Way Up North
Terrence Kardong
Whenever I run into a notice of a monastery that is farther north than Assumption Abbey, I sit up and take notice. Therefore, I was attracted to Roy Robson’s book Solovki, which was published in 2004 by Yale University Press. Solovki is near the Arctic Circle, 400 miles north of Saint Petersburg. It is located on an island in the White Sea, which is only accessible by ferryboat. The catch is that the White Sea is frozen eight months of the year!
Orthodox monks first came to Solovki in 1429 when Saints Savatii and Germain came to the island to live as hermits. Their reputation for holiness made them attractive to monastic disciples, and eventually these constituted a large community. Solovki later became a place of pilgrimage for thousands of pious faithful. At first the trip was perilous, but later the monks ran large ferryboats from various White Sea ports.
Through the centuries the monks erected the gigantic monastic fortress that exists to this day. Photographs of the enormous boulders that make up the main wall and towers are remarkable. All of this growth and activity was promoted by the Tsars, who bestowed on the monastery valuable properties on the mainland. Especially lucrative were salt works located all over the region.
As a major religious establishment, Solovki could not avoid involvement in the politics of the Russian church and state. At times the Tsar himself visited Solovki, as did Peter the Great in 1701. While he was there, Peter inspected everything and took a vigorous and pious part in the monastic liturgy. But he soon took over the whole Russian Church and did everything he could to refashion it according to his westernizing ideas.
During its long existence, Solovki often had 200 monks and was well-
In fact, the monks of Solovki were often a thorn in the flesh of the Russian establishment, both civil and ecclesiastical. In the late seventeenth century they were invaded by the Tsar’s troops, but they managed to hold out for months until a traitor let the soldiers in by a secret door. The resulting slaughter could have put the monastery to a permanent end, but it was soon repopulated by monks from all over Russia. In the nineteenth century, British warships made their way into the White Sea and attempted to loot Solovki. The monks had other ideas, however, and withstood devastating cannon fire for some weeks.
Solovki’s good days came to an end with the Communist government after 1917. Because of its isolation and its harsh environment, the monastery became home for thousands of political prisoners and their diabolical guards. Not only did they destroy human lives, they wrecked the monastic buildings. The final chapter of this book makes for painful reading, but it is still instructive to anyone who wonders if the Communist regime was really as bad as its reputation. It was. Happily, monks have again returned to Solovki, and the buildings are being restored at this time.
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Volume 37, Number 4 |
Richardton, ND 58652 |
October 2009 |
