Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary at Nativity. Mother of God Nativity Stauropegic Convent. Monastery in the 19th-20th centuries

On the Moscow steep slopes

The Moscow Mother of God Nativity Convent still poses many mysteries to scientists. It is traditionally believed that it was founded in 1386 by Princess Maria, the mother of the hero of the Battle of Kulikovo, Prince Vladimir Andreevich the Brave of Serpukhov, whose actions on the battlefield decided the successful outcome of the great battle. As you know, he was the cousin of Dmitry Donskoy and the grandson of Ivan Kalita. There is a version that Princess Maria founded the monastery in gratitude for the fact that her son returned from the battle alive. It is unclear, however, the place of its foundation. It is believed that the monastery was originally founded in the Kremlin and in ancient times was called “what’s on the Moat.” According to this version, the Nativity Monastery stood in the Kremlin until 1484. When the grandiose reconstruction of the Kremlin began under Ivan III, it was moved to its current location near Trubnaya Square.

The second and more reliable version says that the Nativity Monastery was originally founded in its current location - on the left, steep bank of the Neglinnaya. These lands were in the possession of the Serpukhov prince Vladimir Andreevich: here was his country yard with a wooden palace, where Princess Maria lived. Near the palace she founded the Nativity Monastery. Another ancient evidence has been preserved that the Nativity Monastery originally stood on this site. According to legend, Dmitry Donskoy’s daughters-in-law, Maria and Elena, were buried in his cathedral. This means that the monastery already existed here before 1484.

There is information that the Nativity Monastery was built according to the sovereign's decree, therefore, permission could have been given by Dmitry Donskoy himself. Its founder, Princess Maria, herself took monastic vows there under the name of Martha. The wife of Serpukhov Prince Vladimir, Princess Elena Olgerdovna, who also built this monastery, also became a monk here. Its first nuns were the widows of the soldiers of the Battle of Kulikovo, and within the monastery walls shelter was given to all those who lost their breadwinners - husbands, sons, fathers and brothers - on the Kulikovo Field. According to legend, in memory of that great victory, the monastery “crosses were placed over the moon,” that is, crescents were depicted on the crosses of the cathedral. This was the second of three women's monasteries in Moscow, along with the Alekseevsky Monastery and the Ascension Monastery in the Kremlin, where a strict communal charter and independence from the abbots of the monasteries were introduced. The famous local historian V.V. Sorokin claimed that in the 1390s, the Monk Kirill Belozersky, the former archimandrite of the Simonov Monastery, lived here briefly. It has also been established that the first cathedral in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary was made of stone, and the monastery itself was surrounded by wooden walls. Princess Maria died in December 1389 and was laid to rest in the monastery. Her daughter-in-law Elena Olgerdovna also bequeathed to bury herself here, and also donated her village of Kosino near Moscow with its famous Holy Lake, which legends associated with the beginning of Moscow, to the Nativity Monastery.

The monastery was founded on an ancient road running from the Kremlin to Kuchkovo Field, and the section of the road to the monastery became Rozhdestvenka Street. It was famous for its bell ringing, it was called “church street” both because of the number of churches and because of the settlement of bell ringers and guards of the Kremlin cathedrals, who built themselves the parish church of St. Nicholas in Zvonary.

The Nativity Monastery took on the role of a guard, protecting Moscow from the northern borders. It was also called “behind the cannon huts”: referring to the Cannon Yard, created by Aristotle Fioravanti at the end of the 15th century. When, 100 years later, the wall of the White City appeared, a hole was made in it - an arch or “pipe” through which Neglinka, not yet enclosed underground, flowed openly. This is where the name of Trubnaya Square and the new nickname of the Nativity Monastery came from - “what’s on the Trumpet”. Since then, Rozhdestvenka led only to the Nativity Monastery. It became an exclusively “pious” street and the shortest radial street in Moscow.

Medieval wooden Moscow often burned. One such large fire broke out on an August day in 1500 at the settlement. The city was engulfed in flames from the Moscow River to Neglinka, and the Nativity Monastery also burned down. Grand Duke Ivan III ordered the restoration of the monastery and the construction of a new stone cathedral. This single-domed, four-pillar cathedral is considered an architectural replica of the oldest monastic Spassky Cathedral in Moscow in the Andronikov monastery. In 1505, Ivan III attended the consecration of the rebuilt cathedral. This event was one of the last in his life: the same year the sovereign died.

His son and successor, Grand Duke Vasily III, committed an event within the walls of the Nativity monastery that was not only included in the chronicle of the monastery, but also determined the further course of Russian history. In November 1525, the first wife of Vasily III, Grand Duchess Solomonia Saburova, was tonsured a nun in the Nativity Cathedral. Having lived with her for more than 20 years, the Grand Duke never had an heir. The throne could go to his brothers, appanage princes, who threatened to start internecine wars for the Moscow great table, which Vasily III did not want to allow.

According to legend, one day while hunting, the sovereign saw a large nest with chicks in a tree and burst into tears. Then he sat down with the boyars to think about it. The boyars answered him that “the barren fig tree is cut and removed from the grapes.” The sovereign did not dare to take such a step right away and asked the monk of the Simonov monastery Vassian Patrikeev for advice, but he declared the second marriage to be adultery. The Monk Maxim the Greek was also against it. Then the ruler turned to the Eastern patriarchs for a blessing for the divorce and was also refused, and Patriarch Mark of Jerusalem allegedly predicted to the Grand Duke: “If you marry a second time, you will have an evil child: your kingdom will be filled with horror and sadness, blood will flow like a river, the heads of nobles will fall , the hail will burn.” The Grand Duke was supported only by Moscow Metropolitan Daniel, and Vasily III considered this support sufficient.

