Философия. 4.Философия культуры.

К.филос.н. Михайлова Л.В.

Петрозаводский государственный университет, Республика Карелия, Россия

The sacral landscape of the Russian North

The sacral landscape of the Russian North includes space which had sacral meaning for primitive people. This is also the cultural landscape of the northern monasteries, symbolic incarnation of Jerusalem on the Russian North, sacral toponyms: of mythological time, based on the orthodox and biblical vocabulary, anthroponym place-names formed from inoks names.

1. The cultural landscape of the northern monasteries

The cultural landscape of the northern monasteries is connected with monasteries’ buildings, sketes and their surroundings: silver fir, larch alleys, oak groves, apple gardens planted by inoks of the Valaamsky, Solovetsky and others monasteries. The oldest and most important monastery in Karelia was Valaam on an island of Lake Ladoga. On Valaam were founded many workshops, dairy farm, photographer’s and icon-painting studios, library. The monastic life of Valaam monks was identity the Sarov Hermitage and they live according to Sarov’s Rule, which introduced in Valaam an elder from the Sarov Hermitage hieromonk Nazary (Kondratyev). The spiritual and cultural center of the Solovki islands was the Solovetsky monastery wich has created a remarkable complex of defensive, dwelling, household, engineering structures and temples. The inoks of the Valaamsky, Solovetsky and others monasteries represented traditional forms of ascetic life in Orthodoxy. For example, hegumen Damaskin lived on Valaam in 1827–1834 in a hermitage in a wood cell near the lake Igumenskoje (Hegumen’s). In 1870 he decided to build here a skete in honour of Konevskaya icon. In the skete of St. John the Baptist of Valaam monastery was such rigourous life as on Athos. The oldest skete of the Valaam monastery is the skete of All Saints. There were the strict rules in this skete. In the latest Valaam skete lived only one hermit, hieroschemamonk Ephrem (Khrobostov, in the small schema Georgy, 1871-1947). He was a confessor of the Russian army Commander-in-Chief Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolajevich. Monks of northern monasteries, keeped the strict ascetic life, restored spiritually and transfigurated. They established the Orthodox cloisters, transplanted apple gardens transfigurated in that they not only outward appearance of surrounding landscape but souls of pilgrims who aspired to such holy places to seek consolation, clearing oneself and transfiguration.

2. Symbolic incarnation of Jerusalem on the Russian North

The New Jerusalem on Valaam was created on the Zion mountain as in Palestine. The Cathedral of New Jerusalem on Valaam consists from two churches. The interior of the upper church, full of light, reminded of Chris’s resurrection. The lower church of New Jerusalem was designed to resemble the cave of the Lord's Tomb Cathedral in Jerusalem. Ladoga and a small Nikonovskoje lake are connected by the channel called Kedron. To the left of it one can see the thirty-metre Eleon mountain with a Russian style five-domed chapel on top. At the foot of the Eleon mountain stands the Gethsemane skete and there is the Gethsemane garden too. As we know from Bibel, in Gethsemane Our Lord prayed during his last night before suffering on the cross and Our Lady was burried. The Garden of Gethsemane, on the western slope of the Mount of Olives, was one of Jesus’ favorite places. He and his apostles often went there to think and pray after their busy days of teaching in Jerusalem. And when the Passover feast was over, Jesus and eleven of his apostles went up to the garden. And as St. Matthew tells us, Jesus prayed there to his Father: Therefore in Gethsemane garden on Valaam was built the chapel which is called ‘Prayer about the Cup’. This places on Valaam with biblical place-names were sacred for monks and nowdays are sacred for religion men and for all us too. But it is only partly identity Valaam to Palestine because there are different geographical place with different situations of geographical objects.

3. Sacral toponyms

We can unite all sacral toponyms in four groups: toponyms of mythological time, based on the orthodox and biblical vocabulary, anthroponym place-names formed from inoks names.

1. Toponyms of mythological time. There are bays, capes, mountains, lakes, islands place-names formed from plants and animals names which were sacral for primitive people, for example: Pine (island), Deer (cape), Snake (mountain) (Valaam archipelago); Wolf (lake), Seal (inlet), Pike (lake) (Solovki islands).

2. Orthodox vocabulary. This group of toponyms is based on orthodox vocabulary: Father-Superior, skete, holy, cross, monastery, archimandrite, hermitage. There are: Father-Superior (cemetery, lake), Skete (island), Holy (island), Cross (lake) (Valaam archipelago); Holy (island, canal), Monastery (moorage, street), Archimandrite (lake) (Solovki islands).

3. Biblical vocabulary. A lot of Valaam and Solovki place-names have the Bibel as origin source. Jerusalem (skete, pier), Kedron stream (Cedron) (canal), Eleon (Mount of Olives) (mountain), Zion, (mountain), Karmil (Mount Carmel) (mountain), Dead See (lake), Favor (mountain) (Valaam archipelago); Calvary (mountain), Jordan (lake), Trinity (inlet) (Solovki islands).

4. Anthroponym place-names. There are toponyms formed from inoks names, for example: Alexander (skete, field), Anthony (road), Mina (capes, islands, straits), Nikon (mountain, field, road, bay) (Valaam archipelago); Danil (lake), Kirill (lake, inlet), Gerasim (lake), Elisar (lake) (Solovki islands).

So we can say that the sacral landscape of the Russian North includes the places of the heathen gods worship, northern monasteries and their surroundings, sacral toponyms which are difficult to understand or unusual for us.