Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/180

Rh saint Alexander Nevski, and enshrining them in a vast convent, raised to rank with the famous lavra of the Petcherski and the Troïtsa.

At the great festivals of the Church these religious centres are still thronged by pilgrims, but their permanent inmates and regular votaries are now but few, and may be counted by scores, instead of by hundreds. The spirit of monasticism is less fervent than in former days, and the geographical distribution of existing monasteries marks the change. They are more numerous in the ancient cities, around the old capitals, Kiev and Moscow, and within the former republics, Novgorod and Pskov; less so in provinces recently colonized and peopled. Their numbers actually correspond to the antiquity, rather than to the density, of the population. In the empire there are in all about 550; in every bishopric there is at least one, the superior of which is, by right of his office, member of the diocesan council; they are served by about 5900 monks and 4900 nuns in full standing, with 4100 lay brethren, and 13,000 lay sisters and novices.

The causes of the noticeable decline in the monastic spirit, while religion retains firm hold upon the people, are both moral and political in their nature. Monasticism in Russia has never felt the renewing and vivifying influences springing from works of active charity and benevolence, while the more fervently devout and piously inclined of the population have been drawn away from the national Church, and from its institutions, by dissenting sects. The ready favor with which schismatic doctrines were received by the monks, as, for instance, at Solovetsk, brought them into direct antagonism with the authorities of the Church, who, determined to stamp out Dissent at any cost, subjected all religious institutions to strict supervision and severe regulations. The persistent