Mozhaisk Ferapontov Monastery. Mozhaisk Luzhetsky Ferapontov monastery. Gate Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord

But now the time has come for the revival of the ancient monastery. Luzhetsky Monastery was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1994. On October 23, 1994, in the premises of the refectory Church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary into the temple, the first hierarchal service was held, led by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna. It is significant that on that Sunday the Gospel was read about the resurrection of the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-16). Then it seemed that the monastery was awakening to a new life in the bosom of the mother Church, like a young man resurrected by the Lord and given to his mother. But when, after five centuries of being kept hidden, the relics of the founder of the monastery, the Monk Ferapont, were found, the gospel story about the young man awakening from the sleep of death took on a different meaning.

After the return of the monastery, a cross was established at the supposed burial site of the Monk Ferapont, and pink and white clover, not sown by anyone, bloomed around it. It also seemed like a miracle that the thickets of burdock, which filled the entire territory of the monastery, could not drown out this fragrant carpet. In 1997, during the opening of the foundation of the Ferapontov Church, they discovered the place where the tomb had previously been located over the grave of the saint. On May 26, 1999, with the blessing of Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, the relics of St. Ferapont were found.

Before the start of work at the foundation of the destroyed church, Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk, co-served by the council of clergy, served a prayer service, at which all those present asked the Lord for help in the work underway and for the blessing to not touch the honest relics of His saint with sinful and unworthy hands.

The excavation of the soil began on the right at the foundation of the salt in the south-eastern corner of the destroyed temple. They began to dismantle the base on which the shrine had once been placed above the saint’s tomb. The first three rows of bricks, held together with cement mortar, date back to the Soviet period. This was a platform for a machine installed on the site of the tomb, because the church of St. Ferapont was turned into a workshop after the closure of the monastery. Next came brickwork with lime mortar, which used bricks from the 18th century that were already in use. Some of them preserved fragments of frescoes, some had a figured shape, which was explained by the numerous reconstructions of the temple. After the fifth row of this masonry was removed, the commission began to doubt whether work was being carried out in that place? Rows of bricks followed one after another. The eleventh row was exposed. A pit (small excavation) made along the edge of the masonry revealed four more rows of bricks in depth. The situation required expanding the entire excavation, and after a short time, to the left of the supposed burial site and almost opposite the royal gates, at a depth of about one meter, the contours of a grave pit filled with gray-brown clay were revealed. A little deeper, the contours of a wooden dugout log of an anthropomorphic shape were discovered, characteristic of the funeral rites of medieval Rus' in the 15th–16th centuries. This happened around six o'clock in the evening. The slight error in determining the burial place was now explained simply. The location of the shrine in the temple was in accordance with tradition, but we must remember that the temple was erected over the grave of the monk and the foundation could not have been laid by the builders close to the burial.

Let us turn to the conclusion of the Commission's Acquisition Act. “Based on historical sources and monastic tradition, indicating the location of the saint’s grave on the right at the solea in the temple of St. Ferapont, as well as archaeological information, the discovered remains should undoubtedly be recognized as the holy relics of the founder of the Luzhetsky monastery - St. Ferapont of Mozhaisk.”

For obvious reasons, the official document could not include a description of the phenomena and events that accompanied the acquisition, which are difficult for the Christian soul to explain by coincidence. Throughout the work, the canon with the akathist to St. Ferapont and the Psalter were continuously read. The discovery of the burial place occurred on the sixth song of the canon when the words were read: “The Lord your God has removed corruption from your body, and to Him you sang with a voice of praise and confession.” Along with this, it is necessary to mention the unusually large drops of rain that irrigated the work site, when the entire deck was exposed, and the light fragrance that spread at the same time. People decided to dig further without a break, but the wind, which raised clouds of lime dust, and the rain that hit the monastery, forced everyone to leave for the Nativity Cathedral. The clergy again sang an akathist to the saint. With the end of the akathist, the rain stopped...

Work at the excavation site continued, and very soon the holy relics were discovered. They were raised by Bishop Gregory of Mozhaisk and transferred to the cathedral church.

At that time, services were performed in the only consecrated monastery church - the gateway Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord. It was here that the holy relics of St. Ferapont rested after their discovery. “Rejoice, faithful guardian of the monastery, in which your body rests; Rejoice, having delivered this monastery from destruction,” is sung in the akathist to St. Ferapont. The Luzhetsky monastery, saved by the prayers of the Monk Ferapont from many troubles and misfortunes, from complete destruction, having received the visible blessing of its founder in the discovery of his holy relics, began to be reborn. Both means and benefactors were found. The monastery gradually began to rise from its dilapidated state. In the shortest possible time, the territory of the monastery was cleared of debris and landscaped.

On June 9, 1999, a solemn celebration of the memory of St. Ferapont and the discovery of his holy relics took place. The service was held in the open air, led by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna. That day the monastery was full of worshipers, despite the thirty-degree heat, which melted the candles, so that it was impossible to put them on the candlestick. The holiday was remembered with joy akin to Easter. And it became even more joyful from the fact that the Monk Ferapont was now in his monastery and visibly, with his holy relics.

“Thank God that another shrine has been found. The people of God will flock to the relics of St. Ferapont, the founder of the Mozhaisk Luzhetsky Monastery, now resting in the monastery, asking for prayerful intercession and strengthening on their life’s path from the ascetic of the Russian land,” wrote His Holiness Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Rus' on the Act of Finding the Relics presented to him II. On July 6, 1999, His Holiness was one of the first to make a pilgrimage to the newfound shrine.

The celebrations on the occasion of the discovery of the holy relics ended, and painstaking work began on the restoration of the cathedral church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We had to restore the roof again, cover the domes, and install crosses. The reconstruction of the cathedral gallery began with the construction of the front porch. The cathedral was once painted by masters of the school of Dionysius, but only fragments of the painting were preserved and restored, allowing us to say that one of the themes of the ancient wall painting of the cathedral was scenes from the Apocalypse. Modern masters of icon painting have completed work on a four-tiered iconostasis. Graduates of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts painted the icon “St. Ferapont in the Life” with sixteen hallmarks, on four of which we see the saint’s contemporaries and prayer companions: St. Theodore, Archbishop of Rostov, St. Sergius of Radonezh, Cyril and Martinian of Belozersky. The uniqueness of the icon lies in the fact that one of its hagiographical marks depicts for the first time an event in modern church history - the discovery of the holy relics of St. Ferapont. The temple icon “Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” like the entire iconostasis, was painted anew and also has its own peculiarity - stamps with lists of the most revered icons of the Mother of God.

On the occasion of the 190th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812, an icon appeared in the local row of the iconostasis, which had never existed before in Mozhaisk - “Mozhaisk Saints”. It depicts standing “in the air” above the holy churches of the Mozhaisk land: the patron saint of the city, Saint Nicholas of Myra, with a sword and hail in his hands; Saints Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, and New Martyr Demetrius, Archbishop of Mozhaisk; New Martyr Archpriest Constantine; noble princes Theodore of Smolensk and Dimitry Donskoy, who once began to reign in the Mozhaisk inheritance; Reverends Ferapont of Mozhaisk and Rachel of Borodino. Above the saints are depicted two angels carrying the Kolotsk Icon of the Mother of God, revealed in 1413 near Mozhaisk.

Here, in the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in a carved wooden shrine now rests the relics of the founder of the monastery, St. Ferapont of Belozersky and the Wonderworker of Mozhaisk. The restoration of the church named after him is a matter of the future.

Currently, the next step is the restoration of the bell tower. None of the old monastery bells have survived, but new bells have been cast at the expense of benefactors, including half-ton and one-ton bells. In the lower tier of the bell tower there is a chapel for commemorating the dead. A crucifix made of white Italian marble was presented to her by the People's Artist of Russia, sculptor Vladimir Vladimirovich Glebov-Vadbolsky, in memory of his ancestor, Prince Fyodor Fedorovich Vadbolsky, a monk of Feodosia, who was the abbot of the Luzhetsky Monastery from 1702 to 1704.

But, as it turned out, the donor’s older ancestor is also related to monastic history. The princely family of the Vadbolskys descends from the princes of Belozersky, who in the 14th century began to submit to the Moscow prince. It is interesting that Prince Yuri Vasilyevich Belozersky-Sugorsky was the very governor of Mozhaisk Prince Andrei Dmitrievich, who persuaded the Monk Ferapont to leave Beloozero and come to Mozhaisk.

To this day, the Mozhaisk land is connected by an invisible thread with Belozerye, so dear to the heart of the Monk Ferapont. In the Luzhetsky Monastery, on the site of a necropolis devastated by atheists, a memorial wooden cross was erected with the inscription: “To the blessed memory of the holy monks, all the brethren, builders and beautifiers.” It was carved many miles from Mozhaisk - miles that were covered by the Monk Ferapont six centuries ago. They cut the cross on White Lake, in the monastery of his friend and fellow priest, St. Cyril.

