ОСВИДЕТЕЛЬСТВОВАНИЕ ГРОБНИЦ МЕСТНОЧТИМЫХ СВЯТЫХ ОЛОНЕЦКОГО УЕЗДА В ПЕТРОВСКУЮ ЭПОХУ
EXAMINATION OF THE TOMBS OF THE LOCALLY VENERATED SAINTS IN THE OLONETS UYEZD DURING THE PETRINE ERA

Summary/Abstract: The author uses new archival documents for a first-of-its-kind study of the official examination of the tombs and burial places of the locally venerated saints of the Olonets uyezd in 1721 and 1722 conducted by Archimandrite Kirill, the rector of the Alexander Svirsky Monastery, under the synodal decree. The identified written sources contain important information about how Peter the Great’s church innovations were implemented at the local level. New laws on “non-attested coffins” adopted in the first quarter of the XVIII century violated the pious traditions of venerating local shrines of numerous Russian monasteries and did not allow diocesan bishops to glorify new ascetics. It turns out that the bone remains discovered during the 1721 and 1722 excavations in the monasteries were not perceived as “imperishable remains” by those conducting the examination. The memorial temples mentioned in the documents, which stood over the graves of the founders of the monasteries, the prayers and hagiographic texts compiled in their honor, as well as the existing icons with the images of ascetics confirm the fact that the local tradition of commemorating the founders of the Zadnyaya Nikiforova, Andrusova and Syandemskaya hermitages of the Olonets Uyezd had been established by the beginning of the 1720s.

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