Pochaiv: holy abode of faith in the Ternopil land
(Conclusion. For Part One, see The Day No. 34)
Whatever the case, Potocki’s financial aid helped architect Gottfried Hofmann build Dormition Cathedral in 1771-1783 on the site of the old Trinity Church, which had been dismantled. This gigantic structure, which towers 60 meters over Pochaiv Hill and harmoniously fits in with the surrounding landscape, is an outstanding monument of the Late Baroque.
Potocki also allotted funds for the ceremony of blessing the icon of the Holy Virgin of Pochaiv, which took place on Sept. 8, 1773. The Roman Catholic Church headed by Pope Clement XIV had given permission for this ceremony, having recognized the sacred and wonder-working nature of the icon.
When the Volhynian lands, including Pochaiv, became part of tsarist Russia, the Greek Catholic Church came under intense pressure and persecution. Plans were in the offing to confiscate the monastery from Greek Catholics and transfer it to the Orthodox Church, the pretext being the Polish uprising of 1830-1831. The Basilian monks of Pochaiv, accused of supporting the rebels, were forcibly evicted, and the monastery’s premises were taken over by Orthodox priests. Seeking to establish Orthodoxy firmly on the empire’s western frontiers, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church submitted a report to Emperor Nicholas I on Oct. 13, 1833, suggesting that Pochaiv Monastery be granted the status of a fourth Russian lavra, the highest ranking for a monastery. (Incidentally, Pochaiv Monastery began to be referred to as a lavra when it still belonged to the Greek Catholics). The tsar approved the report, and from then on Pochaiv was officially considered one of Russia’s most important monasteries.
The highest-ranking officials of the empire made generous donations to the monastery, which was visited by two tsars, Nicholas I (1842) and Alexander II (1859) who lavished gifts on the monastery. Among the regular donors was Countess Antonina Bludova, the daughter of a highly-placed imperial statesman, who at different times held the positions of interior minister, minister of justice, chairman of the State Council, and chairman of the Council of Ministers. Yet it was Countess Anna Orlova-Chesmenskaya, a lady-in-waiting at the tsar’s court, who made the most munificent donations to the monastery: in 1842 she presented the lavra with a 147-pound fancy silver reliquary (to keep the remains of the blessed Iov) silver icon-lamps weighing four pounds, and a heavily-gilded silver icon-case worth about 7,500 rubles in 1850. The countess also bequeathed 30,000 rubles — a huge sum in those days — to the monastery.
It is no surprise that the tsarist government’s protectionist policy and generous donations from the imperial upper crust turned Pochaiv into a stronghold of Russian Orthodoxy in the western Ukrainian lands.
When the outstanding figures of the Ukrainian national renaissance, Mykola Kostomarov and Taras Shevchenko, visited the Pochaiv Lavra in the mid-1840s, there were still a lot of “Uniate vestiges” at this holy abode. Kostomarov mentions this in his Autobiography.
Shevchenko arrived in Pochaiv on a mission from the Kyiv Temporary Archaeographic Commission no later than Oct. 20, 1846. This date marks some of the songs he recorded in his Pochaiv sketchbook. The commission had requested Shevchenko to make drawings of the Pochaiv Lavra — its exterior and interior, as well as the view from an outer terrace. This was not a difficult task for Shevchenko, for he had done this kind of work before. In Pochaiv he executed four watercolors, two sketches, and a pencil sketch. Although those were “technical works,” they were further confirmation of Shevchenko’s great talent and showed that he had reached a new stage as a painter. Pochaiv undoubtedly impressed the Bard, who mentions this town in a number of his works.
In the early 20th century Antoniy Khrapovytsky, the Archbishop of Volhynia, began to nurture the idea of building an Orthodox temple on the territory of the lavra in a “purely Russian” architectural style. Expressing his utmost displeasure over the Dormition Cathedral’s architecture, he once shouted in public, “I will not serve in a Catholic church! I cannot hold a prayer service, facing west!”
