History of Kupyatitsky church

Kobrin → Creativity of fellow countrymen → Marchuk Nina Grigoryevna

History of Kupyatitsky Sacred and Nikolaev church, its shrine of the Mother of God of "Defender of Polesia" and Sacred Vvedensky Monastery.

In Kupyatitsky Sacred and Nikolaev church that near the city of Pinsk, in the village Kupyatichi, there is the most ancient icon of an unusual form on the Belarusian earth in the form of a cross engolpion. It is the exact copy made in the 17th century of a wonder-working icon of "Mother of God the Kupyatitsky" which apprehended on itself grace of the first icon and became famous for miracles. A cross engolpion – an Old Russian cross of 12 cm x 12 cm, from a mednolity (bronze) plate of 11-15 centuries. On one party of a cross the relief image of Blessed Virgin Mary with the baby on the left hand, on a reverse side – the Crucifixion.

History of this icon such is.
In 1182 a certain shepherdess Anna found out in the neighborhood of the village Kupyatichi that near Pinsk which is hung up on a tree a bronze cross engolpion which was apprehended as a wonder-working icon of the Mother of God which celebration was brought in a church calendar under November 15 subsequently.

The difficult historical future expected a precious find. In the 17th century the icon gets to Kiev where in the 20th years of the last century completely disappears. Popularity to an icon was given by engravings of the 17th century, it is necessary to tell, peculiar interpreting the original. Addition to the collection "Teraturgima" (miracles) made by the celibate priest of the Kyiv Pechersk monastery Afanasy Kalnofoysky is the main source of historical data on a kupyatitsky cross engolpion. The collection was published in Kiev in Polish in 1638.

But still there are several books about this icon: celibate priest Ioanniky Galyatovsky, 1665, book "Sky New"; archbishop Lazar Baranovich, 1674; "The Minsk eparkhalny sheets", 1891. According to the legend stated in Afanasy Kalnoforiysky's book, the country girl grazing cattle found unusual beauty a cross with a crucifixion on one party and the Mother of God on another, on a tree, in blackthorn thickets on the place full "купин".

Hid the find, but the cross came back to the former place. The father of the girl and neighbors, having seen such miracle, cleared away the place and built small wooden church there. Also more than fifty years prayed there. According to the legend, it seems in 1240, Tatars burned the temple, and locals could not find the esteemed cross on a big fire.

If to look at that on the card of "the Tatar invasions" accepted in a modern historiography there were no Tatars on the Turovo-Pinsky principality. And whether there were it Tatars if were, go, understand in eight centuries. And only in the 15th century the relic was found by the monk-pilgrim, Jehoiakim where in again built temple he became a sexton. Also there was it somewhere in 1495 when certain "the princess Maria granted Kupyatitsky church dvorishche". In the second half of the 16th century the Kupyatitsky church is updated by relatives of the Brest kashtelyan Grigory Voyna.

It ordered and made "the appropriate frame for a wonder-working image". The image was attached then to a square gilded board and inserted into the mentioned frame. In 1617 the church was robbed. But the thief was caught and burned as the church robber. The icon was returned. Later the manor Voynov was bought by Vasily Kopets. And in 1628-29 at Kupyatitsky church the man's monastery, at Apolonija Voyna's insistance, because of her great worship of a wonder-working icon was founded.

Monks from Vilensky of Sacred Dukhov of the monastery lodged in the new monastery. The abbot Illarion Denisovich headed Kupyatichsky monastery. According to stock of 1631 the complex of the monastery was wooden: a two-level brama-zvonitsa with a cross and 4 rings. To the right from Bramah church of the Virgin. Nearby kaplichka of the prelate Nikolay. Nearby three wooden houses, one for the abbot, two for monks: refectory, bakery. The monastery possessed six dragged lands (or 128 hectares for today).

Two barns, shed for animals entered a complex, the barn-klyunya, a bath, a well to senozhat, the wood, two lakes with fish. And further – a cemetery. I want to add: the monastic kaplichka was under construction in memory of plague which raged in the village Kupyatichi until monks did not carry by Saint Nikolay's image on villages. By the way, in this kaplichka Grigory Voyna was buried kashtelyan.

In 1638 the abbot of the monastery Illarion Denisovich published notes about stories of the Kupyatitsky temple and monastery, about miracles of an image of a cross of the Virgin Kupyatitskaya. At the monastery there was a library. It is known from stock of 1631. The hand-written book – Ivangliye, laid over by silver, three Psalters, four Prologues, the Statute of VKL, the book of Apostles, the Breviary, the Book of Prophets had huge interest.
There were also printing editions of Moscow and Vilno.

In favor of the monastery various donations arrived. V. Kopets presented to the monastery 4 drag (86 hectares) lands, two in Kupyatichi, two in of Volk. In 1648 the landowner Grigory Furs presented to the monastery of 500 zloties on condition that he will be buried in the monastery, hoping for eternal rest.

