Kyiv Greek St. Catherine’s Monastery: Contingent of Monkhood and Inhabitants in the 18th – Early 20th Century

Keywords: church, Kyiv Greek St. Catherine’s Monastery, monkhood, Sinai monastery

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the contingent of monks and inhabitants of Kyiv Greek St. Catherine’s Monastery throughout the history of its existence (1748-1926).

Kyiv Greek St. Catherine’s Monastery is interesting because it was one of the many churches in town (metochion) of the ancient Holy Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai. The founder of Kyiv monastery was Eugenios (1748), the abbot of the Sinai monastery.

The goal of the paper is to study the number and contingent of the monkhood and the inhabitants of the monastery during its existence, and systematization of materials obtained from archival documents and publications.

Throughout its history, Kyiv Greek St. Catherine’s Monastery remained a source of funding for the Sinai monastery. From the time of the monastery’s foundation until the beginning of the 20th century, the abbots of Kyiv Greek St.  Catherine’s Monastery were appointed from Sinai monastery. This circumstance influenced the fact that the abbots of Kyiv Greek St. Catherine’s Monastery tried to save money and minimize the number of clergy and minor orders.

As Kyiv Greek St. Catherine’s Monastery was not obliged to report to Kyiv diocesan authorities, in particular to the Rural Dean of Kyiv Monasteries, regarding the contingent of the monkhood, the information deposited in the archives is far less complete than information on the monkhood of other Kyiv monasteries. From the beginning of the foundation of the monastery until the second half of the 20th century there were no people, except for the abbot, and the lack of premises in the monastery for their residence contributed to that fact. The monastery hired local Kyiv priests, acolytes, and minor orders to conduct services. Sometimes the foreign monks who came to Kyiv on various business lived in the monastery. From the second half of the 19th century till the closure of the monastery there were usually two or three hieromonks, one or two hierodeacons, several monks, and up to fourteen novices. Often during the year, the contingent of the novices changed by more than half. The monastery was entered mainly by people from Ukrainian peasants, Cossacks, and sometimes from the clergy and commoners. In the monastery in the first half of the 19th century, there were also staff attendants, i.e. peasants, who had to perform certain kinds of work for the monastery.

Unfortunately, the sources do not give us the opportunity to draw a conclusion about the level of spiritual life in the monastery, because deposited written evidence usually describe not positive (which are considered the norm), but some negative aspects of monastery life (conflicts, misconduct). Such situation we have with Kyiv Greek St. Catherine’s Monastery as well.

References

Berlinskii, M.F. (1991). Kratkoe opisanie Kieva [Brief description of Kiev]. Kyiv: Chas [in Russian].

Ernst, F. (1918). Kyivski arkhytekty XVIII viku [Kiev architects of the 18th century]. Kyiv [in Ukrainian].

Funduklei, I. (1847). Obozrenie Kieva v otnoshenii k drevnostiam [Overview of Kiev in relation to antiquities]. Kiev [in Russian].

Hevryk, T. (1991). Vtracheni pam’iatky Kyieva. [Lost sights of Kyiv]. Niu-York – Kyiv [in Ukrainian].

Kravchenko, I.A. (2011). Kyivskyi hretskyi Sviato-Yekaterynynskyi monastyr: zovnishnii ustrii i ekonomichne stanovyshche v pershii polovyni ХІХ st. [Kyiv Greek St. Catherine’s Monastery: external structure and economic situation in the first half of the XIX century]. Visnyk Kyivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni Tarasa Shevchenka. Istoriia, 107, 18-21 [in Ukrainian].

Lashkarev, P.A. (1884). Istoricheskie zametki o Kieve. O preobrazovanii byvshego v Kieve na Podole dominikanskogo kostela sv. Nikolaia v pravoslavnuiu tserkov vo imia sv. apostolov Petra i Pavla [Historical notes about Kiev. About the transformation of the former Dominican Church of St. Nicholas to the Orthodox Church in the name of St. apostles Peter and Paul]. Kievskaia Starina, 10, 233-234 [in Russian].

