Serafimo Znamensky Skete official. From a nun's notebook. The Ascetic Life of Shegeumena Tamar

100 years ago, the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete was opened in the Moscow region. Its founder, was in spiritual friendship with the great saints of the early 20th century - the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, the venerable martyr Elisaveta Feodorovna, the elder Alexy Zossimovsky ... Thanks to these spiritual ties, the new monastery immediately received high praise from contemporaries.

In 1924 the monastery was devastated. And in the first year of 2001, monastic life resumed at the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete.

Serafimo-Znamensky Skete

Chronicle of the Renaissance

The current fleeting time does not imply unhurried writing in the cherished notebook: “Today it was such and such…” There is no time, no time. What will be left of this time? Indeed, it is precisely due to the fact that a hundred, two hundred, five hundred years ago someone sat and patiently drew ornate letters on the sheets, fixing the events, we know about them today.

But, thank God, there are people in our time who have almost lost qualities: patience, accuracy, accuracy and frugality to what years later will be history.

She has everything packaged. She passes them on to me. He also gives away a notebook, written in a neat, unhurried handwriting. And only punishes not to talk about it. Well, okay, I won't. I'll just read along with you.

On January 15, 1999, on the day of memory, there was the first service in the temple of the Seraphim-Znamensky Skete. The Divine Liturgy was performed by the Dean of the Domodedovo District, Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev, concelebrated by the priests Fr. Alexandra Pakhomova, Fr. Oleg Stroev, Fr. Viktor Martynov and others.

January 27, 1999 - the second service in the monastery, in memory of the Enlightener of Georgia (there is a lower church-tomb in honor of this saint in the monastery).

May 14, 1999 - the third service in the monastery, in honor of St. Blessed Tamara (the earthly angel of Shegehumenia Tamar, the founder of the monastery).

January 15, 2000 - service in memory of St. Seraphim of Sarov. It was performed by Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev, co-served by eleven priests.

January 26 - the sisters from the Holy Trinity Novo-Golutvin Convent arrived: mother Innokenty, mother Irina, nun Irina, sister Yulia, settled in a winter dacha near the monastery.

Secret loophole

Let's break away from the chronicle of the first year of the revival of the skete. Let's return for a while to a quiet autumn, when its territory was still tightly closed, it housed the recreation center of the Krypton plant, the organization was secret, and rest at the base was also classified.

We read in a notebook covered in beaded handwriting.

I went along the river from the side of the grove. It was a warm autumn, it was quiet in the forest, only a woodpecker was knocking somewhere on a tree. I entered the skete through a loophole. Went up to the church. An autumn bouquet of leaves and belated flowers stuck in her door. She prayed that life in the skete would resume soon. She bowed to the earth from mother Tamar - she was at her grave recently.

I approached the cell, which is the best preserved (where there is a sauna), two cypress trees grow near it. I plucked a twig - I'll take it to my mother's grave, like a hello-bow from the skete.

I hear it knocking somewhere, I went to the cell, which is next to the terrace, and there a small bird flew into the broken glass, but couldn’t fly out, so it beats against the glass. I feel sorry for her, but I can not help. I had a piece of bread, I crumbled it on the floor, maybe she will eat it.

The skete is quiet, there is no one. Resurrection. It's such a blessing that you don't want to leave. However, it's time. She climbed through the loophole so that the watchman would not see and the dogs would not bark, and left.

On the way, I kept thinking when it would be possible to calmly, through the gate, enter the skete, without fear to go here, pray and enjoy God's grace ...

First service

There was not much time left from this recording to the first service. And then this day came. They even went to the skete in special buses that carried pilgrims.

But almost the same number of strong-looking guys came here with walkie-talkies in their hands. They stood at almost every thuja and controlled every step across the territory. "Go here, don't go here..."

What were these brave guys guarding? These ruined cells that once stood, framing a forest clearing, in the middle of which stood an unusually beautiful temple with a hipped scaly roof, like a candle, directed to the sky?

From whom were they guarded - from these grandmothers with tender faces, standing in the first service?

But, be that as it may, the first prayer after many years of desolation in the skete was offered up. There were many, many works ahead - paperwork, transfer of land, restoration of premises, electricity, gas ... Almost every one of us in life has come across at least one of the above and knows what kind of trouble it is, and how much it all costs money.

When it comes to the return of church property, it seems to me that the people participating in it should simply thank God that it fell to them to do this, because the act of transfer - if you look at it from the spiritual side, is also an act of repentance. Quickly, without any delay, to give - and that's it. And rejoice with those to whom they gave. After all, let us remember how the Lord counted this act as merciful even to a greedy and evil person who threw a loaf of bread at a beggar. So what?

