SOLOVKI. - Name by which the famous Russian monastery is ordinarily called, once "stauropegiac," in the Solovetsky archipelago (White Sea, north of Archangelsk), founded in 1429 by the monks German and Savvaty; a short time later the monk Zosima joined them, and in the course of time he became, together with Savvaty, one of the most famous saints of the Russian Church. The monks gradually occupied all the islands and part of the mainland.
The monastery was surrounded in 1548 by walls to protect it against enemy attacks. In it flourished monks of holy life such as the hegumen Irinarch (1613-26) and the anchorite Eleazar who lived on the island of Anzer (the middle of the 17th century). Nikon, later patriarch of Moscow, also stayed there for a certain time. At the beginning of the schism of the Old Believers, S. rebelled against the "innovations" of Nikon. It was conquered only in 1676 after a siege of seven years. From that time it became increasingly the goal of numerous pilgrimages during the summer.
After the Bolshevik Revolution S. lost all its possessions, the island was turned into a concentration camp, to which numerous Catholic priests condemned to forced labor in those forests were deported. The monastery, however, was not officially suppressed; it is possible that even now (1953) some monks reside there.
Bibliography2 works
Alberto Maria Ammann