Natalia Kogan, f oto author
The Saints mountains
Magazine “Obvious and Incredible”, No. 3, 2010
The national natural park “Holy Mountains” on the Seversky Donets contains innumerable natural, spiritual and historical riches.
Quietly, softly over Ukraine,
A charming secret
The July night lies
The sky has gone so deep
The stars shine so high
And the Donets shines in the darkness.
F. Tyutchev, “Holy Mountains”
Protected places
Chalk hills up to 200 meters high, covered with relic forests, hang over the surface of the Seversky Donets River. The greatest interest in the flora of Svyatogorye is chalk pine. This relic tree of the pre-glacial era is included in the Red Book. Another attraction is sumac, or scumpia. This shrub with pink fruits like balls of fluff has long been known as an ancient Russian leaf tanning agent called “Svyatogorsk leaf” and was used in the royal morocco factories. Svyatogorsk oak forests have long been a subject of interest to scientists and foresters. Unfortunately, the main areas of oak forests were cut down in XVIII - XIX centuries, but some of their habitats have survived to this day: in the oak grove of the park, the main attraction is the six-hundred-year-old patriarch oak. Rare endemic plants from the glacial and post-glacial periods have been preserved on the chalk deposits of the local mountains.
Another feature of the Svyatogorsk natural oasis of the steppe zone of the Donetsk basin is the richest concentration of cultural heritage monuments of almost all historical eras and various ethnocultural communities. Over the past hundred years, archaeological expeditions from scientific institutions and museums in Kyiv, Kharkov, and Donetsk have been working in the Svyatogorsk historical area. The subject of their research is the sites and workshops of ancient people of the Stone Age, burial mounds and settlements of the Copper-Bronze Age, Scythian-Sarmatian monuments, the first settlements of the Slavs, medieval settlements from the times of the Khazar Kaganate, Kievan Rus, and the Golden Horde. Many finds of archaeologists are presented today in the exhibitions of the Svyatogorsk Historical Museum.
The picturesque nature of Svyatogorye, its antiquity, and legendary history attracted and inspired the creativity of many artists and writers. G. Skovoroda, F. Tyutchev, A. Chekhov, I. Bunin, S. Sergeev-Tsensky, M. Gorky, I. Repin visited here.
History of the holy monastery
The lack of accurate evidence about the time of foundation of the Svyatogorsk monastery and the circumstances of the appearance of the first Svyatogorsk caves gave rise to many legends and hypotheses. According to the “Byzantine” version, the Svyatogorsk monastery was founded during the times of iconoclasm and the mission of St. Cyril and Methodius in Khazaria VIII - IX centuries. According to another version, the founders of the monastery are supposedly considered to be the local steppe population of the “northern branch” XI - XII centuries or the Kyiv monk Fr. Nikon during his trip to Tmutarakan.
One of the most popular versions places the beginning of the monastery in the middle XIII century, when, after Batu’s invasion of Rus', part of the monks of the Kiev Pechersk Monastery allegedly found their refuge in the chalk rocks near the Donets River. Another legend says that in the middle XV centuries, Athonite monks, having left the Holy Mountain in Athos under the onslaught of the Turks, moved up the Donets and, seduced by the beauty of Svyatogorye, founded a monastery here.
Quite realistic information about the time of the emergence of the Svyatogorsk monastery is provided by written and archaeological sources. The name of this area was first mentioned by the German ambassador to the Moscow court, Sigismund Herbenstein, in 1526.
Russian chronicles XVI centuries mark the role of the Holy Mountains as a guard point on the southern borders of the Russian state. The first documentary evidence of the cave monastery in the Holy Mountain dates back to 1620: it mentions Abbot Ephraim and 12 Svyatogorsk monks. According to Moscow acts, the Holy Holy Hermitage received annual assistance from the royal salary in bread and money. In 1624, “by decree of the Great Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich of all Russia, the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Svyatogorsk Monastery was ordered to the black priest Simeon with Bartia, or whoever else in that monastery will be the abbot, to give annual rye in Belgorod for twelve quarters of rye, twelve quarters of oats quarters, ten rubles each from tavern and customs revenues.”
The most ancient and unique monument of the Svyatogorsk Monastery are the chalk rock caves. External danger from the south, primarily from the territory of the Crimean Khanate, determined the long-term location and development of the monastery directly inside the chalk rock. The caves, hand-carved into the rock, represent a complex system of labyrinths connecting underground churches, cells, a refectory, and a necropolis. The developed infrastructure of the communal desert was formed over the course of XVI - XVIII century and was a five-tiered complex of cave-type structures. The names of most of the abbots are known XVII century, except for Abbot Ephraim and the black priest Simeon. In 1628-1631, documents were signed on behalf of the monastery by elders David and Alexander, in 1640 the monastery was headed by the black priest Kirill, and in 1651 by Ignatius. The most famous among the abbots of the cave monastery was the first Archimandrite Joel. Under him, the first above-ground buildings were built under the chalk rock and the gradual resettlement of monks began to the “podol” - the coastal plateau of the river. Since then, the Svyatogorsk Monastery began to turn into a unique architectural monument, combining different styles and different eras.
Present for favorite
In 1787, the Svyatogorsk Assumption Monastery was abolished according to Catherine’s Manifesto II on the secularization of church and monastery property with the transfer of its land holdings and peasant subjects to the treasury. It was this year that the Empress’s motorcade passed the Holy Mountains on the road from Crimea to St. Petersburg. Catherine's travel program II , places of stops, meetings, events were completely dependent on Prince Grigory Potemkin-Tavrichesky. They were waiting for the empress at the monastery and really hoped for her visit. However, the motorcade passed by. Apparently, His Serene Highness had already conceived a certain plan, the essence of which became clear later. There is a legend that the day before, when Potemkin was traveling from St. Petersburg to Crimea, he passed through these places. When the prince saw the wonderful Svyatogorsk area, he ordered to stop on the road and admired the Holy Mountains from afar for a long time, asked the local official accompanying him about them, wrote down the information he received in a pocket book and drove on. And after some time, talking with Catherine, he casually noticed that he really liked the Svyatogorskaya Grove. In “Russian Antiquity” for 1876, the empress’s correspondence with her favorite was published, which contained information about the deed of gift for the Svyatogorsk estate to his Serene Highness, dated October 1, 1790. But Potemkin did not have time to take advantage of the royal gift and realize his plans for the development of the Svyatogorsk estate, since he soon died.
Heir to earthly paradise
Since His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin-Tavrichesky was not officially married and had no children, the inheritance of the “earthly paradise” turned into a separate complex story that lasted until the events of 1917 and which is simply unrealistic to understand without compiling a whole grove of family trees.
So, after the death of the prince, the Svyatogorsk estate was to be divided among themselves by the closest relatives - Potemkin’s sisters Maria, Pelageya and Martha. But by the time the property was divided, the sisters and their husbands had already died and their children automatically became heirs. These heirs were the children of Marfa Alexandrovna Engelhardt (nee Potemkina) and Vasily Andreevich Engelhardt: son Vasily and five daughters.
The family of Baron von Engelhart originates from Heinrich Engelhart, a member of the town council in Zurich in 1838. IN XV century, the Engelharts moved to Livonia, then to Courland and Poland. IN XVII century for military merits of the Polish king Vladislav IV granted the Engelgarts estates in Smolensk. At the end XVII - early XVIII centuries, the Engelharts switched to the service of the Russian throne.
So, after Grigory Potemkin, the owner of the estate became Vasily Vasilyevich Engelhardt, who by the time he received the inheritance was already in the rank of lieutenant general, had a reputation as a zealous owner, kept all his estates in order, which brought in significant income. By a strange coincidence, V.V. Engelhardt was also not married and did not have any children of his own, but he accepted two girls, Alexandra and Catherine, and three boys, Vasily, Andrei and Pavel, who were later given the nobility and the surname Engelhardt and all the rights of heirs, but no one was the owner of the Svyatogorsk estate of them did not.