But - we will give the skete, but we will close the passage to it and the gates. Build your path through the forest. What is it like to build a road? There are several nuns in the skete, so far they have nowhere to live. They were sheltered by a woman who has part of the house in the so-called general's dachas. That's all in one room and fit, the beds there headboard to headboard.

Bishop's service

We return to the chronicle of the revival of the monastery. We read the diary.

April 2, 2000 Bishop's Service. Official opening of the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete. The service was officiated by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, co-served by Bishop Tikhon of Vidnovsky, Archimandrite Alexy, Hieromonk John, Priest and Confessor of the Skete Sisters, Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev, and clergymen of the Domodedovo Deanery. Nun Innocentia was presented with a cross and a baton. From now on, she is the abbess of the monastery. The choir of sisters from the Holy Trinity Novo-Golutvin Monastery sang at the service.

Mother

The abbess of the monastery - from these words it breathes something distant, majestic, impregnable. Mother Innokenty - lively, fast, with radiant eyes of Princess Marya from War and Peace. Very easy to communicate, friendly and hospitable. You just arrived, just started talking, you look after a couple of minutes - you already have nothing to say, you are already sitting at the table and eating something, and mother is nearby and moves one bowl closer, then another.

Mother Innokenty

One person told a story. They went with his wife to the skete. While driving, word for word - quarreled. They got out of the car, went to the cell, did not look at each other. Opposite mother. She looked at one and the other and led them to mother Tamar's cell. There they now have a small museum - things, books of the first abbess. Even in the cell there is an unusual, peaceful silence. “You stay here for the time being…” Matushka Innokenty said as she walked, and she ran about her business.

They sat far away from each other, still looking in different directions, silent. They sit for five minutes, ten ... And in the cell, by the way, it's cool. The husband looks - a stove, next to firewood. He got up and started lighting the fire. The flames started. Now both of them are looking at him, they can’t tear themselves away. That is, they look in one direction. Warmed by the fire. And not only in the cell it got warmer. They forgot what they were fighting about. Then Mother Superior returned and called for tea.

Schiegumenia Tamar

Georgian princess and shegegumenia Tamar (Mardzhanova)

The founder of the skete of shiigumenia Tamar (Tamara Aleksandrovna Mardzhanova) was a native of Georgia, a princess (1868-1936). Having lost her parents by the age of 20, she entered the Bodbe Monastery of St. Nina Equal to the Apostles. In 1902, matushka became the abbess of this monastery, where 300 sisters labored and took care of two women's schools.

Shiigumenya Tamar (Mardzhanova)

When Tamara came to the monastery as a young novice, Abbess Yuvenalia presented her with a book of "Tales" about the life and deeds of the elder Seraphim of Sarov, who had not yet been glorified in the saints. Since then, the mother had an extraordinary love for him. Then the holy elder appeared to her in a dream and uttered prophetic words about her abbess.

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

Mother Tamar rests at the Vvedensky German cemetery in Moscow next to the grave of the holy righteous father Alexy Mechev.

Difficult start

Let us return to the beginning of the modern history of the monastery. It was very difficult. Although both the leadership of the district and the deanery tried to help restore the monastery, things still progressed slowly.

By the winter of 2001, the eleventh trust had renovated one of the rooms in the skete, where the nuns moved in. One of the benefactors donated a boiler, but the builders did not undertake to install the pipe, advising them to turn to specialists. "Specialist" was soon found. He said that such a pipe had been serving him for the second ten years, "I will do it - you will remember me forever." And did.

And on January 3, at night, the cell caught fire. The girls jumped out in what they were, managed to untie the horse, which lived in a nook attached to the wall of the house, and remained in complete poverty.

The dean father, after the Christmas service in the cathedral, addressed the parishioners: “You will all now go to the festive tables, and in our skete there live nuns who have nowhere to lay their heads, let’s donate each of our estates, as much as we can, to help the monastery, which suffered disaster ... "

After the fire, which stirred up the public, those around them somehow more actively began to help the restored monastery. They walked and asked: what do you need most of all now. Answer: socks are needed. Socks were carried everywhere ...

For the time being, the wanderers settled in the temple, continuing to pray and work.

How a cow helped conduct electricity...

There was a lot of trouble with electricity. Finally, one organization on a charitable basis made a project. According to it, it turned out that it was necessary to pull the cable through the forest, that it had to cross the road twice ... That is, the price of this installation was fabulous for the monastery.

And then someone gives a cow to the skete. She, therefore, must be placed somewhere. Looked at the place. They cut down a tree that stood in the way. I still had to uproot the roots. Another assistant volunteered to remove these roots with an excavator. He picked it up, pulled it - and there was a terrible bang. It turned out that there was a high-voltage cable under the roots of the tree. Here it is, next to it, the cable, no need to pull it from afar. In the end, they were allowed to build a substation here.

