In the city of Serafimovich, Volgograd region, there is a monastery, which in ancient times was the spiritual center of the Don Cossacks. During its long history, it has experienced many troubles, but thanks to God's protection and the deep religiosity of the inhabitants of the region, each time it found the strength to revive. Today, he has fully regained his greatness, trampled upon for long decades of atheistic obscurantism.
Abode on the banks of the Don
Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Convent was originally a male monastery. Its foundation dates back to 1638. The place for the future monastery was chosen near the Don on a low steppe area adjacent to the shore. Looking ahead, it should be noted that this location of the monastery turned out to be fraught with serious troubles. In some places, the river bed narrows, and spring ice often blocks its flow, which leads to floods that are detrimental to everyone who has chosen its banks for their residence.
The main population of those parts wasthe Cossacks, formed from the fugitive peasants who settled here at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, fleeing the serfdom that reigned in the central regions of Russia. They inhabited vast areas stretching along the banks of the Yaik, Ural, lower Volga and Don rivers. In 1570, Ivan the Terrible gave them official status, entrusting the protection of the state's borders from its aggressive neighbors.
The Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, founded at the request of the Cossacks, sent in 1636 to Sovereign Mikhail Fedorovich, was intended for their brothers who retired due to old age or due to injuries. Having received proper permission, the Military District allocated a significant land plot for the construction of the monastery, located on the left bank of the Don, not far from the mouth of the Medveditsa River, whose name was forever included in the name of the monastery.
Monastery-fortress
The time when the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Ust-Medveditsky Monastery was founded was extremely turbulent, and the Cossack villages were often subjected to Tatar raids. As a result of one of them, the recently erected fraternal cells burned down in a fire, and in 1652 it was decided to move the monastery to the right bank of the Don, which is difficult for nomads and therefore safer. For this purpose, a spacious and flat area was chosen, bounded by a high steep bank.
About the time of the beginning of the construction of the new monastery, very contradictory information has been preserved. Meanwhile, it is precisely established that this happened by order of Patriarch Nikon, who released considerable funds for the work, and that in 1565 on the high bank of the Donthe wooden Church of the Transfiguration has already been erected.
From the historical documents that have come down to us, it follows that the Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, built on a new site, was built according to all the rules of fortification. It was protected from nomadic raids from all sides by a powerful earthen rampart and a moat dug in front of it. Inside, in addition to the temple and the rector's cell, there was a refectory and twelve fraternal cells. In total at that time there were fourteen people in the monastery.
The formation of the monastery and the strengthening of its economy
The Spaso-Preobrazhensky Ust-Medveditsky Monastery, whose history is inextricably linked with the Don Cossacks, from the day of its foundation was under the tutelage of the Military District, the command of which made every effort to ensure that the veterans of past battles who were saved in it did not needed. At the same time, during the war years, the monastery had a purely practical significance - on its territory, under the protection of earthen fortifications, a hospital for the wounded was arranged. But the main thing was that on the far frontier of Russia the monastery served as a stronghold of Orthodoxy and was its spiritual center.
At the end of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century, the Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery strengthened its economic position in every way. Significantly increased the amount of land belonging to him. From the documents of 1705 it is known that the monastery owned more than sixty-five and a half thousand acres of land. Except arableplots, which included forest land and fishing.
Since materially the life of the monastery has acquired a stable and stable character, its brethren began to replenish not only at the expense of the elderly Cossacks, but also of all those who wished to be tonsured. Accordingly, the number of inhabitants increased significantly during this period.
When in 1707 an uprising broke out under the leadership of Ataman Bulavin, caused by the policy of Peter I, aimed at infringing on the rights of the Don Cossacks, orphans of Cossacks who died in battles with government troops found shelter within the walls of the monastery. Many of them, having reached the proper age, also took monastic vows.
The trouble that came on Easter night
By the middle of the 18th century, the wooden church, which was one of the first monastic buildings, was pretty dilapidated, and the question arose of building a new stone church. But these good intentions were not destined to come true due to the misfortune caused by the natural disaster that hit the monastery.
As mentioned above, narrow sections of the Don channel are often blocked by spring ice drift, resulting in its spills, causing a lot of trouble to local residents. The most severe consequences of this natural phenomenon were in 1752. Two rivers burst their banks at once - the Don and the Medveditsa. The melt waters washed away the high and steep bank, on which the Ust-Medveditsky Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior was located, to such an extent that the soil became unstable and landslides formed in many places.
Every day the situation worsened. Cracks appeared on the walls of buildings and quickly increased, and they themselves began to slowly settle into the ground, which suddenly shifted towards the river and took on the likeness of a loose and unstable mass. The tragedy broke out in full measure on Easter night, when the slope of the mountain on which the monastery was located, with all the buildings erected on it, moved and collapsed into the spilled Don.
Since the events of recent days have prepared the monks of the monastery for such a development of events, none of them suffered. Moreover, all the most valuable, including icons of ancient writing, books and church utensils, were moved to a safe place in advance. But on this cold April night, the water scattered over the logs everything that had been built over many years by the hard work of several generations, and that formed the basis of the life of the monastery.
