Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God (Saint Petersburg)

The Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God (Russian: Церковь Успения Пресвятой Богородицы) is a Russian Orthodox Church building in Saint Petersburg. Its construction started in 1894 when monks from the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra decided to expand the monastic branch of the monastery. Work on the construction lasted six years, and the church was designed in the neo-Byzantine style by Vasily Kosyakov.^[1][2]

n 1721 on Vasilievsky Island, in accordance with a decree by Peter I, the construction of episcopal metochions for members of the Most Holy Synod began. A building on the corner of the Neva embankment and 15th Line was purchased from the Naryshkin family by the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery. However, by the mid-18th century the monastery had moved its metochion to the Fontanka River Embankment and left the rebuilt house with its house church of the Nativity of Christ on Vasilievsky Island. In 1756, an advertisement for the sale of the first building was published in the Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti. For ten years, the metochion could only be leased to the Academy of Sciences, and no buyer was found. This situation led to Catherine II issuing a decree on 10 April 1766^[3] transferring the building to the Pskov Eparchy for the establishment of a metochion^[4].

The metochion of the Pskov Archbishop's House was used mainly for the residence of Synod bishops coming to Saint Petersburg for meetings. Income was small, and it was difficult to control activities from Pskov. As a result, in 1854, at the request of the temporary administrator of the Pskov Eparchy, Archbishop of Riga and Mitau Platon (Gorodetsky), the Most Holy Synod took over the management of the metochion. In return, the Pskov Archbishop's House began receiving an annuity from 1856. The change in management did not alter the economic situation of the metochion. On 11 August 1872^[5] it was decided to sell it.

To avoid transferring the complex with its house church to another department, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia Arseniy (Moscvin) proposed selling it to serve as a metochion for the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. On 11 June 1875^[6] the Highest permission was received to sell the land without auction for 86,000 rubles.

At the time of purchase, the metochion consisted of a plot built up with a two-story main building with a semi-basement, which had been repeatedly altered. It contained the house church of the Nativity of Christ^[7]. In the courtyard were several small service buildings and a stockpile of building stone, confiscated by the police as the owner could not be established. At the entrance was a public "latrine" spreading a stench, and a rubbish pit. The Metropolitan planned a complete reconstruction of the metochion, but he soon died, and, due to the lack of approved projects, the work was not carried out.

As the metochion was poor, its living and utility premises were rented out to lay people. Cosmetic repairs were started, and buildings were added and rebuilt; in 1879, according to the project of P. I. Shestov, a new one-story wing was built along 15th Line, called the "Spare House". However, all this was insufficient for the status of a metochion which housed monastics and where Kiev bishops resided for extended periods. The house Nativity Church could no longer accommodate all worshippers by that time, and the premises themselves were a fire hazard. In 1883–1885 an attempt was made at a major reconstruction of the main building according to the project of N. A. Melnikov, but it did not add comfort. The premises remained semi-dark, the evenness of walls, floors and ceilings was disrupted; and in the metropolitan's chambers, to prevent the ceiling from collapsing, cast-iron columns were installed as supports^[7]. In 1893, a chapel was built at the corner of the "Spare House" according to the project of civil engineer A. M. Vorobyov.

In 1894, an architectural competition was held for the construction of a new complex of church buildings here. Projects by architects A. M. Vorobyov, V. A. Demyanovsky, V. A. Kasyakov, O. I. Thibault-Brignolle and M. A. Shchurupov participated. As a result, the project by V. A. Kasyakov (with the participation of B. K. Pravdzik) was accepted^[8]. According to the project, the new church was to become the main architectural dominant of the metochion and this part of the Neva embankment; most buildings were to be built anew. In 1894–1895, on the site of the demolished building on the embankment, a new two-story house was built, housing the rector's apartment and the metropolitan's chambers with a balcony on the main facade. From his rooms, the metropolitan could go directly into the church. The other servants of the metochion were accommodated in a two-story courtyard wing^[9]. The Spare House was built up with a third floor^[10]. Three years later, the garden and two courtyards were replanned; a shed with storage rooms and a stable were built. In 1900, a fence was erected. In the basement premises, semi-automatic anti-flood shutters were installed on the windows and doors.

Thus, the metochion was a closed complex of buildings with separate entrances for the brethren, the metropolitan, and visitors. The Spare House was rented out. Besides the rector, about 15 monastics permanently resided at the metochion. The brethren mainly worked on church obediences. On 22 January 1903^[11] Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia Feognost (Lebedev) died at the metochion. In 1915, the rich library of Metropolitan Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) was stored in the basements of the metochion, which perished nine years later during a flood.

