Theotokos-Christmas monastery, the city of Vladimir. Rector Hegumen Cyril

When, with the onset of perestroika, the churches and territories of former monasteries began to return, many difficulties related to the eviction of those who settled there during the years of socialism had to be overcome. Sometimes for this we needed perseverance and even courage. It was these qualities that the abbot of the Volodymyr Christmas monastery, Abbot Cyril, required, because he had to deal with the all-powerful KGB organization, which had been housed in monastic premises for many years. But first things first.

The main monastery of Ancient Rus

One of the oldest in the country, the Vladimir Mother of God-Christmas Monastery, before the creation of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in 1337, was the main center of monasticism in the North-Eastern Russia. From the earliest chronicles it is known that he was founded at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries by the Vladimir prince, the tenth son of Yuri Dolgoruky, Vsevolod Yuryevich, who received the nickname Bolshoy Gnezdo for the many children he produced (12 people).

It is considered that the Mother of God-Christmas monastery in Vladimir dates back to the day when the stone Christmas church was laid in it. This event happened, as it appears from the most ancient manuscript, called the "Laurentian Chronicle," in August 1191, in the presence of the Grand Duke himself and all his entourage.

Grand prince's favor

When the monastery appeared after the church, Vsevolod Yuryevich patronized him in every possible way, writing off the brethren to the eternal possession of many villages and lands. In addition, the prince cared for the organization of the inner life of the monastery. With his direct participation from the very first days, a monastery was established in the monastery - an order in which none of the villagers had personal property, and all property was in collective possession. They were alternately put by the abbots of the monastery Vladimir bishops Simon and Mitrofan.

Having received such a glorious beginning, in the following centuries the Mother of God-Christmas monastery actively develops and strengthens its spiritual and material positions. It is known that after the Tatar invasion forced the Russian metropolitans to transfer their department from the ruined Kiev to the city of Vladimir, they chose the Nativity Monastery as their place of residence, which gave it the status of a cathedral. As a result, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the monastery was considered one of the first in the state.

Invasion of Khan Batu

However, in the history of the monastery there were also bitter pages, the memory of which fills the heart with sorrow. In 1237 the city of Vladimir was invaded by countless hordes of Khan Baty. In the fire of the fire, numerous temples and the tower died. Residents of the city in the majority were killed or stolen into slavery.

Did not pass the trouble side and the Virgin-Christmas Monastery. From the hands of the nomads martyrdom, Archimandrite Pakhomii and all the brethren who governed him in those years, took martyrdom. Numerous buildings, erected over the years, the Tatars looted and betrayed to the fire. When the smoke of the fire broke down, and the bodies of the monks and their abbot were buried, it was necessary to start again the arrangement of monastic life.

Monastery - the burial place of Alexander Nevsky

In the following period, the burial place of the Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, who died in 1263 in Gorodets, where he stopped, returning from the Horde, became a vivid historical event. His body was placed in a crypt, arranged in the Christmas Church of the monastery. Thanks to this, after the transfer of the Grand Duke from Vladimir to Moscow (1325), the Mother of God-Christmas Monastery regularly received generous contributions from the rulers of Russia who wished to honor the memory of their famous ancestor. This served as an aid to its further development and prosperity.

Participation of the priests of the monastery in state affairs

The status of the monastery invariably increased, and as a consequence, in 1598, when the question of electing a new sovereign to the throne instead of the deceased Fyodor Ioannovich was decided, his hegumen Varlaam was drafted to Moscow and became one of the signatories of the charter that opened the way to the reign of Boris Godunov.

The next abbot of the monastery, archimandrite Isaiah, also entered history. During the Time of Troubles he managed to serve and False Dmitry I, becoming in 1605 his confessor, and to win the appreciation of the first of the Romanovs - Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, putting his signature under the letter of commendation. When, in June 1619, in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, the ceremony was held for the patriarchal throne of Metropolitan Filaret (Romanov), the father elected six years ago, the sovereign, then Archimandrite Isaiah was among its main participants.

Decline in the status of the monastery

In the XVI century, the Mother of God-Christmas Monastery was forced to give up its dominant position among other Russian monasteries, which he held until then. In 1561 the decree of Tsar Ivan the Terrible came out that from now on the main among Russian monasteries should be considered the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Thus, Vladimir Monastery became a rank lower and took second place.

This status remained with him until the appearance in St. Petersburg of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, which, according to the decree of Peter I, moved him to the third position. However, this gave the monks the opportunity to once again practice in one of the most important Christian virtues - humility.

During the reign of the pious Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, the Vladimir diocese was formed, and the Nativity Monastery became the seat of her head, Metropolitan Platon. As a metropolitan residence, it existed until 1789, when the diocese of Vladimir and Suzdal was established, and all subsequent lords placed their residences in Suzdal.

The loss of the architectural monument

In the next century, or more precisely in 1869, the monastery lost one of its main attractions - the ancient church, built in the pre-Mongol period, the Nativity Church. The fact is that a few years before the monastery Alexander II visited the monastery and, examining it, noticed that the church clearly needs restoration.

It would seem that good intentions, but they, as you know, are lined with a road to hell. As a result, the church, once defended before the Tatar horde, proved powerless before human stupidity. There was an inordinately zealous official who ordered to demolish it, since it caused a complaint from the highest person, and in the vacated place to build a new one. When the Tsar learned of this, nothing could be done.

Apocalypse of the XX century

After the October coup, the monastery for many years became the place where the Cheka was first located, and then successively replaced by the OGPU, the NKVD, and finally the KGB. There was also a building of the pre-trial detention center. In the period of Stalinist repression, from the 1920s to the mid-1950s, behind the strong monastic walls, mass executions and burial of victims of terror were carried out. The horrors of the invasion of Batu, who visited here seven hundred years ago, pale in comparison with the bloody nightmare that the victorious nation has arranged for itself.

Back to square one

During the years of perestroika, the monasteries of Vladimir, like other monasteries in Russia, began a difficult path of rebirth. In 1991, the churches and the territory of the Mother of God-Christmas monastery were returned, leaving behind the KGB department located there. The newly formed monastic brotherhood, headed by Hegumen Cyril (Surkov), did a great and hard job of restoring what was during the years of the totalitarian regime destroyed or rebuilt in such a way that it lost its historical appearance.

In this difficult business, the monks were assisted both by the public organizations of the city, and by simple laypeople, who were afflicted for the desecrated relics. The fact that many years of work has been crowned with success and the monastic life has again reentered itself, the great merit of Hegumen Cyril - a strong master and wise spiritual mentor of the monks.