The good news is that the Luzhetsky Monastery can be proud of not only new shrines - some of its ancient relics are miraculously returning here. In 1686, Patriarch Joachim made a rich contribution to the monastery sacristy - an altar Gospel, overlaid with gilded silver. “This Gospel has a gilded silver front panel, of good chased workmanship, weighing up to 4 pounds, and the spine and back panel are also chased, gilded, but copper; it is in a large sheet, printed in 1681,” this is how the monastery chronicler Archimandrite Dionysius described this holy Gospel at the end of the 19th century. After the revolutionary upheavals of the 20th century, the richest sacristy of the monastery ceased to exist. There is evidence of how, in godless years, precious frames were torn off from liturgical books of the 16th–18th centuries. Could the shrine have been preserved in those monstrous conditions? It turns out she could. The Holy Gospel lay unclaimed and unrecognized for many years in one of the two unclosed churches in Mozhaisk - the Church of Elijah the Prophet. Then, at the end of the 20th century, it was bound and transferred to the Luzhetsky Monastery. On December 30/January 12, 2000, on the day of remembrance of St. Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, the patriarchal gift was placed on the throne of the Transfiguration Church for the first time. During the Divine Liturgy, while reading the indicated conception, the abbot of the monastery drew attention to the word written in old ink at the bottom of the page. It turned out to be the beginning of a loose-leaf entry. The entire forty-page entry read: “This / book / the great / Cyrus / Joachim / Patriarch / of Moscow / and all / Russia / and the northern / countries / gave / to the monastery / of the Most Holy / Mother of God / in the temple / of / Her Nativity / in Luzhetskaya / monastery / like / is / in the city / Mozhaisk / in eternal / remembrance / of their parents / from the universe / 7104 / summer / month / March / and from that / monastery this book / may not be stolen / by anyone / forever. / Amen amen. / Be it, be it.” Strongly the high priest's word! The Holy Book returned to where it was destined to remain forever.

Traditions, maintained over previous centuries and seemingly forgotten in the godless decades of the 20th century, began to be resumed under Abbot Boris (Petrukhin), appointed rector of the Luzhetsk monastery in 1994. This worthy shepherd gave a lot of both physical and mental strength to the monastery. From a “state-protected” architectural monument, as the monastery was perceived by the Mozhaisk residents, it again became a place of prayer. The revival of the monastic monastery entailed the revival of human souls, their cleansing from sin and vice. When on June 7, 2001, on the eve of the day of remembrance of St. Ferapont, crosses were installed over the new gilded domes of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the author of these lines happened to hear the statement of one far from young man on a regular bus: “Wow, what a beauty! I didn’t see and didn’t imagine that we have such beauty here nearby. I look and even want to put a cross on myself.”

“The House of the Most Pure Mother of God of Her Honorable and Glorious Nativity and the Venerable Ferapont in Luzhki in Mozhaisk,” whose rector has been Abbot Methodius (Sokolov) since October 2005, continues to transform, thanks to the feasible assistance that parishioners, pilgrims and benefactors provide it. But the works of human hands are powerless without the prayerful intercession of a host of holy saints of God, our saints and pious compatriots.

Prince Andrei Dmitrievich wanted to build a house for saving souls in his city and called upon the Monk Ferapont. “The will of the Lord be done,” said the holy elder and came to Mozhaisk. And the monastery was built. Then everything was as in the Gospel parable: “...and the rain fell, and the rivers overflowed, and the winds blew and rushed against that house, and it did not fall, because it was founded on rock” (Matthew 7:24-25). Prince Andrei, souls thirsting for salvation are again drawn to the house of God.

Account of the Mozhaisk Luzhetsky Ferapont Monastery:
account 4070381053000140325
Monastery INN 5028008200
Branch of MAKB "Vozrozhdenie" Mozhaisk
BIC 044611475
Cor. sch. 30101810800000000475
Bank INN 5000001042

The article for publication was kindly provided by the Historical and Educational Society in Memory of St. Ferapont. In the near future, the brochure “Mozhaisk Luzhetsky Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ferapontov Monastery” published by this society will be published. A complete selection of currently known materials about the Mozhaisk Luzhetsky Monastery and its founder, the Venerable Ferapont of Belozersk and Mozhaisk, will be published on the website of the Luzhetsky Monastery

For six centuries, from the high right bank of the Moscow River on the outskirts of Mozhaisk, from an area that since ancient times was called Meadows, monastic prayer has been ascending to the Lord. For six centuries the Luzhetsky monastery has stood here - one of the pearls of that spiritual necklace, which by the Providence of God was scattered throughout the Russian land by the disciples and disciples of the disciples of St. Sergius of Radonezh and to this day shines as centers of holiness, strongholds of faith and piety.

Who stood at the origins of the monastery? What have its walls seen? What is his day like today?

The foundation of a monastic monastery in the capital of the Mozhaisk appanage principality was laid in 1408 by the prayers and labors of the Monk Ferapont, the interlocutor of the Monk Sergius of Radonezh, and the care of the appanage Mozhaisk prince Andrei Dmitrievich. Hagiographies and chronicles describe in some detail the events of six centuries ago.

The Monk Ferapont was born around 1337 in Volok Lamsky from pious parents, the boyars Poskochins, and received the name Theodore at baptism. Trying to escape the vanity of this world, he came to the Moscow Simonov Monastery already in adulthood. The abbot of the monastery, Saint Theodore, nephew of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, future Archbishop of Rostov († 1394; memory - November 28 / December 11), blessed him to tonsure him with the name Ferapont without undergoing a preliminary test. This happened around 1385. The Monk Ferapont had to visit White Lake on monastic business. He fell in love with the Belozersky region very much. As the life of the saint narrates, “this area was very deserted and there were many forests, impenetrable swamps, many waters, lakes and rivers,” and all this contributed to the solitude and silence that his soul longed for. This desire of the monk Ferapont to live in the desert was not hidden from the Knower of the Lord’s Heart. Soon the monk left Simonov together with his friend, the Monk Kirill of Belozersky († 1427; memory - June 9/22). After long wanderings around the Belozersk borders, the ascetics found the place indicated in a miraculous vision to the Monk Cyril by the Most Holy Theotokos. Here they erected a cross and, having sung the praises of the Mother of God, dug a dugout for themselves to live in. This was in 1397, which is considered the year of foundation of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery in honor of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

A year later, the Monk Ferapont, having moved fifteen miles away from the Cyril Monastery, settled completely secluded in a beautiful place - among the Paskoye and Borodavskoye lakes, “between which the flight of an arrow or a little more.” But the humble hermit did not have to remain silent for long: the brethren gathered and in the wilds of the Belozersk forests another monastic monastery appeared, which the Monk Ferapont dedicated to the Nativity of the Mother of God. He spent ten years in fasting and prayer in the harsh northern region and was so successful in monastic work that the fame of the ascetic elder reached the ruler of the Belozersk land - Andrei Dmitrievich Mozhaisky.

The son of holy parents, the blessed Grand Duke Dimitri Donskoy († 1389; memory - May 19/June 1) and Grand Duchess Evdokia of Moscow, in monasticism - Euphrosyne († 1407; memory - May 17/30), Prince Andrei after the death of his father as a seven-year-old boy received Mozhaisk and Beloozero as an inheritance. Having strengthened over the years and settled in his capital city, the pious prince decided to build a special monastic monastery near Mozhaisk with his support. “And he was looking,” says the life of the Monk Ferapont, “where he could find a husband, perfect in mind, to carry out this business, and he did not find around him a person suitable for such an undertaking. And then the blessed Ferapont, who created a monastery on White Lake in his homeland, came to his mind, and he realized that there was no better person to start such a business.” No matter how much the monk wanted to end his days in the silence of Belozersk, nevertheless, due to the persuasion of the brethren, he had to submit to the wishes of the sovereign prince. With the words: “The will of the Lord be done!” - The seventy-year-old old man set off on his journey. With God's help he reached Mozhaisk. The meeting between the prince and the saint was touching. Twenty-six-year-old Andrei Dmitrievich saw the old man approaching from afar and came out to meet him with the words: “God will count all your steps and reward you for your labors.”

The prince lovingly begged the monk to create a monastery near his city for the salvation of the monks. The ascetic did not dare to entrust such a big task to his ramen and humbly asked to be released back to the Belozersk brethren. But the prince was adamant in his intention: “It is easier for me, father, to lose everything than to let go of your shrine. My desire is so great, for which I called you, for the sake of God’s love, stay here with us and undertake to fulfill the desire of my soul. With your prayers, with God’s help, I want to build a house for saving souls, so that for their salvation the Lord God would forgive me the sins of my soul and deliver me from eternal torment through your holy prayers.” The saint again obeyed with the words: “The will of the Lord be done,” and soon above the water meadows on the banks of the Moscow River he found a place “very suitable for building a monastery and beautiful in itself.”