And the horse is gas

This, too, is a hilarious occasion that ends a long series of troubles. Everyone knows who was building, what it is - to conduct gas. And a whole load of papers, and a lot of money is needed.

In the skete almost immediately, after the nuns appeared there, various living creatures also started up at the same time. They gave the horse Lada - she turned out to be a foal, soon her daughter was born, who was named Palestine. Cow, dog, cat. Then they gave me another gift - a small horse. Pilgrims ride horses, especially children are happy about this. In the summer, children often visit the skete. The so-called hippotherapy is practiced here - it turns out that communication with horses, riding them, special exercises on horseback have a great positive effect in the treatment of various diseases, for example, diseases of the spine, or autism in children.

So what happened to the gas? I must say that the sight of horses peacefully walking on the grass leaves no one indifferent. These beautiful and strong animals somehow soften hearts, turn intentions in the right direction ... So it is with gas. Find contractors. But then again, you need money. And where to get them? And here are the future benefactors on the territory of the monastery. This is where horses come into view. Matushka (and she loves horses very much) comes up to one of them, strokes it and asks, among other things: “Ladusya, well, what do you think will get us ... gas or not?” And Ladusya begins to diligently nod her head, touching potential benefactors. And what do you think they should do?

A little bit of Georgia

The Rozhaya River, once wide and full-flowing, now flows like a quiet stream through the area. But in the area of ​​​​the skete, her character suddenly changes dramatically - she becomes talkative and fast, foaming her shallow waters over the stones that appear on her way.

The Georgian theme sounds just as distinctly in the life of the skete, just as the character of a swift mountain river is heard here in the Rozhayka river.

Mother Tamar was from. In addition to the thrones in honor of the icon "The Sign" and the Monk Seraphim, there is also a lower chapel in the skete church - in honor of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina, the Enlightener of Georgia.

And the present abbess keeps in touch with the Georgian monastery, from where nuns came to the skete in better times.

Return of the shrines

In 1912, for the opening of the skete, the Seraphim-Ponetaevskaya icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "The Sign" was painted. This miraculous image, adorned with pearls and stones, has been the main shrine of the skete since the day it was founded. After the closing of the monastery, the icon disappeared.

And now, many years later, this is what happens. The abbess went to the doctor with one of the nuns. And next to the hospital is the Pavel Korin Museum. “Katya, let's go to the museum…” In the museum there is a portrait of Mother Famari by the artist, which he painted for his composition “Rus' is Departing”.

I went up to the portrait,” Innokenty’s mother says, “Mother Tamar looks at me with her dark eyes. I turn to her mentally: “Mother, dear, well, at least some consolation ...” It was hard at that time ... And suddenly the next day there is a meeting. In the shop. I don't know why I contacted this person. I ask him: “Have you seen such an icon, the Mother of God, with her hands raised like this?” And he looks so intently and - with a question for a question: “And here is the baby?” And he draws a circle in the abdomen with his hand. “Yes,” I answer. He again looks attentively and after a pause says: "There is, and not far."

After a while they go to visit Uncle Slava. They entered and immediately felt - as if there was a breath of something, unearthly, high, otherworldly. They look - here it is, the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. It stands, the great Captive, closed from people ...

It turned out that Uncle Slava's mother, Alexandra Belyaeva, worked in the skete hospital, and she kept this icon with her when the skete was being destroyed. Now she is no longer among the living, and the icon lives in the house, everyone is already used to it, as if they are not ready to part ...

And began negotiations with the owners. In the end, it was decided to take a large picture of the icon in full size and give it to the owners instead of the original. They did not immediately decide to part with her, not immediately.

But then came the 100th anniversary of the glorification of St. Seraphim of Sarov. There is a patronal feast in the skete, a procession is going on. And to meet him - another religious procession. They carry the icon to the temple.

And as soon as they brought in, everyone had a feeling - the Mistress came.

Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign"

Another shrine of the skete is the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Covering". On it, the Mother of God covers with a headscarf and, as it were, protects the Infant, and He holds a bunch of grapes in his hand - the emblem of Holy Communion. Mother Tamar considered this image to be the guardian of the skete. Vladyka Arseniy at one time composed a service with an akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos in honor of Her “Covering” icon. After the skete was closed, the icon was in the Novospassky Monastery.

The icon "" (in red vestments), on which it is written that this is an exact copy of the miraculous image, which became famous on May 14 (27), 1885 in the Seraphim-Ponetaevsky monastery in the Nizhny Novgorod region, was also transferred to the skete at the very beginning of its revival.

