The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-16
THE MONAsTERIEs OF RUSSIA.
Russia Owes Her National Existence
TO the Old-Time Monks.
From the New York Evening Post

10 the OId-1tme Monks.
From the New York Evening Post.
The monasteries of Russia look like fort
resses, and they really were the strong
holds OF the Russian middle ages, during
the conflicts with the Tartars and Poles.
Almost the entire history of Russia con-
fronts us in her three great monasteries.
Petchehsk symbolizes and sums up the first
period of national life; Troitza, near Mos
COW, the second, and the Nevski. in ST
Petersburg, the third. In Russia. as ev-
erywhere, the monks have selected the
finest sites. Troitza, which has stemmed
the advance of the Poles, and sheltered
Peter the Great from the rnutinous Strelt
sy, lifts its thickest red brick towers from
the edge of ravine, and Miss Proctor
in her charming book, "A Russian Jour
ney," speaks of ''the wondrous beauty
of its domes with their oriental form and
color, blue with golden stars, lifting them
selves above the towers and spires like
azure blossoms unfolding in ethereal air."
While the Russian monasteries have lost
most Of their lands, they still retain the
valuable gifts which have accumulated
in their treasures through the centuries.
Nothing in Italy or Spain can give an idea
of such gorgeousness. The shrnes of
saints and the ikonostas screens are cased
in gold and silver; the ikons, the vest
ments, and the sacred vessels are re-
splendent with pearls and precious stones.
At Troitza a museum has been formed of
all these magnificent gifts, which are never
| used, jewels, precious vessels, textile
woven of gold and pearls, a museum I'M
rivaled in Europe, not to speak of I'M
mounted pearls and gems, heaps of which
| are kept in the cellars. These treasures
belongs to the ikons and the saints. The
monks are only the keepers and live poor
| in the midst of them. They receive some
| support from the government, but they
! depend largely upon the income from the
| sale of ikons, candles, crosses, and a mi
| working ikon that goes forth each
year on progresses through the surround
ing country. The Iberin Virgin from
| Troitza frequently goes to visit the sick
| at their homes, and has carriages and
horses for the purpose. She brings from
100000 to $4,000 rubles a year.
| The black clergy saw that the best way
| of defending their revenues would be to
I make noble use of them, and they have
founded schools, orphanages and hospi-
| tails.
| During the Tartar dominion the Russian
clergy showed themselves the deliveries Of
| their country. The name of the holy her
| nit, Sergius, the founder of Troitza, is as
| dear to every Russian heart as William
| Tell to a Swiss or Joan of Arc to a French
| man. When the heart of the Grand
| fIlnce OenleII1uS ldllGu IN MS advance
! against the Tartars, it was the remon-
STRANGE, the blessing, the prayers of Ser
| gius that supported him to the field of
| battle on the Don, and no historical pic
| ture of Russia is more frequent than that
| which represents the youthful warrior re-
ceiving the benediction of the aged her
| NIT. Again in the struggle with the Poles
| it was the church that saved the empire,
and the monastery of Sergius that saved
| them both. The dynasty of Ruric had come
| to an end, the mobiles proved unequal to
the conflict, and Moscow was in the
| hands of the Poles. Latin services were
| chanted in the Kremlin, organs were
| heard in the patriarchial church, anarchy
spread through the country, but Trinity
| convent still remained erect, its warlike
| traditions revived in the persons of its
soldier-like monks.
| As Demetrius of the Don had received
| his blessing from Sergius, so the true pa
| triots of this second struggle received their
| mission from the successor of Sergius, the
| courageous Dionysius. The convent was
| for the time the whole empire and it's vic
| tory was the deliverance of Russia. Mos
| cow was retaken, and the Reedemer's
| gate, the chief entrance to the Kremlin,
| through which no Russian, not even the
the emperor himself, will presume, through
| which no stranger is allowed to pass with
! his head covered, has been looked upon
| with generation from that epoch. The pic
| Jure OF Lne tteueeIneF, winch hangs over
| the gate, is that which went before the
| victorious army when it set forth at the
| bidding of Dionysius The very existence
| of the present imperial dynasty is a liv-
| ing tribute to the services of the Russian
| hierarchy in this struggle. Philaret, the
| archbishop of Rostoff, had maintained the
| sinking spirit of the people till he was
| carried off into captivity, and his son.
Michael Romanoff. became the founder of
the house of Romanoff, the ancestor of
| Peter and Alexander and Nicholas
| The Russian monasteries are all of one
order, that of ST. Basil, bishop of Cesa-
rea who lived In the middle of the fourth
century. In his youth. when a student at
| Athens he was Immediately associated
with Gregory of Nazianzen. The two