Rakovsky Holy Trinity Monastery

Background

On the average Volga region in the 1830s, the movement of phrasebooks developed. Intercession is a direction in Orthodoxy , a secular doctrine. The movement received the name because its followers, in addition to compulsory church attendance, gathered for out-of-office meetings called “gazebos”. One of the most important virtues for the interviewees is the steady and unquestioning obedience to the old man, who established the whole way of life for followers ^[1] .

The spiritual leader of the interviewees, Vasily Nikiforovich Scheglov, in 1835 moved to the Samara province , in the area of ​​the village of Krasny Yar . Since 1838, he began to actively preach his doctrine, urging the laity to live "in a monastic way," arguing that for salvation it is not necessary to go to a monastery, and spiritual life is possible in the world, with a responsible approach to the question of saving the soul.

He held home arbor meetings with the peasants of the neighboring villages, preached an ascetic lifestyle, with unconditional sobriety , write three fasting days a week, write twice a day, strict prayer rule, in constant work and with obligatory regular meetings-discussions about spiritual issues. Shcheglov organized local religious communities, placing at the head of each such community a senior. The movement quickly became very popular, exceeding the number of 100 thousand people in the 1880s ^[2] . For many years, the official Orthodox Church could not decide on such a trend, referring it either to harmless directions, or referring to Khlysty -type sectarians.

One of the Shcheglov’s foundations was a community in the village of Bolshaya Rakovka , led by a peasant Anastasia Kuzminichna Kerova. When she first met Shcheglov in 1835, she quickly accepted his ideas and subsequently strictly followed his words and directions. Widowed at 28, on the advice of the elder Kerov, she accepted three girls who wanted spiritual life. So the first cell appeared. Being an extraordinary and charismatic person, Kerova easily found followers ^[3] . Contemporaries described her this way ^[4] : “... she is a type of brisk, energetic woman, with a considerable natural mind and a strong character, ambitious and enterprising, pretentious to the primacy and able to quickly and skillfully translate this word into her own business”.

Kerov gathered “pavilions”, on which religious literature was read under her guidance, church chants were sung, conversations were conducted on everyday topics. The villagers began to turn to her for guidance and advice. Gradually, the number of believers and cells with girls in Big Rakovka grew. Anastasia Kerova appealed to the Samara diocesan administration , as well as to the civil authorities for permission to build a large building for girls and widows who wished to live in celibacy by monastery rules. In 1850, such permission was obtained ^[3] .

Community

The active and tireless Kerova quickly found philanthropists who donated to create the community and money and land. A place for construction was chosen near the village of Bolshaya Rakovka, and after the acquisition of the necessary materials, the construction of the monastery began ^[3] .

A few years later, the leadership of the diocese appointed a prioress to the community - the nun Anatolia. For some time, relations in the community were quite prosperous, but the conflict gradually erupted. The fact is that in 1854, Vasily Shcheglov died, passing on the title of conversational old man to Anastasia Kerova. People reached out to the old woman for her guidance and advice. Such personal veneration of Kerova was not at all liked by those sisters who did not adhere to conversation, and after one of the denunciations by ill-wishers, the police authorities accused Kerov of sectarianism . The case was examined by the Kazan Court of Justice and the Samara Spiritual Consistory, which considered the charges unfounded. However, Kerova was forced to leave the community ^[3] , and the community began to decline. Some sources generally trace the history of the monastery only from 1859 ^[5] , believing that a new community was created at that time.

One way or another, but in the mid-1850s, the widow of a titular adviser Anna Ivanovna Kadysheva breathed new life into the community. Anna Ivanovna did a lot for the well-being of the monastery, she raised funds for its existence throughout Russia, even in St. Petersburg , and the miraculous image of “ Collecting the Dead ” donated by her monastery attracted many pilgrims from all over the diocese.

On October 8, 1862, the community was officially approved by the decree of the Holy Synod “to weaken and destroy the schism spread by false teachers from the Irgiz schismatic monasteries, ” and Kadysheva became its abbess ^[5] . Kadysheva led the community until her death in 1870 ^[6] .

Since 1871, the post of abbess was occupied by the nun nun Anatolia (A. Theis), who took the full tonsure at the Iversky Monastery that same year ^[6] .

In 1857, a school on the basis of the school of literacy was opened at a community in a specially built outbuilding . The novice , their relatives and girls from the surrounding villages studied at the school. By 1910, 25 girls were studying at the school ^[7] .

