Pokrovsky Khotkov Monastery: history, description, relics and shrines

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

This monastery is one of the oldest on Russian soil. The exact date of its foundation is unknown, and the architecture is unique. Of course, this is a monument of history and architecture, the cultural heritage of the nation.

Besides all this, Pokrovsky Khotkov Monastery is a unique place where every inch of the earth is saturated with a special energy prayed for centuries. Everything here is imbued with spirituality. This is the main value and the very meaning of its existence.

What is this place?

Pokrovsky Khotkov Monastery of the Moscow diocese is a functioning monastery for women. Now this place has a very high official status, it is stauropegial. This means that the monastery is under the jurisdiction of the patriarch, who is directly involved in the needs, interests and, in general, in the life of the monastery.

However, this was not always the case. The Pokrovsky Khotkov stauropegial convent acquired its current high hierarchical status quite recently. ithappened in 1992. In pre-revolutionary times, that is, until 1918, the monastery was listed in the church registers as a regular monastery. This means that the institution belonged to the third class of the cadastre, that is, it had no special rights or privileges.

How old is this monastery?

When exactly the Pokrovsky Khotkov Monastery was founded is unknown. The earliest mention of this monastery, which historians managed to find in chronicle texts, refers to the beginning of the XIV century, to 1308.

Earlier references to this place in written sources could not be found. However, at the time of recording, the monastery already existed, was fully functioning and was a fairly large center that plays an important role in local life. Accordingly, it was founded no later than the middle of the XIII century or even earlier.

Was this hermitage always female?

Pokrovsky Khotkov Monastery did not always function as a convent. Initially, like many other similar places located in the central European part of Russia, it was arranged according to a mixed type. This means that both women and men were tonsured within the walls of the monastery.

For example, the place where the father and mother of Sergius of Radonezh were tonsured is the Pokrovsky Khotkov Monastery. The history of the monastery, of course, is not limited to the names of these pious people, canonized as saints. Like any of the old monasteries, it had different times, and the local stones remember quite a bit. But unfortunately notcan tell.

How did the monastery gain material prosperity?

Like the entire Sergiev Posad region, the monastery has experienced a lot over the past centuries. This is poverty, we alth, desertion and, conversely, a significant number of people. The ancient walls saw different things, however, as did the local villages that grew to a large settlement.

The abode has not always been a privileged high-status place, rich or prosperous. For a long time the monastery vegetated in poverty. The financial position of the monastery was somewhat strengthened at the beginning of the 16th century. In 1506, the Pokrovsky Khotkov Monastery received the right to the so-called rug from the Grand Duke's throne. This is a kind of monetary allowance, maintenance that has a certain frequency, that is, it is not a one-time subsidy.

At that moment only 17 people lived within the walls of the monastery. How many of them were men, and how many women - is unknown. But it can be assumed that there were more nuns, since from the moment the rugi was acquired, the monastery became female for a short time.

How did the monastery history develop?

Sergiev Posad, Khotkovo and other villages of this area, from which even names have not remained, developed around the churches and monasteries standing here. Not every local temple was large or prosperous. Most of them lived in poverty, could not boast of either the number of parishioners or the number of clergy.

Until the beginning of the 16th century, he was in distress and verya privileged convent in the Moscow region today, known as Pokrovsky Khotkov.

Between 1506, which became a turning point for the state of affairs in this monastery, and 1544, the monastery ceases to be mixed and becomes exclusively female. Of course, there is no exact date, since the transition from one state to another was gradual and natural. In other words, it happened. No one deliberately made any decisions, signed decrees, or otherwise influenced the type of structure of this monastery. Or rather, the choice of whether she will become male or female. A decree prohibiting cohabitation in the same territory was issued at the beginning of the 16th century, but the transition to a certain type was carried out not overnight, but gradually.

1544 turned out to be an extremely important year in the history of the monastery. John IV Vasilyevich became interested in him. Ivan the Terrible by a special decree transferred the monastery to the jurisdiction and under the care of the Trinity Monastery. Although some historians believe that the transformation from an "independent entity" into a "subordinate entity" could hardly have had a positive effect on its development, the facts indicate otherwise.

