The problems with monasteries and other sacred places (Solovetsky Monastery Part III)

 

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The problems with monasteries and other sacred places (Solovetsky Monastery Part III)

When we are seeing things like famous monasteries, we must understand that the original sacred places might be somewhere else than those monasteries. That means that even if the Solovetsky Monastery is on some island, the real holy place can be somewhere else on that island. The monastery might also be the "parade monastery", and only the "real members" of the brotherhood of monks are knowing the real place of the sacred thing.

And here we are going to see my favorite Monastery the Solovetsky Monastery,(1) what established by three monks, Sabbattius of Solovki (?-1435)(2) and two others Herman of Solovki (?-1479)(3) and Zosimas of Solovki (?-1478)(4). The death year of Sabbattius might also be 1436 if that man died in the new year. The thing is that there is a possibility that somebody gave orders on what kind of monastery must be built on the o Islands, and then after the death of Sabbattius, the other monks started to make the monastery.

So when I ask sometimes, did Sabbattius see the completed Monastery that means that the death year of that monk might be wrong, and the reason why I sometimes put the death year of Sabbattius as 1436 (the real was 1345) is that this man has mentioned as the establisher of the Solovki Monastery. So did Sabbattius order the building in his last will, or did he the supervisor of the work. Was the timeline of the Solovetsky Monastery began in the time when the construction begins? Or does it begin, when the first monks moved into the building? Did those monks supervise the building site themselves? Or did they hire a builder?

The thing that makes that monastery interesting is that the donation for Solovky Monastery was given by a noblewoman Marfa Boretskaya (5). The thing was that this was not a very usual thing in Russia or Novgorod. Normally women were not own land.

But the thing is that Marfa Boretskaya leads the Novgorod struggle against Grand Duchy of Moskva (6) after her husband died. So how those monks even dare to take that donation, because that could mean death if Tsar could know that thing when Novgorod lost the war. And another thing that makes that donation interesting is that even today Orthodox church is very patriarchal. So why they accepted the donation?

If Sabbattius got the instructions from somebody, who is removed from history, those orders might include orders that the instructions must be given when Sabbattius was old enough. Maybe the building instructions gave in his last will. And he should ever mention the name of the person, who gave those instructions. If Sabbattius was dead, nobody could ask that for him.

Sources:

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solovetsky_Monastery

(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbatius_of_Solovki

(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_of_Solovki

(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zosimas_of_Solovki

(5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa_Boretskaya

(6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchy_of_Moscow

https://curiosityanddarkmatter.home.blog/2020/12/02/the-problems-with-monasteries-and-other-sacred-places-solovetsky-monastery-part-iii/