The Monk Ferapont dedicated this monastery to the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. And the first twelfth holiday of the church new year was especially dear to Prince Andrei. It was on the celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8 (September 21, new style) 1380 that his father, the Grand Duke of Moscow Dimitri Ioannovich, defeated the hordes of Khan Mamai on the Kulikovo field, and his mother, Grand Duchess Evdokia, built in memory of that victory in Moscow Kremlin temple in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.

Prince Andrei Dmitrievich began the construction of a stone cathedral in honor of the Nativity of the Mother of God on the site blessed by the Monk Ferapont. He decorated the house of the Most Holy Theotokos with icons and provided everything necessary. The brethren soon gathered around Abba Ferapont, the founder of the new monastery. Prince Andrei obtained the rank of archimandrite for the saint and, as the life of the saint reports, “had constant care for him, and honored him well and put him to rest in his old age, and did not disobey him in anything.” The Monk Ferapont reigned in Mozhaisk for eighteen years. At the ninetieth year of his life, in 1426 from the Nativity of Christ, he departed to the Lord. Mourned by the prince and his family, the holy elder was buried with honors in the Luzhetsky Monastery, near the northern wall of the cathedral church. Six years later, on June 2 (June 15, new style) 1432, Prince Andrei Dmitrievich also died, bequeathing to his sons “to take care of the Belozersky monasteries and the Mozhaisk Luzhetsky.” The prince, as a member of the Moscow princely house, was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

Mozhaisk came into the possession of the Grand Dukes of Moscow already in the middle of the 15th century. The sacristy of the Luzhetsky Monastery once contained tarhan letters for estates and land granted to the monastery from the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Ioannovich, “Tsar and Autocrat” Ivan IV Vasilyevich and Emperor Mikhail Fedorovich, dated 1506, 1551 and 1623.

The name of the first known archimandrite of the monastery after St. Ferapont was mentioned in the monastic chronicle only in 1523. This is Macarius, a monk of the Borovsky Pafnutiev Monastery, the future Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus' († 1563; memory - December 30 / January 12). Although the period of his stay here was short - only three years, Saint Macarius never left his attention to the Ferapont monastery in Mozhaisk, making contributions to large stone construction. In the first half of the 16th century, the original stone Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, which had stood for a hundred years, was dismantled and a new, five-domed cathedral with a gallery was built in its place.

At the Church Councils of 1547–1549, convened through the labors of St. Macarius, many Russian saints of God, glorified by God with miraculous signs, were canonized. Among the saints revered by the entire Russian Church, the Monk Ferapont, the Wonderworker of Belozersky and Mozhaisk, was also glorified. In the Ferapontov Monastery on White Lake, through the labors of monks, the life and service of the saint were written, and in the Luzhetsky Monastery a temple was built over the saint’s grave.

Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a refectory. XVI century

In the census books of the city of Mozhaisk, compiled in 1596–1598 after the pestilence that devastated the surrounding area, for the first time a detailed description of the Luzhetsky Monastery is given. It had three stone churches: the cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the side-chapel of Macarius of Egypt, the Vvedensky with the side-chapel of Theodore Stratelates and St. John Climacus, in which “the tomb of the venerable elder Ferapont is lined with tin, gilded, on the upper panel is the image of Ferapont the Wonderworker.” The bell tower with a fighting clock, the abbot's cells and ten brethren's cells, the holy gates with holy icons on both sides were wooden. Church objects were kept in the cathedral church, the sacristy was rich in expensive vestments and silver vessels, and the library was rich in many handwritten and some printed books. “The treasury contains 478 rubles 28 kopecks and a lot of tin and copper utensils; outside the monastery there is a stable yard, and in the field of grain there are 280 hundredth kopecks of rye and 240 hundredth kopecks of oats, and in the settlement there are 27 yards in the open.”

Being quite strong and solid, the monastery met the 17th century, the beginning of which we call the Time of Troubles. Internal unrest and invasions of foreigners shook our Fatherland. For Mozhaisk, and therefore for its main monastery, it all began in 1605, when the crowds of the self-proclaimed Tsarevich False Dmitry, heading towards Moscow, and he himself with his Polish bride Marina Mnishek spent the first days of Bright Week in the city, thereby darkening the Easter joy of the townspeople. The monastic chronicle reports that “Mozhaisk and its surroundings were subjected to constant devastation from all sorts of rebel vagabonds and from the Poles; more than once they were all driven out of these places and took possession of them again, and in 1610 the city of Mozhaisk was bought from the Pole Vilchek by the Moscow boyars for one hundred rubles, but was soon again left in the power of the Poles until they were expelled from Moscow in 1612–1613 and from the limits of Moscow." Five years later, the artillery of the Polish prince Vladislav, stationed near Mozhaisk, practically destroyed both the city and the settlement. At the same time, the Luga Archimandrite Mitrofan died a martyr. The monastery was devastated, the population in the sub-monastery settlements was beaten, all the churches were destroyed to such an extent that even a decade after the Lithuanian devastation, Divine services could only be performed in the Nativity Cathedral. But even in this cathedral church, the frames stolen by the Poles from almost all the images of the iconostasis have not yet been restored. In the monastery sacristy, instead of silver liturgical utensils, only wooden ones remained, and instead of valuable vestments, only canvas vestments. Many handwritten books were also lost. Gradually the monastery began to rise from the ruins. Archimandrite Moses (Obukhov) put a lot of work into its restoration, who “did not spare his own means, and was happy that under his abbot there were many who were zealous for the holy Luzhetsky monastery.” The monastery Contribution Book under 1644 contained an entry about the contribution of Archimandrite Moses “for his parents to the eternal wake; on the frame that they covered the image of the Most Pure Mother of God Hodegetria, in the cathedral church on the left side, and the image of the venerable wonderworker Ferapont.” Archimandrite Moses and 29 other people from the brethren of the monastery died during the pestilence of 1655.

Bell tower End of the 17th century

Gradually, thanks to donations from various people, the Ferapontov Luzhetsky Monastery regained its splendor. The gatehouse Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord appeared in its architectural ensemble; it is mentioned for the first time in 1627. A stone two-story cell building was built. And finally, in 1692, the monastery was decorated with a four-tiered bell tower. Among the donors for its construction is the native of the Mozhaisk land, His Holiness Patriarch Joachim (Savelov; † 1690), who granted the Luzhetsky Monastery “one hundred rubles for the bell stone structure.” In the lower tier of the bell tower, in the so-called bell tent, several representatives of the ancient Savelov family were subsequently buried - benefactors of the monastery and relatives of the Patriarch, and among them, His Holiness’s brother Pavel Petrovich Savelov, tonsured a monk in the Luzhetsky Monastery with the name Peter († 1709) .

By royal order, in the first year of the 18th century, fifty pounds of bell copper were donated from the Luzhetsky Monastery for military needs. This century was also reflected in the monastic chronicle with a storm that tore the cross from one of the domes of the cathedral church, “fiery burns,” endless “corrections of dilapidations” and renovations of churches. In 1723, the Church of St. John the Climacus was consecrated in the name of the founder and leader of the monastery, St. Ferapont. An important event was the addition of the Luzhetsky Monastery to the second class of diocesan monasteries in 1764. In the list of second-class monasteries of the Moscow diocese, it was listed third after the Moscow Spaso-Andronikov and Vysoko-Petrovsky. The Luzhetsky abbot was allowed to wear a mantle with crimson tablets, serve with a legguard and a club, in a hat, on a carpet and have a staff with four silver-gilded apples. The number of brethren was supposed to be 17 people with the abbot, and for work on the monastery it was allowed to have 17 full-time ministers.

Gate Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord Beginning of the 17th century

Traveling to Kyiv in 1804, Metropolitan Platon of Moscow and Kolomna (Levshin; † 1812) stopped at the Luzhetsky Monastery and described it this way: “This monastery is all stone; There are four churches and cells in it and a stone fence, well built, and the splendor inside the churches is not shameful; stands on a high and beautiful place on the banks of the Moscow River, from where almost the entire city is visible.” The first decade of the 19th century passed in the usual monastic works. In December 1811, the iconostasis of St. Ferapont was “resumed with painting and arrangement.” But then the thunderstorm of the twelfth year struck.

Of course, it was impossible for the monastery, located near the Smolensk Highway, along which the multilingual army of Napoleon Bonaparte was moving towards Moscow, to be unaffected by wartime disasters. As the enemy approached Mozhaisk on August 18, the city and the Luzhetsky Monastery were declared in a state of siege. On August 20, two thousand rubles in silver and copper coins and banknotes were contributed from the Luzhetsky Monastery for the benefit of wounded Russian soldiers, for which, by order of the commander-in-chief Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov, the brethren were declared “complete gratitude.” At the same time, an “Open Letter” was issued for the free passage of the brethren in the Russian provinces.