Engelgart's Svyatogorsk estate became part of the Izyum district of the Sloboda-Ukrainian province. The estate included 25 thousand acres of land and was home to more than 4 thousand inhabitants. V.V. Engelhart contributed in every possible way to the establishment of peasant farms, the development of industrial crafts and trade.
Pearl of Svyatogorye
After the death of V.V. Engelgart, the Svyatogorsk estate was to be divided between his sisters, and there were no less than five of them. But the owner of the estate became the younger sister, by that time already Princess Tatyana Vasilyeva Yusupova, who bought herself four plots of the sisters, which were to become their inheritance so that such a beautiful estate would not be divided and fragmented.
Tatiana was born on January 1, 1769, at the age of 12 she was taken to Catherine's court II as a maid of honor. The Empress took an active part in arranging the personal life of the young lady-in-waiting, so at the age of 16 she married Lieutenant General Mikhail Sergeevich Potemkin, who died tragically (drowned) 6 years later. From this marriage, T.V. Potemkina had a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Ekaterina. The Empress still cares about the fate of the now widow, and in 1793 Tatyana Vasilievna, thanks to the royal matchmaking, marries a second time - to Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov, but this marriage was unsuccessful, but for reasons different from the first: we can say that the spouses did not get along characters. The princess lived separately from her husband and had her own social circle, distinguished by a highly intellectual level. She communicated with Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Derzhavin, Krylov. At the same time, the princess skillfully managed affairs on her numerous estates and was known as an expert in financial matters. With significant income from her estates, she could satisfy her passion for rare gems. Yusupova’s collection included such famous stones as the Polar Star diamond, the Aldebaran diamond, and Philip’s pearl. II Spanish “Peregrina”, Marie Antoinette’s earrings, Caroline Murette’s diamond and pearl tiara and others. With such expensive hobbies, the princess led a very modest lifestyle and was involved in charity work. In the history of the Holy Mountains, Princess Yusupova is known for her refusal to resume the activities of the Svyatogorsk Monastery in the second half of the 1830s. This only happened when her son, Alexander Mikhailovich Potemkin, became the owner of the estate, and Svyatogorye again became Potemkin.
Italian villa
We can say that Alexander Mikhailovich Potemkin was the only direct heir in the history of inheritance of the Svyatogorsk estate. In 1841 he became the owner of these magnificent lands. By this time, Potemkin was already a very well-known figure in high society, the leader of the St. Petersburg provincial nobility. In his St. Petersburg house on Milionnaya Street, high society gathered, the soul of which was his wife Tatyana Borisovna Potemkina, née Princess Golitsyna. Count S.D. Sheremetyev, who knew the Potemkins closely, wrote in his memoirs: “The famous Potemkin house in the capital was at one time some kind of open house, almost a hotel for anyone who wore a cassock or was considered a saint. Whoever has been in this house, whoever has been given shelter in the countless rooms and nooks of this labyrinth, whatever has been done in this house with and without the knowledge of the owner, the omnipotent Tatyana Borisovna, who is still like a mystery to me... the owner of the house himself Alexander Mikhailovich Potemkin is a harmless old man who cared about only one thing, so that he would not be disturbed or interfered with his countless habits.”
During the 1840-1860s, the Potemkins tried to visit the Svyatogorsk estate annually and spend the second half of August and September here. Contemporaries' memories of the turbulent life of Svyatogorye, when A.M. Potemkin was the owner of these places, have been preserved. Fairs were held here, which from the heights of the Holy Mountains presented a wonderful picture: “In a wild but majestic area, an immense mass of people in multi-colored ancient festive attire is fussing and swarming, like an anthill, from the very village of Bogorodichnoye and the ferry crossing across the river. Donets and to the Holy Mountains... peasants and various trading people stood in hundreds of carts and carts wherever anyone wanted... The abundance of all kinds of rural products was such that it was hardly possible not only to drive through, but to walk between them... fruits and vegetables - even with a shovel , and among rural peasant products there was an abundance of linen, wool, leather and wood products.” In addition to fairs, many landowners were attracted by the Holy Mountains with magnificent balls with dancing and luxurious treats. These balls were organized here by the Svyatogorsk manager in specially built pavilions. As historian D.I. writes Miller, landowners came here from five counties, and hundreds of carriages and carriages stood around the pavilions until dawn.
It was thanks to Tatyana Borisovna Potemkina that the Svyatogorsk Monastery was revived. Despite his busy schedule in the capital, driven by his wife’s unquenchable desire to open the Svyatogorsk Monastery as soon as possible, A.M. Potemkin allocated 10 thousand rubles and 300 acres of land for the restoration and maintenance of the ancient monastery. And on January 15, 1844, the Svyatogorsk Monastery was reopened according to the report of the Holy Synod with the highest consent of Emperor Nicholas I , and on August 12 of the same yearThe official opening of the monastery took place. In addition, a magnificent house was built on the slope of the Holy Mountains near the monastery, in which not only the imperial family and high-ranking guests stayed, but also many cultural figures, famous writers, poets, and artists. This is how Vasily Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote about the Holy Mountains: “A completely Italian villa! She took refuge on the mountain and wrapped herself in a fragrant thicket, like a hermit running from the world... From the upper balcony of the villa - everything is in full view, both the white cliffs and the monastery itself. A better point could not have been chosen for the picture. Mountain ledges after ledges - and they all fall into the Donets. The same distance as from the chalk cliffs, you can’t look at it enough...” This is how my good friend T.B. wrote about these places. Potemkina, religious figure and writer Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov: “the picturesque dacha in the semi-mountain, with extensive views of the entire Donets valley under the cloudless sky of Ukraine, reminded me of the Roman villas of Frascati, with their skylights onto the wonderful desert of the eternal city; From the luxurious terrace I was especially struck by the unexpected sight of the Svyatogorsk monastery and its chalk cliffs, cut by monastic cells, under the shadow of a centuries-old oak grove.”
From A.M. Potemkin’s estate was passed on to his great-nephew, because he and his wife did not produce their own children, T.B. Potemkina predeceased her husband in 1861, and Potemkina's sister and her children predeceased him.
Donetsk Switzerland
In 1861, Emperor Alexander visited the Svyatogorsk estate of the Potemkins. II family. When the emperor's wife walked out into the open gallery of the Potemkin house and saw the view of the Holy Mountains above the Seversky Donets, she exclaimed: “This is my Switzerland!”
In 1872, Count Georgy Ivanovich Ribopierre became the owner of the Potemkin estate. Thus, a representative of an ancient Swiss family took possession of Ukrainian Switzerland. Family of Count G.I. Ribopierres originated from the patricians of the cantor of the Vaad in Switzerland - one of the branches of the oldest noble family of Ribopierres in Alsace. The genus is known from XI - XII centuries. In Russia, a representative of this family, the great-grandfather of George Ribopierre, Jean Ribopierre, appeared during the time of Catherine II , having in hand Voltaire’s letter of recommendation. A native of France, Jean (Ivan) Ribopierre was warmly received by the Voltairian empress and received the position of adjutant of Prince G. Potemkin-Tavrichesky. He soon married the Empress's maid of honor Agrafena Alexandrovna Bibikova, from whose marriage a son, Alexander, was born. Alexander Ivanovich Ribopierre in 1809 married Ekaterina Mikhailovna Potemkina, the sister of Alexander Mikhailovich Potemkin, who owned the Svyatogorsk estate in 1841-1872. From this marriage the Ribopierres had four daughters and two sons - Mikhail and Ivan. The first died in childhood, and the second, having married Sofya Vasilyevna Trubetskoy, had a son, George, who became the owner of the Svyatogorsk estate. By this time, the Ribopierres already bore the title of count, granted on the day of the coronation of Emperor Alexander II – August 26, 1856.
