Goritsky Resurrection Monastery

The monastery was founded in the middle of the 16th century by Princess Euphrosyne Staritskaya , widow of the prince Andrei Staritsky , the uncle of Tsar John IV the Terrible .

By that time, a monastery was already operating in Kirillov, and in Goritsy there was a wooden Voskresenskaya obrochny church and the Vvedensky rifle church. Princess Euphrosyne replaced the wooden Resurrection Church with a stone church, with the side chapel of St. Cyril of Belozersky the Miracle Worker in 1544, it is this date that is considered to be the year the monastery was founded. Then a new warm church was built in the name of Our Lady of Hodegetria with a refectory .

The names of abbesses of the first years of the Goritsky monastery are preserved: Anisia, Anastasia, Sofia, Mariamia, Anna (d. In October 1569) ^[1] .

In 1563, after the denunciation, Efrosinya Staritskaya was forcibly tonsured a nun under the name of Evdokia and sent to the monastery she founded, “and, if you please, have the Emperor arrange for her to eat and drink, the attendants and all sorts of household services according to her will, and to preserve her being in the monastery Mikhail Ivanovich Kolychev and Andrei Fedorovich Schepotiev and clerk Andrei Shulepnikov ” ^[2] . Together with her in the monastery under the name of Alexander lived Iuliania Dmitrievna , nee Princess Paletskaya, wife of Prince Yuri Vasilyevich , brother of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich ^{[1] [3]} .

In 1569, following the reprisal against the Staritsky, Euphrosyne was killed with the nuns and servants accompanying her. There are various versions of this murder ^{[4] [5]} . According to the Goritsky manuscript, the guardsmen drowned four women in Sheksna: nun Evdokia, Maria, Alexandra and Abbess Anna. The body of Evdokia was buried in the Goritsky monastery ^[5] , and after its canonization, the remains began to be revered as holy relics . In 2007, two female burials were found in the monastery, one of which, presumably, belongs to Saint Euphrosyne ^{[6] [7]} .

In 1575, Ivan the Terrible imprisoned his fourth wife, Anna Koltovskaya , in the monastery under the name of Daria. There is evidence that she spent part of her more than fifty-year monasticism in Goritsy ^{[5] [8]} .

In 1591, after the assassination of Tsarevich Dmitry , his mother, Maria Nagaya, was exiled to the Nikolovyksinsky desert, and then to the Goritsky monastery under the name of Martha. In memory of her murdered son, she erected a chapel at the Resurrection Cathedral ^[5] .

In 1606, False Dmitry I sent to the Goritsky monastery Ksenia Godunova , daughter of Boris Godunov , there she was tonsured under the name Olga ^{[5] [8] [9]} .

In 1727 , after the disgrace of Alexander Menshikov , Varvara Arsenyev was exiled along with his family on September 11, and then she was sent from Klin on October 15, under the escort of Captain Shusherin to Alexandrov to the Alexander Uspensky girl’s monastery. However, after the discovery of an anonymous letter in Moscow in favor of Menshikov and the search for Varvara’s attempts to make it easier to take into account through the intercession of Tsarina Evdokia’s confessor, she was sent to Belozersky uyezd, to the Goritsky girl’s monastery and tonsured as a nun on May 29 under non-commissioned officer Vereovkin, hieromonk Feofof Talus and was named Barsanuphia ^[10] .

In 1739, a young noble girl was forcibly brought to the monastery. According to some historians, this was Yekaterina Dolgorukova , the failed wife of Emperor Peter II ^[5] .

In 1810, the abbess was headed by the abbess of Mauritius, in the world Maria Khodneva (04/08/1778 - 07/18/1861), who ruled it for forty-five years ^[11] . With the support of Archimandrite Feofan Novoyezersky , defined in 1819 by the Dean of the Goritsky Monastery ^[12] , she was able to raise the spiritual monastic life and the external well-being of the monastery. Under the abbess of Mauritius, nuns were tonsured, who proved to be great ascetics in the future: Feofania , in the world Alexandra Sergeevna Gotovtsova, (02.15.1787 - 05.16.1866) and Barsanuphius, in the world Maria Nikitichna Krymova, (30.06.1800 - 02.02.1866). In 1845, Feofania was appointed abbess of the Voskresensky Novodevichy Convent , renewed in St. Petersburg. Her assistant in 20 years of work was Barsanuphia ^[13] .

On the territory of the monastery are 3 stone churches and several residential and farm buildings. Many rooms are located within the monastery walls, as well as outside.

Resurrection Cathedral

The two-story stone Resurrection Cathedral was built in 1544 at the expense of Andrei Staritsky and his wife Euphrosyne on the site of a former wooden church. In 1611, the nun Martha built a square bell tower with four gaps for the bells above her. ^[1] In the 18th century, the bell tower was completely rebuilt. ^[14]

Currently, the cathedral is not functioning and needs significant restoration.

