Monuments of Peter the Great's epoch in the monasteries of the Olonets eparchy

The article deals with the monuments of the Peter the Great’s epoch (dating to the period between the late XVII century and the first quarter of the XVIII century) existing in the functioning and abolished monasteries of the Olonets Eparchy founded in 1828, which have not been previously studied in Russian historiography. The main sources for the study were property inventories, clerical documents from the funds of individual monasteries and the Olonets and Novgorod ecclesiastical consistories, income and expense books, the published records of the meetings of the Imperial Archaeological Commission, as well as the local history literature of the XIX and the early XX centuries. The paper for the first time summarizes the surviving written evidence of stone and wooden churches built in local monasteries during the late XVII century and the first quarter of the XVIII century, and some monastic relics associated with Peter the Great and his time. The monks received sacred vestments and vozdukhs (veils) made of expensive imported fabrics, richly decorated liturgical books, bells, and special gifts (a reliquary cross, cast-iron cannons, wooden chairs made by the monarch) from the tsar and his relatives. It turns out that of all the many Peter the Great’s legacies only few churches in the functioning monasteries of St. Alexander of Svir and St. Alexander Oshevensky as well as some objects of that glorious epoch that ended up in Soviet museums have survived to this day.