Arrangement in a new place
Of course, there was no point in restoring the monastery in its former place, since such a disaster could happen again. Therefore, a new site was chosen for the monastery, which was half a verst upstream from the previous one. There, on a hill, inaccessible to spring waters, in 1754 the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Ust-Medveditsky Monastery was founded, which has survived to this day.
Over the next few years, a stone church was erected on its territory, consecrated in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord, as well as the rector's building, fraternal cells and a number of outbuildings. The monks constantly prayed to the Lord for the forgiveness of sins, according to which he allowed them to endure such a difficult misfortune.
Transformation of the male monastery into a female monastery
A new page in the life of the monastery opened when a decade later, by order of the Holy Synod, it was transformed into a nunnery. This event took place in June 1785. It is generally accepted that what prompted the synodal officials to such a decision was a petition sent to St. Petersburg by the military foreman A. I. Ilovaisky, who had considerable connections there.
Whether it was or not is not known for certain, but only soon in the cells left by the former inhabitants, forty girls from the nearby Sirotinsky village, who formed the women's Orthodox community there, were accommodated. All of them wished to give up the way of life that befits their sex, and forever shut themselves off from the world within the walls of the monastery. Their first abbess was the sister of the military foreman Maria Karpova, and the seventy-year-old deacon father Vasily (Mikhailov) became their confessor.
Temporary abolition of the monastery
However, the brides of Christ did not have time to settle down well in a new place, when a disaster struck that no one could have foreseen in advance, and which turned out to be more destructive for the monastery than the spring flood of rivers. She came from the capital, where Empress Catherine II ruled in those years, leaving a memory of her reign with a tough policy towards the church. By the will of the empress, the years of her reign in Russia became a period of secularization (withdrawal) of church lands in favor of the state, as well as the closure of manyabodes.
In 1788, she issued a decree on the abolition of a number of monasteries of the Voronezh diocese, among which was the Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Convent. It was no longer possible to save him. The temple located on the territory of the monastery received the status of a parish church, the nuns were dismissed on all four sides, and the property was sold. In the house, where the rector's quarters used to be, a government institution was located.
Years after the restoration of the monastery
Ten years later, when the son of Catherine II, Emperor Paul I, ascended the Russian throne, he canceled the order of his mother, and the Serafimovichi Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery was restored again. It was supposed to make it, as before, male, so that Cossacks wounded in battles could live in it for a century, but then this idea was abandoned, and the monastery was returned to the nuns. Even the abbess remained the same - the same Maria Karpova. Later, for the work put into the arrangement of monastic life in the monastery, she was awarded the abbot's rod, which is a very honorable award.
After her death, which followed in 1827, the monastery was headed by a new abbess - Augusta. Her abbess lasted eight years and was marked by an extremely important innovation. Under her, local Cossacks were allowed to give their young daughters to be raised in a monastery. During the years spent within its walls, the girls not only learned church singing and the Law of God, but, living in the same cells with the nuns, learned the rules of spiritual purity and morality.
Returning after that to worldly life, they were examples of true virtue. This had a very beneficial effect on the spiritual climate of the entire region and elevated in the eyes of its inhabitants the very source of piety - the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Ust-Medveditsky Monastery. In Russia of those years, such a practice of education was still a novelty. Abbess Augusta completed her earthly journey in 1835, and after her death, the monastery suffered unexpected disasters.
Intercession of Archbishop Ignatius
The fact is that in that year the Holy Synod revised the regulation on the monastery, published by it in 1798, and the new edition did not include the clauses that gave it the right to receive state benefits. It was a real blow to the sisters. From now on, they were not only deprived of the opportunity to engage in charity (including the upbringing of Cossack daughters), but also doomed to a starving existence.
The nuns were rescued by Archbishop Ignatius, who headed the diocese in those years. He personally petitioned the highest name, and thanks to the order given by the sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich, the inhabitants of the monastery were restored in their rights and could no longer fear for the future.
Abbess - educator of the Donetsk region
Since the mid-sixties of the 18th century, the life of the monastery has been marked by the reign of its most famous abbess, Arsenia, who in 1864 headed the Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. A photo of her from those years is presented in the article. Noblewoman, daughter of the famousthe commander of those years, General M. V. Sebryakov, she, being one of the most educated women of her time, did her best to spread literacy among the inhabitants of the monastery, many of whom could neither read nor write, and devoted a lot of time to caring for the education of the inhabitants the entire edge.
Through the labors of Abbess Arsenia, an elementary four-year school was opened within the walls of the monastery, in which children from families of various social strata, including the nobility and officials, studied. In it, in addition to the Law of God and the Slavic language, mathematics, Russian, geography and history were also taught. An art studio was also opened there, in which the abbess herself, who had a natural talent in this field of art, conducted classes. Classes at the school continued until 1918.