Trinity Cathedral

In 1821, during the abbess of Mauritius Khodneva, on the eastern side of the Resurrection Church, on the burial place of Princess Nun Evdokia and Alexandra, instead of a wooden chapel, a stone three-altered warm temple was built in honor of the Holy Trinity. ^[one]

In Soviet times, the cathedral housed the rural House of Culture. Now the cathedral was restored and consecrated in 2016.

Church of the Intercession

In 1832, at the expense of Princess Khovanskaya, in the Scheme of Paraskeva, a stone, warm, two-story Pokrovskaya church was built. It is located in the fence on the eastern side of the monastery. ^[one]

In Soviet times, the church housed the chambers of the house of the disabled, and for some time - the farm office. In 2003, after restoration, it became the main monastery church. ^[eight]

Monastery walls

The monastery is surrounded by a stone wall with turrets in the corners. In the wall are residential, hotel and hospital buildings, the Intercession Church, utility rooms, cellars with glaciers. Glaciers were used up to the 2nd half of the 20th century . ^[15] There are gates on the 3 sides of the walls. The main "Holy Gate" overlooks the Sheksna . ^[one]

Monastic water supply

During the abbess of Mauritius, a water supply system was constructed in the monastery (previously water was taken from the river). A source of water was found outside the monastery, in the field from which pipes were drawn into a stone chapel specially built near the Resurrection Church, as well as to all the monastery services. A wooden chapel was built above the well in honor of the Mother of God of Tikhvin , on the day of the celebration of which, on June 26, a source was found. ^[one]

The water supply system is valid now.

Buildings inside the monastery

The Resurrection Church adjoins a one-story stone building, used as a refectory and kitchen.

In the XIX - early XX centuries , several wooden buildings were built in the monastery, which were used as residential buildings and workshops. After the monastery was closed, these buildings were used as residential. ^[one]

Vvedensky Church

The Vvedensky church is located on the western side of the monastery on the high bank of the Sheksna . The church belonged to a rural community, next to it was a cemetery. ^[one]

She acted in Soviet times longer than others, before the arrest on September 25, 1937 of the hieromonk Averky (Politsyna) who served in her (shot on October 30 of the same year) ^[16] (officially closed in 1941). Then there was a garage in it, for which a gate was cut in the wall of the church. In the 1990s , the restoration of the church was started by the local community, volunteers and local residents, in 1993 the first service was held in it, in 2000 the church was transferred to the monastery. ^{[8] [15]}

Buildings outside the walls of the monastery

In 1905, under Mother Superior Hadrian, a monastery pier and a stone chapel were built in honor of John the Baptist opposite the northwestern corner of the monastery.

Also outside the monastery were wooden utility rooms, stockyards, pantries, etc. ^[1]

Cemetery

In 1888, on the eastern side of the monastery, on a steep mountain, a monastery cemetery and a chapel were built. ^[one]

In the XX century, the cemetery, like the mountain itself, began to be called the "Old Cemetery".

After the revolution, the Kolos agricultural cartel, in which the nuns worked, was organized on the basis of the monastery. In 1932 the monastery was closed. The nuns dispersed into the surrounding villages. In 1937, many of them, including the 70-year-old Mother Superior Zosima (Rybakova) ^[17] , were arrested and executed.

After the war , the monastery housed the House of the Disabled. After its closure, the monastery was transferred to the museum. The restoration was started, but the allocated funds were not enough. In the 1990s, restoration of the rural Vvedensky church, later transferred to the monastery , was begun. On October 6, 1999 the monastery was officially recognized as operating ^[18] .

The monastery constantly lives 10-20 natives. The monastery is visited by pilgrims and tourists, whose number increases sharply in the summer, when tourist water routes open. The abbess of the monastery is Abbess Euphalia (Lebedeva) ^[8] .

In May 2015, part of the 16th century wall collapsed from the lake ^[19] .

• Chronicle of the Goritsky Monastery (Publication, introductory article and comments by G. O. Ivanova)
• Kulikov S. B. Some results of studies on the history of the origin and construction of the cathedral complex of the Resurrection Goritsky Monastery
• Richter D.I. Goritsky-Voskresensky Monastery // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Smirnov A. I. Goritsky Resurrection Monastery in the second half of the XIX century
• May 1661, May 31. - An unsubscribed book of the Voskresensky Goritsky girl’s monastery of the scribes of the Kirillov Monastery of the Black Priest Matvey and Elder Gerasim Novgorodets Mother Superior Marfa Tovarishchevs. (Preparation for publication by S. S. Vasiliev)
• Soikin P.P. Goritsky Resurrection Monastery in Kirillov Uyezd // Orthodox Russian cloisters : Full illustrated description of Orthodox Russian monasteries in the Russian Empire and Mount Athos. - SPb. : Resurrection, 1994 .-- S. 146-147. - 712 s. - 20,000 copies. - ISBN 5-88335-001-1 .
• E. E. Springs, A. V. Mashtafarov, E. R. Strelnikova. Goritsky in honor of the Resurrection of the Lord Nunnery // Orthodox Encyclopedia . - M .: Church Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia" , 2006. - T. XII. - S. 113-118. - 752 s. - 39,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89572-017-X .