Христианство на Ближнем Востоке (Sep 2020)
The history of the Gornensky Convent written by hieromonk Isaiah (Babinin) in 1950
Abstract
This publication includes a little-known source on the history of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and the Gornensky Convent in Ein-Karem. In 1950, Hieromonk Isaiah (Babinin) prepared a work on the history of the Gornensky Convent, which highlights many issues related to the New Testament history of the area near Jerusalem, the emergence of the Christian presence on it, its development, and after — the creation of monasteries on its territory, the main and the largest of which is considered the Gornensky Russian Convent, founded by Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) in 1871. The work pays considerable attention to the activities of the undivided Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem in the period from 1918 to 1948. Realizing the uniqueness of this period and the almost complete absence of research into the post-revolutionary period of the Mission's activities or the period of Palestine's rule by Great Britain under the mandate of the League of Nations, the work of Hieromonk Isaiah is the most valuable source of this period. It reveals the peculiarities of the Mission's activities, the life of the Gornensky Convent, gives characteristics to the events that took place, the personalities of the abbots and nuns of the Convent. Of particular value is the description of the main events in the life of the Russian Сhurch presence in Jerusalem after Patriarch Alexy I visited Palestine in 1945. It was after this visit that preparations began for the revival of the activities of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, affiliated with the hierarchy from the USSR and whose chiefs were sent from the Moscow Patriarchate. As a resident of the Gornensky Convent, hieromonk Isaiah knew many details of the life of the Convent, with which he shares on the pages of his work.
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