In 1878, a shelter was opened in the community for the children of soldiers who died in the Russo-Turkish war ^[7] .

Monastery

The Holy Synod, by a decree of August 7, 1886, transformed the community into a contingent communal monastery with the name Rakovsky Holy Trinity Convent ^[5] .

In the early years, 37 people lived in the monastery, including the Mother Superior, one Rassophore nun and 35 ordained novices. The number of natives was growing, by 1901 there were 317 people in the monastery: Mother Superior, 60 Nuns , 37 Rassophore novices, 35 ordained and 170 temporary novices ^[6] .

In 1892, at the expense of the Samara merchant N. P. Maslennikov, a strange house was built with male and female departments ^[7] .

In June 1894, the abbess Sophia (S. P. Tomilova) headed the monastery ^[6] . According to some reports, the change of leadership occurred due to the fact that Mother Superior Anatoly was convicted of some misconduct, deprived of Mother Superior and reduced to the rank of simple nun ^[8] .

In 1899, a hotel for pilgrims was opened outside the monastery’s fence ^[7] .

At the request of residents of the village of Staraya Mayna and by order of Bishop Guria, in 1904 a monastery courtyard was opened in the village. The peasants donated a plot of land with buildings and a trading bench, raised funds to open and equip the house church . Also, at the request of the peasants, it was allowed to make a procession with the icon “Recovery of the dead” from the monastery to Staraya Mayna ^[9] .

From 1914 to October 1917, the abbess Poliksena (P. S. Dolgova) led the monastery ^[6] .

During the First World War , there were two hospitals for the wounded at the monastery: one in the monastery itself, the second in the Samara compound ^[7] .

Monastery under Soviet rule

By order of the authorities, the monastery was closed in the 1920s. The exact closing date of the monastery is debatable. According to some sources, the monastery was closed in 1928 ^[5] , according to others - in 1924, when a pedagogical school was located in its building ^[10] .

The monastery compound in Old Mine was transformed into a labor artel. Due to an oversight of the authorities, contrary to the decree on separation of the church from the state, the estate property was not nationalized . The local monastic community continued to preserve all the monastic traditions, although the artel “Labor Community” was now called. In 1924, the artel even received a land plot of 221 hectares of convenient land and 78 hectares of uncomfortable land, while some of the land was leased, some were in disrepair. In 1928, 75 nuns still lived in the former compound, which owned 10 horses, 11 cows, as well as sheep and hens. Only in 1928, the Soviet government finally liquidated the monastery community, having seized all property and transferring land to the agricultural commune from farm laborers and poor people ^[9] .

The compound in Samara was nationalized. The chapel on the courtyard operated until the 1920s, after which it remained in ruins for several years. It was demolished in the 1930s ^[11] .

In 1934, the territory was transferred to a colony for street children. In 1936, the Bolsherakovsky nursing home of the general type was opened in the monastery building. Since 1943, the wounded and invalids of the Great Patriotic War arrived here, and after its end, the elderly and the disabled again began to be kept. In 1979, the institution changed its type, becoming a neuropsychiatric boarding school for the disabled ^[10] .

Initially, the monastery owned only 35 acres of land. In 1873, by imperial decree, the community received another 38 acres near the village of Vasilyevka . Various sites donated to the monastery philanthropists, so that by 1910 in his possession was already1048 acres of land, among which were 3 tithes of shallow forest and part of the banks of the Sok River ^[5] .

On the estate territory there were 9 residential buildings and various outbuildings, including carpet, painting and hammered workshops ^[7] .

The monastery had a library with 27 volumes of books. Behind the monastery fence were an orchard and a brick factory ^[7] .

The monastery also owned two courtyards. One was located in Samara , the second in the village of Staraya Mayna, Stavropol district (now in the Ulyanovsk region ). The Staromainsky farmstead owned a plot of land with an area of ​​20 acres and 330 sazhens, as well as various livestock.

Monastery Temples

In 1863, the first temple of the monastery was built and consecrated . It was a wooden, warm house church in the name of the Holy Trinity . In this temple was the main shrine of the monastery - the icon of the Mother of God " Recovery of the lost " ^[5] . In addition to her, the church also kept particles of holy relics and part of the Life-giving cross of the Lord ^[12] . The temple festival was celebrated on May 9 in the name of the Holy Trinity.

