Spoon from the Solovetsky Islands - presented by Mrs Xenia Dennen

 

Presented by Mrs Xenia Dennen   This spoon from the Solvetsky Islands of Russia has the words "A blessing from the Solovki Monastery" written on it. The Solovki Monastery was founded in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, and by the end of the sixteenth had become of become one of the most important religious centres in Russia, also acting as Russia's northernmost fortress in the White Sea. It was also one of the monasteries that supported the views of the so-called Old Believers in the seventeenth-century schism. This break-up followed the reforms that were introduced by Patriach Nikon in 1653, which had sought to establish uniformity between Greek and Russian Orthodox religious practices. The Solovki Monastery ejected the tsar's representatives, and held out for eight years against his forces.   Mrs Xenia Dennen, one of Britain's leading experts on the history of Russian Christianity, and Chairman of the Keston Institute, opens up this dramatic period in the history of eastern Christianity on 19 April in Deddington Parish Church and on this website.

 

An introduction from Mrs Xenia Dennen.

Audio only of "Spoon from the Solovetsky Islands" - presented by Mrs Xenia Dennen.