity, but first and foremost to raise
broaden their mental horizons, but by their activity - teaching and
providing medical assistance - they taught the Buryats to look at them as
teachers and doctors, not as preachers. translated by them into
Mongolian language and distributed in several thousand copies to the Buryats
The Bible served little missionary purpose. Copies of it were diligently taken away from
Buryat lamas and betrayed their complete destruction.
From 1753 to 1771 . Bishop of Irkutsk, Nerchinsk and Yarkutsk was Sophrony
(Kristalevsky)43. May 27 1770 . they consecrated a winter church in honor of
Theophany of the Lord (on the first floor) of the Verkhneudinsky building under construction
Odigitrievsky Cathedral. It was the first stone temple in Buryatia. His
construction started in 1741 . and continued for over 40 years. Church on
its second floor, in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Hodegetria", was consecrated 3
May 1785 . Bishop Michael (Mitkevich).
The name and St. Innokenty is associated with the Odigitrievsky Cathedral
(Veniaminova)44.
In the "Irkutsk Diocesan Gazette" we find the following message:
“His Eminence Innokenty, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna,
met from the citizens with bread and salt. Stopped at A.A. Tretyakov and
together with his retinue, which, however, is very small and consists only
of two persons, including Archpriest Gavriil Veniaminov of the Annunciation and
the same cathedral, the distinguished guest deigned to listen Divine Liturgy, which
the regular priest A. Argentov performed, and he spoke to the people
to Irkutsk. Holy A. Arg.”45. Waiting for the crossing over Baikal, Saint
Innocent lived for 13 days in the Posolsky monastery, communicating with the bishop
Veniamin (Blagonravov), head of the Trans-Baikal Spiritual Mission.
Still, talking about the complete inaction of the Orthodox mission in Buryatia would be
wrong. So, in 1821 . His Grace Archbishop Michael (Burdukov)
prescribed to the priest of the Kula Church Alexander Ilyin Bobrovnikov
engage in preaching the Gospel among the Khori Buryats; to help him
seconded the baptized Buryat Mikhail Speransky, who for his work
subsequently, His Eminence Michael blessed to wear
priestly robe.
In total, in Buryatia at that time there were three Orthodox missionaries who performed
besides, parish duties, so talking about a big
the effectiveness of their activities is not necessary. Moreover, as already
said number Buddhist lamas by that time it was about 5000.
He did a lot to prepare the opening of the second Trans-Baikal Spiritual Mission
His Grace Nil (Isakovich)46. He was convinced that the preaching of Christianity
among the Buryats and Evenks can be successful only when the missionary
will become spiritually related to them, will understand their language and will speak heartily
in this language, preaching the word of God, and most importantly, will not pursue
by the number of converts, but by the quality of the soul of the converted Christian. He
put a lot of effort into preparing a new regulation on the Buddhists of Eastern
Siberia, published on May 13 1853 ., in which the government determined
285 full-time lamas, and together with student huvaraks - 320 lamas. The rest of the lamas
was ordered to be transferred to a secular state. Reverend Neil also
sought the destruction of the oath upon taking office as a Hambo Lama,
which he pledged to the Russian government to support and disseminate
lama faith in Russia (the oath was canceled only in 1862 .). However, these measures
in our opinion, they are too late. By that time, the Buryat population
believed that the Buddhist religion is primordial and traditional for the Buryats, and
Orthodox is traditional for Russians, in this belief the Buryats are actively
supported by lamas.
Appointment in 1862 . Head of the Trans-Baikal Spiritual Mission of the Bishop
Veniamin (Blagonravova) was the beginning of a new stage in her work.
Energetic Bishop Veniamin, later Archbishop of Irkutsk, Nerchinsk
and Yakutsky, revived and restored the spirit of missionary work, expanding the circle of influence
missions. He tried to make this circle embrace in the main points all
Buryat and Evenk departments and places inhabited by them. invited
experienced collaborators in the field of apostolic ministry, who walked with love on
the work of preaching the Christian doctrine. The mission included 11 missionaries:
8 novices and 3 clerks. Moreover, they carried out missionary
duties of 4 parish priests. 12 missionary
Stans: Baikal-Kudarinsky in 1862 .; Aginsky at the Aginsky Steppe Duma in
1862 .; Selenginsky at the Selenginsky Steppe Duma, near
Gusino-Ozersky datsan, in 1864 .; Tsagan-Usunsky on the border of Mongolia;
Ust-Kiranskiy; Aninsky at the Khorinsky Steppe Duma in 1864; Bauntovsky
in the center of the nomadic Evenks in 1864 .; Ononsky and Goloustensky in the western
coast of Baikal; Ulunsky at the Barguzin Steppe Duma; Irgensky on
Lake Irgen; Guzhirsky Trinity at the Tunkinsky Steppe Duma after 1864
At the residence of His Grace Benjamin, in the Ambassadorial Spaso-Preobrazhensky
monastery, a missionary school was opened to train capable
Buryat boys to missionary service; the same preparation was carried out in
missionary camps. In total, in 12 countries studied in 1868 23 boys
Embassy School - 20, from which later left
clergymen and teachers. At the Posolsky monastery there was
missionary almshouse for 20 people. It housed the sick
the elderly and wretched of the newly baptized with full support.
By the end of 1868 . the mission's activities were in danger of being shut down: stopped
funding from the Russian board of the missionary society.
However, at the request of the Archbishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk, His Grace
Parfeniy (Popov) and Governor-General of Eastern Siberia Mikhail Semenovich
Karsakov, the Minister of State Property endowed the mission with 500 acres
land and seven state-owned fishing quitrents. Therefore, activities
mission did not stop, but at the same time could not expand and should
was limited to the number of missionaries that remained by the end of 1868
Companions of the Right Reverend Benjamin, small in number, but strong in spirit, did not
discouraged and worked in the difficult missionary field. Among them was
Kudara missionary Hieromonk Platon (in the world Petr Danilov). Knowing
Buryat language, he managed to acquire such a disposition for himself that he did not
only baptized Buryats, but also Lamaists turned to him for advice, and
often and for benefits, being in distress. He stood out for his
labors and worries about the spread of Christianity Tungui missionary
hieromonk Melety (in the world Yakimov Mikhail), candidate of theology, later
Bishop of Selenginsky, Head of the Trans-Baikal Spiritual Mission; later
Bishop of Ryazan and Zaraisk. He believed that the main focus should be
addressed to the allocation of land to the newly baptized and the introduction of Orthodox-Russian
life in the Buryat environment. And he secured the allotment of lands around his camp and
began to settle baptized Buryats on them. Currently it is a Russian village
Novospasovka in the Mukhorshibirsky district.
