Вестник Екатеринбургской духовной семинарии (Feb 2022)
The Origins of the Novo-Tikhvinsky Convent in Ekaterinburg (To the 210th Anniversary of the Convent)
Abstract
The article discusses the early period in the history of Novo-Tikhvinsky Convent in Ekaterinburg in the context of the church policy of the Synodal period and monastic practices at the turn of the 19th century. This was the time when sisters’ community had to choose their way and when many of the convent’s traditions began. The convent was founded in the critical period of the Russian Orthodox monasticism when the old tradition was almost completely eliminated by the secularization policy of the Russian emperors, from Peter the Great to Catherine II, while the new tradition was yet to be born. In this period the inhabitants of an almshouse in Ekaterinburg, inspired by the story of the Sarov monastery and its Charter, decided to found a convent. These women made a choice to transform the almshouse, where they labored, into a convent, to follow the norms of communal monastic life and to conduct charitable activities in caring for those in need. The article analyzes attitude of different groups of the Ural society and the authorities to the project of the future Novo-Tikhvinsky Convent. Although at the turn of the 19th century Ekaterinburg residents had a positive attitude towards the monastic community centered around the cemetery church, they failed to raise even the minimum sum that was necessary to establish and maintain a small convent. The city authorities were more concerned about how the convent’s buildings would be integrated into the urban landscape rather than the establishment of a new monastic community. The Old Believers of Ekaterinburg, who were wealthy and held a high status in the city, were also not supportive of the idea. The administration of the Perm diocese did not show much interest either and the women had to shoulder the entire burden. The history of the convent thus mirrored the history of the Russian society in the imperial period, which was going through the time of modernization: the significance of religion in the public sphere was declining and religion was deemed to be a private rather than public matter.
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