Each year on June 13, Holy Spirit Day, Holy Trinity Monastery in upstate New York celebrates its annual feast day, opening its doors to the public. The largest spiritual center for the Russian Orthodox faith outside Russia, the monastery played an important role in preservation of Orthodoxy during the Soviet era.
Beginning soon after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Orthodox priests, monks and lay church members began to be brutally persecuted for their faith. By the late 1920s and the rise of Stalin, many were forced to find safe haven in Serbia and Czechoslovakia. And when, toward the end of World War II, the Red Army began sweeping into Eastern Europe, many clergy were again forced to flee, this time to Western Europe and the United States.
It became crucial that a Russian Orthodox Church refuge be established in the U.S. The project was spearheaded by Hieromonk Panteleimon, a far-sighted young Russian Orthodox Church priest. He scoured the American countryside in search of a site on which to build a monastery, and in 1928 selected idyllic Jordanville, in upstate N.Y., because it so strongly resembled the Carpathian Mountain region.
With the blessing of then-Archbishop Apollinary, Father Panteleimon made a $25 down payment toward the $5,000 price tag for 300 acres of farmland. Construction of the Holy Trinity Monastery began after World War II; the arrival of Orthodox monks from Europe, China and Manchuria soon followed.
Over the past half century, Holy Trinity has grown to become the largest monastery and spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. A short drive from Albany or Utica, the monastery stands serenely amid acres of verdant countryside. It has more than doubled in size from its original 300-acre plot and is now a 650-acre complex that includes a cathedral, seminary, print shop, icon workshop, vegetable garden and apiary. Hundreds of Orthodox Christians from throughout the U.S. take their final resting place in the expansive cemetery; an ornate church topped with a distinctive onion-shaped dome marks the cemetery’s center point. In 1988, a bell tower was added to the cathedral, to commemorate the millennial anniversary of Prince Vladimir of Russia’s declaration that Orthodox Christianity would be Rus’ official religion. The tower houses 16 icon-embellished bells; the largest weighs in at 6.5 tons.
Yet the monastery’s picturesque structures and monuments belie its profound and far-reaching contributions to the Orthodox faith. For example, the library holds 30,000 volumes, including rare periodicals, books published before 1917, and documents that trace the history and development of the once-exiled Church. According to Holy Trinity Monastery Protodeacon Victor Lochmatow, the monastery has historically played an important role in providing religious publications to Orthodox churches both within and outside of the U.S.S.R., in defiance of Soviet censorship. “In 1917,” Father Lochmatow said, “the publication of religious material was banned in the Soviet Union. But Orthodox churches continued to need spiritual books, and it was imperative to have a print shop free of Soviet control. For many years, Jordanville was the only source of Orthodox Church service books – the Gospels, prayer books and text books for seminarians.”
Father Lochmatow said it was providential that the renowned monk, Bishop Vitaly Maximenko (1863-1960) was assigned to the U.S. and became the first elected abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery. The former head of the Pochaev Lavra print shop – the largest producer of Orthodox ecclesiastical books in the Western Ukraine, Maximenko established the monastery’s St. Job of Pochaev Print Shop in 1947. The shop’s best-selling book, Law of God, provides instructions in the Orthodox faith and has been reprinted more than one hundred times in Russia.
Yet perhaps the most intriguing work at Holy Trinity is carried out in the icon studio, established more than a half-century ago by Archimandrite Kiprian Pishew, considered by many to have been one of the foremost Byzantine iconographers of the 20th century. Here, monks continue to create spectacular icons in the Byzantine style, using time-honored materials such as egg tempera, gold leaf and layered pigments, while working within the art form’s strict rules for depicting Christ and his saints. Outside of the studio, an array of magnificent icons, the oldest of which dates back to the 18th century, adorns the walls of the main church. The most revered icon on display is that of St. Job of Pochaev (1545-1651), who founded the Pochaev Monastery’s print shop in Russia.
Monastic life today at Holy Trinity is still steeped in time-honored Orthodox traditions, including the wearing of black clerical vestments, teaching religious classes in Russian, and conducting services in Church-Slavonic. The monks pledge themselves to a life of poverty, chastity, obedience and prayer, along with performing monastic duties, also called “obediences” (“poslushanie” in Russian).
Students, laymen and religious from all over the world attend the seminary, including one hundred men aged 18-90 who currently reside at the monastery. High school graduates who complete a five-year course of study receive a Bachelor’s of Theology degree from Holy Trinity Seminary, which is accredited by the State University of New York. Visiting pilgrims are housed in guest quarters adjacent to the monastery. The public is also welcome to visit and attend church services, which are conducted in both Church-Slavonic and English.
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