Zolotnikovskaya deserts: description

Over the past few years, the Ivanovo-Zolotnikovskaya desert, which was once very famous and revered in Russia, was revived in the Ivanovo region in the Teikov region, but it was abolished and partially destroyed during the reign of atheistic ideology. About this, what her story is and what her day brought her, this article tells.

Works of Monk of Jonah

According to historical information Zolotnikovskaya desert originates in the first quarter of the XVII century. It is also known the name of its founder, it was a certain monk Ion, who in 1624 became hegumen of the new monastery. By all accounts, the Lord bestowed on him not only humility, proper to his dignity, but also diligence, because with him, despite the extreme poverty of the brethren, it was possible to build a wooden church dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

The current name of the monastery is the Zolotnikovskaya Uspensky Desert, which the Golden Stream stream that flowed alongside it appeared in official documents only a century later, and originally it was called the New Desert of the Bereza Borku, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

Sovereign Beneficiaries

In view of the extreme poverty in which the abode was, the successor of Jonah, the new Hegumen Jacob, was forced to beat the brow of Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich and ask him not to leave in the misfortune of God's monks. Archival evidence shows that the pious sovereign did not leave his "teardrop" (as in ancient times they called all kinds of complaints) without reply, and in 1632 handed over to the monastery for use (for sustenance) significant land that was in the same locality and was called Smerdichevo and Birch bark.

As can be seen, the income from the lands granted by the sovereign was very good, since it was enough not only for "daily bread", but also for the construction of a new stone church, erected in 1651 on the site of the former wooden one. Soon two other buildings were added to it - the gate church of All Saints and the other, consecrated in honor of the icon of Kazan Mother of God, thanks to which the Zolotnikovskaya desert, previously quiet and invisible, gained fame.

The lines of pilgrims reached out to her, and sometimes very tall people visited her. For example, it is known that she was often visited by Metropolitan Hilarion of Suzdal, and once even hosted in her the tsarina Praskovya Fedorovna - the wife of the sovereign Ivan V, who was the brother and co-ruler of Peter I. Much in those years came to the monastery of generous deposits and from the royal palace, And from boyar houses. The brothers got well and healthy.

Time of troubles and misfortunes

But the Lord, as is known, sends tests to subdue the proud hearts. Zolotnikovskaya deserts have not passed this fate. At the beginning of the next - XVIII - century, she suffered a series of misfortunes, from which she became poor, and in 1725 and was altogether attributed to the Suzdal Spaso-Efimyevsky monastery. Finally, the wrath of God was shed in 1764, when during the reforms conducted by Empress Catherine II, the monastery became supernumerary and in this connection was deprived of material support.

About how the Zolotnikovskaya desert existed in the following years, after it was secularized, that is, land and synodal deductions were terminated, one can only guess. From complete ruin, its voluntary donors, among whom, as in previous years, there were very well-known and highly placed individuals, were saved.

Life of the monastery in the XIX century

Among them was, for example, the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexander Nikolayevich - future sovereign Alexander II, who visited the monastery in 1837, accompanied by his teacher and mentor, the famous Russian poet VA Zhukovsky. The local merchants, who are always generous with donations, did not remain deaf to the needs of the monastery. It was thanks to them that at the beginning of the XIX century the monastery resumed construction and a stone parish corps was built, and later the efforts of the rich landowner A. Sheremetev managed to enclose the territory of the monastery with a brick wall.

Under the yoke of the God-seeking authorities

After the October events, which radically changed the life of the country, a widespread campaign of persecution against the church began. Hundreds of holy monasteries were closed and handed over for the needs of the national economy, many of which were witnesses of the centuries-old history of Russia. Zolotnikovskaya deserts did not escape the general fate. The monastery was abolished in 1921, after which the authorities began to systematically destroy the buildings on its territory.

As a result of their barbaric actions, the monastery sustained irreplaceable losses. The All-Svyatskaya Gate Church, which was of high architectural and artistic value, was demolished, the brick wall was destroyed and the building was blown up, in which the cells were located. Serious destruction suffered the Assumption Church, and the temple of the Kazan Icon of Our Lady to the beginning of the fifties turned into ruins. Only the abbot corps, in which the primary school was located since the closing of the monastery, has survived to this day in its original form.

Revival of the abused monastery

Changes in the life of the once very famous, but due to historical cataclysms of the ruined and defeated monastery began in the mid-nineties. Zolotnikovskaya desert (Ivanovo region), or rather, what was left of it, in 1996, the decision of the Russian government was transferred to the Ivanovo diocese, in whose territory it was located, and the following year a parish was formed around the miraculously preserved Church of the Assumption.

Unable to restore the destroyed monastic constructions to life, they decided to compensate for their loss by the construction of new ones. As part of this plan, in November 2008, the solemn laying of a wooden church in honor of St. Mitrophan of Voronezh was performed on the territory of the monastery.

In the same year, the ruins of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God Church were handed over to the brotherhood of the Uspensky-Kazan Monastery, after which their active restoration began, which allowed the first divine service to be celebrated at Easter 2010. At the same time, the building of the corps of fraternal cells began, which met their first inhabitants a year later.

Currently, the religious life of the monastery has been restored to its proper extent. Regularly held worship services, and organized the reception of pilgrims who aspire, as in old years, to worship its shrines.