Zheltovodsky Makarev Monastery: how to get there? History, description, architecture

On the left bank of the Volga, in the Lyskovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region Zheltovodsky Makarev Monastery is located, the photo of which, presented in the article, fully confirms that it is rightfully considered one of the most beautiful in Russia. Snow-white walls of the monastery, as if emerging from the water, involuntarily give birth to the memory of the image of the fairy-tale city of Kitezh, and the evangelism that comes from them only strengthens the association. However, behind such a wonderful beauty lies a long and full of dramatic history.

About how the Zheltovodsky Makariev Monastery was born

The chronicle reports that in 1435 the monk of the Caves of Nizhny Novgorod, Makarii, with the blessing of the hegumen, left his abode and retired for desert life on the shore of the Yellow Lake, which was near the Volga. By the name of the lake and the whole area was called Yellow Waters. There, among the forests and fields, he cut himself a cell and, having renounced the vain world, gave himself up to fasting and prayer.

But it so happened that the light of God's truth is not hidden, and soon the news of the ascetic spread around the district, and people lured to his lonely cell on the lake shore. Some, having created a prayer with him, returned to the world, and others, having received permission, stayed and arranged for themselves dwellings nearby. Soon together, the monks cut down the wooden church, consecrating it in the name of the Holy Trinity. So gradually formed a monastic community, in place of which many years later stood on the bank of the Volga Holy Trinity Makaryevsky Zheltovodsky monastery.

The ruin of the monastery and the captivity of its inhabitants

But for a short time it was destined to live in this place the Monk Makarii and his brothers. Only four years have passed since they settled in the Yellow Waters, as the Lord let the Tatar Khan Ulu-Muhammad raid the Nizhny Novgorod lands and together with other holy monasteries ravaged and burned the newly-created monastery. Many monks took martyrdom from the foes, and those who were defeated by Tatar sabers and arrows were stolen in full.

Among the other slaves was the Monk Makarios. And be sold to him in slavery, if not a formidable Khan. The basurmanina surprised the deepest humility, poured out in all guise of the captive monk, and unearthly grace radiant in his eyes. Having questioned the soldiers who brought prisoners to him, he heard from them that before him was a man who had done no harm to anyone and tried all along the way to do good not only to his comrades in misfortune, but even to those who drove him, bound, through a dusty Road.

Unexpected freedom and new hardships

Struck by what he heard, the khan ordered the guard to untie the meek monk and grant him freedom. He explained his decision by the fact that God is one for all, regardless of what kind of faith a person lives in, will inevitably punish anyone who inflicts harm on such a righteous man. Having released Makarii to freedom, he at the request of the latter allowed him to leave with him many more slaves, including several women with children.

In one, only the Khan was relentless - he forbade the restoration of a ruined monastery on the Yellow Lake. Nobody knew that one hundred and ninety years would pass, and the Zheltovodsky Makariev Monastery would be restored to its former place, but at that time the monks, who had received such a wonderful and unexpected freedom, had no choice but to set out to find a new place for their monastery.

End of wanderings

Long and difficult was their way to their native land. On the way, the Monk Makarii and his companions came upon a wonderful place, located on the bank of the Sviyaga River. It was just suitable for building a new monastery. Here, nature itself favored them, creating a small hill, surrounded on three sides by hills and washed by a river. But this territory belonged to the Kazan khan, and he, having learned about the appearance in his possessions of Orthodox monks, ordered them to leave.

For a long time there were still monks, until finally they reached the Kostroma lands and did not stop in the city of Unge. Those who returned from the Tatar captivity, always received in Russia with cordiality, and since the former prisoners were also God's people, they were treated with special sympathy, and to Makarii - with emphatic reverence.

The foundation of a new monastery

But the monk, far from the thirst for worldly honors, thought it was good to retire to the forest wilderness. There, fifteen versts from the city, he founded a new, already second Zheltovodsky Makariev monastery. The history of its creation exactly repeated everything that happened several years ago on the Yellow Lake. Soon the solitude of the desert was disturbed by those who wished to share with him a monastic feat, and as a result the cells appeared again in the dense forest, behind them a wooden church, and finally a community was formed.

By the time the Monk Makarios had reached an advanced age, and in 1444, when he was ninety-five years old, he peacefully rested. Shortly before this, anticipating the imminent separation from the brotherhood, he bequeathed to his spiritual children to return, when there was a possibility, to the Yellow Lake, to the place where the Tatar Khan had captured them, and to transfer the Zheltovodsky Makariev Monastery there.

Muromsky monk - the executor of the precept of the Monk Makarii

It took nearly two centuries. And the time has come when the Lord blessed the honest monks to re-establish their cells on the shore of the Yellow Lake. This event is associated with the name of Abraham Zheltovodsky - a monk of one of the Murom monasteries, which has not been ranked so far to the saints, but has earned immortal fame as his deed.

Since childhood, his soul has been sick of the ruined monastery, he often prayed before the icon of St. Macarius, asking for his heavenly protection in the cause of her recovery. It is precisely known that a pious monk received a certain sign that his prayer was heard and that the grace of God would help him in this good work.