Georgy Ivanovich Ribopierre was born on August 15, 1854 in Tsarskoye Selo. His childhood was spent in Italy and Switzerland. From the age of 12, George trained at the Florence Gymnastics Society, and at the age of 14 he trained at the Galem Circus and organized his own amateur circus. In 1870, Georgy returned to Russia and at the age of 16 he entered Sokolov’s private boarding school, where he continued to enjoy sports. G. Ribopierre devoted 1873-1885 to military service, after which he completely devoted himself to two hobbies that became his life’s work - horse breeding and athletics. The count founded his own stud farms in St. Petersburg, Simbirsk province and on his Svyatogorsk estate. At the stud farms, the count built hippodromes where competitions of thoroughbred horses were held. In 1896, G.I. Ribopierre became the first president of the St. Petersburg Athletic Society. A year later, he held the First Russian Weightlifting Championship. In 1900, he became a member of the International Olympic Committee and ensured the participation of Russian athletes in the 1908 Olympic Games. In fact, Count Ribopierre stood at the origins of the Olympic movement in the Russian Empire.
And in the Svyatogorsk estate, the count carried out a serious reconstruction, during his time the territory on the left bank was developed with hotels, summer cottages and restaurants, and a narrow-gauge railway with a length of 8 kilometers was laid from the Svyatogorsk station to the site of the fairs. The final tram station was located opposite the monastery hotel.
However, according to contemporaries, the count did not often visit Svyatogorye; Countess Ribopierre also visited the estate occasionally. “Ribaupierre led an extremely secluded life, and no one except his closest friends visited him. One of the reasons for this is the count’s marriage. He was married to a Hungarian... she was a beautiful, but very eccentric woman. The Count married her when her daughter was born, the only heir to his enormous fortune... The Count himself was very handsome, of medium height, with delicate features and beautiful, intelligent and kind brown eyes. He wore small sideburns, walked rather slowly, and lately he was often sick. The reason for this was the impossible lifestyle he led: the count turned day into night and back. He went to bed very late, at about five in the morning, and got up at three or four in the afternoon.” Count G.I. Ribopierre died in 1916 at the age of 73 after a cold and unsuccessful treatment. A year later, the Svyatogorsk estate was nationalized by the Soviet authorities. The Svyatogorsk Monastery was again closed for many years.
Symbols of eras
The closure of the Svyatogorsk monastery in 1922 led to the disappearance of many architectural monuments of these places, including the Transfiguration Church, which crowned one of the chalk mountains above the Seversky Donets, and the manor house itself, traces of the foundation of which today can hardly be found among the thickets of grass and trees. Other religious, residential and outbuildings were adapted into the Rest House for the working masses, which received the symbolic name of the All-Ukrainian Rest House named after Artyom. In commemoration of this significant event for the Soviet state, the famous sculptor I.P. Kavaleridze in 1927, a 22-meter monument to the Bolshevik Fyodor Andreevich Sergeev, nicknamed Artem, was cast from reinforced concrete, which was erected on the top of one of the chalk mountains (by a happy coincidence, not on the site of the Transfiguration Church). The monumental sculpture, created in the style of cubism, survived the war, becoming a monument to Soviet constructivism and a symbol of the Soviet era. During the Great Patriotic War there were heavy battles here. At the monument to Artyom, soldiers who died during the liberation of Svyatogorye from the fascist invaders were buried, and a memorial complex was created where the names of more than 2,000 soldiers and officers are immortalized.
The Svyatogorsk Monastery resumed its activities 70 years after its closure - in 1992. In 2004, by decision of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Holy Dormition Monastery received the status of a Lavra.
One of them is the National Natural Park “Holy Mountains” (http://www.svyatygory.org – official website). The park was created on February 13, 1997. Located in the northern part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, in the Slavyansky (11957 hectares), Krasnolimansky (27665 hectares) and Artyomovsky districts. It is located along the left bank of the Seversky Donets River with large protrusions on the right bank. In 2008, the chalk mountains on the territory of the national natural park “Holy Mountains” were included in the Top 100 of the all-Ukrainian competition “Seven Natural Wonders of Ukraine”.
The park carries out work to protect and study valuable natural, historical and cultural complexes and objects on its territory, create conditions for organized tourism and recreation for the population, and environmental education of visitors.
The park is important in historical and archaeological terms. On the territory of the Saints there are 129 archaeological sites (from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages), 73 historical monuments. In 1980, a state historical and cultural reserve was founded on the current territory of the park. The basis of the complex of monuments of the reserve is the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra (founded in the 13th - 16th centuries, received the status of a monastery in 2005), located on the rocky right bank of the Seversky Donets. The complex of historical monuments also includes a monumental sculpture of Artyom by I. P. Kavaleridze. Next to the monument is the Great Patriotic War Memorial. The National Natural Park “Holy Mountains” includes 13 specially protected natural areas of the Donetsk region - landscape, forest, botanical reserves and natural monuments.
The vegetation of the Holy Mountains National Nature Park has enormous scientific value. On an area of 40.5 thousand hectares, half of the species of higher plants that have ever been recorded in the South-East of Ukraine grow - 943 species, including 27 species of trees, 63 of shrubs and 853 of herbaceous plants. 48 plant species are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine, 20 species grow only in this territory. The vegetation of the Seversky Donets River valley is protected: relict and endemic plant groups in
chalk exfoliations, ravine forests, steppes, meadow and swamp vegetation. Of particular value are the unique chalk forests formed by chalk pine - a tertiary relict listed in the Red Book of Ukraine and the IUCN International Red List. As a unique corner of nature, the chalk mountains have long attracted the attention of scientists. Chalk pine differs from Scots pine. Currently, in Ukraine, chalk pine is preserved only in the Holy Mountains park and the Cretaceous Flora reserve.
The fauna of the park is very interesting - 256 species of animals live on the territory of the “Holy Mountains”. The fauna includes 43 species of mammals, 10 of reptiles, 9 of amphibians, and 40 of fish. There are weasels, polecats, American minks, pine martens and stone martens - common inhabitants of typical biotopes of the national park. There are also ermine, badger and otter, listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. Several groups of wolves constantly live in the park. Ungulates are represented by roe deer and wild boar, native to the region, the taiga resident elk, which became widespread in the second half of the twentieth century, and sika deer, acclimatized in the 60s from Primorye.
In total, among the wild inhabitants of the Holy Mountains National Park, 49 species are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine and 13 in the European Red List. The rare composition of the animal and plant world can be confidently considered the golden fund of the “Holy Mountains”.
National Natural Park "Holy Mountains" is a wonderful place for organizing and conducting tourism, environmental excursions and environmental education. Here you can relax, improve your health and get acquainted with beautiful natural, cultural and historical complexes.
ORTHODOX CALENDAR. MODERN LOOK
Where are the Holy Mountains?
July 30, 2008
Icon of the Mother of God of Svyatogorsk
July 30, 2008 The Russian Orthodox Church venerates the Icon of the Mother of God of Svyatogorsk, and with it the UOC MP joins in this veneration. Moreover, in 2008 brought into the church life of the Russian Orthodox Church, one might say, a number of revolutionary changes. And this year, the celebration of the Icon of the Mother of Svyatogorsk will take place against the backdrop of celebrations dedicated to the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' and with the personal participation of Patriarch Alexy II, which in itself is an extraordinary event for Ukraine.
But, due to historical realities, with the veneration of this icon, a certain historical, and I would even say ecclesiastical, conflict arose in the Orthodox Church, which in the Russian Orthodox Church, where everyone is passionate about new church construction, stubbornly refuses to notice.
For in the Russian Federation, in fact, on the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church, there is the HOLY ASSUMPTION Svyatogorsk Monastery (Pskov region) where there is an icon of the Mother of God of Svyatogorsk and in Ukraine (Donetsk region) there is a restored one in 1992. Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Monastery.
And since 2004, it has already become the Svyatogorsk Holy Dormition Lavra, where there is also the miraculous Svyatogorsk Icon of the Mother of God.
And the celebration of these icons takes place on one day, although the history of their appearance and the beginning of the cult of veneration, in the time period, is spread out by 300-400 years, in favor of the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Monastery (Pskov region).
And believers are no longer sure where the Holy Mountains are located in the Pskov region or in Ukraine? Isn’t it logical to have two places of religious veneration of the same icon, in monasteries with the same name and in localities with similar names?
