Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit at the Lazarevsky Cemetery

In 1750, at the behest of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the Lazarevsky Cemetery was established as the first city cemetery. The place was chosen beyond the city limits, where the poor and rootless people were buried before. (Such places were called "god-worshipers"). To commemorate the dead in the cemetery, a wooden temple was erected in honor of the Resurrection of the righteous Lazarus the Four-Day , from where the cemetery got its name.

The construction of the modern temple was carried out from 1782 to 1787. In 1932 the temple was closed. In 1936, the Lazarevskoye cemetery was also destroyed, and at the burial site of the dead, a festival park was set up.

According to eyewitnesses, the temple was sentenced by the God-fighters to complete destruction, following the Cathedral of Christ the Savior , but for some reason survived. The temple was declared an architectural monument of the first category and thereby saved from destruction and the construction of a columbarium in it (presumably by employees of the Main Science and Central Restoration Workshops).

The building, declared a monument of architecture, not only continued to be partially operated, but was brought to the last degree of emergency condition, and in some places to ruins. This is clearly visible in the photographs (old-timers testify that these places were not bombarded).

Murals were covered with the first paint that came across. Inside the temple was rebuilt, some of the windows were bricked, on the second floor there was a dormitory that destroyed the remains of murals with household fumes, then a school.

The church was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1991, but for several more years it housed the workshops and rehearsal stage of the Operetta Theater.

Currently, the temple has been restored; regular worship services are being held there .

The main aisle is consecrated in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles , the right aisle - in the name of St. up Luke , the patron saint of Luke Ivanovich, the left - in the name of St. right Four-Day Lazarus, Bishop of Kittii, in memory of the first wooden temple that was dismantled (there is currently a football field on this site).

At the church is the Sisterhood in the name of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), the publishing house of the Sisterhood in the name of St. Ignatius of Stavropol (Bryanchaninov).

The entire complex of the Lazarevsky cemetery, including the cemetery church, was designed by E. S. Nazarov . The architectural ensemble included five buildings and a stone wall of the cemetery. Currently, only one of the buildings has survived - the former almshouse, the rest is destroyed during the Soviet era.

The temple was built according to the architectural type of the “ship” : a round rotunda, with a short refectory, with two bells crowning the western facade, windows stylized as portholes.

Rotunda frescoes and the first icons were painted by famous Italian masters Claudio and Scotty. Also in accordance with the Western style, there were many stucco decorations completely destroyed during the ruin of the temple. The refectory was painted by unknown painters.

In 1903-1904 the refectory of the church (including the aisles) was designed by the architect Voskresensky, and the bells that crowned the western facade were displaced in the same form.

The buildings of the temple and the almshouse are under state protection as monuments [[architecture]] of the 18th century.

XVIII — XIX centuries

Information from a historical study of Fr. Vladimir Ostroukhov “Moscow Lazarevo Cemetery”, Moscow, 1893, Mid-18th century - priest Andrei, Ivanov son;

• Rector since 1806 - priest Theodore Stefanov Vladykin;
• Rector since 1828 - priest Ilya Ivanov Smirnov;
• Rector since 1833 - Priest Ivan Nikolaevich Pomerantsev;
• Rector since 1857 - Archpriest Nikita Nikitich Skvortsov (+1892), well-known to Metropolitan Filaret of Moscow , enlightener of the Old Believers (link);
• Deacon of Fears;
• Deacon Peter Semenov Myasoedov;
• Deacon Ivan Ivanov Vinogradov;
• Deacon Alexey Ivanov Andreevsky;
• Deacon Alexey Dimitrievich Mirolyubov;
• Rector since 1885, priest Vladimir Ostroukhov is the author of a historical study of the Lazarevsky cemetery.

XX century

Rector since 1914 - Archpriest Nikolai Alekseevich Skvortsov (1861-1917), chairman of the Archaeological Department of the Society of Lovers of Spiritual Education , founder of the author of capital works in the field of church archeology. Together with his wife, mother Eugenia, was killed by robber bandits - buried in the Lazarevsky cemetery. When transferred to the Vagankovskoye cemetery in the 1930s, both bodies were found incorrupt.

Rector, then since 1922 - a provincial priest, Archpriest Alexander Yves. Sokolov, dying in December 1932, began to prophesy that all temples would be opened, including the temple at the Lazarevsky cemetery.

Rector from 1925 until the closing of the church in 1932 - Archpriest John Mikhailovich Smirnov (1879-1937), professor at the Moscow Theological Academy , a modest and humble shepherd, was shot at the Butovo training ground on the Day of the Sign of the Mother of God - the patronal feast of his last temple. By the decision of the Holy Synod of July 17, 2002, it was decided to include the name of the holy martyr John Smirnov in the Cathedral of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the 20th Century. Church veneration of the holy martyr John Smirnov was established on November 27 (December 10 in a new style).