On August 25, 1812, the day before the general battle of the Patriotic War near Borodino, the Luga monks with the treasures of the sacristy set off from Mozhaisk to Yaroslavl, where they stayed in the Tolga Monastery until the end of October. In their native monastery, meanwhile, the headquarters of the Westphalian corps of General Junot was located. There were up to four thousand enemy troops in the monastery. It is well known how the godless conqueror treated Orthodox shrines: many altars were desecrated and shrines were desecrated. The Luzhetsky Monastery was no exception. During the retreat, the French even wanted to blow it up, but the regular servant of the monastery, a peasant from the sub-monastery settlement Ivan Matveev, who ran immediately after the enemy left to the cathedral church and saw that there was a fire in the cathedral, the iconostasis was burning, and there was gunpowder in bags on the windows, all these I collected the bags and took them out.

The monastery of St. Ferapont did not disappear from the face of the earth this time either, but the brethren, returning from Yaroslavl on November 10, found it in a deplorable state. Only in the fence of the monastery were two hundred and twenty holes for cannons broken, and inside... Here we give the floor to the monastery treasurer, Hieromonk Joasaph († 1827), under whose control the Luzhetsky Monastery was in 1812: “... upon my arrival... I found: the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary burned, even all the tickling fell off the walls; in the altar, on a high place, on the right side there was a carved cross and remained intact, only smoked, and on the left side the image of the Virgin Mary of Vladimir burned; and the monastery is completely littered with dead cattle, which were shot by the French during their escape; warm church robbed - Presentation of the Most Holy Theotokos into the temple, in which the rye was threshed, the iconostasis and holy images are intact, only many iron nails are stuffed into the images, in the church of St. Ferapont there was carpentry, full of shavings, the tombstone image of St. Ferapont was demolished; The reliquary, the canopy, the iconostasis and the holy images were all intact, the throne and the altar were taken away, which was cleaned, the water was blessed and sprinkled, and the hours, Vespers and Matins began to be served, which made the people very happy.”

Within five years, the brethren of the monastery, led by Father Joasaph, managed to put the monastery devastated by the conquerors in order. Already on November 19, 1812, permission was received for the full consecration of the refectory of the Vvedenskaya Church. The cathedral church was reconsecrated at the end of June 1815. The Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord was restored in 1817. But the echo of the Patriotic War of 1812 reverberated for a long time within the walls of the Luzhetsky Monastery. In 1820, Treasurer Joasaph consecrated the Church of the Savior on Borodino Field, built by the widow of the Borodino hero Margarita Mikhailovna Tuchkova. Since 1827, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Philaret (Drozdov; † 1867, memory - November 19 / December 2) the Luga monks were obliged to perform daily Divine services there. Until 1873, when the Spaso-Borodinsky Monastery, by order of the diocesan authorities, established its own clergyman, the Luga brethren steadily fulfilled this obedience, praying for the soldiers who laid down their lives for the faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland.

In 1837, the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich, the future Emperor Alexander II, took part in this commemoration when he came to the Borodino field. On the way back from Borodino, His Highness deigned to visit the Luzhetsky Monastery, where, greeted by the brethren with the ringing of bells, he listened to the litany and many years in the cathedral church, and then, proceeding to the church of St. Ferapont, venerated the saint’s shrine.

Four outbreaks of cholera were witnessed in Mozhaisk in 1830–1870. Through prayers, including those of the Luga brethren, this terrible disease receded. In 1871, when the first cholera cases appeared, the miraculous icon of the Kolotsk Mother of God was raised and brought to the city and to the Luzhetsky Monastery from the Kolotsk Assumption Monastery (fifteen versts from Mozhaisk). The epidemic stopped and never returned.

In the same year, in the church of St. Ferapont, a chapel was consecrated in honor of a local shrine - an icon depicting the venerable head of John the Baptist on a platter, miraculously preserved after the destruction of the monastery by the French in 1812. The icon was deeply chopped with an ax, but the face of the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord remained untouched.

Also revered in the monastery as a miraculous wooden altar cross with a carved crucifix, it remained intact during a fire caused by the French in the altar of the cathedral church, in which the altar and altar, as well as the altar icon of the Mother of God, were burned. In 1858, this cross was covered with a silver frame and decorated with four bronze images: at the top - the Lord of Hosts, on the right side - the Mother of God, on the left - the Apostle John the Theologian and below - the Monk Ferapont. On the reverse side of the cross were attached two metal plaques describing the miracle of preserving the cross and indicating that this cross was built by Archimandrite Anthony of Luga († 1692) in 1681.

Alas, these shrines have not survived to this day. The numerous treasures of the monastery’s sacristy, as well as the events of the centuries-old monastic history and the people who participated in them, are known largely thanks to the Luga archimandrite Dionysius (Vinogradov; † 1898). From 1874 to 1893 he headed the Luga brethren. Enumerating the works of Archimandrite Dionysius would take a lot of time, so we will mention only a few. Having studied and systematized the monastery archives, he restored many Luga traditions. At the monastery of the Monk Ferapont, the ancient lives of its founder began to be collected and republished, the ancient icons of the saint were restored, and new ones were painted - wall, lectern, hagiographic. Icons of the saint - both lithographic, and on enamel, and on cypress boards - became available to ordinary pilgrims. A prayer, service and akathist to the Belozersk and Mozhaisk miracle workers were printed. Cases of the saint's miraculous intercession through prayers before his holy tomb began to be recorded. The twice-a-year celebration of the memory of St. Ferapont was resumed - not only on May 27, but also on December 27 (old style), according to the oldest records about that.

And the second founder of the monastery, Prince Andrei Dmitrievich of Mozhaisk, was given due veneration. Every year on June 2 (old style), on the anniversary of the prince’s death, his commemoration was established. The name of the blessed Prince Andrei, as the founder of the monastery, began to be remembered in litanies. On August 14 (old style), 1882, they commemorated the 500th anniversary of the birth of the prince who founded the Luzhetsk monastery. At the same time, an exact copy of the image of Mozhaisk Prince Andrei Dmitrievich, located above the place of his burial in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, appeared in the monastery, written on a zinc board - full-length, in princely purple, with a halo around his head.

Under Archimandrite Dionysius, an annual commemoration of all the previously deceased brethren was also established (January 15, old style), commemoration of the benefactors of the monastery on certain days and months, and daily reading of the eternal synodik. Temples were renovated, the territory of the monastery and the cemetery were put in order.

Landscaping work continued under Archimandrite Veniamin (Averkiev; † after 1919), who was appointed rector of the Luzhetsky Monastery in 1904. The 500th anniversary of the Ferapont Monastery was approaching. Archimandrite Veniamin paid the main attention to the monastery churches. The central dome and five crosses of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary were gilded, as well as the royal doors and vestments on the seven local icons of the iconostasis. The cathedral was decorated with wall paintings - biblical paintings and ornaments. In the church of St. Ferapont, a bronze shrine with a silver top plate was placed over his tomb; a lattice was made to the shrine. In the Church of the Presentation, the iconostasis was re-gilded and painted pale pink. The churches were replenished with new church utensils.

Anniversary celebrations of 1908 In the center is the Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomensky Vladimir (Epiphany)

The anniversary celebrations in 1908 at the Luzhetsky Monastery lasted three days. The main celebration took place on May 27 (old style). After two days of cloudy weather, the sky cleared, and the influx of pilgrims to the monastery increased. These were not only residents of Mozhaisk and surrounding villages, but also pilgrims from Moscow and other cities. The holiday turned out to be grand. Two early liturgies were served in the monastery: in the church of St. Ferapont at five o’clock in the morning and in Vvedenskaya at half past seven. After the first liturgy, a religious procession headed to the well of St. Ferapont in the village of Isavitsa. At the same time, from the city churches of Mozhaisk, after the early liturgies served in them, religious processions headed to St. Nicholas Cathedral. There, joining the citywide procession with the temple icons of the Trinity, Ascension, Joakimanskaya, Ilinskaya churches, it headed to the Luzhetsky Monastery. The carved image of “Nicholas of Mozhaisk”, known throughout Russia, led this highly solemn procession. The monastery greeted the religious procession with the good news for the late liturgy, which was performed by Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Vladimir (Epiphany; † 1918, memory - 25 January / February 7). The service was attended by Moscow Governor-General V.F. Dzhunkovsky, Chairman of the Mozhaisk District Zemstvo Council Count A.P. Uvarov, District Marshal of the Nobility A.K. Varzhenevsky, City Starosta A.A. Petrov and many other representatives of the city and zemstvo. A deputation from the 141st Mozhaisk Infantry Regiment arrived from Orel for the celebration. At the end of the Divine Liturgy, the clergy and everyone who arrived at the monastery walked around the monastery in a solemn religious procession, and then, according to the monastery tradition, the pilgrims received a treat - bread and kvass. Books with the life of St. Ferapont and the history of the Luzhetsky monastery founded by him were also distributed. On the solemn day of celebrating the 500th anniversary of the monastery, by order of the city authorities, there was no trade in Mozhaisk.

