Monastery in Moscow
Danilov Monastery
(also
Svyato-Danilov Monastery
or
Holy Danilov Monastery
;
Russian
:
Данилов монастырь, Свято-Данилов монастырь
,
romanized
:
Danilov monastyr', Svyato-Danilov monastyr'
) is a walled
monastery
on the right bank of the
Moskva River
in
Moscow
.
[
citation needed
]
Since 1983, it has functioned as the headquarters of the
Russian Orthodox church
and the official residence of the
Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'
.
[
citation needed
]
History
[
edit
]
Danilov Monastery is claimed to have been founded in the late 13th century by
Alexander Nevsky
's son
Daniel
. Shortly before his death in 1303, Daniel is supposed to have taken monastic vows and been buried there. The
Russian Orthodox church
venerates him as a
saint
. Daniel's successors had this monastery relocated to the
Kremlin
. All that remained at the original location was a graveyard.
In 1560,
Ivan the Terrible
visited the village of Danilovskoye and noticed the neglected graveyard. Upon learning about the old monastery, he invited monks to settle there again. In 1591, when the armies of a
Crimean
khan
Kaza Giray
approached Moscow, the grounds were fortified and used as a mobile camp.
In 1606, the rebels led by
Ivan Bolotnikov
and
Istoma Pashkov
collided with the army of
Vasili IV
not far from the monastery. In 1607, an
impostor
by the name of
Ileyka Muromets
, who had pretended to be
tsarevich
Peter (son of
Feodor I of Russia
), was executed next to Danilov Monastery. Being in the center of many military events during the
Time of Troubles
, the monastery was severely damaged in 1610. In the early 17th century, it was surrounded by a brick wall with seven towers.
In 1710, there were 30
monks
in Danilov Monastery. In 1764, there were only twelve of them on staff. By 1900, however, the number rose to seventeen. Among the monks who lived in Danilov Monastery during its history was the renowned Greek scholar
Nikephoros Theotokis
, who retired to this monastery in 1792 from his
bishop
's position in South Russia, and lived here until his death in 1800.
[1]
In 1805, an
almshouse
for elderly women was established at the monastery; later it was turned into an almshouse for elderly clergymen and their widows.
In 1812, the monastery was ransacked by the
French army
. The monasterial
sacristy
and
treasury
, however, had been transported to
Vologda
and
Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra
shortly before the French occupied Moscow.
First documented information on Danilov Monastery's landownership can be traced back to 1785, when it owned 18
desyatinas
of land. By the end of the 19th century, the monastery had already possessed 178 desyatinas and a few buildings in
Moscow
.
In the second half of the 19th century, Danilov Monastery's cemetery was a final resting place for many writers, artists and scientists, such as
Nikolai Gogol
,
Nikolai Yazykov
,
Vasili Perov
,
Nikolai Rubinstein
,
Vladimir Solovyov
and many others. The remains of most of them, however, were transported in Soviet years to the
Novodevichy Cemetery
. By 1917, Danilov Monastery had 19 monks and four
novices
and owned 164
desyatinas
of land.
After the
October Revolution
, the monastery housed
archimandrites
who had been deprived of their
pulpits
. In 1929, the
Soviets
issued a special decree on closing the monastery and organizing a detention facility on its premises under the auspices of
NKVD
(приёмник-распределитель НКВД, or
priyomnik-raspredelitel' NKVD
). The last monastery closed in Moscow became the first one to be returned in 1983 to the
Moscow Patriarchy
and became a spiritual and administrative centre of the
Russian Orthodox Church
. In 1988, the monastery was restored. A residence was built for the
Patriarch
and
Synod
, as well as a funeral
chapel
and a chapel in commemoration of the 1000 years of Russia's
baptism
.
Buildings
[
edit
]
Apart from the 17th-century defensive towers and walls, the surviving buildings include the katholikon (main church), the Neoclassical cathedral of the Holy Trinity (1833?1838), the Baroque gate church and belltower of St Simeon Stylites (1681, 1732), a group of 19th-century dwellings for monks and the father superior, and the extensive modern residence of the Holy Synod and the Patriarch (1988). Right next door is the large parish
church of the Renovation of the Temple in Jerusalem
, built in 1832?1837 to Neoclassical designs by
Fyodor Shestakov
.
The oldest building is the
katholikon
dedicated to the Holy Fathers of the
First seven ecumenical councils
(a dedication not found anywhere else in the Christian world). The lower temple was built during the reign of
Tsar Alexis
as a church dedicated to the feast of the Intercession. Two Baroque upper churches were completed in 1730 and 1752, respectively. The katholikon is the only building in Moscow to feature two distinct churches above another church on the ground floor.
Bells
[
edit
]
When the monastery was closed in 1929 and 1930, its bell set was saved from
Communist
melting through the purchase by American industrialist
Charles R. Crane
. The largest of the bells, Bolshoi (or The Big One - called The Mother Earth Bell at Harvard), weighs 13 tons and has a 700-pound clapper. The smallest weighs just 22 pounds.
[2]
Crane donated the bells to
Harvard University
and they were installed in the main tower of Harvard's
Lowell House
and at the
Harvard Business School
's
Baker Library
. Beginning in the 1980s, with openness under Gorbachev, there were calls to return the bells, and after numerous meetings over the years, the bells were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in the fall of 2008.
[3]
Russian industrialist
Viktor Vekselberg
, famous for buying up a number of
Faberge Eggs
, agreed to pay for the repatriation of the 18 bells and for the cost of casting replacements of them in Russia to be hung at Harvard.
[4]
The first of the bells, known as the Everyday (or Weekday) Bell, weighing 2.2 tons, arrived at the Danilov Monastery on September 12, 2007; the remaining seventeen were returned on September 12, 2008.
[5]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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Downtown
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Outer ring
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Destroyed monasteries are in italics
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International
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National
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Geographic
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