Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord (Kudeih)

The temple is complex in the form of a “ four ”. The facades of the building are decorated with elements of decor of classical architecture. High rectangular windows are underlined by the window sill and accented by various sandriks : fan-type (with lock stones ), arched and triangular with brackets (on the windows of the apse ). The northern and southern parts of the quadrangle are marked by niches flanked by shoulder blades processed by horizontal rust.

In the center of the walls above the middle windows are square panels with a round niche. The crowning cornices are decorated with cracker belts.

From an architectural point of view, the temple is of interest as an example of a rural parish church erected in the forms of classical architecture of the 1st half of the 19th century.

Main events

• 1764 - the abolition of the Pokrovskaya Ivankovo ​​desert of the Alatyr district of the Nizhny Novgorod province and the transfer of the temple from the Desert to the nearby village of Kudeikha.
• 1765 - the year of construction of the wooden church (transfer of the church of the same name from the Intercession of the Ivankovo ​​desert).
• 1829 - the construction of a stone church with one aisle - Transfiguration of the Lord.
• 1870 - the construction of two aisles - the Nativity of Christ and in honor of the Protection of the Holy Virgin.
• 1937 - closing of the temple.
• 1991 - the church was returned to the Cheboksary-Chuvash diocese .
• 2002 - consecration of the central aisle with the main throne of the Transfiguration of the Lord, Metropolitan of Chuvash and Cheboksary Barnabas .

The first mention of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the village of Kudeikha dates from September 1764:

- from the report of the deacon of the Trinity Church, the village of Poretskoye Fedor Vasilyev to the Nizhny Novgorod spiritual consistory.

According to the confessional paintings attached to the report, at that time there were 51 yards in the village of Kudeikha, and the number of inhabitants was 214.

After the abolition of the Pokrovskaya Ivankovo ​​desert according to the Decree (Manifesto) of Empress Catherine II of February 26, 1764 “On the Secularization of Monastery Land Ownership”, a wooden gatehouse in the Desert in honor of the Transfiguration with two chapels was transferred from the category of the monastery church to the parish church and transferred to Parish of the village of Kudeikha. The church was moved by local peasants from the Desert to Kudeihu and restored in it with one throne - in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord. From this time, Kudeikha ceases to be a village and becomes a village .

Residents of the settlements existing at that time in Zasurye - Kudeikha (which became a village) and the village of the Glass Factory (now the village of Kozhevennoye) were added to the parish of the Transfiguration Church.

After the big fire that happened in 1824 , as a result of which a wooden church burned down in the village, it was decided to rebuild a stone church in the same place from the stones of the unfinished and time-destroyed Pokrovskaya church, which had fallen into disrepair after the abolition of the Pokrovskaya Ivankovo ​​desert. Kudeikhinsky peasants, on mud and off-road, on their shoulders transferred stones from the unfinished Pokrovskaya Church from the Desert to Kudeikhu, and then “built the whole world” at their own expense built a church in Kudeikha, adding egg white to the mortar, which added unusual strength to the masonry. Indeed, when in the beginning of the 40s of the XX century they tried to destroy the church, they could only slightly break a part of the dome, as well as remove and send not a melting of the bell . The walls did not succumb to the onslaught of people and resisted (from the memories of a resident of the village of Kudeikha, the source is the personal archive of the local historian S.I. Klyukin).

The newly built in Kudeikh (like the wooden church burned down in a fire) was also consecrated in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord, in 1829 services began. Since 1870, two more aisles were opened in the church: the left aisle - with a throne in honor of the Nativity of Christ , the right aisle - with a throne in honor of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos .

Soviet period

After the events of October 1917, the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord remained active until 1937 . The parish of the church consisted of residents of three settlements of Zasurye - Kudeikhi, Shadrihi and Kozhevny.

Among the priests and clergymen of the late XIX and the first third of the XX century, it is necessary to highlight:

• Priest Andrei Ostroumov, who served as rector of the Transfiguration Church from 1885 to 1903,
• the psalmist Mikhail Ivanovich Vetvinsky, who was at the church for 39 years (from 1859 to March 1898),
• Deacon Alexander Nikolayevich Troitsky, who served in the church for almost 20 years (from 1889 to 1902),
• Priest Nikolai Vladimirovich Bogolyubov, who served from 1908 to 1916 (first half),
• Priest Alexander Tsvetkov, who served from 1916 (second half) to 1918.

Many clergymen, such as N.V. Bogolyubov and A.N. Troitsky, who served during the years of Soviet power, suffered from repression. Among the clergymen of the Transfiguration Church there are the villages of Kudeikha and the holy martyr - father Vasily Konstantinov-Grishin. Being the rector of the church in the 30s of the XX century, father Vasily Grishin was arrested in 1937 by accusation. Condemned to 10 years of imprisonment in forced labor camps, he died in 1943 in the Temnikovsky camp of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1958, Vasily Konstantinov-Grishin was rehabilitated, and almost half a century later, in 2000, he was canonized by the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church as a holy martyr . March 14 - the day of the death of Father Vasily Konstantinov-Grishin - is recognized as the day of his memory, and on this day in the Transfiguration Church with. Kudeikh held a festive cathedral liturgy .

After the arrest of Father Basil in 1937, the church was closed and began to be used as a warehouse, then until the mid-70s a village club was located here, and later until 1990 the temple building was used as a canteen of a local 8-year-old school.

Post-Soviet period

The beginning of the revival of the Transfiguration Church can be attributed to the years 1991-1992, when the temple building was returned to the Cheboksary-Chuvash diocese . In the period from 1991 to 1998, with the help of local enthusiasts, the spouses Kalentievs Klavdiya Semenovna and Alexander Prokhorovich, with the help and assistance of the head of the Kudeikhinsky village administration, Yury Dmitrievich Konnov, it was possible to partially rebuild the church (the left side chapel of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and start the services.