Solomonia was first offered to voluntarily take monastic vows, but she flatly refused. Then she was slandered in sorcery - as if she wanted to turn her husband to herself with the help of a sorceress - and she was forcibly tonsured in the Nativity Monastery with the name Sophia. Occasionally there is an opinion that this tonsure took place in the Staro-Nikolsky Monastery in Kitai-Gorod, probably because the tonsure was performed by the abbot of the Nikolsky Monastery, David. As Solomonia resisted with all her might, the boyar who was present hit her, crying out: “Do you dare resist the will of the sovereign?” And then Solomonia put on a monastic robe, as if saying: “God will take revenge on my persecutor!” However, there is other evidence that Solomonia took monastic vows voluntarily, with joy. However, this legend is attributed to Metropolitan Daniel himself. According to one version of historians, Sophia was supposed to remain a nun of the Nativity Monastery. She remained there for some time, where sympathetic friends and relatives visited her. That is why the Grand Duke was afraid to leave her in Moscow and exiled her to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery. Other researchers claim that she was only tonsured at the Nativity Monastery, and the place of monasticism was initially determined to be the Intercession Monastery, where she lived for 17 years and was buried there in 1542.

This event gave rise to many rumors, gossip and historical versions. For example, many historians share the legend that Solomonia took monastic vows while pregnant and gave birth to a son, George, as a monk. There is a well-known legend that he became the famous ataman Kudeyar, glorified in Nekrasov’s stanzas. According to some legends, he brought the Crimean Khan to Moscow, according to others, he saved the life of Ivan the Terrible more than once and later became a monk himself. And Elder Sophia was eventually glorified as a locally revered saint: in 1650, Patriarch Joseph allowed the Suzdal Archbishop to venerate her as a saint. Venerable Sophia of Suzdal (her memory is December 16/29) is now honored in the Moscow Nativity Monastery.

And Ivan the Terrible, the legal heir of Vasily III, born from his marriage to Elena Glinskaya, accompanied by gloomy signs - blinding lightning and an unprecedented strong thunderstorm - also imprinted his reign in the history of the Nativity Monastery. Six months after his coronation, in the summer of 1547, a terrible fire broke out in Moscow - one of the worst in its history. The Nativity Monastery, along with the entire street, burned down in the fire. It was restored according to the vow of Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna, who, going on a pilgrimage to St. Sergius, near the Nativity Monastery, felt the baby move for the first time in her womb. According to legend, she (or Ivan the Terrible himself), in memory of this joyful event, founded a chapel in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker at the rebuilt Nativity Cathedral. V.V. Sorokin indicates the exact date of foundation of the chapel - 1550. This was probably their first daughter, Anna, but pre-revolutionary historians argued that this happened later, when Tsarina Anastasia was pregnant with her son Fyodor, the future Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, that is, at the end of 1556 or in the first half of 1557.

The rebellious 17th century also brought changes to the Nativity Monastery. Nobles began to settle on Rozhdestvenka; by the way, boyar Mikhail Vasilyevich Sobakin, a distant relative of Marfa Sobakina, the third wife of Ivan the Terrible, had a large courtyard here. Here was the property of Prince A.I. Lobanov-Rostovsky, whose family descended from Rurik himself. By that time, the monastery had a stone cathedral church, a wooden refectory church in the name of John Chrysostom, known since 1626, and a wooden fence. And in 1676–1687, noblewoman Fotinia Ivanovna Lobanova-Rostovskaya, at her own expense and at the expense of her brother-in-law, with the blessing of Patriarch Joachim, built the stone church of St. John Chrysostom, and the Lobanov-Rostovsky brothers donated a silver lamp to the monastery in honor of the souls of their parents. At the same time, a stone fence of the monastery was built with the Holy Gate overlooking Rozhdestvenka, and a tented bell tower - also at the expense of the Lobanov-Rostovskys, who were awarded the family tomb in the Nativity Monastery. The noblewoman Photinia herself later took monastic vows.

The 18th century turned out to be difficult for the monastery, although the authorities showed it signs of attention. In 1740, shortly before her death, Empress Anna Ioannovna sent him a gift of brocade vestments in honor of the birth of Ivan Antonovich, to whom she denied the throne with the regency of his mother and her niece Anna Leopoldovna. However, during secularization in 1764, the monastery lost all its lands, generously granted to it by sovereigns and wealthy investors, but began to receive government support. In 1782, its new stone walls were erected, which partially survive to this day. The wall on the boulevard side was depicted in Perov’s painting “Troika”. Its plot has a historical basis. Since 1804, a fountain-reservoir was built on Trubnaya Square, from where Muscovites drew water and carried it to their homes and commercial establishments. Richer people could turn to the services of water carriers, while the rest had to carry the water themselves. The severity of the burden was aggravated by the steep rise of Rozhdestvensky Boulevard, the former bank of the Neglinka. Contemporaries were so shocked by Perov’s painting that they searched in Moscow for “that same” monastery depicted in the painting, which thus acquired extremely unusual pilgrims.

Conflicting information remained within the walls of the Nativity Monastery about the events of the Patriotic War of 1812. It is reliably known that Abbess Esther buried everything that was stored in the monastery sacristy in the ground, in three holes, carefully sealing them. Having smashed the gates, the enemy burst into the monastery, but did not find the monastery treasures and began to plunder the churches. At this time, the icon of the Mother of God was carried around the monastery several times to protect it from fire, and the French did not touch its silver frame, although they took everything they could get their hands on. Having found the image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the same silver frame, the enemies tried to remove the silver and were unable to. Since then, traces of enemy weapons remained on the image, but a miracle was revealed: one soldier, who was trying to remove the salary, suddenly became so ill that he was carried away in his arms, and the image was no longer touched. There is evidence that he inspired such fear in the enemy that the French even left the monastery.

It is also known that a Napoleonic general settled in the monastery, that the refectory of the Nativity Cathedral was turned into a stable, and then the priest resumed services in the Church of St. John Chrysostom, so that divine services did not stop here. The monastery buildings also survived; the fire did not touch the walls of the monastery, in which many Muscovites took refuge from the flames that raged in the city. According to the recollections of monastery novice Alexandra Nazarova, Rostopchin’s “posters”—leaflets with military reports that were distributed under the guise of theater posters—were very comforting to inform the population and prevent panic rumors. And in the Nativity monastery they lived in anticipation of the speedy expulsion of the enemy from Moscow. According to legend, in October 1812, for the first time since the occupation of Moscow by Napoleon, the bell rang out from the bell tower of the Nativity Monastery, although another legend connects this event with the Strastnoy Monastery.