• The confessor of the Moscow diocese archpriest Alexander Stefanovsky (the remains were transferred to the Vvedensky cemetery ). Archbishop Arseny (Zhadanovsky) writes about him.
• Deacon of the Lefortovo Corps Mitrofan Protopopov (nephew of St. Philaret (Drozdov) and the murdered Bishop Seraphim Protopopov )
• Trifonovsky priest M.V. Bystrov, +1861
• Holy Nick. Vl. Ramodanovsky, +1890
• Three Saints Prot. Nick. Petrovich Drugov, +1858
• Prot. Fedor Avksentievich Malinovsky, +1811
• Prot. Filaret Aleksandrovich Sergievsky, +1884
• Nikolo-Khlynovsky Prot. John I. Rusinov, +1842
• Prot. Art. Timofeevich Protopopov, +1861
• Holy Daniel Eve Warriors, +1823
• Holy John Nikolaevich Pomerantsev, +1857
• Prot. Vladimir Grigorievich Nazarevsky, present temple mch. Tryphon in Naprudny, +1881
• Prot. Plato Ioannovich Athens, +1874
• Holy Alexey Petrovich Bogdanov, +1841
• Adrian Archpriest Matthew Nikolaevich, +1833
• Holy Filippovskaya, in Meshchanskaya, Pyotr Ilyich Nikolsky, +1866
• Holy Great Assumption Cathedral Sergiy Ioannovich Vereshchagin, +1860
• Filippovsky priest Alexey Alekseevich Konstantinov, +1835
• Prot. church at House George Illarionovich Molchanov, +1826
• Prot. Churches Rep. Houses John Gerasimovich Rechmensky, +1867
• Holy Nikolavoyavlennoy Church Nikolai Stefanovich Malinovsky, +1874
• Holy Court Verkhospassky Cathedral Aleksey Isaakievich Lebedev +1859
• Holy Churches of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Kobylsky Ioann Alexandrovich Karinsky , +1891
• Archpriest Alexy Mechev , + 9/22 June 1923. On September 15/28, 1933, the body was transferred to the Vvedensky Mountains cemetery, popularly referred to as German . At the Anniversary Bishops' Council in 2000, the elder in the world, Archpriest Alexy Mechev, was ranked among the saints of the Russian Orthodox Church for general church veneration. Currently, the relics of the Monk Alexei Mechev are in Moscow in the church of St. Nicholas in Klenniki
• Zybelin, Semyon Gerasimovich (1735-1802) - physician, founder of the Faculty of Medicine of the Medical Institute;
• Kondratiev, Ivan Kuzmich (1849-1904) - historian, Moscow scholar, poet, songwriter, writer, translator.
• Kushneryov, Ivan Nikolaevich (1827-1896) - essayist, editor, publisher, owner of printing houses.
• Mukhin A. A. - Russian aviator, who died in 1914 at the Khodynsky airport;
• Nikitin, Nikolai Vasilievich (1828-1913) - Russian architect, chairman of the MAO
• Spassky, Mikhail Fedorovich (1809-1859) - meteorologist, doctor of physics and chemistry.
• Timkovsky, Roman Fedorovich (1785-1820) - historian, professor of Greek and Latin literature.
• Vasnetsov, Victor Mikhailovich (1848-1926) - Russian artist, painter and architect, master of historical and folk painting.
• Sandunov, Strength Nikolaevich (1756-1820) - actor, founder of the Sandunov baths.
• wife of V. G. Belinsky (1890)
• mother of F. M. Dostoevsky - M. F. Dostoevskaya (1837), aunt - A. F. Kumanin;

In the church at the Lazarevsky cemetery he loved to be St. Patriarch-Confessor Tikhon . He served here quite often in the twenties. The residence of the Most Holy was located nearby, on Trinity Hill, where now the compound of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. His Holiness Tikhon was also present at the burial at the Lazarevsky cemetery of St. Rights. Alexia Mecheva. Only the day before he was released from prison, he came here in a cab across the city, put on the porch, since the temple was then temporarily captured by the Renovationists, and uttered a word on the grave of the deceased, being met with the hottest manifestations of popular love.

They also recall that the Patriarch was to serve in the church at the Lazarevsky cemetery and on Lazarev Saturday 1925. But the parishioners who came to the service that day saw an announcement informing of the death of the Most Holy and the order of farewell to him.

• “Lives of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian 20th Century of the Moscow Diocese. Additional volume 2 ”Tver, 2005, pp. 204–207.
• State Archive of the Russian Federation - GARF. F. 10035, d. 31440.
• Golubtsov S., protodeacon. MDA professor in the networks of the Gulag and CheK. M., 1999.S. 53-55.
• Silent bells. New Martyrs of Russia. Biographies. Digest of articles. M., 2002.S. 6-13.

• The official website of the Moscow Patriarchate
• The official website of the parish of the Descent of the Holy Spirit Church (at the Lazarevsky Cemetery)
• The official website of the sisterhood in the name of St. Ignatius of Stavropol (Brianchaninov)
• Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the site ORTHODOX.RU
• Brusilovsky, Nikita. Church at the Lazarevsky cemetery (Russian) . Get to know Moscow. Date of treatment May 19, 2015.