Kazan Virgin Monastery (Kazan)

Kazan Virgin Monastery (Казанский Богородицкий монастырь) (Kazan)

 

Location: Bolschaya Krasnaya ulitsa

 

Description of the Kazan Virgin Monastery

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.

 

History

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).

 

Architectural ensemble

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).

 

Recovery. Modern life

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).