Вестник Екатеринбургской духовной семинарии (Dec 2022)
The Formation of Tradition in the Novo-Tikhvinsky Convent in Ekaterinburg (On the 200th anniversary of its promotion to the first-class category)
Abstract
The article examines a period of history of the Ekaterinburg Novo-Tikhvin Convent from its establishment in 1809 as a non-administrative one at its own expense to the promotion of it as a regular first-class monastery in 1822. The dynamics of changes in the composition of its inhabitants, and the range of economic and church obedience, as well as the formation of the monastic landscape and perception of its significance in the religious landscape of the city are shown. The author presents reasons for a petition to enroll the monastery into the regular class, within the context of the needs of the monastic community development and the experience of building relations between the monastery and the urban society, and also the problems of the church life of the Perm diocese. The article contains historical data on the development of a special coenobitic charter for the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery, summarizing the experience of the 26-year existence of the female monastic community in Ekaterinburg, which became the basis for the continuity of the monastic life tradition for the coming decades, not only in the Novo-Tikhvin monastery, but also in a number of women’s communities that arose in the Trans-Urals after. The article shows that the assistance of laypeople to a non-administrative monastery was rather limited, and for the further stable and dynamic development of the monastery it was important to obtain the status of a regular one with the allocation of land for buildings and economic needs, as well as with the state support, not from the urban community. This was typical not only for Novo-Tikhvin, but also for other minor monasteries in the country. The Novo-Tikhvin monastery, having received the state funds for maintenance, assumed the mission of caring for widows and orphans (especially from the clergy families), educating children, which corresponded to the desire of the residents themselves, and the diocesan authorities, and in general the public expectations that were imposed on monasteries in the 19th century. The promotion of the Novo-Tikhvin convent into a regular first-class one became the recognition of the monastery as one of the most comfortable and demonstrating a decent way of life in the country. The Novo-Tikhvin Female Monastery was new not only in time of its establishment, but also in spirit. Its history convincingly showed that female monasticism, which was particularly affected by the secularization reform of 1764, had the opportunity to revive in the conditions of the modernizing society of Russia in the 19th century and ensure its existence.
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