The Educational Activity Orthodox Fraternity in the Volyn Province in the ХІХ Century

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the educational activities of the Orthodox church fraternities of the Volyn province in the second half of the XIX century. The Orthodox fraternities realized the cultural and educational direction of their work by holding free public readings, disseminating religious and moral literature, and establishment of church and parish schools. The main aspects of the educational work of individual fraternities are revealed, in particular the peculiarities of organizing and conducting public readings. Public readings were to be held in accordance with the legislative document «Rules for holding public readings in provincial cities». This document regulated and defined the basic conditions for the organization and further conduct of such events. Only a certain list of literature approved by the Ministry of Education was allowed to be used during the readings. The members of the fraternities carefully selected the topics of the lectures, which were mainly historical or religious. Performing such tasks, the fraternities aimed to meet the needs of the local population, to raise the educational level of residents of towns and villages of Volyn province. In addition, such events were followed by a cognitive factor, in particular, acquaintance of residents not only with the history of the province, but also the history of the Russian Empire. Representatives of the fraternities and its active members were involved in quite active work and used various opportunities to implement it. It was found that the members of the Orthodox fraternities managed to involve a large number of the local population in the towns and villages of the Volyn province.