A representative of the Old Believers, born in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Old Believers in the Nizhny Novgorod region

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Old Believers in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Nesterov Mikhail Vasilievich “Great tonsure.”

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From the very beginning of the schism of Russian Orthodoxy, the Nizhny Novgorod region was one of the most important centers of the Russian Old Believers. To confirm this, let us cite several facts: Outstanding ideologists of the “warring parties” - Patriarch Nikon, Archpriest Avvakum, Bishop Pavel Kolomensky, Sergius of Nizhny Novgorod, Alexander Deacon - were born in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The very first Old Believer monastery was founded precisely in Nizhny Novgorod on the Kerzhenets River - the Smolyany monastery (1656).

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3. In terms of the number of Old Believers, the region occupied and still occupies a leading place in Russia. 4. B Nizhny Novgorod province in the 18th – 19th centuries there were spiritual and organizational centers of six of the fifteen largest agreements (directions) of the Old Believers.

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Ideologists of the warring parties PATRIARCH NIKON PROTOPOP HAVAKKUM BISHOP PAUL KOLOMENSKY

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Supporters of the old faith were persecuted by the government. They had to either abandon it or leave their homes. And the Old Believers went north, to the Nizhny Novgorod forests, to the Urals and Siberia, and settled in Altai and the Far East. In the dense forests in the basins of the Kerzhenets and Vetluga rivers, by the end of the 17th century there were already about a hundred Old Believer monasteries - male and female. They were called monasteries. The most famous were: Olenevsky, Komarovsky, Sharpansky, Smolyany, Matveevsky, Chernushinsky.

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Under Peter I, the persecution of the Old Believers was resumed again. When, at the end of the first decade of the 18th century, the emperor paid special attention to the Nizhny Novgorod schismatics, he chose Pitirim as the executor of his intentions. Pitirim - Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod (about 1665 - 1738). Pitirim came from a simple rank and was at first a schismatic; He accepted Orthodoxy when he was already an adult. Pitirim’s activities were initially purely missionary; To convert schismatics to Orthodoxy, he used exclusively means of exhortation. The result of such activities of Pitirim were his answers to 240 schismatic questions. However, seeing the failure of his missionary activities, Pitirim little by little turned to coercion and persecution. The famous Old Believer deacon Alexander was executed, monasteries were ruined, stubborn monks were sent to eternal imprisonment in monasteries, and laymen were punished with a whip and sent to hard labor. As a result, the Old Believers fled to the Urals, Siberia, Starodubye, Vetka and other places.

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Old Believers of the Nizhny Novgorod region Old Believers of Fedoseevsky Consent (Tonkovo village)

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Belokrinitsky (Austrian) agreement. Okrugniks: the most significant features of this direction of the Old Believers were: the presence of the clergy and bishop, a vibrant social and church life in the form of the organization of Old Believer unions, brotherhoods, congresses, publishing activities, and the intensification of missionary activity among Nikonians. The difference between the neo-okruzhniks is, first of all, in the denial of all compromises with state power and Nikonianism, which was part of it: disobedience to the government, restriction of communication with Nikonians, adherence to “Domostroy”

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The Bespopovites do not have their own episcopal rank; the clergy were very small in number and, due to their origin from the Nikonian church, did not enjoy any special authority. All affairs were managed in agreement by representatives of the church community: trustees, charter members, authoritative and competent old people. For this reason, they live in self-governing communities. They do not build churches; all rituals are performed in the prayer house.

From the very beginning of the schism in the mid-17th century, the Nizhny Novgorod province was one of the most important centers of the Russian Old Believers. Let us cite several facts to confirm this. The very first Old Believer monastery was founded precisely in Nizhny Novgorod, on the Kerzhenets River, the Smolyany monastery (according to legend, in 1656). In 1912, in terms of the number of Old Believers, the province (together with the two districts of the Kostroma province that later became part of it) occupied third place among the Great Russian provinces and regions. And finally, in the Nizhny Novgorod province there were spiritual and organizational centers of six of the fifteen largest concords in Russia.

At the beginning of the 20th century, more than 140 thousand Old Believers of thirteen different consents lived on the territory of the province (with the mentioned Kostroma districts).

Belokrinitsky

The Belokrinitsky hierarchy had 30,370 supporters in the Nizhny Novgorod province in 1912, according to official statistics. Half of them lived in the northern, Trans-Volga part of the province, half - in the southern, mountainous part. The beginning of the 20th century was marked by rapid growth in temple construction. In terms of their number, Belokrinitsky exceeded all other concords combined - more than 30 churches (and more than 40 houses of worship). The most significant trends in the depths of the agreement were its centralization, the strengthening of the importance of the episcopate and priesthood as opposed to the “trustees” of communities from merchants and wealthy peasants, as well as vibrant social and church life in the form of the organization of Old Believer unions, brotherhoods, congresses, publishing activities, and intensification of missionary activities Among the New Believers and especially the Bespopovites there was a spasov concord (dumb netovshchina), who in entire communities transferred to the Belokrinitsky concord.

The overwhelming number of Nizhny Novgorod Belokrinitsky people were okrugniks and were subordinate to the Rogozh archdiocese. Only about a thousand people were representatives of the conservative wing of the agreement, which did not accept the district message, which was a compromise with official Orthodoxy. Nizhny Novgorod neo-okrugniks were divided into two branches: Josephites And Jobites. The Jobites lived in the southern half of the province, the Josephites lived in the Trans-Volga region and along the banks of the Volga. As is known, Bishop Joseph of Kerzhensky had as his residence in the second half of the 19th century a monastery in the village Matveevka(now Borsky district). At the beginning of the 20th century, the Matveevsky women's monastery was still a spiritual center on a provincial scale. In addition to it, near Semenov there was another Joseph’s monastery - Chernukhinsky. The number of Josephites did not exceed several hundred people, making up 5-6 parishes.

The conservatism of the neo-okrug members was manifested, first of all, in the denial of any compromises with the state ideology and official Orthodoxy, which was part of it, which was manifested, in particular, in the rejection of state registration of communities under the law of 1906 (which brought the neo-okrug members closer to the conservative wing of priestlessness).

Beglopopovtsy

After the issuance of the 1905 decree on religious tolerance, the life of Beglopopov’s consent revived in the Nizhny Novgorod province. Here it is called the “Bugrovsky faith,” and this name quite adequately reflects the role and significance in the life of the consent of the Nizhny Novgorod merchant Nikolai Bugrov.

ON THE. Bugrov, at his own expense, built not only churches (at least six), but also organized Old Believer schools, built and maintained almshouses, held All-Russian congresses of his consent and, finally, organized an All-Russian brotherhood - the governing body of consent (due to the lack of hierarchy among the Beglopopovites), chairman which he himself was a member of.

In 1912, according to official data, Beglopopovites numbered about fourteen thousand people in the Nizhny Novgorod province. Almost all of them lived in the Volga part of the province. In terms of the degree of conservatism, the Trans-Volga Beglopopovites occupied a much more right-wing position than the Belokrinitsky ones. Probably, an important role here was played by the fact that the mentality of the population of the forest Trans-Volga region is generally more conservative than that of the inhabitants of the Volga region or the southern zone of the province. In addition, the ideology of the Nizhny Novgorod Beglopopovites was influenced to no small extent by the Semyonov monasteries - strongholds of Kerzhen piety and guardians of ancient customs. At the beginning of the 20th century, in the vicinity of Semenov, there were three Beglopopov monasteries: , and Sharpansky, which could not be destroyed by either the Nizhny Novgorod bishop Pitirim with detachments of Peter’s soldiers, or the government of Nicholas I by the hands of the district police under the leadership of Melnikov-Pechersky. Another spiritual center of harmony was the famous Gorodets chapel with several thousand parishioners, which had enormous authority and a rich historical and cultural heritage.

