In recent years, the Ivanovo-Zolotnikovskaya hermitage, once very famous and revered in Russia, was revived in the Teikovsky district of the Ivanovo region, but abolished and partially destroyed during the years of the domination of atheistic ideology. About what her story is and what today has brought her, this article tells.
Works of Monk Jonah
According to historical data, the Zolotnikovskaya Hermitage dates back to the first quarter of the 17th century. The name of its founder is also known, it was a certain monk Jonah, who in 1624 became abbot of the new monastery. Everything shows that the Lord endowed him not only with humility, befitting his rank, but also with diligence, since under him, despite the extreme poverty of the brethren, it was possible to build a wooden church dedicated to the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos.
The current name of the monastery - Zolotnikovskaya Uspenskaya Hermitage, which was given to it by the nearby river Zolotostruyka - appeared in official documents only a century later, and initially it was called the New Hermitage of the Berezovsky Bork, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Tsar's good deeds
In view of the extreme poverty in which the monastery lived, the successor of Jonah, the new hegumen Jacob, was forced to brow Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and ask him not to leave God's monks in trouble. Archival data testify that the pious sovereign did not leave his “tear” unanswered (as all kinds of complaints were called in the old days) and in 1632 transferred to the monastery for use (for food) significant land, located in the same area and called Smerdichevo and Berezinka.
As you can see, the income from the lands granted by the sovereign was very hefty, 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 another, consecrated in honor of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, thanks to which Zolotnikovskaya hermitage, previously quiet and inconspicuous, gained fame.
Strings of pilgrims reached out to her, and sometimes even very high-ranking persons visited her. For example, it is known that Metropolitan Hilarion of Suzdal often began to visit her, and once even received in her the queen Praskovya Feodorovna, the wife of Tsar Ivan V, who was the brother and co-ruler of Peter I. In those years, the monastery received a lot of generous contributions from the royal palace, and from the boyar towers. The brethren lived heartily and freely.
Time of troubles and misfortunes
But the Lord, as you know, sends trials in order to humble the proudhearts. The Zolotnikovskaya Hermitage did not escape this fate either. At the beginning of the next - XVIII - century, she suffered a series of misfortunes, from which she began to grow poor, and in 1725 she was completely assigned to the Suzdal Spaso-Efimevsky Monastery. Finally, the wrath of God was shed in 1764, when, in the course of the reforms carried out by Empress Catherine II, the monastery became supernumerary and, therefore, was deprived of material support.
One can only guess how the Zolotnikovskaya Hermitage existed in subsequent years, after it had secularized, that is, seized, land and stopped synodal assignments. It was saved from complete ruin by voluntary donors, among whom, as in previous years, there were very famous and high-ranking persons.
The life of the monastery in the XIX century
Among them was, for example, the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich - the future sovereign Alexander II, who visited the monastery in 1837, accompanied by his teacher and mentor, the famous Russian poet V. A. Zhukovsky. The local merchants, 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 19th century, construction was resumed in the monastery and a stone rector's building was erected, and a little later, through the efforts of the we althy landowner A. S. Sheremetev, the territory of the monastery was surrounded by a brick wall.
Under the yoke of God-fighting power
After the October events that radically changed the life of the country, thewidespread campaign of persecution of the church. Hundreds of holy monasteries were closed and handed over for the needs of the national economy, many of which were witnesses to the centuries-old history of Russia. The Zolotnikovskaya Hermitage did not escape the general fate. The monastery was abolished in 1921, after which the authorities began the systematic destruction of the buildings located on its territory.
As a result of their barbaric actions, the monastery suffered irreparable losses. The Gate Church of All Saints, which was of high architectural and artistic value, was demolished, the brick wall was destroyed and the building in which the fraternal cells were placed was blown up. The Church of the Assumption underwent serious destruction, and the temple of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God turned into ruins by the beginning of the fifties. Only the abbot's building, which has housed an elementary school since the closing of the monastery, has survived to this day in its original form.
Revival of the desecrated monastery
Changes in the life of the once very famous, but due to historical cataclysms of the devastated and ruined monastery began in the mid-nineties. Zolotnikovskaya hermitage (Ivanovo region), or rather what was left of it, was transferred to the Ivanovo diocese, on the territory of which it was located, in 1996 by the decision of the Russian government, and the very next year a parish was formed around the miraculously surviving Assumption Church.
Unable to restore the destroyed monastery buildings to life, they decided to compensate for their loss by building new ones. As part ofof this plan, in November 2008, a solemn laying of a wooden church in honor of St. Mitrofan of Voronezh was made on the territory of the monastery.
In the same year, the ruins of the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God were transferred to the brethren of the Assumption-Kazan Monastery, after which their active restoration began, which made it possible for Easter 2010 to serve the first divine service in many decades. At the same time, the construction of a building of fraternal cells began, which met their first inhabitants a year later.
At present, the religious life of the monastery has been restored to the proper extent. Divine services are regularly held, and a reception is organized for pilgrims who, as in the past, bow to her shrines.
