I 



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ST. TRIPHON'S MONASTERY 179 



he had died seven years ago ; and the Tsar thereupon conferred many 

 benevolent favours upon the monastery. 



After the death of Triphon, the fate of the Pechenga Monastery, 

 which he had founded, became a very sad one. His prophetic saying 

 that many of the brethren would suffer by the sword, was literally 

 fulfilled in seven years. In 1590, a week before Christmas, a band 

 of Swedes burnt the Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, 

 where the bones of Triphon rested in a secluded spot. They also 

 tortured to death hieromonk Jonas, and the monk Herman, and then 

 they hid themselves in ambash.^ On Christmas Day they broke into 

 the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, and with brutal cruelty they 

 began putting to death the monks and laymen, who were celebrating 

 the Holy Liturgy in the church ; some they cut in two crosswise, 

 others they cleaved in half lengthwise, and of others they cut off 

 their arms and legs. Abbot Gouri and other hieromonks they 

 tortured in various ways ; they pierced them with their weapons, 

 or roasted them over the fire to extort from them where the riches 

 of the monastery were hidden ; but the sufferers underwent all these 

 tortures in silence, and the infuriated Swedes at last hewed them to 

 pieces. Having secured all the plunder they could, they set fire to 

 the church and all the buildings of the monastery. In all, fifty- one 

 monks and sixty-five laymen and workmen perished ; only those 

 survived who were absent in the service of the monastery. On their 

 return they buried the murdered victims with all honours. 



The remains of the martyrs now rest in one grave, close to 

 the spot where once stood the Trinity Church and the old 

 monastery. 



There are also records of this sanguinary event in Norway. Our 

 Russian Consul, D. N. Ostrovsky, discovered in the Norwegian State 

 Archives an ancient Danish document concerning the destruction 



^ According to tradition the Swedes dared not for a whole week approach the 

 monastery, because they thought that the ramparts of the monastery were occupied by 

 a large number of armed warriors. 



