Сenturies-long history and cultural riches of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery are featured in the Presidential Library

Today, November 17, 2017, the Presidential Library hosted a unique event dedicated to the largest in Russia monastery - Kirillo-Belozersky, or literally “White Lake” St. Cyril’s Monastery, (currently — Kirillo-Belozersky Historical, Architectural and Art State National Park and Museum). The “Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. 620 years of history” public video lecturing along with the “Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. My inward peace forevermore…” multimedia exhibition began its work in the building on 3 Senate Square, which accommodates the premises of the Presidential Library.

As has been observed, the event, which was held within the framework of the VI St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum, was the result of active cooperation between the Presidential Library and the Vologda Oblast, which includes the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Owing to the constructive partnership, new centers of access to the library resources are currently opening across the region, and in turn the library fund is being replenished with the unique materials. The Presidential Library website offers rare documents on the history of cultural monuments of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, including a unique collection of photographs of the pioneer of color photography in Russia, S. M. Prokudin-Gorsky.

As the vice-governor of the Vologda region Oleg Vasiliev highlighted, “620 years of the history of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery contained countless human destinies and huge array of accumulated knowledge. Such a presentation is a non-trivial event for the cultural life of our country, and it is pleasant that its venue is the home of our reliable partner. I hope that with the help of the Presidential Library the cultural riches of the Vologda Oblast will become available to the entire Russia.”

General Director of the Kirillo-Belozersky State National Perk and Museum Mikhail Sharomazov told the event guests a story about how two monks of the Moscow Simonov Monastery Cyril and Ferapont founded the monastery on the shore of the Siversky Lake in 1397. It all began with a wooden cross and a small dugout in the coastal hill, and two centuries later it was the largest monastery in Russia — a cultural and a book production center, seriously influencing the state’s policy.

It is here where one of the first stone churches in Russia — the Assumption Cathedral, erected in 1497, — stand, and the Church of the Beheading of the Head of John the Baptist was built on donations and at the behest of Ivan the Terrible; here anyone can walk through the galleries of fortified walls of the XVII century. And here, in the church of St. Cyril of Beloozero, people can worship the holy relics of the founder of the monastery.

One of the themes of the video lecturing was the Dionisy Museum of Frescoes in the Ferapont Monastery — a part of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum Complex, which is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

In addition, Mikhail Sharomazov told about a unique collection of ancient Russian art, belonging to the permanent exposition of the museum. Its core exhibit is the iconostasis of the main temple of the monastery — the Assumption Cathedral, one of the four surviving iconostases of the XV century. Its icons remained after the revolution in different temples, and after — in the different museums: the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, the Museum of St. Andrei Rublev, and the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum. During the restoration it turned out that masters of three schools — Moscow, Novgorod and Rostov one — wrote all these pieces. Their joint work laid foundation of the all-Russian icon-painting tradition, while the icons stand at the origins of Russian painting of the XVI century, which contemporary masters recognize as an etalon masterpiece.

Photography exhibition of Maxim Yevdokimov entitled “Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. My inward peace forevermore…” began in the course of the video lecture. It was these words that the Monk Cyril said after the prayer, looking from Mount Maura to the desert shore of the Siversky Lake: “My inward peace forevermore… I will settle in here, as the Most Holy Mother of God wished me to. Blessed be the Lord God from now until the age, as He heard my prayer…” Aside from showing the artistic uniqueness of the monastery, the photography project also quite gives a feel of its typical “Kirillovsky” mood.

The “Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. My inward peace forevermore…” exhibition is represented in electronic form on the screens of the multimedia gallery of the Presidential Library and will last until December 1, 2017. The exposition can be visited on its own during the regular business hours of the electronic reading room of the Presidential Library (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, 11 am — 6:30 pm), and also as part of a sightseeing tour around the Presidential Library building (please call in advance to make the appointment at (812) 334 2514 or email us at: excursion@prlib.ru).