But if we follow the logic of recent events, then the decision of Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Alexy II to visit Donetsk and the Svyatogorsk Lavra on July 29 and 30, where on the last day of his stay in Ukraine he will lead the liturgy on the day of the celebration of the “Svyatogorsk Icon of the Mother of God” probably indicates that The “true” Holy Mountains are located in Ukraine….
It is a pity, however, that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was offended in such a situation, since it is in this HOLY ASSUMPTION Svyatogorsk Monastery, in the Pskov region, that the family tomb of the Pushkins is located. Apparently modern politics is more important than the historical memory of the popular Russian favorite.
Taking into account this priority and the attention of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Svyatogorsk Holy Dormition Lavra and its main shrine, we will begin our essay about two monastic monasteries, with this monastic monastery, in order to finally find out where the Holy Mountains are located and whose icon Mother of God is revered July 30, 2008
Chapter 1 part 1
Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Hermitage - Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Monastery - SVYATOGORSKY Holy Dormition Lavra (Ukraine)
Historical part
On the right bank of the Seversky Donets River stands, restored since 1992. monastic monastery - Assumption Svyatogorsk Monastery.
This monastery is located in the region that, according to church tradition, was Christian long before the baptism of Rus'.
We will discard the stories of church tradition that the monastery was originally founded by monks running away from Byzantium and move on to documentary evidence.
So in “History of the Russian Church” Metropolitan. Macarius indicates that the Khazars who lived here already in the middle of the 8th century. had their own bishop, a certain recluse of Sosthenes, exiled to Kherson for venerating icons.
A century later, the Greek Emperor Michael, at the request of the Khazars, sent St. Cyril and Methodius to Khazaria, because “byahu tamo blasphemes the Jewish peasant faith.”
Whether Cyril and Methodius were in the Svyatogorsk Monastery, history is silent. But Metropolitan Macarius claims that after repeated heated debates with the Khazars, Saracens and especially the Jews, the brothers, with God’s help, achieved the goal of their embassy - according to the life of the brothers Equal to the Apostles, the prince himself, his boyars and many people believed in Christ and accepted holy baptism.
Another church authority is Archbishop. Filaret (Gumilevsky). Explaining the name of the Holy Hermitage, he wrote: “Why are the Donetsk mountains called holy? –
- This name can only be explained by the fact that since 1540 the shrine of the Donetsk Rocks - the image of St. Nicholas, found by the monks (in the caves), and the holiness of the monks who labored here...
With all probability we can assume that in the 14th century. The Svyatogorsk monastery already existed...”
Please note, dear reader, that the first and main icon of the Svyatogorsk Hermitage has been around since 1540. became an icon of St. Nicholas!
In the XI-XIV centuries. On the territory of the region, in the immediate vicinity of the Holy Mountains, there existed, according to some modern archaeologists, both a series of small settlements and a large center - “Tsarino Settlement”, some of the inhabitants who professed Christianity according to the Greek rite.
The Holy Mountains are repeatedly mentioned in historical documents of the 16th century, such as the Moscow and Lvov chronicles, and in 1624 Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich granted a charter to Abbot Simeon and his brethren.
In Russian historiography, the granting of such a royal charter is, as it were, the official acceptance of the monastery under the wing of the Russian Orthodox Church and is usually considered as the year of its foundation.
And everything that happened before this, as it were, doesn’t count, who knows how many “Judaizing” Khazars were wandering around here?
The brothers Cyril and Methodius came and went, but the Khazars, but not the Slavs and the Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians who then left them, remained in the territory that is now the Donetsk region.
At this time, the Svyatogorsk Hermitage was the most advanced, southern, Russian settlement in the Wild Steppe and stood in the way of the Crimean Tatar hordes, which repeatedly went to Muscovy for tribute, and was also ruined by the Tatars, although as we know, they did not take monks prisoner and the church was not subject to taxes.
. The fact that the monastery was an advanced fortress is evidenced by its location on almost impregnable rocks.
But the hard times have passed, the reign of Catherine II has come.
Ukraine was conquered, the Zaporozhye Sich was liquidated.
In 1782, Catherine II concluded a peace treaty with the Crimean Khan Sahib-Girey and the need for the Russian Empire and, naturally, for the Russian Orthodox Church, in the desert disappeared.
In connection with this, in 1787 the monastery was “abolished.” According to the “Spiritual States”, published by Catherine II on February 26, 1764, all monasteries that owned patrimonies and were not abolished, with the exception of the laurels (Trinity-Sergius and Kiev-Pechersk) and those of them that were made cathedrals, that is, intended for bishops (Alexandro-Nevsky, Chudov, Rozhdestvensky-Vladimirsky, Ipatievsky, Spaso-Preobrazhensky, Novgorod-Seversky), were divided into three classes and a norm of full-time monks and nuns was established in them.
First class monasteries had 33 monks, second class monasteries had 17, and third class monasteries had 12 monks; in first-class convents there were, according to the staff, from 52 to 101 nuns, and in second- and third-class monasteries there were 17 nuns each.
In 1762, there were 881 monasteries, hermitages and hermitages in the Great Russian provinces alone.
Only established monasteries now received a certain monetary allowance from the state.
But not everything was clean here, there was corruption, as they now say, and the miraculous icons of Svyatogorsk did not help.
An unexpected turn in the history of Svyatogorye was the decision of Catherine II to give this “paradise on earth,” as the empress herself put it, to her favorite, Prince Grigory Potemkin. After which the desert territory became his ordinary secular dacha.
Yes, I almost forgot to note that by the time the desert was closed, it owned 27,000 acres of land and 2,000 peasants. The monastery community was very wealthy! And it’s not for nothing that Potemkin “liked” it.
Since 1790, the Holy Mountains were owned by Prince G. Potemkin, and after his death - by his relatives, the Engelhardts. The ones with T.G. Shevchenko served in the Cossacks, who doesn’t remember. The monastery churches were partially dismantled, and partially became just a church parish.
By July 1, 1896, there were 789 of all monasteries, hermitages, hermitages and women’s communities (not counting the few assigned monasteries in which only a few monks live to perform divine services).
But let's return to the topic of the story.
Almost 54 years later, the Svyatogorsk hermitage opened up again. This happened in 1844 in connection with the arrival of the first 12 monks, led by Abbot Arseny (Mitrofanov), to the settlement.
The history of this “miracle”, if expressed in church language, is as follows.
In 1842, Engelhardt's nephew Alexander Potemkin (namesake of Count Potemkin) and his wife Tatyana (née Golitsyna), having visited here, decided to revive the monastery, for which they turned to the Synod with a petition to restore the monastery.
And according to the “most submissive report of the Holy Synod,” Nicholas I, by decree of January 15, 1844, “deigned to order the restoration of the Svyatogorsk Assumption Hermitage on the principles of community life and to accept the charter of the Glinsk Hermitage of the Kursk Diocese as the basis for the internal well-being of it.” (This hermitage still exists - Glinskaya hermitage in the village of Sosnovka, Glukhovsky district, Sumy region of Ukraine)
Again, I draw the reader’s attention to the fact that the king allowed the founding not of a monastery, but of a “hermitage.”
And yet, usually out of misunderstanding, or maybe out of malicious intent, I draw attention to the important detail ““he deigned to command the restoration of the Svyatogorsk Assumption Hermitage on the basis of a community life...”.
T. and in its first legal status it was not a monastery, but a hermitage.
This is fundamentally important because “Pustyn” is a term denoting a monastic settlement, in the Russian Orthodox tradition, a monastery usually remote from the main monastery.
And in Orthodoxy, hermitage is a form of monastic, “skete” or “desert” life, solitude associated with the voluntary adoption of additional ascetic vows in addition to the general statutory ones (for example, intense prayer, strict fasting, silence).
Now let's talk about another important detail of the restoration of the Svyatogorsk Hermitage. About the Charter of the Glinsk Hermitage. This is a special document in Russian monasticism and it deserves a detailed description because, having understood its essence, one can understand what the monks of the Syatogorsk Hermitage were supposed to do.