Many other associates of Bishop Benjamin also contributed to the work of the mission.
(Dobronravova) - fathers Nikolai Blagobrazov, Feodor Albitsky, Peter
Mitropolsky, Alexei Malkov, Innokenty Shastin, Paisius and Nektary.
In those years, Bishop Benjamin wrote: “Many who have not experienced feats
missionaries, imagine that it is not worth the trouble to expose the absurdity
Lamaism, to convince the Lamaites to accept the true faith of Christ, but the nearest
familiarization with the direction and superstitions of the pagans living within
Transbaikal region, convinced enough that Christianity is not easy
grafted on to them. Words of Christ: "No one can come to Me unless
the Father who sent me will draw him” (John 6:44)—almost at every step
convince the preachers of the faith of Christ how weak our strength is in the matter of conversion
Lamaites, unless the Lord Himself leads them to the right path and enlightens them
by the light of His Divine teaching. Not everyone notices the phenomena of light
Christ's; who only sees the light of this world, for him the vision of fate is dark
God's manifestations in the spiritual world. Two hundred years before this distant
Siberian Daurs were a country of paganism, but God commanded that there be light among
darkness of ignorance, and the light of the Holy Trinity was - the Christian faith became
ruling, cities and villages were adorned with the holy temples of God, and in our
the days of the very deserts of Transbaikalia are resounding with the teachings of Christ and
rejoice at the visitation of grace and bloom like a krin.
In 1868 . Right Reverend Benjamin, at the request of His Eminence
Innokenty, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna, was transferred as a bishop
Kamchatka, Kuril and Aleutian. His successors were Bishops:
Martinian (in the world Mikhail Semenovich Muratovsky), Meletius (Mikhail Kosmich
Yakimov) (with him in 1880 . the control center of the Transbaikal mission was
transferred to Chita), Macarius (Mikhail Fedorovich Darsky), George (George
Polikarpovich Orlov), Methodius (Mavriky Lvovich Gerasimov), Ephraim
(Kuznetsov). In the period between 1904-1909. Head of the Trans-Baikal Spiritual
mission was a candidate of theology priest Epiphanius Kuznetsov. By the labors of all
mentioned, an increase in the number of missionary camps was achieved (at the beginning
20th century there were 41 of them), schools and missionaries (especially from among the Buryats). Taught
future missionaries in the school at the Posolsky Monastery, translated
later in Chita, at the Irkutsk Theological Seminary and the Nerchinsk Spiritual
school. Senior personnel were trained at the Kazan Theological Academy, where
there was a special Mongol-Buryat branch. In addition, there were
women's spiritual institutions where the Buryats studied: Irkutsk school for girls
spiritual department, school at the Irkutsk Znamensky Monastery, Chitinskaya
the women's Bogoroditsky community and the Transbaikal diocesan women's school.
Theological literature was translated into the Buryat language and published
for the purpose of sending services in the Buryat language and distribution in the uluses. To
Buryats were widely involved in translation and publishing work (not only
clergy), who were fluent in Russian, Buryat and Mongolian
languages, having mastered the Christian faith. First worship service
Buryat language took place in August 1852 . at the consecration of Guzhirskaya
1854 . in the Irkutsk Cathedral, a divine service was held at once on three
languages: priest G. Shastin read in Buryat, priest N. Kopylov - in
Yakut, and the Bishop of Kamchatka, Kuril and Aleutian Hierarch Innokenty
- in Aleutian.
Almost two hundred years of persistent work of the Transbaikal Spiritual Mission,
received some support from the authorities and the Holy Synod, brought
fruit. The Buryat Orthodox Church was opened, under the influence of which
early twentieth century it turned out 12-15 thousand Buryats. Total number baptized Buryats
was about 85 thousand out of 300 thousand people living in the Irkutsk
diocese48.
Unfortunately, the exact number and names of all the Buryat missionaries of the second half
XIX and early XX century. failed to install. So, for example, in 1886 in
The Transbaikal mission included 4 priests, 2 deacons, 5
psalm readers, 1 teacher and 4 translators, not counting church elders and
trustees. According to our data, there were about 85 of them. Among them
were: father Alexei Norboev - dean of the III department and rector of the Aginskaya
missionary church; father Nikolai Nilov Dorzhiev - archpriest and translator,
later teacher of the Mongolian language in St. Petersburg
university; Father Afanasy Alexandrovich Vinogradov - Cathedral
archpriest, editor of the Irkutsk Diocesan Gazette, one of the biographers
Saint Innocent (Veniaminov), researcher of Aleutian ethnography,
Chukchi, Kolosh and Yakuts; father Roman Tsyrenpilov - head of the Upper Amur
the Manchu camp; father Konstantin Stukov - archpriest, historian and
local historian; father Adrian Klyukin (his wife is “the first Transbaikal Buryat,
educated in a religious school, she was also the first teacher and
educator of her fellow tribesmen "49), father Spiridon Nosyrev, fathers
Vasily and Innokenty Tarbaev, Father Nikolai Garmaev and others.
With the increase in the population of the region (in 1851 . there were already 183.1 Russians
50 thousand people and the number of churches grew. To 1863 . on the territory of Buryatia
there were 42 churches and 3 monasteries - the Ambassadorial Spaso-Preobrazhensky,
Selenginsky Holy Trinity and Hermitage Reverend Nile Stolobensky.
Population growth was due to an increase in the number of people living there
peoples, and due to the migration of settlers, although not as large as
at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century.
separated from the Irkutsk and Nerchinsk diocese (soon
renamed Irkutsk and Verkholensk), and became the tenth in a row in
Siberia.
If in 1894 . on the territory of this new diocese there were 200 churches, then in 1909
city - 376, of which 186 parish, 143 ascribed, 3 house, 3 prison,
cemetery 8, railway 2, church-schools 2, monastic schools 5.
Most of the churches (about 300) were wooden. They served 23
archpriests, 207 priests, 61 deacons, 244 psalmists51. By 1920
there were 490 churches and prayer houses (in Buryatia - 194, in Chita
region - 296), 4 monasteries (2 male and 2 female), 3 male sketes, 2
women's quarters. In the villages, villages and missionary camps it was
302 chapels were erected.
Played a big role Transbaikal diocese in building a national
education in the region. So, out of 370 educational institutions of the Trans-Baikal region (in
it included Buryatia and the Chita region) the Church ministered to 3 diocesan
schools, 122 parochial schools and 199 schools of church literacy (87%
all educational institutions of the region).