Unlike the Belokrinitskys, the Beglopopovites did not have their own episcopal rank; the priesthood was very small in number and, due to its origin from the New Believer Church, did not enjoy any special authority. All affairs were managed in harmony by representatives of the church community: trustees, charter members, authoritative and competent old people, hence the democracy of community self-government and the decentralization of consent.

Local features include the maximum proximity of the Beglopopovites to the non-priest order, up to the custom of “chashniztvo”, the general spread of skete repentance (instead of confession to the priest), distrust of the state registration of communities, etc.

Pomeranians

In the Nizhny Novgorod province, the Pomeranian consent numbered about 25 thousand of its followers, who owned more than 60 churches and prayer houses. The Pomeranians lived both in the mountainous part of the province and in the Trans-Volga region, and in terms of the degree of conservatism, the Highland Pomeranians were close to the Belokrinitsky ones, and the Trans-Volga ones were significantly to the right of the Beglopopovtsy. If in the southern half of the province the Pomeranians registered more than thirty communities, then in the northern half - not a single one. In addition, it was among the Highland Pomeranians that periodically there appeared a movement towards reconciliation with the dominant church, accompanied by a weakening in foundations and customs (barber shaving, pacification), which caused condemnation of the “Forest” Pomeranians. Significant spiritual centers of the Trans-Volga Pomeranians were the area “Korela” and Gorodets, which gave the world original icon painters and writers Zolotarevs. It was in Gorodets that he launched his activities famous Gregory Tokarev, who created his teaching and spread it throughout many regions of Russia, to this day “Tokarevites” live in Altai.

Self-baptizers

The consent of the self-baptists (or self-crosses) became known in the Old Believer world of the Nizhny Novgorod region, mainly thanks to its tireless leader, the prolific writer and polemicist Alexander Mikheevich Zapyantsev from the village of Tolba (Sergach district). Over the years of his life, Zapyantsev held many conversations with representatives of rival consents, created a large number of polemical collections, organized and registered eight communities of the “Pomeranian marriage consent of the self-crosses.” Despite the origin of the self-crosses from the Pomeranian consent, Zapyantsev was very critical of the main ideologists of the Pomeranians - the Denisov brothers, calling them marriage-fighters who “rejected God’s dispensation - to be one husband and one wife.” In his writings, he repeatedly emphasized the differences in rituals with the marriage Pomeranians of his time: in the rite of receiving Fedoseevites, in the baptism of infants, etc. Several thousand people lived in the Nizhny Novgorod province of Samokrestov at the beginning of the 20th century.

Wanderers

At the beginning of the 20th century in the Nizhny Novgorod region there were several zones of distribution of wandering consent. The wanderers living in the Balakhna-Gorodets region were connected with the main center of Russian wanderers - the Yaroslavl-Kostroma Volga region, and the wanderers in the south of the province maintained connections with the wandering centers of the Middle Volga region. The local wanderers (or, as they called themselves, true Orthodox Christians wandering), as in all of Russia, were divided into wanderers and poznams (otherwise hosts, benefactors). The number of followers of this agreement did not exceed one or two thousand people in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Staropomorets: Fedoseevites and Filippovites

The Old Pomeranians of the Fedoseevsky and Filippovsky concords lived at the beginning of the 20th century in several areas of the north and west of the region. Their total number was over 20 thousand people. If the Fedoseevites of the western part focused primarily on the spiritual center of Moscow - the Transfiguration Monastery, then the Fedoseevites of the north - in addition to Moscow, also looked at Vyatka and Kazan. Therefore, when the Moscow and Kazan Fedoseevites disagreed on the issue of accepting spouses for prayer, this division also affected the Fedoseevites of the northern Uren region, who have since been represented by three branches: Moscow, Kazan and Filimonov. The Filimonovites completely identify themselves with the Moscow Fedoseevites, pointing out their attitude towards the benefits of civilization as the only difference with them. Thus, they make fire for lighting candles for prayer only with kretsal, considering matches to be an unclean thing, etc.

Spasovtsy

The Nizhny Novgorod Spasovites (like the Spasovites throughout Russia) never formed a single consensus. Spasovtsy is the self-name of four or five completely different directions in non-priesthood, united by one single feature - they do not cross, unlike the Pomeranians, who are accepted into their society. All Spasovites had their own brethren of the faithful, that is, they separated from the “Antichrist world” by not allowing non-believers to join in praying, drinking cups, etc. The total number of Nizhny Novgorod Spasovites at the beginning of the 20th century was over 30 thousand people.

The agreement of the senior Spasovites, whose distinctive feature is the reception of neophytes by the rite of denial of heresies, was widespread in the southern part of the province, where they had several monasteries that served as schools, almshouses, and spiritual centers of agreement. At the beginning of the 20th century, an all-Russian brotherhood was created in Nizhny Novgorod, and councils of major leaders met there to resolve various doctrinal issues.

The little-initiated Spasovites, who accepted into their brethren through simple beginnings, lived both in the south and in the west of the Volga region. Their leader at the beginning of the 20th century was Andrei Antipin from Vorsma, who wrote and published a lot of doctrinal literature. Antipin also organized an all-Russian brotherhood, uniting communities of small-scale communities in the center of Russia.

A separate agreement was made by the Trans-Volga Spasovites, who trace their ancestry to the Solovetsky monk Arseny, who came to Kerzhenets in 1677. The Arsenyevites, having customs and statutes similar to those of the larger ones, took more conservative positions, in particular, they were anti-communalists.

Two more consents of the Spasovites—dumb netovschina and strict netovschina (southern half of the region)—denied, in contrast to the above consents, the possibility of performing sacraments and statutory worship by the laity; the former were baptized and married in the official church, the latter did not accept water baptism at all. These agreements were distinguished by their radicalism towards the “peace”. Distributed throughout the southern half of the region.

Current state of agreement

The trends are obvious: the few and conservative agreements of priestlessness are slowly but surely disappearing along with the world of the Russian village that gave birth to them. There are fewer and fewer carriers of peasant ideology. The self-baptizers, neo-circulators and wanderers completely disappeared, merging with the kinship agreements. There are very few Filippovites left (5-6 communities) - Tonkin, Shakhunsky districts, Trans-Volga Spasovites-Arsentievites (a dozen small parishes) - Semenovsky, Borsky, Urensky, Gorodetsky districts. Silent and strict nonsense have lost their features, having received water baptism from their mentors (total number of communities 4-5) - Arzamas, Vorotyn districts. The brethren of small- and high-ranking Spasovites are becoming ever smaller in number and are left almost without rectors (the total number of parishes is no more than 20 with an average number of parishioners of 10-20 people) - N. Novgorod, Arzamas, Gaginsky, Kstovsky districts. In all the mentioned agreements there are few young people and, accordingly, there is no transmission of the richest oral tradition to the younger generation.

Things are somewhat better among the Pomeranians, some of the Fedoseevites and the priestly concords.

The Pomeranians managed to create their powerful center in Nizhny Novgorod, where today the largest community in the region (up to a thousand people) is concentrated. In addition, in the region there are about 30 Pomor communities of 30-100 people - Koverninsky, Semenovsky, Gorodetsky, Borsky, Kstovsky, Arzamassky, Buturlinsky, Lyskovsky and other areas.

As for the Fedoseevites, everywhere their communities have become extremely small (here we must take into account their rejection of marriage, which prevents young people from joining the “brotherhood”). The exception is the north of the region (Tonkin region), where the situation is not as hopeless. The communities of Moscow Fedoseevites, numbering about thirty, are closely connected with each other; at least 10-15 Fedoseevites from neighboring settlements come to the village for the patronal holiday. Communities are replenished with retired representatives of the rural intelligentsia. Houses of worship are maintained in order. It is interesting that very often women play the role of spiritual fathers.