The restoration of the monastery began immediately after the victory. Already in 1814, a northern chapel appeared in the Nativity Cathedral in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, and a little later - a southern chapel in the name of St. Demetrius of Rostov. And in 1835, during a thunderstorm, lightning smashed the old tented bell tower. Then the wealthy Muscovite Serafima Shterich, who had lost her young son, donated a large contribution to the construction of a new bell tower with a temple in the name of the Hieromartyr Eugene of Kherson - on her son’s name day and for his eternal commemoration. This beautiful bell tower, which became the dominant feature of the entire Rozhdestvenka church, was built by the famous Moscow architect N.I. Kozlovsky (he also built the Church of All Who Sorrow Joy at the Kalitnikovsky cemetery). By that time, the St. Nicholas chapel had been moved to the Church of St. John Chrysostom, where in 1869 the second chapel was consecrated in the name of the righteous Philaret the Merciful - in memory of the deceased saint - Moscow Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov).

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the famous architect F.O. was invited to equip the Nativity Monastery. Shekhtel. He built the porch of the cathedral in the Russian style and some buildings in the western part of the monastery, stylized in the 17th century. The main order was the construction of a new large refectory of the monastery with a church in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. It is believed that the monastery needed a new refectory because the former refectory Chrysostom Church became a cathedral. However, Shekhtel’s project turned out to be very expensive, and then they turned to the architect N.P. Vinogradov, who drew up a more modest plan. And in 1906, the magnificent five-domed Kazan Church in the Russian-Byzantine style, popular at that time, appeared in the Nativity Monastery. There was also a shelter for young girls, where they were taught literacy and handicrafts. Hieromartyr Archpriest Pavel Preobrazhensky, who was shot in 1937, served in the monastery’s churches.

And before moving on to the tragic pages of the history of the Nativity Monastery, let us mention one remarkable civil building on Rozhdestvenka, for the fates of it and the monastery eventually came into contact. In the middle of the 18th century, Count I.I. Vorontsov purchased a plot here for his estate. It was he who built the new Church of St. Nicholas in Zvonary as his home church. At the beginning of the 19th century, part of the estate was occupied by the Medical-Surgical Academy, and then by the Moscow University Clinic, where in 1847 Dr. F.I. Inozemtsev performed the first operation in Russia under anesthesia. After the university clinical campus settled on Devichye Pole, the building was rebuilt for the Stroganov Art School. And in Soviet times, in 1930, this building on Rozhdestvenka, 11 was occupied by the Moscow Architectural Institute (MARCHI).

“The darkness rose and spread out”

Soon after the revolution, the Nativity Monastery was abolished. In 1922, it was thoroughly robbed: more than 17 pounds of silver and 16 pounds of pearls were seized. That same year, the monastery was closed, its bells were thrown to the ground, the most revered icons were moved to the neighboring Church of St. Nicholas in Zvonary, but in the end they ended up in the Church of the Sign in Pereyaslavskaya Sloboda near the Rizhskaya metro station. The nuns were evicted from the monastery, although some remained to live out their lives in the former cells as in communal apartments, because they had nowhere to go, and the nuns could not get government housing as an “unemployed element.” Moreover, ordinary communal apartments were built on the territory of the monastery, which were even located in the Nativity Cathedral. The walls of the former monastery also housed a police department, which in 1923 asked to transfer one of the monastery churches to the club, which was fulfilled. Then a correctional labor house was located here, from where prisoners were taken to work.

No one was doing any repairs, church buildings were falling into disrepair, and their layout was changing to suit new needs. The Kazan Church suffered especially hard. The cemetery with the grave of the founder was completely destroyed, the walls collapsed. Slow restoration began only in 1960, when, under strong public influence, by a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, the monastery buildings were taken under state protection. The communal apartments were resettled; The cathedral, bell tower, Chrysostom Church and part of the walls were restored and transferred again to institutions. The monastery continued to be used by different owners until it came to belong to the Moscow Architectural Institute. In 1974, by decision of the Moscow City Council, the ensemble of the Nativity Monastery was transferred to the Moscow Architectural Institute to create a reserve of ancient Russian architecture and art.

Meanwhile, two elderly nuns, Varvara and Victorina, were still living in the Nativity Monastery. In 1978, nun Varvara was killed by her neighbor in a communal apartment, stole several icons from her, and upon capture was sentenced to 10 years. After this, the elderly, almost blind Victorina was taken in by kind people to live with them. A year later, customs caught a speculator trying to smuggle church valuables abroad, and among them were many items from the sacristy of the Nativity Monastery. It turned out that nun Varvara was the treasurer and closest friend of the last abbess of the monastery, who, before her death, secretly gave her the most revered icons, hidden from requisition. Somehow, a gang that was engaged in theft of church antiques found out about this. The nun's neighbor acted as a diversion while the ringleaders quietly took the most valuable things. This heartbreaking story is told by P.P. Palamarchuk. Both elders did not live long enough to see the revival of the Nativity Monastery.

Both the Nativity Cathedral and the monastery were returned to the Church in 1993. All three churches with a bell tower have been preserved, two have been beautifully restored - the Nativity Cathedral, in which the spirit of the great Moscow antiquity is alive, and the luxurious, Moscow-style gingerbread Kazan Church. And the Church of St. John Chrysostom is waiting for its revival, because today it presents a sad picture of ruin. The monastery itself lives a full church life. On the patronal feast day, patriarchal services are held there. The monastery does not forget the great Russian victory won on the Kulikovo Field and all its heroes. And as a blessing, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II gave the monastery the icon “The Cathedral of the Optina Elders,” which is taken to the temple for veneration on the days of their memory. It is also gratifying for the monastery that on February 23, 2007, on the day of his 78th birthday, His Holiness the Patriarch celebrated the Lenten Liturgy in the Nativity Cathedral.

The Nativity Monastery was built in honor of the valiant victory of the Russian army on the Kulikovo Field. The churches of the Nativity Monastery, crowned with onion-shaped domes, delight the eye from afar, towering majestically above the streets and greenery of squares.

The monastery was dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, its founder was Princess Maria. She was the mother of one of the glorious heroic participants in the Battle of Kulikovo - Prince Vladimir, who received the nickname Brave. The first nuns and novices to settle in the monastery were mothers, widows and orphans of soldiers who laid down their lives on the battlefield.

