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Reconstructing the ‘Sacred Canopy’: Mother Serafima and Novodevichy Monastery
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 January 2008
Abstract
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Orthodox Church and the Russian government have sought to restore monasteries, viewing them as key institutions in the regeneration of religion. Novodevichy Monastery in Moscow has historically been one of Russia's most important religious centres and its most famous monastery for women. Returned to the Church in 1994, Novodevichy was administered by Mother Serafima, a remarkable woman whose life covered most of the twentieth century. In reconstructing monastic life, she placed charity at the centre of her endeavours. In her struggles and her efforts to rebuild the ‘sacred canopy’ at Novodevichy is depicted, in microcosmic form, Russia's own quest to recover its heritage and redefine its identity.
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References
1 Evgeniia Petrova (ed.), Russian monasteries: art and traditions, St Petersburg 1997, 29. This paragraph relies heavily on Petrova's introductory commentary.
2 V. V. Rozanov, quoted ibid. 5. For the contributions of monasteries to the national life of Russia see Evgenii Evstigneevich Golubinskii, Istoriia russkoi tserkvi, Moscow 1901–17, which deals with early Russia into the sixteenth century; Vasilli Osipovich Kliuchevskii, O nravstvennosti i russkoi kul'ture, Moscow 1998, 104–8; Ernst Benz, The Eastern Orthodox Church: its thought and life, trans. Richard Winston and Clara Winston, Garden City, NY 1963, 85–102; and Vasilii Vasilevich Zverinskii, Material dlia istoriko-topograficheskogo issledovaniia o pravoslavnykh monastyriakh v Rossiiskoi imperii, St Petersburg 1890–7. For the Soviet government's treatment of monasteries see Charles Timberlake, The fate of Russian Orthodox monasteries and convents since 1917, Seattle 1995, and Jennifer Jean Wynot, Keeping the faith: Russian Orthodox monasticism in the Soviet Union, 1917–1939, College Station, Tx 2004. Since 1991 a large number of works have appeared dealing with church architecture, art and earlier monastic life. See especially S. B. Bakhmustov and others, Russkie monastyri: Sredniaia i Nizhniaia Volga: Kazanskaia, Saranskaia, Simbirskaia, Samarskaia, Saratovskaia, Volgogradskaia, Astrakhanskaia eparkhii, Moscow 2004; T. N. Manushina and S. V. Nikolaeva (comps), Troitse-Sergieva lavra v istorii, kul'ture i dukhovnoi zhizni Rossii: materialy III Mezhdunarodnoi konferentsii, 25–7 September 2002, Sergiev Posad 2004; A. A. Tenetkina (comp.), Suzdal'skii Spaso-Evfimiev monastyr’ v istorii i kul'ture Rossii (K 650-letiiu osnovaniia monastyria): materialy nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii, Vladimir-Suzdal’ 2003; and A. A. Antonov and others, Russkie monastyri. Sever i Severo-Zapad Rossii: Pskovskaia, Novgorodskaia, Sankt-Peterburgskaia, Vologodskaia, Petrozavodskaia, Syktyvkarskaia, Arkhangel'skaia, Murmanskaia eparkhii, Moscow 2001.
3 Boris Pilnyak, quoted in Donald Nicholl, Triumphs of the spirit in Russia, London 1997, 213–14.
4 Peter L. Berger, The social reality of religion, London 1973, 13–25, 38–60 (first publ. as The sacred canopy: elements of a sociological theory of religion, Garden City, NY 1967). See also his ‘Religion and the west’, The National Interest, no. 80 (Summer 2005), 112–19; ‘Globalization and religion’, Hedgehog Review iv/2 (Summer 2002), 13–14; A far glory: the quest for faith in an age of credulity, New York 1993; and ‘Epistemological modesty: an interview with Peter Berger’, Christian Century, 29 Oct. 1997, 972–8.
5 Idem, Social reality of religion, 33.
6 I owe a large debt of gratitude to Evgeniia Viktorovna Ivanova, who introduced me to Mother Serafima, and to Vladimir and Vera Salov, who participated with me in the first extensive interview with her.
7 Irina Gavrilovna Borisenko, Novodevichii Monastyr’, 2nd edn, Moscow 2005, 10.
8 Ibid. 12–14.
9 This is quoted in ‘A cloister resplendent and divinely decorated’ (guidebook to exhibition in celebration of the 480th anniversary of the founding of Novodevichy Convent), Moscow 2004, 3.