With all this, the Fedoseevites do not deviate from their strict rules in relation to marriage, do not “make peace”, and comply with all the regulations laid down by the statutes (this is closely monitored by their spiritual fathers).

As for the Kazan Fedoseevites (strong believers) and Filimonovites, there are now no more than fifty of them combined. Nevertheless, they have their own prayer houses, spiritual fathers, and are not going to merge with the Moscow ones - they are all sure that they will die in their faith.

In addition to the Old Believers, who live compactly and are united in parishes, there are Old Believers living in numerous villages in the region who do not attend one or another parish and pray at home, either alone or with members of their household. Often, although they recognize themselves as Old Believers, they do not identify themselves with any agreement. The number of these Old Believers (the overwhelming majority are non-priests) is difficult to determine.

The Beglopopovsky consent, like the Bespopovtsy, which relied on the peasant environment, also lost much of its traditions and historical and cultural heritage. In particular, the traditions of hook singing have almost been lost, spiritual and Cultural Center in Gorodets, the Trans-Volga monastery and cell traditions were destroyed. However, in the last ten years, thanks to the energetic activity of the Novozybkovo-Moscow episcopate, the social and church life of the consensus has somewhat revived: ten parishes have been registered and are operating - N. Novgorod, Semenov, Gorodets, Tonkino, Urensky district, two new churches are being built, one of the Trans-Volga monasteries is being revived, There is, albeit a small, influx of young people in urban communities. The episcopal see in Nizhny Novgorod was restored (the ruling bishop is Vasily of Verkhnevolzhsky).

The Belokrinitsky consent in the Nizhny Novgorod region has the most powerful potential today. First of all, this is the largest (after Moscow) parish in Nizhny Novgorod (up to 10 thousand parishioners), where there is a transfer of traditions to the younger generation (in particular, the tradition of hook singing).

In addition, there are 11 parishes and about twenty unregistered communities in the region, many of which continue to maintain the religious and cultural traditions characteristic of this local group of Old Believers - Bor, Arzamas, Lyskovo, B. Murashkino, Urensky, Tonkinsky, Chkalovsky, Arzamassky and others areas. Construction of two new churches has begun in Nizhny Novgorod.

Thus, despite the fact that the palette of the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believers has lost some of its bright colors, while others have faded significantly, the remaining part continues to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of our ancestors, attracting the attention of both specialists in various branches of the humanities, and all people interested in and drawn to their roots, to their ancestral memory.

In total, in the Nizhny Novgorod region in beginning of XXI century, about 80 thousand Old Believers of nine consents lived (those who, having Old Believer baptism, attend parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church and identify themselves with official Orthodoxy, are not taken into account).

Original taken from cheger in Down Kerzhenets: Old Believer monasteries

Of course, when talking about Kerzhenets, one cannot help but talk about its Old Believer monasteries, of which there were once a lot here, but now practically nothing remains of them. You can see more about them in my journal under the tag, the condition of many of them has already been described there, but now I would like to talk about three new monasteries that I managed to find. We will talk about the Chernukhinsky, Gorodino and Yakimov monasteries.

First in line for me was the Chernukhinsky monastery. Getting there turned out to be very problematic, since in fact there is no road there, and the one that exists was torn apart by timber trucks. We had to make our way through these remains and right through the clearings.

In the “confessional” painting of the Kerzhenskaya volost of the village of Semenova for 1742 it is said that in addition to settlements and hermitages along the rivers in the Chernoramensky forests, there were cell residents in various tracts and, in particular, there were thirteen of them along the Chernukha river.

In 1764, General Maslov, by order of Tsarina Catherine II, “ruined” the monasteries along the Vyatka River and evicted about thirty thousand Old Believers from them. Many of the “persecuted” appeared in the Kerzhen forests and founded their monasteries and monasteries. Near one of the cells on the Chernukha River, a mile from the modern village of Medvedevo, the Chernukha monastery of fugitive priestly consent thus appeared. Over the years, it grew, expanded and began to occupy both banks of the river. Lay people also lived near the monastery, mainly along the right bank. The hermitage buildings abounded in internal passages, side walls, small rooms, closets, basements and undergrounds with several exits to the outside. This type of building was developed by life itself in order to hide during sudden searches or to hide something that should not be visible.

No matter how complex the system of buildings was, however, it could not save the monastery from the “Melnikov ruin” of 1853. This is how the abbess of the Chernukhinsky monastery, Mother Eudoxia, tells the St. Petersburg writer Pavel Usov about this in 1884. " He (Melnikov) caused us a lot of harm. I can’t remember him without my heart. I remember now the eve of Dormition Day (August 14, old style), when he came to our monastery, menacing, stern, he appeared in the chapel where we were all, and sternly said: “Well, quickly take all your books and leave.” And then sealed our chapel».

Documents indicate that during 1853 - 1857 more than two thousand icons were confiscated from Chernukhinsky, Ulangelsky, Komarovsky, Olenevsky and other monasteries. In total, during the “black” October 1853, 358 residential buildings in the monasteries were destroyed, 741 people were deported, including 164 nuns. After the “visit” of Pavel Ivanovich and his team, one monastery was left in the Chernukhinsky monastery, and there were only five nuns in it. The prayer room was also left. The icons were removed from it, only those that belonged to Mother Eudoxia personally remained.

Before the destruction, there were 129 icons on the iconostasis of the prayer room and, in addition, 41 in the refectory. Some of them were transferred to Edinoverie Church the village of Medvedev, and 103 icons were sent to Nizhny Novgorod. In 1860, 19 icons of the Chernukhinsky monastery ended up in the Academy of Arts as the most valuable. One of them, the image of St. Nifantius, has survived to this day and is kept in the collection of the State Russian Museum. Before the seizure, she was in the refectory of the Chernukhinsky monastery. There is an inscription on the icon, it says that the icon was painted in 1814 by master Vasily Ryabov in the village of Pavlovo (now the regional center of the Nizhny Novgorod province).

The prayer monastery itself was built at the end of the 1111th century, during the time of Empress Catherine II, and with the permission of the government, which saved it from destruction. The monastery was unable to fully recover after the “ruin,” but it existed.

Instructors of the Chernukhinsky monastery

The nuns, like the abbess herself, upon the persuasion of the priest of the Medvedev Church and other hierarchs, refused to accept the same faith, remaining faithful to the faith of their fathers. Therefore, as a result of a denunciation by Father Myasnikov of the Medvedev Church, the prayer room was sealed in October 1881. In his denunciation to the Nizhny Novgorod spiritual consistory, he wrote: “ In the house of a peasant woman from the village of Chernukha, Elena Osipovna Lesheva (after the tonsure of Evdoksey’s mother), an Old Believer prayer house was set up..." To seal the prayer income, an investigator, a steward, the dean priest Myasnikov and fifteen witnesses. Having taken the old printed books, the remaining ancestral icons in the prayer room and in the residential building of Mother Eudoxea, sealing the prayer room, they left.

Evdoksey's mother grew up in the village of Nizhneye Resurrection, on the Vetluga River (now the regional center of Voskresensk in our Nizhny Novgorod region), in the merchant family of Osip Leshev. In early childhood, the girl Elena was sent to be raised and trained at the Chernukhinsky monastery, where after several years she became abbess, accepting the monastic rank.

