Svensky Monastery

Svensky Monastery (Russian: Свенский монастырь) is a Russian Orthodox monastery located at the confluence of the Desna and Svin Rivers, three miles from Bryansk, Russia. The monastery was originally known as Svinsky, after the Svin River, but the spelling was subsequently changed to Svensky, because "svinsky" also means "of the swine" in Russian.

Church legends attribute the monastery's foundation to Prince Roman of Bryansk, who was reportedly buried there. As the legend has it, the monastery was founded to mark the place where a miraculous icon of the Theotokos appeared to Roman, the second son of St. Mikhail of Chernigov, and cured him of blindness. A tree where it was found, was chopped down to be used for icon painting.

The miraculous icon represents the Theotokos Panachrantos with SS. Anthony and Theodosius. It is popularly attributed to the most celebrated icon-painter of Kievan Rus, St. Alypius from the Kiev Pechersk Monastery. Nikodim Kondakov supposed that the icon was modeled on a mosaic from the central conch of the Assumption Cathedral in the Pechersk Monastery.

In the 16th century, the monastery was repeatedly sacked by the Crimean Tatars. After one such raid, Ivan the Terrible donated funds sufficient to build a cathedral of five domes, a refectory church, and a belltower. The cathedral doors of rare craftsmanship were endowed by Prince Ivan Mstislavsky. The church of SS. Anthony and Theodosius was started on 19 May 1566; its vaults suffered a collapse a year later but were restored.

After Russia gained the Left-bank Ukraine by the Treaty of Andrusovo, the liveliest fair in the region was held annually underneath the walls of the Svensky Monastery, then run by ethnic Ukrainians, such as John Maksymovych, the future Archbishop of Chernigov. Its ties with the Kiev Pechersk Lavra were so close that in 1682 the Svensky Monastery was transformed into a branch of the lavra, its name changed from Svensky to New Pechersk monastery.

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