In recent years, in the Teykovsky district of the Ivanovo region, the Ivanovo-Zolotnikovsky deserts, once very famous and revered in Russia, were revived, but during the years of the domination of atheistic ideology, it was eliminated and partially destroyed. This article tells about what her story is and what brought her today.
The works of the monk Jonah
According to historical information, the Zolotnikovskaya desert originates in the first quarter of the 17th century. The name of its founder is also known, they became a certain monk Jonah, who in 1624 became the abbot of the new monastery. It can be seen that the Lord endowed him not only with humility, fitting for his dignity, but also with zeal, because under him, despite the extreme poverty of the brethren, he managed to erect a wooden church dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The current name of the monastery - Zolotnikovskaya Assumption Desert, which was given to it by the Zolotostruyka River flowing nearby, appeared in official documents only a century later, and originally it was called the New Desert of Berezovsky Borok, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Sovereign beneficence
In view of the extreme poverty in which the monastery abode, the successor of Jonah, the new abbot Jacob, was forced to brow Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and ask him not to leave the monks of God in trouble. Archival data indicate that the pious sovereign did not leave his “teardrop” unanswered (as all sorts 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 quite hefty, since it was sufficient not only for "daily bread", but also for the construction of a new stone church, erected in 1651 on the site of the old 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 the Kazan Mother of God, thanks to which the Zolotnikovskaya desert, previously quiet and invisible, gained fame.
Strings of pilgrims stretched toward her, and sometimes very tall persons visited. For example, it is known that the Metropolitan of Suzdal Hilarion often began to visit her, and once even received her Queen Empress Praskovya Fedorovna - the wife of Emperor Ivan V, who was a brother and co-ruler of Peter I. Many in those years came to the monastery of generous contributions from the royal palace, and from the boyar's towers. The brethren healed heartily and at ease.
It's time for misfortune and misfortune
But the Lord, as you know, sends trials in order to humble proud hearts. Zolotnikovskaya deserts did not pass this fate. At the beginning of the next - XVIII - century, a series of misfortunes befell her, from which she began to become poor, and in 1725 she was completely assigned to the Suzdal Spaso-Yefimievsky monastery. Finally, the wrath of God was shed in 1764, when, during the reforms carried out by Empress Catherine II, the monastery became non-staff and therefore was deprived of material support.
One can only guess how the Zolotnikovskaya desert existed in the following years, after it had secularized, that is, seized land and stopped synodal deductions. Voluntary donors saved her from complete ruin, among which, as in previous years, there were very famous and high-ranking officials.
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 in donations, were not deaf to the needs of the monastery. Thanks to them, even at the beginning of the 19th century, construction was resumed in the monastery and a stone abbot building was erected, and somewhat later, through the efforts of the wealthy landowner A.S. Sheremetev, it was possible to enclose the monastery territory with a brick wall.
Under the yoke of godless power
After the October events, which radically turned the life of the country around, a widespread campaign of persecution of the church began. Hundreds of holy monasteries were closed and transferred for the needs of the national economy, many of which were witnesses to the centuries-old history of Russia. Zolotnikovskaya deserts did not escape universal fate . The monastery was abolished in 1921, after which the authorities began the systematic destruction of the buildings on its territory.
As a result of their barbaric actions, the monastery suffered irreparable losses. The All-Holy Gate Church, 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 Assumption Church underwent serious destruction , and the temple of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God by the beginning of the fifties turned into ruins. Only the abbot corps, in which since the closure of the monastery housed an elementary school, has survived to this day in its original form.
Revival of the abused cloister
Changes in the life of the once very famous, but due to historical cataclysms of a ruined and ruined monastery, began in the mid-nineties. The Zolotnikovskaya desert (Ivanovo region), or rather what was left of it, was transferred in 1996 by a decision of the Russian government to the Ivanovo diocese in whose territory it was located, and the next year a parish was formed around the miraculously surviving Assumption Church.
Unable to bring to life the destroyed monastery buildings, they decided to compensate for their loss with the construction of new ones. As part of this plan, in November 2008, a solemn laying of a wooden church in honor of St. Mitrofan of Voronezh was completed on the territory of the monastery.
In the same year, the ruins of the temple of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God were handed over to the brotherhood of the Assumption-Kazan Monastery, after which their active restoration began, which allowed them to celebrate the first divine service for many decades on Easter 2010. Then began the construction of the corps of fraternal cells, which met a year later their first inhabitants.
Currently, the religious life of the monastery has been restored to its proper extent. Divine services are held regularly, and a reception is organized for pilgrims who seek, as in past years, to bow to her shrines.