The Russian National Library (RNL) has presented in electronic form a digitized manuscript from 1858, “The Life of St. Hermogenes, Founder of the Holy Trinity Kirensky Monastery.”
RNB
The life of Saint Hermogenes describes the last siege of Albazin by the Manchus and Chinese.
As the library explained, this book monument is the only known complex of texts dedicated to the Venerable Hermogenes of Cyrene and Albazin, who died in 1690.
“The book has 44 sheets, written on unfolded paper in the small scribe’s handwriting of the 19th century,” the RNB reports. “According to the information indicated in the title on the first sheet, the manuscript was created in Kirensk in September 1858.
On the last page of the manuscript, a later entry is read about the fire that occurred on October 21, 1864, in the Alekseevskaya Church, where St. Hermogen is buried.”
Now this manuscript is included in the TOP-100 book monuments stored in RNB collections. It arrived at the library back in 1910. Researchers believe that it did not have a binding at that time; it was specially made by the Imperial Public Library.
The manuscript is interesting not only for its own history, but also for the two texts it contains. First of all, it is the biography of the Venerable Hermogenes, who made a significant contribution to the Christianization of the newly developed Siberian lands.
“It conveys only the main outline of his missionary activity in Siberia, based mostly on tradition, but conveys individual curious echoes of historical events of that time,” they say at the Russian National Library. “The indications of a number of dates and circumstances indicate the use of monastery documents in compiling the text.”
For researchers, the life is also interesting because, along with a description of the life of Hermogenes himself, it describes historical events in which he was a participant.
For example, the description of the siege of the city of Albazin by the Manchus and Chinese looks extremely interesting. This happened in June 1685. The governor Alexei Tolbuzin did not want to surrender the fortress, the Cossacks defending it fought to the last.
They ran out of gunpowder and lead, but they continued to fight with sabres. In the end, the commander agreed to surrender the fortress, but made it a mandatory condition that the Manchus release all Russians from Albazin and not hinder them in their passage to the city of Nerchinsk.
Engraving depicting the siege of Albazin. Amsterdam, 1692.
The condition was accepted, the Russian population was freely released from the city, which was then taken and largely destroyed. In particular, the Chinese razed to the ground the Kamarsky and Albazinsky monasteries founded by Hermogenes. However, in Nerchinsk Hermogenes founded the Vvedensky Monastery.
The life also tells about the fate of the captured Cossacks. Information about this has been preserved because the priests Maxim Leontiev and Dimitry Nesterov were captured by the Chinese along with the Cossacks. They were disciples of the Reverend Hermogenes. Apparently, they were destined for a far from worse fate.
“In Beijing, in the city center, they were given a courtyard, where they founded the Sretensky Monastery and the parish church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary,” the RNB reports. “All the Albazinians were assigned to the Chinese army of the yellow banner, or the guard, and received the title of mandarins. The Beijing monastery flourished under the patronage of the Chinese and Russian monarchs.”
The Life also contains other stories about the Cossacks. One of them relates to the events of 1665 and describes the arrival of the voivode Lavrenty Obukhov to the city of Kirenga to supervise the collection of yasak.
“He embittered the people to the point that the Cyrenian inhabitants attacked the voivode’s ship, plundered the collected goods and killed Obukhov. Fearing punishment, they decided to flee,” the manuscript’s description states.
There is also a story about Yerofey Khabarov, a famous Russian explorer. When he was looking for people to conquer Dauria, “many Lena residents, both secretly and openly,” fled to him. The latter took Hermogen and several of his students with them.
Having reached Albazin, which had been ravaged by the Chinese, the fugitives founded the Albazin prison on the ashes, where Hermogenes performed his duties as a priest. And during the new construction and the final siege of Albazin, the priest helped the governor Tolbuzin with advice.
Source: rodina-history.ru