In work and prayer

To date, eleven of the twelve houses-cells have been restored in the skete in the form in which they were before. Seventeen nuns live in the skete.

Church in the name of the Sign of the Mother of God and the Monk Seraphim, with a tomb and a throne below in honor of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina. Serafimo-Znamensky Skete is located 30 km southeast of Moscow. The skete was founded by shigumeniya Tamaryu (Madzhanishvili 1868-1936) with the active participation of the Grand Duchess Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna (Romanova) at the beginning of the 20th century. It was consecrated in 1912 by the Metropolitan of Moscow, later a holy martyr, Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky).

After closing in 1924, there was a hospital on the territory of the skete, and later a recreation center. As an active monastery, the skete was opened on April 2, 2000. The barrel-shaped structure of the temple in the picture is not a distortion of the lens (it was filmed with 50 mm optics), the temple really has a tent shape.

The Serafimo-Znamensky Skete was founded in 1912 by Abbess Yuvenalia, Princess Tamara Alexandrovna Mardzhanova in the world, who later adopted the great schema with the name of Shebebess Tamar. She was tonsured at the Bodbe Monastery, where in the 4th century she died and was buried St. Nina, the Enlightener of Georgia. In 1902, Abbess Yuvenalia became the head of the Bodbe monastery, and from December 1907, mother went to the Seraphim-Ponetaevsky monastery with the intention of settling in a skete near the monastery. During the prayer, she heard the voice of the Queen of Heaven, commanding her not to stay here, but to arrange her own skete. And even earlier, in 1892, John of Kronstadt, foreseeing the fate of this woman, laid three crosses on her. So during her life she became the abbess of three monasteries: Bodbiya (in Georgia), the Intercession community in Moscow and Seraphim-Znamensky on Domodedovo land.

And on July 27, 1910, in the forest, not far from Moscow, the laying of the skete took place. In September 1912, the construction of the monastery was completed. Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna provided active assistance. On September 23, 1912, the monastery was consecrated by Metropolitan Vladimir, the future New Martyr of Russia. Serafimo-Znamensky Skete is of undoubted interest from the architectural, artistic and planning positions. The unique project of the skete complex was created by the architect Leonid Vasilyevich Stezhensky. It has a square plan, in the center of it there is a tiered hipped temple, which plays the role of a high-rise dominant. Temple of the Sign of the Mother of God and St. Seraphim of Sarov with a tomb and a throne in the name of Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina has 24 kokoshniks according to the number of 24 apocalyptic elders. In it, decorative motifs of Moscow and Pskov-Novgorod architecture are reworked in the Art Nouveau style. The red brick temple has a cross-shaped volume; it is crowned with a slender tent of light with four rows of kokoshniks. The fence of the skete is a square with a side of 33 fathoms - in memory of 33 years of the earthly life of Christ. In the fence there were 12 small houses-cells - according to the number of 12 apostles, each had a corresponding name: St. Andrew's, St. John the Theologian, etc. They are symmetrically located along the perimeter of a blank brick wall. Now only 9 of the 12 buildings have survived. The buildings in the skete complex are mostly brick, unplastered, their decorative elements are highlighted with whitewash. Only 33 sisters could live in the skete - according to the number of years of Christ's earthly life.

The skete operated for 12 years and was closed in 1924. Schiegumenia Tamar lived for another 12 years. She lived in the room of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna in the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. In those difficult years of the 1920s, Mother Tamar organized cooperatives in which nuns made soft toys and quilted blankets, while secret services were held in these cooperatives. In 1931, she was arrested and imprisoned in the Butyrka prison, and then exiled to the Irkutsk region, where she fell ill with throat consumption. Shortly after returning from exile in 1936, my mother died in the suburbs at the age of 67. She was buried at the Vvedensky cemetery in Moscow. After closing, the walls of the skete housed the Zaboryevskaya hospital, and since 1965 - a pioneer camp and a recreation center of the Krypton plant.

The decision to transfer the skete to the Church was made at the end of 1998. On January 27, 1999, on the day of memory of St. Nina, the first Divine Liturgy was held in the skete church. Here began the revival of monastic life. Serafimo-Znamensky Skete is an amazing picturesque and romantic place. In the wilderness, among the ship pines, there is a miniature, exquisite monastery with an ancient Russian temple, as if descended from the canvases of the artists Vasnetsov or Levitan.

http://www.mihaylovskoe.orthodoxy.ru/churches/

On the road leading to the village of Bityagovo, there is only a small home-made sign on the tree, which is written on it is difficult to make out, so we, almost at random, turn right and arrive at the place. In the walls of the skete, Mother Innokenty meets us. She leads us to the temple and begins her story:

Serafimo-Znamensky Skete

The first stone of the Seraphim-Znamensky skete was laid on July 27, 1910, and two years later the skete was consecrated by Metropolitan Vladimir of Moscow. What was the skit then? It was a small monastery, deserted, hidden from view. The idea is very interesting: the fence of the skete, the walls of all the buildings, were painted in a yellowish-golden color and this is a reference to Jerusalem.

