The Antoniev Monastery ("St Anthony's Monastery", ) rivalled the

Yuriev Monastery The St. George's (Yuriev) Monastery () is usually cited as Russia's oldest monastery. It stands in 5 kilometers south of Novgorod on the left bank of the Volkhov River near where it flows out of Lake Ilmen. The monastery used to be the most impor ...

as the most important monastery of medieval

Novgorod the Great Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

. It stands along the right bank of the

Volkhov River The Volkhov ( ; ; ) is a river in Novgorodsky District, Novgorodsky and Chudovsky Districts of Novgorod Oblast and Kirishsky District, Kirishsky and Volkhovsky Districts of Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia. The Volkhov River, Volkhov, whi ...

north of the city centre and forms part of the ''

Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings The Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings is a composite World Heritage Site which includes a number of medieval monuments in and around Veliky Novgorod, Russia. The site was inscribed in 1992. History Novgorod between the 9th and the 15 ...

'', a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. The monastery was founded in 1117 by St Anthony of Rome, who, according to legend, flew to Novgorod from Rome on a rock (the alleged rock is now in the vestibule just to the right of the main door into the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God beneath a fresco of Bishop Nikita of Novgorod). Anthony was consecrated hegumen of the monastery in 1131 by Archbishop Nifont (1130–1156) and was buried beneath a large slab to the right of the altar in the same church. The Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God, like the Church of St. George in the

, is one of the few three-domed churches in Russia. It is also one of the few buildings in Russia which survived from the 12th century. It was founded by Anthony in 1117 and completed in 1119. There are some frescoes from the Middle Ages still extant, most notably in the apse, but most are from the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries and are in some disrepair. Kirik the Novgorodian was a monk of the monastery famous for writing the first mathematical treatise in Eastern Slavdom, the "Teaching on Numbers", a theological work known as "The Questions of Kirik" and a few entries in the

Novgorodian First Chronicle The Novgorod First Chronicle ( rus, Новгоро́дская пе́рвая ле́топись, Novgoródskaya pérvaya létopisʹ, nəvɡɐˈrot͡skəjə ˈpʲervəjə ˈlʲetəpʲɪsʲ, commonly abbreviated as NPL), also known by its 1914 Eng ...

. The monastery owned lands in Vodskaya and Shelonskaya

pyatina Pyatina () was a first-level unit of administrative division of Novgorod Land. The name ''pyatina'' originates from the word , which means "five". Novgorod Land was subdivided into five pyatinas. The division was first mentioned in the end of the ...

s making it the fourth-largest landowner among the Novgorodian monasteries. A significant part of its lands were confiscated after the conquest of Novgorod by Moscow however the monastery gradually restored its position thanks to gifts and acquisitions. The hegumen and the monks of the monastery were killed by the forces of Ivan IV during the

Massacre of Novgorod The massacre of Novgorod () was an attack launched by Ivan the Terrible's '' oprichniki'' on the city of Novgorod, Russia, in 1570. Although initially an act of vengeance against the perceived treason of the local Orthodox church, the massacre qu ...

. The cult of St Anthony, the founder of the monastery, increased in importance after the miraculous discovery of his remains in 1597. In the second half of the 17th century the archbishops of Novgorod favoured the monastery. Multiple stone buildings were erected and in 1740 a

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

was founded. The monastery is currently part of the Novgorod United Museum-Preserve and has not been returned to the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

References

{{Reflist * Robert Michell and Neville Forbes, ed., ''The Chronicle of Novgorod, 1016-1471'' (New York: American Medieval Society Press, 1970), 9-10, 12. Christian monasteries established in the 1110s Russian Orthodox monasteries in Russia Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings 1106 establishments in Europe 12th-century establishments in Russia Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Novgorod Oblast Monasteries used as prisons

See also

References