In 1659 the princess Maria Radzivill transferred to the monastery 1000 zloties. The Kupyatitsky monastery arose in time when on the Belarusian lands the uniatstvo was approved. The Brest church union of 1596 meant creation of the new church organization within the Kiev mother country in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (differently the state which arose in the territory of present Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and truly Corona). The idea was supported by the Polish king and the grand duke Lithuanian. Creation of uniatsky church meant a gap with orthodox Constantinople and Moscow patriarchies, recognition of the power of the father and the Roman curia. Opposed uniatsky church: orthodox clergy of Moskovia, some narrow-mindedness and shlyakht. The temple of the kupyatitsky monastery was repaired and completed.

In 1637 monks raised money for restoration of the temple, but not at the. The diploma on monetary collecting to Moscow was incurred by the Deputy Kiev metropolitan Afanasy Fillipovich. In March, 1638 the Moscow tsar Mikhail Fedorovich (Peter I's father) received a typographical "paperovy" print of an image of the Kupyatitsky Mother of God.

The cross engolpion here is reproduced by the engraver with noticeable simplification. But the engraving obviously promoted popularity of an image of the Mother of God Kupyatitskoy. By the way, in the collection "Teraturgima" there was a typographical print identical to the presented tsar. It means that on the way to Moscow Afanasy Fillipovich served a prayer in Kiev, having placed this "paperovy" image which is probably printed in Kiev on a table.

Almost orthodox church continued to exist illegally. But in 1633 it was again officially accepted, but with a certain division of the rights. It should be noted that the uniatsky church was "mass" church and the number of uniats by the end of the 17th century for the first time surpassed the number of the orthodox population.

The policy of uniats with Orthodoxy after all promoted synthesis of cultural and cultural wealth and tendencies. But there was also other party of a medal: property of separate orthodox churches under the threat were transferred to uniats, orthodox schools, temples, monasteries were often closed. But the newly elected Kiev metropolitan Pyotr Mogila (1633-1647) managed to subordinate temples of the city of Pinsk to the prior of kupyatitsky Vvedensky Monastery Illarion Denisovich. But for 17-18 centuries abbots of the Kupyatitsky monastery submitted to the archimandrite of Vilensky Sacred and Wind monastery.

But despite recognition of orthodox church in 1633, Orthodox Christians and uniats treated one another, to put it mildly, unfriendly. New ease to Orthodoxy was approved in 1650 by the Polish king Jan Casimir. However opposition continued. And then kupyatitsky monks, being afraid to lose the shrine, a cross engolpion, in 1655 transfer a wonder-working image of the Virgin to Kiev, previously having made a cross – imitation of woodcarving. The bronze cross was accepted by the metropolitan Sylvester Kosov and placed it in St. Sophia Cathedral.

What represents a carved wooden cross of the reproduced relic?

Actually is the woodcarving executed on the basis of a sample of already mentioned engraving of 1638, but not the bronze original of the 12th century. The board plate decorated with an engraving and a laid on wreath has the nest in a form and the sizes corresponding to wooden cross. Apparently, for it it was also made. If to consider the fact that the wreath, as we know, was supplied date – on July 23, 1658, the icon case by the specified time already existed. The square silver plate, 15,5 cm x 15,5 cm in size, is framed with the roller. The round cover shutter of a silver panagia decorated with an engraving of the Mother of God Kupyatitskoy, and from the inside – the Holy Trinity is attached to a frame.

Follows from the engraved memorable inscription that the product is made for monastic Vvedenskaya Church. And in stock of church of the village Kupyatichi of 1631 there is a record "image of a tsudovna, opravna on both sides silver gilt". Here the speech obviously goes about earlier registration.

In the 18th century the kupyatitsky monastery becomes a piece of abuse between Catholics, uniats and Orthodox Christians. In 1722 Ludwig Tamilovich, the prior of the gorodishchensky Benedictine monastery, force seized the Vvedensky kupyatichsky Monastery. And same 1722 the complaint "departed" to Kiev. A year later, in 1723, already royal emissaries, returned to Orthodox Christians kupyatichsky monastery. However in 1741 the same monks-benediktovtsy seized the monastery again. Took away library, church utensils, bells (4 pieces) and 12 people of citizens.

It is known that in 1743 the kupyatitsky monastery became uniatsky. It is known, as in 1784 the kupyatitsky monastery was uniatsky. It seems that it ceased to exist at the end of the 18th century, and by 1794 the monastery returned to Orthodoxy, but was attributed to Pinsky Epiphany Monastery. (Till our time nothing from monastic structures remained).

