Monasteries in the Space of a Siberian City (With Reference to Turinsk in the 17th — 1st Half of the 18th Centuries)

• Main Author: Irina Leonidovna Mankova
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Ural Federal University Press 2016-03-01
• Series: Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки
• Subjects: Туринский Покровский монастырь; Туринский Николаевский монастырь; монашество; черные священники; колонизация Сибири; Туринск; история Русской православной церкви.
• Online Access: https://journals.urfu.ru/index.php/Izvestia2/article/view/1917
• ISSN: 2227-2283; 2587-6929

The article is devoted to the formation of the monastic tradition in Turinsk. This town was built during the Russian colonization of Siberia. The author proves that there is a historiographic inconsistency in the dates of establishment and interpretation of the history of Intercession and St Nicholas Monasteries. Referring to new documents and employing the method of micro-history, the author reconstructs the history of the monasteries between the 17th and the first half of the 18th century. It is established that the monastic community of Turinsk developed in the way typical of many Siberian monasteries, i.e. starting with a settlement of a few monks by the parish church before the establishment of a monastery outside of town. However, this evolution was long and complex, and not continuous. There were periods when aged nuns lived by the Intercession Church too. Intercession Monastery was first mentioned in a document of 1621 and described the appointment of black priest Macarius Father Superior. Between the late 1620s and prior to the early 1680s, Fathers Superior were not appointed. At that time black priests played an important role in the life of the monastic community. They were confessors and, in fact, carried out the duties of builders in the monastery. The first decree on the provision of land to Intercession Monastery was issued in 1621, but only in 1641 the monks received the first land plot. Their main means of subsistence were charitable contributions. Only at the turn of the 1680s, black priest Pachomius managed to build the coenobitic St Nicholas Monastery. It had a modest plot of land which provided the monks with stable existence.