The year 1786 was a difficult year, or, better said, it began a series of difficult years for Little Russian monasticism. An imperial decree was followed to introduce uniformity in the maintenance of Little Russian monasteries with Great Russian monasteries, and this uniformity was to primarily affect the reduction in the number of monasteries and monastics. And indeed, with the introduction of staff in three Little Russian dioceses - Kyiv, Chernihiv and Novgorod-Seversk, 42 monasteries turned out to be subject to closure, and 466 monks and 510 nuns were left in surplus, not counting the extra abbots and abbess, of whom there were 29. What would happen to the poor monastics who remained in excess, which, in the words of the Kyiv Metropolitan, had nowhere to live and nothing to eat? Not suddenly, the highest decree followed, which granted those who remained in excess the sad right, crammed into a small number of surviving monasteries, to live out their lives on supernumerary support, waiting until they were eliminated by death, and local bishops were ordered to report on the success of death in exterminating this superfluous brethren every six months.
The Kyiv Catherine Greek Monastery was in a completely different, exceptionally favorable position. All the Little Russian monasteries were crowded and crowded; even the monasteries that were not closed, but included in the staff, had half or more monks in excess; Meanwhile, in the Greek Kyiv monastery there were only two monks, an abbot and a sexton monk, and Archimandrite Eustathius, 69 years old, the former abbot of the Novgorod-Seversky monastery, who had recently been dismissed with a pension of 500 rubles, was still living. With. per year and very maturely decided that it was better for him to settle where there was more space.
Meanwhile, the states, generally stingy and shy, turned out to be excessively generous for the Greek monastery. Then there was an era of enthusiasm
*) From the archival files of St. Synod.
F THE Kyiv TH CENTURY.
studies by the Greek project; the government carefully looked for in Russia all the elements of rapprochement with the Greek nation: even regarding Russian monks, it was circularly required to know whether anyone could read, write and speak Greek. Moreover, the government could not leave an entire Greek monastery without special attention. And so we see that, in the states of South Africa. 1786, the Greek Catherine Monastery was established in the 2nd class, therefore 17 monks were appointed in it under the abbot of the archimandrite. Such a disproportion between the staffing position of the Greek monastery and its reality forced the Kyiv Metropolitan Samuil to turn to Si. synod with the following report (dated June 11, 1786); “As in the second-class Greek monastery of Catherine, which has become a regular number, there is now only one abbot and one monk, and according to the regular position in this monastery there should be all 17 monastics with the abbot; for this reason, for the sake of the holy ruling synod, respectfully representing it, whether from the Greek nation or from those remaining in the Kyiv diocese With the abundance of monastics, that Greek monastery will be ordered to be filled, and I have a duty to await the resolution of the decree regarding the promotion of Abbot Iakovos, who is in that monastery, to archimandrite.
Regarding the report of the Kyiv Metropolitan, in the office of St. synod, information was collected about the Kyiv-Greek monastery and about Abbot Iakov. And it turned out this:
a) about the monastery. “The place where the Greek Catherine Monastery is located was ceded in 1737 by a resident of the Kyiv Greek Aetamatheus Mykolaiv to the Mount Sinai Monastery of the Transfiguration for the construction of a church in the name of St. Great Martyr Catherine for the Greeks traveling to Kyiv, and in order to correct the priesthood there, which was then from Sinai Mountains to Abbot Eugene and henceforth to the clergy sent from there, which church, on the proposal of the late Rev. Raphael, Archbishop of Kyiv, was allowed to be built by the Holy Synod in 1738 so that it would be under the authority of the Kyiv bishop*.
b) about abbot Jacob. Extract from the diocesan register of 1785 “Hegumen Jacob, the son of a Venetian merchant, studied in the region of the Turkish Diocese of Dmitrievsk in the city of Portaria, at the seminary,
F. A. TERNOVSKY,