Pechenga Monastery

The monastery in 2014

ThePechengaMonastery(Russian:Печенгский монастырь;Finnish:Petsamon luostari) was for many centuries the northernmostmonasteryin the world. It was founded in 1533 at the influx of thePechenga Riverinto theBarents Sea,135 km west of modernMurmansk,bySt. Tryphon,a monk fromNovgorod.

Inspired by the model of theSolovki,Tryphon wished to convert the localSkoltsto Christianity and to demonstrate how faith could flourish in the most inhospitable lands. His example was eagerly followed by other Russian monks. By 1572, the Pechenga Monastery counted about 50 brethren and 200 lay followers.

Six years after St. Tryphon's death in 1583, the wooden monastery was raided and burnt down by the Swedes on December 25, 1589. It is said that the raid claimed the lives of 51 monks and 65 lay brothers, bringing the history of Tryphon's establishment to an end. This revenge raid, and was part of theRusso-Swedish Warof 1590–1595, is said to have been carried out by a Finnish peasant chiefPekka Antinpoika Vesainen,but the claim is contested.

In 1591 TsarFyodor Iordered to revive the monastery in the vicinity ofKola,but the new hermitage fell in flames in 1619. Although the New Pechenga Monastery was eventually moved to the town itself, it was so sparsely settled that theHoly Synoddeemed it wise to disband it in 1764. As the Russian colonization of theKola Peninsulaaccelerated in the late 19th century, the Pechenga Monastery was restored at its original location in 1886. Prior to theRussian Revolution,it consisted of the Upper Monastery, commemorating the graves of Tryphon and 116 martyrs of the 1589 raid, and the new Lower Monastery, overlooking thePechenga Bay.

Thestauropegicmonastery continued to flourish when Pechenga became part of Finland in 1920. At the end of theContinuation Warin 1944 theMoscow Armisticegranted Petsamo to the Soviet Union. The brethrenwere evacuatedto theNew Valamo Monastery,where they kept their autonomy until 1984 when the last of them died at theage of 110.Although the monastery buildings were destroyed during the war, theRussian Orthodox Churchdecreed the reestablishment of the monastery in Pechenga in 1997.

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  The monastery church c. 1911
  (photo byEllisif Wessel)
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  The church in the 1940s
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  Modern buildings

References

• Friis J.A.: The Monastery of Petschenga, 1896, online here:https://archive.org/details/monasteryofpetsc00friiiala
• Nikolsky A.V.Монастыри. Энциклопедический словарь.Moscow, Moscow Patriarchate Publishers, 2000.