The Odigitrievsky Convent in Chelyabinsk begins its history from the middle of the 19th century. His churches were picturesque decoration of the city, a holy place that the whole population loved and revered.
The street on which the monastery was then located was called the Nativity of Christ, then it was renamed, and now it is Zwilling Street in the very center of the city.
However, the address of the Odigitrievsky Convent: 454135 Russia, Chelyabinsk, st. Energetikov, 21 A.
Why did this happen? Let's look into the past of the monastery to deal with this issue.
It is unfortunate, but the splendor of the monastery churches in this place can not be seen. Now there is a hotel called the Southern Urals, a regional government building and a residential building.
The spring spring has also disappeared, as well as the burial places of his first nuns and abbesses, including the very first Mother Superior Agnia, who died in 1872.
Once the Odigitrievsky Convent in Chelyabinsk owned the churches - Odigitrievskaya and Ascension, located in the city center. In addition to them, there were two more churches of Nikolskaya - the monastery farm and Serafimovskaya in the district of Art. Yurgamysh (Kurgan region).
Foundation time
It was the oldest monastery in the Orenburg diocese. The founder of the Odigitrievsky monastery was Anna Polezhaeva (mother Agniya in monasticism) - a peasant girl who was born in 1815 in the village of Varlamovo of the Trinity district of the Orenburg province. And she began her charitable business with a small female community.
From early childhood, Anna strove for a secluded monastic and pious life. When she was 26 years old, she and three sisters moved to the uninhabited island of Lake Chebarkul. There they dug themselves dugouts-cells, in which they lived a year and a half. Then the women went on pilgrimage to the holy places.
After some time, Anna returned to the Urals and became a worker at the Ufa Convent. Having studied all the nuances of monastic life in the monastery, she went to arrange a monastery in Chelyabinsk. She had no need or accidental circumstances to leave the worldly life and cut her hair as a nun. That was her vocation.
Sisters
First Polezhaeva bought a small house across the river near the Trinity Church. There she settled and soon began to accept everyone who wanted to share monastic life with her. After some time, her sisters from the very first Chebarkul monastery moved to her.
For five years, she received one and a half dozen girls of different ages. Among them were two five-year-old girls. Future nuns without tools and help with humility accustomed to the difficult life in the monastery. They wore monastic attire, prayed tirelessly and worked.
In 1848, Bishop Joseph of Ufa visited Chelyabinsk, who found ascetics and blessed them to open the monastery in the central place of the city on Khristovozdvizhenskaya street.
The history of the Odigitrievsky Nunnery begins its countdown from the moment in October 1849, Anna Polezhaeva petitioned the city council for land allotment for the construction of a women's community, which at that time had 29 sisters. Her request was granted. He was allocated 5 acres of land. The document was signed on December 13, 1849.
Ascetic feat
At that time there were few Orthodox people in the city. Mostly they were foreigners. Therefore, the sisters, following the example of the Reverend Kiev-Pechersk Fathers Anthony and Theodosius, themselves dug cells underground.
Over time, the selfless activity and work of the sisters was noted by Emperor Nicholas I.
The work of the abbess Anna and her ascetics was hard and hectic, but he was crowned with success. On February 23, 1854, the Holy Synod addressed a report to Emperor Nicholas 1, who approved the name of the female monastery - Odigitrievskaya, Mother of God.
When the community was officially opened, daily services began in the cemetery of the Kazan-Mother of God Church, located near the monastery. All this happened until his own temple was built. The sisters were taught church regulations, reading in the temple and singing with an elderly psalmist N. E. Biryukov.
Community Foundation
At first, the nuns supported themselves. They were engaged in dressing flax, weaving canvases, embroidered with beads and made paper flowers for icons, and also went to Cossack fields to mow grass, harvest bread and thresh grain.
So little by little the Odigitrievskaya community came to life. And all this is not without the hard work of the nuns and their abbess.
The inhabitants often had a shortage of food and water, since the distance to the river was far. Then Anna Polezhaeva hastened to dig a well in the monastery itself. Then she set a six-sided wooden chapel above it, named after the Life-Giving Source of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On holy holidays, water was consecrated in this place.
Benefactors
The selfless work of women did not go unnoticed by the inhabitants of the city. The Stakheyev brothers, who donated 2,800 rubles to the community, were among the first benefactors. They were the nephews of priest Alexy Agrov.
The Lord also sent the benefactor P.I. Ilinykh to their sisters for humility and patience. He was the owner of hardware. Local old-timers said that his last charity work was the construction of the Simeonovskaya Church on the Semenov Hill. There he was buried.
As time went on, the community grew, and the sisters did not have the right to cut their hair as a nun. There was a need to transform her into the Odigitrievsky Convent in Chelyabinsk. On this occasion, they turned to the Orenburg Consistory with a request to obtain the status of a monastery.
Anna Polezhaeva became his abbot and tonsured a monk with the name Agniya.
