Description of the attraction
The Church of St. Irina in Volgovo was the only church in pre-revolutionary Russia, which was consecrated in honor of the Great Martyr Irina. Today the temple is experiencing its new birth.
Once upon a time there were Irinovsky monasteries in Russia, and both were founded by Prince Yaroslav in the 9th century. in honor of the wife of Ingegerda (Saint Anna): one of them was located in Kiev and was destroyed during the Tatar-Mongol invasion, the other in Novgorod.
From the beginning of the 18th century. until 1874 the village of Volgovo was the possession of the noble family Golubtsov. It was inherited by Fyodor Alexandrovich Golubtsov, who was a holder of many orders, statesman, and in 1807-1810. Minister of Finance. In 1809 Fyodor Alexandrovich received permission to build a stone church in honor of St. Irene on his estate. The church was built in 1812. The church was erected on a hill opposite the manor house. In June 1817, the church was consecrated as a home. A small chapel was built next to the church.
The villages surrounding the estate were inhabited by Russians and Finns. Everyday and cultural interaction constantly took place between different peoples. Mixed marriages led to the mutual penetration of Orthodox and Lutheran cultures.
In 1904, while examining the churches of Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo, His Grace Sergius drew attention to the situation of the Finns, who were deprived of the opportunity to hear the word of God due to a lack of understanding of the Russian language. To rectify the situation, the bishop proposed to create a special church for Orthodox Finns, in which services will be conducted in Finnish. For this, it was proposed to use the Irina Church, which at that time was almost empty.
In 1909, a Russian-Finnish parish was formed in Volgovo. Divine services were conducted here in Finnish and Russian. The parish included the village of Volgovo and the neighboring villages of Muratovo and Gorki, Ozhogino and Kotino, Mednikovo and Finatovo. Irininsky temple was the only Finnish Orthodox church in Russia. In this regard, special attention was paid to him, because he helped to attract the Finnish population to the Orthodox Church.
The rector of the Irina Church was the priest Nikolai Zotikov, who was respected by the Orthodox and "heterodox" population of Estonian and Finnish origin. The temple in the village of Volgovo became a link between the two cultures: Lutheran Finns came to services here, and the rector of the Orthodox Church has always been a welcome guest at church and folk holidays among the Finns in neighboring villages.
When in 1912 V. I. Smirnov, peasants I. A. Hamyalainen and I. A. Kekki, the Russian-Finnish church was almost closed. The fatal role was played by the fact that the land under the temple was the property of the owners of the estate. And the new owners of the estate wanted to close the church. But the temple was helped by a happy coincidence. Nicholas II was returning from maneuvers through Volgovo. Noticing the church and learning that they want to abolish it, he expressed his regret. As a result, the land plot with the church was donated by the owners of the estate to the diocesan department.
The Irininsky temple existed until 1936. In 1939 it was closed. During the war, the parish was active. But the church was used by the Germans as a warehouse, so services were held in the village of Ozhogino in a parish school. After the war, the church was used as a club. In the early 1990s. the village club was closed and the building was ransacked. The church gradually collapsed.
In the mid-1990s. the temple was transferred to the St. Petersburg diocese. Since 2000, the revival of the parish has begun with enthusiastic ascetics. The initiative group was headed by Yu. Petrov, a local historian, a resident of neighboring Torosovo. The group also included the architect Sofya Kanaeva with her husband, engineer Peter Kalinin, summer residents and local residents. The parish in Volgovo was registered in 2002, among the founders were the Finns, who were baptized before the war in this church. On May 26, 2002, the first Russian-Finnish prayer service was held near the walls of the dilapidated church after its closure.
They began to revive the parish with the restoration of the chapel. The initiative group collected donations in the surrounding villages. The work was partly done by a bricklayer from the village of Klopitsy free of charge. The first icon for the chapel was donated by the Americans who farm nearby. They also took part in construction work. On May 18, 2004, on the day of the holy Great Martyr Irene, the chapel was consecrated.
In addition to the restoration of the chapel, work is underway in the temple. According to experts, the Irina Church is of interest and is a preserved representative of the architecture of the manor house churches of the 19th century. in the North-West of Russia. During the clearing of the temple, a foundation board was found. The first liturgy in the still being restored church took place on May 18, 2008.
