The small town of Pochaiv, now in Kremenets raion in Ternopil oblast, is well known in Ukraine and abroad as a place of religious pilgrimage.
Visitors to this place feel an unusual energy emanating from the earth. It is no accident that many illustrious persons were born here, including Dmytro “Baida” Vyshnevetsky, the founder of the Zaporozhian Sich, Juliusz Slowacki, the well-known classic of Polish literature, Ulas Samchuk, one of the most prominent 20th-century Ukrainian prose writers, and many others.
When you travel from Kremenets to Pochaiv, you cannot help admiring the local landscape. The low-lying fields suddenly give way to picturesque forested mountains. Bozha Hora (God’s Mountain) is particularly striking: it is a virtual “whirlwind of energy.” Locals say that if a cloud comes from Bozha Hora, it is bound to rain and if the mountain is clear, the weather will be good. There is a natural spring — wonder of wonders! — near the summit of Bozha Hora. Another spring, called St. Anna’s, thunders a few miles away. The temperature of the water — 4 degrees Celsius — is the same all year round. Perhaps Bozha Hora or this spring should have become the main destination of pilgrims, but by force of various, sometimes purely human, circumstances, Lady Luck smiled on Pochaiv.
By the late 18th and early 19th century Ukrainians already considered Pochaiv a holy place, along with the monasteries and churches of Kyiv. Proof of this may be found in the works of Shevchenko whose poetry offers subtle interpretations of the Ukrainian people’s religious views. A number of his heroes go to Kyiv and Pochaiv to pray. We see this in the poems “The Blind Woman,” “The Captive,” and “Petrus.” It was during this period that a number of myths surrounding the Pochaiv Monastery arose; they still circulate today and are described in Orthodox publications. According to a very popular legend, the monastery was founded in 1240, when the monks of the Kyivan Cave Monastery, who were fleeing from the Tatars, settled on Pochaiv Mountain. Similar legends exist about other cloisters, and in those days it was considered prestigious to trace one’s origins to Kyiv’s famous monastery.
However, there is no firm evidence that the Pochaiv monastery was founded in 1240. Authentic documents of the time do not mention it. The village of Pochaiv is first mentioned in 1450, but there was an ancient Rus’ settlement on the site of Pochaiv. Initially, the village belonged to the Kremenets castle and then to the Gojski nobles.
Some sources claim that the first authentic historical record of Pochaiv Monastery dates back to 1527. But this cannot be considered proof of the monastery’s existence, for it is an instruction from the Polish king Sigismund I to the Kremenets starosta Yakiv Montovych not to meddle in the Gojski landlords’ affairs and not levy taxes on people who sell food in Pochaiv on the feast day of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We can only deduce from this document that there was a Dormition Church in Pochaiv at the time, in front of which people sold their wares on the feast day.
The real history of Pochaiv Monastery begins no earlier than the late 16th century. The owner of Pochaiv, Anna Gojska, the widow of a Lutsk judge, founded a cloister here on Nov. 14, 1597, as attested by a document. She also presented 10 voloks (over 200 hectares) of arable land, hayfields, and woods to the monastery. Every year she donated a certain amount of money and a tenth of the harvested grain to the monastery.
A legend says that in 1597 Anna Gojska ordered the transfer of a miraculous icon of the Holy Virgin to Pochaiv. The icon reportedly healed Anna’s brother, who was blind from birth. Today this icon is the monastery’s chief sacred object. It is difficult to judge how much this legend corresponds to reality. In any case, there are no historical documents that would attest to this event. In all probability, the legend explained the founding of the monastery in a mythological way.
A major role in the establishment of the monastery in Pochaiv was played by Iov Zalizo (c. 1550-1651). In 1582 he was appointed hegumen of the Dubno Monastery of the True Cross, which was under the protection of Prince Vasyl-Kostiantyn Ostrozsky. Iov held this office for about 20 years. Somewhere in the early 17th century he left Dubno for unknown reasons and settled on Pochaiv Mountain.
Having acquired extensive experience in monastery management, Iov organized a communal cloister in Pochaiv, guided by the monastic statute of Fedir the Studite. In the process he encountered great difficulties. After the death of Anna Gojska, Pochaiv obtained a new owner: her grandson Andriy Firlei, who was a Protestant, who clashed with the Pochaiv monks, apparently over property. This kind of conflict was a common occurrence at the time, for monasteries were not only religious communes but also profitable economic entities.
In fact, the conflict concerned the fact that Firlei had sent his servant Hryhoriy Kozynsky and some armed men to Pochaiv Monastery to plunder it. The robbers seized the icon and other church valuables, such as gold, silver, precious stones, and expensive robes. It is now supposed that Firlei’s wife desecrated the icon of the Holy Virgin and other monastery valuables. As a result of her actions, she fell ill, and her husband returned the icon to the monastery in great fear. In reality, Firlei was forced to return the looted valuables by order of the Lublin tribunal.
