PILGRIMAGE AT SOLOVKI IN THE 19th-20th CENTURIES

by

In the mid-nineteenth century, Solovki became an important pilgrimage destination. The islands provided Russian Orthodox believers with a destination that mixed spirituality, history, and exotic location. As a result of increased pilgrimage, the monastery experienced a dramatic change in economic and social conditions, which in turn helped to fuel unrest and division within the monastic leadership that continued to the eve of the Revolution. This paper will describe the types of pilgrims to Solovki and explore the results of increased pilgrimage for the monastery.

The Trudniki

Much of Solovki' s spiritual culture revolved around the cult of its saints. The monastery produced 32 saints in the period before the

Cahiers slaves, n° 7, UFR d'Études slaves, Université de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), 2004, pp. 281-301.