In fact, the existence of the Trans-Baikal and Nerchinsk diocese ceased in
1921 ., after the departure of the ruling bishop Meletius (Zaborovsky) to
Harbin52. Formally, the Trans-Baikal and Nerchinsk diocese was abolished in
1930
The Russian Orthodox Church, which in its time made the greatest contribution to
formation Russian culture and statehood, to the greatest extent
suffered from the repressions of the Bolshevik regime, as it was the only
major denomination, major centers and material and financial resources
which were located on the territory of Russia.
In Buryatia, as in all of Russia, churches were desecrated and desecrated, many
the clergy were repressed, some of them were shot. One of the first
Martyrs of the Orthodox Church of Buryatia was Bishop of Selenginsky, vicar
Ephraim (Kuznetsov) of the Trans-Baikal diocese, member of the Russian Cathedral
the same year53.
After the end of the Great Patriotic War, it was again allowed
activities of the Russian Orthodox Church, but in a limited number of parishes
Ulan-Ude Orthodox parish of the Holy Ascension Church, and a little later in
Kyakhte - the parish of the Assumption Church, which in 1962 . closed. They were
the only one in the entire country. In the late 1980s was created in Ulan-Ude
Orthodox Society "Salvation", which, together with the Buryat branch
of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments
restoration of the Holy Trinity Church and the sale of church literature,
advocated the adoption of new legislation on freedom of conscience, for
revival of the Orthodox Church.
In 1990 . The Law on Freedom of Religion was passed, and in March 1994
by decree of His Grace Vadim (Lazebny), Bishop of Irkutsk and
Chitinsky, the Buryat deanery was formed within the administrative framework
Republic of Buryatia, and in April 1994 . decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian
The Orthodox Church created the Chita and Transbaikal diocese, allocated
from the Irkutsk and Chita. First Bishop of Chita and
city, - Innokenty (Vasiliev), with a residence in Chita.
There are 42 Orthodox parishes on the territory of the republic, in which
serve 26 priests. The Dean is Priest Oleg Matveev.
AT recent times icons began to stream myrrh in the churches of Buryatia:
room of the Odigitrievsky parish in Ulan-Ude - temple icon God's
Mother "Hodegetria".
Hegumen Theodosius was the founder of the Trinity-Selenginsky monastery; in 1692
went through Tobolsk to Moscow, but on the way in 1693 he died in
Archangel Monastery in Veliky Ustyug. Misail (born 1630),
being a hierodeacon, he arrived with Father Theodosius; since 1693 became
vicegerent, and then the abbot of the monastery. Even in the rank of hierodeacon was
manager (dean) of the Daurian (Trans-Baikal) tithe, then he was in charge
and the Irkutsk tithe. In 1714 Metropolitan John of Tobolsk of Siberia
(Maksimovich) appointed him the rector of the Irkutsk Voznesensky
monastery. Died in 1742
20 NARB, f. 262, op. 1, d. 2, l. 111, 115.
21 See: Gurulev M. From the past of Transbaikalia // Russian antiquity. 1901. T. 106.
S. 215.
22 See: NARB, f. 262, op. 1, d. 92, l. 73-75.
23 See: Shmulevich. MM. Essays on the history of Western Transbaikalia. XVIII-
mid 19th century Novosibirsk, 1985, p. 43.
24 See: Khanharaev V.S. Changes in the number and settlement of the Buryats... S. 22.
25 See: Matsokin P.G. Mestizos of Transbaikalia. SPb., 1904. S. 5.
26 JEV. 1868. No. 46. S. 518.
27 See: Filaret, archbishop. Chernigov. History of the Russian Church. Chernihiv,
1862. Issue. 3, 4, 5.
28 Previously, he was a monk of the Mezhyhirya monastery in Kyiv, then until 1702 -
Abbot of the Desert Nicholas Monastery. Brought to Tobolsk
Metropolitan Philotheus and ordained archimandrite. Ordained a bishop in
1707 in Moscow. But his administration was short because of the hardships of life.
He lived in Irkutsk for only 2.5 years and left for Moscow without a decree. From 1714 to the end
1720 he was Bishop of Tver, from June 1720 to May 4, 1721 - Metropolitan
Smolensky. Died May 4, 1721, body rested in Smolensk Troitsky
monastery, from the entrance on the right side of the main temple.
29 JEV. 1863. No. 9.
30 Ibid. No. 11.
31 IRDM. 1997, p. 86.
32 Naumova O.E. Irkutsk diocese. XVIII - first half of the XIX century. Irkutsk,
1996, p. 33.
33 In 1915, Archimandrite Ephraim, head of the Transbaikal Spiritual Mission,
visited the village of Poselye of the present Bichursky district, where he found an old
the house where the saint lived.
34 IRDM. 1997, p. 102.
36 Reasonable Vertograd. Handwritten book of the Irkutsk Theological Seminary //
IEV. 1871. No. 13. S. 171.
37 Naumova O.E. Irkutsk diocese ... S. 45.
38 Lombotserenov D.-J. History of the Selenga Mongols-Buryats // Buryats
Chronicles / Comp. Sh.B. Chimitdorzhiev, Ts.P. Vanchikov (Purbueva). Ulan-Ude,
1995, p. 112.
39 Yumsunov V. The history of the origin of eleven Khorin clans //
Buryat Chronicles / Comp. Sh.B. Chimitdorzhiev, Ts.P. Vanchikov (Purbueva).
Ulan-Ude, 1995, p. 44.
40 Ibid. S. 50.
41 Pezhemsky P.I., Krotov V.A. The Irkutsk chronicle // Proceedings of the VSORGO /
Foreword, add. and note. I.I. Serebrennikov. Irkutsk, 1911. No. 5. S. 223.
42 “Somewhat earlier, even before the opening of the Irkutsk branch, in 1817
The Bible Society made an attempt to translate the Bible into
Mongolian-Buryat language. Then ... the Khori Buryats Badma were summoned to St. Petersburg
Morshunaev and Nomtu Ungaev, accompanied by an interpreter, Irkutsk
provincial secretary V.M. Tataurova (Morshunaev and Ungaev did not know Russian
language, Tataurov translated them). They worked on the translation until May 1826.
... They managed to translate the entire New Testament into the Mongolian-Buryat language,
which was then printed in the printing house of the Bible Society in an edition of 2000
copy. Of these, 600 copies. The synod sent to the Khori Buryats, 150 to the Selenga and
150 copies - Transbaikal Buryats. Simultaneously in August 1827 in Irkutsk
Bishop Michael (Burdukov) was sent 5 copies. for translation comparison
with the Slavic text of the New Testament. The Archbishop attracted to this work
Alexander Bobrovnikov, from a mixed Russian-Buryat family,
teacher of the Mongolian language at the seminary and archpriest of Irkutsk
Prokopievskaya Church; Xenophon Shangin, a graduate of the local seminary,
priest of the Irkutsk Church of the Savior; Hieromonk of Israel and Hierodeacon
Dositheus from the Selenginsky Trinity Monastery, as well as the provincial
translator A.V. Igumnova. In 1829, the comparison of texts and their correction was
completed and corrected copies sent to St. Petersburg. Especially
A. Bobrovnikov worked successfully, who corrected three books of the Gospel (from
Mark, Matthew, and John). (Naumova O.E. Irkutsk diocese ... S.