The abbess of the monastery, Mother Eudoxia, saw great injustice in the confiscation of icons, so she made a demand - a request - to the Nizhny Novgorod authorities to return the selected shrines to her, especially those that belonged to the Leshchev family. In response, she heard that prison awaited her for unauthorized construction of a prayer room. Realizing that you won’t get justice here, she goes to the capital, St. Petersburg, to work. Thanks to his persistence, he gets an appointment with the Russian Minister of Internal Affairs, Count Dmitry Tolstoy. We must pay tribute, the count understood the essence of the matter and gave the order: “ Print out the prayer service, as it was arranged with permission».

This is how Pavel Usov (mentioned above) describes his impressions of visiting the Chernukhinsky monastery: “ On the porch of a wooden one-story house, standing in the middle of a fairly spacious courtyard, we were met by an elderly woman, about sixty years old, of average height, slender, with lively, intelligent eyes. She was wearing a sundress made of dark chintz, of a special cut, clean, neat... On her head was a small black cap, which looked like a black bandage... Finally, Elder Eudoxia led us to the door, which was locked with several locks. When it was opened, we found ourselves in a vast room, the back of which was lined with icons up to the ceiling... Among the icons, the most remarkable is the icon of the Savior in ancient writing, belonging to mother Eudoxia, in whose family it is passed down from generation to generation. These generations also passed on to each other the legend about this icon that it was never given into the hands of the “Nikonians” when they tried to remove it from the place where it was located».

Judging by these notes by Pavel Usov in 1884, justice has triumphed; the icons of Mother Eudoxia were returned back at the end of the 19th century. Mother Eudoxia complained to St. Petersburg resident Usov that among the current female generation there are few willing to devote themselves to monastic life and that the monasteries have become meager in population. Gradually, for various reasons, monastery life died out not only in Chernukha, but throughout Russia. A particularly strong blow was dealt during the years of Soviet power, although the Chernukha Old Believers fought for a long time for survival, for the purity of their faith. Seeing the machinations of Satan in the “victories” of civilization, they lived until the end of their days without radio, without electricity. From time immemorial they got up here at sunrise and went to bed at sunset. On long winter evenings, their homes were illuminated by a candle and a lamp in front of the images of the Saints. And instead of news and films, there was reading of old printed books and singing of psalms from the Psalter.

Chernukhinsky monastery

In 2005, the last two houses stood here in Chernukha. One was sold and taken away. The second one burned down. In 2004, the last resident of this village, Zhirnova Tatyana Fedorovna, left the former settlement of Chernukha, moving to live in Medvedevo with her niece. Tatyana Fedorovna seemed to have returned to her homeland; she was born here, in Medvedev in 1916. In 1937, she got married in Chernukha, and I think she lived there all her life. According to her, two cemeteries remained from the monastery. One is old, on the left bank of the river. They were buried there from the foundation of the skete until Melnikov's destruction (until 1853). Now the forest there is deaf, not even the crosses have been preserved: “if you don’t know, you won’t find it.”

The second is more “fresh”, located on the right bank of the river, along the Zuevskaya road. They are located almost opposite each other, across the river, half a kilometer from the village. On the second there are crosses and fences. The last burial was ten years ago, although the cemetery itself is also old.

Thus, one of the conductors of ancient piety, the Chernukhinsky monastery, faded away. This was facilitated by: in 1720 - the Pitirimov ruin, in 1853 - the Melnikov ruin, in 1930 - the Soviet ruin. These years were years of life tragedies for the inhabitants of the monasteries, but these same years were years of the greatness of their spirit, their steadfastness in their faith.

Remains of the fence

Once upon a time there was a pond

In search of a cemetery, I drove a little into the forest and came across a large plot. The forest here, as elsewhere in the Volga region, is being cut down in full. Moreover, it is such a wilderness that as soon as I got out of the car to take a photo, a huge hare rushed past me literally 20 meters away. I was not able to find cemeteries, since, as I already said, the wilderness here is incredible!

Once upon a time there were houses here...

If you go from Semenov to Krasnye Baki, then between the Zakharovo platform and Kerzhenets station on the left side of railway You can see the ancient Yakimikha. Few people know about this village, but it has existed for three hundred years. For the first time there is a mention of it in the list of Old Believer monasteries and cells of the Kerzhensky volost for 1718 under Tsar Peter I. It is written about it: “near the mill of Joachim there are two cell residents.” No one now knows where Joachim, or in our opinion, Yakim, came from, only God knows. It is known, however, that on a small river called Ozerochnaya he set up a water mill and ground rye and oat grain, providing flour to the surrounding villages: Dorofeikha, Kirillovo. Kondratyevo. Over the years, other newcomers built next to the cell, the dwelling of Yakim (Joachim), and a monastery was formed. They all professed the “ancient” faith. the faith of their fathers and grandfathers, which means they were Old Believers. The spiritual center in those places was the village of Kondratyevo, two miles from Yakimikha. The Old Believer life was headed by the pop schismatic Yakov Krasilnikov. He had his own prayer room, where Old Believers came from all over the area to hold services, but on Sundays and holidays. In Yakimikha itself, Marfa Martynova was famous for her righteousness of life and book learning, who also had a prayer room in her house.

In 1898, as legend says, the house of priest Yakov in Kondratyev burned down, and the prayer house also burned down. It is not known why the fire happened. Some said that Yakov himself was to blame for handling the fire carelessly, others said that the “servant” set the fire (that is, the children). The priest managed to take everything from the fire that had devoured him, ancient icons and old printed books. For safety, while the new house was being built, I decided to take it to Marfa Martynova’s prayer house in Yakimikha.

By chance, for the sake of fire, the parishioners began to go to services pleasing to God, not as before in Kondratyevo, but in Yakimikha, in Martha’s house. They go for a month, two, six months. During this time, the parishioners fell in love with the Yakimikha prayers. They fell in love so much that the entire former parish of Father Yakov moved to this village, and the parish is not small - 17 villages, if you count Yakimikha. Bystrena, Belasovka, Dorofeiikha, Kondratyevo, Kirillovo, etc., about eight hundred parishioners. Mother Martha’s prayer room, as people began to call her, turned out to be too small, and in 1902 the altar was cut down and a porch was made in front of the entrance. A makovka (small dome) and a cross brought from Nizhny Novgorod. For the convenience of living, Marfa herself had a separate room. Now the prayer room looked just like a church, even bells were installed.

It would seem that everything is going well, but life is life. They reported to the authorities in the district town of Semyonov that in the small village of Yakimikha, a “hornet’s nest”, a “nest of schismatics”, which does not respect the Orthodox Church, was expanding and growing. Based on this denunciation, a bailiff came here in 1904. He drew up a protocol about the unauthorized construction of a prayer house and about illegal “thieves’” divine services in it. Marfa was interrogated, but the case did not go to court, the bailiff's report remained without consequences. While the proceedings were ongoing, 1905 came, and in this year the Tsar - Emperor Nicholas II issued a decree on freedom of religion. Based on this decree, the Old Believers of the Yakimikha parish officially registered as an Old Believers religious community in the name of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the general council of the community’s believers, the priest from Kondratiev, Yakov Krasilnikov, was still elected rector. However, either due to old age, the priest was already about seventy years old, or he had committed a fine before the church hierarchs, but in 1912 he was removed from service. Instead, they replaced him with the young, forty-four-year-old father Naum (Burlachkov). He was originally from Maly Zinoviev, and led the priesthood to Kovernino.

With his arrival in Yakimikha church service perked up. The number of parishioners increased to two thousand. Before the First World War in 1914, trouble suddenly came. In the afternoon, Father Naum performed the rite of baptism of the baby. After finishing the service, they closed the church and went home. And in the evening the church was gone. The fire destroyed everything. They said that the sexton was to blame. When he lit the censer and fanned it, a small coal fell under the floorboard, but he, absentmindedly, did not notice.