By 1900, the Holy Trinity Church was dilapidated, and in 1902 a new stone warm home church was laid in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “ Joy of All Who Sorrow ”. The church was built on the second floor of the rector’s building, was consecrated by the Samara bishop Konstantin on October 13, 1905. There was a belfry on the pillars in front of the church. The temple festival was celebrated on October 24 ^[12] .

On May 25, 1876, a stone cold church was consecrated in the name of the Assumption of the Mother of God . The ceremony was conducted by Samara Bishop Gerasim , who donated to the community the image of the Assumption of the Mother of God - a copy from the miraculous icon of Kiev. At the church was a stone bell tower . The temple festival was celebrated on August 15 ^[12] .

In the mid-1890s, a stone three-altered warm church in the name of the Holy Trinity was built and May 20, 1895 was consecrated by Bishop Guriy. The construction was carried out at the expense of the Samara merchant N.P. Maslennikov. The right side chapel was consecrated on May 22, 1895 in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Recovery of the Dead", the left side was consecrated on May 23, 1895 in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker . Patronal festivals were celebrated on May 25 in the main aisle, on February 5 in the right and on May 9 in the left aisle ^[12] .

Also at the monastery there was a cemetery wooden church on a stone foundation in the name of All Saints. It was built in 1866, and in 1882 because of the dilapidation, it was demolished, having built a new church in the same place, consecrated by Bishop Seraphim on September 8, 1884. The temple festival was celebrated on December 6. And in 1901 the temple was moved to the village, in its former place, having put a chapel ^[12] .

In 1906, a stone chapel was built at the monastery courtyard in Samara, designed by architect A. A. Shcherbachev . The chapel was built in the Russian-Byzantine style, with a picturesque silhouette, massive laying of the base, heavy drums and semicircular domes . It had the shape of a cross, but seemed rounded due to the shallow ledges of the portals ^[11] .

Shrines

The icon of the Mother of God “ In Consolation and Sorrow of Consolation ”, written on Athos and donated to the community in 1876, was especially revered in the monastery. Also from the Athos monastery of St. Andrew, the icon of the great martyr and healer Panteleimon , and the icon of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called with a particle of his relics were brought to the monastery ^[12] .

However, the main sanctuary of the monastery, and indeed of the entire Samara diocese, was the icon of the Mother of God " Recovery of the Dead ."

Recovery of the dead

According to a legend that existed in the family of noblemen Kadyshev, in 1666 the icon sailed along the Volga to Saratov , where it was revealed to the local governor Kadyshev. The acquisition of the icon was marked by the healing of the governor and the exposure of the abductors of church property ^[13] . The icon was passed down from generation to generation until it passed to Anna Ivanovna Kadysheva ^[5] , who, being the abbess of the Rakov community, donated the family relic as a gift to the monastery.

In 1855, Kadysheva came to St. Petersburg, raising funds for the needs of the community, and ended up in the house of the well-known philanthropist and philanthropist Count Sheremetev , whose 11-year-old son was seriously ill. According to the testimony of the companion Kadysheva, one of the monastery’s sisters M. V. Tikhanova, after a water sanctuary in front of the icon, the young man felt better, and soon recovered completely. The story has become widely known. Moscow Metropolitan Filaret , wished to see the image, the case began about the All-Russian veneration of the icon "Recovery of the dead" instead of local honoring the icons of the same name from different places. It was established in 1857 and the general day of celebration was determined on February 5 ^[14] .

Count Sheremetev, in gratitude for the healing, decided to decorate the icon. For this purpose, a silver gilded icon case in the form of a radiance, with angels and crowns of precious stones cast on the sides above the heads of the Virgin and Child, was created from the drawing of Metropolitan Filaret ^[15] .

There are other miracles that have happened with the icon. In total, from 1861 to 1895, nuns and priests of the monastery recorded and described 37 such cases: the image helped with diseases, drought, locust invasions, etc. The icon quickly became popular in the diocese. Many pilgrims rushed to the image. Since the icon was originally located above the royal gates of the house church, it was lowered to the cords to worship the worshipers, and since 1895 the icon for the summer began to be transferred to the stone Holy Trinity Church ^[15] .

С 1862 года икону стали носить по епархии для совершения молебнов, приносили в Ставрополь (ныне Тольятти), Мелекесский завод (ныне Димитровград), различные сёла Самарского , Ставропольского и Бугурусланского уезда ^[15] . По многочисленным просьбам жителей Самары руководство епархии разрешило ежегодно на 2 месяца приносить икону в Самару ^[12] .

