The Old Believers Monastery in Wojnowo

The Old Believers Monastery is situated in a small village near Ruciane- Nida in Wojnowo. It is the village inhabited by believers from the fourth creeds: catholics, evangelicals, Orthodox and Old Believers. At first, let’s explain who the old believers were: the Philipons, Old believers.

raskolniks, unreformed splitter religion group of Orthodox church. Its clergy with the protopope Awwakum did not agree to the reforms introduced by the Patriarch Nikon in 1653. They involved the unification of rituals (i.e introducing Greek rituals where local discrepancies occurred). The history of the Masurian Philipons are closely related to the monastery in Wojnowo. The first mention of the monastery dates back to the year 1936 when Ławrientij Rastopin (1762-1851) built a small hermitage at the Rus Lake .

Then in 1847 it was transformed into the monastery. The first prior of the monastery was Michaił Chawronin. Two years later the monastery in Wojnowo became a branch of the famous centre for the Philipons in Moscow. The monastery developed the most quickly in the years 1852-1867 during the times of the prior Paweł Pruski. (Pieter Iwanowicz Lendiew, 1821-1895).

In 1885 the nun Eupraksja came to Wojnowo and bought the monastery. Then she established the convent then. The nuns from Russia came to the convent in Wojnowo. In 1868 Leon Ludwikowski became the owner of the convent and promised to look after the two nuns living in the convent. At present the convent belongs to Mr Krzysztof Ludwikowski (the son of the previous owner).