From 1919, a gradual "compaction" of housing began, monastics were moved from cells to small rooms. Classes of the Petrograd Theological Institute were held in five rooms. In the early 1920s, the rector Father Trifilliy (Smaga) actively opposed the activities of the renovationist Supreme Church Administration, citing the autonomy of the metochion, which belonged to the Ukrainian part of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, under the threat of the Vasileostrovsky Dean, Archpriest Nikolai Platonov, to liquidate the metochion, he formally recognized the Supreme Church Administration and agreed to commemorate Bishop Artemy (Ilyinsky). Such an act was not accepted at the Lavra, and Father Trifilliy, after explaining to the spiritual council of the monastery the circumstances of his submission to the renovationists, received a blessing to adhere to Bishop Manuil (Lemeshevsky). In 1923, the brethren of the metochion were received into communion with the Patriarchal Church. On the night of 2–3 February 1924, Father Trifilliy was arrested together with Bishop Manuil.

After the closure of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra on 29 September 1926, the metochion continued its existence independently. Subsequently, a small part of the brethren supported the Josephite movement. On the night of 23 August 1930, some monastics and part of the parishioners were arrested on charges of "systematically withholding small silver coinage, thereby undermining monetary circulation in the USSR." They were convicted under articles 58-10 and 59-12 of the 1926 RSFSR Penal Code with subsequent dispatch to camps. The last members of the brethren were arrested and sentenced to exile in Kazakhstan by March 1932. The metochion effectively ceased to exist.

By the end of the 1980s, the complex of the former metochion was occupied by various organizations and communal apartments. The Spare House was built up with a fourth floor, the cell wings with two floors and replanned. The monastery garden lost its integrity and regularity.

In 1988, Optina Monastery was reopened. In the autumn of 1990, the abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Evlogy (Smirnov), appealed to the Leningrad authorities to consider the possibility of transferring one of the city's churches (including closed ones) for the establishment of a monastery metochion. Among the proposed churches was the Dormition Church, on which the abbot made his choice. From that time, the restoration of the church and the recovery of the metochion premises began by buying out and resettling communal apartments. The vacated premises were again replanned for the needs of the metochion.

Construction started 1895. Concrete was used instead of bricks to speed up construction of its main arches. In September 1896, a temporary church was erected inside the temple under construction, where services were constantly held. On September 14, 1897, crosses were placed on the domes. The main chapel was made in honor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and was consecrated on December 18 1897. In the summer of 1898, the domes were gilded. In 1903, the church was completed.^[12]

The new church in the name of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos and the venerables Anthony and Theodosius, the Miracle-Workers of the Caves, was founded on 15 August 1895^[13] by Archimandrite Feognost (Pashkov). Construction work continued without interruption from early morning until nightfall. To speed up the process, it was decided to use concrete instead of brick for the main arches. In September 1896, a temporary church was erected inside the building church, where services were constantly held. On 14 September 1897^[14] crosses were raised onto the domes. The main altar in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos was consecrated on 18 December 1897^[15] by Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia Ioannikiy (Rudnev), and the side altar, in honor of the Venerables of the Caves, on 19 December^[16]. In the summer of 1898, the domes were gilded and finishing works were carried out. After the consecration, a temporary iconostasis from the old house church of the metochion was installed in the church. Finishing works and painting were completed by 1903.

Liturgy was served daily in the church, and on Sundays and holidays twice a day: the early one in the chapel of the Venerables Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves, and the late one in the main chapel of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. The weekly singing of the akathist to the Dormition of the Mother of God, a tradition established back in the 1870s, was popular among the people. Periodically, the akathist was served by the Kiev metropolitan himself.

In the spring of 1922, a chalice, a cross, and the setting from the altar Gospel were stolen from the altar of the church. The church's "dvadtsatka" (group of twenty parishioners responsible for the church) was accused of improper storage of property. In the 1930s, the parents of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, Mikhail Vasilyevich Gundyaev and Raisa Vladimirovna Gundyaeva (née Kuchina), served as choir singers in the church^[17].