Only nine years have passed since the anniversary of the Ferapont Monastery. The October Revolution broke out, and a monstrous change took place in the minds of many Mozhaisk citizens. The monastery, which had withstood foreign invasions, famines and pestilences for five centuries, had to face the most terrible and prolonged test. It was not foreigners who took up arms against the ancient monastery, but people who had lived for years near its old walls and suddenly became zealous fighters against the “damned past.”

Since 1918, most of the territory and monastery premises were already occupied by Red Army soldiers (guard company). On January 3, 1919, an agreement was signed between a group of citizens of the city of Mozhaisk and surrounding villages, on the one hand, and the Mozhaisk Council of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies, on the other, on the transfer for free, perpetual use of the churches and liturgical property located in the Luzhetsky Monastery under certain conditions. Believers pledged to “not allow: political meetings hostile to Soviet power; the pronunciation of hostile sermons and speeches.” The believers were also required to “pay from their own funds all current expenses for the maintenance of the monastery, such as: repairs, heating, insurance, payment of debts, taxes, and local taxes.” Meanwhile, the monastics were gradually forced out of the monastery and communal apartments were set up in the fraternal cells for the families of Red Army soldiers. The “masters of the new life” did not like the proximity to the monastery. It was believed that the existence of the community was allowed only because “so as not to offend the dark, downtrodden religious feeling of the population.” Complaints about the community of believers and requests for its closure began to be sent to the Presidium of the Moscow City Council: “The religious community in the church of the former Luzhetsky Monastery, located within the walls of the guard company, performing their religious rites of service, sometimes accompanied by a procession of the cross and constant ringing of bells, causes extreme inconvenience and the further inadmissibility of such cohabitation in the same fence of hostile in life and the spirit of the times of the Red Army unit and a religious cult, which combination undoubtedly affects the cultural and educational education of the Red Army unit.”

In addition, starting in 1925, commissions began to visit the monastery in order to decide the fate of its property. A petition was filed with the Main Science Department for the transfer of exhibits from the sacristy of the Luzhetsky Monastery to the museum of the local region.

Meanwhile, 1926 was approaching and with it the 500th anniversary of the blessed death of the founder of the monastery. From the notes of Mozhaisk local historian Nikolai Ivanovich Vlasyev († 1938), who was subsequently repressed, we learn how the monastery prepared for this date. “At the monastery cathedral, on the day of the 500th anniversary of St. Ferapont, the roofs are painted with copper,” he wrote, “and in the church of Ferapont, the nuns of the Spaso-Borodinsky Monastery are cleaning the images and utensils on the same day, June 9, 1926.” At the same time, “the monuments of the 16th and 17th centuries of the cemetery, white stone, were partially broken into pieces by the Ukomkhoz on May 25, 1926 for the city’s pavement, together with the tombstone of the Savelovskaya tomb under the bell tower and stacked,” stated N.I. Vlasyev. The treasures of the sacristy were taken to the regional museum of local lore, and cemetery tombstones were used to pave the streets.

The year of the final closure of the monastery, or the year of the cessation of services in the monastery, should perhaps be considered 1929. According to the protocol of the Moscow Regional Executive Committee and the Moscow Council of Workers', Peasants' and Red Army Deputies dated November 11, 1929, “due to the acute need of the military unit for premises for a canteen and club,” it was decided “to close the church of the former Luzhetsky Monastery and transfer its building to the establishment of a canteen and club for the military unit.” The monks remained in the monastery as long as possible, and after expulsion they settled in nearby villages.

What happened in Mozhaisk on June 9, 1931, on the day of remembrance of St. Ferapont, cannot be called anything other than the apotheosis of the persecution of monastics. On this day, the investigation was completed and an indictment was drawn up in the case of the former abbot of the Luzhetsky Monastery, Archimandrite Guriy (Mishanov), who was accused of leading an “anti-Soviet group of nuns” in the city of Mozhaisk “and directing anti-Soviet activities... expressed in systematic anti-Soviet agitation and disruption political and social events of Soviet power in the village." Together with Archimandrite Gury, 24 nuns of the Spaso-Borodinsky and Vereisky Sergiev-Dubrovsky monasteries, as well as the priest of the village of Pushkino, Priest Nikolai Strakhov, were convicted under Article 58-10 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. The convicts were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, some to deportation to Kazakhstan. The further fate of the clergy and most of the nuns is unknown.

Archimandrite Gury took monastic vows at the Ferapont Monastery in 1912, was a choirboy, then a sacristan, and from 1928 - the abbot of the monastery. He is known as the author of the last life of St. Ferapont published before the revolution. The line of archimandrites of the Luzhetsky monastery, coming from its founder, the Monk Ferapont, was interrupted there.

In the early 30s of the 20th century, the monastery housed a school for a closed children's institution of the NKVD, or simply a colony for street children. In 1935, the Mozhaisk district executive committee decided to transfer the “completely empty former Luzhetsky monastery for a pioneer camp and kindergarten” to plant No. 1 named after. "Aviakhima". However, the Presidium of the Moscow Regional Council left the monastery “behind the NKVD authorities.” It all ended with the fact that in the churches of the monastery, including in the church of St. Ferapont, a fittings factory was located; On the site of the necropolis there were warehouses and factory garages with inspection pits.

Luzhetsky Monastery Photo. Mid-20th century

Over time, the building of the church of St. Ferapont, where his holy relics lay hidden, turned out to be so disfigured that the Rosproektrestavratsiya institute, which paid attention to the Luzhetsky Monastery in the 60s, considered it impossible to restore the temple in its previous form, and therefore it was decided to dismantle its dilapidated walls. The Nativity Cathedral, the Vvedenskaya and Transfiguration churches, the bell tower, the fence with towers were put in order by the restorers at the cost of considerable effort. But without the revival of prayer life in the monastery, the process of destruction of churches only stopped for some time. The territory of the monastery was overgrown with weeds, the foundation of the Ferapontov Church, and with it the burial place of the monk, were under a layer of construction debris mixed with earth, and under the same weeds.

But now the time has come for the revival of the ancient monastery. Luzhetsky Monastery was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1994. On October 23, 1994, in the premises of the refectory Church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary into the temple, the first hierarchal service was held, led by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna. It is significant that on that Sunday the Gospel was read about the resurrection of the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-16). Then it seemed that the monastery was awakening to a new life in the bosom of the mother Church, like a young man resurrected by the Lord and given to his mother. But when, after five centuries of being kept hidden, the relics of the founder of the monastery, the Monk Ferapont, were found, the gospel story about the young man awakening from the sleep of death took on a different meaning.

After the return of the monastery, a cross was established at the supposed burial site of the Monk Ferapont, and pink and white clover, not sown by anyone, bloomed around it. It also seemed like a miracle that the thickets of burdock, which filled the entire territory of the monastery, could not drown out this fragrant carpet. In 1997, during the opening of the foundation of the Ferapontov Church, they discovered the place where the tomb had previously been located over the grave of the saint. On May 26, 1999, with the blessing of Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, the relics of St. Ferapont were found.

Before the start of work at the foundation of the destroyed church, Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk, co-served by the council of clergy, served a prayer service, at which all those present asked the Lord for help in the work underway and for the blessing to not touch the honest relics of His saint with sinful and unworthy hands.

The excavation of the soil began on the right at the foundation of the salt in the south-eastern corner of the destroyed temple. They began to dismantle the base on which the shrine had once been placed above the saint’s tomb. The first three rows of bricks, held together with cement mortar, date back to the Soviet period. This was a platform for a machine installed on the site of the tomb, because the church of St. Ferapont was turned into a workshop after the closure of the monastery. Next came brickwork with lime mortar, which used bricks from the 18th century that were already in use. Some of them preserved fragments of frescoes, some had a figured shape, which was explained by the numerous reconstructions of the temple. After the fifth row of this masonry was removed, the commission began to doubt whether work was being carried out in that place? Rows of bricks followed one after another. The eleventh row was exposed. A pit (small excavation) made along the edge of the masonry revealed four more rows of bricks in depth. The situation required expanding the entire excavation, and after a short time, to the left of the supposed burial site and almost opposite the royal gates, at a depth of about one meter, the contours of a grave pit filled with gray-brown clay were revealed. A little deeper, the contours of a wooden dugout log of an anthropomorphic shape were discovered, characteristic of the funeral rites of medieval Rus' in the 15th–16th centuries. This happened around six o'clock in the evening. The slight error in determining the burial place was now explained simply. The location of the shrine in the temple was in accordance with tradition, but we must remember that the temple was erected over the grave of the monk and the foundation could not have been laid by the builders close to the burial.

