Muromsky Monastery: An Orthodox Monastic Center in Karelia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Russia
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Russian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Monastery
On this page15 sections
History
Muromsky Monastery is an Orthodox male monastery in Russia, located on Murom Island off the eastern shore of Lake Onega in the Republic of Karelia. Probably founded at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it is regarded as one of the oldest centers of Orthodoxy in Karelia. The monastery belongs to the Petrozavodsk Diocese and also has an affiliated courtyard with an Alexander Nevsky Church in Pudozh.
Foundation and Medieval Tradition
The monastery’s foundation is associated with Lazarus of Constantinople, who is venerated in the Russian Orthodox tradition as the monastic founder linked with Murom Island. According to the Tale of Murom Island, Lazarus came to Rus in 1342 on the instruction of the Bishop of Caesarea. He later settled on the island after his spiritual father directed him northward.
Tradition holds that Lazarus first built a dwelling and a chapel, around which monks gradually gathered. Monks from Kyiv are said to have erected the first Church of the Dormition of the Pecherskaya Mother of God in Pomorye. A Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist, with a refectory for communal meals, was built afterward. The small wooden Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus was constructed in 1390 in the cemetery outside the monastery’s communal enclosure, or cenobium, a form of monastic life based on shared worship, work, and property. Although it stood apart from the main monastic compound, the church came to be regarded as the building through which the monastery developed.
Athanasius of Murom, a fifteenth-century Orthodox monastic leader who served as abbot, was later venerated alongside Lazarus. The relics of both saints became the monastery’s principal shrines.
Destruction and Ecclesiastical Reorganization
Muromsky Monastery was plundered in 1612 during the Time of Troubles, a period of political crisis, dynastic conflict, and foreign intervention in the Russian state. The attackers were described as “German and Lithuanian” forces. The monastery later became involved in changing church and administrative structures in the region.
In 1764 a separate Diocese of Olonets was established, initially as a vicariate. Its bishops were styled vicars of Olonets and Kargopol. After the creation of the Olonets Governorship, the vicariate was closed in 1787 and merged with the Archangel Diocese, placing the monastery within a series of changing diocesan and administrative arrangements.
The monastery was converted into a women’s monastery in 1786, but it was abolished the following year. Its churches continued to serve as a parish from 1788 until 1867. In 1838 Feodosiya Tikhonovna Kizilova and eight female pilgrims lived at the closed monastery and sought to create a women’s community there. The Holy Synod rejected their petition in 1843.
Restoration and Revival in the Nineteenth Century
Parishioners built a new Dormition Church between 1860 and 1866. The monastery was restored in 1867 with seven monastics and without state financial assistance. A home for elderly and disabled people was also established. The revival was associated with I. I. Malokroshechny, a wealthy honorary citizen of Pudozh.
A stone Church of All Saints was built and consecrated in 1891. The monastery’s religious life also included veneration of Lazarus and Athanasius, whose relics were kept beneath the floor in two chapels. In 1912 and 1913 Innokenty, a hieromonk of the Baltsky Theodosian Monastery and founder of the Innokentievite sect, was exiled at Muromsky Monastery.
Soviet Period and Preservation
After Soviet power was established, the Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus was abandoned. An agricultural commune named for Trotsky was organized on the monastery grounds in 1919 and closed by decree on 30 August 1930. After 1945 the site housed a home for disabled people, and by the middle of the 1960s it had again fallen into neglect.
The preservation of the Lazarus Church began with work by architect A. V. Opolovnikov, who measured the building in 1954 and prepared a restoration design. In 1959 the church was dismantled and transported by raft to Kizhi, where it was restored according to his project. It subsequently came to be regarded as the oldest known monument of wooden architecture in Russia. The church’s small sixteenth-century iconostasis was preserved during the restoration.
Return to Religious Use
In 1991 Muromsky Monastery was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church, beginning its revival. By the end of the twentieth century, the Dormition Cathedral survived as white-stone walls, the Church of All Saints as a structural shell, and the brotherhood building as a ruin. The brotherhood building was later restored, and the monastery continues to function as a place of strict seclusion. Muromsky Monastery is a regional cultural-heritage site of the peoples of the Russian Federation.
Remains
The historic complex occupies Murom Island on the eastern shore of Lake Onega. Its buildings were arranged within stone enclosures and included churches, a refectory, monastic cells, a brotherhood building, chapels, and a bell tower. The cemetery enclosure, built in 1867, is described as the final chapter in the history of northern monastic enclosures.
Monastic Buildings and Enclosures
Stone Enclosure and Cemetery
A stone enclosure surrounded the monastery, while a separate cemetery enclosure defined the burial area. The cemetery enclosure belongs to the nineteenth-century rebuilding of the complex and forms a distinct part of its surviving architectural organization.
Brotherhood Building
The brotherhood building survived into the late twentieth century as a ruin and has since been restored. Its present arrangement contains a winter Church of Saint Nicholas, a refectory, and monastic cells. A house church of Saint Nicholas also occupied the second floor of the stone building. The relics of Lazarus and Athanasius of Murom were kept beneath the floor in two chapels.
Churches and Bell Tower
Dormition Cathedral
The Dormition Church, also called the Church of the Assumption, commemorates the Orthodox feast of the death and heavenly reception of the Virgin Mary. The building raised by parishioners between 1860 and 1866 had two side chapels, dedicated to the Nativity of John the Baptist and John of Rila. By the end of the twentieth century, the cathedral survived as white-stone walls.
Church of All Saints
The stone Church of All Saints has five domes. Oval icons of Lazarus and Athanasius of Murom were set into its north and south walls above the windows. The church survives as a structural shell.
Bell Tower
A bell tower was built above the vestibule of the Dormition Church and contained twelve bells. One bell, cast in 1508, weighed three poods, a historical Russian unit equal to about 16.38 kilograms, making its weight approximately 49 kilograms. The bell tower has been restored.
Chapel over the Lazarus Church
The chapel over the Lazarus Church was rebuilt as a summer church. It belongs to the preserved memory of the small wooden church that once stood in the cemetery beyond the communal monastic enclosure. Worship in the Lazarus Church took place only once a year, on Lazarus Saturday, the Orthodox observance commemorating Jesus raising Lazarus before Palm Sunday.
