The Performance of Religious Rites in the Pereyaslavsk County Hospital, Alms, Prisons in the Second Half of the 19th - at the Beginning of the 20th Century

Abstract

The purpose of the publication is to highlight the process of performing religious rites in the Pereyaslav Zemstvo Hospital, the Pereyaslav County Almshouse, and the Pereyaslav Prison Castle in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries in the context of the development of the Zemstvo self-government in Ukraine and the consequences of the social and economic reforms of the imperial era. The relevance of the research was determined by the lack of complex scientific works devoted to this problem. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time this topic has become the object of an independent, comprehensive study. Interest in the performance of religious rites in the Zemstvo institutions of the city of Pereyaslava is caused by their role in the legislative and religious spheres. The importance of the problem and its poor study determine the relevance of the research. The main source for him were the materials of the resolutions and reports of the Pereyaslav district zemstvo assemblies for the period of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The methodological basis of the work is the combined application of general scientific principles of historicism, objectivity, and systematicity. The information introduced into scientific circulation is important for deepening further research into the history of everyday life of the population of Pereyaslav and Pereyaslav District. It was revealed that on the basis of the provisions of the Zemstvo reforms of the 60s of the 18th century and according to the church charter, clergymen of the parishes of the city of Pereyaslav and the county were obliged to perform a wide variety of religious rites for the faithful, including the performance of religious rites (confession, communion, repentance, anointing, synod, etc.) at Pereyaslav Zemstvo Hospital, Pereyaslav County Almshouse, Pereyaslav Prison Castle. It was established that for the sick and dying, this procedure ("sacrament of healing the soul and body") had great moral power, as it gave spiritual healing, even if physical recovery did not accompany it. It is shown that for single and poor patients of the Pereyaslav Zemstvo Hospital, the performance of the Holy Sacraments was free of charge.