Let us turn to the conclusion of the Commission’s Act on the Discovery: “Based on historical sources and monastic tradition, indicating the location of the saint’s grave on the right at the solea in the temple of St. Ferapont, as well as archaeological information, the discovered remains should undoubtedly be recognized as the holy relics of the founder of the Luzhetsky monastery - St. Ferapont of Mozhaisk.” .

For obvious reasons, the official document could not include a description of the phenomena and events that accompanied the acquisition, which are difficult for the Christian soul to explain by coincidence. Throughout the work, the canon with the akathist to St. Ferapont and the Psalter were continuously read. The discovery of the burial place occurred on the sixth song of the canon when the words were read: “The Lord your God has removed corruption from your body, and to Him you sang with a voice of praise and confession.” Along with this, it is necessary to mention the unusually large drops of rain that irrigated the work site, when the entire deck was exposed, and the light fragrance that spread at the same time. People decided to dig further without a break, but the wind, which raised clouds of lime dust, and the rain that hit the monastery, forced everyone to leave for the Nativity Cathedral. The clergy again sang an akathist to the saint. With the end of the akathist, the rain also stopped... Work at the excavation site continued, and very soon the holy relics were discovered. They were raised by Bishop Gregory of Mozhaisk and transferred to the cathedral church.

At that time, services were performed in the only consecrated monastery church - the gateway Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord. It was here that the holy relics of St. Ferapont rested after their discovery. “Rejoice, faithful guardian of the monastery, in which your body rests; Rejoice, having delivered this monastery from destruction,” is sung in the akathist to St. Ferapont. The Luzhetsky monastery, saved by the prayers of the Monk Ferapont from many troubles and misfortunes, from complete destruction, having received the visible blessing of its founder in the discovery of his holy relics, began to be reborn. Both means and benefactors were found. The monastery gradually began to rise from its dilapidated state. In the shortest possible time, the territory of the monastery was cleared of debris and landscaped.

On June 9, 1999, a solemn celebration of the memory of St. Ferapont and the discovery of his holy relics took place. The service was held in the open air, led by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna. That day the monastery was full of worshipers, despite the thirty-degree heat, which melted the candles, so that it was impossible to put them on the candlestick. The holiday was remembered with joy akin to Easter. And it became even more joyful from the fact that the Monk Ferapont was now in his monastery and visibly, with his holy relics.

“Thank God that another shrine has been found. The people of God will flock to the relics of St. Ferapont, the founder of the Mozhaisk Luzhetsky Monastery, now resting in the monastery, asking for prayerful intercession and strengthening on their life’s path from the ascetic of the Russian land,” wrote His Holiness Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Rus' on the Act of Finding the Relics presented to him II. On July 6, 1999, His Holiness was one of the first to make a pilgrimage to the newfound shrine.

The celebrations on the occasion of the discovery of the holy relics ended, and painstaking work began on the restoration of the cathedral church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We had to restore the roof again, cover the domes, and install crosses. The reconstruction of the cathedral gallery began with the construction of the front porch. The cathedral was once painted by masters of the school of Dionysius, but only fragments of the painting were preserved and restored, allowing us to say that one of the themes of the ancient wall painting of the cathedral was scenes from the Apocalypse. Modern masters of icon painting have completed work on a four-tiered iconostasis. Graduates of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts painted the icon “St. Ferapont in the Life” with sixteen hallmarks, on four of which we see the saint’s contemporaries and prayer companions: St. Theodore, Archbishop of Rostov, St. Sergius of Radonezh, Cyril and Martinian of Belozersky. The uniqueness of the icon lies in the fact that one of its hagiographical marks depicts for the first time an event in modern church history - the discovery of the holy relics of St. Ferapont. The temple icon of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, like the entire iconostasis, was painted anew and also has its own peculiarity - stamps with lists of the most revered icons of the Mother of God.

On the occasion of the 190th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812, an icon appeared in the local row of the iconostasis that had never existed before in Mozhaisk - “Mozhaisk Saints”. It depicts standing “in the air” above the holy churches of the Mozhaisk land: the patron saint of the city, Saint Nicholas of Myra, with a sword and hail in his hands; Saints Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, and New Martyr Demetrius, Archbishop of Mozhaisk; New Martyr Archpriest Constantine; noble princes Theodore of Smolensk and Dimitry Donskoy, who once began to reign in the Mozhaisk inheritance; Reverends Ferapont of Mozhaisk and Rachel of Borodino. Above the saints are depicted two angels carrying the Kolotsk Icon of the Mother of God, revealed in 1413 near Mozhaisk.

Here, in the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in a carved wooden shrine now rests the relics of the founder of the monastery, St. Ferapont of Belozersky and the Wonderworker of Mozhaisk. The restoration of the church named after him is a matter of the future.

Currently, the next step is the restoration of the bell tower. None of the old monastery bells have survived, but new bells have been cast at the expense of benefactors, including half-ton and one-ton bells. In the lower tier of the bell tower there is a chapel for commemorating the dead. A crucifix made of white Italian marble was presented to her by the People's Artist of Russia, sculptor Vladimir Vladimirovich Glebov-Vadbolsky, in memory of his ancestor, Prince Fyodor Fedorovich Vadbolsky, a monk of Feodosia, who was the abbot of the Luzhetsky Monastery from 1702 to 1704. But, as it turned out, the donor’s older ancestor is also related to monastic history. The princely family of the Vadbolskys descends from the princes of Belozersky, who in the 14th century began to submit to the Moscow prince. It is interesting that Prince Yuri Vasilyevich Belozersky-Sugorsky was the very governor of Mozhaisk Prince Andrei Dmitrievich, who persuaded the Monk Ferapont to leave Beloozero and come to Mozhaisk.

To this day, the Mozhaisk land is connected by an invisible thread with Belozerye, so dear to the heart of the Monk Ferapont. In the Luzhetsky Monastery, on the site of a necropolis devastated by atheists, a memorial wooden cross was erected with the inscription: “To the blessed memory of the holy monks, all the brethren, builders and beautifiers.” It was carved many miles from Mozhaisk - miles that were covered by the Monk Ferapont six centuries ago. They cut the cross on White Lake, in the monastery of his friend and fasting companion, St. Cyril.

The good news is that the Luzhetsky Monastery can be proud of not only new shrines - some of its ancient relics are miraculously returning here. In 1686, Patriarch Joachim made a rich contribution to the monastery sacristy - an altar Gospel, overlaid with gilded silver. “This Gospel has a gilded silver front panel, of good chased workmanship, weighing up to 4 pounds, and the spine and back panel are also chased, gilded, but copper; it is in a large sheet, printed in 1681,” is how the monastery chronicler Archimandrite Dionysius described this holy Gospel at the end of the 19th century. After the revolutionary upheavals of the 20th century, the richest sacristy of the monastery ceased to exist. There is evidence of how, in godless years, precious frames were torn off from liturgical books of the 16th–18th centuries. Could the shrine have been preserved in those monstrous conditions? It turns out she could. The Holy Gospel lay unclaimed and unrecognized for many years in one of the two unclosed churches in Mozhaisk - the Church of Elijah the Prophet. Then, at the end of the 20th century, it was bound and transferred to the Luzhetsky Monastery. On January 12 (December 30, old style), 2000, on the day of remembrance of St. Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, the patriarchal gift was placed on the throne of the Transfiguration Church for the first time. During the Divine Liturgy, while reading the indicated conception, the abbot of the monastery drew attention to the word written in old ink at the bottom of the page. It turned out to be the beginning of a loose-leaf entry. The entire entry on forty pages read: “This / book / the great / Cyrus / Joachim / Patriarch / of Moscow / and all / Russia / and northern / countries / gave / to the monastery / of the Most Holy / Mother of God / in the temple / of her honorable / Nativity / in Luzhetskaya / monastery / like / is / in the city / Mozhaisk / in eternal / remembrance / of their parents / from the universe / 7104 / summer / month / March / and from that / monastery this book / may not be stolen / in any way / in eyelids. / Amen amen. / Be it, be it.” Strongly the high priest's word! The Holy Book returned to where it was destined to remain forever.

In the village of Isavitsy, near the monastery, “a source of clear, icy water, remarkable in its abundance and healing power,” was covered with earth and littered with garbage. This well, once dug, according to the monastic chronicle, by the hands of the Monk Ferapont, was found and put in order.

Historical science claims that the first wells appeared in Rus' at the turn of the 14th–15th centuries. Previously, people used river or spring water. Taking this into account, it can be argued that the well is, if not the first, then one of the first on Mozhaisk land. For a long time, as the monastery chronicle testifies, “the sick, overcome by all sorts of ailments, came here and drank this water, firmly believing that, through the prayers of the saint of God, some miraculous power was hidden in it, healing all sorts of ailments.” As in former times, pilgrims go to the saint’s well.