The construction of the monastery
For a short period of time, the sisters built the first stone church. At first it was only one-story with the limit of Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves. Following, thanks to the help of philanthropists, the upper main throne was erected in honor of the Odigitrievskaya Virgin. November 1, 1860 there was a raising of the temple cross and bells. Since that time, the sisters were allowed to have a priest and a deacon in the temple.
Under Mother Superior Agnia, a two-story stone building was built with a refectory and cells for sisters. Mother Agnia also organized a small candle factory on the territory of the monastery cloister. The sisters quickly learned how to make candles and supplied them with the whole county. By this time, the sisters already had 80 people and each carried its own obedience.
Nuns' Hard Work
In addition to the city lands, the Odigitrievsky Convent in Chelyabinsk also had allotments outside the city limits in the form of a monastic estate in a place called Bogomazovo Logo, which was also organized by mother Agniya.
This place is still located in the Leninsky district of the city. In 1860, the abbess, with the help of the benefactor P.I. Ilyin, built a chapel there, which in 1864 transformed into a church in the name of St. Nicholas.
The sisters were in constant labors, like bees, and even organized gardening on the farm. In their nursery, they grew a huge number of fruit and vegetable crops.
The next abbess Raphael created workshops of arts and crafts in the monastery. To teach the sisters of painting was her first thing. And soon the goal was achieved.
Gradually, the skill of writing icons improved. Developed your own writing style. The holy images painted in the monastery were in great demand. Some of them have survived to this day in the Kurgan Museum of Art, in the Chelyabinsk Museum of Local Lore and in the collections of individuals. According to museum staff, these monastic icons are characterized by a correct pattern and expressiveness, monumental images. During the heyday of the monastery, these Ural dioceses were supplied with these icons.
The arrangement of the cloister
Abbess Raphael continued to engage in the arrangement of her monastery. In 1886, the foundation was laid for the new Church of the Ascension. Four years later, he was consecrated and opened for worship.
A new two-story building outside the monastery’s fence, where the parish school was located, was also built near it. Then a few more outbuilding workshops: seamstress, gold sewing, bookbinding and others. A separate wooden building was built for the prosphora workshop. The nuns baked prosphora not only for the monastery churches, but also on order for other temples of the city.
The splendor of the monastery
When Abbess Raphael, the welfare of the monastery increased every year. More than a thousand acres of land were bought, and in 1899 a water supply system was installed.
Through the efforts of the abbess and sisters, the monastery was equipped with a stone fence and two wooden wings. The first was for old women, the second for sick sisters. Then they rebuilt the cottage house, where the clergy and clergy lived.
Even more, mother Raphael tried to pay attention to the grandeur of the monastery, decorating it with icons and shrines, so that in the church during prayer there was always a prayer mood.
At her request in 1881, an icon of the Iberian Mother of God was brought from Athos, which was solemnly met in the monastery and in the city. Everyone deeply honored this shrine.
On July 9, in 1902, again at the request of Abbess Rafaila, through the ryacophore novice Badrina Raisa, His Eminence Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia Theognostus presented the monastery with the holy relics of the Holy Communion. Kukshi of the Caves and St. Simon.
Icons
Residents of Chelyabinsk Agrov and Kolbin ordered four large icons in the painting workshop to decorate the Ascension Church.
In 1903, a copy of the miraculous image of the icon of the Assumption of the Mother of God, which was in the Great Church, was brought from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra to the Chelyabinsk Monastery with the help of benefactors.
As in the Lavra, the icon was placed in a gilded circle with radiance and images above - God the Father, the Holy Spirit and two angels supporting the icon. As in the Lavra, the icon was placed over the royal gates and lowered on silk cords for kissing to the worshipers. Since 1902, the service of the Assumption of the Virgin was performed according to the charter of the Lavra.
Liquidation
The next abbess Anastasia had a very difficult time. She had a heavy share of being the last abbess of the monastery, which the Soviet government mercilessly destroyed, like all Orthodoxy in the country. When Chelyabinsk was liberated from Kolchak’s troops in 1919, the nuns immediately had a question about preserving the monastery’s monastery.
In the Department of Justice, they tried to get a petition for the re-registration of the monastery into a democratic artel, while retaining ownership of the monastery churches.
However, the new government did not need a monastery with its churches and buildings. Soon they began to be given to the use of children's homes, hospitals for alcoholics and the mentally ill, leisure clubs for workers, cinemas, etc. In a resolution of 1920, 50% of the premises of the monastery were given to shelters.
In March 1921, in “Soviet Truth”, a decree was published on the closure of the monastery and the eviction of nuns from it. But they did not want to do this. Then they were arrested for counter-revolutionary agitation against the government.
All church valuables, icon decorations from gilding and silver were withdrawn from the monastery. Furniture, dishes and food were also confiscated. Monastic life in the monastery was cut short in the most sad way.
