The Patriarch Nikon’s Museum in the New Jerusalem Monastery on the 145th Anniversary of Its Foundation

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the history of the Museum of His Holiness Patriarch Nikon, founded in 1874 in the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery as well as the history of the revival of the museum in a new quality, which became part of the restoration program of the New Jerusalem Monastery. The role of the organizer of the museum, archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin) (1822–1891), the abbot of the monastery in 1869–1877, an outstanding Russian historian, the Resurrection Monastery historiographer, a collector of its antiquities and a researcher of its archives, is considered. Also, it is said about the experience of forming a collection of the new Patriarch Nikon’s Museum implementing historical-chronological, artistic-figurative, memorial, thematic and ensemble principles of the collection.

Anew quality restoration done in the monastery museum should emphasize the memorial importance of the monastery as a phenomenon of Russian church archeology of the XIX century. The exposition located in the museum halls should create a rich informational and visual basis, have a deep emotional impact in the visitor’s memory, provide food for spiritual development and material for general reflection on the fate of the Holy Chrisitan Places, establish parallels in the life of Russia and the Holy Land, mark an enormous contribution of Patriarch Nikon in the construction of a magnificent building of the Russian Orthodox Church and the nascent Russian Empire.