After accession in 1793 of Pinsky Polesia to the Russian Empire mass transition of uniats to Orthodoxy began. On contemporary records it is known that in 1797 the priest with the Russian surname Ioann Medvedkov (a Smolensk priestly sort) of N.M. was a kupyatitsky prior)

The next priest Andrei Szymanowski in 1828 sorted shabby already Nikolaev church and constructed new. On December 15, 1863 the kupyatichsky priest appointed Felix Druzhilovsky. And in 1867 at the expense of treasury the new wooden church which remained up to now was constructed.

Felix Druzhilovsky continued case of the predecessors Iosif Zagorovsky and Vasily Grudnitsky on studying of history of local church, having printed in the Minskiye Eparkhialnye Novosti newspaper, 1874, No. 9. Since 1864 in arrival the holiday in honor of the Kupyatitsky icon of the Mother of God annually began to be made on November 15. History of the Kupyatitsky icon concerned also later local priests. So, the pinsky priest Vasily Perepechin (1865-1910) wrote big article about a wonder-working icon of the village Kupyatichi in "The Minsk Eparkhalny news", 1891, to No. 21-24.

Here so Kupyatitsky arrival in 1901 was described by the priest Flore Hlebtsevitch (1852-1912): "It is registered in church: village Kupyatichi of 6 villages and 1 farm; parishioners of 1312 men and 1360 women, church earth of 67 tithes (73 hectares)". In 1914 in Kupyatichakh there were 1048 inhabitants, there was a national school with 133 pupils. And in 1915 in Kupyatichakh kayzerovets already managed. Six years the church stood empty and a floor of destroyed. In 1921 in it the new prior Yakov Kalinin appeared. In 1926 the temple was headed by the prior Lavrenti Novakovich.

For 24 years of service it made much both for the temple, and for parishioners. And history of his life and works demands the separate description. But I will stop that on July 19, 1940 to the village there arrived three militiamen and sentenced the priest according to Art. 74 of UK BSSR to 8 years of corrective camps. But in April, 1942 the priest was released, and he on foot went home, but caught a cold and died in the Kirov region. In 1989 it is rehabilitated. For today still his foster daughter Maria, 1935 of year of birth is living. Lives in the village Kupyatichi, near the temple. In July, 1944 during release of the village from fascists, nine shells got to village Kupyatichi St. Nicholas Church. They destroyed an iconostasis, an altar, a temple roof.

From 1947 to 1952 in Kupyatichakh the archpriest Konstantin Komar svyashchenstvovat. From 1952 to 1956 Konstantin Homich, in the future the archbishop Brest and Kobrin (till 2000) was a priest. But temple life in later time still is remembered by contemporaries. And it is other story. And now about an icon of the Kupyatitsky Mother of God in church and art traditions. Though in the beginning it is necessary to remember as follows.

Kupyatichsky parishioners always believed that their icon granted for centuries force them to ancestors to be truly orthodox. Therefore began to ask the archbishop Mikhail about return of an original shrine from Kiev. The application was submitted on January 31, 1852. The holy Synod made on December 31, 1856 the decision of the following contents.

First, the icon was property of the monastery, but not the church constructed in 1828. And monks, but not ancestors of applicants of 200 years brought that an icon to Kiev. In additives, the Nikolaev church of the village Kupyatichi has a copy of an icon cross executed on a tree. And same ancient, as well as original.

So, since 1638, various editions began to reproduce the image of the Mother of God Kupyatitskoy in an engraving. And since 1659 the shrine is already considered Kiev. The cross engolpion transferred to Kiev in 1655 constantly draws now attention to itself. Till 1700 the image was attached to a silver gilded board, it is more probable than it so brought from Kupyatich. But in 1700 over a cross arranged the gilded crosswise "shata".

Today several works of gold sewing, the Kiev origin which served as podeas to an icon are known. One of them is stored in the Chernihiv historical museum, another – in Zvenigorod. As a sample for the central image of sewing served the engraving of 1638. The same can be told also about two clubs, one of which in private collection in Germany, another in the museum of Ukraine, in Kiev.

In the Kyiv Pechersk lavrsky vestry remained a phelonion (clothes) of the middle of the 18th century on which oplechya gold reproduction of the Mother of God Kupyatitskoy is sewed. This cross engolpion in the 12th century was made in Kiev, there it returned five centuries later and completely disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century.

But in Kiev since the 17th century became shirokopochitay, the truth with interpretation. Especially in an engraving and gold sewing. And still, destiny of an image of the Mother of God Kupyatitskoy happy. Today remind similar crosses, engravings and sewing of it. And thanks to it it remained in memory of many generations.

I think that the reader, having up to the end read this history, will find an opportunity to kneel down before image of the wonder-working Mother of God in Sacred Nikolaevsk the temple of the village Kupyatichi that absolutely near Pinsk. And to receive grace in the requests prayers.

P.S. 1. In February, 2013 I was in this temple of the village Kupyatichi and inclined knees in a request before a fertile image.
2. I thank Alexander Ilyin for the help in material preparation.

2013

Materials







Our partners