The site chosen for the construction of the monastery was a hill on the banks of the Neglinnaya River, at the very edge of Kuchkov Field, where the ancient road leading to the Kremlin walls ran. At first, the monastery buildings were wooden. And only the Nativity Monastery, built in the early 1500s, became stone.

Fires often broke out in medieval Moscow. The fiery element did not spare the monastery either. In 1547, when a fire of unprecedented scale broke out in Moscow, the buildings of the monastery burned down and the main cathedral was damaged. The monastery was rebuilt by the first wife of Ivan the Terrible, Anastasia.

At the beginning of the 17th century, battles with Polish troops took place near the walls of the monastery, and many soldiers who died in these battles found rest in the monastery graveyard. During the War of 1812, the monastery churches were plundered by the enemy.

In the period 70–80 years of the 17th century, a cathedral was erected in honor of St. John Chrysostom using donations allocated by Princess Lobanova-Rostovskaya. The territory of the monastery was also surrounded by a stone fence with four towers, which was later rebuilt; a new gate church appeared above the gates. At the beginning of the last century, a temple in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and a refectory were founded in the monastery. At the monastery there was a shelter for orphan girls, and a parochial school was opened.

In the 20s, the Nativity Monastery suffered the same fate as all the monasteries in Moscow; it was closed. The silver frames and vestments were torn off the icons, and the images themselves were moved to other churches. The premises housed various institutions and offices. The monastic cells were turned into communal apartments, the monastery graveyard was destroyed, and part of the walls of the stone fence were demolished. The Nativity Cathedral was completely disfigured by various reconstructions that were carried out to adapt the premises to the desired purpose of the services housed in it. Only in the 70s of the last century did the Moscow authorities decide to organize a museum-reserve in the Nativity Monastery.

And already in the 90s, at first only the Church of the Nativity, and then all the buildings of the monastery were returned to the church. All three temples and the bell tower have survived to this day.

The Mother of God Nativity Monastery was founded in 1386 in memory of the victory on the Kulikovo Field (according to some sources, it was originally located in the Kremlin, and in 1484 it was moved to its current location in the White City).

The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in 1501-1505. and was rebuilt many times. During the fire of 1547, the cathedral was damaged, but was soon restored. In the southern altar apse, by order of Tsar John IV, the St. Nicholas chapel was built, to which in the 17th century. a refectory was added.

By the end of the 18th century. The cathedral was surrounded on the north and south sides by a covered porch, in which in the 19th century. chapels were built for the Descent of the Holy Spirit (1814) and St. Demetrius of Rostov (1820). In the 1670s. On the eastern side of the cathedral, the tomb of the Lobanov-Rostov princes was added, above which in the 19th century. the monastery sacristy was located. In 1676-1687 at the expense of the book. Photinia Ivanovna Lobanova-Rostovskaya built the stone church of St. John Chrysostom.

In the 16th century Above the southwestern corner of the Nativity Cathedral there was a belfry, dismantled in the 17th century. and replaced by a hipped bell tower, which was struck by lightning in 1855. The bell tower above the holy gates was built in 1835-1836, in the lower tier at the expense of S.I. A church was built in Shterich. Evgeniy Khersonsky.

The first stone fence with four corner towers was erected in 1671, a new fence was built in 1882, partly on the basis of the old one.

At the beginning of the 20th century, over six hundred nuns labored within the walls of the monastery, in its numerous hermitages and farmsteads (before the monastery was closed, according to some sources, there were 625, according to others, about 700 sisters, or even more, taking into account the inhabitants of the monastery hermitages and farmsteads) , the monastery owned 33 hectares of land. The monastery operated a shelter for orphan girls and a parochial school.

For many centuries, parallel to the northern and southern walls of the monastery, one-story buildings of sister cells were located in several rows. These buildings were demolished in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Of the one-story buildings on the territory of the monastery, the cells that remain are located along the eastern monastery wall (now building 8 of building No. 20 on Rozhdestvenka Street), next to which stands a huge four-hundred-year-old oak tree. At the beginning of the 20th century, on the site of demolished buildings, construction began on a majestic refectory church in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.

The initial design of the Kazan Church was proposed by F.O. Shekhtel, but was considered too expensive. The abbess of the monastery, Abbess Yuvenalia (Lovenetskaya), chose the design of the architect P.A. Vinogradova.

On July 6, 1904, Hieromartyr Vladimir (Epiphany), then Metropolitan of Moscow, consecrated the foundation stone of the refectory church. Construction was carried out at the expense of M.V. Lapshina. The benefactor took monastic vows with the name of Seraphim, as stated in the inscription in the temple, on the northern wall near the choir.

On September 8, 1905, Metropolitan Vladimir consecrated the crosses on the domes of the Kazan Church and, in a small rank, the temple itself, in which the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated on this day of the patronal feast. A year later, on August 30, 1906, Hieromartyr Vladimir performed the great consecration of the temple.

In 1922, the Mother of God Nativity Monastery was closed and looted. The final liquidation of the monastery followed in 1923: according to the newspaper Izvestia on May 16, 1923, 788 nuns were evicted from the territory of the monastery, many of them were arrested. Abbess Yuvenalia and several sisters were exiled to Solovki, to a special purpose camp.

The abbot's and sister's buildings of the ruined monastery were given over to communal apartments. Some sisters were allowed to remain in their cells as tenants or to settle somewhere on the territory of the monastery. Most of the Christmas nuns suffered persecution for their faith, were tortured and killed.

In 1923, the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was given over by the Moscow Soviet to a police club. After some time, a correctional labor house was placed on the territory of the monastery.

In the 30s, the ancient monastery cemetery, where the founder of the monastery, Prince, was buried, was almost completely destroyed. Maria (in schema Martha, †1389), wife of Prince Vladimir Andreevich the Brave. Elena (†1452), representatives of the Lobanov-Rostovsky family. A hill was built on the site of the cemetery and the monastery garden, so that the foundations of the temples and bell towers were buried under several layers of soil and sand. The school building was erected on this embankment.

During construction and other work on the territory of the monastery, the ancient system of “clay castles” that protected buildings from the effects of groundwater was violated. As a result of the violation of this system, high humidity developed in the buildings, and the walls became covered with fungus.