If you look from above, the skete of 1912 looked like this: a square of walls, a belfry and the Seraphim-Znamensky Church on the western side, there was nothing else on the territory. 12 houses named after the apostles were built into the walls. In Holy Scripture, in the revelation of John the Theologian, there is a description of the City of God, and there is nothing there except God Himself on the throne. The architect was inspired by the customers and now, if you walk around the temple, you will see that it resembles the figure of a person sitting on a throne. You have time to feel this image. Tarkovsky said that the symbol must be interpreted correctly, but the image can be felt.

And then, having entered the temple, we turn to the prophets, on whom the prediction of the coming of the Messiah is based. The tent is unusual, but it decorates the temple in such a way - especially when the sun is out, that no murals are needed. There are 24 windows in the tent according to the number of prophets. From the outside, 34 ledges are visible and it is all crowned with a very beautiful iridescent ceramic dome.

There is a version that this temple was built by Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev, the leading architect of the 20th century. The fact is that no documents on the temple have been preserved in the archives. It is known that the project changed during construction. So the chapel was originally conceived, and the temple was built.

Seraphim-Znamensky temple is two-storied. The upper temple has two thrones: one is dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God of the Sign, the second - to Seraphim of Sarov.

The lower temple is underground, it is dedicated to St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina, the Enlightener of Georgia. The fact is that the shegumenia Tamar, the founder of the skete, was a Georgian princess by origin. Her fate is very interesting.

Schiegumenia Tamar

Shiigumenia Tamar, in the world Princess Tamara Alexandrovna Marjanishvili, was born in the 60s of the 19th century into a wealthy Georgian family, in the city of Kvareli - central Georgia. This city is famous for the fact that the famous director Kote Marjanishvili was born there - the brother of shiigumeniya Famari. The family was not just traditionally Orthodox, apparently the interests were deeper, it is known that their confessor was an elder from Athos, an Essen. Tamara Alexandrovna was orphaned early, her mother died when she was twenty, and her father three years earlier. She finds support in God, in general, by the age of 20 she is already an established, integral person, and the fact that she eventually chooses a monastery, and not secular life, is not accidental. Although Tamara Alexandrovna, of course, was one of the enviable brides of Georgia - a princess, a fairly wealthy person who had a good home education, and besides, a beauty. Relatives dreamed that she would go to study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory - the princess had great musical abilities and a good voice. But she chose a different path. One summer, Tamara Alexandrovna, with her sister and two younger brothers, was visiting her aunt in the town of Signy, not far from the ancient convent of St. Nina in Bodbe, which at that time was being restored after a long desolation.

Young Tamara Marjanishvili got to serve in this monastery and decided to stay there - to become a nun. Relatives were against such a decision, they tried to distract from the thought of the monastery, they took me to Tiflis. But Tamara Alexandrovna chose her own path.

In the end, in 1903 she would become abbess there, by that time there would already be about three hundred sisters, in addition, she kept two women's schools under her tutelage, which was rare in Georgia at that time - there was a large Muslim population around.

Matushka loved her Bodbe monastery very much, but she herself did not have to remain abbess there for long.

In 1905, revolutionary-minded highlanders often attacked civilians, and Matushka took everyone who applied to the monastery under her care. The revolutionaries were greatly annoyed by this behavior of the young abbess. After an attempt was made on her life, by decree of the Holy Synod, without the desire of her mother, she was transferred from her beloved Bodbe monastery to Moscow and was appointed abbess of the Intercession community.

But over the years, a desire was born in her and more and more flared up, to settle in solitude near the Sarov Monastery and there end her life in a deed of prayer. The fact is that Seraphim of Sarov was especially close to Mother Tamar, she read his life even before he became famous, and she always took with her a small round icon depicting the Reverend Elder Seraphim. But, having arrived at the Seraphim-Panetaevsky Monastery, she received an inspiration from the Mother of God when she prayed in front of her icon of the Sign. This miraculous suggestion was repeated several times, and the mother realized that the Mother of God did not want her to end her life in seclusion, but instructed her to create a new skete not only for herself, but also for others. Matushka Tamar decided to consult with an experienced confessor and went to Zosima Hermitage to the hermit Fr. Alexei, who told her that "you yourself must build a monastery, the Queen of Heaven herself will choose a place and arrange everything, and you will be an instrument in her hands." It is interesting that on the day of the memory of St. Alexei Zosima in the temple of the skete, the icon of the Sign of the Mother of God began to stream myrrh.

