Talk:Konevsky Monastery
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An entry from Konevsky Monastery appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 22 September 2006. |
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An outdated but free image of the monastery grounds may be found in the Finnish article. --Ghirla -трёп- 10:44, 21 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Text from the Finnish Orthodox Church
The following text is pasted here from the article Finnish Orthodox Church. As the text overlapped with the contents of this article, please see if the text has reusable elements here. --Drieakko 07:46, 6 October 2007 (UTC)
The history of Konevsky Monastery (Finnish: Konevitsa) is clearer and stands on more reliable sources than that of Valaam. It was founded in 1393 by a Russian monk, Arseny,(later canonized) who had stayed for three years in the monasteries of Mount Athos, Greece. There he was influenced by the hesychastic tradition, the constant repetition of a short prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner."This prayer was to be repeated so long that it became autonomous, not depending on the will, and continuing in the heart day and night.[1] This prayer became common among people of all social strata in the 19th century, after a Moldavian, Paisy Velikovsky, had translated its chief work, the "Philokalia", the book of "Spiritual Beauty" to Church Slavonic and bishop Feofan into Russian. The Jesus prayer is still considered a cornerstone of Orthodox spirituality.[2]
But back to Arseny. After he left Mount Athos with an Icon of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) with him, he returned to northern Russia (he was, according to tradition, born in Novgorod)[3], and settled down on the island of Konevsky in Lake Ladoga. This island was to the Karelians a sacred place, where every year a horse was sacrificed. Now there grew up a monastery, which got many pilgrims, as the icon of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) was said to work wonders. Both monasteries received many land grants and became very rich, - which was in contradiction with the monks' ideals. Konevsky monastery faced the same hazards as Valaam. It was destroyed in the wars of 1577 and 1610-11, and the monks fled to other Russian monasteries taking with them the icon of the Mother of God of Konevsky.[4]