Under the influence of public opinion in the 60s, by decision of the Moscow City Executive Committee, funds were allocated for the partial restoration of the cathedral and bringing the monastery buildings into relative order. After restoration, the archives of one of the research institutes were placed in the cathedral instead of residential apartments.

In the seventies of the last century, most of the buildings were leased to the Moscow Architectural Institute. The remaining houses on the monastery territory housed residential apartments and government institutions. In the late 80s and early 90s, some premises were occupied by various companies and tenants.

In 1989, the ancient Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church.

On July 19, 1993, on the day of the celebration of the Council of Radonezh Saints, the Holy Synod adopted a resolution on the revival of monastic life in the ancient Moscow monastery. The first nuns were the sisters of the Pukhtitsa monastery.

The monastery was founded in 1386 by the wife of Prince Andrei Serpukhovsky and the mother of Prince Vladimir the Brave - Princess Maria Konstaninovna, who became a nun here before her death in 1389 under the name of Martha. At first, it was located on the territory and was named the Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on the Moat. There is also a version that from the moment of its foundation the monastery was located on the bank of the river, near Kuchkov Field, in the possession of Prince Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky.

Nikolay Naidenov, CC BY-SA 3.0

In the 1430s, Princess Elena Olgerdovna, the wife of Prince Vladimir the Brave, was tonsured at the monastery under the name Eupraxia; she was buried, according to her will, in the monastery cemetery in 1452. Princess Elena donated monasteries to villages and villages.

The single-domed stone Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was erected in 1501–1505 in the traditions of early Moscow architecture. After the fire of 1547, for 150 years it was surrounded by extensions that distorted the original appearance.

Church of John Chrysostom (1676-1678) A. Savin, CC BY-SA 3.0

On November 25, 1525, in the Nativity Monastery, Solomonia Saburov, the wife of Vasily the Third, was forcibly tonsured under the name Sofia. She lived in the monastery before being transferred to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery.

In the summer of 1547, during a severe Moscow fire, the monastery buildings burned down and the stone cathedral was damaged. It was soon restored according to the vow of Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna, the wife of Ivan the Terrible. By order of the Tsar himself, the St. Nicholas Chapel was created in the southern altar apse.

In the 70s of the 17th century, the Nativity Monastery became the burial place of the Lobanov-Rostov princes: their tomb was attached to the cathedral from the east. In the 19th century, it received a second floor, which housed the monastery sacristy.

userpage, CC BY-SA 3.0

In 1676–1687, at the expense of Princess Fotinia Ivanovna Lobanova-Rostovskaya, a stone church of St. John Chrysostom with a refectory and chapels of St. Nicholas, Righteous Philaret the Merciful and St. Demetrius of Rostov was erected. At her expense, in 1671, a stone fence with four towers was built.

Monastery in the 19th-20th centuries

In 1835–1836, a bell tower with the church of the Holy Martyr Eugene, Bishop of Kherson was built above the Holy Gates (project by N. I. Kozlovsky, the church was built at the expense of S. I. Shterich).

At the beginning of the 20th century, three-story cell buildings were built to house classrooms of the parochial school. In 1903-1904, according to the design of the architect P. A. Vinogradov, the Church of St. John Chrysostom was reconstructed and the refectory of the monastery was erected. In 1904-1906, Vinogradov built the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God with a new refectory. The monastery operated a shelter for orphan girls and a parochial school.

Bell tower in the style of classicism (1835-1836) Sergey Rodovnichenko, CC BY-SA 2.0

In 1922, the monastery was closed, the silver vestments from the icons were removed (a total of 17 pounds of silver were taken out), some of the icons were initially moved to the Church of St. Nicholas in Zvonary, and later to the Church of the Sign in Pereyaslavskaya Sloboda. The monastery housed office, scientific and educational institutions. Communal apartments were set up in the cells. Some of the nuns were allowed to remain in the former monastery; two nuns lived on the territory of the monastery until the late 1970s. The monastery cemetery, along with the grave of the founder of the monastery - Princess Maria Andreevna, was destroyed, part of the walls was demolished.

In 1974, by decision of the Moscow City Council, the Nativity Monastery was transferred to the Moscow Architectural Institute for the organization of a museum-reserve of ancient Russian art and architecture. After restoration, the archives of one of the research institutes were kept in the Nativity Cathedral.

Modernity

The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was returned to the church in 1992, and services there resumed on May 14, 1992. The monastery was granted stauropegia.

The monastery was revived on July 16, 1993, and restoration work is underway. There is a Sunday school at the monastery for children aged 4-17 years. In 2010, a free three-year women's church singing school was opened in the monastery. Its curriculum includes the study of catechism, liturgics, liturgical regulations, solfeggio, church singing and choral class. In 2011, the schools in the monastery created their own library.

Since 1999, the monastery’s courtyard has been the Temple of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow,” located in the village of Fedorovskoye, Volokolamsk district, Moscow region.

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Date of publication or update 04/19/2017

Moscow Nativity of the Mother of God stauropegial convent.

Address of the Mother of God Nativity Convent: 107031, Moscow, st. Rozhdestvenka, 20 (metro station “Kuznetsky Most”, “Tsvetnoy Boulevard”, “Chistye Prudy”, “Trubnaya”, further on foot).
Phone number of the Mother of God Nativity Convent: (495) 621–39–86.
Website of the Mother of God Nativity Convent: mbrsm.ru

Since the Baptism of Rus', the Russian people have revered the Queen of Heaven with special reverence and love and dedicated churches and holy monasteries to holidays associated with the main events of Her earthly life. Throughout the year, during the Divine Liturgy, a festive troparion sounded in them, announcing to those praying about the deep essence of the holiday.

Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1501-1505).

The Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary has always been loved in Rus' for that quiet, bright and heartfelt joy that is born in the heart of an Orthodox Christian when remembering it, which is why the Nativity of the Mother of God churches appeared in Rus' back in the pre-Mongol period. In these churches throughout the year, at each Liturgy, the words of the festive troparion filled with joy are heard: “Your Nativity, O Virgin Mother of God, is a joy to proclaim to the whole universe.”