A church called Trinity Cathedral was built on the site of what was once the Potocki palace. The construction lasted for five years (1906-1911) and cost the staggering sum of nearly 250,000 rubles. An exact copy of Trinity Cathedral at St. Sergius Monastery near Moscow, the church was in utter disharmony with the other Pochaiv structures, and even highly-placed Orthodox hierarchs pointed this out.
During World War I and the Civil War the lavra sustained extensive damage, as Pochaiv found itself right in the front-line area. In July 1915 the monastery’s most valuable property was evacuated to the east (Zhytomyr, Nizhyn, Kharkiv, and other cities). On Aug. 24 of the same year Austrian and German troops occupied Pochaiv. The invaders did not stand on ceremony with the Pochaiv monks and shrines. The monks were arrested and deported to a prison camp in Szergeny (Hungary). Catholic Masses began to be served in Dormition Cathedral, and Trinity Church was converted into a movie theater.
In May 1918 Pochaiv was recaptured by the Russians. Shrines as well as monks began to return. However, the lavra again suffered devastating ruination in 1918, when the Bolsheviks seized and plundered the monastery.
In early September 1920 Volhynia was occupied by Polish troops. Pochaiv became part of the Polish state, and the monastery was converted into an autocephalous Orthodox church, which took a pro-Polish stand in terms of politics but a pro-Russian cultural orientation. Nevertheless, Volhynia, including Pochaiv, became a region known for its active struggle to Ukrainize the Orthodox Church, which could not but affect Pochaiv.
On Aug. 28 (Sept. 10), 1933, the feast day of Iov the Blessed, a huge 20,000-strong Ukrainian demonstration took place in Pochaiv to protest against the pro-Russian conduct of Metropolitan Dionisiy, the head of the Polish Orthodox Church. As the prayer service was drawing to a close, two young men hung a long blue-and-yellow flag from the belfry. Once the flag began flying, many Ukrainian flags and banners were raised in the monastery courtyard. The banners read, “We want a Ukrainian church,” “We only want a Ukrainian episcopate,” “We want prayer services in Ukrainian,” “Dionisiy, away with you to Moscow,” “The Pochaiv Lavra must be Ukrainian,” etc.
The Pochaiv clergy had to make concessions. In any event, sermons began to be said in Ukrainian, the language in which the journal Tserkva i narod [The Church and the People], began to be published, and Russian inscriptions were removed. But these measures were merely cosmetic, with the Russophiles continuing to hold sway in the lavra.
Pochaiv Monastery remained a hotbed of Russophilism during and after World War II.
In the Soviet period, especially in the 1960s, there were attempts to close the monastery. The authorities finally dismissed this idea, perhaps after taking into account the local population’s high level of religiosity.
Paradoxically, “quiet Ukrainization” took place during the Soviet period. Since Ukrainians, especially in western Ukraine, were far more religious than Russians, the ranks of Orthodox priests and monks were filled by the former. The Pochaiv Lavra was no exception to this.
During the years of independence, this holy abode might well have become a bulwark of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Immediately after the formation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) the lavra’s hierarchs were prepared to support this denomination. But this did not happen. Moscow urgently dispatched some monks, who opposed the abbot and forced him to abandon the monastery.
The Pochaiv Lavra is still a center of Russian Orthodoxy. If you visit this monastery today, you will hear many monks speaking Russian. The lavra usually prints its literature in this language. Its bookstores are filled with Russian-language publications, audio and video products. Ironically, this is happening in an absolutely Ukrainian city.
The history of the Pochaiv Lavra is the history of our lack of mental order. We have splendid shrines that were created by the hard work of our ancestors. Visitors come here not only from the whole of Ukraine but every part of the world. Even in today’s globalized world, its majesty and beauty are impressive. Together with surrounding nature, the lavra creates a wonderful prayerful atmosphere. However, when you come here, you suddenly begin to fathom the true meaning of the phrase “on our land, but not ours. “