10 Ibid. 16, 18.
11 Ibid. 20; Igor’ Bychkov, ‘Novodevichii monastyr’ i predstaviteli tsarskikh semei v nem’, in V. L. Egorov (ed.), Novodevichii monastyr’ v russkoi kul'ture: materialy nauchnoi konferentsii 1995 g., Moscow 2001, 53; Lev Vladimirovich Tsiurik, Novodevichii monastyr’: al'bom putevoditel’, Moscow 1970, 4–6.
12 Repin's painting, ‘Tsarevna Sophia in the New Maiden Convent at the time of the execution of the Streltsy and the torture of all her servants in 1698’, is displayed in the Tretiakov gallery.
13 ‘A cloister resplendent and divinely decorated’, 33.
14 Ibid. 14.
15 Borisenko, Novodevichii Monastyr’, 89.
16 Ibid. 68. The changes in artistic style that took place among master painters of the Armoury and the movement to other churches and buildings outside the court in the last third of the seventeenth century is well described by A. A. Pavlenko, ‘Zhivopisnoe i ikonopisnoe delo v Oruzheinoi palate vo vtoroi polovine XVII v.’, in Egorov, Novodevichii monastyr’ v russkoi kul'ture, 188–205.
17 Petr Grigorievich Palamarchuk, Sorok sorokov: Al'bom-ukazatel’ vsekh moskovskikh tserkov v chetyrekh tomakh, ed. S. Zvonarev, Paris 1988–90, i. 205–8; Leonid Ivanovich Denisov, Polnyi spisok vsiekh 1105 nynie sushchestvuishchikh v 75 guberniiakh i oblastiakh Rossii (i 2 inostrannykh gosudarstvakh) muzhskikh i zhenskikh monastyrei arkhiereiskikh domov i zhenskikh obshchin, Moscow 1908, 499–503; Ivan Alekseevich Snegirev, Moskva: Podrobnoe istoricheskoe i arkheologicheskoe opisanie goroda, 2nd edn, Moscow 1875, i. 8; Karl Baedeker, Russia, with Teheran, Port Arthur, and Peking: handbook for travelers, Leipzig 1914, 307; Ivan Myachin and Vladimir Chernov, Moscow, Moscow 1967, 202–3; G. G. Antipin, Khudozhestvennye nadgrobiia, 1914–1969, Moscow 1970, 9–11.
18 Inside the monastery are also buried members of the distinguished Solov'ev family: Sergei Mikhailovich Solov'ev (one of Russia's greatest historians and professor at Moscow University); his son, the philosopher Vladimir Sergeevich Solov'ev; his daughter, the poet Poliksena Sergeevna Solov'eva; and another son, the historical novelist Vsevolod Sergeevich Solov'ev. In the basement of the Smolensk Cathedral are buried seven female members of families of the tsars: three relatives of Ivan iv and four of Aleksei Mikhailovich. The latter include Aleksei's daughters Sophia (d. 1704), Evdokiia (d. 1712) and Ekaterina (d. 1718), and his daughter-in-law, Evdokiia Fedorovna Lopukhina (d. 1731), the first wife of Peter the Great. See Shlionskaia's, A. I. study of these burial sites, ‘Tsarskie grobnitsy v Novodevich'em monastyre’, in Egorov, Novodevichii monastyr’ v russkoi kul'ture, 94–113Google Scholar.
19 Mashkov, Arkhitektura, 5–9; Vasilii Vasil'evich Zverinskii (comp.), Statisticheskii vremennik rossiiskoi imperii, III/18: Monastyri v rossiiskoi imperii, St Petersburg 1887, 42–3. Men's monasteries listed in the first class included Donskoi, Novospasskii, Simonov and Chudnov (in the Kremlin).
20 Borisenko, Novodevichii Monastyr’, 26. The Lopukhin Palace was also the home of Iuvenali, Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna.
21 The last such appointment had been in 1919 with the naming of Mother Superior Vera (Pobedimskaia), the daughter of government advisor Pavel Ivanovich Pobedimskii, who was an investigator of the Moscow circuit court. In 1922 the monastery was reorganised and became a museum; Mother Vera died in February 1949 and is buried in the Danilovkii monastery: N. F. Trutneva, ‘Igumenii Moskovskovo Novodevich'ego monastyria [1525–1920 gg.]’, in Egorov, Novodevichii monastyr’ v russkoi kul'ture, 66–8.