Traditions, maintained over previous centuries and seemingly forgotten in the godless decades of the 20th century, began to be resumed under Abbot Boris (Petrukhin), appointed rector of the Luzhetsk monastery in 1994. This worthy shepherd gave a lot of both physical and mental strength to the monastery. From a “state-protected” architectural monument, as the monastery was perceived by the Mozhaisk residents, it again became a place of prayer. The revival of the monastic monastery entailed the revival of human souls, their cleansing from sin and vice. When on June 7, 2001, on the eve of the day of remembrance of St. Ferapont, crosses were installed over the new gilded domes of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the author of these lines happened to hear the statement of one far from young man on a regular bus: “Wow, what a beauty! I didn’t see and didn’t imagine that we have such beauty here nearby. I look and even want to put a cross on myself.”

Hegumen Methodius (Sokolov), abbot of the monastery. Christmas service. January 7, 2008

“The House of the Most Pure Mother of God of Her Honorable and Glorious Nativity and the Venerable Ferapont in Luzhki in Mozhaisk” continues to be transformed, thanks to the feasible assistance that parishioners, pilgrims and benefactors provide it. But the works of human hands are powerless without the prayerful intercession of a host of holy saints of God, our saints and pious compatriots.

Prince Andrei Dmitrievich wanted to build a house for saving souls in his city and called upon the Monk Ferapont. “The will of the Lord be done,” said the holy elder and came to Mozhaisk. And the monastery was built. Then everything was as in the Gospel parable: “...and the rain fell, and the rivers overflowed, and the winds blew and rushed against that house, and it did not fall, because it was founded on rock” (Matthew 7:24-25). Prince Andrei, souls thirsting for salvation are again drawn to the house of God. Father Feraponte, your monastery stands strong. The will of the Lord is being done.

Elena Semenishcheva

Luzhnetsky Monastery was founded in 1408 by the Monk Ferapont of Belozersky.
At that time, Mozhaisk (as well as Vereya, Kaluga, Medyn and the land near White Lake) was the inheritance of Prince Andrei Dmitrievich Mozhaisky, son Prince Dmitry Donskoy. Prince Andrei had long dreamed of creating a monastery on his lands. And after reflection, his choice fell on Venerable Ferapont.
After much persuasion, Ferapont agreed. So the 70-year-old elder became the founder of the monastery. And here the Monk Ferapont died and was buried.

Luzhetsk monastery was actively developing. Vasily the Dark (about 1454), Vasily III (1506), Ivan the Terrible (1551), Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov (1623) granted the monastery a tarkhan charter - a charter that exempted from taxes.
During the plague epidemic in the 16th century, the monastery, like the whole of Mozhaisk, was greatly deserted.
During the Time of Troubles, the monastery was ravaged by the Poles, but it was literally reborn from the ashes.

In 1812 the day before Battle of Borodino The brethren, by order of the Russian command, left their native monastery, moving to the Tolgsky monastery near Yaroslavl.
When the monks returned two months later, the monastery was in complete ruin. It took five years to restore the monastery.

In 1922 the monastery was closed. A Red Army guard company with their families, a colony for juvenile delinquents, and a furniture factory were located here.
In 1994, the monastery was returned to the Church.
Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary was the first cathedral of the monastery.

Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin.

After standing for a hundred years, the cathedral burned down. The present cathedral dates back to the 16th century.
Bell tower of the monastery (now in the woods) was built in the 17th century. The bell tower is 35 meters high.

Under the bell tower there is tomb of the Savelovs– relatives of His Holiness Patriarch Joachim, who donated 100 rubles for the construction of the bell tower.

Gateway Church of the Transfiguration.

The only church Luzhnetsky Monastery, which has not survived to this day - Church of St. Ferapont. It was built on the burial site of St. Ferapont. In 1928 the temple was dismantled.

Necropolis of the monastery.

Necropolis. Luzhetsky Monastery.

Mozhaisk Luzhetsky Bogoroditsky Ferapontov Monastery was founded in 1408. Rev. Ferapont Belozersky at the request of the appanage prince Andrei Dmitrievich Mozhaisky (the youngest son of Dmitry Donskoy) on the high right bank of the Moscow River. The first church of the monastery was the wooden Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. The founder of the monastery, Ferapont, in the world bore the name of Fyodor Poskochin and the title of nobility, and was from Volokolamsk. In the 1370s, when he was already 40 years old, he took monastic vows in Moscow, at the Simonov Monastery. Together with their friend, Kirill, they founded the Belozersky Monastery, but in 1398. Ferapont, with the blessing of his friend, left there and began to live as a hermit. Ten years later, in the area of ​​​​Luzhki near Mozhaisk, he founded a new monastery, where he spent another 18 years as abbot. Ferapont Belozersky died at the age of 90 and was buried in the monastery. In 1514 his relics were found, and his canonization took place in 1547; At the end of the 16th century, the Church of St. John the Climacus, which has not survived to this day, was erected close to the main cathedral above his tomb.

From the first half of the 16th century, the monastery began to be built up with stone buildings. This was greatly facilitated by the rich contribution of the Novgorod Archbishop Macarius (the future Metropolitan of Moscow), who was an archimandrite in the Luzhetsky Monastery. By 1542 The construction of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary was completed, and by 1547. a refectory was built with the Vvedenskaya Church, originally a tent-roofed church, then heavily rebuilt. The cathedral featured a chapel to Macarius of Egypt, the patron of Archbishop Macarius, which further confirms the latter’s contribution to the monastery.

Luzhetsky Monastery. Bell towerAt the end of the 16th century, two more stone buildings were built in the monastery - the Church of St. John the Climacus over the tomb of Ferapont and the gate Church of the Transfiguration, rebuilt after the fire of 1732. By the end of the 17th century, the ensemble of the monastery was almost completely formed: in 1673-1692. A three-tiered tented bell tower was built in 1680-1684. – a brick fence with four round towers, in 1681-1692. - Fraternal Corps. In 1648 An important “attraction” appeared in the monastery - a polyeleos bell weighing 85 pounds. In a small room under the bell tower there was a tomb for the Savelovs.

Luzhetsky Monastery. Fence and back gateThe construction did not end there. In 1732 the monastery was badly damaged by fire, and most of the buildings had to be rebuilt. Thus, the appearance of the refectory with the temple and the gate church changed; the fence was completed, and in 1761-1763. They made another tower in it, quadrangular, and a utility gate. At the same time, the abbot's chambers were erected on the site of the older building.

Luzhetsky Monastery. Tower During the War of 1812, the monastery was occupied by the French, who caused a lot of damage to it: a stable was built in the refectory, and a carpentry workshop was built in the Church of St. Ferapont. Before leaving, they set fire to the ancient iconostasis of the cathedral and scattered bags of gunpowder throughout the monastery. Servant Ivan Matveev, risking his life, managed to pull the dangerous bags away from the fire and save the monastery from the explosion. Soon after the end of the war, the monastery was restored in 1814. a new Treasury building was built.

Luzhetsky Monastery. RefectoryIn Soviet times, in 1926. the monastic community was abolished, and in 1928 destroyed the ancient Ferapontov temple (Temple of John Climacus). Before the war, a hardware factory and a workshop for the production of medical equipment were located within the walls of the monastery. The fraternal buildings were rebuilt into communal apartments for local residents, and warehouses and garages were installed at the cemetery.

Luzhetsky Monastery. Fence During the Great Patriotic War, the monastery was captured by the Nazis, who set up a camp for prisoners of war here. After the Germans were repulsed from Moscow, the monastery was occupied by the NKVD, also as a camp. Only in 1961 restoration of the devastated architectural and historical monument began. The walls and towers were topped with plank roofs, later additions to the cathedral were dismantled, and ancient frescoes were revealed.

Luzhetsky Monastery. Gate ChurchIn 1993 The monastery community was revived, the courtyard of the monastery was put in order. In 1999 The relics of St. Ferapont were rediscovered, transferred first to the gateway Church of the Transfiguration, and then to the cathedral, and placed in a new carved oak shrine. The work on restoring the main buildings of the monastery has almost completely been completed; the golden helmet-shaped domes of the main cathedral, rising on the high bank of the Moscow River, are again visible from afar. The monastery, far from the road, seems quiet again, having experienced many turbulent events in its lifetime. Not far from the monastery, a chapel over the well was built over the spring of St. Ferapont, and all those who come to see these beautiful places, rich in history, certainly descend to this spring.
Source: http://hramy.ru/regions/r50/mojaisky/mojaisk/luzhecky/luzhmon.htm

Bell tower.

Necropolis.

Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Cell building (XVII-XIX centuries)

Church of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a refectory and the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a refectory.

Monastery walls and towers.

More photos.