One of the first monasteries erected in honor of the victory of the Russian people on the Kulikovo Field and dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was the Mother of God Nativity Convent in Moscow. It was founded in 1386 by Princess Maria of Serpukhovskaya, the mother of the hero of the Battle of Kulikovo - Prince Vladimir Andreevich the Brave. The first nuns of the monastery founded by Princess Maria were widows, mothers and orphans of soldiers who “laid their lives for faith and fatherland” on the Kulikovo field. And there were many dead: according to the chronicler, only a third of the Russian army returned from the battlefield. That is why there was great sorrow throughout the entire Russian land: “The birds sang mournful songs, everyone began to cry - the princesses, and the noblewomen, and the voivode’s wives for the murdered.”

Church of John Chrysostom (1676-1677).

The candle of faith, love and hope, heroism, patience and humility, from the flame of which the lamp of the monastery was lit, was lit in Moscow from the righteous and pious life of the first Moscow prince - St. Daniel of Moscow (d. 1303), founder of the Danilov Monastery, Heavenly owner and patron of the capital city of Holy Rus'. His life was one of the links in the golden chain of holy service to God, the people of God and the Fatherland, which united several generations of Russian princes during the most difficult decades of the Horde yoke.

The holy noble prince Georgy Vsevolodovich led Russian squads to the shores of the City to battle against the countless hordes of Batu for the Orthodox faith and native land. Along with him, along with his detachment, was his nephew, the holy noble Prince Vasilko, entrusted to the care of his uncle by the holy Prince Konstantin Vsevolodovich on his deathbed. George died the death of a warrior in an unequal battle, and Vasilko, who survived the bloody battle, was brutally hacked to pieces by Tatar soldiers for refusing to serve Batu, who conquered half the world, but did not break the courageous resistance of the heroic princes.

Church of the Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan (1904-1906).

Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who became the Grand Duke after the death of Grand Duke George (d. 1238), took on his shoulders the heavy burden of responsibility for the defeated, humiliated and plundered Rus'. Courageous and active, he set about restoring what had been destroyed, overcoming the fear and despondency that reigned in the souls of his compatriots who survived Batu’s invasion. On his orders, the remains of the dead were buried, fires were cleared, fields already overgrown with weeds were plowed, new temples, new houses were built, and new fortifications were erected. At his word, squads gathered to defend the western borders from the Swedes, who were hoping for easy prey. As a nine-year-old boy, his eldest son Alexander, the future saint Alexander Nevsky, took part in such a campaign for the first time.

Saint Alexander (1220–1263) lived on earth for only forty-three years, but the memory of his achievements lives on for centuries; it is inscribed in golden letters in the history of Russian holiness. He saved Rus' from the final defeat by the Horde khans and put a limit to the predatory aspirations of the Swedes and German knights, who, with the blessing of the Pope, rushed to the Baltic possessions of Novgorod and Pskov in a crusade. To leave a memory for centuries, this would be enough. But the feat of Saint Alexander was immeasurably higher - it was a feat of selflessness, to the last drop of blood, to the last breath, serving God, and in God - his suffering fatherland. His motto: “God is not in power, but in truth” - has become the banner of the Russian people for all centuries during the difficult times of trials by fire and sword.

Bell tower with the church of Eugene, Bishop of Chersonesos (1835-1836).

From the son of Saint Alexander Nevsky - Holy Prince Daniel of Moscow, a golden chain stretched to the Holy Right-Believing Prince John Danilovich, who was named Kalita for his mercy and extraordinary love of poverty. He began the great work of gathering Russian lands around Moscow. The spiritual child of Saint Peter of Moscow, John Danilovich Kalita, sanctified all his affairs with the prayer and blessing of the saint. The blessing of the saint was the cornerstone in the formation of Moscow as the capital of the Russian State, which gathered the scattered Russian principalities under its sovereign scepter for a decisive battle with the enslavers.

Little information has been preserved about Princess Maria of Serpukhovskaya, founder of the Mother of God of the Nativity Convent, mother of Prince Vladimir Andreevich the Brave. In the “Brief Historical Sketch of the Moscow Nativity Nunnery”, compiled by I.F. Tokmakov and published in 1881, it is said that “this monastery was built by Princess Maria during the God-given victory over Mamai and the entire Tatar horde on the day of the Nativity of the Most Pure Mother of God.” This information is confirmed by the Russian Chronicle (Nikonov's list), which states that the monastery was founded in 1386, by the wife of Prince Andrei Ioannovich, son of Kalita, Princess Maria, mother of the famous hero of the Don Prince Vladimir Andreevich the Brave.

Holy Gate.

Princess Maria herself was widowed long before the Battle of Kulikovo. Prince Andrei Ioannovich of Borovsko-Serpukhov died from a pestilence (plague), not having lived forty days before the birth of his second son, Vladimir. Soon after the death of Prince Andrei, the princess buried her eldest son, John. She lived the rest of her life quietly and unnoticed. Despite her high position and closeness to the grand ducal family, her name was not surrounded by loud, vain glory. Like all righteous people, she avoided fame and devoted herself entirely to her son, raising him in good morals and piety.

Having fulfilled her maternal duty, she became, by the will of God, a mentor and mother for many mothers and sisters orphaned after the Battle of Kulikovo who crossed the threshold of the monastery she founded.

The princess chose the site for the founding of the monastery at the very edge of Kuchkovo Field, on a steep hill, which in those days was the bank of the Neglinnaya River. In chronicles and historical works in different years, the Nativity of the Mother of God Monastery was called differently: the Nativity of the Most Pure Virgin Mary, which is behind the Cannon Yard; Nativity of the Most Pure Mother of God maiden, which is in Moscow, behind Neglinnaya, near the Trumpet; Rozhdestvensky girl, in Moscow, on Rozhdestvenskaya Street; The Christmas girl on the Trumpet; Rozhdestvensky Moscow; Rozhdestvensky on the Moat; Bogoroditsky on the Trumpet.

Probably, the names “ditch” and “pipe” (a break in the wall of the White City, which once ran along the current Rozhdestvensky Boulevard and Trubnaya Square) contributed to the emergence of the version about the original location of the monastery in the Kremlin. At that time, within the Kremlin walls there was indeed the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Moat. However, more reliable information is that Princess Maria from the very beginning chose this particular place on the banks of the Neglinnaya River.

