Location: 20 km (12.5 mi) East of Lake Ladoga, Leningrad Oblast Map
Found: 1487 by monk Alexander
Alexander-Svirsky Monastery (Александро-Свирский монастырь) is a Russian Orthodox monastery situated 20 km (12.5 mi) East of Lake Ladoga in Leningrad Oblast in Northwest Russia. It was found in 1487 by monk Alexander. Alexander-Svirsky Monastery was founded in 1487 by a monk named Alexander Svirsky who came here from Valaam Monastery. He chose this site as a missionary outpost as it was inhabited by pagan tribes like karels, veps, tschudi and many others. Legend claims that here he had a vision of Holy Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Ghost) who ordered him to construct two chapels. One was dedicated to the Holy Trinity and other one was dedicated to the Savior's Transfiguration. It is considered to be the beginning of Alexander-Svirsky Monastery named after his founder. Two cloisters began to grow as new monks began to flock to the area to join holy father in his prayers. These were two separate formations that were united by a road along the monastery lake. Alexander Svirsky died on August 1533 and was buried by his disciples in the cloister of Transfiguration where generations of subsequent brethren were laid to rest.
The monastery was founded by St. Alexander Svirsky at the end of the
15th century in the sparsely populated forest Olonets region among the
settlements of pagan peoples - Karelians, Vepsians, Chuds. Soon
Alexander Svirsky had students. Even during the life of the founder, the
monastery developed as two interconnected, but independently located
complexes (branches): Trinity with fraternal cells and Preobrazhensky -
next to the cemetery. They are connected by a road that runs along the
lake.
The small stone Intercession Church with a refectory in the
Trinity part is the most ancient structure of the monastery. It was
built with the participation of Alexander Svirsky himself in 1533 with
donations from Tsar Vasily III.
From the middle of the 17th
century, the Vvedeno-Oyatsky Monastery was attached to the monastery.
In 1764-1786, the Trinity branch of the monastery served as the
residence of the bishops of Olonets and Kargopol, vicars of the Novgorod
diocese.
In 1802, at the request of the abbot of the monastery,
Archimandrite Joseph, with the highest permission of Metropolitan
Ambrose of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, a two-class Svir (Olonets)
theological school was established at the monastery to teach children of
clergy. The school was located in the monastery building. Full monastic
content was provided for teachers and students who were simultaneously
among the novices of the monastery. In 1856, the number of students was
48 people. In July 1870, by the Decree of the Holy Synod, the
theological school was closed and merged with the Petrozavodsk
theological school.
Since 1873, the abbotship of the Svir
Monastery was given to the Bishops of Olonets and Petrozavodsk, and a
governorship was established in the monastery. Since 1890, the monastery
was again made independent and cenobitic with a special
rector-archimandrite.
In 1900, a chapel was built in the
monastery in memory of the miraculous deliverance from the death of the
emperor and his family during the collapse of the imperial train.
In the autumn of 1918, the monastery was captured and plundered by
the Chekists, and its rector, Archimandrite Yevgeny (Trofimov), was shot
in the town of Olonets. In 1919, the monastery was captured by the White
Finns, but it was liberated as a result of the Vidlitsa operation.
During the years of Soviet power, the cloisters were used as
children's and disabled homes. For some time, a technical school was
located in the monastery, and from 1953 to 2009, the Svir Psychiatric
Hospital was located in the Trinity Complex.
The restoration of
the monastery began in 1997. In August 2020, the production company
Stavros from St. Petersburg made carvings for decorating icon cases for
the monastery. Elegant semi-columns in the form of bunches and leaves of
grapes, crowned with baroque capitals - models taken from the Stavros
catalog. Other decorative details were designed and made "to order"
according to the provided project.
The masters of the Stavros
factory did the turnkey work: they made all the elements from solid
beech and finished with 22.5 carat gold leaf with a polished metal
effect. The installation was carried out at night so as not to interrupt
the daytime services.
In 2012, with the blessing of Bishop
Mstislav of Tikhvin and Lodeynopol, the Festive Episcopal Choir was
created. It consists of graduates of higher musical institutions of the
CIS countries. Among the compositions performed: ancient Byzantine
chants and znamenny chants, liturgical music of the 19th-20th centuries,
Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian folk songs.
The courtyard of
the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery, as of 2015, is located in the Veseloy
Settlement of the Nevsky District of St. Petersburg.