Mozhaisk Luzhetsky Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ferapontov Monastery- an ancient Orthodox monastery founded on the outskirts of Mozhaisk at the beginning of the 15th century by Saint Ferapont of Mozhaisk. Having traveled a path of six centuries and survived times of prosperity and oblivion, the monastery today is an active monastery of the Mozhaisk regional diocese, and its architectural ensemble is included in the list of cultural heritage sites of the Russian Federation.

About the past...

Ferapont was the abbot of the new monastery for more than ten years, until in 1408 he was invited to his place by the Mogaisk prince Andrei Dmitrievich (son of the prince), who received the inheritance after the death of his father.

Prince Andrei, who decorated the capital of his principality in every possible way, decided to found an Orthodox monastery in it, and therefore invited the abbot of the Ferapontov Belozersky Monastery to help him in this godly task. Saint Ferapont reluctantly had to accept the prince’s invitation, and in 1408, on a picturesque hill above the Moscow River, a new monastery, dedicated, like the first, to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, began to exist.

For Prince Andrei Mozhaisky, the dedication of the monastery to the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was deeply symbolic, because it was on this day, in 1380, that his father, Prince Dmitry Donskoy, defeated the hordes of Mamai, and his mother, Princess Evdokia Dmitrievna, in memory of this battle in In 1393-1394 she built the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on Senya.

In the same 1408, the new Mozhaisk monastery was decorated with the first stone Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, around which wooden monastic cells and outbuildings appeared. Prince Andrei donated a lot for the improvement of the cathedral church, and obtained the rank of archimandrite for the abbot of the monastery. For eighteen years Saint Ferapont reigned in the monastery and after his repose in 1426 he was solemnly buried at the northern wall of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin.

From the very first years of its existence, wealthy residents of Mozhaisk made rich contributions to the monastery, so the monastery quickly expanded and was decorated. Thus, during the years of the abbot of Archimandrite Macarius, the future Metropolitan of Moscow, in 1523-1526, the architectural ensemble of the monastery was replenished with the Church of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the chapel of Theodore Stratelates and the refectory chamber, as well as a new stone five-domed Nativity Cathedral with the chapel of Macarius of Egypt, built in place of the dilapidated the first cathedral of Andrei Mozhaisky. And it was under Saint Macarius, who became Metropolitan of Moscow in 1542, that the founder of the monastery, Ferapont of Mozhaisk, was canonized as a saint, and after a while, a small church of St. John the Climacus was built over his burial place.

The importance of the Luzhetsky monastery for the Moscow princes, and later the kings, is evidenced by the fact that systematically, during the 16th-17th centuries, they ( , ) granted the monastery so-called tarkhan letters - special letters of grant that freed the monastery from duties and jurisdiction of ordinary courts, except princely

By the end of the 16th century, the Ferapontov Monastery was quite large and well-maintained. Its ensemble, surrounded by a wooden fence with two passage gates, consisted of three churches decorated with icons and rich in church utensils, wooden abbots' and monastic cells and a bell tower with a fighting clock, and the monastery sacristy contained silver liturgical utensils, priests' vestments embroidered with gold and ancient handwritten and printed books. The monastery also owned arable land and 27 peasant households.

The heyday of the monastery gave way to a period of its almost complete ruin. At the beginning of the 17th century, which was included in Russian history textbooks as the Time of Troubles, Mozhaisk found itself in the very center of tragic events. During the years 1605-1618, the monastery was repeatedly ruined by the Poles, as a result of which the churches and their interiors were severely damaged, and valuable items disappeared from the sacristy.

The revival of the Luzhetsky monastery began in 1627 and thanks to rich royal and princely donations, by the end of the 17th century it was completely landscaped.

In 1627, a temple in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord and a two-story stone building of cells appeared above the Holy Gate of the monastery, in 1681-1684 (according to other sources, in 1629) - a stone fence with six turrets, and in 1692 - a four-tiered bell tower with a hipped top. , one of the donors for the construction of which was the Patriarch of Moscow. It is worth noting that soon after the construction of the bell tower, a necropolis of members of the Patriarch’s family was built in its lower tier, one of the burial places of which was the tomb of the Patriarch’s brother, tonsure of the Lusatian monastery Peter (in the world - Pavel Petrovich Savelov).

In the 18th century, the improvement of the Ferapont monastery continued. Despite the fact that at the very beginning of the century, by decree, a number of bells (with a total weight of more than 800 kilograms) were taken from the monastery for casting cannons, its buildings and structures were gradually repaired. In 1723, the ancient church of St. John the Climacus was put in order after the big fire that happened in 1717 and reconsecrated in the name of St. Ferapont of Mozhaisk; in 1753 it was dismantled and rebuilt in 1755.

In 1764, according to the new table of classification of diocesan monasteries, the Luzhetsky monastery was assigned class II with the right to have 34 people on its staff (17 monks with a superior and 17 ministers). It is worth noting that this class of the monastery was quite high among other monasteries of the Moscow diocese - the Luzhetsky Ferapontov Monastery was third on the diocesan list (after the Moscow Spaso-Andronikov and Vysoko-Petrovsky monasteries).

The second almost complete destruction of the Luzhetsky Monastery occurred at the beginning of the 19th century, during the Patriotic War of 1812. Before the enemy approached, the entire brethren and the abbot were transferred away from the theater of military operations - to the Yaroslavl Tolgsky Monastery, and they were able to return to their native walls only after more than two months, having found a depressing picture. The French who ruled the monastery plundered the temples and desecrated the shrines, and during their retreat they even intended to burn all the buildings. Only thanks to the full-time servant of the monastery - peasant Ivan Matveev - who noticed in time the fire in the cathedral church and the bags of gunpowder laid out everywhere and carried them out, catastrophic destruction was avoided.

The monks who returned in November 1812 set about restoring the monastery, putting it in order in just five years, and the future emperor, who visited the monastery in 1837, found it already in a comfortable state.

In 1871, a chapel was consecrated in the Ferapontovsky Church in honor of the locally revered image of John the Baptist, which represented the head of John the Baptist written on a board on a platter and miraculously survived the Napoleonic devastation.

Throughout the 19th century, the Luzhetsk monastery was landscaped and beautified, and for its 500th anniversary, widely celebrated in 1908, the central dome of the cathedral and its crosses were gilded, as well as the walls and vaults of the cathedral were painted, temple iconostases were renewed, and a new one was built over the tomb of St. Ferapont. bronze shrine with a lattice and a silver-plated top board.

Unfortunately, the celebrations on the occasion of the monastery’s anniversary turned out to be the last bright and joyful event in its 500-year history. The workers' and peasants' revolution that broke out in 1917 and the fundamental changes that followed it in all areas of life did not bypass the monastery of Ferapont Mozhaisky.

In 1918, the new authorities moved soldiers of a guard company into the cell building of the still functioning monastery, and in 1922 the monastery was officially closed. But for another ten years, services were held in its churches, which greatly unnerved the new residents. The gradual displacement of monastics continued until 1929, when the monastery churches were officially closed, all valuables from them and the monastery sacristy were taken away, the necropolis with white stone tombstones was destroyed (the city authorities paved the city streets with the tombstones broken into pieces).

In the 1930s, in the vacated buildings of the monastery, in addition to the communal apartments of the military, a colony for juvenile delinquents was located, later - workshops of a fittings factory and a medical equipment plant, the churches were adapted into a club and a canteen of a military unit, and on the site of the monastery necropolis there were garages and warehouses.

In the 1960s, the architectural ensemble of the Luzhetsky Monastery was given the status of an architectural monument, so its buildings and churches were repaired, only the Church of St. Ferapont could not be saved. The destruction of the temple was so great that it was simply dismantled and the resting place of the founder of the monastery was hidden under a thick layer of construction debris, and after a while it was completely overgrown with grass.

... and the present monastery

The sorrowful period in the history of the Luzhetsk monastery ended in 1994, when it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church and in October of the same year, the first divine service was celebrated in the refectory of the Church of the Presentation by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna.

In May 1999, a significant event took place in the monastery - the relics of St. Ferapont of Mozhaisk were found and are currently in the cathedral Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God.

Now all the churches of the monastery have been restored and services are held there on weekdays, Sundays and holidays and church services are performed. The clergy of the monastery consists of the abbot - Abbot Abel (in the world - Leonid Pavlovich Pivovarov) and four hieromonks.

There is a pilgrimage service at the monastery, where you can book an excursion, there is a reading room, and in the village there is the Church of the Intercession, which is the courtyard of the Luzhetsk monastery.

Information for visitors

• Luzhetsky Monastery is located at the address: , Mozhaisk city, Gerasimova street, house No. 1.
• You can get to the monastery by rail from the Belorussky railway station to the Mozhaisk station or by intercity bus from the Tushinskaya bus station (Tushinskaya metro station), then by city bus to the Moskva River stop.