New Athos and Drandsky the monasteries: spiritual opposition to the godless authorities in 1918

Abstract

The publication presents memoranda, 1918, his Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, Tikhon, Bishop of Sukhumi Sergei (Petrov), rector of the new Athos of St. Simon the Canaanite monastery Archimandrite Hilarion, and report to the Bishop of Sukhumi Sergei (Petrov) from the Governor Gradskogo Holy assumption monastery of the Sukhumi eparchy Abbot Iliana. The originals of the published documents are stored in the Historical archive of the Federal security service, the “Investigation” of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Tikhon (Belavin), the volume of evidence. They reveal the status of these Russian monasteries in the Caucasus in 1918, when there was a severe struggle for power between the various parties, and communicate the feat of prayer of monks, their spiritual power. The publication is preceded by an introduction, which presents the history and construction of these monasteries, and their position on the eve of the 1917 revolution, commented on the situation in Transcaucasia in 1918 and described the further events of persecution and repression after the closure of the monasteries, until Khrushchev’s “thaw” confirming spiritual vitality, lived in them, of monks. Also highlight the situation in these monasteries after the collapse of the Soviet Union until the present day.