Losytskyi, Yu. & Perunova, N. (1999-2000). Dilianka ta sporudy kolyshnoho Sviato-Katerynynskoho monastyria. Istorychna dovidka [Site and buildings of the former St. Catherine’s Monastery. Historical background]. Synopsys, 1, 89-90 [in Ukrainian].

Lukomskii, G.K. (1999). Kiev. Tserkovnaia arkhitektura ХІ-ХХІ veka. Vizantiiskoe zodchestvo Ukrainskoe barokko [Kiev. Church architecture of the 11th-19th centuries. Byzantine architecture. Ukrainian baroque]. Kiev: Tekhnіka [in Russian].

Kandii, A. (Comp.). (2001). Monastyri i khramy Kieva. Spravochnik-putevoditel [Monasteries and churches of Kiev. Reference guide]. Kiev [in Russian].

Petrov, N.I. (1896). Grecheskii Ekaterininskii monastyr v Kieve [Greek Catherine Monastery in Kiev]. Trudy Kievskoi Dukhovnoi Akademii, 1, 55-11 [in Russian].

Ratshin, A. (1852). Polnoe sobranie istoricheskikh svedenii o vsekh byvshikh v drevnosti i nyne sushchestvuiushchikh monastyriakh i primechatelnykh tserkvakh v Rossii [A complete collection of historical information about all the monasteries and notable churches in Russia that were in antiquity and now exist]. Moskva [in Russian].

Sementovskii, N. (1900). Kiev, ego sviatyni, drevnosti, dostopamiatnosti i svedeniia neobkhodimye dlia ego pochitatelei i puteshestvennikov [Kiev, its shrines, antiquity, monuments and information necessary for its admirers and travellers]. Kiev-Sankt-Peterburg [in Russian].

Stroev, P. (1877). Spiski ierarkhov i nastoiatelei monastyrei Rossiiskoi tserkvi [Lists of hierarchs and abbots of the monasteries of the Russian Church]. Sankt-Peterburg [in Russian].

Titov, F.I. (1914). Kievo-Podolskie monastyrskie i prikhodskie khramy sto let tomu nazad [Kiev-Podolsk monastic and parish churches a hundred years ago]. Kiev [in Russian].

Uspenskiy, Porfiriy (1856). Pervoe puteshestvie v Sinaiskii monastyr v 1845 godu arkhimandrita Porfiriia Uspenskago [The first trip to the Sinai Monastery in 1845 by Archimandrite Porfiry Uspensky]. Sankt-Peterburg [in Russian].

Uspenskiy, Porfiriy (1856). Vtoroe puteshestvie arkhimandrita Porfiriia Uspenskago v Sinaiskii monastir v 1850 godu [The second trip to the Sinai Monastery in 1850 by Archimandrite Porfiry Uspensky]. Sankt-Peterburg [in Russian].

Zakrevskii, N.V. (1868). Opisanie Kieva [Description of Kiev]. Vol. 2. Moskva [in Russian].

Zakharchenko, M.M. (1888). Kiev teper i prezhde [Kiev now and before]. Kiev [in Russian].

Zverinskii, V.V. (1890). Material dlia istoriko-topograficheskogo issledovaniia o pravoslavnykh monastyriakh v Rossiiskoi imperii [Material for a historical and topographical study of Orthodox monasteries in the Russian Empire]. Vol. 1. Sankt-Peterburg [in Russian].

Published
13.01.2021
How to Cite
Kravchenko, I. (2021). Kyiv Greek St. Catherine’s Monastery: Contingent of Monkhood and Inhabitants in the 18th – Early 20th Century. Eminak: Scientific Quarterly Journal, (4(32), 29-42. https://doi.org/10.33782/eminak2020.4(32).461
Section
History of Ukraine