- Sorok
Sorok ( _ru. cорóк) was a historical subdivision of
Moscow in terms ofparish es, used during 17-19th centuries. In Russian language the word is confused with "cóрок" (with the first syllable stressed), which means "forty".By a decision of the
Stoglavy Sobor of 1551, Moscow was subdivided into 6 "soroks":
*Nikitsky Sorok, [http://www.mtu-net.ru/sherbach/genialog/nicit.html Никитский сорок]
*Sretensky Sorok Сретенский сорок (named afterSretenka )
*Prechistensky Sorok, [http://www.mtu-net.ru/sherbach/genialog/prech.html Пречистенский сорок] (afterPrechistehka )
*Ivanovsky Sorok, Ивановский сорок
*Zamoskvoretsky Sorok Замоскворецкий сорок (afterZamoskvorechye )
*Kitaisky Sorok, Китайский сорок (afterKitai-gorod )On average, at these times each "sorok" encompassed 45
parochial church es.The term gave rise to a Russian
saying (recorded e.g., byVladimir Dahl in his "Sayings and Bywords of Russian People") "There are "sorok sorokov" of churches in Moscow" (meaning "multitudes of churches in Moscow"). It is sometimes mistakenly interpreted as 40 times 40, i.e., 1600 churches in Moscow, which is of course an exaggeration: in 1917 there were "only" 441 parochial churches and slightly over 200 home churches in Moscow.Presently, Russian Orthodox realm is sybdivided into
eparchies further subdivided into "blagochiniye s" (blagochinnostny okrug s, благочиние, благочинный округ). SeeMoscow blagochinnostny okrugs about the current subdivision of Moscow.
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