The Charter consists of three sections, including 36 chapters.
The first defines the order of worship and meals.
From 24 o'clock in the Glinsk Hermitage morning prayers and the midnight office were read, matins and lithium were performed, from 6 o'clock - an akathist to the Mother of God, from 8 o'clock - liturgy, from 16 o'clock - vespers, lithium.
From 18 o'clock - Compline with three canons, prayers for the future and a memorial service were also read. The Sunday and holiday vigil began at midnight and lasted five hours on the Lord's and Mother of God holidays (except for the reading of kontakia and ikos of the akathist), and on other holidays – four hours.
On Sunday, at 5 o'clock in the morning, a cathedral akathist to the Sweetest Jesus was performed. The monastery introduced a special Glinsky chant, the Partes singing of St. Filaret did not allow it.
After the liturgy, the brethren went in pairs to the refectory, and the rite of Panagia was served. In the desert there was continuous reading of the Psalter and daily commemoration according to a special synod. In the first week of each month, the water was blessed.
Among the features of the Glinsk Hermitage service was the carrying of tabernacles around the church by deacons and the burning of censers with censers (censers with handles).
The second and third sections of the charter regulated the duties of the abbot, senior and ordinary brethren. The monks did not have any property, did not receive anyone in potassiums, and met with relatives occasionally and only in a hotel. Women were prohibited from entering everywhere except the temple.
Everyone who entered the monastery was entrusted to the elder for spiritual guidance. In addition to the existing obediences of the confessor and treasurer, St. Filaret introduced in the Glinsk Hermitage the positions of dean, sacristan, charterer, ecclesiarch, housekeeper, hospital attendant, hotel attendant, etc.
According to chapter 25, the brethren who did not fulfill the charter were removed from the desert.
The Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, now so revered in Russia during the Putin era, called the Glinsk hermitage “the great school of monastic life.”
The Glinsky charter, borrowed by many monasteries (about 15), served as “the cornerstone of a strong structure and prosperity.”
Hieromonk of the Glinsk Hermitage Innocent became the first rector of the Svyatogorsk Hermitage.
At the end of 1844, work began on restoring churches, clearing caves and underground passages.
From this time on, during the second half of the 19th century, the old buildings near the river were replaced by new stone ones.
The underground church of Saints Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk was restored in 1846, and in 1859 the main cathedral of the desert, the Assumption Cathedral, was rebuilt. The Cathedral of the Assumption had a height from the base to the cross of 53.5 m.
In 1850–1867, in one of the cells inside a steep cliff, the Monk John (Kryukov) performed the feat of seclusion.
It was the Svyatogorsk monastery that built the Skete of the Savior, famous throughout the Russian Empire, at the Borki railway station, where the imperial family miraculously escaped in the disaster on October 17, 1888. This is when the Narodnaya Volya people planted a bomb under the tracks, in case anyone forgot school history.
In 1874, a staircase called Cyril and Methodius was built to the top of Mount Tabor.
The staircase had 511 steps and was designed in the form of a covered gallery with 16 landings, two towers and 22 passages.
In general, we can say that over 70 years a lot of construction was carried out in the monastery: 8 churches in the monastery, 5 churches in farmsteads, 2 monasteries, hotel buildings, a hospital, schools, a huge exemplary farm, the eldership was revived
This is clearly visible in the surviving pre-revolutionary picture of the Svyatogorsk Monastery and its surroundings.
In “Complete geographical description of Russia, for 1903.” you can read:
"Svyatogorsk Dormition Community Hermitage" is located in the Izyum district of the Kharkov province, 155 versts along a dirt road from the city of Kharkov, 35 versts from the city of Izyum and 18 versts from the city of Slavyansk, famous for its mineral waters...
From the city of Slavyansk to the station of the same name on the Azov railway, three versts, and from there by cast iron to Kharkov 237 versts."
Nevertheless, the monastery received thousands of pilgrims every year. The total number of monks, novices and simply residents (Balti) and service personnel was about 600 people. A large farm required many workers.
This is how the monastery greeted the fateful year 1917 for the entire Russian Orthodox Church.
In 1922, after a period of repression and looting of the monastery, it was closed.
In today's church literature one can find the following statements: “The opening of the monastery, predicted by the Svyatogorsk elders, took place in 1992.”
The author believes this is a prediction made in hindsight. And to prove his point of view he refers to a historical document.
It speaks more eloquently than any words, testifying to how the monks lived in the desert under the Bolsheviks.
"Act of investigation into the atrocities of the Bolsheviks committed in the Svetogorsk monastery of Izyum district." It is dated 1919.
“Normal life in the Svyatogorsk Holy Dormition Monastery, famous not only in the Kharkov province, but throughout Russia, was disrupted in 1918.
At the beginning of January, the Velikokamyshevakhsky land committee of the Izyum district, as well as the Bogorodichsky and Slavic committees, registered the property of the monastery, which has its own branches (monasteries) in various places with farms and various workshops.
Having registered the monastery property, the committees immediately began to liquidate it for their own benefit, and Velikokamyshevakhsky mercilessly cut down the forest.
Thus, the entire supply of grain was exported, and the livestock was sold. The monastic brethren were excluded from using the land. The monks who made up the workforce were subject to forced eviction, and out of 600 people, only 200 to 300 old clergymen remained and some of the monks took refuge in the monastery itself. The losses of the monastery, according to the most conservative estimate, amount to about 250 thousand. This situation did not save the monastery from further attacks. Since February, numerous searches begin, each time accompanied by robbery.
Already on February 15, an armed gang of about 15 people, as local peasants said, mainly from Izyum policemen, burst into the monastery, demanded an indemnity of 15 thousand rubles and, going around the cells, took away everything they liked. This time the robbers failed to obtain indemnity. On March 26, a group of Bolsheviks reappeared.
Under the pretext of finding weapons, the uninvited guests went to the cave temples, where they behaved blasphemously, entering in hats, smoking cigarettes, overturning thrones and using foul language. The confiscation of church utensils evacuated to the monastery from the churches of the Volyn and Vilna dioceses dates back to the same time. The selection of these items, according to witnesses, was carried out in an unusually rough manner. Sacred objects were squeezed into boxes with curses, the Holy Gifts were thrown out of the monstrance and trampled on the spot.
After the search, the Bolsheviks went to the rector, demanded church wine and drank it immediately. When leaving, they took with them the monastery horse.
The brutal murder of the monk Hypatius, who went outside the monastery walls, dates back to the beginning of April. Apparently, he was robbed and hacked to death with sabers by roving Bolshevik detachments. In June, armed robbers (from 5 to 8 people) appeared at the monastery near the village of Gorozhovka and demanded that the monastery steward, Monk Onuphrius, hand over the money received from the sale of the monastery property. The housekeeper said that he had no money. He was taken outside the fence and immediately shot at the gate. Another monk, named Israel, is killed while trying to escape.
Procession of the Cross in the holy monastery
Banditry, which had weakened somewhat during the Hetmanate, was, however, supported all the time by detachments of Bolsheviks roaming in the surrounding area, popularly nicknamed “Lesoviks.” The murder of several people from the clergy of the Svyatogorsk monastery dates back to this time.
In October 1918, the icon of the Svyatogorsk Mother of God, especially revered in the area, was transferred from village to village. The procession stopped for the night in the village of Bayrachek. Here a gang of robbers attacked the premises occupied by the clergy, broke down the doors and shot dead hieromonks Modest and Irinarch, hierodeacon Theodotus, who lived in the same house as a psalm-reader of the local church, the owner of the house and his daughter.
Five corpses lay at the foot of the icon, which stood in a pool of blood. The monks had no money. But more than one motive for robbery guided the robbers, judging by the words of one of them during the murder: “You pray that God will punish the Bolsheviks.”
When the Germans left, Bolshevik activity immediately revived. Already on December 1, a group of armed people appeared demanding the release of weapons that were available for the self-preservation of the monastery. The weapon was issued. Then a gang of about 100 people, awaiting the results of the negotiations, broke into the monastery and began to rob the monastery and fraternal property.
