Church of St. Martinian Ferapontov monastery description and photos - Russia - North-West: Vologda region (Topic)

Church of St. Martinian Ferapontov monastery description and photos - Russia - North-West: Vologda region. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

The tent-roofed church of St. Martinian is part of the Ferapont monastery. It was built in 1641. The porch was added in the middle of the 19th century. The temple was erected over the burial place of the Monk Martinian - the second founder of Therapontov Monastery - at the southern wall of the Nativity Cathedral. There is a carved inscription on the white-stone church building board of the temple informing about the completion of its construction on August 1, 1641.

The Monk Martinian Belozersky (in the world of Michael) was born in 1370 in the town of Berezniki, near the Kirillov Monastery. At the age of thirteen, he left his parents and secretly reached the Monk Cyril of Belozersk, whom he had heard a lot about as a great ascetic. Martinian, who was in perfect obedience to the teacher, began to zealously imitate him. In the monastery Martinian was taught to read and, with the blessing of the Monk Cyril, he began to rewrite books.

After some time, Martinian was ordained a hierodeacon, and later a hieromonk. After the death of the Monk Cyril (1427), the blessed Martinian set off for silence to a deserted island, which was located on Lake Vozhe. Over time, a small circle of monks formed around him. The Monk Martinian erected for them the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and organized a communal rule. At the persistent requests of the brothers of the Ferapontov Monastery, he becomes the abbot of this monastery and brings it into a flourishing state.

The Monk Martinian provided spiritual support to the Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich the Dark in a difficult time for him, when Dimitri Shemyaka, his cousin, dishonestly claimed the Moscow throne. Martinian has always been a champion of justice and truth. After a while, at the request of the Grand Duke, the monk began to govern the monastery of Saint Sergius of Radonezh. In the middle of the 15th century, in 1455, the Monk Martinian again returned to the Ferapontov Monastery. In old age, he was seriously ill, could not walk, and the brothers carried him to church. Martinian died at the age of 85. In 1514, his relics were uncovered, and on October 7 the memory of the acquisition is commemorated.

The Church of St. Martinian was erected by Cyril's masters. The volume of the temple is simple and laconic, represented by a small cube with an octagonal tent and an elegant drum. The interior lighting solution of the church is unique: the windows are located only at the top of the volume and direct the sun's rays with their spotlights to the burial of Martinian, forming the effect of his glow. The space of the tent, immersed in darkness and ending in a drum of light, seems to be a tunnel that leads to the Heavenly Kingdom.

Above Martinian's grave, on the outer southern wall of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, in 1502 the icon painter Dionysius painted the image of the Mother of God of the Caves with archangels Gabriel and Michael, St. Nicholas and Therapont and Martinian (founders of the monastery), who kneel at the feet of the Mother of God. After the construction of the stone church of the Venerable Martinian, this area of the external painting of the cathedral is located in the arched opening of the north wall of the Martinian church. A very rare image has survived here, without halos, the founders of the monastery, Ferapont and Martinian, who were not yet canonized at the beginning of the 16th century. They were canonized only in the middle of this century.

Since 1838, the church has had a two-tier iconostasis. It was made by Nikolai Milavin, a tradesman from Vologda. Figures of the Archangel Gabriel and Mary from the Annunciation scene have not survived in the carved royal gates.

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Topic: Church of St. Martinian Ferapontov monastery description and photos - Russia - North-West: Vologda region.