В 1866 году для иконы был изготовлен оклад из чистого серебра, с украшениями из эмали, бирюзы , жемчуга и бриллиантов ^[5] . Это украшение сохраняется на иконе по настоящее время ^[15] .

В 1896 году по поручению епископа Гурия самарский священник Пётр Альбицкий составил очерк, посвящённый иконе, и во многом являющийся основным источником сведений о ней. В своей работе он использовал присланные из монастыря рукописи, в том числе записанную первым священником общины со слов Кадышевой историю иконы, рукопись дочери Кадышевой, переписанную «с рукописной тетради ея матери», и другие материалы ^[15] .

В ходе обновленческого раскола в русской православной церкви монахини не признали власть обновленческого епископа Александра и отказались передать ему икону, о чём он доносил местным властям в 1924 году ^[16] . После закрытия монастыря судьба иконы точно не известна, вероятно она сохранялась на дому у кого-то из остававшихся в живых монахинь ^[15] .

В 1930-х годах некая икона «Взыскание погибших» находилась в Покровском соборе Самары , в ту пору принадлежавшим обновленцам, однако по заключению куйбышевского епископа Иеронима (Захарова) , это был лишь поздний список с почитаемой иконы. Только в 1953—1954-х годах по указанию епископа Иеронима оригинальная икона монахинями была принесена в Покровский собор, ставший к этому времени кафедральным ^[15] . Там икона пребывает по настоящее время: по вторникам перёд иконой поётся акафист , 18 февраля, в день её празднования совершаются торжественный молебен и крестный ход , икону также проносят во время ежегодного крестного хода вокруг города в сентябре ^[17] .

Описание иконы

Икона написана на доске без ковчега , размерами 31,9×23,9 см ^[15] .

Богоматерь в красно-коричневом платье, её головной платок и хитон Младенца отделаны золотом ^[15] . Характер письма и иконография указывают на влияние итальянских или критских образцов конца XVIII века ^[18] .

По сообщениям монахинь Раковского монастыря фиксировались изменения вида иконы, обычно она была тёмной с слабо различимыми чертами ликов, но иногда просветлялась, что считалось предзнаменованием радостного события. Отмечалось мироточение , например с мая по октябрь 1895 года, во время освящения нового Свято-Троицкого храма, придел в котором был посвящён иконе «Взыскание погибших» и совершавшихся в окрестных сёлах молебнов ^[15] .

Списки

Известно несколько списков с чудотворного образа.

О первом известно со слов Кадышевой. В начале 1860-х годов при проезде через Нижний Новгород по пути из Санкт-Петербурга по повелению нижегородского епископа Нектария монахиня Дивеевского монастыря написала копию иконы, которая в дальнейшем находилась в Нижегородском Спасском (Ярмарочном) соборе . Её дальнейшая судьба неизвестна ^[15] .

Другая копия, написанная настоятельницей Раковского монастыря Анатолией, находилась в крестовой церкви Самарского архиерейского дома , около правого клироса . Её судьба также неизвестна ^[15] .

В самарском храме апостолов Петра и Павла хранилась копия, известная как «нерукотворная», написанная крестьянином села Утёвка Бузулукского уезда Самарской губернии Григорием Журавлёвым 13 февраля 1888 года ^[15] . Нерукотворной она считается так как Журавлёв был инвалидом от рождения, лишённым рук и ног, при работе над этой и иными иконами кисть он держал зубами. В настоящее время икона передана в Самарский епархиальный церковно-исторический музей ^[18] .

Также известен список с иконы, находящийся в церкви Покрова Божией Матери в Мариенбурге под Гатчиной Ленинградской области. На иконе сохранилась надпись, что она «сооружена» 31 октября 1888 года усердием настоятельницы Свято-Троицкого Раковского монастыря игуменьи Анатолии с сестрами в память чудесного избавления Александра III и его семьи « от опасности при крушении поезда » ^[15] .

• Монастыри Самарского края (XVI—XX вв.): Справочник / Сост. BC Блок, К. А. Катренко. — Самара : Самарский Дом печати, 2002. — С. 65-70. — 216 с. - 1000 copies.
• Т.М. Поездка в Раковскую женскую пустынь Самарской губернии // Домашнее чтение . — 1882. — Вып. Ч. 2. . — № 8 . — С. 432-443 .
• Livanov I., priest. Transformation of the Holy Trinity Rakovsky female community into a monastery // Samara diocesan sheets . The part is unofficial. - Samara, 1887. - No. 4 . - S. 65-76 .