Saint Theophan the Recluse and Women's Theological Education in the Tambov Diocese in the 1860s-1870s

Abstract

Saint Theophan the Recluse took over the Tambov Diocese during a difficult time of change for Russian society. The liberal reforms of the 1860s contributed to the rapid secularization of society. By the 1860s, the great-grandchildren of the first seminarians were already graduating from the walls of the Tambov Theological Seminary, founded in 1779. The seminary was a kind of cradle of the Tambov professional school. The Tambov Diocesan Women's School was founded by Saint Theophan. Its goal was to educate literate and virtuous wives for clergymen who were striving for education. The school was created with donations from the clergy and secular benefactors. To house it, with the blessing of Bishop Theophan, a house with furniture, outbuildings and a garden was purchased on Varvarinskaya Square in Tambov for 8 thousand silver rubles. Saint Theophan needed his gift of persuasion to prove that the new idea was good for children. Although the Institute for Noble Maidens served as a model for the school, the educational programs and educational work had a number of differences. By 1914, 1,886 girls had graduated from the school, 547 of whom taught in public schools. Educated mothers helped their husbands in teaching schoolchildren, in the work of parish libraries, conducted and sang in the choir, participated themselves and involved peasant women in charity, disseminated sanitary knowledge among parishioners, and were engaged in exemplary gardening. And most importantly, they nursed, raised and taught their numerous children not just in the fear of God, but prepared them for admission to Tambov educational institutions.