Wanting to test herself once again before starting such a serious and big undertaking, matushka went to Optina Hermitage to consult with the Monk Anatoly, who also persistently urged her to fulfill the commission given by the Mother of God herself. Fr. Tobias from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. On July 27, 1910, the laying of the skete took place.

Seraphim-Znamensky Skete lasted only 12 years. It was closed by the Bolsheviks in 1924. The sisters parted ways. Then a hospital will be organized on the territory of the skete, a little later - a pioneer camp, after the camp - a recreation center for a military plant.

Mother managed to find a small house in the village of Perkhushkoye, where she settled with 10 sisters. The priest hieromonk Filaret was placed in a separate house. In 1931, mother was arrested along with several sisters and father. First prison, then Siberia - three years of exile. How did mother Tamar endure all this with her sore legs and already discovered tuberculosis? She was helped by faith, willpower and great endurance. And also a faithful novice Nyusha, who accompanied mother everywhere.

After the exile, mother Tamar returned and settled in a village near the Pionerskaya station, the Belarusian railway. She was already very sick. Mother Tamar died on June 10 (23), 1936. Vladyka Arseniy buried her at home. She was buried in Moscow, on the Vvedensky mountains, not far from the grave of Fr. Alexey Mechev.

skit now

Seraphim-Znamensky Skete began to revive in 2000. There was desolation on the territory, the upper temple was turned into a warehouse, the lower one into a boiler room. The base of the foundation was practically destroyed, another two or three years and the tent could have fallen.

Now the temple has been restored to its former appearance, services are held both in the lower and upper parts, but there is still a lot of work. It is necessary to make drainages around the temple, and this is a rather complicated procedure. The skete is still heated with coal, and this takes a lot of effort and money, and now the issue of its gasification is being decided. The internal decoration of the temple continues with the efforts of the nuns and parishioners, for example, in the lower part they lay out a mosaic from improvised material - brick, the remains of tiles and granite.

There are 20 novices in the skete. “Everyone gets to the monastery in different ways – someone has a direct path, someone has their own reasons, but in any case, there must be a spark of love for God, otherwise it’s hard to stay here,” says matushka Innocentia. The obediences are different - when we entered the room where the things that belonged to Tamar's mother during her lifetime were preserved, there was a rehearsal - kliros obedience. Naturally, there are everyday obediences, you still need to receive guests, conduct excursions. One sister goes 2-3 times a week to help the district hospital. In general, there is enough work, the skete lives its measured, quiet life.

“It is important for us that people who come to the skete leave enlightened and satisfied,” Matushka Innokentia says.

Material prepared Julia Elkina

The road to the village of Bityagovo, south of Domodedovo, is very picturesque. Small and deserted, it goes through a dense forest and you want to drive along it for an infinitely long time. A few kilometers from the village, it turns to the southwest, and another, smaller one, goes north. An inattentive traveler may not notice this turn and the sign at the fork hidden among the branches, but if he nevertheless pays attention to it and passes along the road, he will see one of the most unusual churches near Moscow with an equally extraordinary history.

Once upon a time, like that inattentive traveler, I also went through these places to swim in the Rozhayka River, and I never saw either that tablet or the temple itself. All the more was my surprise when I found several photos of a secluded and very beautiful forest monastery on the Internet, and looking at the map, I suddenly discovered that several times I had already been literally half a kilometer from this place. Without postponing the matter indefinitely, I packed up and went to fill in the gap in my knowledge about the Moscow region.

The skete, by definition, should be a secluded place in the wilderness, the abode of hermits and hermits. I knew well the sketes on the Solovetsky Islands - securely hidden in the forests, they fully corresponded to these characteristics. Another thing is the Moscow region, and even the near one - what kind of skete can there be? I thought. But all my doubts quickly dissipated as soon as I got there.

All skete buildings and the church are located on a low hill in the middle of a centuries-old forest - huge pine trees grow literally a few meters from the walls.

There are few people around, to be more precise, almost none at all. The road ends here, the village is left aside, and vacationers on the river, which runs about a kilometer from the skete, are not seen or heard. Walking around the territory, I saw only a few parishioners and a nun (Serafimo-Znamensky Skete is a small convent).

The temple impresses with its unusual architecture. A tall tent, crowned with twenty-four kokoshniks, is directed like a candle to the sky.

