In the definition of "nationality in Russian" Count Uvarov in the 19th century included such concepts as autocracy and Orthodoxy. He believed that the Russian people are extremely religious and selflessly devoted to the tsar-father. If the second statement is controversial, then it is difficult to disagree with the former. No wonder Russia was famous for its churches, temples, cathedrals, and no settlement, even small villages, could do without the house of God.
The status of the Lord's abode
In one of the most beautiful places in Moscow, at the foot of the famous Vorobyovy mountains stands the ancient Andreevsky monastery (for the male brethren). It belongs to the oldest religious Orthodox buildings in Russia, since the monastery was founded not later than the 13th century, that is, 3 centuries after the adoption of Christianity by the Rus. The current status of the institution is stavropigal. It is appropriated to the structure or monastery in the event that the cross above it was erected by higher spiritual ranks. And this is very honorable and means that the Andreevsky monastery and its like are subordinated not to local dioceses, but directly to the patriarch himself and the highest synod.
The emergence of the monastery
According to oral tradition, in the Moscow Captive, in about the 13th century, the Transfiguration Desert was organized, from which the Andreevsky monastery later grew up. Deserts traditionally called the settlements of monks, remote from a large crowd of people. Such monasteries or communities were not uncommon in Russia. As the consolidation of Christianity as the main religion, the number of them constantly increased. Andreevsky monastery begins to be mentioned in the annals in the 16th century, when the "deserts" became numerous, and in its territory the "merciful husband", as his contemporaries called him for patronage, good deeds, charity and exemplary morality, Fedor Mikhailovich Rtishchev founded the temple. The main patron of the institution was the holy martyr Andrei Stratilat, a renowned warrior, severely injured for his faith. Rtishchev did not accidentally consider that this is the place where Moscow's Andreevsky Monastery should be found. Indeed, in 1591 from here the Crimean-Tatar khan Kyzy-Girey fled shamefully with his army . The Orthodox people then considered that none other than Stratilat was involved in this miracle, to whom they prayed intensely.
Time for a change
Andreevsky Monastery on the Sparrow Hills began to operate in 1648. It became the first refuge of the "Teaching Brotherhood" - the spiritual and educational center, in which the most competent monks of the time gathered to study the available spiritual literature, translate books from the Greek language, create texts of a religious and educational nature. Or, as the ministers themselves said, for the sake of "book teaching". In fact, the monastery was the first Moscow academy. Tsar-Democrat Peter ordered the monastery to open an institution in which they brought up and trained children-street children, foundlings, orphans. The country needed educated people, and Peter did not care about their origin. Unfortunately, the shelter lasted only 8 years. With further Russian rulers, the temple loses some of its high significance. So Catherine II simply turned him into a Charity House, i.e. An almshouse. Then the territory of the monastery is given to the cemetery of the Moscow Muscovites and monks of other Moscow monasteries. Sheremetyev, Pleshcheyev and other famous representatives of the Russian nobility found here their last shelter. True, most of the necropolis (and burials here were conducted from the 13th to 19th centuries) was destroyed in the first 20 years of Soviet power.
At the break of the epochs
The beginning of the 19th century for the St. Andrew's Monastery was marked by the fact that new houses were built on its farmstead - for the almshouse that opened in 1806. Founded her merchant Moscow as a charitable institution. But the first quarter of the 20th century was a period of great trials. Under the power of the Bolsheviks, the church ceased to act at all: it was closed. Gradually the hulls and other buildings were dismantled, collapsed, and the steep Vorobyov steep here looked like an unsightly one. The revival of the monastery takes place only in 1991, when the Patriarchal Compound is established here, the churches of Christ's Resurrection, the Apostle John the Theologian and Michael the Archangel are being built and opened. The St. Andrew's Church is working again. In the monastery there is the Synodal Library. And already in 2013 the Andreevsky male stauropegic monastery begins to operate here.
Places of Faith
Orthodox monasteries in the capital of the Russian state a large number. If we begin to list all the monasteries in Moscow, their addresses will take more than one printed page. So let's stop at some. This is an ancient women's monastery on Rozhdestvenka (Bogoroditsky stauropegial monastery). The second in ancient times in Moscow Epiphany Monastery (stands in Bogoyavlensky Lane, hence the name). Its founder is the son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniel. At the Great Ordynka , the Marfo-Mariinsky Monastery was once open. The second name is the Abode of Charity and Love.