7 thousand rubles were stolen from the monastery cash register, clothes, shoes, underwear, watches, etc. were taken from the monks, and all the loot was taken away on the monastery’s six horses, while capturing two more carriages.
The days of January 2 and 3, 1919 were the most difficult for the Svyatogorsk Monastery and at the same time the days of the most intense blasphemy and mockery of the Orthodox monastery and violence against its clergy and monks. On January 2, at about three and a half o'clock in the afternoon, Red Army soldiers numbering up to 60 people arrived at the monastery in 16 carts.
They had red ribbons on their chests and on their rifles. With a whoop, they burst through the gates of the hotel and, cursing the monk in charge of the hotel with vulgar abuse, beat him with a rifle butt and dispersed throughout the buildings of the monastery.
The robbery began with the most incredible bullying. At this time, a service was going on in the Church of the Intercession. Several Red Army soldiers burst into the church wearing hats, loudly demanding the abbot and the release of keys to the monastery vaults. A demand was made for the issuance of 4 million indemnities and 4 thousand of the money that was in the monastery's treasury was taken away. The Red Army soldiers split into small parties for the purpose of a general search and robbery of the monastery premises. The abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Tryphon, had all the furnishings and things scattered around them, demanding money with abuse and threats with weapons.
Searches, robberies and bullying took place simultaneously in all cells. The monks were deprived of their property, down to their last shirt and boots. Icons were broken and thrown to the floor, monks were forced to smoke and dance in the corridors.
One of them (Monk Joseph), under threat of execution, was demanded that he curse the Lord and the Mother of God, and after refusing, they forced him to smoke, beating him to force him to inhale deeper. The beaten, robbed and abused brethren began to gather, led by the archimandrite, in the church for worship. But Red Army bandits, wearing hats and holding candles in their hands, kept barging in there all the time, examining the feet of those praying and taking away boots that seemed good to them.
At about 2 o'clock in the morning, when there seemed to be some calm, they began to celebrate the liturgy.
Celebration in the revived monastery
The liturgy in the cathedral was served by the archimandrite with other clergy. During the litanies, a group of Red Army soldiers burst into the temple. One of them ran into the pulpit and shouted: “It’s enough for you to pray, you’ve been trampling all night, get out of the church!” - he turned back by the shoulders of the hierodeacon who proclaimed the litany. At the urgent requests of the archimandrite and the brethren, permission was given to finish the liturgy. But the Red Army soldiers did not leave the temple.
While singing the Cherubic song, they entered the throne and continued to inspect the boots of the worshipers. The brethren, expecting further suffering and even death, received Holy Communion. Towards the end of the mass, a new gang of Red Army soldiers burst into the temple. One of the gang, holding scissors in his hands, shouted: “Stop, don’t move, come one by one, I’ll cut everyone’s hair,” and immediately cut off the hair of one of the monks. The monks tried to escape.
Another Red Army soldier ran into the altar, opened the Royal Doors and, standing in them, shouted: “Don’t come out, I’ll shoot.” At the same time, the Red Army soldiers carried out robberies, sacrileges and abuses in all rooms of the monastery.
In the archimandrite’s apartment the fanatics slept, covered with stoles, and in the treasurer’s room they chopped up portraits of the hierarchs of the Russian Church. Bullying and violence continued everywhere. Several monks had their hair and beards cut off and were beaten and forced to dance, smoke and even drink ink. In the morning, when mass began again, the Red Army soldiers did not allow the service. The gang that broke in attacked the clergy and began to drag them out of the temple in their vestments, but, yielding to the requests of the priests, they allowed them to expose themselves.
Then everyone, led by the archimandrite, was taken out of the temple. They took off the archimandrite's boots, gave him some supports, and, despite the frost, lined everyone up in rows in front of the temple. Accompanied by beatings and obscene language, the mocking training of the monks in marching and military techniques began.
At this time, another group of Reds was blaspheming in a nearby temple. One of them, wearing a robe and miter, sat on the throne and leafed through the Gospel, while the others, also in vestments, blasphemously represented the service, now opening and now closing the royal doors for the amusement of their like-minded people. The temple was desecrated by excrement near the candle box.
Stones and icons from mitres and icons - everything was stolen. All the loot was taken out of the monastery on 38 carts. At the same time, all the monks of the “hospital farm” located next to the monastery were robbed.
During the Bolshevik administration, by order of the Izyum executive committee, an indemnity in the amount of 80 or 85 thousand rubles was imposed on the Bogorodichanskaya volost. The Bogorodichsky executive committee demanded 50 thousand from the monastery as an indemnity. The brethren collected 10 thousand rubles, and 5 thousand were paid from the monastery funds.
In the spring of 1919, a colony of children of different ages, up to and including 18 years old, was sent to the monastery from Petrograd and was located in two monastery buildings. The colony of up to 350 people was headed by the communist Poltoratsky, conducting education in a spirit consistent with communism. All icons from the occupied buildings were removed, and visiting the church was prohibited.
During their retreat at the end of May of this year, the Bolsheviks once again visited the Svyatogorsk Monastery.
First, some military man appeared and, calling himself General Shkura, demanded that the abbot be shown to him, and then a gang of “fighters” burst in, demanding 50 thousand indemnities. At the same time, they forced Hieromonk John to put his head under the blows of the saber. The hieromonk got away with giving the rapists the 40 rubles he had with him and receiving two blows with a whip.
During the retreat, the Bolsheviks cut off the hair on the heads and beards of hieromonks Nestor and Bonifatius, killed the monk Timolai in the field and hacked the novice Moses, who survived with severed fingers.
This act of investigation is based on the facts obtained by the Special Commission in compliance with the rules set out in the Charter of Criminal Procedure. Compiled on July 17, 1919 in Ekaterinodar."
And these are all yesterday’s zealous parishioners, about whom A.P. wrote so warmly. Chekhov, in his story about visiting the Svyatogorsk Hermitage, truly God subjected his best servants to a strict test...
And on June 8-12, 1922, in the city of Bakhmut, a court hearing of the Donetsk Provincial Revolutionary Tribunal took place.
9 people of the Svyatogorsk brethren, led by Archimandrite Tryphon, were tried. The main accusation is concealing church valuables from being confiscated to help the famine-stricken.
The verdict was made after a 6-day trial, which sentenced Archimandrite Trifon (Skripchenko) to 2 years of forced labor with imprisonment.
So, by 1922. if any of the monks managed to survive, they clearly had no time for forecasts about the revival of the monastery.
For the Bolsheviks came in earnest and for a long time. These are terrible times for everyone, both believers and non-believers, even the most terrible...
But after 1922, the Soviet government managed to find a different use for church buildings - one of the famous health resorts in Ukraine was created in the desert.
In 1948, the remaining buildings of the monastery were declared a cultural monument, and in 1980 Svyatogorye was declared a state historical and architectural reserve, whose employees did a lot for the fundamental study of the history of the Holy Mountains and the restoration of war-damaged shrines
But then 1991 came. The USSR collapsed, and in free Ukraine, they began to slowly return church property appropriated by the state.
Through the efforts of the local Gorlovka diocese, in 1992 the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Monastery resumed its activities as a monastery.
The chain of times, as they say, has connected... But there is one thing. To understand it, we need to make a digression and explain to the unprepared reader what monasteries represent in the Russian Orthodox Church today.
Currently, all monasteries in Russia are divided into monasteries and non-monasteries, regular and supernumerary.
In communal monasteries, monks receive everything they need from the monastery, and their labor in priestly service in the monastery and various monastic “obediences”, as assigned by the abbots, is provided for the benefit of the monastery;
Neither monks nor officials headed by the abbot can have anything here as property; abbots are elected by the monastics themselves (those who have full monastic ordination).
In non-communal monasteries, monks, having a common meal from the monastery, clothes and everything else necessary for a monk, buy themselves from the salary given to them or from income from divine services and from various types of monastic “work”, the works of which can be sold (for example, dressing crosses, icons, etc.).