All this horror occurred before the eyes of Mother Superior Anastasia and their priest. In the same month, nuns of 240 people, together with the abbess, were sent to prison and concentration military camps for six months. About 100 people also put mundane people.
Holy intercession
But despite all these events, the monastery existed in the idea of a religious community. After their release, the nuns settled in apartments. Having learned from the new law of January 1, 1922, which stated that the state was separated from the church, they were able to register as a religious group. All this was done in order to use the Ascension Church. But in the same period a group of Renovationists was created under the name "Living Church." And it is they who are given to use the Ascension Church.
At this moment, you definitely need to remember the name of St. Luke of Crimea. It was he who led the implacable struggle with the Renovationists. On June 6, while under arrest, he wrote a testament calling on the laity to remain faithful to Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and to resist by all means renewed church movements, including the Living Church. However, this in no way meant physical confrontation, but was aimed at spiritual aspects. Saint Luke asked to go to such temples, where worthy priests, who did not obey the boar, serve. However, he asked me not to rebel against the authorities, since God placed her above them because of human sins and ordered me to obey her humbly.
Closing
Renovationists received not only the desired Ascension Church, but with it other churches - Odigitrievsky, Nikolsky, Pokrovsky and various monastery buildings. At the same time, worship in them was very rare.
The Soviet government at first supported various sects and non-traditional formations in their country. But then they were subjected to repression.
In October 1926, the Ascension Church was closed due to the small number of communities and rarely organized divine services. Crosses and domes were removed from it. Soon the Odigitrievskaya church was closed. By the year 30, all the monastery buildings were demolished. Nothing reminded of a former life.
The beginning of the revival of the Odigitrievsky monastery
The only church of St. Nicholas survived on the monastery’s capture. But a vegetable base was also organized on its territory, and from this the temple was simply disfigured. In 1936 there was a directorate of the Sadovoe farm.
In September 1997, the offices of this economy reassigned to the Chelyabinsk diocese. This was the only building of the Odigitrievsky monastery without any amenities, electrical wiring, with broken windows and rotten floors.
At the same time, the construction of a new church in honor of the icon of the Virgin Mary “All Who Sorrow Joy” began. His first rector was Priest Vladimir Maksakov. November 6, 1999 the temple was consecrated. At first it was single-throne, then two more limits appeared.
In 2002, a bell tower was added to the temple and its old fence was returned. In 2011, a Sunday school was built.
In the description of the Odigitrievsky monastery in our time, it should be noted that its only surviving temple is an object of cultural heritage. It has three limits: the central one - in honor of the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary “Joy of all who mourn”, the left — in honor of St. Nicholas, the right — in the name of the prophet Moses the God-Seeer.
In the temple in front of the main icon on Sundays, prayers are held with the reading of an akathist. Today it has many ancient icons, once donated by parishioners. However, many shrines disappeared without a trace, including the icon of the Iberian Mother of God, the relics of St. Simon and the martyr Kuksha. But the image of the prophet Moses returned to the temple. This icon was in St. Nicholas Church. Believers saved her and hid her securely during the time of the atheism. When the monastery was reborn - returned. Now the icon is stored in the altar room.
Many and good summers
The date of December 27, 2012 was marked by one very important event. It was then that the revival of the Odigitrievsky Convent began. At the same time, the first tonsure was completed. In 2015, Metropolitan of Chelyabinsk opened a monastery and appointed Mother Superior Eusebius (Lobanova), wishing her a long and happy summer.
Sisters began to come here from different cities of Russia. From the first days of the formation of the monastery, its natives began to restore archive materials and preserve the heritage of the Odigitrievsky monastery. The list of natives of the pre-revolutionary period of the monastery’s life was partially restored. Citizens began to bring to the temple pre-revolutionary liturgical books, icons and things that once belonged to the natives. The icon-painting workshop was again opened, where the canonical icon-painting of the school of Andrei Rublev of the 15th century was revived.
Memory
The inhabitants of the Odigirievsky Monastery with special trepidation venerate the memory of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. And it is no coincidence that the holy relics of St. Luke appeared in the monastery. According to historical facts, for the protection of the Orthodox faith, he received 11 years in prison and exile.
February 10, 2019 relics from Simferopol brought the abbess Eusebius herself. On this day, a moleben was served with the canon to the saint, after which all parishioners were able to venerate the great shrine.
Those who wish to pray in this monastery are told the schedule of services in the monastery: at 8:30 a.m. - the beginning of the morning liturgy; 16:45 - evening.
On Sundays, the early Liturgy begins at 6:30, the late - 8:15, the requiem at 11:00, 15:00 - paraclisis, 16:45 - evening.
Many pilgrims are interested in the question of how to get to the Odigitrievsky Convent. It is easy to get to it by minibuses No. 77, 91 to the stop. "Shopping Mall Lightning".
To do this, use the map of the city of Chelyabinsk. It is presented above.