In that fire, ancient icons and ancient liturgical books burned, but their ancestors, fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers - the pillars of the ancient faith - prayed to those icons. The saddened parishioners and Father Naum decided at a general parish council not to restore this church, but to build another in a new place, outside the outskirts, a hundred meters from the village. Through the efforts of Father Naum and the head of the prayer house, Varenkov, log buildings were purchased and construction began. Bishop Innocent came from Nizhny Novgorod to lay the foundation stone for the temple, who laid the first stone and erected the cross where the throne should stand (It stands in the altar).

By Assumption Day (August 28), the church was erected, and by the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (September 21), the bell salvaged from the old prayer room was raised to the belfry. They say that during the fire, when the prayer house was burning, one of the parishioners, risking his life in order to save the shrine, removing it from the bell tower engulfed in fire, was badly burned, but remained alive and saved the bell. God did not give offense, it’s a holy thing. The service was conducted in the new consecrated church to the ringing of a bell scorched by the flames. Icons and church books were found by brothers in faith in the surrounding villages, which they transferred for the common good to the newly built church. Benefactors from Semenov and Nizhny Novgorod did not leave us in trouble.

The years of Soviet power have arrived. Due to the agitation of godless atheists, repression and threats from the authorities, the number of parishioners has sharply decreased. By 1930, only two to three hundred remained. In 1939 the temple was closed completely. Priest Naum, aged seventy, was arrested. The icons, as the old-timers said, were sent from the temple to heat the school. Since then, the Old Believers “went underground” and began to pray secretly in their homes so that the authorities would not find out.

Now is the 21st century. Freedom of religion again. But time has passed. There was practically no one to pray in Yakimikha.

If you decide to visit this small but beautiful village, Yakimov and Marfinin’s homeland, then when you approach it, on the left side you will see a cemetery, it is new, it is only about a hundred years old. It has a brick foundation overgrown with weeds. These are the remains of a former temple built after a fire. Bow down to them. In the village itself, as a reminder of a turbulent life, there are centuries-old linden trees that grew on the resting place of Marfina’s prayer house, which burned down in the old days. It seems that these linden trees tell us, living now, about the life - the existence of fathers and grandfathers, who often sacrificed their lives for the sake of our better lot, for the sake of our salvation.

Cemetery

The people living right next to these places do not know about the glorious history of their village and were very surprised when I told them all this.

Well, the last monastery where I went was Gorodinsky

On the high Kerzhensky bank between the villages of Merinovo and Vzvoz, in times distant from us, the Cheremis tribe lived. This is what modern Mari were called in years past. The places here are nice. There is a lot of game in the forests. Partridges and black grouse, as if chickens were walking around the huts. The river is full of fish, you can even scoop it up with a bucket. There are herds of deer, elk and other living creatures around. The Mari lived, rejoicing in the sun, glorifying nature and their gods. Over time, the settlement increased so much that the surrounding tribes began to call this settlement a city. So they said: “the city where the Marys live” - the Mari, that means, or simply the city of Mary.

Probably, a town with such a beautiful name would still exist today, if not for the sudden attack of enemies - the wild Tatars. Like animals, immeasurably hungry, they attacked and overnight destroyed everything that had been created over the years, and perhaps centuries. The buildings went up into the sky in a fiery tornado. Some people were taken into captivity, others were chopped up with crooked swords. Many fell in an unequal battle. A sad picture was revealed to those who returned from hunting from the surrounding forests, and to those who came from other settlements.

First of all, they collected the remains of their fellow tribesmen - their relatives - and laid them on the temple for the burial ceremony near the sacred grove. Having poisoned the souls of the dead along with the smoke of the funeral pyre to a “heavenly residence,” they began to think about a new place for the survivors. The city of Mary is deserted. Only the ashes and the grave mound above the ashes of our ancestors reminded us of the past. According to the rules of that time, they could not stay here, since the law of their ancestors forbade building on the site of the fire for three years. We chose a new place above Kerzhents, near a sharp bend, where the village of Merinovo now stands. The name of the settlement remained the same - Mary, but they only explained that it was new. So it turned out to be Mary - novo or Merinovo. This is a beautiful but dramatic legend - a legend about the emergence and decline of the city of Mary in the 12th - 13th centuries.

Another legend continues the story and takes us to the 15th - 16th centuries. She claims, after the destruction of the Macarius - Yellow-haired Monastery, that at the mouth of the Kerzhenets, in 1439, the Kazan Murza Ulu - Makhmet, the surviving monks, together with the righteous Macarius, went “saving their bellies” to the heights of the Kerzhensky. Where, tired, they stopped to rest after a difficult journey, they erected a cell for living. Having rested and gained strength, Macarius and his brothers continued their journey further, and in the cell they left one of their companions, Orthodox monks, for the sake of eradicating paganism in these places and establishing Christianity. Here, in a furnished cell, in the place where the town of Mary was two centuries ago, Gabriel was left. Soon a monastery was formed near his monastery. A wooden church was erected. From here the Orthodox faith, the Christian faith, began to spread. Local residents, remembering that there was a city here, albeit a small one, called this place Gorodinka, and therefore the monastery that was founded began to be called Gorodinsky. The righteous monk Gabriel, seeing an increase in the number of his followers, left the monastery and moved higher along Kerzhenets, founding another monastery there - a settlement that now bears his name - Gavrilovka.

By the end of the 17th century, as legend says, the entire district was Orthodox. Paganism as a religion was eradicated in past centuries. Those who did not agree to accept the faith of Christ were driven out into the forests of Vetlugirsk and Vyatka. In the lands of Merinovo they honored the covenants of Elder Gabriel, were baptized with two fingers, made religious processions according to the Sun, divine services were held according to old printed books, and therefore, when Nikon’s news broke out, they did not accept them. They rejected changes in rituals and prayers with all their hearts. They remained faithful to the behests of their ancestors, the righteous I Avriil and Macarius, the holy elder.

This worried the provincial authorities and the bishop of Nizhny Novgorod, and therefore in 1720, in order to eradicate the “hornets’ nests” of the “schismatics,” it was decided to move the old dilapidated church from the Gorodinsky monastery, which was closed, to a new place, to a spring, higher up the Kerzhenets. That spring with the purest spring water has long been considered sacred by local residents and, as they said, healed many from illnesses. Near the spring, in a free place, there were several peasant huts"meager in life."

Now, with the construction of a new, rebuilt church, this settlement became a village called Pokrovsky, since the consecration of the church was on the day of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos.
From that time on, the Old Believers became fewer and fewer every year, just as there were pagans in the old days. History repeats itself. Now on the site of the Gorodino skete there is the Merinovskoe cemetery. It was able to calm and reconcile the pagans - the Mari and the Old Believers, and both with the new Orthodox. Here everyone is equal before each other, and in their deeds before God.

According to legend, the pagans of the 12th - 14th centuries, the ancient Orthodox Old Believers of the 15th - 18th centuries found "shelter" here, and our contemporaries of the 21st century find "shelter" here. In that shelter, everyone is united and the faith is the same. Only everyone has their own sins.

House pits are still visible

From the high hill where the monastery once stood, you can still see Kerzhenets - before, I think, there were no trees here and there was an excellent view of the river, and a path along which they carried water winded along the slope towards it...

Next time I will definitely tell you about the most ancient of all the Trans-Volga monasteries - Olenevsky.