22 The biographical facts relating to her tonsure and appointment are taken from Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk, ‘In memory of Hegumeniia Seraphima (Chernaia)’, archived at http://www.russian-orthodox-church.org.ru/ne912233.htm, accessed on 28 August 2001, 2.
23 Nicholl, Triumphs of the spirit, 18. Nicholl presents an extremely engaging picture of St Serafim (1758–1833), the daring, creative starets of the Sarov monastery, whose life and teachings centrally involved the resurrection.
24 These facts about the monastery's existence since World War II are summarised by Aleksandr Shkurko, director of the State History Museum, in his forward to ‘A cloister resplendent and divinely decorated’, 2.
25 Leonid Mikhailovich Chichagov (1856–1937) was one of the leaders of the campaign to canonise Serafim of Sarov. In the late nineteenth century, his publication of the personal testimonies of Serafim's associates and friends told the story of Serafim's ministry and his contributions to the life of the Church. After taking monastic vows in 1898, Leonid Mikhailovich assumed the name of Serafim in honour of his illustrious predecessor. His collection of materials prepared for the synodial investigation into the sanctity of the elder of Sarov played a key role in the subsequent canonisation in 1903. Chichagov's efforts and their significance are recounted by Robert L. Nichols, ‘The friends of God: Nicholas ii and Alexandra at the canonisation of Serafim of Sarov, July 1903’, in Charles E. Timberlake (ed.), Religions and secular forces in late Tsarist Russia: essays in honor of Donald W. Treadgold, Seattle–London 1992, 206–29. More than ninety years later Mother Serafima would play a similar role to that of her grandfather; her collection and publication of materials on his sanctity resulted in Leonid Mikhailovich's canonisation in February 1997: Maksim Shevchenko, ‘Kanonizatsiia Nikolai Romanov ne sostoialas'’, Nezavisimaia gazeta, 20 Feb. 1997, and Varvara Vasilevna Chichagova, ‘Premechaniia’, in Leonid Mikhailovich Chichagov, Dnevnik prebyvaniia Tsaria-Osvobitelia v Dunaiskoi armii v 1877 godu, St Petersburg 1995, 32–3.
26 Mother Serafima, interview with author, Moscow, 3 June 1995.
27 Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, trans. Max Hayward and Manya Harari, intro. John Bayley, New York 1958, 195.
28 In describing her life before she became a nun, I use Mother Serafima's given name, Varvara Vasilevna Chichagova.
29 Sheila Fitzpatrick, Tear off the masks! Identity and imposture in twentieth-century Russia, Princeton 2005.
30 Ibid. 3.
31 In 1937 Varvara Vasilevna began work at the Military Technical Academy, which was under the supervision of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Organic Chemistry.
32 The story of her attempts to reconnect with her grandfather is recounted in detail in Daniel, The Orthodox Church.
33 In 1939 Mother Serafima graduated from the Moscow Institute of Fine Chemical Technology, after which she began work with the Rubber Plant in Moscow. In 1942 she was named deputy chief engineer of the plant and would remain there until 1946, when she was transferred to the Rubber Industry Institute and given a research assignment: Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk, ‘In memory of Hegumeniia Seraphima (Chernaia)’, 1–2.
34 Mother Serafima, interview with author, Moscow, 3 June 1995.
35 Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk, ‘In memory of Hegumeniia Seraphima (Chernaia)’.
36 Mother Serafima, interview with author, Moscow, 3 June 1995.
37 Nathaniel Davis, A long walk to church: a contemporary history of Russian Orthodoxy, 2nd edn, Boulder, Col 2003, 168.
38 Mother Serafima, interview with author, Moscow, 23 June 1997.
39 Ibid.
40 Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk, ‘In memory of Hegumeniia Seraphima (Chernaia)’.
41 Mother Serafima, interview with author, Moscow, 3 June 1995.
42 Mother Serafima, interview with author, Moscow, 23 June 1997.
43 Ibid.
44 A. I. Muzykanskii had served as a the chairman of Boris Yeltsin's first electoral campaign in 1990–1, and he had remained close to the Russian president since then, later holding several high-ranking positions in the Moscow administration, including city prefect.
