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About eleven miles north of Kirillov, deep in
the woods, between lakes and completely secure from Tatar incursions, a member
of a Moscow boyar family, Reverend Therapont (Ferapont), took monastic vows and
in 1389 founded a monastery which later was named after him. With time the
monastery earned its reputation as an important new cultural center. The hard
work of its brethren contributed much.
When the Serbian biographer Pakhomii Lagophet visited the monastery in around
1468 he noted that the monks were busy reading and rewriting books. Pakhomii
had undertaken the trip to study materials for the biography of reverend,
Cyrill (Kirill) Belozerski, which he was getting ready to write at the time. A
year before Therapont, Cyrill founded the nearby monastery which received his
name. He was a pupil of Saint Sergius, and during his long life contributed
much to the prestige of Moscow's grand dukes. Later in the second half of the
15th century both monasteries experienced a period of ideological struggle
concerning the right of the Church, and the monasteries in particular, to
possess lands and wealth. The chief proponent of the idea that monks should
live be their work and lead an ascetic life was Nil Sorskii (1433-1508). A
member of the Maikov boyar family and an outstanding figure among Russian
scholars, philosophers, theologians, to put his teachings into practice, Nil
left the Kirillo-Belozerski Monastery and not far from it founded a hermitage
in the desert land along the river Sora, which gave him the nickname Sorskii.
Opposed to him was Iosif Volotskii, (Ivan Sanin) (Volokolamskii) (1439-1515),
abbot and founder of the Volokolamskii Monastery, who defended the right of the
monasteries to own large estates and though he supported the autocracy of
Moscow rulers and the theory of "Moscow the Third Rome," he raised
his voice against the attempts of Ivan III to confiscate the estates. For Iosif
the tsar was something like a god on earth, and he asked the boyars to consider
him "Sovereign of all Russian Princes." On the other hand, if the
tsar does not fulfill his obligations towards the Church, he would serve the
devil, but even in this case he would have to account only to God. Iosif's
ideas about divine origin of tsar's power and the role that the Church should
play within the state served as the basis for future relationships between
them. Strangely enough, the Church later beatified Nil and not Iosif. Nil's
ideas were propagated by his followers and, after his departure from the
Kirillo-Belozerski Monastery, most building and decorative activity stopped for
a while. Later "Nestyazhateli," (non-grabbers), the name Nil's
disciples called themselves, felt that icons should be painted to reflect
events and personages authentically and not to show "Delicate effeminate
faces." The movement acquired a political taint under the leadership of
Prince Vassili Ivanovich Patrikeev. Together with his father he was, first,
forced to become a monk by Ivan III, because they were on the side of tsarevich
Dimitri when his grand-father wanted to eliminate his right to succeed to the
Moscow throne, then. Then under Vassili III he was brought to Moscow where he
continued to advocate the liquidation of monastery lands. Better known under
his new monastic name of Vassian Kosoy (Vassian Squint-eye), he often defended
dispossessed peasants, but without criticizing his fellow boyars, among whom he
was quite popular. Vassian died in 1531 under mysterious circumstances.
There were several other prominent Russian literati and clergymen who lived and
worked in the Monastery of Saint Therapont. One of them was the Archbishop of
Kiev Spiridon, who, at the end of the 15th century, joined the Monastery after
he and the Patriarch of Constantinople fell in disgrace and he was forced to
quit his see (diocese). Another was the Archbishop of Novgorod, Ghennadii
(Gennadius), who advocated better education for the Russian clergy and demanded
drastic measures to put an end to the heresy of Judaizers, including the right
to "Burn them at the stake and hang them; some of them were indeed burned
alive. This heresy was brought to Novgorod in 1471 by the Lithuanian Jews
Skharia, Samuel and Moses, and through two priests, who were transferred to
serve in the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin, found many sympathizers,
including the Metropolitan Zosima, who, in 1494, was declared morally unfit for
his duties. The famous Patriarch Nikon was exiled to Therapont Monastery for
ten years, 1666-1676.
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