Monastic Discipline in the Decisions of the 1909 First All-Russian Monastic Congress

Abstract

The article is devoted to the decisions of the First All-Russian Congress of Monastics concerning the life of Russian monasteries and monasticism. On the basis of archival data and other sources, the decisions of this congress concerning the discipline of monks are considered. After the difficult 18th century for Russian monasteries, monasticism in the 19th century gradually managed to recover from the consequences of the secular policy of the state. As a result, the beginning of the twentieth century was the time when monasteries and monasticism reached the peak of their material and numerical development during the entire period of their existence on the territory of historical Russia. At the same time, a number of internal problems that had to be corrected began to grow among the monks. All this considered, the need arose for an official discussion of such destructive phenomena in monasteries as: the fall of discipline, a low level of morality and drunkenness among the inhabitants. The first congress of monastics, at which topical issues were widely discussed, was the All-Russian Congress of 1909 which took place at the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra. A number of questions concerning monastic life and discipline became the subject of special discussion among the delegates of the Congress. The participants, realizing the problematic aspects of monastic life, looked for an opportunity to correct them. The main common vector of the participants was the desire to return to the original sources of the monastic tradition.