The abbots of these monasteries are appointed by the diocesan bishop with the approval of the Holy Synod.
Established monasteries are those that receive a certain amount of maintenance and have a number of monastics determined by the state.
They are divided into three classes according to the amount of content they receive and the degree of rights.
In the first class, four laurels and seven stauropegial monasteries (Solovetsky, Simonov, Donskoy, Novospassky, Voskresensky - called New Jerusalem, Zaikonospassky and Spaso-Yakovlevsky) are allocated some special privileges and rights.
The name stauropegial is derived from the words - cross and - erect, and is explained in the sense that when they were established, the cross was erected in them by the patriarchs themselves, under whose direct control some of them were at first.
Their advantages now lie in some episcopal features of the worship of their archimandrites (for example, the right to overshadow the people during the liturgy with trikiriy and dikiriy) and in the fact that they are removed from the jurisdiction of diocesan bishops, being under the direct supervision of the Holy Synod or the Moscow synodal office (Moscow stauropegial monasteries).
In the management of economic affairs, the laurel takes part in the so-called. a “spiritual council” of the oldest monastics, and in all other monasteries the abbot is assisted by the “eldest brethren” in managing the economy.
The internal structure of monastic life in all monasteries is regulated by general monastic rules, special statutes and “instructions to the dean of monasteries.”
With some of the first class. In monasteries there are, at some distance from them, in secluded places, several cells for a stricter ascetic life, the totality of which is called a monastery (such as, for example, the Anzersky monastery of the Solovetsky monastery, the Gethsemane monastery of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, etc.).
Supernumerary monasteries are called monasteries that do not receive a salary and exist on income generated by the priesthood and the labors of the monks themselves.
And the Svyatogorsk Assumption Hermitage until 1918 was a provincial, communal, monastic community of the Kharkov diocese.
But let's go back to our time!
As of 2007 The monastery had three ground and three cave temples, two bell towers, the main one with 17 bells, the weight of the main “abbot” bell was more than 6 tons.
Among the parishioners of the UOC-MP it is believed that there are no monastic monasteries similar to Svyatogorsk in terms of beauty and unusualness of construction.
Cave passages, about one kilometer long, with chapels, tombs, and cells are revered as shrines.
In addition to them, the monastery houses the miraculous image of the Mother of God of Svyatogorsk, the relics of St. John the Recluse, reliquaries with particles of the relics of many saints, of which there are the relics of St. John the Baptist, the evangelists, as well as part of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord.
The most revered holidays in the Holy Mountains:
May 22 - St. Nicholas. The religious procession ascends on this day to the Holy Rock to the Temple of the Wonderworker.
July 30 - Svyatogorsk Icon of the Mother of God. A crowded religious procession with a miraculous icon takes place around the monastery.
August 24 - St. John the Recluse, a procession of the cross takes place around the monastery with the icon and relics of the saint, attended by several hundred clergy and up to 10 thousand pilgrims.
August 28 - Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary - the patronal day of the monastery. The main celebrations take place in the Assumption Cathedral.
Divine services are held daily. All obediences in the monastery are mainly performed by the brethren, from among whom a wonderful choir is formed.
In addition, the brethren work in the carpentry, sewing workshops, blacksmith, bakery, apiary, vegetable gardens, prosphora, fraternal and pilgrim meals, in garages, as tour guides and in other obediences, of which the reviving monastery has no shortage.
And everything in the monastery would be in accordance with the rules, there would be peace, quiet and God’s grace, if not for politics...
(end of part 1)
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Nature of Ukraine generous, rich and varied. Any country in the world is proud if there are still untouched and well-preserved corners on its territory nature. Since ancient times, one of these places in our country has been known as " Holy Mountains". This is truly an extraordinary corner of the Donetsk region. As UNESCO experts who worked here in the spring of 2001 emphasized, “there are very few places on Earth where objects of world history and culture, the most valuable natural complexes and the most beautiful landscapes"Now this unique territory is part of the first on the left bank Ukraine(NPP) " Holy Mountains", which was created in accordance with the Decree of the President of Ukraine L.D. Kuchma No. 135/97 of February 13, 1997.
Park territory with an area of 40,448 hectares, it is located along the riverbed of the Seversky Donets, from the Kharkov region in the north-west and to the Lugansk region in the east, in the Slavyansky, Krasnolimansky and Artemovsky districts of the Donetsk region. Part national park The city of Svyatogorsk is also included.
The main objectives of the NPP " Holy Mountains"are the protection and study of valuable natural, historical and cultural complexes and objects on its territory, the creation of conditions for organized tourism and recreation of the population and environmental education of visitors.
To carry out these tasks effectively park territory divided into functional zones with a differentiated regime for the protection and use of natural resources.
Territory of the national park represents landscape and biocenotic diversity of the riverbed part of the Seversky Donets River basin.
According to physical-geographical zoning Ukraine The territory of the NNP is located in the steppe zone on the border of the Donetsk-Don and Left Bank-Dnieper northern steppe provinces, which runs along the Seversky Donets.
The Seversky Donets River is mentioned in the ancient Kiev chronicle. According to Nestor, in 1111 the squads of Prince Vladimir Monomakh crossed the Donets and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Polovtsians on their lands. Here the events unfolded, told to us by an unknown author in the precious monument of Slavic literature, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”
Seversky Donets is the largest of the Don tributaries and the fourth largest river Ukraine. The river valley is asymmetrical, with a steep, steep right bank and a large, well-watered floodplain, which turns into above-floodplain terraces on the left bank.
The right mainland bank of the Donets is a plateau located at an altitude of 120-230 m above sea level and dissected by ravines and ravines, the mouths of which open to the river. In some places, the Seversky Donets comes close to the continental slope with steep outcrops of chalk rocks of the Turonian, Conyasian, Santonian and Upper Cenomanian stages with a thickness of 80-100 m, creating a kind of “mountain” landscape. This chalk ridge was formed from sediments of an ancient warm sea that existed here 100-80 million years ago.
The river's floodplain has a flat topography with characteristic riverbed sand banks, lakes and oxbow lakes. Its width reaches 3 km, but over a longer period it is narrower, about 1 km. Outside the floodplain in the park there are the first sandy forest terrace above the floodplain and the second loess terrace above the floodplain. The surface of the terraces with numerous hillocks and depressions is densely covered with forest, the gully-beam network is poorly developed.
The Donets and its tributaries are characterized by: feeding from precipitation, uneven flow and seasonal fluctuations in water levels. Spring floods on the Seversky Donets River are observed annually. The average long-term amplitude of river level fluctuations is 2.5 meters, but high levels of rise up to 5.8 m are observed once every 4-5 years. There are many lakes in the floodplain of the Seversky Donets. Their nutrition depends solely on floods and precipitation; in dry years they dry out. Lakes that are located on the border of the floodplain and the first terrace above the floodplain are deeper. At the bottom of such reservoirs there are numerous springs that ensure relative stability of the water level and temperature. Shallow lakes gradually become overgrown, forming peculiar shallow floodplain swamps under the crowns of alder trees or in thickets of willows.
The climate is temperate continental, steppe with short, moderately mild winters and dry, warm summers. The duration of sunshine per year reaches 2000 hours, the average annual number of days without sun is 88, in the winter months - 16-20, in the summer - 1-3. The average monthly temperature of the warmest month is +22°C, the coldest month is -7.7°C.
In general, the climate, with clean, moderately humid air, a large number of sunny days, significant thermal resources, the absence of strong cold winds, as well as sharp temperature fluctuations, is favorable for recreational and medicinal use and agricultural activities.
Vegetation national natural park "Holy Mountains"has enormous scientific value. On an area of 40.5 thousand hectares, half of the species of higher plants that have ever been recorded in the Southeast grow Ukraine- 943 species, including 27 species of trees, 63 of shrubs and 853 of herbaceous plants. The vegetation of the NNP contains many unique associations of different syntaxonomic ranks, which are subject to special protection as rare, endemic, relict, as well as standard and degraded under the influence of human activity. Artificial forests, which occupy a large area in the NNP, are very diverse and are of scientific interest as an experience in creating cultural phytocenoses with the participation of native and introduced species. The main types of vegetation are presented as follows: forests occupy more than 91% of the park's area, meadows - about 1.5%, swamps - 2.5%.
