Kolotsky monastery

In the Middle Ages

Until the middle of the XVI century there was no information about the monastery. The foundation of the monastery is reported in the sixth chapter of the first part of the “ Power Book ”: according to this text, the monastery appeared in 1413 . This event was preceded by the legendary appearance of the Kolochsky Icon of the Mother of God , described in the annals and the ancient Russian Tale of Luka Kolochsky . ^[one]

According to the Tale, in 1413 in Kolochi, the poor villager Luka “in some place will find the icon of the Most Pure Virgin Mary, holding the Infant of our Lord Jesus Christ on the river. From the united country of the icon of the icon on the closure, the image of Nikola the chudotvorets, and from the other, Elijah the prophet. ” Luka took the icon to his home, and on the same day he received healing from the icon for the sick man who was lying in his house. The news of the miracle spread through the surrounding villages and the sick began to flock to Luke, wanting to heal in a miraculous way. Once Luka went with the icon to Mozhaisk. Prince Andrei Dmitriyevich Mozhaisky went out to meet him with the Cross procession, accompanied by the clergy, the boyars and the crowd of ordinary people. Blinded by the reception, Luka with the icon went to Moscow, where he was met by Metropolitan Photius with the bishops and the entire Sacred Cathedral, Prince Vasily I with the boyars and a crowd of ordinary Muscovites.

Having collected big money thanks to the icon, Luka returned to his native village and built the Assumption Church there, where the miraculous image was put, and for himself he built spacious stone mansions and healed like a prince, even beat up and robbed Prince Andrey Dmitrievich , who hunted in the woods near Koloch. One day the prince hunter caught a huge evil bear; having planted him in a wooden chest, he drove him to Mozhaisk past the courtyard of Luke. He ordered to release the bear in his yard, and the bear crippled him. Thinking that he was dying, Luke implored the prince who arrived to use his property with advantage. Fulfilling the will of the dying man, Prince Andrei Mozhaisky ordered a monastery to be erected in the village, placed the Kolochsky icon in it and endowed the new monastery with land. The first inhabitant of the new monastery was repentant and recovered Luke. Probably, during his life in the monastery was built a stone temple in honor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

According to the “Power Book of the Tsar's Genealogy,” the celebration of the Kolotsky Icon in the monastery took place on July 9/22 since ancient times. According to the oral tradition that has reached our time, a healing spring has been scored at the place of the appearance of the icon (on the day of the feast a procession was made to it). Now this place is a wooden chapel (the current structure - the 1990s ).

In the XV - XVI centuries, the monastery gradually expanded, grew rich, was very famous and attracted a large number of pilgrims. The significance of the monastery is visible even in the fact that the abbots of the monastery in the rank of hegumen were present at the Cathedrals in Moscow. It is known that, gathering in 1563 in a campaign against Polotsk , Tsar Ivan the Terrible took with him the miraculous Kolotskaya icon. The signatures of the Kolotsky abbots stand on the Sobor of 1566 concerning the continuation of military operations against Poland (Hegumen Herman), the church permission for Ivan the Terrible to enter into the fourth marriage in 1572 (Hegumen Euthymius), a letter of election to the throne of Boris Godunov in 1598 (Hegumen Nikander) .

For a long time, the abbots of the monastery had the rank of hegumen, but some of them became archimandrites for their services to manage the monastery. One of the hegumenes of the monastery, Cornelius , received a high church rank: in 1566 he was transferred to Moscow as treasurer of the metropolitan court, and in 1567 the Metropolitan of Moscow Philip (Kolychev) made him Archbishop of Rostov and Yaroslavl.

It is known that by 1609 there were two stone churches in the monastery - the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos with the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (however, it is not clear that it was an ancient building erected during the life of Luke, or later church) and the Epiphany Church with a refectory chamber also the bell tower with the third church - St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow. Monastery fence was cut from wood.