Revival of the monastery and its official status

Making a list from the icon through which he received this good news, Abraham and several monks from the monastic brethren came to Yellow Lake and, after earnestly praying to the Lord, began to restore the monastery on the old ashes. Local people, wishing to contribute to this charitable cause, helped them.

Great merit in the success of such an important undertaking belongs to the pious Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich - the first sovereign of the Romanov dynasty. Visiting the Unzhenskaya monastery in 1619 and learning about the monks' secret desire to make their monastic feat where the Monk Makarii founded his first monastery, he provided them with all possible assistance. The Emperor not only supported them with his decree, but allocated considerable material assistance. Finally, the status of the monastery was fixed in 1628 by the diploma of the Moscow Patriarch Filaret.

Years of prosperity of the monastery

But not only the earthly masters provided their assistance to the monastery. The grace of God was also abundant in him. The will of the Most High Volga eventually changed its course, completely absorbing the Yellow Lake, and Zheltovodsky Makariev Monastery, thus, was on the shore of the great Russian river, which was one of the main navigable arteries of Russia.

Such a convenient location of the monastery contributed to the fact that over time on its land began to organize fairs, the name of the monastery called Makarevsky. As owners of the territory, monks had the right to collect trade fees - very significant sums, which allowed them to build a number of stone buildings in the monastery for a short time and significantly arrange their daily life.

Decline and abolition of the monastery

This graceful time continued until 1817, until the Lord allowed to move the fairs, which abundantly replenished the monastery treasury, to Nizhny Novgorod. There they took an even larger scale, while retaining their former name. However, the monastery Makari Zheltovodskogo, having lost its main source of income, began to decline. Over time, he received a status of a supernumerary.

The trouble, as everyone knows, does not come alone, and after several years a fire broke out in its walls, destroying much of what for many years was built by several generations of monks. The Holy Synod did not deem it necessary to restore the monastery, and it was abolished. Icons and utensils, saved from the fire, were ordered to transfer to St. Nicholas Cathedral St. Alexander Nevsky.

Restored monastery was only in 1883, after the accession to the throne of the God-loving Sovereign Alexander III, but already as Troitsky Makariy Zheltovodsky female monastery. From now on, its inhabitants became sisters, who wished to leave the vanity of the perishable world and devote themselves wholeheartedly to the service of God.

Catastrophe of the seventeenth year

From the documents that have come down to us, it is known that at the beginning of the Apocalypse, which Russia became for 1917, there were more than 300 residents living in the monastery, and it was among the most well-equipped in the country. However, in their attitude to the monastery, and in general to Orthodoxy, the Bolsheviks differed little from the Khan of Ulu-Mohammed, who once ravaged Makarevsky monastery.

As five centuries ago the caravans of slaves moved along the dusty Russian roads, and in the twentieth century the endless echelons of repressed people, including mourning women in monastic cassocks, were pulled to the north and northeast. But, unlike the steppe nomads who once gave freedom to the Monk Makarii, and with him hundreds of other Russians, the khans of the present horde did not have mercy, and many of their captives never saw their native places again.

Monastic construction has since been used in economic needs. At one time, the cattle-breeding farm was located on the territory of the former monastery, and cattle were kept in the premises that used to be God's temples.

Time for the long-awaited change

But the mockery that God endured for the sins of men did not last forever. The fresh wind of perestroika has also reached the Volga coast. In 1991, by a governmental decree, the Zheltovodsky Makariev Monastery, whose temples by that time had come into emergency condition, was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. Since that time, his active recovery began.

A few months later, the Holy Synod issued a decree stating that Zheltovodsky Makarev Monastery was resuming its activity, interrupted by decades of atheistic obscurantism. The first of its inhabitants were twenty-five nuns who wished to go to it from other monasteries of the country.

Today Zheltovodsky Makarev Monastery, whose address: Nizhny Novgorod region., Lyskovskiy rn, pos. Makaryevo, is among the most famous and visited by the pilgrims of the monasteries of Russia. Every year it hosts hundreds of thousands of guests from all over the country. And this is natural, since here, on the banks of the Volga, visitors are witnessing the unity of the spiritual greatness of the Orthodox faith with the unique beauty of its temple architecture.

The territory of the monastery is surrounded by powerful fortress walls, reinforced by watchtowers. Inside them, the architectural center is the majestic Trinity Cathedral, in the construction of which the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin was taken as a model. In addition, the monastic complex includes five more temples, built at different times, but united by a common compositional concept.

What do the monastery visited by Zheltovodsky Makariev

Reviews of those who happened to visit the monastery, you can read in a monastery book specially designed for this purpose, as well as on information resources belonging to the monastery. Many celebrate the high level of organization of services in churches and pay special attention to the professionalism of the choir composed of the sisters of the monastery.

Often, the references mention the fact that the nuns respond with kindness and kindness to any question or request from the guests of the monastery. In the overwhelming majority of records one can find an expression of ecstasy in front of the unearthly beauty reigning in the monastery, where the ancient walls and the dome of snow-white temples rising to the sky have merged in unbroken harmony with the mighty river, which became the symbol of Russia from time immemorial.

You can get to the monastery by boat from Nizhny Novgorod. Those who wish to use land transport should travel from the Shcherbinka bus terminal to the city of Lyskovo, and then continue on their way to the monastery by ferry departing from its pier.