Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1904-04-15
Especial Correspondence

(SpeCldl COI
On the crest of a range of wooded
hills that overlook the Dneiper there
rise the gilded, green and azure domes
of the Lavra of Petchersk. The Lavra
is the oldest of existing Russian mon
asteries, for, it's origin must be sought
in the dim dawn of Russian history,
and it is also the most famous, for 1t
is visited by no fewer than 10000
pilgrims every year. Surrounded by
white battlemented wall, raised by
the Cossack Mazeppa to protect its
monks against the Turks, it occupies
the hills on either side of deep ra-
vine, and is really town in itself,
with it's thirty churches, its streets,
it's avenues, its yards, its gardens, its
hospitals, its lazar house, it's shops,
inns, and innumerable gren-roofed
buildings, where pilgrims are glad to
lodge. and where even Expresses
have stayed.
Toward the end OF a long road,
where the moujik stops every fifty
yards to cross himself before some
shrine, and where the churches fol-
low one another in quick succession,
there begins a double line Of stalls,
with ornamented woodwork, where
countless trinketS are sold, such as
rings and brooches, embroidery pro-
duced during the long winter by the
def fingers of the Little Russian
women, Jumps of incense, Testaments
in modern Russian, wooden cups and
spoons adorned with a view of the
monastery, and cheap chromolitho-
graphs of other Russian monasteries,
but especially of Jerusalem and the
Holy Land, till at length there appears
a gateway, surmounted by church
with gilded cupolas, and indescrib-
ably gay and pleasing owing to the
frescoes in deep color on the white
washed walls. In the tunneled pas
sage underneath sits an aged monk
in threadbare cassock and rimless
hat, who sprinkles with holy water
those who enter while close by, as IL
to enhance the dignity of his Office,
there hangs picture of famous
predecessor of his, st. Nicholas OF
Tchernigow, who in the troubled Mid
die Ages laid down his crown and
sceptre so that he might become a
doorkeeper of the church of this mon
astery.
Beyond the gateway are two lines
of cells, one-storied, that converge on
either side of an avenue of chestnut
trees upon a square, in the center of
which there is church. Built in
what, for want of better name, may
be called the ByZantine-rococo style, it
also has white walls. gay with fres-
Goes, and on the battlements are
metal sun disks, surrounding the
gilded domes that form the roof and
flash so radiantly against the deep
blue of the Little Russian sky. The
church is comparatively modern, for
few buildings of this sort in Russia
are proof against the ravages of eli
mate or of fire, but it contains an icon
with which every Russian child makes
at least acquaintance as soon as he
begins to study the pages of read
ing book. 1t is placed above the
royal doors" of the iconostasis, where
every one can see it, and is supposed
to represent the death or rather the
Assumption of the Virgin, who lies
upon a bed, at either end of which
the Apostles stand, while at the CEN
ter of the bed her Son receives her
soul in the form of little child. This
picture. which is in old Byzantine
style, is said to have been brought
from heaven by an angel, who gave it
to the Greek artists who left Constan-
tinople in the eleventh century to help
the newly converted Russians to build
church that was worthy Of the
name. However that may be, 1t is
certainly remarkable that It has con-
tinued to exist for so many centuries,