At the moment when the monastery passed to the Trinity Monastery, there was only one wooden church on the territory - Pokrovskaya. But according to the records, already in 1580 another wooden church - St. Nicholas Church - was acquired by the Pokrovsky Khotkov Monastery. Nikolsky Cathedral, which people from all over the world come to admire today, will later grow out of this chopped church.

By the 18th century, about 40 nuns lived on the territory of a very overgrown and rebuilt monastery, not counting the novices who were just preparing for the vows. This is a lot for the monastery of those times. Of course, this development could not but have its consequences, which came in 1764. The monastery regained its independence, leaving the care of the Trinity Monastery.

By the beginning of the next century, XIX, the number of nuns in the monastery exceeded four hundred. At the same time, significant construction was going on, the monastery territory was expanding. The conditions in which the nuns lived also changed in the century before last. The monastery gradually turned into a "special residence". This means that each one who took the tonsure had her own cell, separate from the others.

Of course, the economy has grown stronger and developed. Goods from the monastery courtyard were in great demand and were sold very quickly at markets and fairs, which replenished the treasury and allowed the monastery to develop.

By the beginning of the last century, by 1913, the following functioned at the monastery:

• school for 70 students;
• almshouse;
• small hospital with 10 beds;
• icon art workshop.

All this was founded, of course, not in the last century, but earlier. But by the beginning of the 20th century, these objects at the monastery were already flourishing with might and main and were extremely in demand.

The history of the convent, known before the revolution, was interrupted not only for Sergiev Posad, Khotkovo, but also for theiroutside, in 1922. The monastery was closed and looted.

How are things these days?

Already in 1989, the monastery opened its doors again and began to recover remarkably quickly. Now the monastery not only has a strong economy and a special status, it also operates:

• Girls' boarding house;
• theology courses;
• Sunday school.

Of course, this is not the limit for the development of the monastery. Moreover, the monastery has not yet recovered to the level it was before the revolutionary years.

When did the first stone temple appear in the monastery?

Modern Sergiev Posad district least of all resembles a rural settlement. There are excellent highways, residential complexes, large chain stores and other infrastructure facilities typical for developed cities. But it wasn't always like this.

At the beginning of the Middle Ages, stone buildings were a rarity. Not every monastery could afford such a temple. It cost a lot of money, which in Orthodox monasteries located in the Russian outback was not always enough for the most necessary things. We althy philanthropists or noble parishioners visited far from every monastery courtyard.

Merchants, namely, with the funds of this estate, most of the churches in Russian cities were built, preferred to make donations to the so-called "house" churches among the people or build them close to their own homes.

Pokrovsky Khotkov Monastery, the relics and shrines of which, although they had an importantspiritual significance, was not of particular interest to merchants and patrons from other classes. Probably for this reason, the first stone temple appeared here quite late, in the middle of the 17th century. It was the Church of the Intercession, rebuilt. Vasily Fedorovich Yanov paid for the construction of the temple. His name went down in the history of the monastery forever, because the acquisition of his own stone church was an extremely significant and important event for any monastery.

Vasily Yanov was a stolnik, belonged to an ancient boyar family. This man acted as the Patriarchal Solicitor and, for reasons alone known to him, became interested in the Intercession Convent and its needs.

The temple was built in record time for those times, between 1644 and 1648. He later became the first architectural landmark of the monastery, near the walls of which the river Page flows. In Khotkovo, as, indeed, in Posad at that time, there was no bigger, more beautiful and majestic church. It is not surprising that people from all over the area came to admire or at least take a glimpse of this building in the monastery courtyard.

What is interesting about monastic architecture?

Pokrovsky Khotkov Monastery, whose architecture is a national cultural heritage, is distinguished by a surprisingly convenient and simple, intuitive layout of buildings. This is not a characteristic feature of the ancient Orthodox monastic farmsteads of Russia.

