Sudhamahi Regunathan recounts an old St Petersburg convent’s compelling history
RUSSIA’S ROYALS were hardly paragons of marital loyalty. But what happened when the tsars of yore wanted to “change” their wives? From all available evidence, women of royal households experienced two sources of insecurity – either as wives whose husbands had found new love interests or as princesses who could not get suitable spouses. The tradition among many Russian tsars was to get wives from Europe, specifically Germany. This meant Russian princesses often could not find a suitable match – marrying commoners was not an option – and had to fashion their lives differently. The choices they had were limited. Most of them ended up in a nunnery after which they officially took “the veil”.
Take Feodor I. He had a wife named Irina. Or Peter the Great, who had a sister called Sophia. He also had a wife called Eudoxia Lopukhina, whom he abandoned to marry his second wife, Catherine. What happened to these women? They sat with their rosaries in a nunnery and the Novodevichy Convent in St. Petersburg was a refuge for many of them.
Today, this grand building, with its Byzantine tombs, towers over much of the rest of the city. Its history is also the history of several great Russian noblewoman. Many of them defied custom and chose the road less travelled, while others bore the indignities that came their way with fortitude and dignity.
The very foundation of the convent on Moscowsky Prospect in St. Petersburg was laid by a woman: Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna Romanov. She was the youngest daughter of Peter the Great and seems to have been a woman of spirit. She nursed an ambition to rule the country, but being a woman was sidelined and forced to become a nun. As she sat praying in Smolny Convent, she heard the news that there had been a coup and she was to be the next ruler. Rule she did, but habits die hard. Her long-term plan was to retire to a monastery and so she earmarked land and money for the building of the Novodevichy Convent.
Elizabeth, despite her interest in spirituality, was also used to affluence. The room she got made for herself was luxurious even if it was meant for a nun. As a ruler, she was extravagant in her spending and was particular about what she wanted. She had the Summer Palace that her father, Peter the Great, had gifted her mother, Catherine, rebuilt six times before she was finally satisfied. According to one conservative estimate she spent 100 kilograms of gold to do up the place.
It is also held that it was Elizabeth who brought European fashions into Russia, leading to a discarding of traditional attire. After she took over the reins of the kingdom, she did away with the head covering that was mandatory for all married women in Russia at that time, and also dropped the neckline, which was perceived by some as scandalous.
Her stepmother, Eudoxia – the first wife of Peter the Great – was sent to the nunnery when her husband decided to remarry. Eudoxia had written several letters of complaint to her husband, all of which expressed unrequited love. Alas, Peter was far too busy with affairs of the state and his new love, and he decided that the best way to deal with the matter was to move Eudoxia into a monastery and force her to become a nun. The spirited lady resisted the order but hid in the monastery till her grandson ascended the throne and she could come back into public view – but from Novodevichy Convent!
Then came another Peter – Peter III – who happened to be Elizabeth Petrovna’s nephew. Elizabeth arranged his marriage to a lady who later came to be known as Catherine the Great. Even today Russians remember her as one of their great monarchs. Many wars were won during her reign and the Russian empire grew both in size and diversity. But there was no love lost between her husband and herself, and things came to such pass that Peter III decided to resort to the convenient practice of his predecessors – banish his wife to a nunnery. Catherine, however, was made of sterner stuff. She soon led a coup against him, displacing him as Russia’s ruler in 1762. History is unable to commit itself to whether she actually got him killed or whether he died of natural causes, but the fact was that he no longer came in her way and she certainly did not enter the portals of a nunnery.
It was under the rule of Catherine the Great that the Novodevichy Convent really got going. She invited nuns from Moscow to come together under its roof and an Educational Society for Women was housed there. All those admitted had to be of noble birth and while those who rebelled and resisted being ordained were a legion, many women of the royalty either voluntarily chose to join the ranks of the Order or were given no option but to do so.
As time went by the convent opened its doors not just to the aristocracy but to those of lower rank as well. By the end of the 18th century the number of residents had swollen to a thousand. Then came a time when the nunnery was rendered without a head and had to be shut down with the resident nuns having to either return to their original homes or join other nunneries. A hundred years later it was re-established and assumed its place as the foremost institution of its kind. With the dawn of Communism in the early years of the 20th century, many nuns in Novodevichy Convent returned to the places they had come from or lived out their lives with the meagre resources they had.
In 2001, Novodevichy Convent saw a revival of sorts, with many of the old icons that were once housed within its walls being brought back. The story goes that a painting of Our Lady of Kazan was found in a garden in Kazan in the 16th century. These are called ‘Theotokos’ – symbols of love for Mary. Several copies of it were made and one was kept in the Novodevichy Convent. In 2001, the old parchment is said to have miraculously renewed itself acquiring the hues of the original version. Women inspired by spiritual pursuits perceive such developments as divine interventions that help them renew their faith.
As Sister Ivana, a present resident of Novodevichy Convent, puts it, “We have been yearning to dedicate our lives to God and had heard stories of how our grand aunts did just that. I am grateful I have got an opportunity to do this now.” The convent runs a shop that sells not only paintings and embroidery done by the nuns but also handy tourist ware. Incidentally, this convent had always been known for the excellence of its art. Having been patronised by royalty, it always got the best teachers and those who learnt had no other distractions other than producing their finest work.
Today, as you stand by Moscowsky Prospect, you can see passersby bow and cross their heart as they pass Novodevichy Convent. But its spiritual appeal notwithstanding, here is an institutions that has seen how piety often mingles with power, getting transformed in the process. (WFS)
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