The Inhabitants of the Tomsk Monastery of St. John the Baptist (1869–1917): The Experience of Prosopographical Research

The article presents a collective portrait of the nuns and novices of the Tomsk monastery of St. John the Baptist from 1869 to 1917. The basis for the analysis is the lists of the monastery's residents for the given period. They are studied using the methods of prosopographic research, which allows us to determine from which places the women and girls came to the monastery, what social status and origin they had, what education they received, what activities they pursued in the monastery, as well as to trace the dynamics of changes in their status in the community. It turned out that most of the monastery's residents came from different regions of Siberia. However, among the novices and nuns were also those who had moved to Western Siberia from the regions of European Russia – immigrants to Siberia and novices, nuns who had been sent to the Tomsk monastery by the decision of the hierarchy. Among the residents, most were unmarried girls who had chosen to enter the convent. Widows were represented to a lesser extent. Women and girls of peasant origin and middle-class women dominated the class composition. However, origin from the lower classes did not affect the status of the resident women in the community. It was not determined by origin but by skills and abilities. Education was of particular importance, and the leadership of the monastic community encouraged the teaching of nuns to read and write. This enabled these nuns and novices to serve in the temple and also to teach at the monastery's theological school, whose work was an important part of the monastery's social service. The composition of the monastic community was stable, and the average length of stay of a resident in the monastery was 15 years or more. There were extremely rare cases of a sister leaving the convent. At the same time, the journey from a "probationary sister" to a nun could take ten years or more, as the age for taking religious vows was prescribed. Thus, the spiritual growth of the residents took place over many years, combined with the development of new skills and increasing education.

prosopography, prosopographical method, lists of nuns, Tomsk monastery of St. John the Baptist, monasticism, nun