Kazan Bogoroditsky monastery

On July 8, 1579, the 9-year-old girl Matron found the icon in the place indicated to her in a dream. The story about this and the first miracles from the icon was first compiled by an eyewitness to the events, priest Ermolai, the future patriarch Germogen († 1612 ), glorified by the Church as a holy martyr . The achievement of the miraculous icon only 27 years after the capture of Kazan by Russian troops was perceived by contemporaries as a symbolic event of great importance. In the same 1579, according to the sovereign's decree of Ivan IV the Terrible , the Bogoroditsky monastery was founded on the site of acquisition. The first nun in it, according to legend, was the girl Matron herself, who received the name of the Moor after shearing (her further fate is unknown).

The militia of Minin and Pozharsky in 1612 took the Kazan icon on a campaign to Moscow, with the blessing of the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne (after the martyrdom of Hermogenes) of the Kazan Metropolitan Ephraim.

After the campaign in 1612, the original icon was returned to the Bogoroditsky Monastery of Kazan (in Moscow, in Kazan Cathedral on Red Square , only a revered list was established, although some Muscovites subsequently tended to take it for the original).

The influx of pilgrims made the Bogoroditsky monastery a famous shrine of the Middle Volga .

According to the reform of Catherine II ( 1764 ), which divided all the cloisters of Russia into states (classes), he was reckoned to the second class, and in 1809 to the first, the highest. The number of nuns and novices gradually increased from more than 100 at the beginning of the 19th century to 500 by the time of the revolution.

The territory of the monastery occupied several hectares . Its architectural ensemble in size and luxury was unparalleled in the Volga region.

The main cathedral , where the icon was, was built in the style of classicism in 1798 - 1808 . (designed by the famous Russian architect I. Starov ) on the site of a dilapidated stone cathedral of the 1590s.

Its area was 49 by 43 m, and its height was 44 m. The appearance of the cathedral was determined by 5 hemispherical domes and 3 huge pediments with columns - from all sides except the altar.

St. Nicholas Church to the north of it ( 1810 - 1816 ) and Krestovozdvizhensky to the south ( 1882 - 1884 ) were also erected in the style of classicism, but each had one large hemispherical dome. The 2 main buildings - the Prioressky and Nikolsky (1820s - 1840s), made up a giant semicircle that closed the classical ensemble into a single whole.

This ensemble of the 19th century included 2 more ancient buildings - the 55-meter bell tower , one of the highest in Kazan, and the small Sofia Gate Church (both - the middle of the 17th century).

After the closing of the Kazan Kremlin and its churches in September 1918, the main surviving shrines of the Kazan diocese were transferred to the monastery: the relics of Saints Guri and Barsanuphius of Kazan.

Although the monastery was abolished, an officially registered Orthodox community operated throughout the 1920s . In 1931, the community was transferred to the Peter and Paul Cathedral, after which most of the ensemble of the monastery was destroyed.

Since 1942, a tobacco factory was located on the territory of the former monastery; the western part of the ruined ensemble was later built up with 5-story houses; The Philosophy Faculty of Kazan Pedagogical Institute (now the University) was located in the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Cross.

Return of St. Sophia Church and Holy Cross Cathedral

In 1994 , the Sofia Church was returned to believers, in 2004 - 2005 . The large Church of the Exaltation of the Cross was returned and restored. On July 21, 2005, Patriarch of All Russia Alexy II handed over to the Kazan diocese the so-called Vatican List of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God returned by the Pope . This list was placed precisely in the Holy Cross Exaltation Church. According to experts, it was written in Russia at the end of the 17th or 1st half of the 18th century (it is not known exactly in which monastery it was located, it went abroad after the revolution). And in style and size, he can not be the original of the Kazan icon, which was acquired in 1579. The original disappeared without a trace in 1904 - he was abducted from the cathedral of the Kazan monastery by the thief Chaikin. The attacker was caught, but stated during the investigation that he chopped and burned the icon in the furnace, since he needed only a precious robe .

Nevertheless, the Vatican list is revered by the brethren and parishioners, every day a lot of pilgrims come to him from all over Russia and from abroad.

Since 2005, the monastery has been reborn as a male, although before the revolution it was female. His brotherhood so far has only a few people. In recent years, the tobacco factory located here in Soviet times was completely withdrawn from the monastery. During excavations in the monastery, the remains of nuns and novices of the monastery were discovered. On October 12, 2019, they were reburied at the monastery necropolis ^[1] .

Reconstruction of the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God

On November 4, 2015 - on the Day of National Unity and on the Day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God — President of the Republic of Tatarstan R.N. Minnikhanov signed Decree No. UP-1066 “On the Establishment of the Bulgarian Islamic Academy and the Reconstruction of the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God”. ^{[2] [3]}

In accordance with it, "in order to preserve and develop traditional spiritual values, strengthen interfaith and interethnic peace and harmony," it was decided: to support the initiative of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation, the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia , the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan to establish a city The Bulgarian Spassky Municipal District of the Republic of Tatarstan of the Scientific-Educational and Spiritual-Educational Muslim Center “Bulgarian Islamic Academy ”, as well as the initiative of the Tatarstan Metropolitanate of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and the City Hall of Kazan“ on the reconstruction of the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God within the Kazan Monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary ”. ^{[4] [5]}

By the same decree, the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan was instructed to provide for the organization of events for laying a memorial stone at the site of the establishment of the Bulgarian Islamic Academy on May 21, 2016 and a stone at the site of the restored Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God on July 21, 2016, as well as provide for the establishment of memorial books and the establishment of memorial signs in order to perpetuate the memory of people who have contributed to the creation of the academy and the reconstruction of the cathedral. ^{[4] [5]}

Full support for the decree was expressed by the participants of the II Forum of the Orthodox Society of the Republic of Tatarstan , held in Kazan on November 26, 2015 , calling on "the clergy and laity, representatives of business, culture and science, all people of good will to give all possible assistance to the charitable cause of the revival of the world-famous Orthodox shrine." ^[6]

On April 27, 2016, on the site where the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was located, archaeological excavations began. ^[7]

July 21, 2016 , on the day of the celebration of the appearance of the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the city of Kazan, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill consecrated the place of laying the restored Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God ^[8] .

• Kazan Monasteries // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Roshchektayev A.V. Guide to the shrines of the Kazan diocese. Part 2. Monasteries of Kazan.
• Ainutdinov R., Chudinova T. Ensemble of the Bogoroditsky monastery // Design and New Architecture: magazine. - Kazan: Foundation for the Development of Architecture, 2004. - No. 15-16 . - S. 100-103 .

• Kazan saints
• Orthodox churches of Kazan

• Kazan Bogoroditsky monastery official site
• Kazan Bogoroditsky monastery at wikimapia.org
• Kazan Bogoroditsky monastery on the site oldkazan