New York Times (free registration required) Sergei Kivrin March 21, 2007
At the Danilov Monastery in Moscow, Hierodeacon Roman, a bell ringer, may be able ring the tower’s original bells by next year.
MOSCOW, March 20 — The bells of Lowell House at Harvard — so much a part of the university’s tradition that they have their own society of bell ringers — will soon return to the Russian monastery from which they were sold more than 70 years ago.
The Russian Orthodox Church and the university announced a final agreement on Tuesday to move the bells next year to Danilov Monastery, the residence of the Russian patriarch, after a replacement set for Harvard is completed.
The bells have become a symbol for the resurgence of the Orthodox Church and its drive, much like Russia’s, to reclaim its former glory.
“The bells are not only a witness, but a victim of history,” the patriarch, Aleksy II, said during the signing ceremony at the monastery, which was founded in the 13th century. “They are a symbol of the independence, greatness, and identity of the people.”
Over the years, however, the bells — the oldest cast 325 years ago — have also been endowed with nearly sacred significance at Harvard, where they have become a fixture of Lowell’s identity and a source of pranks, including one played on Franklin D. Roosevelt. (He was led to believe that the bells would be dedicated to him.)
After Stalin silenced the bells and had the Danilov monks killed, an American diplomat, Charles R. Crane, bought the bells from the Soviet government and donated them to the university in 1930. Seventeen of the bells are at Lowell House and the other, also to be returned, is at Harvard Business School.
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