The first attempt to close the church was made in 1932. On 4 February, the Vasileostrovsky District Council proposed transferring the church to the "Metpribor" factory^[18]. Since the organization refused the proposed building, the Lensoviet decided to demolish the church, for which it received the consent of the People's Commissariat for Education on 5 March 1932. The parishioners managed to defend the church by collecting over 3000 signatures in its defense. This action provoked the arrest of the last monks of the metochion.

After the metochion ceased to exist, the parish received stauropegic status. This position indirectly saved the church from decisions to close it. However, by the summer of 1932, there was not a single parish of the Leningrad Eparchy left on Vasilievsky Island, and the influx of diocesan clergy from closed churches into the Dormition Church forced a review of its status. As a result, on 13 June the church was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Leningrad.

At the end of 1933 and the beginning of 1934, another wave of arrests took place in the parish (the Case of the "Evlogians"): four priests serving in the church came under investigation. Six months later, on 25 August, by decision of the Leningrad Regional Executive Committee, the church was closed, although services continued until 23 January 1935.

After the closure of the church, its building was transferred to the Leningrad Military Port. In 1936, the church was used as a gym. During the Siege of Leningrad, an AA observation post was located under the dome, painted green; the church itself housed a warehouse of the RKKF; the basement was used as a bomb shelter. An anti-aircraft gun crew was stationed in the former garden of the metochion.

In 1956, according to the personal order of Anastas Mikoyan, the church building was transferred for the construction of the first indoor ice rink in Leningrad. The project was developed by the "Lengipronproekt" institute. As a result of the work, the metlach tiles were destroyed, the paintings were destroyed or painted over, the machine room and cloakrooms were equipped in the altar, an ice field of 289 m² was placed in the center, and buffets and storage rooms for equipment were placed on the choirs. In addition, there were storage for sports equipment, a workshop for sharpening skates, and changing rooms. The hall was decorated with portraits of Lenin, flags, and banners. The grand opening of the skating rink took place in 1961. Such figure skaters as Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov trained there. After the completion of the Yubileyny Sports Palace in 1967, the indoor skating rink in the former church began to be used for children's training and New Year's parties.

However, the condition of the church deteriorated, the building needed repairs, the walls were damaged by fungus and were collapsing. To solve financial problems, baths were first opened in the skating rink building, and then a flower plantation for sales.

In June 1991, the Leningrad City Executive Committee decided to transfer the former Dormition Church to the stauropegic Svyato-Vvedensky Monastery of Optina Hermitage. On 28 August 1991, a temporary iconostasis was installed in the former choreographic hall of the skating rink^[19], and services began.

For five years, the technical condition of the monument was studied, a restoration project was created; simultaneously, walls installed after the church's closure were dismantled, and rubbish was removed. The first service in the southern chapel took place in October 1993. Daily services began here only in February 1996. At the same time, the restoration of the central altar began.

On 16 January 1998, a cross was erected on the dome. By 2003, the iconostasis was restored. By mid-2013, the church was completely restored inside and out, and on 15 September, Patriarch Kirill consecrated the church with the great rite.

The Dormition Church is a five-domed, pillarless church with a capacity of up to 2000 people. The project is in the Russian Revival style, built using both brick and concrete. The lower part of the building is faced with grey granite, the upper part with Radom sandstone. 14 types of facing brick were supplied by the M. V. Nesterov factory in Riga. The exterior mosaics were executed in the workshop of V. A. Frolov^[20]. During the construction of the church, for the first time in Saint Petersburg, the smooth parts of the domes were faced with aluminum sheets.

The church space is formed by a system of intersecting arches. Because of this, there are no pillars in the church. The walls of the church were originally painted by Moscow masters Snegirev, N. I. Strunnikov and Yakovlev under the direction of academician F. A. Sokolov. The painting was restored by groups of restorers under the direction of L. A. Lyubimov, Yu. V. Smolyansky, E. P. Bolshakov. In addition, a group formed by graduates of the St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Architecture named after I. E. Repin, Ya. A. Shterenberg and G. M. Zhuravlyov, worked in the church, numbering 80 people by the end of the work.

On the inner space of the dome, "Christ Pantocrator" with cherubim and seraphim is depicted (completed in 2007). Under the drum are four compositions: "Nativity of Jesus Christ", "Baptism of the Lord", "Descent into Hell" and "Ascension of Jesus Christ". Images of the four Evangelists are on the pendentives. The main theme of the central altar is the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, the northern one is Archangels and Russian saints, the southern one is Christ Emmanuel. On the inter-altar walls are images of "Crucifixion" and "Deposition from the Cross", on the choirs are saints of the Kievo-Pechersky Paterik.