The text of the book “Sketes of the Kerzhen Region” by A. Mayorov was used

From the very beginning of the schism of Russian Orthodoxy, the Nizhny Novgorod region was one of the most important centers of the Russian Old Believers. To confirm this, we present several facts: 1. Outstanding ideologists of the “warring parties” - Patriarch Nikon, Archpriest Avvakum, Bishop Pavel Kolomensky, Sergius of Nizhny Novgorod, Alexander Deacon - were born in the Nizhny Novgorod region. 2. The very first Old Believer monastery was founded precisely in Nizhny Novgorod on the Kerzhenets River - the Smolyany monastery (1656).

Supporters of the old faith were persecuted by the government. They had to either abandon it or leave their homes. And the Old Believers went north, to the Nizhny Novgorod forests, to the Urals and Siberia, and settled in Altai and the Far East. In the dense forests in the basins of the Kerzhenets and Vetluga rivers, by the end of the 17th century there were already about a hundred Old Believer monasteries for men and women. They were called monasteries. The most famous were: Olenevsky, Komarovsky, Sharpansky, Smolyany, Matveevsky, Chernushinsky.

Under Peter I, the persecution of the Old Believers was resumed again. When, at the end of the first decade of the 18th century, the emperor paid special attention to the Nizhny Novgorod schismatics, he chose Pitirim as the executor of his intentions. Pitirim - Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod (about). Pitirim came from a simple rank and was at first a schismatic; He accepted Orthodoxy when he was already an adult. Pitirim’s activities were initially purely missionary; To convert schismatics to Orthodoxy, he used exclusively means of exhortation. The result of such activities of Pitirim were his answers to 240 schismatic questions. However, seeing the failure of his missionary activities, Pitirim little by little turned to coercion and persecution. The famous Old Believer deacon Alexander was executed, monasteries were ruined, stubborn monks were sent to eternal imprisonment in monasteries, and laymen were punished with a whip and sent to hard labor. As a result, the Old Believers fled to the Urals, Siberia, Starodubye, Vetka and other places.

Beglopopovsky (Novozybkovsky) agreement. His followers firmly stood on the conviction that without the priesthood the true church cannot exist. Due to the lack of Old Believer bishops, it was decided to accept priests from the Nikonian Church who agreed to serve according to the old rites. To do this, they resorted to various tricks: the priests were lured and secretly taken to Kerzhenets, smeared with “myrrh” (Myrrh is oil with red wine and incense, a fragrant oil that is used in Christian church rituals. Chrismation is the name given to the Christian sacrament - the rite of anointing the face and eyes with myrrh , ears, chest, arms, legs as a sign of communion with divine grace), consecrated under Patriarch Joseph.

The Nizhny Novgorod land was destined to play a very prominent role in the historical drama known as the schism of the Russian church. It is enough to mention at least the amazing fact that the most outstanding ideologists of the “warring parties”, such as Patriarch Nikon, Archpriest Avvakum, Bishop Pavel Kolomensky, Sergius of Nizhny Novgorod, Alexander Deacon, were all born “within Nizhny Novgorod”. The Old Believer movement affected the Nizhny Novgorod region as soon as it had time to emerge, and the descendants of those who once resisted the “anti-Christ force” still live both in Nizhny itself and in the Nizhny Novgorod outback.

Archaeographic and ethnographic expeditions in the Nizhny Novgorod region studied the elements of the book, ritual and everyday culture of the Old Believers, at the same time, immovable objects associated with the history of the Old Believers - monasteries, graveyards, holy places - were beyond the scope of special research.

By the beginning of the 1990s. among more than 1,200 historical and cultural monuments of the Nizhny Novgorod region, only one architectural monument of the early twentieth century, associated with the Old Believers, was under state protection - the St. Nicholas Church in the city of Semenov, and in 1990 the village of Grigorovo, Bolshemurashkinsky district - the birthplace of Archpriest Avvakum - was included in the list of historical settlements of the Russian Federation.

To a certain extent, this state of affairs was predetermined by the ideology embedded in the legislation on the protection of historical and cultural monuments. In an atheistic state, monuments related to the history of the spiritual and religious life of the people could come under state protection only after being artificially “cleaned” of their original meaning and spiritual content. Places of traditional pilgrimage, religious shrines, graves of saints and devotees of piety were not only not protected by law - on the contrary, they were often subjected to deliberate desecration.

Only in the 1990s did Nizhny Novgorod monument protection specialists make an attempt to expand the scope of the typology of monuments, adding new (or rather, original) content to them. Not only monuments of religious architecture, but also places of religious worship began to be offered for state protection.

In 1994, on the initiative and order of the Committee for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Institute of Manuscript and Early Printed Books of the Russian Volga Region began work on studying places sacred to the Old Believers. Then, perhaps for the first time, experts realized the urgent need to save from oblivion and protect from the onset of the omnipresent " economic activity"that which constitutes a unique, irreplaceable part of Russian culture. The result of the work begun was the certification of Old Believer hermitages, cemeteries and revered graves in the Semyonovsky district.

The main reason for attracting to the study of this or that object was the living tradition of pilgrimage that continues to this day. Old Believers from both surrounding villages and from different regions Russia, all the way to Siberia.

To date, only the first stage of the research program, which is designed to last several years, has been completed. The result of the first stage was the preparation of passports and the acceptance for state protection of 14 places related to the history of the Old Believers. All of them are located close to each other, between the Olenevsky and Komarovsky monasteries, mainly in the north-west direction from the city of Semenov in the vicinity of the village of Larionovo, Malozinovyevsky rural administration. It was here, in the remote Kerzhen forests, that representatives of noble noble families fled, who did not accept Nikon’s reforms and founded the first monastery settlements. Here, in late XVII V. Councils of the Kerzhen Fathers were held, at which the teachings of Archpriest Avvakum were discussed, especially questions about the reception of fugitive priests and self-immolation.

The history of each Old Believer monastery is legendary and dramatic. Two of the most famous monasteries, Olenevsky and Komarovsky, survived periods of almost complete desolation under the Nizhny Novgorod Bishop Pitirim, and then under P.I. Melnikov, were finally abolished only after the revolution.

Olenevsky Monastery, according to legend, was founded in the 15th century. monks of the Zheltovodsky monastery destroyed by Ulu-Makhmet, who accompanied Macarius in his procession from Zhelty Vody to Unzha. It was here that a deer appeared to the hungry travelers through the prayers of the monk (hence the name of the monastery). The Olenevsky monastery was Beglopopov's. After 1737 (Pitirim’s persecution), only the remnants of the Olenevsky monastery survived, but since 1762, after the Decree of Catherine II allowing the Old Believers to return to Russia, the population of the monastery quickly increased, the monastery became one of the largest and most famous in Kerzhenets. At the beginning of the 19th century. the monastery consisted of 14 women's monasteries, 5 chapels and 9 prayer rooms1. By decree of the Nizhny Novgorod provincial government of June 1, 1834, a plan was drawn up for the Olenevsky monastery with the designation of monasteries and cells. In total, at that time, 432 male and female souls lived in the monastery. The plan shows 6 old cemeteries and one active at that time2. Since 1838, the Olenevsky monastery, like many others, has been called a village in official documents, but continues to be an Old Believer monastery. In 1853-54, according to the “Report” of P.I. Melnikov, there were 8 prayer houses, 18 monasteries and 17 “orphanages”3, the residents of which did not belong to the community and were fed from their own household, and during the period of the Nizhny Novgorod fair they collected donations for the monastery from merchants-Old Believers in Nizhny.

Fulfilling the order of Emperor Nicholas I of March 1, 1853 on the destruction of monasteries in Semenovsky district and the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs to move residents to one monastery, the Nizhny Novgorod authorities ordered the resettlement of Olenevsky hermitages (“up to 100 persons”) to one monastery Ulangersky4.

