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The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

ISSN: 2658-7599 (print)
2713-3141 (online)

The Baltic Orthodox Brotherhood and its Role in the Organization of the Pyukhtitsa Women’s Commune

Archpriest Alexander Bertash, Ph.D. in Art History, Ph.D. in Theology, Rector of the Church of the Holy Royal Passion Bearers of the Russian Orthodox Church in Bremen and the parish of Holy Marter Vladimir of Moscow and St. Anastasia of Kiev in Bremerhaven, archivist of the Berlin-German Diocese, leading art critic of the “Liteynaya Tchast’–91” Architectural Bureau, member of the Russian Union of Architects (Bremen; St. Petersburg)
pp. 210–237
DOI: 10.25803/26587599_2021_39_210
This article, which is primarily based on new archival materials from the depositories of Tartu, St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Riga, is devoted to the previously little studied issue of the role of the Baltic Orthodox Brotherhood of Christ the Saviour and the Protection of the Mother of God (founded in 1882) in the organization of the Pyukhtitsa Women’s Commune of the Dormition (a monastery, since 1893). This monastery in eastern Estonia later became one of the most well-known in the Russian Orthodox Church. The specific activities of the Baltic Brotherhood, which was led by representatives of the capital’s elites, are considered in this article. The Brotherhood mainly built and equipped churches, monasteries and social institutions. Particular attention is paid to the activities of the Governor of Estonia, S. Shakhovsky, and his wife E. Shakhovskaya, who played a decisive role in the creation of the Ievven branch of the brotherhood (1887) and the Pyukhtitsa commune (1891) and their associated shelters, hospitals and educational institutions. The article notes the similarity between the goals and objectives (primarily social) of the Baltic brotherhoods (lay organizations) and women’s communes, in that both instances are cases of communities that occupied an intermediate position between the world and the monastery. For some time after 1917, the Ievven branch of the brotherhood played a significant role in the management of up to 13 of the monastery’s different charitable institution under the chairmanship of E. Shakhovskaya, having been transformed in 1919 into the Pyukhtitsa Guardian Brotherhood on the Mount of the Mother of God (Pyukhtitsa na bogoroditskoj gore popechiteljskoe bratstvo).
Keywords: Baltic Orthodox Brotherhood of Christ the Savior and the Protection of the Mother of God; Ievven branch of the Baltic Brotherhood; the spread of Ortho doxy in the Baltics in the second half of the 19th century; Pyukhtitsa Assumption Convent; church charity; the governor of Estonia, Prince S. Shakhovsky; Princess E. Shakhovskaya; Righteous St. John of Kronstadt; Abbess Varvara (Blokhin); Chairman of the Baltic Brotherhood, M. Galkin-Vrasky

Last Issue2024. Volume 16. Issue 3 (51)

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