Õigeusk ja õigeusu pühakojad Eestis 11.-19. sajandil

• Main Author: Jaanus Plaat
• Format: Article
• Language: Estonian
• Published: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum 2011-04-01
• Series: Mäetagused
• Subjects: Estonia; Orthodoxy; Orthodox sacral buildings; poluverniks; Setomaa (Setoland); Seto tsässons
• Online Access: http://www.folklore.ee/tagused/nr47/plaat.pdf
• ISSN: 1406-992X; 1406-9938

In 1845–1848, the movement from the Lutheran Church to the Russian Orthodox Church took place in all the southern Estonian counties and about 17% of the peasants in southern Estonia converted to Orthodoxy. Until then, Orthodoxy was mainly the religion of the local Russians and Seto (Setu) people, and remained influential among the poluverniks of eastern Estonia, the Russians who were officially Lutheran but followed many Orthodox rites (including partially Estonianised Russians). The article gives an overview of the spread of Orthodoxy in the current Estonian territory and in Setomaa from the 11th century until 1845, focusing on the establishment of different Russian Orthodox churches and chapels (including the Seto tsässons). The Russian Old Believers, who settled in Estonia at the end of the 17th century are not dealt with in detail in this article.Orthodoxy is probably the most ancient form of Christianity to arrive in Estonia, during the 11th century. Some of the local Finno-Ugric people were baptised into Orthodoxy during the 11th–12th centuries, before the crusades of the Roman Catholic Church; it is also possible that the first Christian church in Estonia was founded by the Russianconquerors in Tartu (Yuryev) in the 11th century. The oldest surviving, although extensively reconstructed, Orthodox churches are to be found in Setomaa, and they date back to the 14th century. The oldest wooden sacral buildings in mainland Estonia are the Mikitamäe and Uusvada tsässons (Seto village chapels, in Russian chasovnya), built in the last decade of the 17th century. The Orthodox sacral buildings also include the oldest surviving wooden church in Tallinn – the Kazan Church (1721). This article briefly describes Orthodoxy in Setumaa, an area which was partially or wholly incorporated into Russia for centuries (specifically as a part of Pskov), prior to accession with the Estonian territory in 1920, and therefore under the direct influence of Orthodoxy, unlike the rest of Estonia. From the Setos, the Old Believers and the Russians of present-day eastern Estonia, Orthodoxy might well have spread among Estonians, to some extent. This is attested to by the gatherings, near the Pühtitsachapel and other Orthodox chapels, that have been taken place since the 16th–17th centuries and which have been attended by Lutheran Estonians as well as Orthodox Russians. Orthodoxy in Estonian towns and eastern Estonia was promoted by Russian military campaigns and conquests, especially during the Livonian War in 1558–1583 (with the help of the mission of the Petseri (Pechory) Monastery in Setumaa),when dozens of Orthodox churches were erected in Estonia, plus at least one convent in Tartu. Following the Russian defeat in the Livonian War, some Russian-founded Orthodox churches continued to function for some time under the Polish and Swedish reigns.By the end of the Swedish period, the church of St. Nikolay (St. Nicholas) in Tallinn was the only active Orthodox church in Estonia (excluding Setomaa), but the gatherings around the Orthodox chapels in present-day East Viru County continued during the reign of Lutheran Sweden, especially crowded meetings were held around thePühtitsa chapel.After the Great Northern War and incorporation into Russia, new Orthodox churches were erected in all the bigger towns in Estonia (first in 1721), as well as in many smaller places in eastern Estonia (e.g. Räpina, Nina, Mustvee and Vasknarva). Until the 1840s, the Orthodox churches were mostly built for Russians. However, many Estonians had had contacts with Orthodoxy for centuries before the 1840s, particularly in eastern Estonia and in some bigger towns.