In Vyritsa, the Church of the Kazan Mother of God was built just over a hundred years ago, but thanks to the prayers and deeds of a man with an amazing fate, Father Seraphim, he became famous throughout the world. Vyritsa became the spiritual stronghold of the country in the difficult years of devastation and wars, and remains so now.
The history of the creation of the temple
The village of Vyritsa began to form in the middle of the 19th century on the banks of the picturesque Oredezh River with sandy banks surrounded by vast areas of coniferous forests. But people have lived here since the 10th century.
The unique microclimate and good transport access contributed to the rapid development of the holiday village. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Wittgenstein family owned the lands. The owner wanted to build a Kazan temple in Vyritsa in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, which is celebrated on July 21 and November 4. For these purposes, he chose a piece of land from his possessions. In Vyritsa, in 1912, a brotherhood was organized, which took over this site. Then a fundraising was organized for the construction of the temple, which it was decided to coincide withthe tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty.
In July 1913, the foundation of the church was consecrated, and already in the winter the building was built, and finishing work began, in the spring of 1914 a bell tower was built, a cross shone over the temple.
Monument of ancient Russian architecture and shrines
The project of V. Krasovsky, a specialist in Russian wooden architecture, was chosen for construction, the building was built in compliance with all the achievements and traditions of national architecture.
Aisles dedicated to:
- icon of Our Lady of Kazan;
- Rev. Seraphim of Sarov and Alexei, the man of God;
- To Nicholas the Wonderworker.
The aisles are decorated with oak iconostases, one of which was created based on the works of M. V. Krasovsky. The throne made of cypress and oak was donated by benefactors on the day of the consecration of the temple.
Many icons, church utensils were donated from the House of Charity for Young Children, other churches that were closed everywhere.
Particles of the relics of great saints are kept in the temple in Vyritsa: vlkmch. Catherine, George the Victorious, Nicholas the Wonderworker, healer torment. Antipas and other illustrious saints, the Kazan icon and the epitrachelion of Seraphim Vyritsky.
An icon with a piece of the Holy Sepulcher was sent from Jerusalem.
The fate of the temple during the years of occupation and Soviet power
Services were conducted in the warm season until 1938, then the building was transferred to OSOAVIAKHIM. Despite the closure, most of the church utensils, the icons that adorned the church in Vyritsa, weresave.
When the Germans entered the village during the war, they opened the temple. Services began again in it, as a regiment of Orthodox Romanians was stationed here. There is a blessing in disguise, thanks to such difficult circumstances, it became the place where one could go to take communion, confess, baptize children, partake of other Sacraments of the Church. Even after the liberation from the occupation, the temple in Vyritsa was not closed, and the community achieved the appointment of a permanent priest to the parish.
After the 1917 revolution, the area became a temporary home for many priests, monks and nuns from closing monasteries. Many clergy were arrested in 1932 and sent to camps. The rector of the Peter and Paul Church in Vyritsa was shot.
Many of the priests led an outwardly ordinary life, worked in institutions, secretly holding services, reading the Gospel, consecrating Vyritsa with continuous prayer.
Seraphim Vyritsky
After 1932, the confessor of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra Father Seraphim, who accepted the schema in 1929, moved to Vyritsa to live. While serving with enormous physical exertion in a cold, unheated church in St. Petersburg, he undermined his he alth so much that he was recommended to live in a forest zone. In Vyritsa, he lived the years allotted to him, practically without leaving the room, devoting all his time to prayer and receiving visitors.
Biography of the great man Seraphim Vyritsky
Vasily Muravyov was born in 1866 in the Yaroslavl province. Father died whenhe was 10 years old, and he went to work in St. Petersburg, where he worked as a messenger, assistant clerk, and soon became the best clerk in the Gostiny Dvor shops, got rich.
He was a very religious person, he wanted to go to a monastery from his youth, but he received a blessing from the elder in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra to live in the world for the time being and start a family. God sent him a worthy wife, who also later took tonsure.
As a businessman, he was well known in many European countries, he had everything that a worldly person could dream of, but one day he closed the enterprise, distributed property, donating a significant part to St. Petersburg churches, and left as a monk- sexton at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, soon became her confessor.
The reason was the story of the robbery of his house, in which he saw a sign of God and realized that he could now start a new life, to which his soul aspired. In 1920, he and his wife became monks.
In the difficult years of the fight against God, Father Seraphim devoted himself entirely to serving people and God. In Vyritsa, he performed a prayer feat on a stone, like the Monk Seraphim of Sarov, on which he prayed daily. He had so little physical strength that he often needed help to reach the stone. But his spiritual power only grew stronger day by day.
From everywhere people came to him in Vyritsa who needed spiritual guidance, help in difficult everyday situations. He did not serve inKazan temple in Vyritsa, although he lived in this area. However, priests came from there every day and gave him communion.
The priest was buried in a small church cemetery near the temple. Seraphim Vyritsky was canonized in 2000. Long before that, people from all over the country came to his grave. In 2001, a chapel was built on the site of his burial, where the body of his wife in the world, nun Seraphim, was also transferred. There is also a stone on which the elder prayed. His memory is celebrated annually on April 3, on this day he passed away in 1949.
Addresses
The last house in which the father lived was located at 9 Maysky lane.
The temple is located in the village of Vyritsa on the street. Kirova, 49.
Staritsa Natalya Vyritskaya
At the temple there is a small cemetery where clergymen and monks are buried.
In 2011, the great ascetic Natalya Vyritskaya, who died in 1976, was reburied here, and people revere her as blessed.
Seraphim predicted that when his life was coming to an end, a woman would come to Vyritsa to live, who had dedicated her life to God, and was awarded the gifts of prophecy and healing.
In 1955, Natalia appeared in this area, her manners showed that she belonged to the upper class, spoke foreign languages fluently and played the piano. Persistentlythere were rumors that she belongs to the royal family, is the surviving Princess Olga. Indirectly, this is also indicated by the fact that at the same time, when mother Natalia lived at the Kazan temple of Seraphim in Vyritsa, the priest Alexei Kibardin, who was the confessor of the royal family, also stopped in the village.
The grace from prayers extended to numerous animals that lived with mother. Her dogs did not let strangers into the site, and when someone came to her by train, they went to the railway themselves, found these people and brought them to Natalya.
Grace emanated from her such that unbelieving people, communicating with her, departed from her as true Christians, healed from the most serious illnesses, her prayer helped to get rid of alcoholism and drug addiction, cancer and tuberculosis.
She strangely had the ability to change her appearance, walk through closed doors, and was often seen in multiple places at the same time. She lived to the age of 86. At the hour of her death, Nicholas the Wonderworker visited her, there were many witnesses who saw a bright cloud of light descending on the house. During the reburial at the cemetery in the temple in Vyritsa, her body was found completely incorrupt and emitting a wonderful fragrance. Now evidence of her good life, help, miracles is being collected, giving grounds for canonization as a saint.
Conclusion
People constantly come to the chapel of the temple of Seraphim Vyritsky in Vyritsa.
Someone - to receive heavenly help and comfort, someone - to bow to the greatmiracle worker, seer and confessor, who did not leave the Fatherland and his people in the years of great trials without prayer protection.
Some only here learn about old woman Natalya, other ascetics who glorified the city with their piety. Arriving at the temple in Vyritsa to Seraphim, they can pray for their blessed memory, ask for prayer support.
For visitors, the temple is open daily from 09:00 to 18:00. Divine Liturgy is held every day at 10:00.