More often than not this clash between Firlei and the Pochaiv monks is described as an interdenominational conflict: a Protestant owner pitted against Orthodox monks. Naturally, adherence to different denominations may have had certain consequences, but this kind of conflict was also common among Orthodox noblemen and Orthodox monks. Some sources report that monasteries were sometimes attacked by Ukrainian peasants, who were Orthodox. In 1648 rebellious peasants attacked Pochaiv Monastery and seized its property, cattle, and grain. Paradoxically enough, the monastery obtained support from Prince Jeremi Wisniowiecki whom the Orthodoxy portrays as its sworn enemy. In July 1651 the prince gave the monastery a certificate providing for protection from the Polish army.
In those conflicts Iov Zalizo managed not only to stand his ground but also to expand the monastery. He found wealthy Ukrainian landlords among Orthodox noble families, who made donations: the Ushkivskys, Dolynskys, Kulykovskys, Zhabokrytskys, Puzyns, Malynskys, Stashkevyches, Yasnohirskys, etc. Prominent among them were Fedir and Eva Domashevsky, owners of the village of Berezhtsi near Pochaiv, who donated sizable amounts of money to the monastery. In 1649 their efforts helped to build Trinity Church on Pochaiv Mountain, where the Holy Virgin’s wonder-working icon was placed.
During this period a cult grew up around the Pochaiv Mother of God. Word spread that the small mountain spring was the footprint of the Holy Virgin. A shelter was built over the spring in 1649. In 1665 the Lviv print shop of Tymofiy Slezka published Ioanikiy Galiatovsky’s work New Sky with New Stars. It contains an account about a 13th-century peasant, Ivan Bosy, who saw the Holy Virgin on Pochaiv Mountain, from under whose foot a spring of clean and salubrious water began to spurt.
Another milestone in the formation of the cult of the Pochaiv Virgin Mary was a legendary tale about how the Mother of God protected the monastery from an attack by the Turks in July 1675. According to this legend, Iov Zalizo, who by this time had died and been canonized, appeared with the Virgin Mary over Trinity Church. The Holy Virgin diverted the Turkish arrows and bullets from the monastery, and the confounded invaders became frightened and abandoned Pochaiv.
This legendary event was reflected in the songs “The Evening Star Has Risen” and “Shepherds Grazed the Sheep on the Hill,” and in other examples of Ukrainian religious folk lyrics. As time went by, other legends cropped up about the Pochaiv Mother of God. The monastery’s religious authority received a powerful boost when the metropolitan of Kyiv, Dionisiy Balaban, canonized Iov Zalizo in 1659.
The monastery now had its own saint and many legends arose about the Holy Virgin’s protection. It began to be regarded as a holy place. However, the monastery was not especially popular in the 17th century, as it was one of many Ukrainian monasteries of “local importance.” In any case, there were far more well-known monasteries in Volhynia at the time, such as the famous Derman Monastery.
Pochaiv Monastery gained popularity in the 18th century by force of seemingly trivial circumstances. Early in the century it was taken over by the Ukrainian Greek Catholics, in 1712, 1713, or 1721, according to various scholars. The latter date is the most probable.
The monastery was taken over by Basilian monks in 1739. Armed with great experience in organizing monastic life, they quickly transformed the monastery not only into a powerful religious but also a financial, economic, cultural, and educational center. The monastery owned much land and a number of workshops. Efficient management and donations contributed to the financial might of the monastery, which in fact assumed the functions of a lending bank. The monastery ran a school (noviciatum) that trained monks. Only two monasteries, including Pochaiv, had this kind of school. The monks and their students also had a rich library at their disposal.
The Pochaiv print shop was renowned, and its publications were circulated throughout Ukraine. The first important book published by the Pochaiv Basilian monks in 1735 was the Sluzhebnyk [Missal]. This was followed by Narodovishchanie [Important Tidings to the People] (1756, 1786, 1778), a collection of oratorical and didactic prose, and Bohohlasnyk [The Voice of God] (1790) which contained religious poems and songs. Significantly, a number of books were printed in a language similar to spoken Ukrainian. For example, the overwhelming majority (214) of entries in Bohohlasnyk was written in spoken Ukrainian or the Ukrainian version of Old Church Slavonic.
The Pochaiv Monastery print shop reached its acme in 1772-1795, the period of its most intensive publishing activity. Under tsarist Russian rule, this hub of publishing began to decline. Over the 100 years of its Greek Catholic existence, the monastery produced about 200 books (according to some estimates: 300). It was thus one of Ukraine’s largest publishing centers.
The second half of the 18th century saw the formation of the present-day architectural ensemble of Pochaiv Monastery. This became possible thanks to the generous financial support of Count Mikolaj Potocki. A legend says that this magnate once wanted to shoot his driver, who had accidentally overturned the carriage. But the driver prayed to the Pochaiv Mother of God, and the magnate’s pistol misfired. Potocki then began to venerate this sacred place, converted to Greek Catholicism, and donated a large amount of money to the monastery. It is easy to see that this legend emerged in the wake of the cult associated with the Pochaiv Mother of God.
Potocki may also have been guided by ambitious considerations when he donated money to the monastery. Taking part in its renovation, he had an opportunity to become famous. Donating money to a monastery was also considered a godly activity that guaranteed absolution of sins and salvation. According to hearsay, Potocki was said to be an inveterate sinner.
(To be concluded in the next issue of The Day)
