Ascension Monastery (Mount of Olives)

Site acquisition, excavation

A vast plot near the Ascension Chapel , on the southern peak of the Mount of Olives, was acquired in 1870 by Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) , who was planning to establish a monastery here. When planting trees, the first mosaics and tombs were discovered, after which at the end of May 1871, archaeological work began. As a result of excavations at the site, funerary caves, a bust of Herod the Great , various utensils, as well as mosaic floors of churches of the Byzantine time dated to the VI - VII centuries were discovered. Mosaic floors can now be seen in the chapel of St. John the Baptist and in the Archimandrite’s house. ^[2] A stone was also discovered on which, according to legend, the Virgin Mary stood during the Ascension of Jesus Christ . ^[3] In 1873, all excavations were suspended.

Monastery

In 1905, under the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, Archimandrite Leonid (Sentsov) , a women's “community with an older sister headed” was founded, consisting of 15 sisters. The Holy Synod approved it by decree of December 15, 1906. The community lived according to the rules adopted in the Gornensky community . In 1907, 70 lived here, in 1914 - more than 100 sisters. With the construction of new buildings, a hotel, an almshouse, a gold embroidery workshop and icon painting workshops were opened.

After the outbreak of World War I (1914), the buildings were occupied by Turkish soldiers, and the Ascension Church was sealed. At the same time, part of the natives left for Alexandria , and part took place in Greek monasteries. The Jerusalem Patriarchate provided the sisters with flour and bread and were allowed to pray in the temple in the Lesser Galilee.

In 1917, part of the buildings was occupied by British troops, in another part sisters lived. The military supplied them with bread, tea and sugar. The remaining sisters returned from Alexandria in early 1919, and in June, divine services were resumed in the cathedral. During this period, the community passes into the jurisdiction of the Supreme Russian Church Administration abroad .

In 1924, at the request of Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) (ROCOR), with the blessing of the Patriarch of Jerusalem Damian , the Olives community became known as the monastery ^[4] .

In 1937, the refectory of the church was consecrated in the name of St. Philaret the Merciful .

In 1930 there were about 300 sisters, then their number was gradually reduced, and in the mid-1990s about 50 nuns and novices labored in the monastery; the monastery at that time was the largest in ROCOR ^[5] .

After the operation “Nakhshon” , on April 9, 1948, the Jewish formations Irgun and Lehi massacred the Arab population of the village of Deir Yassin , and in July the Arab inhabitants were expelled from Ein Kerem , most of the nuns of the Gornensky monastery (about 100) moved to Voznesensky monastery ^[6] . Due to the transfer by the Israeli authorities of the Gornensky Monastery (Ein Kerem) to the Soviet government (Moscow Patriarchate), most of them did not return to the Gornensky Monastery, remaining in the Ascension Monastery (then in Jordan ), because of the reluctance to transfer to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate ^{[6 ] [7]} .

Since 1951, the monastery became the seat of the chiefs of the RDM in the jurisdiction of the ROCA.

On August 29, 2006, the First Hierarch of the ROCOR Metropolitan Laurus (Shkurla) led the celebrations dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the monastery. Toward the end of the liturgy, the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilus III arrived with members of the Holy Synod of the Jerusalem Patriarchate and Holy Sepulcher ^[8] .

Ascension Cathedral

It was built in 1873-1881 in the Neo-Byzantine style according to the architectural plan of archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin), who called it “little Hagia Sophia ”, on the site of the Byzantine basilica, destroyed in 614 by the army of the Sasanian empire ^[6] . Construction was suspended during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 . The opening of the temple required the firman of the Sultan , who was issued by the High Port in June 1882 ^[6] . Consecrated on June 8, 1886 in the name of the Savior : the Patriarch of Jerusalem Nicodemus objected to his consecration in honor of the Ascension of the Lord, leaving this priority to the place of the Ascension; as a result, in official Russian documents, the church was called the "Ascension Church" ^[6] .