Second closure of the monastery
For ten years after the October coup, the sisters still somehow tried to save the Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, doomed to inevitable closure. A description of their life in those years can be found among the memories left by an eyewitness of the events - a local teacher T. V. Polyakova. She tells how the nuns formed an agricultural commune and, in exchange for the premises taken from them, acquired a small house in which they all lived together and prayed to God.
She also recalls how in March 1927 a decision was issued to close the monastery, and how many of its nuns were arrested and disappeared forever intoprison wagons that took them to the camps. Those who managed to avoid this fate were exiled to the Rostov region during the war years, from where some of them then returned to their native lands. Immediately after the closing of the monastery, a children's colony was placed within its walls, which was then replaced by a number of economic institutions located there.
In 1933, the Ust-Medveditskaya village was transformed into a city and renamed in honor of the famous Soviet writer Alexander Serafimovich, as a result of which the monastery located on its territory, after its revival, which followed during the years of perestroika, began to be referred to as the Ust-Medveditsky Spaso -Transfiguration Monastery (Serafimovich).
However, before the times of spiritual revival came in the country, it was destined to endure many troubles and misfortunes, among which the war was the main one. It so happened that the former monastery was in the thick of the fighting, and as a result of this, almost all of its buildings were destroyed. Miraculously, only the building of the Church of the Kazan Mother of God survived, which has survived to this day in a very deplorable state.
Revival of the monastery
In 1991, when on the wave of perestroika, many of the things that were illegally taken from them during the years of numerous anti-religious campaigns were returned to believers, the monastery began its revival in the former Cossack village, now known as the city of Serafimovich. The Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery was originally supposed to be made for men, and even before the start of restoration work, four monks and severalnovices.
They were destined to spend only ten years in the monastery, since later the Holy Synod decided to restore it to the status of a convent. However, even during this time, the monks managed to carry out the most urgent chores, beyond the strength of women's hands. In particular, they dismantled the remains of the power plant that had been there in recent years, restored the roof of the temple, equipped the house church and built premises for fraternal cells.
In addition, they plowed up one hundred and ninety hectares of land leased to the monastery. All this greatly facilitated the life of the large women's community, who moved to the Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery (Serafimovich) in 2001 on the personal order of Patriarch Alexy II of Ukraine. Forty-three nuns continued the work of restoring the monastery, begun by their predecessors.
Works of the new nuns of the monastery
The sisters, led by nun George (Borovik), launched a wide economic activity. In the premises left from the once pioneer camp located here, they created a sewing workshop, a fish workshop and a prosphora. In addition, with the help of the city authorities, it was possible to put into operation a bath and laundry plant and build a workshop for the manufacture of concrete structures, where residents of the city of Serafimovich work for hire. Thanks to these measures, the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Ust-Medveditsky Convent secured a reliable material base for itself.
A lot of work was done by the sisters to restore the once flourishing appearance of the monastery. Flower beds, flower beds were broken and garden paths were equipped. The greatest attention is paid to the objects for which the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Ust-Medveditsky Monastery was famous from time immemorial. The sights included in its complex, and the shrines kept in temples, today, like many years ago, attract thousands of pilgrims.
Shrines and sights of the monastery
Telling about them, we should start with the famous caves dug during the reign of Abbess Arsenia. They are arranged in such a way that everyone who descends into them becomes, as it were, a witness to the last days of Christ's earthly ministry. Before him appears His Way of the Cross, as well as the road along which the Mother of God went to Golgotha. There, in the caves, you can see the miraculous stone on which Abbess Arsenia prayed. During one of these prayers, she was honored to contemplate the Queen of Heaven. It is said that the imprints of the feet and hands of the pious abbess are still preserved on the stone.
The belfry is of undoubted interest, standing on the site where a temple was built in the 18th century, blown up in 1934 by order of the authorities. Only the arch remained from it, which has survived to this day. In its opening, by order of Abbess George, the bells were installed. There are also other attractions that not only the residents of Serafimovich, but the entire Volgograd region are rightfully proud of.
Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery after a long period of restoration and constructionWorks opened the doors of two of its churches: one in honor of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, consecrated in 2012, and the other dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Lord. Its roof is crowned with thirty-three domes.
Abode that has become a place of pilgrimage
Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, whose address is Volgograd Region, mountains. Serafimovich, st. Preobrazhenskaya, 7, today, as in previous years, attracts a large number of pilgrims. They come here to worship its shrines, the main of which is the miraculous stone, which was discussed above. Despite the fact that the monastery is located away from major cities and federal highways, it is always full of visitors.
Below is information for those who wish to visit the Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. How to get to Serafimovich and see this monument of Russian Orthodox antiquity revived to life is described in detail in the guidebook for the Volgograd region. In short, we can report that owners of personal vehicles are advised to get to it along the Rostov highway. Passing Kalach-on-Don, you should cross the Don and, having reached Surovikino, turn right in accordance with the road sign indicating the way to Serafimovich.
In addition, you can use the services of numerous travel agencies in Volgograd, organizing trips to the Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. Interesting facts and historical information about his past and today's lifethe participants of the trips will be informed by professional guides, whose story will pleasantly complement the overall impression of the tour.