The first convent under the leadership of the abbess, following the example of Greek monasteries, was founded by Metropolitan Alexy at the request of his sisters - the Venerable Juliania and Eupraxia and was named the Conception Monastery. The Nativity of the Mother of God monastery was also built on the model of Byzantine monasteries.

In 1503, the establishment of monasteries with an abbess at the head was finally legitimized at the Moscow Council, and in 1528 this decree was confirmed at a private Council by Archbishop Macarius of Novgorod (the future Metropolitan of Moscow), where it was necessary to “take abbots to men’s monasteries (from women’s), and give the nuns abbesses for the sake of piety”6.

The first building of the monastery was the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, erected in 1389. By erecting the temple and monastery, Princess Maria set a good example for her relative, Grand Duchess Evdokia - Venerable Euphrosyne of Moscow, founder of the Ascension monastery in the Kremlin.

Doctor of Historical Sciences Professor A.B. Mazurov believes that Princess Maria initially built a stone cathedral and cells in her monastery. People of the present time do not always understand why the chroniclers of Ancient Rus' spoke of stone construction as a kind of miracle. In the 14th–15th centuries, stone construction was an extraordinary, outstanding event, and not every prince could afford such a building - the work required large expenses and considerable skill of skilled architects. It is known that Prince Vladimir Andreevich built only one stone church at his own expense - in Serpukhov.

The hero’s mother, wanting to perpetuate the memory of the great battle and its participants who gave their lives for faith and the fatherland, spared no expense in building the monastery and for the needs of those living in it. Many of the inhabitants of the monastery came from eminent families and had wealth in worldly life. In all respects the monastery could be called “princely”.

Following the example of a pious relative, the holy princess Evdokia, after the death of her husband, holy prince Dimitry Donskoy, also erected a stone church and stone buildings in her Ascension Monastery, spending the silver and property bequeathed by her husband on the buildings.

The life of Princess Maria of Serpukhov, illuminated by the light of true love and prayer, was a continuous ascent to the Heavenly Fatherland. Having accepted the great schema with the name Martha, Princess Maria reposed on December 2, 1389 and “was laid to rest in the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in her venerable monastery on the Moat, which she herself created with her estate and still exists in her belly”8.

After the death of the princess, her daughter-in-law, Elena Olgerdovna, took over the care of the monastery. Having mourned the death of her husband Vladimir Andreevich the Brave (d. 1410) and seven sons, she left the world, taking monastic vows with the name Eupraxia. God granted her longevity: having outlived many participants in the battle on the Kulikovo field, she remained for several generations a witness to great events in the lives of the righteous people close to her.

In 1452, while dying, nun Eupraxia left a will, in which she mentioned the monastery: “And I bless my daughter-in-law and my grandson Prince Vasily Yaroslavich with the Monastery of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God; and I gave it to the monastery where I healed myself, a village with villages.”9 The princess bequeathed the village monasteries: Medykino, Dyakovskoye, Glebkovo, Kosino with lakes and a mill at the mouth of the Yauza. She did not live ten years before the reign of the great-grandson of Dmitry Donskoy - John III, the first Russian Sovereign.

It can be assumed that the sovereign still did not forget that his sovereign father honored the “princely” monastery, having granted it a royal charter. Even Peter’s powerful hand could not help but stop at times where the grace and power of God acted, which is “made perfect in weakness” and contains all-encompassing Divine love. There was, for example, historical evidence of this. Even at the beginning of his reign, Peter came to Smolensk to execute the archers. When the executed were already brought to the scaffold, suddenly from the crowd of people, the abbess of the Smolensk nunnery Marfa rushed to the feet of the irritated sovereign with a loud cry for mercy. This unexpected sight so struck the king that he gave a sign to stop the execution, and soon mercy triumphed over anger. Peter felt the sweetness of forgiveness and, in gratitude, ordered Martha to demand from him whatever she wanted, that he was ready to fulfill everything.

The pious old lady asked to build a stone church in the monastery instead of a wooden one, and her request was fulfilled.

The monastic treasures taken from Moscow were kept in the Vologda Spaso-Prilutsky Dimitriev Monastery until the end of 1812. Another place for their storage was Yuryev-Polsky. But many valuable things remained in place due to haste and lack of supplies.” Archbishop Augustine of Moscow was instructed to take the main Moscow shrines to Vladimir - the Vladimir and Iveron icons of the Mother of God.

The abbess of the Mother of God of the Nativity Monastery, Esther, and her sisters managed to hide church utensils and many valuables in hiding places: presumably in the refectory of the Mother of God of the Nativity Cathedral or in the tomb of the Lobanov-Rostov princes, or in the storage room under the bell tower. Other valuables - although, due to the lack and high cost of carts, not all of them - managed to be removed from the monastery in advance.

But mother did not give her blessing to remove the precious vestments from the icons.

Most of the sisters, led by the abbess, together with other residents of the capital, left the capital. With the blessing of the mother, the treasurer of the monastery and several sisters remained in the monastery. They had, as far as possible, to preserve the property of the “princely” monastery. Not relying on their own weak strength, but relying on the Lord in everything, the sisters resorted in prayer to the patron of the monastery - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The miraculous image of St. Nicholas was located in the St. Nicholas chapel of the Church of St. John Chrysostom. To protect the monastery from robbery, fire and desecration, every day the nuns reverently took the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas and walked around the monastery while singing the akathist. On September 2, several nuns of the Nativity Monastery, climbing onto the roof, saw a countless army approaching. “Fathers! - they shouted, “soldiers, but it’s like they’re not ours!”

Napoleon waited a long time on Poklonnaya Hill for a deputation with the keys to the city, as was the case in other European cities.

But no one ever left the silent capital. Those close to him answered Bonaparte that they could not find anyone.

The entrance to Moscow, abandoned by residents, did not bode well. “Approaching the Kremlin, Napoleon said: “What terrible walls.” Everyone who accompanied the French emperor on this day and subsequently left memories note that Napoleon “was gloomy and depressed.”

The fires began in the first hours after the enemy entered the city, on September 1, and continued until September 9, until heavy rains extinguished the flames. By the grace of God, the Monastery of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was not damaged by the fire. Near the monastery wall overlooking Rozhdestvensky Boulevard, the French shot Muscovites suspected of arson.