The tent type of temple construction was widespread in Rus' in the 16th-17th centuries, but in this case the first stone in the foundation of the skete was laid relatively recently - in 1910. The organizers wanted to create a beautiful image of Heavenly Jerusalem, and the architect Alexei Viktorovich Shchusev did it well - he built the temple in the best traditions of ancient Russian architecture.

Not far from the walls of the temple there is a small well-kept garden and a beautiful flower garden.

An imposing stone wall rises around the skete, forming a square. Each of the sides is equal to thirty-three fathoms - according to the number of years of the earthly life of Christ. By the way, earlier in this small monastery there were also thirty-three sisters according to the charter. Small houses-cells are built into the wall - twelve in total, according to the number of apostles. Each cell bears the name of its apostle.

As you can see, everything in the skete is in its place and has its own meaning. Even the twenty-four kokoshniks crowning the temple were not made by chance, but according to the number of apocalyptic elders, who, in turn, symbolize the victory of good over evil and unceasing prayer that goes up to the Lord around the clock - twenty-four hours. Undoubtedly, the founders of the skete wanted to give even greater holiness to their creation with such symbolism. But, as you will soon understand from the brief history given in this short article, the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete is already one of those special shrines of the Russian land, which, unfortunately, few people still know about.

Tamara Alexandrovna Marjanishvili was born in 1868 in Kvareli into a Georgian princely family, received a good secular upbringing and education. Having lost her parents by the age of twenty, she found comfort and consolation within the walls of the Bodbe Convent, one of the largest monasteries in Georgia. Once being under its vaults, she immediately felt that her place was there. The persuasion of her relatives, who were concerned about the correctness of the path she had chosen, had no effect.

Having come to the monastery as a young novice, a few years later Tamara was tonsured under the name of Yuvenaly, and in 1902, for prayerful deeds, purity and height of spiritual life, she was appointed abbess of the Bodbe Monastery, which at that time had 300 sisters and two women's schools. It was not easy for the young mother to accept such a high post and she even wanted to refuse it. At that moment, John of Kronstadt strengthened her with his blessing, to whom Juvenalia came along with other novices. For more than two decades, the elder predicted for her to become abbess in three monasteries and to be tonsured into the great schema.

In 1905, against her own will, Juvenaly, on the new appointment of the Synod, left for Moscow to become abbess of the Intercession Community of Sisters of Mercy. Three years later, during a pilgrimage trip to Sarov - the homeland of St. Seraphim of Sarov - during a prayer at the icon of the Mother of God "The Sign", the Mother of God appears to her and calls to establish a monastery for a more solitary life "not only for herself, but also for others."

At first, taking this as a temptation, Juvenalia does not dare to act on her own discretion and goes for advice to several famous elders: Father Anatoly from Optina Hermitage, the recluse Father Alexy from Zosima Hermitage and the governor of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra - Father Tobias. And from all three he receives a blessing for the construction of the skete.

The construction went on for two years. The place was chosen in the Podolsk district, 36 versts from Moscow, in the forest near the Vostryakovo station. All of a sudden, funds for the construction appeared, and the participation of such people as Princess Elizabeth Feodorovna. The temple was consecrated in honor of the Monk Seraphim of Sarov and the icon of the Mother of God “The Sign”. Hence the name of the skete - Seraphim-Znamensky. Metropolitan Vladimir of Moscow personally sanctified the newly created monastery. Below, under the temple, a church was built in the style of Georgian Orthodoxy in honor of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina, the Enlightener of Georgia, whose relics rest in the Bodbe Monastery.

In 1916, with the blessing of Metropolitan Macarius, Abbess Yuvenaly was tonsured into the great schema - the highest degree of monasticism - with the name Tamar. The small monastery headed by her continues to live its modest and righteous life until 1924, when the Bolsheviks decide to abolish and plunder it, and then turn the skete first into a hospital, then into a pioneer camp and recreation center at the Krypton plant.

From that moment on, a monastery disguised as an artel begins to operate in the world. Mother Tamar, 10 sisters and a priest settle near Moscow in the village of Perkhushkovo, where they continue their monastic deed. In 1931, they were arrested, imprisoned, and Mother Tamar was sent into exile in Siberia. From there, she writes the following lines: “I am glad that I got the cup of testing stronger than my children. Everything that happens over the years, the whole life - isn't it a miracle?!"

Thanks to the intercession of her brother Konstantin, a well-known Soviet theater director, mother's exile ended in 1934. She returned from Siberia seriously ill with tuberculosis and settled in a small house not far from the Pionerskaya station of the Belarusian railway.