Broad-leaved forests 90-110 years old with a predominance of common oak grow in a variety of both typical and specific relief conditions on the right bank. Oak forests on such large areas were formed due to the relief conditions of the Donetsk Ridge and are a unique phenomenon on the plains of the steppe zone. The valuable upland and canopy Mayatsky oak forests were first taken under state protection back in 1703 by Decree of Peter I. Dubrava national park occupy a third of its total forest area. In the forest fund Ukraine the share of oak plantations accounts for 27%, and in the Donetsk region - 57%.
On territory of the national natural park there grows a natural floodplain oak grove in the Donbass, significant in area (more than 300 hectares), where seed oaks aged 200-300 years or more have been preserved with an average height of 25 m, an average diameter of 81 cm, and a maximum of 152 cm. On the territory of the park, a 600-year-old patriarchal oak tree has been preserved, striking in its size. With a height of 29 meters, its diameter reaches 2 meters, and the girth of the trunk is 6.3 meters.
In the harsh soil and climatic conditions of the Donetsk steppe, oak performs climate-regulating, water-protective, soil-protective, sanitary-hygienic, recreational functions and is recognized as the main species in steppe afforestation.
Great age, damage from war years, and high recreational loads have led to the fact that only 5% of the 285-year-old trees in Oak Grove are free of damage. A quarter of oak trees have trunk damage. Some trees dry out, and the death of each tree is an irreparable loss.
Of particular value are the unique chalk forests formed by chalk pine - a tertiary relic listed in the Red Book Ukraine and on the International IUCN Red List (IUCN).
Like a unique corner nature, the chalk mountains have long attracted the attention of scientists. They were first described in 1774 by academician Guldentstedt, indicating that they stretch from the monastery to the village of Mayaki. He was the first to notice that pine grows here on a chalk substrate.
In 1895, botanist V.I. Taliev wrote: “... in the Holy Mountains, pine forms beautiful pure stands, and the soil surface in them is hidden under a moss cover.”
Outstanding botanists D.I. Litvinov, B.M. Kozo-Polyansky believed that the chalk forests are the remains of pre-glacial vegetation of the end of the Tertiary period. Back in 1914, the famous Russian botanist V.I. Taliev raised the question of preserving these pine forests as an outstanding natural monument. Scientists E.M. Lavrenko, M.I. Kotov, M.I. Shalyt called these places “a true country of living fossils.” In 1963, the Artema Mountains were declared a natural monument, and in 1975 a state landscape reserve.
Chalk pine differs from Scots pine. It has thicker and shorter needles (3-5 cm), rounder and almost twice as small cones (2.5-3 cm long), harder wood, larger pollen, and an umbrella-shaped crown. Currently, chalk pine has survived only in isolated isolated areas on an area of 85 hectares. There are pine trees aged 70-100 or more years with a trunk diameter of 25-80 cm and a height of 8 to 28 m. the park's territory is more than 700 pcs.
NPP " Holy Mountains" And reserve"Cretaceous flora" - the only places in Ukraine, where the chalk pine has been preserved. It also grows in Russia - Voronezh and Belgorod regions. The total area of chalk forests is about 250 hectares. Chalk pine areas on park territory in the Artyom Mountains the largest and southernmost. The study of chalk pine helps to recreate the history of the formation of the flora of Donbass. The chalk forests of the Seversky Donets are a kind of botanical mystery that has not yet been fully solved to this day. Fires and hurricanes in the 20s, wars, and predatory extermination of relict forests led to the fact that 60% of pine trees were found to have various damage and growth anomalies. Protection, conservation of chalk pine, restoration of chalk pine forests is an important task of the NPP " Holy Mountains".
Next to the chalk pine grow common oak, heartleaf linden, aspen, Norway and Tatarian maples, early and forest apple trees, forest pears, and elms. The shrub layer is dominated by mackerel - a relict plant. Common mackerel (tree of paradise, yellowberry, morocco tree) is a beautiful shrub tree that was once called " Svyatogorsk leaf". In the 17th century, monks Svyatogorsk Monastery supplied scumpia shoots to the royal morocco factories in Moscow and Central Asia. A dye obtained from the leaves of the mackerel plant was used to dye high-quality leather brown. The plant has a scattered habitat, growing in the Crimea and the Caucasus, along the Dniester and Southern Bug. In the Donetsk region, this is the most northeastern zone of bush growth. In early autumn, the leaves of the skumpia acquire a crimson-scarlet color, and the chalk mountains are covered with decoration that is unique in its beauty.
The rare collection is of great scientific value flora of the park international level: chalk hyssop, Ukrainian hawthorn, Don gorse, chalk rattle, chalk jaundice, chickweed, chalk sage, feather grass, Volyn bedstraw, white-tomented wormwood, chalk tar, Lavrenka violet. To the Red Book Ukraine 48 species are listed, 12 are on the European Red List, 123 species have protected status, of which 45 are rare for the Donbass and are protected at the local level. Within the Borders territory of the national park 43 associations were identified and listed in the Green Book Ukraine. These are primarily chalk forests, oak forests with hornbeam and Tatarian maple, cretophilous and steppe phytocenoses, and aquatic groups of floating salvinia. It is also worth highlighting the sphagnum saucer bogs, which in the steppe zone are located beyond the extreme southern border of their continuous range.
Fauna The park's reservoirs are represented by 40 species of fish, among which the carp and Danilevsky dace are listed in the Red Book. Below the confluence of the Seversky Donets and Oskol, in a section of the river with a large number of sandbanks and spits, as well as in the springs of the Donets floodplain, the Ukrainian lamprey lives - a rare species listed in the Red Book Ukraine and the European Red List.
The life of 9 species of amphibians is predominantly associated with floodplain biotopes. The swamp turtle and two species of snakes - common and water snake - are very numerous here. In pine forests and oak groves, the forest viper and copperhead, a species listed in the Red Book, have been preserved Ukraine.
For the middle Dontsovo region, more than 200 species of birds are currently known, which make up 52% of species fauna of Ukraine. First of all, these are forest species of the European faunal complex, widespread and wetland species. The fauna of diurnal birds of prey is interesting, represented by quite common ones: the great hawk, the buzzard and the hobby. IN national park Rare and protected species constantly nest: the honey buzzard, the white-tailed eagle and the pygmy eagle. The following are observed annually: the short-tailed eagle, the imperial eagle, and the field harrier. On chalk cliffs devoid of trees and shrubs, the extremely rare steppe kestrel nests in burrows. The species diversity of birds is also explained by the fact that the Seversky Donets valley is an important migration route for migratory and nomadic species.
Theriofauna national park "Holy Mountains"has 43 species, it should be noted that not all groups have been studied quite well. The number of predatory mammals is very high. Weasel, polecat, American mink, pine and stone martens are common inhabitants of typical biotopes of the national park. There are also ermine, badger and otter listed in the Red Book Ukraine. On park territory Several groups of wolves live permanently. The fox is common in all biotopes. Ungulates are represented by roe deer and wild boar, native to the region, the taiga resident elk, which became widespread in the second half of the twentieth century, and sika deer, acclimatized in the 60s from Primorye. The brown hare is found everywhere, including in populated areas, and its numbers are often higher in anthropogenic landscapes than in natural ones. Characteristic inhabitants of the floodplain are the beaver and the widely acclimatized muskrat. The beaver, which disappeared in the middle Donets region back in the 19th century, appeared here again in the early 80s of the 20th century and since then has widely settled along the banks of the Donets, lakes and swamps parka, improving the water regime of floodplain biotopes with their activities. Total among wild inhabitants national park "Holy Mountains"49 species are listed in the Red Book Ukraine and 13 on the European Red List. The rare composition of the animal and plant world can be confidently considered a gold fund national natural park "Holy Mountains".
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