Svensky Monastery
Encyclopedia
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
located at the confluence of the Desna
Desna River
Desna is a river in Russia and Ukraine, left tributary of the Dnieper. The word means "right hand" in the Old East Slavic language. Its length is , and its drainage basin covers ....
and Svin Rivers, three miles from Bryansk
Bryansk
Bryansk is a city and the administrative center of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, located southwest of Moscow. Population: -History:The first written mention of Bryansk was in 1146, in the Hypatian Codex, as Debryansk...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. The monastery was originally known as Svinsky, after the Svin River, but the spelling was subsequently changed to Svensky, because "svinsky" also means "of the swine" in Russian.
Church legends attribute the monastery's foundation to Prince Roman of Bryansk, who was reportedly buried there. As the legend has it, the monastery was founded to mark the place where a miraculous icon of the Theotokos
Theotokos
Theotokos is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include God-bearer and the one who gives birth to God. Less literal translations include Mother of God...
appeared to Roman, the second son of St. Mikhail of Chernigov, and cured him of blindness. A tree where it was found, was chopped down to be used for icon painting.
The miraculous icon represents the Theotokos Panachrantos with SS. Anthony and Theodosius
Anthony and Theodosius
Anthony and Theodosius were sainted founders of the Russian and Ukrainian monasticism. They established the Kiev Pechersk Monastery in the mid-11th century. See Saint Anthony of Kiev and Theodosius of Kiev for details....
. It is popularly attributed to the most celebrated icon-painter of Kievan Rus, St. Alypius
Alipy of the Caves
Alipy of the Caves - Eastern Orthodox saint, monk and famous painter of icons from the cave monastery of Kiev Pechersk Lavra...
from the Kiev Pechersk Monastery. Nikodim Kondakov
Nikodim Kondakov
Nikodim Pavlovich Kondakov , 1844, village of Khalan, Kursk Governorate, Russian Empire–February 17, 1925, Prague, Czechoslovakia), was a Russian historian, specialist in history of Byzantine art. Attended Moscow University under Fedor Buslaev in 1861–1865. Taught in the Moscow Art School...
supposed that the icon was modeled on a mosaic from the central conch of the Assumption Cathedral in the Pechersk Monastery.
In the 16th century, the monastery was repeatedly sacked by the Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group that originally resided in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language...
. After one such raid, Ivan the Terrible donated funds sufficient to build a cathedral of five domes, a refectory church, and a belltower. The cathedral doors of rare craftsmanship were endowed by Prince Ivan Mstislavsky. The church of SS. Anthony and Theodosius was started on 19 May 1566; its vaults suffered a collapse a year later but were restored.
After Russia regained the Left-bank Ukraine
Left-bank Ukraine
Left-bank Ukraine is a historic name of the part of Ukraine on the left bank of the Dnieper River, comprising the modern-day oblasts of Chernihiv, Poltava and Sumy as well as the eastern parts of the Kiev and Cherkasy....
by the Treaty of Andrusovo
Treaty of Andrusovo
The Truce of Andrusovo was a thirteen and a half year truce, signed in 1667 between Tsardom of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which were at war since 1654 over the territories of modern-day Ukraine and Belarus....
, the liveliest fair in the region was held annually underneath the walls of the Svensky Monastery, then run by ethnic Ukrainians, such as John Maksymovych, the future Archbishop of Chernigov. Its ties with the Kiev Pechersk Lavra were so close that in 1682 the Svensky Monastery was transformed into a branch of the lavra, its name changed from Svensky to New Pechersk monastery.
During this period of Ukrainian domination, Cossack Baroque was liberally applied to its buildings. The Presentation Church, rising in three towers above the main entrance to the abbey, was erected in the late 1680s in the simplified Ukrainian Baroque style. The main cathedral was rebuilt in the Baroque style in 1715. The ancient clocktower was built up to the height of 42 meters. The Saviour Church over the fair gates was constructed in five levels, ringed by a gallery, in 1742. The walls of the monastery were erected between 1749 and 1769.
On 30 July 1749 work started on the new cathedral, which was to be modeled on the New Cathedral of the Donskoi Monastery in Moscow. It is believed that its design was commissioned from Ivan Fyodorovich Michurin
Ivan Fyodorovich Michurin
Ivan Fyodorovich Michurin was a Russian architect whose designs marked a transition of Russian architecture from early Muscovite Baroque to mature Rastrelliesque style....
, who had supervised construction of St Andrew's Church of Kiev
St Andrew's Church of Kiev
The Saint Andrew's Church is a major Baroque church located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The church was constructed in 1747–1754, to a design by the Imperial Russian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli...
. The cathedral of the Svensky Monastery was reminiscent of another structure ascribed to Michurin — St. Clement's Church in Zamoskvorechye
Zamoskvorechye
Zamoskvorechye District is a district of Central Administrative Okrug in Moscow, Russia. Population: The district contains the eastern half of historical Zamoskvorechye area , and the territories of Zatsepa Street and Paveletsky Rail Terminal south of the Garden Ring...
. A seven-tier Baroque iconostasis
Iconostasis
In Eastern Christianity an iconostasis is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. Iconostasis also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church...
from the old cathedral was carefully preserved and assembled in the new structure before it was consecrated in 1758.
There was no new construction in the monastery after that. In the 19th century, the cloister declined, especially after the fair had been moved to Bryansk in 1864. A garden of cedars, chestnuts, and cherry-trees was planted to mark its historical location. The Bolsheviks closed the monastery in 1926. Its valuables were expropriated, while the miraculous icon of the Theotokos was given to the Tretyakov Gallery
Tretyakov Gallery
The State Tretyakov Gallery is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world.The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Moscow merchant Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov acquired works by Russian artists of his day with the aim of creating a collection,...
. Michurin's cathedral was blown up; the Church of SS. Anthony and Theodosius (the oldest in the complex) reduced to rubble; the house where Peter the Great stayed before the Battle of Poltava
Battle of Poltava
The Battle of Poltava on 27 June 1709 was the decisive victory of Peter I of Russia over the Swedish forces under Field Marshal Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld in one of the battles of the Great Northern War. It is widely believed to have been the beginning of Sweden's decline as a Great Power; the...
torn down. It was not until the late 1980s that conservation works on the remaining structures started. The monks were readmitted into the monastery in 1992.