Some of the Olenevsky hermits moved to the city of Semenov and formed monasteries in city houses. Thus, Mother Margarita, the abbess of the Anfisin monastery (founded in the Olenevsky monastery by Anfisa Kolycheva, a relative of St. Philip the Metropolitan), who had connections with the Moscow Old Believers, temporarily set up her monastery in the house of Lavrenty Bulganin. Although in official reports on the state of the schism in Semenovsky district for 1857, the Olenevsky monastery is indicated as “former,” nevertheless, the priests of the city of Semenov noted in their reports that many hermitages of the abolished monastery live “at the place of their previous registration”5.

The main shrine of the Olenevsky monastery consisted of four old cemeteries with the graves of martyrs, which were places of worship for pilgrims and pilgrims at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. According to the recollections of local residents, even after the revolution, the Olenevsk Old Believer community was visited by: Mother Sofia and Mother Kosiyania from Gorodets, “Sasovo old women” Aksinya and Tatiana and many others.

The former Olenevsky skete became the basis of the village of Bolshoye Olenevo, which deserves special attention as the only settlement that exists to this day in the Semyonovsky district, which arose on the site of former monasteries.

The development of the village basically repeats the layout of the streets and the location of the monastery's monasteries, which were built according to the "flock" type and consisted of several log buildings under one roof, with a covered courtyard, closets, cages, and upper rooms. Along the sides of the long corridor there were clean cells. The corridor led to a spacious, luxuriously decorated prayer room, in which services were performed daily. Some old village houses have to this day retained the layout characteristic of monasteries (for example, the house on the site of the former estate “Eupraxia Eldress”)6.

Local residents point out the remains of three old cemeteries on the territory of the village; their landmarks are a carved stone tombstone of the 18th century, a rowan tree planted on the grave of the abbess of the Paltsevskaya monastery, and a dilapidated golbets without a roof. Another cemetery with the graves of nuns and novices of the monastery is located half a kilometer northwest of the village.

In the village of B. Olenevo there are now about 20 residential buildings left, owned by local residents. The Old Believers of this village have not had their own house of worship for a long time and on major holidays they hold services at the graves remaining in the old cemeteries. These shrines remain a place of pilgrimage for the Old Believers of Semenovsky and other districts of the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Komarovsky monastery is one of the oldest and largest in Kerzhenets, the setting of the famous novel by P.I. Melnikov (Pechersky) "In the forests". Was founded at the end of the XVII - early XVIII V. 36 km northwest of Semenov, near the villages of Elfimovo and Vasilyevo.

The monastery was destroyed under Pitirim, but, like Olenevsky, it quickly recovered after the decree of 1762. In the 18th century. The Boyarkin Monastery was founded in the monastery, which was initially inhabited by women of noble families. Until the 50s. XIX century In the chapel of the monastery, the Alexander ribbon with the order cross, which belonged to Lopukhin, the uncle of the founder of the monastery, Princess Bolkhovskaya, was preserved as a shrine.

At the beginning of the 19th century. The Komarovsky monastery consisted of 35 men's and women's monasteries, in 1826 - 26, in 1853 - 12 monasteries, 3 chapels and 2 prayer houses. At the same time, up to 500 hermits and the same number of novices lived in the skete7. In the 19th century, after Napoleon’s attack on Moscow, the monastery was replenished with settlers from Moscow - members of the Rogozh community with their families.

The skete formerly had 8-10 old cemeteries, of which two are still venerated. The first is on the site of the monastery of Jonah Snub-Nosed, an Old Believer writer, reciter, “cathedral elder,” recognized as a venerable one. A miraculous spruce grew here, the bark of which was gnawed in the hope of getting rid of toothache; at the end of the 19th century, judging by the photograph of M.P. Dmitrieva, if she had already been knocked down8. The second is at the grave of Mother Superior Manefa (died in 1816), who was also recognized as a reverend and gave miraculous healings to all who came. The grave of Manefa's mother was built in the form of a stone tomb under a wooden canopy. There were 3 bells hanging on the belfry nearby.

Undertaken in the middle of the 19th century. The Nizhny Novgorod authorities' attempt to destroy the monastery by relocating the Komarovsky hermitages to Ulanger was unsuccessful, as was the case with the Olenevsky monastery. Although in the reports of Semenovsky priests for 1856 the Komarovsky monastery is indicated as “former”, some of its residents did not leave their previous settlement and continued to wear monastic robes10, and the inhabitants of the Manefina monastery found refuge in Semenov. In 1860, the “schismatic cemeteries”11 were restored.

The last abbess of the Komarovsky cells, Mother Manefa (Matryona Filatievna), died in 1934 and rests in the Komarovsky cemetery.

Traditions of teaching children literacy, piety, church singing preserved in the Komarovsky monastery for centuries12, right up to the 30s. XX century, when the monastery was resettled. The Institute’s staff managed to record the memories of one of the last pupils of the Komarov cells, E.A. Krasilnikova (Uren), who was sent to study at the monastery at the age of sixteen. This was around 1927. Before her eyes, the monastery was disbanded, this time completely. “Mothers Kosiyania and Melania continued to teach children to read and write” after moving to the village of Fedotovo.

No less famous was the monastery of Smolyany, founded under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (presumably in 1656) by nobles of noble families, monks of the Smolensk Bizyukov Monastery Sergei Saltykov (Empress Anna Ioannovna was from the same Saltykov family on her mother’s side), Spiridon and Efrem Potemkin. In the 2nd half of the 17th century. this monastery was the center of priestly harmony on Kerzhenets. Representatives of noble families who did not recognize Nikon’s reforms retired here.

In 1660, the monastery was headed by the former monk of the same Smolensk Bizyukov monastery, Dionysius Shuisky, who enjoyed special respect among the Old Believers, since he had a supply of peace and holy gifts, consecrated under Patriarch Joseph, and could perform the liturgy and the sacrament of communion. Dionysius's successor in 1690 was priest Theodosius. He was known for his exceptional eloquence, erudition, and knowledge of Scripture, which attracted new followers to the Old Believers and aroused the wrath of the authorities. In 1694, even before Bishop Pitirim, Theodosius was captured and burned. At the same time the monastery was destroyed13.

In the mid-19th - early 20th centuries. on the site of the Smolyansky monastery, the Old Believers revered the following memorial places: 12 gravestones (Dionysius Shuisky, Sergius of Nizhny Novgorod, Trifilius, Dosifei are buried here); wells dug, according to legend, by Sergei Saltykov, Efimy Shuisky, Dionysius Shuisky; a wooden chapel with images that stood in the cemetery of the monastery14. Nowadays, in the old cemetery, in the forest, a few meters from the clearing, 22 graves with dilapidated wooden crosses and golbs are preserved. Two pits filled with water may represent the remains of wells.

In the cemetery of another monastery - Sharpansky, which existed for 170 years, among the old birches there are now five golbts and one old cross. There is no chapel on the walls of which the names of the buried were written: “monk-scheme Pavel, Anufriy, Savvaty and Abraham.” At the women's cemetery there was once a tomb with the inscription “Inoko-shema-nun Praskovya” and 12 graves around. Praskovya was revered as Sofya Alekseevna, who fled to the monastery with 12 archers15. And although the grave mounds are barely noticeable, local residents and parishioners of the Semenovsk Ancient Orthodox community come to worship the “Tsarina’s grave”.

The chapel at the grave of Sophontius, the founder of the Dukhovsky monastery near the village of Deyanovo, a consistent follower of Avvakum, one of the most revered saints by the Old Believers, was also destroyed16. By 1917, only a wooden cross with an icon remained on the grave of Sophontius17. The well with holy water, located not far from the grave, was preserved by the Old Believers and revered as if it had been fossilized by Sophontius himself18.