45 Mother Serafima, interview with author, Moscow, 23 June 1997.
46 Ibid.
47 Ibid. Arriving at the monastery at 6.15 a.m., the women prayed without the presence of a priest until 8.00; they then went to the cathedral for the morning service. Following it, some of the women went to prepare food, others to engage in various duties; next they served lunch, and afterwards their service continued in diverse kinds of activities. At 5.00 they came again to the cathedral for the evening service, then around 8.00 they gathered outside the cathedral for a walk through the monastery. After this walk they returned to the cathedral, concluding the day with prayer, which lasted about two and a half hours.
48 Ibid.
49 For useful discussions of miloserdie and its central importance in Orthodox Christianity, as well as its treatment by the Soviet government, see Michael Bourdeaux, Gorbachev, Glasnost and the Gospel, London 1990, 189–93, and Mikhail Petrovich Mchedlov and others, Miloserdie, Moscow 1996, esp. pp. 42–69.
50 These points are extremely well made by the writer Daniil Granin in his article, ‘O miloserdii’, Literaturnaia gazeta, no. 12, 18 Mar. 1987, 13.
51 Igumeniia Serafima, ‘Istoriia i razvitie monasheskoi zhizni v zhenskikh monastyriakh’, in Egorov, Novodevichii monastyr’ v russkoi kul'ture, 19.
52 Iuvenali, Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna, quoted ibid. 18. The term Metropolitan Iuvenali used for letting the sprit of God flow through one's entire being is podvig, a traditional Russian term meaning surrendering oneself to God. As a model of miloserdie, Mother Serafima cited the Marfo-Marinskaia cloister founded in Moscow in 1910 by Mother Superior Elizaveta Fedorovna. The nuns in the cloister took a vow of service to the sick and the poor. More than forty nuns served in the cloister, working in a hospital for poor women, setting up a field hospital for wounded soldiers, establishing an outpatients' department in the hospital that distributed free medicine, and creating two almshouses in Moscow, a training shelter for disadvantaged young women, and a library which gave free books to anyone who wanted them. Such acts of service Mother Serafima very much admired and wanted to develop (ibid. 19).
53 Serafim, Arkhiepiskop Tverskoi eparkhii, O vozrozhdenii prikhodskoi zhizni. Obrashchenie k dukhovenstvu Tverskoi eparkhii, Petrograd 1916, 102–4.
54 Mother Serafima, interview with author, Moscow, 23 June 1997.
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.
57 Nikolai Feodorovich Fedorov (1828–1903), ‘The restoration of kinship among mankind’, in Alexander Schmemann (ed.), Ultimate questions: an anthology of modern Russian religious thought, Crestwood, NY 1977, 175–223.
58 Ibid. 223.
59 See, for example, Robert Kaiser, Russia: the people and the power, New York 1976, 270–1, and Michael Radu, ‘The burden of eastern Orthodoxy’, Orbis xlii/2 (Spring 1998), 283–318.
60 Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk, ‘In memory of Hegumeniia Serafima (Chernaia)’.
61 Quoted in Aleksandr Men', ‘Dva ponimaniia khristianstva’, in Radostnaia vest’, Moscow 1992, repr. and trans. into English as ‘Two understandings of Christianity’, in Elizabeth Roberts and Ann Shukman (eds), Christianity for the twenty-first century: the life and work of Alexander Men, London 1996, 158.
62 Mother Serafima, interview with author, Moscow, 23 June 1997.
63 Francis Fukuyama, Trust: the social virtues and the creation of prosperity, New York 1995, 4.
64 Ibid. 4–5.
65 See the very interesting article by Alena Ledeneva, ‘The genealogy of Krugovaya Poruka: forced trust as a feature of Russian political culture’, Proceedings of the British Academy cxxiii (2004), 85–108.
66 Peter L. Berger, ‘The desecularization of the world: a global overview’, in Peter L. Berger (ed.), The desecularization of the world: resurgent religion and world politics, Grand Rapids, Mi 1999, 3.
67 Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk, ‘In memory of Hegumeniia Serafima (Chernaia)’, 3. See also N. F. Trubetskoi, ‘Igumenii Moskovskogo Novodevich'ego monastyria (1525–1920 gg.)’, in Egorov, Novodevichii monastyr' v russkoi kul'ture, 57–8, 67.
68 Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk, ‘In memory of Hegumeniia Serafima (Chernaia)’, 3.
69 Dr Irina Glushkova, Institute of Oriental Studies, conversation with author, Moscow, 23 Oct. 2005.