166-167).
43 Sofrony, the son of a cleric, was born on December 25, 1703 in the town of Berezan
Pereyaslavsky district of the Poltava province. Studied at the Pereyaslav Spiritual
seminary in Latin. On April 23, 1730, he was tonsured a monk in
Krasnogorsk monastery in the Poltava province and named Sophrony, was there
13 years pastor. In 1745, by decree of the Holy Synod, he was in demand in
Moscow, to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, and for his piety and diligence
elected governor of this monastery. By decision of Empress Elizabeth
Petrovna, Archimandrite Sophrony April 18, 1753 in St. Petersburg was
consecrated Bishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk. Arrived in Irkutsk on March 20
1754 Died March 30, 1771, buried October 9 in the left aisle
old cathedral. On the glorification of St. Sophronius, a resolution was adopted
His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and the Holy Synod (April 10 (23), 1918).
44 Saint Innocent was born on August 26, 1797 in the Anginskaya Sloboda
Verkholensky district of the Irkutsk province in the family of Evsevy Popov - sexton
church in the name of the holy prophet Elijah. At baptism he was named John. AT
1808, March 8, entered the Irkutsk Theological Seminary and became
be called Ivan Popov-Anginsky to distinguish himself from other Popovs. Was
renamed by the rector to Ivan Veniaminov in memory of the deceased on July 8, 1814
His Grace Benjamin, Bishop of Irkutsk, Nerchinsk and Yakutsk. AT
In 1818 he graduated from the seminary, on May 18, 1821 he was ordained a priest. May 7
1823 went to a new destination - to Russian America, to the island
Unalaska of the Aleutian archipelago. In 1839 he was promoted to the rank of archpriest. 29
November 1840 he was tonsured a monk. John changed his name
wish addressed to Innocent in honor of St. Innocent, the first bishop
Irkutsk. On November 30, 1840, he was awarded the rank of archimandrite. December 13, 1840
St. Innokenty was named Bishop of Kamchatka, Kuril and
Aleutian. On January 5, 1868, he was appointed Metropolitan of Moscow and
Kolomensky. Died March 31, 1879, April 5 the body of St. Innocent
rested in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in the church of St. Philaret
Gracious. In 1938-1940. an act of vandalism was committed: the church was demolished,
in the basement of which were the remains of Metropolitans Filaret and Innokenty. 6
October 1977 by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church
St. Innocent is numbered among the saints: "The ever-memorable Metropolitan
Innocent, Saint of Moscow, Apostle of America and Siberia, to recognize in
the face of the saints, glorified by the grace of God" (St. Innocent,
Metropolitan of Moscow Irkutsk Pages // Taltsy. Irkutsk, 1999. No. 1. S.
5).
45 JEV. 1868. No. 11. S. 145-146.
46 Nil (Isakovich) was born in 1793; his father came from the Cossacks
Chernigov province, mother was a baptized Buryat. Studied in Irkutsk
theological seminary. In March 1817 he married a baptized Buryat woman. AT
He was fluent in Mongolian and Buryat languages. Made many translations
Christian books into Mongolian. Later he was a teacher
Mongolian language at the Irkutsk Theological Seminary. Died in 1832 in
the rank of archpriest. Compiler of the first Mongolian grammar in Russian
Nerchinsky from April 23, 1838, archbishop from 1840 to December 24, 1853
One of the most educated Siberian hierarchs, he owns the essay
“Buddhism, considered in relation to its followers, who live in
Siberia" and other materials relating to Siberia, published in the "Diocesan
Vedomosti” and other various publications. Repeatedly visited Transbaikalia,
founded in the Tunkinskaya valley the Nilovsky hermitage in the name of the Monk Nile
Stolobensky. He was the godfather of the former lama of the Kyrensky datsan, and
later missionary, Archpriest Nikolai Nilov Dorzhiev. Having studied
Buryat language, Lord Nile with the help of N.N. Dorzhiev translated into Buryat
the language of the liturgy, vespers, matins, all the hymns of everyday life, the Book of Hours,
Sunday service, and later, already in Yaroslavl, 145 Sunday Gospels, 97
apostolic readings (Dobronravin K. Essays on the history of the Russian Church from the beginning
Christianity in Russia up to the present. SPb., 1863. S. 230).
He died as Archbishop of Yaroslavl and Rostov in 1874.
The year the monastery was finally arranged. In the 1710s, a temple was also built in the name of All Saints. At first, all the buildings of the monastery were wooden, there were powerful protective walls. Defensive fortifications at first played a significant role - in 1690 the monks bought 1 pood 15 pounds of gunpowder from the treasury; there is evidence that in the 1690s the monastery was under martial law. In the synodics of the original monk-missionaries, Hieromonk Seraphim and Monk Joasaph are listed as killed.
Simultaneously with the construction of the new monastery, its first courtyard was founded, which soon grew into an independent Ambassadorial Transfiguration Monastery. Perhaps also in the 17th century a monastic skete was built on Lake Kotokel. The rector of the Selenginsky monastery, being the head of the mission, was the dean (customer) of the entire district - the cities of Irkutsk, Selenginsk (now Novoselenginsk), and Nerchinsk with counties.
The abode was immediately well supplied. In addition to the initial state funds, it received contributions in money, utensils, books and vestments from Tsar Feodor Alekseevich, Tsarina Marfa Matveevna, Tobolsk governor and steward F. A. Golovin, who visited the monastery in August of the year. From the year the Selenginsky and Posolsky monasteries belonged to the mouth of the Selenga with rich fishing grounds; in the year the Temlyui village was granted to the Trinity Monastery; and in the summer of the year the monastery received " riverside mowing along the Selenga." In the year the monastery became the owner of the rich Khilotsky estate in the lower reaches of the Khilok River, where the main Buryat nomad camps were concentrated. In the year, the lands at the mouth of the Khilka were added to the estate, and in the year - the village of Buy. In the year, the Kotokel Lake with all rivers flowing into it, with hayfields. In the year the monastery also received extensive hay mowing along the Kireti River, between the Chika and Khilok rivers; a year later - more arable land and pastures for cattle along the left bank of the Khilok to Bichura and to Kireti. As a result of these awards to the monastery the villages and estates of the Khilotsky patrimony became: Yelanskaya, Dry Ruchey, Bichura, Uzky Lug, Bui, Krasnaya Sloboda and Kunaley... Courtyards, land plots, industrial establishments that belonged to the monastery appeared in Irkutsk, Kyakhta, Selenginsk (now part of Novoselenginsk. The monastery led an active trade: at first in Irkutsk, later in Verkhneudinsk (now Ulan-Ude), Kyakhta, at the Preobrazhenskaya fair near the Selenga.