In the Time of Troubles ( 1609 ) the monastery was destroyed by the Poles. According to the description of the monastery for the years 1626 - 1627 , two large monastery churches were destroyed, and services were held in the small church of St. Alexy under the belfry. The devastated monastery began to recover in the 1620s , but on a smaller scale.

The Assumption Church of 1626-1627 was only partially preserved, since it was thoroughly rebuilt a century later. Actually, the structure of the XVII century belongs only to the main cube of the present church - for example, the zakomars, characteristic of the Old Russian architecture, are clearly visible.

Period XVIII - early XX century

In the second half of the 18th century , a radical restructuring of the monastic ensemble began. The Dormition Cathedral was redone beyond recognition: it was crowned with a new drum and head, chapels were added (in honor of the Prophet Elijah of God and the Hierarch and Miracle-worker Nicholas), the old windows were sealed and deprived of their trim. The territory was surrounded by a brick fence with six towers (only one tower and a small fragment of the fence remained). The wooden cases of cells in the 18th century were replaced by stone ones.

Formed stylistically holistic architectural ensemble with baroque features. Over the other buildings of the monastery, a four-tiered bell tower was raised, square in plan, with a jingle octahedron, which was erected between 1739 - 1763 .

In 1812, M. I. Kutuzov examined the field of future battle from this bell tower: by noon on August 21, the main forces of the Russian army were concentrated here, the headquarters were located; here it was originally supposed to hold a decisive battle. However, the next day, on August 22, Kutuzov decided to retreat to Borodino , finding this position more successful. On August 24, the battle of the Russian rear guard with the advancing French took place near the monastery walls, in which Major General of the Don Army IK Krasnov was mortally wounded. On the same day, near the walls of the monastery, Denis Davydov joined the command of the partisan detachment (a special commemorative plaque on the monastery bell tower testifies to this). After the French occupied the monastery, Napoleon stayed here, who also went up to the monastery bell tower. For some time the monastery housed a French hospital; after the cloister was plundered and burned.

After the end of the war of 1812, 10 thousand rubles were given to restore the monastery from the treasury of the Synod . During the years of Abbot Joasaph, the cathedral was restored with this money, the iconostasis was renewed, the walls of the main church were painted.

In 1911, the monastery was captured on a color slide of S. M. Prokudin-Gorsky .

Abolition and restoration of the monastery

After the revolution, the monastery was abolished. In 1918 a commune of the poor was organized in the monastery ^[2] . The fortress walls and most of the towers (except one) are destroyed. The last monks were arrested and executed on suspicion of counter-revolutionary activities. At the same time, until 1934, the Assumption Church served as an ordinary parish church, and then it housed a boarding school for deaf and dumb children.

The original Kolochsky icon was lost in the 1970s . Only a few late lists are known: one of them is in the Petropavlovsk side-chapel of the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, 1689 (it says: Letha 7197 (1689), June 23rd day, this image was built according to the promise of great rulers of the master chamber officials, for the deliverance of misfortunes by the grace of the Most Holy Theotokos and the saints by prayers ”).

In the 1990s, the monastery was resumed as female. The cathedral contains a modern list of the Kolochsky Icon. The cathedral, the bell tower and two of the three cell buildings have been restored; The third monastery building is currently being restored. Stan still no. On the site of the source is built a small wooden chapel.

One of the items approved by the Government of the Russian Federation plan of activities for preparing for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812 is the restoration of the monastery ^[3] .

• On June 29, 2012, the Bank of Russia issued a commemorative coin with a face value of 3 rubles with the image of the Assumption Kolotsky Monastery in the series “Architectural Monuments of Russia”. The coin is made of 925 sterling silver with a circulation of 5,000 copies and a weight of 31.1 grams. http://www.ru-coin.ru/index.php/2012/1386-kolotskoe.html

• The Tale of Luka Kolochsky (Library of Literature of Ancient Russia / RAS. IRLI)
• Kolotsky Monastery on www.sobory.ru
• Kolotsky Monastery on www.temples.ru
• Fragment of the video - Kolotsky Assumption Convent on www.mozhaysk.su