The “holy well and the graves of the burnt” near the village of Osinka were almost completely destroyed by a recently cut clearing. Here, according to the instructions of the old-timers, during the ruin of the bishop. Pitirim's cells lowered the holy gifts into the well, and the monastery was burned along with the five martyrs. Their graves have been preserved on the site of the cells, and the healing water of the source does not freeze even in winter. IN different time Attempts were made to destroy the shrine - “tar and fuel oil were poured into the water,” but the next day the source again turned out to be crystal clear, because nearby were the graves of burnt martyrs19.

Much has been destroyed. But the tradition has been preserved, having destined for oneself the path of repentance, to venerate the holy relics, “resting in secret,” following the path described by Dorofei Nikiforovich Utkin, the rector of the Old Believers of Spasov Consent in the village of Sysaikha, Semenovsky Tsezd:

“Once I moved myself to repentance and destined for the path of repentance. It was May 14, 1911. On Saturday morning I went to venerate the holy places (which are famous in the Old Believers), and guidebooks came with me - the village of Korelki Tatiana Aleksandrovna and the village of Volchikha the maiden Nastasia Fedorovna. And having reached the Komarov cells, he was in the chapel of the abbess Matryona Filatievna (Mother Manefa since 1914). Not far from here is the tomb of the father of the monk the schema-monk Jonah, they bowed down and glorified Easter...

And we went further, and made our way to the villages of Elfimovo, Vasilyevo and the village of the Rozhdestvensky Monastery and reached a place called old Sharpan. There is no housing, just two cemetery fences. In the first fence we bow to Paraskovia’s mother nun, the schema-nun. And in another fence we bow to the monastic fathers and schema-monks Paul, Anufriy, Savatiy, Varlaam, Lavrenty.

And from here we went and reached Malago Sharpan, who bowed to the mother-nun Fevronia, and spent the night in her tomb reading the psalter. And then a miracle happens: through the prayer of the fans, water comes from the heart of Mother Fevronia, which is taken to heal mental and physical illnesses. But we did not receive this gift; When we arrived, the earth was dry, but when we left, it became damp, so that when we put it in a handkerchief and squeezed it, water flowed out...

And having bowed, we went to the famous place of Smolina... And having bowed there, we also saw a pond, and we were told about this pond that when there was persecution from Pitirim, the icons of these inhabitants and the holy mysteries were omitted here; from this pond to the sunny west 40 fathoms - the key and the icons are lowered; another 100 fathoms lake to the west, where the bells are lowered. But now there is no housing, just a barn with icons. And from now on I’ll go to the house.

And with this journey, having made myself somewhat lighter, my heart calmed down."20

Much has been destroyed, but it is all the more important to preserve what remains. Research conducted by the Institute of Manuscript and Early Printed Books (expedition materials, archival research), photographic recording of objects and topographic surveys of the area formed the basis for the Resolution of the Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated October 17, 1995 “On the declaration of memorial sites associated with the history of the Old Believers, places of pilgrimage and worship of the Old Believers shrines located in the Semenovsky district, interesting places in the Nizhny Novgorod region and historical monuments of regional significance." This decree declared the village of Bolshoye Olenevo (the former Olenevsky monastery) a historical populated place in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the monasteries Komarovsky, Smolyany, Empty (Old) Sharpan, New Sharpan and the “Holy Well with the Graves of the Burned” near the village of Osinki - landmarks. In the territories of these places, a special regime for the maintenance and use of land has been introduced, which provides for the preservation of the historical landscape and viewpoints of the best perception of historical objects, the prohibition of the demolition, relocation, alteration of historical monuments, the laying of transport highways and various communications, allotments land plots for construction, as well as a number of other measures aimed at ensuring the safety of revered places. The graves of the ascetics of the old faith - Sophontius, Triphilia, Joseph, Nicodam, Daniel "and with him two thousand sisters and brothers who were burned", the monastic monks Agathia, Praskovea, Thekla - were declared historical monuments.

Thus, places sacred to the Old Believers took their rightful place in the historical and cultural landscape of the Nizhny Novgorod region. The first step was taken towards state protection of the spiritual and moral shrines of the Russian Old Believers.

1 Melnikov P.I. Report on the current state of the schism in the Nizhny Novgorod province // Collection of NGUAC. T.9. N. Novgorod, 1911. P. 113, 131. 2 State Archives Nizhny Novgorod region (hereinafter referred to as GANO). F. 829. op. 676. D. 753 (plan of the Olenevsky monastery). 3 Melnikov P.I. Report... P. 130. 4 GANO. F. 570. Op. 558. D. 107 (1855). L. 1. 5 GANO. F. 570. Op. 558. D. 79 (1857). L. 3; D. 92 (1856). L. 2. 6 GANO. F. 829. Op. 676. D. 753 (estates 41 and 42). 7 Melnikov P.I. Report... pp. 132-133. 8 GANO. Collection of photographs by M.P. Dmitrieva. No. 1578. 9 Prilutsky Yu. In the outback. Semyonov, 1917. P. 129. According to the description of Yu. Prilutsky, the inscriptions were read on the tomb: “My spiritual sisters and companions, do not forget to pray to me always, but when you see my tomb, remember my love and pray to Christ that my spirit may be with the righteous”; "This monument was built by the zeal of the merchant Philip Yakovlevich Kasatkin, devoted in spirit to the late Moscow First Guild. 1818 (?) June 3 days. Moscow." 10 GANO. F. 570. Op. 558. D. 154 (1854). 11 GANO. F. 570. Op. 558. D. 124 (1860). 12 John, hieroschemamonk. The spirit of wisdom of some schismatic rumors. 1841. pp. 71-83; GANO. F. 570. Op. 558. D. 204 (1850). 13 Arkhangelov S.A. Among the schismatics and sectarians of the Volga region. St. Petersburg, 1899. pp. 27-28; I-sky N. Historical sketches from the life of schismatics in the Nizhny Novgorod region // Nizhny Novgorod Diocesan Gazette. 1866. No. 10. P. 400-401; Lv E. A few words about the schismatics of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese // Orthodox interlocutor. Kazan, 1866. December. P. 264; Melnikov P.I. Historical essays on clericalism. M., 1864. P. 27. 14 Melnikov P.I. Report... P. 187; Prilutsky Yu. In the outback. P. 115. 15 Melnikov P.I. Report... P. 107; Prilutsky Yu. In the outback. pp. 120-121. 16 Smirnov P.S. Disputes and divisions in the Russian schism in the first half of the 18th century. St. Petersburg, 1909. P. 35; I-sky N. Historical essays... // Nizhny Novgorod Diocesan Gazette. 1866. No. 11. P. 444; GANO. Coll. photographs by M.P. Dmitrieva. No. 1568, No. 1590. 17 Prilutsky Yu. In the outback. P. 109. 18 Bezobrazov V.P. Semenovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province and the schismatic world. From travel memories // Russian thought. 1883. No. 11. P. 147; GANO. Coll. photographs by M.P. Dmitrieva. No. 1569. 19 Testimony of local residents (Lvova A.N., Razvilye village; Ovchinnikova E.S., Pesochnoe village, etc.). Institute of Manuscript and Early Printed Books, 1994, expedition materials. 20 Utkin D.N. My life, my adventure and my legend, and my memories // Materials. Manuscript. Beginning XX century Stored in the library of Nizhny Novgorod State University, inv. No. 933818.

N.N. Bakhareva, M.M. Belyakova

Study and state protection of places,

related to the history of the Old Believers in the Nizhny Novgorod region

(World of Old Believers. Issue 4.

Living traditions: Results and prospects of comprehensive research.

Proceedings of the international scientific conference.

M.: "Russian Political Encyclopedia" (ROSSPEN), 1988. P. 132-139)

Russian Civilization