During the years of perestroika, many churches and entire monastery complexes were returned to the church, and this encouraging fact indicates that, finally, spiritual insight came after many years of atheistic darkness. But not all shrines again give people the grace of God sent through them. Many are destroyed, and evidence of them we find only in the surviving documents. Among them is the former Nicholas Monastery of Samara.
The urgent need for a monastery
It is known from the history of the region that once upon a time in Samara there was a man’s monastery, abolished in 1738. For more than a century this Volga city lived without monastic service, but in 1851, when it became the center of the newly created province, in which the Samara diocese was also established, the question of creating a monastery became relevant.
The reasons that prompted the local bishop Eusebius (Orlinsky) to bother the synodal authorities with a request to establish a monastery in the city, besides religious ones, were purely everyday ones dictated by pressing everyday problems. He wrote to the capital that his heart aches for widowed and helpless priests who have nowhere to settle, as well as for their children, deprived of the opportunity to prepare for future statutory duties.
In addition, it was required to exercise control over the defendants of church courts, which, according to established practice, were sent to different churches. All these and many other problems, according to the Samara ruler, could be solved by creating a monastery in the city. His appeal to the Holy Synod was also supported by the city governor K.K. The Grotto, for its part, recommended a suitable territory for the future monastery on the banks of the Volga.
Financial difficulties
Synodal officials reacted to the petition of the Samara bishop with understanding, and in 1857 he received a "blessed letter", that is, the permission necessary in this case. For the governor, the matter also did not arise, and he, according to his promise, contributed to the allocation of the necessary land. But then the problems began.
As you know, for the construction of a complex of structures, which the Samara Nicholas Monastery was supposed to become, in addition to good intentions, money is also needed, but there was none in this case. Contrary to expectations, wealthy investors and benefactors were in no hurry to announce. The Samara diocese also could not provide financial assistance, as it was going through hard times.
Way out of this situation
The solution was found unexpectedly. Bishop Feofil (Nadezhdin), newly appointed to Samara, the former Eusebius had gone to rest by that time, turned out to be not only a pious man, but also quite practical. He was visited by a simple and quite reasonable idea that the vast land allotted by the city society for the construction of the monastery can be leased out for a while to the same townspeople, and subsequently the proceeds can be used for construction.
Simple and reasonable, but ... it was then that the evil demon was embarrassed by the hearts of the inhabitants of the city. He reproached them that the lord, and with him the diocesan leadership, simply wants to enrich themselves, taking advantage of this opportunity, and use the land allotted for a charitable cause for personal gain. What started here! Followed by written and oral slander to the Synod, accusations of an honest and very well-meaning governor of involvement in fraud, gossip and gossip. Just do not list.
The beginning of the construction of the monastery
How baseless these accusations were, life itself showed. After a very short time, the buildings of fraternal cells and utility rooms began to be erected on the monastery lands, and soon the first church appeared, consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Contrary to the opinion of numerous criminals, the money went exactly for the sake of which the leasing of land was contemplated.
Step by step, the Samara Nicholas Monastery began to settle down. Finally, wealthy investors appeared. The first was the eminent Volga merchant F.M.Shchepkin, who donated one hundred and fifty acres of excellent arable land to the monastery, which was immediately leased, but this time none of the inhabitants dared say anything in condemnation.
His example was followed by the local landowner P.K. Astrakhantsev, who wrote to the monastery a spacious wooden house, in which the hospital church was subsequently equipped. From this began the regular receipt of deposits. The Samara province turned out to be rich in generous and pious people, whose money was used to erect the first stone temple in 1861.
Monastery obtaining official status
However, a curious detail - the built and already operating Samara Nikolaevsky monastery, even after the construction of a stone temple in it, did not yet have an official status. To receive it, a corresponding appeal was again sent to the Holy Synod, and after a three-year review, finally, the official opening of this monastery, which had existed for several years, took place.
It was registered as a hostel monastery of the third class. Sociable is a form of organization of internal life in which none of the inhabitants has any personal property. Everything is in the public domain, but the abbot, treasurer, hieromonk and other monks received a salary. This has been recorded in archival documents.
Monastic Welfare
Towards the end of the 19th century, the Samara Nicholas Monastery developed into a strong and well-formed economy. From the same archival records, it follows that in the village of Shiryaev Buerak, he owned one hundred twenty-eight acres of land with meadows, arable land and quarries, leased to them, as well as almost seven hundred and fifty acres of meadows and fields in other areas. In addition, the Samara province in order to maintain its material level allocated an additional hundred and forty acres to the monastery.
The Nikolaev Monastery (Samara) received, among other things, content from its diocese. According to the state approved in 1867, about six hundred and sixty rubles were transferred to him annually. Revenues from the lease of land amounted to at least two and a half thousand rubles a year, and another thousand brought its own candle factory. The amount was impressive at that time. Given that at the end of the XIX century the number of inhabitants did not exceed fifty people, we can conclude that they did not feel the need.
The beginning of a new century
With the onset of the 20th century, the number of brethren began to decline for various reasons, and by 1912, according to the then published Orthodox Encyclopedic Dictionary, there were only thirty-five people. During the Russo-Japanese War, several inhabitants were mobilized, including Hieromonk Lavrenty (Pavlov), sent to the Far East in the army.
By 1916, only twenty-two people remained in the monastery, including the abbot and four novices. The area of their lands decreased significantly, but the flow of funds from the diocesan treasury increased slightly, since by that time the monastery was ranked in the second class.
Monastery temples
With this money, in the same year a cell building was built, which has survived to this day. His photo is placed in the article. It is also known that in the last pre-revolutionary years, on the territory of the monastery, among other structures, the temple of the Icon of the Mother of God "All Who Sorrow Joy" was placed, and one more - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
The first of them was founded back in 1860. Due to the scarcity of funds, it was equipped in a donated monastery and a correspondingly rebuilt house. The second temple was built and consecrated in 1909 on the site of the former, which had become dilapidated and for this reason dismantled, which was always considered the main one, and thanks to which St. Nicholas gave his name to the whole monastery. In photographs that have survived to this day, he amazes the eye with the grandeur of his outlines.
Other buildings
The Samara Nicholas Monastery was located on a very large territory, limited by the Volga coast and the current streets of Chelyuskintsev, Osipenko and Radonezh. All of it was surrounded by a high stone fence, from which so far only gates have survived, a photo of which is presented in the article.
At the disposal of the monastery were four stone buildings for household and household purposes, as well as the temple buildings mentioned above, of which the church of the icon of the Mother of God "All Who Sorrow Joy" was located in the depths, and Nikolsky was opposite the holy gates. In addition, in the fenced monastery territory there was a cemetery where, for a fee, burials and laity were carried out.
Ruined Shrine
After the Bolsheviks came to power, the monastery suffered the same fate as many holy places in Samara. In 1918, the refectory was taken from him and transferred to the local department of public education for the needs of the local department of education, and five years later other monastery buildings were left at the disposal of the new government.
At the beginning of the thirties it was time for temple buildings, services in which had not been performed for many years. Initially, they were transferred to one of the Samara factories to organize a club in them, but then they were completely demolished, their bricks went to the construction of nearby houses and a kitchen factory.
During the years of perestroika, the monastery did not revive, since almost all of it was destroyed. Only the gates mentioned above remained, a two-story cell building, which underwent significant restructuring and internal redevelopment, as well as the refectory building, which completely changed its appearance due to numerous repairs.
In 2013, Orthodox activists installed two images in a niche above the gate. The Most Holy Theotokos and Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker depicted on them remind the residents of the city of the holiness that once was here and which was trampled and scolded by their fathers to the sounds of victorious marches.