Receiving land from the government, the monastery used the permission to settle "passportless" and fugitive people on its lands and founded new settlements and villages for new settlers. So, from the end of the 17th-18th centuries, a small village Troitsk arose directly near the monastery. The life of the peasants in the monastic estates was largely regulated by the monastic charter. On the monastic lands, settlements of baptized Buryats were also formed, striving to arrange their life on new grounds. The monastery was one of the leading planters of a new agricultural economy for Transbaikalia. The monastery mills served not only the ascribed peasants, but also the townspeople, as well as the farmers of the entire Western Transbaikalia. The number of peasants belonging to the monastery reached about 600 people.
Being an outpost of Orthodoxy and Russia beyond Baikal, located at the crossroads, the monastery quickly became the largest monastery of its time to the east of Baikal. It was visited by many prominent religious, political and statesmen. For some time in the 1720s, during the "Selenga Sitting," St. Innokenty (Kulchitsky) lived in the monastery and on its lands with other members of the Beijing Spiritual Mission, who preached Orthodoxy from here. On the territory of the monastery, a spring has been preserved, consecrated, according to legend, by St. Innocent. Other Irkutsk lords have also been here, starting with lord Varlaam (Kossovsky), who consecrated the temple in the name of All Saints. In the year the monastery was visited by the Tobolsk prelate Theodore (Leshchinsky). At that time, all Russian diplomatic and trade figures who were heading to China or Eastern Transbaikalia also stayed at the monastery: Fedor Alekseevich Golovin, Eberhard Izbrandt, Lev Vasilievich Izmailov, Lorenz Lang, Savva Lukich Vladislavich-Raguzinsky, Ivan Dmitrievich Bukhgolts, Abram Petrovich Hannibal, and others.
The monastery was originally under the jurisdiction of the Tobolsk metropolitans. After the establishment of the Irkutsk diocese, the monastery ended up on its territory, but subordinated directly to the Holy Synod, like a stavropegic.
Rectangular in plan (7.07 x 22.0 m) two-story building with a large four-columned portico attached to the wall and an arched gate opening along the axis is interpreted as the foundation for the temple. The temple is arranged as a centric structure with a square plan, cross-roofs and four pediments, to which additional volumes of the porch and altar adjoin from the west and east. Above everything is a massive cylindrical drum under a hemispherical dome with a small deaf lantern, a large gilded ball and a cross. The surface of the drum is dissected by an alternating row of arched openings and the same decorative niches. The building was built of brick on a rubble foundation. The walls are plastered and whitewashed. The iron roofs were painted blue. AT new church they arranged an iconostasis of continuous carpentry work, where they collected old monastery icons of the 17th-18th centuries.
During the internal repair of the year, the iconostasis was "carved with oil paints, and the walls with glue - magnificently," and over the massive wooden gate "the image of the Holy Trinity was painted in the entire arch." By the time of the revival of the monastery, the building of the temple was preserved, but the cylindrical drum was lost, the roof was covered with asbestos slate, the filling of the openings was changed.
monastery walls
From the end of the 17th century, the monastery was immediately surrounded by a defensive fortress wall, like a Siberian "standing" prison. The fence was wooden, "taken" into the pillars; in the corners there were strong chopped quadrangular towers with hipped tops with loopholes at different levels. The wall was quite high and was 400 sazhens (852 m) long, covering a larger area than any of the 14 main fortresses of Siberia in the 17th century. Each of the four towers of the wall had three tiers ("bridges") in the form of floors with loopholes. Initially, the entrance gates were located on the northern side, facing the Selenga. On the sides of the gate, two more battle towers rose, strengthening the most weakness in the protection system. One of these towers, as "a remnant of the ancient architecture of the 17th century," was preserved for another year.
Bell tower
The bell tower of the monastery was originally a separate building, standing next to the Trinity Church. Its hipped top carried a bulbous dome, upholstered in scaly plowshares, with a large wooden cross. The description of the year says:
"the bell tower is a circle of cobblestones. And on it are five bells of the Sovereign's salary, the sixth small bell is applied, and on it is a military iron clock in a machine tool with a campas index." These tower clocks, the first in Transbaikalia, were later transferred to the Irkutsk Ascension Monastery. Subsequently, the number of bells in the bell tower increased to 9. At the end
The Holy Trinity Selenginsky Monastery, the first in Transbaikalia, was founded by the decree of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich by members of the Daurian spiritual mission in 1681.
Natalia Myasnikova, CC BY-SA 3.0The Head of the Mission, Hegumen Theodosius, Hieromonk Macarius and 10 monks with them, having founded a monastery in 1683 on the site of an old monastery building (built earlier by the Nerchinsk Cossacks), already in 1684 erected the first monastery church in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity. Later, as the monastery developed, churches of St. Michael the Archangel, All Saints, and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker were erected in it.
The tasks and significance of the monastery
The main task of the newly formed monastery was the preaching of Christianity among the local peoples, as well as the spiritual guidance of immigrants from Russia.
At first, it was wooden, had strong protective walls and was a powerful guard fortification. Later the wooden buildings were replaced by stone ones.
Natalia Myasnikova, CC BY-SA 3.0 The administrative, cultural and moral significance of the monastery for the history of the region was decisive. As an outpost of Russia beyond Baikal, located at the crossroads of all roads going from East to West, and from North to South, the monastery quickly flourished and was the largest monastery of that time.
Celebrities within the walls of the monastery
It was visited by many prominent religious figures, for example: great-grandfather A.S. Pushkin - A.P. Hannibal, the godson of Peter I, the future Emperor of Russia, Tsarevich Nicholas II Alexandrovich, who presented the monastery with a "silver-gilded" altar cross.
Natalia Myasnikova, CC BY-SA 3.0 For a long time, the great spiritual lamp of Siberia, Innokenty of Irkutsk (Kulchitsky), lived in the Trinity Monastery, awaiting departure to China and having Archimandrite Misail, one of the members of the Daurian spiritual mission, as his confessor here. On the territory of the monastery, according to legend, there is a spring consecrated by the saint.