The direct performer is Italian architect Giovanni Batista Biselli ^{[9] [4]} . In terms of the cross-domed , from the main massive four on all four cardinal directions protrude half octahedral abs . The dome is arranged on an octagon with 24 windows. The foundation of the temple is set on a flat natural rock. The white marble iconostasis was designed by archimandrite Antonin in 1881 and delivered from Odessa by steamboat to Jaffa in 1884 from the Moscow merchant P. D. Kaverin ^[6] .

In the southern part of the temple, in separate marble cases, there are miraculous icons of the Mother of God brought from Russia: the “Olive One Hearing ” (Chernihiv-Gethsemane) and the “ Recovery of the Dead ”. Reliquaries with particles of relics of various saints are arranged here. Part of the marble slabs of the fifth-century convent’s nunnery discovered during excavations are inserted into the stone floor in front of the salt ^[4] .

The Chapel of Finding the Honorable Head of John the Baptist

The most important monastery shrine is the place of the First and Second Findings of the head of John the Baptist . The chapel stood here already in the 4th century; its mosaic floor was discovered during excavations by archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin). ^{[10] The} mosaic groove in the floor indicates the place where the chapter was found. The current chapel was built on the site of an ancient one at the expense of I. G. Silaeva.

Belfry

The bell tower, 64 m high, was built in the style of medieval Italian campaniles by the Italian architect Antonio Langodorka. ^[4] The largest of the bells placed on it has a weight of 308 pounds (5 tons), about 3 m in height and 213 cm in diameter. It was cast in Russia at the expense of the Solikamsk merchant Alexander Ryazantsev and delivered to the monastery on February 19, 1885. There is a commemorative inscription on it ^[11] . Currently, the belfry has 14 bells ^[12] . Since the construction of the bell tower has never been restored and significantly dilapidated. In 2014, a full-scale restoration of the bell tower began ^[13] .

Other buildings

• The house of the head of the Russian Spiritual Mission or the Archimandrite House is located behind the monastery buildings. The museum of antiquities collected by Fr. Antoninus. In the chapel of the house the floor is decorated with mosaics of the 9th century with images of fish, birds and various ornaments, as well as a commemorative inscription about Jacob, the Armenian bishop of Metzpinsky. In other parts of the building on the floors of the first floor there are mosaics that can be attributed to the VI century .
• Abbot corps - in its hall was found a large mosaic with Greek commemorative inscription of the VI century .
• The refectory with the church of St. Philaret the Merciful is a long building with a flat roof in the northeast corner of the monastery. In 1907 it was founded as a cathedral church in the name of the Last Judgment of the Lord , unfinished due to the First World War.

Burials

Among those buried in the monastery:

• Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) , head of the RDM (1865-1894), is buried in the northern part of the Ascension Cathedral.
• Hegumen Parfeny (Narcissus) , closest employee and continuer of the case about. Antonina, the first abbot of the Olives community. He was stabbed to death by an unknown attacker in his monastery cell on the night of January 15, 1909, probably for the purpose of robbery, and was buried near the Ascension Cathedral, just north of the altar. ^{[2] [4] [14]}

• Eupraxia (Milovidova), nun (1904-1914)
• Elizabeth, Mother Superior (1919-1929)
• Pavel (Klyuev), Mother Superior (1929-1934)
• Melania (Nenyukova), Mother Superior (1934-1944)
• Anthony (Klyuyev), Scheme of Humeny (1944-1951)
• Tamara (Romanova) , Mother Superior (1951-1975)
• Theodosius (Baranova), Mother Superior (1975-1984)
• Paraskeva (Zilberkrain), Mother Superior (1984-1997)
• Moses (Bubnova), Mother Superior (1997 ^[15] - June 12, 2017)
• Barbara (Novikova) nun (from June 12, 2017) and. about. abbess ^[16]

• Page of the Ascension Monastery on the Official Website of the Russian Theological Mission of the ROCA
• P.Platonov. On the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Monastery of Olives in Jerusalem
• Elena Galkina. ELEON MOSCOW: Savior Ascension Russian Convent