In 1998, with the appointment of Priest Pavel Gutsaev as rector of the church, the second stage of the restoration of the temple began. In 2002, the central aisle of the church with the main altar was restored and consecrated in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord, consecrated by the Metropolitan of Cheboksary and Chuvash Barnabas. In 2007, priest Pavel Gutsaev, at that time appointed rector and responsible for the restoration of Holy Trinity Cathedral in the village of Poretskoe and priest Ilia Tarasikov, who was appointed second priest of the Transfiguration Church in 2006, restored the right chapel in honor of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos. And here it was not without the help of local residents. Through the efforts of the hereditary “carpentry master” Gennady Ivanovich Klyukin, a carved wooden iconostasis with Golden Gates was created for the right side chapel. Since that time, the temple has three thrones.

Since 2010, Father Evgeny Anatolyevich Slepukhin was appointed rector of the church. Father Eugene continued the work on the restoration of the temple, begun by the rector Father Pavel Gutsaev. Through the efforts of Father Eugene and with the help of caring people, residents of Kudeikha and natives of the Poretsky district, the walls and partitions erected in the Soviet years were removed inside the church, and the internal layout of the church took its original (pre-revolutionary) appearance.

Particularly significant assistance in rebuilding the temple was provided by the entrepreneur Vladimir Nikolaevich Mayorov, the son of teachers respected in Kudeikh, the spouses of Nikolai Ivanovich and Alexandra Semenovna Mayorovs, the chairman of the Kudeikhinsky rural settlement Vladimir Nikolaevich Lisin and the son of the former chairman of the village council, Yu. D. Konnov, Alexander Yuryevich Konnov.

Thus, at present, the Transfiguration Church in Kudeikh, both externally and internally, has the same appearance as it was completed in 1870. The church is stone, warm. The length of the church with a bell tower is 19 meters, the greatest width is 15 meters, the height to the upper cornice is 6.4 meters. The church has one head helmet-shaped. The bell tower is 2-level, 12.8 meters high.

Currently, the church is functioning. Until 2012, the church was part of the IX Deanery district of the Cheboksary-Chuvash diocese, after the formation of a number of new dioceses in Russia, the Transfiguration Church is part of the II Deanery district of the Alatyr diocese of the Chuvash metropolis.

The temple houses an old icon of the XVII century - the icon of Paraskeva Friday with particles of its relics, made in the unusual Frisky style for icon painting. Before the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the village of Kudeikha, the Icon of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa traveled to different cities of the Urals, visited Novosibirsk and St. Petersburg, showing many miracles associated with the healing of the sick and infirm.

Another unusual icon stored in the temple is the icon of the Monk Stilian Paflagonsky , painted especially for the Kudeikhinsky Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the icon painting workshop of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra . Stylian Paflagonsky (Paflaginian) is a Greek saint, usually portrayed with a baby in his arms, since he is usually addressed with prayers for help in recovering young children who are physically and spiritually ill.

The icon of the holy martyr Father Vasily Konstantinov-Grishin, who served as the rector of the church from 1934 to 1937, is especially revered in the church. The icon was painted by Ekaterinburg icon painters in 2010 by order of Archpriest Evgeny Anatolyevich Slepukhin, rector of the Transfiguration Church.

Divine service in the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord March 14, 2013 is conducted by Archimandrite Vasily (Paskye) - Viceroy of the Holy Trinity Monastery in Cheboksary, Chairman of the Commission for the Canonization of Saints of the Chuvash Metropolis. In the foreground on the right is Archpriest Pavel Gutsaev, rector of Holy Trinity Cathedral s. Poretsky, Dean of the Second Deanery of the Alatyr Diocese During the procession in memory of the holy martyr Vasily Grishin on March 14, 2013. In the foreground is the abbot of the Transfiguration Church p. Kudeikha archpriest Evgeny Slepukhin and rector of the Epiphany Church p. Kozlovka of the Poretsky region archpriest George Shamritsky

With the blessing of the ruling bishop Bishop Alatyr and Poretsky Theodore with the support of the Government of the Chuvash Republic and the Head of Chuvashia M.V. Ignatiev The Transfiguration Church of the village of Kudeikha, starting in 2015, has been providing its territory for rally seminars “For a Sober Village”.

The temple is included in the list of cultural heritage of the Chuvash Republic of regional significance and is under state protection ^[1] .

• 1937-1990 - the gradual decline of the temple.
• 1991-1998 - restoration of the left chapel in honor of the Nativity of Christ.
• 2002 - restoration of the central chapel in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
• 2007 - restoration of the right side chapel in honor of the Protection of the Holy Virgin.

• S.I. Klyukin. Zasurskaya olden time. Historical essays and documentary notes in 2 books. - Nizhny Novgorod: Publishing House LLC Rastr-NN, 2014. - Book 1. - 569 p. - Pages 404–408, 453–468.
• N.I. Muratov. Objects of cultural heritage of the Chuvash Republic, in 2 books. - Cheboksary: ​​Chuvash book publishing house, 2012. - 277 p. - Pages 205-206.
• Website of the Chuvash Metropolis
• Site "Cathedrals.ru"
• Site "Heritage of the village"
• Website of the Government of the Chuvash Republic
• Site of the Holy Trinity Orthodox Monastery
• Site "Map of temples and monasteries"
• The site of the movement "For a sober village" in the village. Kudeikha in 2015—2016
• State Historical Archive of the Chuvash Republic. Fund : 256. List : 1. Unit Storage : 52. Date : 1818-1915.