Olenevsky Skit — an Old Believer monastic skit (skete) located 24 km southeast of Semyonov in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. According to tradition, it was founded in the 15th century and is considered one of the oldest skits of the Kerzhenets region. It survived as a monastic settlement until the 1850s; the village of Bolshoye Olenevo in Semyonovsky District arose on its site.[1]
Founding and Legend
According to tradition, the skit was founded by monks from Zheltovodsky Monastery, which had been destroyed by Khan Ulu-Muhammad; these monks accompanied the Venerable Makary of Zheltye Vody and Unzha on his journey from Zheltye Vody to Unzha. It was here, in answer to the saint's prayers, that a deer appeared to the hungry travelers — and this is the origin of the skit's name.[2] The hermits of Olenevo did not accept the Nikonian reforms and the correction of liturgical books; like-minded people flocked to them from various places, and around Olenevo they founded the Kerzhenets and Chernoramensk skits.[1]
The skit was of the fugitive-priest (bегlopopovtsy) persuasion: its inhabitants accepted the teachings of Archpriest Avvakum and all his writings, including the "Epistle to the Servants of Christ," which permitted the reception of runaway priests from the Church, as well as the teaching of Sofontiy — the first fugitive priest.[1]
History and Flourishing
After the "Pitirim persecution" of the Old Believers (following 1737), only meager remnants of the skit survived. The situation changed after Catherine II's decree of October 16, 1762, which permitted persecuted Old Believers to return to Russia: the skit's population grew rapidly and it became one of the largest and most prominent on the Kerzhenets.[1] In the early 19th century the skit had 14 women's communities. By 1826 it had five chapels and nine prayer houses.[1]
By order of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Administration dated June 1, 1834, a geometric plan of the skit was drawn up indicating its communities and cells. At that time, 432 residents of both sexes lived in the skit; the plan marks six former cemeteries and one active one.[1] From 1838 onward the skit was referred to in official documents as a village, though it remained in practice an Old Believer monastery. In 1853 it had 18 communities of 2–8 persons each; in 1854 — one schema-nun and 48 nuns, as well as 17 "orphan" households of residents not belonging to the community, and eight prayer houses.[1]
Closure
In execution of Nicholas I's decree of 1 March 1853 ordering the dissolution of sketes in Semyonovsky Uyezd, the Nizhny Novgorod authorities directed that the Olenevsky skete's inhabitants ("up to 100 persons") be resettled to Ulangersky Skete. In his "Report on the Current State of the Schism," P. I. Melnikov insisted on prohibiting new construction for Old Believers not living as family units. Some of the skete's residents relocated to Semyonov in 1853–1854 and established communities in private town houses.[1] In reports on the state of the schism in Semyonovsky Uyezd for 1857, the skete is listed as "former"; however, the priests of Semyonov recorded in their reports that many of its former residents continued to live at their previous registered address.[1]
Connection with Literature and Pilgrimage
Two residents of the skete became prototypes for characters in Melnikov-Pechersky's novel In the Forests. The abbess of Anfisa's Convent, Mother Margarita — who maintained ties with Moscow Old Believers and exerted considerable moral influence on the people — served as the prototype for Mother Manefa; on the skete's cemetery, the grave of Sister Flena, the prototype for Flenushka, has been preserved. Anfisa's Convent was founded by Anfisa Kolycheva, a relative of Metropolitan Philip.[1]
Four ancient cemeteries containing the graves of martyrs formed the skete's principal shrine and remained a place of veneration through the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Even after the revolution, the Olenevsky community was visited by Mother Sofiya and Mother Kosiyaniya from Gorodets, the "Sasovo old women" Aksinya and Tatiana, and other pilgrims.[1]
Current State
On the site of the Olenevsky Skete, the village of Bolshoye Olenevo has developed — the only existing settlement in Semyonovsky District that arose directly on the site of former skete communities. The village's layout largely follows the street plan and arrangement of the communities, which were built according to the "staya" type: several log structures under a single roof, with a covered yard, storerooms, outbuildings, and living chambers. Some of the older houses have retained the characteristic skete floor plan.[2] Local residents point to the remains of three ancient cemeteries within the village; a fourth cemetery with the graves of nuns and novices lies half a kilometre to the northwest. The village's Old Believers have no prayer house of their own and hold services at the gravesites on major feast days. These shrines remain a place of pilgrimage for Old Believers from Semyonovsky District and other villages of Nizhny Novgorod Region.[2]
Sources
- irisk.me — Olenevsky Skete
- culttourism.ru — Olenevsky Skete — Semyonov — Cultural Tourism