Closing the monastery
In 1920 the monastery was closed. In Soviet times, a colony was located here at the beginning, and later a psychiatric hospital.
Revival of the monastery
Nowadays, the revival of the monastery has begun, the entire complex of monastic buildings has been returned. Divine services, church sacraments, processions are regularly performed. The way of monastic life is being established.
Natalia Myasnikova, CC BY-SA 3.0 Get involved
Everyone is invited to take part in the revival of one of the oldest monasteries in Siberia.
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Introduction
Working on the study of the history of the shrine of the Holy Trinity Monastery - miraculous icon Nicholas, found at the end of the 18th century on Lake Kotokel, we became interested in the fate of the monastery itself, which at one time played an important role in the history of the Baikal region and Buryatia.
Due to the fact that in last years attempts were made to restore the Holy Trinity Selenginsky Monastery, and in 2008 the monastery again found its owner in the person of the Russian Orthodox Church, it would be interesting to explore some moments of the existence and liquidation of the monastery after the establishment of Soviet power, when many of its architectural structures and the church buildings contained in them were lost accessories, of which there were many.
Turning to the materials of the National Archives of the Republic of Buryatia, we were able to establish documentary information about some of the lost items of church property.
These studies, in our opinion, can contribute to the restoration of the monastery in its original form, or bring the results of the ongoing restoration closer to the state that it was before 1917. The work uses the available literature on the Trinity Monastery, as well as unpublished materials from the funds of the National Archives of the Republic of Buryatia.
The work can also be used in studies of local historians, teachers of history, geography, restorers, local authorities - everyone who is interested in the history of their native land and contributes to the preservation of its cultural wealth.
Historical information about the Holy Trinity Selenginsky Monastery
The Holy Trinity Selenginsky Monastery is located about 60 kilometers northwest of Ulan-Ude in the valley of the river. Selenga on its left bank, in the village. Troitsk (Trinity).
The monastery was founded by decree of 1681 by Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, who sent a mission of 12 people led by hegumen Theodosius to the "Siberian Dauras" in the Selenga. They were instructed to choose a place beyond Baikal and found a monastery and a “temple in the name of the Most Holy Trinity” for calling non-believers into the Orthodox Church. Christian faith". The hegumen and the brethren were provided with money, church utensils and relevant instructions on missionary activity. Hegumen Theodosius was also entrusted with the supervision of all churches existing in the Trans-Baikal prisons. Thus, the Trinity Monastery was assigned the role of an official religious center in the region that had just been annexed to the Russian state. 12 clerics were sent with instructions: "where they will find - to build a monastery in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity on the Selenga River, and in other Daurian cities and prisons, to call and baptize the Orthodox faith of foreigners ...". 1 The Mission found on the left bank of the Selenga River an old monastic building with the St. Nicholas Church, built by Nerchinsk service people in 1675. Here they decided to build a monastery.
The Trinity Monastery reached its peak in the 18th century. He had extensive land and fishing grounds, including Lake Kotokel. Since 1785, the rebuilding of the monastery began in stone, which has largely retained its appearance to this day. He retained the design of the fortified fortification: stone walls with corner towers, and the fifth - the roadway, in the center of the facade, facing the old "Moscow" tract. The village of Troitskoye surrounding the monastery was formed even before its foundation by Russian Cossack explorers and then by the monastic peasants. The village was originally called Srednyaya Zaimka.
A special concern of the monastery in the late 17th - early 18th centuries was the fortress wall with all its structures. It was quite high and had a length of 852 meters. The length of the walls of the monastery was significant according to Siberian conditions; none of the 14 main fortresses of Siberia in the 17th century had such an area. In each of the four towers of the monastery there were three tiers ("bridges") in the form of floors with loopholes for "battle". 2
Since in the first decades of the existence of the monastery, the predatory campaigns of some Mongol khans on the lands of Buryatia still continued, the monastery had to be ready to repel an attack. Its territory was surrounded by a wooden wall with towers and loopholes. Even according to the inventory of 1732, the monastery still had for defense: 3 cannons, 65 self-propelled guns, edged weapons and ammunition.
The Trinity Monastery was intended to be the official religious center in the region that had just been annexed to the Russian state.
To late XIX in. the monastery had 2 stone, 2 wooden churches, the rector's house, a monumental fence, stone and wooden outbuildings, sheds, barns, horse and cattle yards, a bathhouse, a garden and a kitchen garden. In addition, behind the fence was located parochial school with an apartment for teachers and a utility yard. The decoration of the churches was distinguished by the richness of the iconostases, the library - books not only of the Moscow and St. Petersburg press, but also of the Kyiv and Mogilev editions. The monastery stood at the crossroads of the Great Moscow tract, the road to Mongolia and China, and to the north - to the Itantsin and Barguzin lands. Being the spiritual center of Transbaikalia, it hosted many famous scientists and travelers within its walls.
In the 18th century, the monastery flourished, although part of its lands and lands were transferred to the Ambassadorial Monastery, which arose again in 1700.
The first wooden Trinity Cathedral, built in 1683, existed until the 1890s without rebuilding. According to the inventory of 1690, the church had a refectory, “the altar is round, and on the altar the white cross is upholstered with iron, on the church there is an osmerik, and on the osmerik the barrels are upholstered with iron, and in the church there is a building, the royal doors are framed with silver...”. 3 By the end of the 19th century, a five-tier iconostasis of the 17th century was preserved in the church, with icons brought from Russia, letters from that time. In 1893, the restoration of the church was completed: a stone foundation was laid, the two lower crowns were replaced and the porch and gallery were rebuilt again. In addition, the building was made heated. The further fate of the structure is unknown. It no longer existed in the 1920s.
Another church, built during the years of the development of the monastery of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, was "warm with a meal and with kolarskaya." The third church - in the name of All Saints - above the main gate in the wooden fence of the monastery was built in 1710, and consecrated in 1719.
In the 19th century, a carved iconostasis with icons from the time of its construction was still preserved. The building does not currently exist. In the first half of the 18th century, apparently, nothing else was built in the monastery, since not one of the abbots of that time was included in the list of them as “builders”.
