Orthodoxy Center in the Russian North

Monastery by the lake

After we finished exploring the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, we went to a monastery located not far from Ferapontov.

The full name of this monastery is Ferapontov Belozersky Bogoroditsa-Christmas Monastery. This is a working monastery of the Vologda diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The monastery is located in the village of Ferapontovo, Kirillovsky district, Vologda region. For 400 years, the monastery was one of the most important cultural and religious educational centers of the Belozersky Territory.

Ferapontov Belozersky Nativity of the Virgin Mary Monastery was founded at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries, during the period of expanding political influence of the Moscow Grand Duchy.

The history of Ferapontov’s Belozersky Nativity of the Virgin Mary’s monastery, founded at the end of the 14th century, is closely connected with the historical events of the 15th and 17th centuries: the capture and blinding of the Great Prince Vasily II the Dark, the assertion of the authority of the first “sovereign of all Russia” Ivan III, the birth and rule of the first Russian Tsar Ivan IV, the formation of the Romanov dynasty, exiled by Patriarch Nikon.

In the second half of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries the Ferapontov Monastery became a significant spiritual, cultural and ideological center of Belozerya, one of the famous Trans-Volga monasteries, whose elders had a serious influence on Moscow’s policy.

The whole XVI century is the heyday of the monastery. This is evidenced by the preserved letters of contribution and secular and secular authorities, especially Ivan IV. Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya, Ivan IV, come to the monastery on a pilgrimage. The monastery’s contribution book, begun in 1534, names princes Staritsky, Kubensky, Lykov, Belsky, Shuisky, Vorotynsky, Godunov, Sheremetevs and others among the depositors. It also mentions the lords of Siberia, Rostov, Vologda, Belozersky, Novgorod.

In 1490, with the construction by the Rostov masters of the first stone church of Belozerye, the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin, the formation of the stone ensemble of the Ferapontov Monastery of the XV - XVII centuries began. In the XVI century. in the monastery, the monumental church of the Annunciation is being built with a refectory, a state chamber, office buildings - a stone dryer, a guest chamber, a cookery. Having recovered after the Lithuanian ruin, in the middle of the XVII century. the monastery erects gate churches on the Holy Gates, the Martinian church, the bell tower.

The frescoes of one of the most famous painters of ancient Russia have been preserved in the monastery. The name of this artist is Dionysius.

Dionysius is an outstanding icon painter, the most revered artist of Russia of the late XV - early XVI centuries, a contemporary of Raphael, Leonardo, Botticelli, Durer.

The frescoes of Dionysius in the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin of the Ferapontov Monastery (1490) was unknown until 1898. Dionysius painted the cathedral in 1502 with his sons Vladimir and Theodosius in 34 days.

Ferapontovskie murals are not a classic mural, they are made in the technique of multi-layer painting. The mural area of ​​the cathedral is about 600 square meters. m. The murals of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin, with more than 300 plots and images of individual characters, cover all surfaces of walls, vaults, pillars, window and door slopes. The sizes and proportions of the compositions of Dionysius are subordinate to the architectural divisions of the cathedral, organically connected to the interior of the temple and the surfaces of the walls. Grace and lightness of the picture, elongated silhouettes that emphasize the weightlessness of “soaring” figures, as well as exquisite paints emitting an unearthly light and a unique tonal richness of colors and shades, determine the uniqueness of Ferapont painting.

The frescoes of the Ferapontov Monastery are united by the common theme of the glorification of the Virgin Mary, headed by the Akathist of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is a picturesque embodiment of poetic hymns written by the Byzantine poet Roman Sladkopevts in the VI century. The desire to glorify the Mother of God in this way was introduced into the work of Dionysius by the Orthodox tradition. Murals adorn not only the interior, but also the facade of the temple, which depicts the plot - "The Nativity of the Virgin." The theme of the glorification of the Virgin is not accidentally chosen as the basis of the painting system. At the end of the 15th century, the Mother of God began to be regarded as the patroness of the Russian land.

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