The monastery of Petschenga

by J. A. Friis

But at eleven o’clock the solemn function was suddenly interrupted. Some of the work-people rushed into the church and shouted: ‘The enemy is at our gates!’ And a banging of axes on the wooden walls was at the same moment heard within the church. In place of the most solemn silence, there now reigned a most uproarious alarm. The servants of the monastery rushed from the church, and ran to their different dwellings to arm themselves with what weapons they possessed, while the soldiers battered away at the gate of the wooden wall which surrounded the church and other buildings. It was not long before they burst it open and rushed into the courtyard. Being better armed with swords and guns, they speedily overpowered the servants of the monastery, and drove some of them back into the church, and others into their own dwellings, or into those of the monks. Some of the ruffians pursued them from room to room, and murdered the defenceless people, and then plundered whatever seemed to be of any value, and set fire to the buildings.

In the meantime, the monks, with some of the work-people, were collected in the church. The leader of the troop, with a portion of his band, broke through the slender walls and entered the outer church; but the doors into the chancel were stronger, and withstood their attack for a while. They well knew that the money and other treasures would be found in the church, and particularly in the Sanctuary, or Holy Place. They therefore surrounded the church, so that nobody should escape through any secret door, while they continued to batter at the door leading to the chancel. [[77]]

In the meanwhile, the monks’ and servants’ dwellings were burning, and the smoke came down over the church and enveloped both besieged and besiegers in a thick white mist.

The doors, of course, did not long withstand the blows of the axes. The soldiers smashed them and stormed into the chancel, where the helpless monks stood assembled in their priestly attire, with the Superior, the aged Gurij, at their head. He, venerable old man, knelt down and held out a gilt cross to the enemy, and at the same time asked for mercy for himself and his helpless brothers. But he was at once ruthlessly struck down by the leader, and the cross snatched from his hands. Then they set to work upon the others, and struck them down man by man. There was only one who offered anything like resistance. Ambrose had rushed into the Sanctuary and put on the coat of armour and seized the sword. Thus armed, he thrust himself forward, and restrained some of the enemy who were on the point of killing the rest of the monks. He struck out all round, and defended himself with great spirit, his back being against the Sanctuary, while the bodies of his dead and dying brethren lay in a heap at his feet, and the whole of the floor of the church flowed with their blood.

All of a sudden, as if shot from a cannon, a man sprang out of the Sanctuary to his assistance. It was the huge, powerful Jussi, his trusty friend. Jussi had entered by a secret door, and had armed himself with a long, heavy iron crowbar. Armed with this, he sprang forward in front of Ambrose and wielded it with his giant-like strength, and dealt blows with such violence on all sides that he mowed down like grass a number of the soldiers, and drove the others back. But like a swarm of bees they surrounded him again from all sides, so that at last, mortally wounded, he turned towards Ambrose, and, falling over him, gasped:

‘Fly for it—Unnas is waiting—secret door.’

More he could not utter, before he was stabbed through and through a dozen times. Ambrose leaped over the half-door of the Sanctuary, slammed firmly back the upper half of it, and so gained a moment’s respite. A secret door opened out of the Sanctuary into the back of the monastic enclosure, and through that door peeped the terror-stricken face of Unnas.

‘Come, come,’ he whispered. [[78]]

The Sanctuary door crashed and burst in just as Ambrose disappeared through the secret door, which was so placed that the soldiers had not detected it, and so had not guarded it. But, in escaping through the wooden fencing which surrounded the whole of the monastery, Unnas and Ambrose had to jump across the burning remains of a part of the servants’ dwellings. Unnas jumped over them first, and his Finn’s dress and thick cap protected him from the flames, but Ambrose, with nothing on his head, had his face badly scorched, although he had held his hands over it.

They escaped through a small gate in the fence, and then made off through the smoke and darkness down to the river, while the soldiers were engaged in plundering the Sanctuary. When they reached the river, Unnas jumped on to a block of ice and threw a rope to Ambrose. He leaped from one block of ice to another, and in that way got across to a small island in the middle of the river. Ambrose, who was heavier, and not so nimble as the Finn, fell straight down, exhausted, wounded, and almost blinded; but he had the rope round his waist, and, partly dragged by Unnas, and partly crawling himself along the beach, the Finn at last helped him up and enabled him to reach a gamme,[2] or hut built of earth, which was on the island. There were two islands in the river opposite the monastery, and no doubt they still exist, unless the river has changed its course, or swept them away. On these two small islands, it is expressly mentioned in the letter from Vardö, ‘there were two “gammer,” which remained untouched, as the Swedes could not reach them.’