By the end of the 19th century, in addition to the two stone buildings of churches listed above, two wooden churches, the abbot's house and a monumental fence, on the territory of the monastery there were: 1) a 4-walled stone well in the form of a chapel, with a plank hipped top near the western wall; 2) a wooden outbuilding on a stone foundation for two dwellings, built in 1883; 3) a stone building in the western wall of the fence, built in the 1880s, which housed a grain barn, a shed and two living quarters; 4) a wooden outbuilding, covered with boards, with two living quarters and a vestibule between them; 5) an old long outbuilding, in which a kitchen, a strange, and a refectory, a prosphyry workshop and a cellar were located; 6) other old buildings, a grain barn, a glacier cellar, a working hut and workshops; 7) in the north-eastern corner of the monastery with special gates there were horse and cattle yards. They had the following buildings: a well with a shed and a wheel, an old bathhouse, a shed for carts, a carriage shed, a large shed adjacent to a stone wall, a stable shed, and two more sheds, slightly smaller, for cattle and calves. In the southeast corner of the monastery there was a garden with old apple trees, bird cherry, cedars, and on the southwest side the land was plowed up for vegetable gardens, a garden, and the vegetable gardens were surrounded by a palisade.
In addition, monastic buildings were located outside the fence:
Apparently, it was the laying of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which caused a revival of economic activity in the region, and contributed to the construction of the last objects of the monastery in the 1900s. During the reign of Irinarkh, in 1902-1903, another Nikolskaya church was erected, as well as two stone houses.
In addition to churches, the monastery fence included a library, an archive, living quarters, cells, outbuildings, and vegetable gardens. On the left side, closer to the western wall, was the rector's cell. Along the northern fence, next to the entrance gates, there were grain barns, a "workshop's hut". In the northeast corner there were horse and cattle yards, a hay barn, a bathhouse, a "crew shed", and stone storerooms. An original well was built: a stone four-walled building in the form of a chapel with a plank hipped top and a cross towered above it.
All Russian diplomatic and trade figures who were on their way to China or Eastern Transbaikalia passed through the monastery and stopped there. One of them was the great and plenipotentiary ambassador of Russia to China Fedor Alekseevich Golovin. Visited the monastery of Izbrandt Eberhard (Elizar Elizarovich) Ides, a Dane, an envoy of Tsar Peter I as head of the Russian embassy to China; Izmailov Lev Vasilyevich, Captain of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, Envoy Extraordinary to China in 1720-1721; Lorenz Lang, Swede in Russian service; Vladislavich-Raguzinsky Savva Lukich, Serb in the Russian service, trade and financial agent of Russia on the Balkan Peninsula, Russian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to China in 1725-1728; Buchholz Ivan Dmitrievich, foreman, founder of the Omsk fortress.
The monastery was visited by Abram Petrovich Gannibal, a Russian military engineer, general-in-chief, godson of Peter I, great-grandfather of A. S. Pushkin. After the death of Peter I, he was sent to Tobolsk, and then to the Chinese border for the construction of the Peter and Paul Fortress at the mouth of the Chikoi, near Selenginsk. Famous historians of Russia were here - Miller G.F., Gmelin I.G., Fisher I.E.
At the end of June 1891, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich visited the monastery. As a memento of his stay, the Tsarevich presented the monastery with a "silver-gilded" enameled altar cross and donated 300 rubles.
The monastery hosted many leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church.
After the revolution, the activity of the monastery was discontinued. It has been used for various economic purposes. Some of the premises were destroyed.
For a long time, part of the premises of the monastery was used as a psychiatric hospital. In 2000, the activity of the spiritual community was resumed, which is restoring some of the premises. She partially restored the gate church and began services. Then this work was interrupted. In 2008, after the liquidation of the hospital, the monastery was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church and work began on its restoration.
Documents of the National Archives of the Republic of Buryatia
about the Holy Trinity Selenginsky Monastery
The National Archives of the Republic of Buryatia has fund No. 262 - "Trinity Selenginsky Monastery", where documents of 1681-1916 are stored. The fund keeps 543 cases.
Decrees and letters of the Senate and Synod of the Russian Empire, the Irkutsk Spiritual Consistory (d. 424) are stored here. The documents of the Trinity Monastery contain information about the history of the creation of the monastery, about the right to own land and fisheries (case 471), about the number of livestock, about the servants of the monastery, about the embassy in China and the Russian Orthodox churches in Beijing (case 490), about the spread of Christianity among the Buryats and Evenks (case 489), about fishing on Lake Baikal and Kotokel (cases 509 and 482, 311, 396, 471), etc.
The documents of the Trinity Monastery provide information about the receipts and expenditures of money, the collection of taxes, the number of peasants, arable land, grain reserves, records of donations to the monastery.
File No. 380 contains revision records (population census) for the Trinity Monastery: in 1858 there were 24 men, 18 women and 20 children.
We were interested in folders with documents that contained an inventory of the movable and immovable property of the monastery (case 385 - Inventory of the property of the churches of the Trinity Monastery for 1860), as well as information about the history of the creation of the monastery (case 462 - Information about the history of the monastery with a description of the architecture of churches for 1884-1893”), as well as folder No. 311, which contains an inventory of church property.
Some of these documents are presented in Appendix No. 1 to this work.
The current state of the monastery
Closed in 1920, the monastery was actually plundered in subsequent years with the knowledge godless power, many valuable relics and documents were destroyed, paintings, many icons, paintings of churches, church utensils perished in the fire.
For several decades, the premises of the monastery were used for a psychiatric hospital.
In 2007-2008 the hospital on the territory of the monastery was closed, the patients were transferred to another place, and the entire monastery was transferred to the possession of the Russian Orthodox Church. In early 2008, the Holy Synod decided to restore the Holy Trinity Monastery.
Now work is underway to restore it, the monastery has acquired a more magnificent appearance, services have begun within the walls of the monastery, religious processions with the participation of believers from other parishes of the Baikal region.
Monastic inventories as material for restoration work and restoration of the monastery.
In our opinion, some of the monastic documents of the pre-revolutionary period can give a practically complete picture of the state of the interiors and appearance churches and other monastic buildings. If we have in mind the restoration of the monastery in its original form, then this is hardly possible and expedient, however, an approximate “copy of the former monastery can and should be restored, from our point of view. That is why one should turn to the available inventories of church property dating back to the middle and end of the 19th century.
It should be noted that some documents contradict not only each other, but also themselves in regard to the valuation of church property.
So, in case No. 462, l.13, it is stated that “The Trinity Monastery is very poor in utensils and sacristy” 4 . At the same time, the document contains a description of the property, which can be equated to a huge fortune. The message that the monastery has a carved icon of St. Nicholas, found on Lake Kotokel, which belongs to the monastery, this image is the shrine of the monastery, revered by the people.
At Trinity Church "above the iconostasis is a large carved image of the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ in the growth of a man."
The total weight of seven monastery bells, according to the same "Metric", was 120 pounds - about two tons of an alloy of copper and silver.
