The Holy Trinity Anthony-Siysky Monastery is a male monastery of
the Arkhangelsk diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, located on a
peninsula in Bolshoi Mikhailovsky Lake near the village of
Antonyevo-Siysky Monastery in the Kholmogory district.
It was
founded in 1520 by St. Anthony of Siysk and played a prominent role
in Russian history and culture in the 16th-17th centuries. An
architectural ensemble that finally took shape before the end of the
17th century.
It was founded in 1520 by the Monk Anthony, who, after leaving the
Sheleksensky Nikolskaya hermitage, settled here, in a completely
uninhabited place then with the monks Alexander, Isaiah and others with
the permission of Grand Duke Vasily III. The river Siya (a tributary of
the Dvina), flowing from the lake, gave the name to the monastery.
The policy of the monastic authorities led to the unrest of the
monastic peasants in 1577-1578 in the Antoniev-Siysky monastery, in
which the black peasants of the Yemetsky camp of the Dvinsky district
also took part.
In 1587, a letter came for the construction of a
stone cathedral, and due to the remoteness of the monastery and troubled
times, the work stretched over four reigns and took a total of 20 years.
At that time (from 1601 to 1605), the boyar Feodor Nikitich Romanov, the
father of the future tsar, who was exiled at the direction of Boris
Godunov and tonsured under the name of Filaret, was imprisoned here.
The Ivanovsky Yemetsky Monastery was attached to the monastery,
which existed until 1613 in the Kholmogory district, 180 km from
Arkhangelsk on the Yemtse River.
In pre-Petrine times, the Siysky
Monastery was one of the largest centers of spiritual life in the
Russian North. From the monastery book collection come such unique
manuscripts as the 16th-century Siysk gospel and illustrated calendars.
After the revolution, the old documents were confiscated from the monks
and transferred to the Arkhangelsk regional archive, from where they
were transported to Moscow in 1958 and 1966 (now to the RGADA).
By the end of the 18th century, the monastery fell into disrepair,
thanks to which the pre-Petrine buildings avoided the renovations common
at that time and, on the whole, retained their original appearance.
In 1858 Fyodor Verkhovtsev made a new reliquary for the relics of
the monk. It was consecrated on May 7, 1859 by Bishop Alexander.
The monastery was closed by the decision of the Yemetsky district
executive committee of June 12, 1923 and the decision of the presidium
of the Arkhangelsk provincial executive committee of July 11, 1923. The
territory was used for the needs of the labor commune, the collective
farm. It also housed a rest home for timber industry workers, a home for
disabled children, and a nursing home. Since the 1970s, there has been a
pioneer camp "Avtomobilist" for the children of employees of motor
transport enterprises in Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk, part of the
territory was given over to the dacha for the Arkhangelsk Regional
Executive Committee.
In 1992 the monastery was returned to the
Russian Orthodox Church. The restoration of the monastery began, which
was headed by the abbot, later Archimandrite Trifon (Plotnikov). On May
31, 2010, for health reasons, Archimandrite Tryphon was dismissed from
the post of abbot of the monastery.
The four-pillar, five-domed Trinity Cathedral was founded in 1589
according to the charter of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich dated November 8,
1587, completed on July 30, 1606 and consecrated the following year. In
the charter, it was ordered to put the temple "in the Resurrection
measure, in the Maiden's Monastery, which we have in Moscow," which was
to be monitored by the master Zakhar sent from the capital. In fact, the
construction was carried out by an artel of masons from Vologda. The
temple combines the techniques of Novgorod architecture (the
construction of vaults on low girth arches) and Moscow (arched links in
the western wall, a wide entablature below the zakomar). The middle dome
visually dominates over the small ones due to its size and decorative
design (arcature-columnar belt). Approximately 100 years after the
construction, the temple was covered by four slopes, at the same time
the shape of the central dome was changed.
The hipped
Annunciation Church, together with the refectory and Kelarsky chambers,
was founded in 1638 and built in five years on the site of a previously
existing wooden church. That the existing building repeats the
architectural design of the old church is evidenced by the attributes of
wooden temple architecture: a two-part altar, two miniature cupolas over
two thrones (lost), a tall tent on a medium-sized octagon. Probably, the
monastery bell tower was built at the same time as the refectory. It is
difficult to establish the exact date of its construction: the letter
for the beginning of work was issued in 1593 by Fyodor Ioannovich, and
the consecration took place only in 1661, during the reign of Alexei
Mikhailovich.
The Holy Gates with the Sergius Church and
two-story cells were built after a fire in 1658, between 1661 and 1687.
Finally, all the work was completed only in 1699. A record has been
preserved that later this architectural complex was rebuilt "with the
best architecture, with attached living rooms."
According to the All-Russian Population Census of 2010, the Antoniev-Siysky Monastery has the status of a village on the territory of the Yemetsky rural settlement, in which 62 people live.
The Holy Lake is located about ten kilometers from Mikhailovsky
towards the village of Yemetsk. On the steep bank of the Holy Lake there
is an ancient pagan temple, on the site of which an Orthodox cross has
been erected.
According to legend, one peasant, who had been ill
with leprosy or some other similar disease for a long time, was fishing
in this lake, dipped his feet into the water and suddenly felt healing
in his legs, and when he dipped, then in his whole body. At the place of
healing, he placed the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. Thanks to the
case of miraculous healing, the lake began to be called the Holy.