Development of new website about St. Kirill Belozersky is going on in museum

“The project has been successfully implemented according to the schedule. It has been supported both at the local and regional levels. Representatives of the clergy in the Vologda Metropole and the regional authorities are providing substantial aid and support to us”, noted A.I. Smirnov, head of the Department of Information Technologies, head of the project. “The site structure has been already designed, the list of materials has been determined, now we are actively making the content. The Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve has concluded agreements with other museums and organization partners on the provision of St. Kirill’s images, texts and rights of their use within the framework of the project. We have written information texts, have selected illustrations about life, activity, spiritual deeds and miracles of St. Kirill Belozersky. The bank of photo materials (including some in 3D format) depicting St. Kirill’s articles has been made. We have prepared photos and described the relics and church items with his images from the collections of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve and the holdings of other museums”.

According to L.V. Terebova, head of the Scientific Department in the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve, they have already scanned a number of books from the library of St. Kirill Belozersky. Internet users will be able to read a part of them on the new website. The spiritual testament kept in the museum holdings is of special interest among the manuscripts. It will be available in high resolution. One of the site sections will be about the burial place of St. Kirill Belozersky – users will be able to see photos of the grave and elements of its decoration, to read materials connected with the archeological studies in the Church of St. Kirill. St. Kirill Belozersky is venerated not only in the Vologda region, but also far beyond it. The churches of St. Kirill were built in Novgorod, near Moscow, in the Archangelsk, the Vladimir and the Orenburg regions and the Republic of Tatarstan. Information about them and their location on the map of Russia will be also published on the new site. L.I. Glysina, research officer of the Scientific Department, has already collected information about 60 churches and side-chapels of St. Kirill Belozersky.

A large section of the new website will be about the iconography of the saint. The images of St. Kirill are presented in various museums, can be seen in functional churches and monasteries and are kept in private collections. E.G. Shchurina, research officer of the Scientific Department, is selecting and describing the icons. The heads of two largest monasteries of the Vologda region have made their contribution to the implementation of the project: Father Superior of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery Anastasy (Dodarchuk) and Father Superior of the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery Ignaty (Molchanov).

Special Internet addresses have been already registered for the project: Kirillbelozersky.ru and КириллБелозерский.рф. The web-site is being built by the Synapse Company (Vologda) that is considered to be one of the best web-studios in the Vologda region. The Epos Company (Moscow) has provided its technology of taking and demonstration of tile pictures. It gives a chance to post high-resolution pictures that can be zoomed into details.

The Internet encyclopedia will contain various multimedia information: photos, virtual panoramas, 3D models, animation, video, audio and texts. Thus, the possibilities of the Internet encyclopedia “St. Kirill Belozersky” will be more multifold in comparison with the book. The authors of the project hope that it will become an up-to-date Internet resource with topical information about St. Kirill checked by historians and theologians. It will be able to arouse interest of not only Vologda’s residents, but also citizens of other Russian regions in the historical past and spiritual experience of our ancestors, and will help them to reconsider the role of Orthodoxy in the history of our country.