Napoleon informed conquered Europe that Moscow had been burned by Rostopchin and the Muscovites. Some of the Muscovites who fled the city actually set fire to their houses even before the enemy entered Moscow. By order of the commander-in-chief, Moscow ammunition depots were destroyed, but Rostopchin and the residents who remained in the city had nothing to do with the Moscow fire and the burning of the entire city, as Rostopchin himself definitely stated in 1823 in his brochure “The Truth about the Fire of Moscow.” Could a person who loved his hometown burn it down, even “by someone else’s hands”?

The book “The Holy Road” contains an eyewitness account - an entry from the diary of C. Laugier: “Soldiers of all European nations rushed into houses and churches, already almost surrounded by fire, and came out of there, loaded with silver, bundles, clothes, etc. They fell each other at each other, pushed and snatched the newly captured prey from each other’s hands; and only the strong remained right after a sometimes bloody battle.”

These were the testimonies of the French officers themselves who participated in the capture of Moscow.

At the beginning of the 20th century, over six hundred nuns labored within the walls of the monastery, in its numerous hermitages and farmsteads (before the monastery was closed, according to some sources, there were 625, according to others, about 700 sisters, or even more, taking into account the inhabitants of the monastery hermitages and farmsteads) , the monastery owned 33 hectares of land.

The walls of the monastery became cramped for those living in them and for the surrounding residents and pilgrims who came on pilgrimage. In this regard, significant changes took place in the architectural ensemble of the monastery. It was necessary to be an experienced architect so as not to disturb the architectural ensemble by erecting new buildings in the ancient monastery. Thanks to the work of talented architects, as well as the excellent taste and sense of historical connections between eras inherent in the abbess who managed the monastery at that time, the new buildings not only successfully fit into the appearance of the ancient monastery, but also served to greater glory and decoration of the monastery.

For many centuries, parallel to the northern and southern walls of the monastery, one-story buildings of sister cells were located in several rows. These buildings were demolished in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Of the one-story buildings on the territory of the monastery, the cells that remain are located along the eastern monastery wall (now building 8 of building No. 20 on Rozhdestvenka Street), next to which stands a huge four-hundred-year-old oak tree.

At the beginning of the 20th century, on the site of the demolished buildings, the grandiose construction of a majestic refectory church began in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.

The initial design of the Kazan Church was proposed by F.O. Shekhtel, but it was considered too expensive. The abbess of the monastery, Mother Yuvenalia (Lovenetskaya), chose the design of the architect P.A. Vinogradova.

On July 6, 1904, Hieromartyr Vladimir (Epiphany), who was then Metropolitan of Moscow, consecrated the foundation stone. The construction of the refectory church was carried out at the expense of M.V. Lapshina. The benefactor took monastic vows with the name of Seraphim, as stated in the inscription in the temple, on the northern wall near the choir.

The temple, crowned with domes and crosses, pleases the eye from afar, towering above the northern wall of the monastery, above the greenery of the boulevards of old Moscow. Built in the Russian-Byzantine architectural style, the temple recalls the centuries-old history of the monastery and reflects the desire to return to the Holy Russian ideal and at the same time testifies to the time when it was built.

On September 8, 1905, Metropolitan Vladimir consecrated the crosses on the domes of the Kazan Church and, in a small order, the church itself, in which the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated on this day of the patronal feast.

A year later, on August 30, 1906, the future first martyr from the ranks of the new martyrs and confessors of Russia performed the great consecration of the temple. The refectory church was magnificent both inside and outside. The external splendor of the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God reflected the high spiritual mood of the best part of Moscow society, which, in the face of future trials, confessed its loyalty to Christ.

In 1989, the ancient Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. On the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8/21, 1991, the reviving church was visited by His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II. Soon after this, several sisters came to Moscow from the Assumption Pyukhtitsky Monastery, which was not closed during Soviet times and preserved the monastic traditions of pre-revolutionary Russia. They were destined in the near future to become the first nuns of the first women's monastery, which opened in the capital after seven decades of rule in the country by the atheists. On July 19, 1993, on the day of the celebration of the Council of Radonezh Saints, a resolution was adopted by His Holiness the Patriarch and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on the revival of monastic life in the ancient Moscow monastery.

At the very beginning of the new history of the monastery, the sisters had to overcome many different obstacles. Difficulties arose in relations with tenants and illegal tenants. Many of those who occupied the monastery premises could not - and some, perhaps, did not want - to understand not only that they were within the walls of a holy monastery, but even that the architectural ensemble of the monastery was an outstanding monument of Russian history. Restoring destroyed temples and monastery buildings over several decades required a lot of effort, time and great expense.

The revival of the prayer, liturgical and spiritual life of the monastery required even greater efforts. Reviving monastic activity within the walls of a monastery is more difficult than overcoming economic difficulties, but the latter makes no sense without the former. A lamp that does not emit light will only look like a lamp in appearance. A monastery in which nuns live without spiritual work - prayer life, sobriety - the core of this work and creative ascetic labor - will remain an architectural ensemble, but will not be a truly monastic monastery.

The restoration of the architectural ensemble required and still requires a lot of work. It was necessary to stop the process of destruction of the masonry of the walls and foundations of temples and monastery buildings covered with earth; to re-bury in the tomb the remains of those who once rested in the monastery cemetery, devastated and desecrated by the atheists, scattered throughout the territory; remove hundreds of tons of garbage from the Kazan Church and other buildings; to clear the territory of everything alien and brought into the monastery fence out of malice or ignorance.

Hoping for God's help and the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, appointed by the High Hierarch as abbess of the monastery in 1993 and elevated by him to the rank of abbess in 1998, Abbess Victorina (Perminova) and the nuns of the monastery took up the difficult task of restoring the monastery. Nuns and novices perform their obediences in the church, on the choir, in the prosphora, in the sewing room, in the refectory, in the candle room, and in the monastery courtyard.

On July 19, 1993, the Moscow Nativity of the Mother of God stauropegial convent was renewed by the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. Since the beginning of the restoration of the Nativity of the Mother of God stauropegial convent, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' took an active part in its revival.

The current High Hierarch, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', does not leave his stauropegial monastery with paternal care, annually visiting the monastery, performing divine services within the walls of its churches, supporting the nuns of the monastery with advice, high priestly blessing and parting words, kind words of edification and consolation.