Location: Bolschaya Krasnaya ulitsa
Kazan Virgin Monastery (Казанский Богородицкий монастырь) is located just outside of the Kazan Kremlin to the East of the Kremlin Hill. It was constructed in 1579 and keeps one of the most famous Russian Orthodox icons of Holy Virgin of Kazan. Many buildings you see on the pictures from the early 20th century were destroyed after the Russian Revolution of 1917 in futile attempts to eradicate religion from the society.
On July 8, 1579, the 9-year-old girl Matrona found an icon in the
place indicated to her in a dream. The story about this and about the
first miracles from the icon was first compiled by an eyewitness of the
events, the priest Yermolai, the future Patriarch Hermogenes (+ 1612),
glorified by the Church as a holy martyr. The acquisition of the
miraculous icon just 27 years after the capture of Kazan by Russian
troops was perceived by contemporaries as a symbolic event of great
importance. In the same year, 1579, by the sovereign decree of Ivan IV
the Terrible, the maiden Bogoroditsky monastery was founded at the place
of acquisition. The first nun in it, according to legend, was Matrona
herself, who received the name Maura after she was tonsured (her further
fate is unknown).
In 1612, the militia of Minin and Pozharsky
took the Kazan icon on a campaign against Moscow with the blessing of
the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne (after the martyrdom of
Hermogenes), Metropolitan Ephraim of Kazan. After the campaign of 1612,
the original of the icon was returned to Kazan, to the Bogoroditsky
Monastery (in Moscow, in the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square, only a
revered list was installed, although some Muscovites subsequently tended
to take it as the original).
The influx of pilgrims made the
Bogoroditsky Monastery a famous shrine in the Middle Volga region.
According to the reform of Catherine II (1764), who divided all the
monasteries of Russia into states (classes), he was assigned to the
second class, and in 1809 - to the first, the highest. The number of
nuns and novices gradually increased from more than 100 at the beginning
of the 19th century to 500 by the time of the revolution.
Monastery after 1917
After the closure of the Kazan Kremlin and its
churches in September 1918, the main surviving shrines of the Kazan
diocese were transferred to the monastery: the relics of Saints Guriy
and Barsanuphius of Kazan. Although the monastery was abolished, an
officially registered Orthodox community operated throughout the 1920s.
In 1931, the community was transferred to the Peter and Paul Cathedral,
after which most of the ensemble of the monastery was destroyed.
Since 1942, a tobacco factory has been located on the territory of the
former monastery. The western part of the ruined ensemble was later
built up with 5-storey houses; in the Exaltation of the Cross Church was
the philological faculty of the Kazan Pedagogical Institute (now the
university).
The territory of the monastery occupied several hectares. Its
architectural ensemble had no equal in size in the Volga region. The
main cathedral, Kazansky, where the icon resided, was built in the
classical style in 1798-1808 (designed by architect Ivan Starov) on the
site of a dilapidated stone cathedral of the 1590s. Its dimensions are
49 × 43 m, and its height is 44 m. The appearance of the cathedral was
determined by five hemispherical domes and three pediments with columns
on all sides, except for the altar.
The Church of St. Nicholas of
Tula (1810-1816), located to the north of the Kazan Cathedral, and the
Holy Cross Cathedral (1882-1884) on the south side were also built in
the classicist style, but each had one large hemispherical dome. The two
main buildings - Nastoyatelsky and Nikolsky (1820-1840s) - made up a
giant semicircle that closed the classical ensemble into a single whole.
This ensemble of the 19th century included two more ancient buildings -
a 55-meter bell tower, one of the highest in Kazan, and a small St.
Sophia gate church (both - the middle of the 17th century).
Return of St. Sophia Church and Holy Cross Cathedral
In 1994, the
St. Sophia Church was returned to believers, in 2004-2005 the large Holy
Cross Church was returned and restored. On July 21, 2005, Patriarch
Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' handed over to the Kazan diocese the
so-called Vatican list of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God returned
by the Pope. This list was placed in the Exaltation of the Cross Church.
The Vatican list is revered by the brethren and parishioners, many
pilgrims come to it every day.
Since 2005, the monastery has been
reborn as a male monastery, although it was a female monastery before
its closure. His brethren number several people. A tobacco factory that
was located here in Soviet times was removed from the territory of the
monastery. During excavations on the territory of the monastery, the
remains of nuns and novices of the monastery were found. On October 12,
2019, they were reburied at the monastery necropolis.
Reconstruction of the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God
On November 4, 2015, on the Day of National Unity and the feast of the
Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, President of the Republic of Tatarstan
Rustam Minnikhanov signed a decree "On the establishment of the
Bulgarian Islamic Academy and the reconstruction of the Cathedral of the
Kazan Icon of the Mother of God." In accordance with it, "in order to
preserve and develop traditional spiritual values, strengthen interfaith
and interethnic peace and harmony" it was decided: to support the
initiative of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian
Federation, the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia,
the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan to
create in the city of Bolgar Spassky municipal district of the Republic
of Tatarstan of the scientific, educational and spiritual and
educational Muslim center "Bulgarian Islamic Academy", as well as the
initiative of the Tatarstan Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church
(Moscow Patriarchate) and the mayor's office of the city of Kazan "on
the reconstruction of the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of
God within the complex of the Kazan Bogoroditsky Monastery ". By the
same decree, the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan was
instructed to provide for the organization of events for laying a
memorial stone at the site of the Bulgarian Islamic Academy on May 21,
2016 and a stone at the site of the revived Cathedral of the Kazan Icon
of the Mother of God on July 21, 2016, as well as provide for the
establishment of memorial books and the establishment of memorial signs
in order to perpetuate the memory of those who contributed to the
creation of the academy and the reconstruction of the cathedral.
Participants of the II Forum of the Orthodox community of the Republic
of Tatarstan, held in Kazan on November 26, 2015, expressed their
support for the decree, calling on "the clergy and laity,
representatives of business, culture and science, all people of good
will to provide every possible assistance to the charitable cause of the
revival of the world-famous Orthodox shrine."
On April 27, 2016,
in the wasteland where the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of
God used to be, archaeological excavations began. For the duration of
the work, the chapel (deity) that stood here, which marked the place
where the icon was found, was moved to the square east of the Exaltation
of the Cross Cathedral (where it remains to this day), subsequently
converting it into a belfry.
On July 21, 2016, on the day of the
celebration of the appearance of the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in
the city of Kazan, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' consecrated
the foundation stone of the restored Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the
Mother of God.
The issue of restoring the 55-meter bell tower,
which at one time was visible from anywhere in Kazan, is not yet worth
it. The reason for this is the five-story Khrushchev building standing
on its historical site.
On July 21, 2021, five years after the
laying, Patriarch Kirill consecrated the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of
the Mother of God with a great rite.
cave temple
In 1910,
Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna visited the monastery and proposed to
build an iconostasis under the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother
of God on the site where the icon was found, and a cave church in honor
of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. The project was developed by
the architect Alexei Shchusev. Work on the device in the basement of the
temple, which is also called the Kazan Caves, was completed in 1913.
During excavations in 2016, its remains were found.
The surviving
foundation was mothballed, and it was decided to restore the temple. On
the feast of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God, February 25, 2020,
the temple was consecrated. The rite of consecration was performed by
Metropolitans of Kazan and Tatarstan Feofan (Ashurkov), Berlin and
German Mark (Arndt), and Bishops of Zelenograd Savva (Tutunov),
Almetyevsk and Bugulma Methodius (Zaitsev) and Yelabuga Innokenty
(Vasetsky).