Zaikonospassky monastery

According to some local historians ^{[ specify ]} , on the site of the current monastery in the XIV century there was the "Spassky Monastery on St. Nicholas Savior, on Sands, on the Old Place" - the so-called Monastery of St. Nicholas .

It is believed that Spassky Monastery behind the icon series was founded by Boris Godunov in 1600, although the first mention of it in historical documents, in the books of the Patriarchal Order , dates back to 1635 . Its existence until 1610 is confirmed by the image on the Sigismund Plan of Moscow . It got its name from the location - behind the shops where they traded icons : Ivan Zabelin pointed to a document according to which on March 12, 1678 “the patriarch was in the Spasov monastery, which is behind the icon row” ^[2] ; in a letter of 1706 it was stated that in June 1661 “on June 14 the day of the Spassky Monastery, which is behind the iconic row <...> the holy man Archimandrite Dionysius beat the great sovereign with his brotherhood ...” ^[3] .

Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich , in 1660, a two-story stone cathedral was laid: on the lower floor - in the name of the Icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands , in the upper - in the name of the icon of the Virgin, All Who Sorrow Joy . Funds for the construction of the Spassky Cathedral were given by the governor Prince Fyodor Volkonsky . November 20, 1661 the construction was completed.

In 1665, instead of the deceased archimandrite Dionysius, the monastery was managed by Simeon of Polotsk , at which a school was established to prepare the clerks of the Order of Secret Affairs . Since the establishment of the school, the definition of “teacher's” has been added to the name of the monastery.

Among the students of the school was Sylvester Medvedev , who, having replaced Simeon Polotsky in the management of the monastery in 1680, submitted for approval to Tsar Fedor Alekseevich the draft Charter of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy . Due to the death of the king, the project was not carried out.

In 1687, a school founded in 1685 by the brothers Ioannikiy and Sofroniy Lihudy moved here from the Epiphany Monastery , called the "Greek-Greek", or Spassky schools. This is the first institution of higher education in Great Russia that was modeled after the Kiev-Mohyla Academy . Combined with the printing school , it later became known as the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy .

The abbots of the monastery, starting with Palladius Rogowski , and the archimandrites were the rectors of the Academy, and the temples of the monastery served for its needs - they were both the house church and the pulpit, in which the students practiced church eloquence.

The monastery and the cathedral were rebuilt due to fires in 1701 and 1737 (see Trinity Fire ). The restructuring of the monastery churches and buildings was carried out according to the designs of architects Ivan Zarudny , who worked in the Baroque style , Ivan Michurin , Mikhail Preobrazhensky , Zinovy ​​Ivanov .

After Catherine’s secularization, the cloister became a second-class stauropegial, uncommunicative monastery. The educational significance of the monastery began to decline after the founding of Moscow University . In 1814, the Academy was transferred to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra , received the name of the Moscow Theological Academy , and the Zaikonospassky Theological School was located in the buildings of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy.

In 1922, the cathedral of the monastery (closed by that time) became the center of the renovationist Union of Church Revival led by "Metropolitan" Antonin ; closed in 1929.

Divine services in the Cathedral Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands resumed in July 1992. He received the status of the Patriarchal Compound . In February 1993, the Russian Orthodox University opened in the monastery, and the cathedral almost became a “school” church again, but this idea was abandoned due to the catastrophic condition of the cathedral and the lack of premises, and the university moved to the Vysoko-Petrovsky monastery .

The community of the reviving monastery was in conflict with the administration of the Russian State Humanitarian University (RGGU) in connection with the transfer of property ^{[4] [5]} .

February 20, 2010 the monastery was visited by Patriarch Kirill . This was the first patriarchal service in the ancient monastery after a 310-year break ^[6] . The Holy Synod on March 5 of that year determined: “To bless the opening of the Zaikonospassky stauropegial monastery in Moscow, separating it from the Patriarchal compound of the former Zaikonospassky and Nikolsky monasteries in Kitay-Gorod of Moscow” ^[1] .

Many of the monastery premises are occupied by non-church organizations: premises with a total area of ​​4.4 thousand m² are occupied by the Historical Archive Institute of the Russian State Humanitarian University, the Godunov Restaurant, the post office and several other tenants.

From the monastery ensemble to the present day have reached the cathedral , fraternal corps, shopping arcades, a tenement house with a bell tower and the building of the Collegium of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. The current Spassky Cathedral includes the volume of the temple preceding it in 1661. It consists of the lower church (with the refectory of 1701) and the upper. From the north and west, under the porch of the upper church, two-story cells adjoin the lower church.

• Kovalev A. Historical description of the stavropegic second-class Zaikonospassky monastery . - M .: Printing house of L. and A. Snegirev, 1887.
• The inscriptions of the Zaikonospassky school in Moscow monastery // Ancient Russian vivlofika . - Ed. 2nd. - M .: In the printing house of the printing company, 1791. - T. 18. - P. 198–201. - 436 p.
• Selivanov A.F. Zaikonospassky Monastery // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• The official website of the monastery
• Zaikonospassky Monastery .