Zhizdrinsky Trinity Monastery

Rev. Gerasim of Boldin. Lithograph beg. 20 in.

The Zhizdrinsky Trinity Monastery was founded by Rev. Gerasim Boldinsky (+1554, commemorated 14 May) in 1547 on the right bank of the Zhizdra River at the confluence of the Brodna River on the elevated peninsula formed by these rivers, which were the natural protection of the monastery.

The Zhizdrinsky Trinity Monastery was a fortification on the Zhizdrinsk cross-border line , created by decree of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich IV the Terrible .

Coming from the Boldin monastery to the Brynskoye (Bryansk) forests, the Monk Gerasim cut down his cell, began to chop down the wood and demolished it on his shoulders in one place, erected several buildings and laid the foundation for the new monastery.

For a short time about 42 people gathered around him, a church was built in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity with the chapels of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos and St. Sergius of Radonezh into the temple. Having arranged the monastery and having placed in it the igumen of his pupil Peter (Korostelev), the Monk Gerasim returned to the Bolda monastery .

Ivan IV granted the village of Zaprudye to Zhizdrinsky Trinity Monastery in Vvedensky, and repairs to Kobylie, Dogorye and Kruuty in Sukhinitsky camp of Meshchovo district .

A lot of hardships underwent a monastery during the Polish invasion, but it survived and in the Scribe Books for 1614-1616 it is mentioned that Abbot Varlaam (Medvedev) was abbot (builder) and nine monks lived in it.

The scribe books of 1646: the Trinity Zhizdrinsky monastery - patrimony with. Zaprudnoye, the village of Krutaya, the village of Zagorichi (24 peasant households, 86 people, 14 twin houses, 26 people) in the Sukhinichsky camp.

In 1683 , according to the inventory of clerk Konstantin Ushakov in the Zhizdrinsky Trinity Monastery, there was a church in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity, the Church of the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos, a wooden bell tower of three tiers, the bell tower of five bells, a wooden cell of builders (brothers), a kitchenette, a grain cellar. , yard stable, seventeen hives with bees. The monastery is surrounded by a wooden fence. The brethren: the builder ( rector ) elder Sergius, the treasurer elder Nicephorus, two priests ( hieromonk ), a novice , a cook .

Behind the monastery stood a courtyard, which had three huts. At that time, the Zhizdrinsky Trinity Monastery received its greatest prosperity, since in the second half of the 17th century, trade between Russia and Ukraine began to develop. The main trade routes, especially in winter, were rivers. Merchants from Moscow to Ukraine traveled through Kaluga and Bryansk, and Zhizdrinsky Trinity Monastery lay precisely on this path. At the same time, a wooden church was built in the monastery in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh, which lasted until the second half of the 20th century. Around the monastery began to settle people, forming a village, and later the city Zhizdru.

In 1684 he was assigned to the Moscow Donskoy Monastery . In 1740 the monastery burned down and was not renewed again - the Sergiev church of Zhizdra was built in its place.

According to Stroyev: The builders of the monastery: ... Joseph, 1634-38; Gerasim is determined on June 17, 1654; Philip, 1679-81; Philaret, 1684-86, Sergius, 1683. Hegumenes: Isaiah, in Jan., Apr. 1656; Michael, 1660 and 61, 1663, in December. 1665, 1666, dismissed; Isaiah, in June, Oct. Oct 1671, Oct. 1673, July 1674, 1675, 76.