The monastery library contained more than 700 books, including those in Latin, French and Greek, textbooks on philosophy, logic, literature, rhetoric, a dictionary of the Church Slavonic language, a philosophical encyclopedia, a Latin-Russian lexicon, a Jewish dictionary, etc. The library kept old maps of China, Tibet, Manchuria, and Mongolia. Contained, according to the inventory, collected works 0 Natural history, Life of the Russian people in 7 volumes, Description of the Patriotic War of 1812 by M. Danilevsky in 4 volumes, Russian history of Karamzin in 12 volumes, Russian history of Ustryalov, Bulgarin, General history and other valuable books. 5
File 385 from fund 262 - Inventory of the property of the churches of the Trinity Monastery for 1860.
Let's take a closer look at some of its pages.
AT stone Trinity Church contains:
Carved iconostasis "with columns and pedestals on a blue field, with carved holy images, the iconostasis is gilded with gold leaf, the royal gates of the same work are gilded - the southern and northern gates with images of the archangels Michael and Gabriel (Raphael)".
Next are the descriptions of the icons: the Assumption of the Mother of God, John the Baptist, the Icon Not Made by Hands in a silver robe, Vladimir icon Mother of God, behind the right kliros - the icon of the Mother of God. Two banners - at the right kliros depicting the Holy Trinity and the Assumption of the Mother of God, at the left - the Image of Christ the Savior Not Made by Hands and the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.
On the left side is the icon of the Mother of God of Tikhvin "in a silver frame under gold and in the same high crown, various saints are depicted along the edges, 7 tops high and 6 tops wide."
In this church (Troitskaya) there are six large lamps before the icons.
In the Nikolsky aisle, located from the entrance to right side, was the following property and church utensils. Carved iconostasis under gold leaf on a blue field with carved holy images. In the iconostasis there are royal doors of the same work. Local icons: "The Almighty with a silver crown and with a pendant of a silver cross on the same chain"; “The Mother of God with the Eternal Child in a silver under gold crown with a pendant of a silver cross on the same chain”, “St. Nicholas with the Savior blessing him and the Mother of God in silver crowns. On the wall opposite the right choir there is "an image of the Holy Trinity with the upcoming Abraham and Sarah, all five faces in silver crowns and hryvnias under gold." In the same chapel there were two large lamps and several small lamps in the altar and in front of the icons near the kliros. Near the right choir there is a wooden rectory and a painted wooden bookcase.
AT Annunciation aisle the same Trinity Church, located from the entrance on the left side, the location of church utensils was in the following order.
Carved iconostasis under gold leaf on a blue field with various holy images. Royal doors of the same work, from the north and south side depicting Melchizedek and John the Baptist. Local icons: the Almighty in a silver crown under gold. The image of the Mother of God with the Eternal Child in her arms. Icon of the Annunciation of the Mother of God in a silver crown under gold. Opposite the left kliros in the window is an image of the Holy Trinity of nine tops in a silver oklad along the edges, with three silver rims and hryvnias. At the Holy Gates, the icon of the Almighty sitting in the glory of the five tops on a cypress board and the icon of the Sorrowing Mother of God of five tops on the same board. In the altar: the image of the Mother of God in a high place in a gilded carved kiot. Above royal doors icon of three Saints. In this aisle there are three lamps of medium size and one small in the altar.
At the entrance to the cold church (main chapel) - two large images on canvas in frames: "The Entrance of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem" and "The Entrance of the Mother of God into the temple."
Conclusion
In addition to the temples we have described in detail, within the boundaries of the Holy Trinity Monastery there were churches: In the name of all saints, as well as the Archangel and gate church of the Archangel Michael, which had similar decoration; this indicates that the Trinity Monastery was not so poor, especially when you consider that in most of the churches currently being opened there are practically no icons painted in oil, and for the most part there are images of saints printed on paper, which is why they, of course, do not diminish in holiness - Another thing is that the worldly assessment of temple wealth is somewhat different.
The renaissance that has taken place over the last two decades Orthodox shrines(and not only Orthodox) arouses interest in their glorious history, in the events of antiquity, and the analysis of ancient documents makes the study of history not only interesting, but also fruitful.
We hope that our work will become a modest contribution to the restoration of the Holy Trinity Monastery - the first stone building beyond Baikal and one of the centers of Orthodoxy in Buryatia.
We intend to continue work on the documents of the Holy Trinity Monastery, among which of considerable scientific interest are documents related to the patrimony of the Holy Trinity Selenginsky Monastery - Lake Kotokel and fishing on it and adjacent rivers, on the relationship of the monastery brethren with local residents in the process of using fish stocks, about the rules of hunting and fishing in former times, about the requirements for nature protection.
List of sources
National archive of the Republic of Buryatia. F.262. Selenginsky Trinity Monastery. 1681-1918.
"The Life and Miracles of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra, and His Glory in Russia." St. Petersburg, Synodal Printing House, 1899.
Zhalsaraev A.D. settlements, Orthodox churches, the clergy of Buryatia of the XVII-XX centuries: - Ulan-Ude: Buryat book publishing house, 2001. - 448 p.
Kozin A.Z. "Nikola Kotokelsky - a shrine of Russians and Buryats." - "Bulletin of the Baikal region", 09/19/2000, pp. 3-7.
Minert L.K. Monuments of architecture of Buryatia. / Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1983.
Nikitin N.I. The development of Siberia in the XVII century. / Moscow: Education, 1990.
Collection of documents on the history of Buryatia in the 17th century. Issue 1./ Comp. Rumyantsev G.N. and Okun S.B. / USSR Academy of Sciences. Siberian branch. Buryat set. scientific research in-t. Ulan-Ude, 1960.
Tokmakov I.F., “Historical-statistical and archaeological description of the Holy Trinity-Selenga Monastery”: - M., 1895.
Shmulevich M.M. Trinity-Selenginsky Monastery. - Ulan-Ude: Buryat.kn.izd-vo, 1982. - 64 p.: illustration.
Shmulevich M.M. Essays on the history of Western Transbaikalia (XVII-mid XIX century). - Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1985. - 288 p.
National archive of the Republic of Buryatia. F.262., dd. 311, 485, 492.
Attachment 1.
From the documents of the national archive of the Republic of Buryatia. Fund 262.
1 NARB, f.262, op.1. 146.
2 M.M. Shmulevich. Essays on the history of Western Transbaikalia. 17th - mid 19th century
3 M.M. Shmulevich. Trinity-Selenginsky Monastery. Ulan-Ude: Bur. book. publishing house, 1982.
4 NARB, f. 262, d. No. 462, l.13. "Metric sent to the Irkutsk spiritual consistory in 1888".
5 NARB, f. 262, d. No. 462, l.13. "Metric sent to the Irkutsk spiritual consistory in 1888".