A few days before her death, the artist Pavel Korin completed the portrait of Sheigumenya Tamar, which later became one of his greatest works. He managed to see and convey the hidden beauty of the spirit of the ascetic. It was this portrait, along with twenty-eight others, that inspired the artist to create the grandiose in conception and size of the canvas “Departing Rus'”, which he never had time to finish. But Pavel Korin himself never believed in the final departure of Holy Rus', in the disappearance of Orthodox spirituality. He passionately believed: “Rus was, is and will be. All the false and distorting its true face can be, albeit a protracted, albeit tragic, but only an episode in the history of this great people. And as if to confirm his words, the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete has been used for its true purpose again for more than fifteen years. Just like once upon a time, services are held here daily, sisters live, work and pray. Still, a fast river runs nearby and a pine forest rustles in the wind ...

Serafimo-Znamensky Skete coordinates: 55°23"13"N 37°44"59"E

Date of construction: 1912
Patronal feast: Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, January 15, N.S.
Temples: St. Seraphim of Sarov, Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign", Church of Equal to the Apostle Nina, Enlightener of Georgia

Eraphim-Znamensky Skete is located on the banks of the river. Rozhayki, near the village of Bityagovo, 6 km south of Domodedovo. The heigum was founded in 1912. Juvenalia, in the world Princess Tamara Alexandrovna Mardzhanova, who later accepted the great schema with the name of Shegehumenia Tamar.

She was tonsured at the Bodbe Monastery, where in the 4th c. died and was buried by St. equal to ap. Nina, Enlightener of Georgia. Long before her tonsure, Tamara met with St. rights. John of Kronstadt. The perspicacious old man, laying three crosses on the young novice, said: “This is what an abbess I have - look at her!” Subsequently, she really was the abbess of three monasteries.

In 1902 he was abbot. Juvenalia headed the Bodbe monastery, and from December 1907, mother went to the Seraphim-Ponetaevsky monastery with the intention of settling in a skete nearby. During the prayer, she heard the voice of the Queen of Heaven, commanding her not to stay here, but to arrange her own skete.

Igum. Juvenalia was respected and highly valued by such pillars of Orthodoxy as Metropolitans Flavian (Gorodetsky), Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky), Macarius (Nevsky); elders: shiigum. Herman, Rev. Anatoly Optinsky, Alexy Zosimovsky and others. With their spiritual support, all obstacles on the way to the foundation of the monastery were overcome. Its laying took place on July 27, 1910, and by September 1912 the construction of the skete was completed. The Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna took a close part in the work. September 23, 1912 The monastery was consecrated by Mr. Vladimir, the future New Martyr of Russia.

The fence of the monastery is a square with a side of 33 fathoms - in memory of 33 years of the Savior's earthly life. In the center stands a temple in honor of the Sign of the Mother of God and St. Seraphim of Sarov with a tomb and a throne in the name of Equal to the Apostles. Nina. The temple has 24 kokoshniks according to the number of 24 apocalyptic elders. In the fence there are 12 small houses-cells - according to the number of 12 apostles, each has a corresponding name: St. Andrew's, St. John the Theologian, etc. Only 33 sisters could live in the skete - according to the number of years of the Lord's earthly life.

On September 21, 1916, with the blessing of Met. Macarius, Apostle of Altai, Bishop. Arseniy (Zhadanovsky) took vows as igum. Juvenaly in schema with the name Tamar. In 1918-1919 in the skete with the blessing of St. Patr. Tikhon mother Tamar sheltered Bishop. Serpukhov Arseny (Zhadanovsky) and archim. Seraphim (Zvezdinsky), later Bishop. Dmitrovsky - the future New Martyrs of Russia. The skete operated for 12 years and was closed in 1924 by Schigum. Tamar lived another 12 years of suffering. In 1936, Vladyka Arseny admonished her before her death, and then buried her.

After closing, the walls of the skete housed the Zaboryevskaya hospital, and since 1965 - a pioneer camp and a recreation center of the Krypton plant. The decision to transfer the skete to the jurisdiction of the Church was made at the end of 1998. On January 27, 1999, on the day of memory of St. equal to ap. Nina, the first Divine Liturgy took place in the skete church. Here began the revival of monastic life.

This is an amazingly picturesque and romantic place. In the wilderness, among the ship pines, there is a miniature, exquisite temple, as if descended from the pages of ancient Russian chronicles...

Holy Spring of Venerable Seraphim of Sarov

The holy spring is located near the skete on the other side of the river. Rozhayki, next to the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the village of Bityagovo.

Monastery authorities

• Mother Superior Nun Innokenty (Popova)

• by electric train from Paveletsky railway station in Moscow to Domodedovo station. Then - by bus No. 23 to the village of Bityagovo or by buses No. 31, 32, 58 to the village of Zaborye, then on foot (2.5 km)

• 142040, Moscow region, Domodedovsky district, s. Bityagovo, Serafimo-Znamensky Skete