The whole complex is focused on the current Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Which shouldn't surprisegiven that for a long time the Intercession Monastery was actually part of the Trinity Monastery. The layout as a whole is longitudinal, axial. There is a "main street" - a wide path that goes from the main temple through the Holy Gates to the Lavra. Above the gate, of course, built a small church. Such temples are called gate churches. It was consecrated in the name of the Nativity of John the Baptist.

The whole area is surrounded by a beautiful stone wall with four small towers built by 1781. Until the middle of the century before last, there was a through passage through the Intercession Monastery, but in 1834, right in the center of the territory, literally on the road, a four-tier bell tower “grew up”, with a fashionable element at that time - a clock. Of course, the tract had to be laid anew, bypassing the monastery, which was done. The new road was opened in 1851. Now on the site of the old bypass road there is a street called Kooperativnaya. The bell tower has not survived to this day, it was demolished in the 30s of the past century.

Pokrovsky Cathedral deserves special attention. Its uniqueness lies in how organically the building was rebuilt from the first stone temple of the monastery. It is not possible to notice the presence of any transitions, inconsistencies, disproportions, or complain about the lack of harmony. Meanwhile, the temples belong to different architectural styles. Unfortunately, the name of the architect who so brilliantly carried out the expansion and reconstruction of the stone Church of the Intercession into a cathedral is unknown.

Cells with cells neatly lined up along the southern wall. They are so precisely merged into one line,that are somewhat reminiscent of army barracks, lurking outside the parade ground.

St. Nicholas Cathedral is strikingly different from the general laconic classicism of the internal buildings of the monastery. This temple seems to challenge other buildings with its deliberate, opulent Byzantine architecture. It is in every sense the Russian Church. The kind you see in every provincial old town.

But again, a paradox. Nikolsky Cathedral, the one that can be seen today, is outwardly designed in the Russian-Byzantine style architectural direction. It is typical for merchant churches of the late 16th and mid-17th centuries, which so delight foreign tourists. But the temple was built at the very beginning of the last century by order of Abbess Filareta II. Alexander Latkov became the author of the architectural project.

Unfortunately, this construction has wiped off the face of the earth the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with side chapels consecrated in the name of Peter and Paul. According to local legend, one of the holy fools, of whom there were many near the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, seeing how the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was disappearing, predicted the monastery would soon be closed and defiled in the form of punishment for the demolition of the temple.

Where are the relics and relics?

The Intercession Cathedral, which can be seen within the walls of the monastery today, was built between 1812 and 1816. Or rather, it was rebuilt from the same, the first stone temple. The inhabitants of the surrounding villages came to admire it in the 17th century.

The cathedral is a fundamental, very solid, and even squat in appearance, building, which is typical of the styleclassicism. It is crowned with five domes, and the facade is decorated with ribbon rustications and porticos. It is in this church that the relics of Saints Cyril and Mary, the parents of Sergius of Radonezh, and other significant relics that are sometimes brought to the monastery for worship, such as miraculous icons, are located.

Own relics of the Intercession Monastery are only the relics of the parents of Sergius of Radonezh, canonized as saints. There are no other relics in this monastery.

Where is this monastery?

He is located in the suburbs. More precisely, in the small town of Khotkovo, located in the Sergiev Posad district of the Moscow region, on Kooperativnaya street, the serial number of the building is 2. This is a functioning monastery, but its territory is almost always accessible to both pilgrims and ordinary tourists.

. Temples that were plundered in the past century do not have frescoes and images that require special temperature conditions to ensure their safety. Therefore, you can come to Khotkovo at any convenient day. The monastery is open for visits from six in the morning until nine in the evening.

Many of those who seek to see this place make one mistake. First they examine the Lavra,and from there they go to the Intercession Monastery. Of course, there is nothing particularly reprehensible in this order of visits, but this is a violation of the tradition among the pilgrims.

It is customary for believers to first of all bow to the relics of Saints Cyril and Mary, father and mother of Sergius of Radonezh, and only after that go on foot to the Lavra, passing under the arch of the Holy Gates. The order adopted among the pilgrims should not be violated, if only because it is not very convenient to move against the direction of the flow of people, not to mention the fact that this is a manifestation of disrespect.