Count Uvarov in the 19th century included such concepts as autocracy and Orthodoxy in the definition of "nationality in Russian". He believed that the Russian people are extremely religious and selflessly devoted to the tsar-father. If the second statement is quite controversial, then it is difficult to disagree with the first. No wonder Russia was famous for its churches, temples, cathedrals, and not a single settlement, even small villages, could do without the house of God.
Status of the Lord's monastery
In one of the most beautiful places in Moscow, at the foot of the famous Sparrow Hills stands the ancient St. Andrew's Monastery (for the male brethren). It belongs to the oldest cult Orthodox buildings in Russia, because the monastery was founded no later than the 13th century, that is, 3 centuries after the adoption of Christianity by the Russians. The current status of the institution is stavropegal. It is assigned to a building or monastery in the event that the highest spiritual ranks were erected over it. And this is very honorable and means that St. Andrew's Monastery and others like it are subordinated not to the local dioceses, but directly to the patriarch himself and the highest synod.
The emergence of the monastery
According to oral legends, in the Moscow Prisoners around the 13th century the Transfiguration Deserts was organized, from which the Andreevsky Monastery subsequently grew. Deserts have traditionally been called monastic settlements, remote from large crowds. Such monasteries or communities were not uncommon in Russia. With the consolidation of Christianity as the main religion, their number was constantly increasing. St. Andrew's Monastery began to be mentioned in chronicles in the 16th century, when the “deserts” became numerous, and on its territory a “gracious husband”, as his contemporaries called them for their good deeds, good deeds, charity, and good morality, Fyodor Mikhailovich Rtishchev founded the temple. The holy patron saint Andrei Stratilat was elected the main patron of the institution - a famous warrior who was severely injured for his faith. It was not by chance that Rtishchev considered that it was at this place that the Andreevsky Monastery should find Moscow. Indeed, in 1591, the Crimean Tatar
Khan Kyzy-Girey shamefully fled from here with his army
. Orthodox people then considered that no one other than Stratilat was involved in this miracle, to which they prayed intensely.
Time for a change
St. Andrew's Monastery on the Sparrow Hills began to operate in 1648. It became the first refuge of the “Teaching Brotherhood” - a spiritual and educational center where the most literate monks of that time gathered to study the available
spiritual literature, translate books from Greek, and create texts of a religiously educational character. Or, as the ministers themselves said, for the sake of "book teaching." In fact, the monastery was the first Moscow Academy. The Tsar-Democrat Peter ordered at the monastery to open an institution in which they brought up and taught street children, foundlings, orphans. The country needed educated people, and their origin Peter did not care too much. Unfortunately, the shelter lasted only 8 years. Under further Russian rulers, the temple somewhat loses its high value. So Catherine the Second simply turned him into a House of Charity, i.e. almshouse. Then the territory of the monastery is given to the cemetery to the noble Muscovites and monks of other Moscow monasteries. The Sheremetevs, Plescheevs and other famous representatives of the Russian nobility found their last refuge here. True, most of the necropolis (and burials here were conducted from the 13th to the 19th century) were destroyed in the first 20 years of Soviet power.
At the break of eras
The beginning of the 19th century for the St. Andrew Monastery was marked by the fact that new residential premises were built on its courtyard - for the almshouse that opened in 1806. It was established by the merchants of Moscow as a charitable institution. But the first quarter of the century 20 was a period of great trials. Under the rule of the Bolsheviks, the church ceased to operate at all: it was closed. Gradually, the hulls and other buildings were disassembled, collapsed, and the foot of the Sparrow Steep here looked unsightly. The monastery was revived only in 1991, when the Patriarchal Compound was established here, the churches of Christ Sunday, the Apostle John the Theologian and the Archangel Michael were rebuilt and opened. Again St. Andrew's Church. The monastery has a synodal library. And already in 2013, the Andreevsky Stavropegial Monastery for men began to operate here.
Places of faith
There are a large number of Orthodox monasteries in the capital of the Russian state. If you start listing all the monasteries in Moscow, their addresses will occupy more than one printed page. Therefore, we dwell on some. This is an old women's monastery at Rozhdestvenka (Bogoroditsky Stauropegial Monastery). The
Epiphany Monastery, the second oldest in
Moscow (stands in Epiphany Lane, hence the name). Its founder is the son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniel. On the
Great Ordynka , the Martha-Mariinsky monastery was once opened. Its second name is the Abode of Mercy and Love.