An altar made of Carrara marble is installed in the altar. The porcelain gilded iconostasis was made in the workshop of Honored Artist of the Russian Federation L. S. Solodkov.

Before the church was closed, it contained icons painted by nuns of the Moscow Novodevichy Convent and icon painters under the direction of the Palekh artist N. M. Sofonov. The church's copy of the "Dormition of the Mother of God" icon was transferred to the Vladimir Cathedral after the closure of the metochion.

The Dormition Church contains icons of:

the Venerable Elders of Optina with particles of their relics,

Saints of the Kiev Caves with particles of their relics,

the Venerable Ambrose of Optina with a particle of his relics,

the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon the Healer with a particle of his relics,

the Mother of God "Quick to Hear", painted in one of the Athos monasteries;

the Mother of God "The All-Tsarina" and the Mother of God "The Inexhaustible Chalice".

The bell tower holds six bells with a total weight of 1128 kg.

At the metochion of Optina Hermitage, an institute, an Orthodox gymnasium, a Sunday school, an anti-sectarian center, a gold-embroidery workshop, and a library operate. In 1994, a Public School for children and Theological Courses for adults were opened at the metochion. In 1999, on their basis, the Institute of Religious Studies and Church Arts was opened with two departments: theological and church arts. The main direction of the theological department is the study of theological and historical sciences, as well as Christian culturology. At the same time, the curriculum includes practice in the fields of apologetics, missionary work and social work. The Department of Church Arts specializes in three areas: church music, icon painting and restoration^[21]. A subdivision of the institute is the Sunday school, opened in 1994. The Orthodox General Education Gymnasium named after the Venerable Ambrose of Optina was founded in 2010.

The activities of the rehabilitation center "Dialog" are aimed at helping people affected by the activities of destructive religious organizations. In addition, the center conducts preventive work to prevent involvement in pseudo-religious and schismatic organizations.

In 1999, the metochion of Optina Hermitage received 40 hectares of land near the settlement of Sosnovy Bor in the Vyborgsky District of Leningrad Oblast to open a subsidiary farm and build a skete^[22]. The ruins of three buildings were dismantled on the site and a skete house was erected. The livestock farm keeps cows, chickens, ostriches, raccoons; an apiary is established; Japanese carp are bred in ponds. On the territory of the skete in 2006, construction began on a church in the name of the Venerable Ambrose of Optina. In 2010, the stone Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, built in 1907 and restored in 2007, was assigned to the skete.

Simultaneously with the restoration of the Dormition Church in 1996, the male choir "Optina Pustyn" was created at the metochion. The first Znamenny liturgy was served on 15 September 1996 in memory of the Venerables Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves. Throughout its existence, the collective has been engaged in the revival of ancient Russian singing heritage, replenishing the liturgical repertoire with ancient church chants deciphered by a group of musical paleographers. In addition to ancient Russian singing styles, the choir performs chants of Orthodox singing traditions – Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian and Georgian, monastic podobny, modern arrangements of ancient chants, and spiritual chants by Russian composers. The founder of the collective, artistic director and choirmaster is Alexander Semyonov.

Archimandrite Vladimir (Kobets) and Archimandrite Gury (Yegorov) served at the metochion.

Lisovsky, V. G. (2009). Aptekman, V. (ed.). Архитектура России XVIII — начала XX века. Поиски национального стиля [Architecture of Russia of the 18th – early 20th centuries. The Search for a National Style]. Moscow: Bely Gorod. pp. 321–322. ISBN 978-5-7793-1629-3.

Zagorovskaya, L. I. (2010). Zimin, A. (ed.). Успенское подворье: История и люди [Dormition Metochion: History and People] (PDF). St. Petersburg: Uspenskoe podvorie... Optina monastyrya: Izd-vo Zimina. p. 184. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-11.

Malychev, V. V., ed. (2017). «И воссоздастся корабль…» : Успенское подворье монастыря Оптина пустынь в Санкт-Петербурге : история и сегодняшний день ["And the Ship Will Be Recreated...": The Dormition Metochion of the Optina Hermitage Monastery in Saint Petersburg: History and Present Day]. Khramy Sankt-Peterburga. St. Petersburg: Kontrast. p. 118. ISBN 978-5-4380-0070-9.

Internet portal Azbuka very Live broadcast of services

Optina metochion in Saint Petersburg on YouTube

Male choir "Optina Pustyn" — official website