Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
better known as New Jerusalem, begun in 1656
as a replica of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
in the Holy Land. Nikon is perhaps best known
for the controversial reforms he initiated in 1654
with the aim of updating the liturgy of the Rus-
sian Church. His proposed reforms included the
standardization of church ritual and correction
of church books. While accepted by the church
leadership, the reforms met with enormous
opposition from sections of the clergy and laity,
which led to a formal break within the Orthodox
Church once they were accepted by the Church
Council of 1666-67. In the meantime, Nikon's
claims regarding the church's supremacy over
the state led to conflicts with Czar Aleksei, and
Nikon was deposed as patriarch in 1658. The
Church Council of 1666-67 also met to consider
Nikon's case, condemning him and exiling him
to Ferapontov Monastery, where he lived until
1676. In 1676, Nikon was transferred to Kirillov
Monastery. Five years later, while on his way to
the Resurrection Monastery in New Jerusalem,
Nikon died in Yaroslavl.
the secular ruler, who in turn acted as the
church's natural protector. The “non-possessors,”
of which Sorsky became the chief spokesman,
defended the view that the church should not
only divest itself of its wealth, particularly its
monastic landholdings, but it should also be
independent of the state. The Church Council of
1503 decided in favor of the “possessors.”
Although later church councils declared some of
his followers to be heretics, the church canonized
Nil Sorsky. His feast day is celebrated on May 7.
Nizhnii Novgorod
The third-largest city in the Russian Federation,
with a population of about 1.8 million, Nizhnii
Novgorod is Russia's largest river port and a
major industrial center and transportation hub.
The city was first founded in 1221 as a frontier
fortress on a strategic site where the Oka River
meets the Volga River in European Russia, about
250 miles east of Moscow. Like other ancient
Russian cities, Nizhnii Novgorod developed
around a
kremlin,
or citadel, and suffered from
Tatar raids in the 13th and 14th centuries. By
1350, however, it had become the capital of the
principality of Suzdal-Nizhnii Novgorod and
briefly contested the increasingly powerful prin-
cipality of Moscow, until annexed by the latter in
1392. Due to its proximity to Tatar centers of
power, Nizhnii Novgorod served as a base for
IVAN IV
's successful attack against
KAZAN
in 1552.
During the
TIME OF TROUBLES
, Nizhnii Novgorod
served as one of the centers of the national
movement that liberated Moscow from Polish
rule in 1611. In 1817 the nearby annual Maka-
rev Fair, which had been founded in 1525, was
moved to Nizhnii Novgorod. Until its closure by
the Soviet government in 1930, the annual fair,
and the city's transportation links to European
Russia and Asia, made Nizhnii Novgorod one of
Russia's leading commercial centers. Already a
center of industrial activity in czarist times, with
flourmills and the Sormovo metal works estab-
lished in 1849, the city benefited from the trans-
fer of several factories to the area during
WORLD
Nil Sorsky, Saint
(ca. 1433-1508)
monk
A widely respected monk of his time, Nil Sorsky's
writings in defense of the supremacy of the con-
templative spiritual life influenced Russian
monasticism for centuries. Born Nikolai Maikov,
Nil Sorsky adopted his name from the Sora River
in northeast Russia, besides which he founded his
own monastery after returning from pilgrimages
to Constantinople and Mount Athos. Sorsky's
belief that monks should renounce property and
live up to their vows of poverty drew him into
the controversy between “possessors” and “non-
possessors” that divided the Russian Orthodox
Church at the turn of the 16th century. The con-
troversy was ostensibly about the issue of church
property, but related to it was the broader ques-
tion of the proper relationship between the
church and secular rulers. The possessors, led by
JOSEPH OF VOLOTSK
, argued that the church
should be rich and powerful and closely allied to
Search WWH ::
Custom Search