On one of the bends of the Tesha River in 1552, Ivan the Terrible founded the border city of Arzamas. In the last quarter of the 16th century, in the very center of the city on the main Cathedral Square, another monastery (female) was erected, consecrated in the name of St. Nicholas, the Wonderworker of Myra.
The builder of the monastery was Arzamas resident Feofilakt Yakovlev. Initially, he built a church in the name of St. Nicholas with a side chapel of the saints Cosmas and Damian without silver. Hegumen of the Arzamas Spasopreobrazhensky Monastery Sergius donated a large carved image of the saint to this temple, which soon became famous for numerous miracles and healings of the sick. The builder of the temple was ordained a priest and began to serve in the parish of the church he built. The same abbot Sergius gave him the idea of establishing a women's monastery at the temple. Then Father Theophylact, for the needs of the future monastery, built a still warm wooden church in the name of the Epiphany of the Lord, a bell tower and cells for thirty sisters. This was the beginning of the first women’s monastery in Arzamas, which, from the image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, began to be called Nikolskaya - Nikola New Forgiveness (forgiveness means forgiveness, liberation from illness, and therefore from sin).
Twice in its history - in 1650 and 1726. – the monastery burned to the ground. The first time it was restored at the expense of the widow of Father Theophylact Pelagia and his sons Gregory and Athanasius. For the second time, the city, and with it the monastery, was devastated by a fire, perhaps the most terrible in the entire existence of Arzamas. Stone Church of St. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, built after the first fire, collapsed from strong fire. However, thanks to the efforts of the abbess, the tireless work of the sisters, and donations from city residents, the St. Nicholas Convent was restored again.
In 1738, a new cold stone church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built in the monastery. Patterned cornices and window frames, a porch and a terrace on the south side made the façade of the temple especially elegant. The temple was famous for its excellent acoustics. Votes in the form of jugs were installed in the walls, which were later sealed up. This temple, as well as the wooden church in the name of the Epiphany, were erected through the efforts and labors of the abbess of the monastery, Maria (Gruzinka), who ruled the monastery for 30 years (1719–1749).
In 1764, after the church reform of the government, the Nikolaev nunnery became a full-time third-class monastery, with a salary for the abbess and 16 sisters.
From 1777 to 1784, the monastery was also ruled by Abbess Maria. In 1777, through her efforts, the wooden Epiphany Church was replaced with a stone one. In 1779, she decorated the St. Nicholas Church with a wooden sculptural group depicting the Burial of the Savior. Its author was the talented Arzamas priest Vasily Ilyin. All figures were carved to human height. They represented four evangelists standing at the tomb in which the Savior lay; at His heads stood an angel with a real candle and Joseph of Arimathea, at His feet another angel and Nicodemus. Near the tomb is the weeping Mother of God, supported by John the Theologian, and Mary Magdalene. It was an example of expressive, hitherto unprecedented church art.
In the 19th century, a wide variety of women's handicrafts flourished in Arzamas. Around 1840, a new craft appeared in the Nikolaevsky Monastery: they began to knit shoes and boots from multi-colored wool with patterns in the form of flowers and leaves. All Arzamas fashionistas wanted to have such elegant shoes, the monastery was literally inundated with orders and soon this handicraft was adopted by city girls and women. In the 1860s, 10,000 or more pairs of such boots were knitted per year, and this product was taken to all cities of Russia. Thus, the Nicholas Monastery gave the city a new craft and enriched the women of Arzamas.
On April 5, 1886, at the age of 81, the oldest archpriest of the Nikolaev Monastery, confessor of the Arzamas clergy, Abrahamy Nekrasov, died. In 1828 he married and in the same year he was ordained a priest. He served in the Trinity Church in the village of Pavlovo, where he served for 25 years until 1853.
In the first year of his priesthood, Father Abraham visited the Sarov Monastery. Father Abraham took a blessing from the illustrious elder Seraphim and asked about his fate. The great ascetic gave him instructions and predicted that he would be an accuser of schismatics, would endure many attacks and lies, and would become a dean. All this came true in due time. Father Abraham conducted extensive correspondence with his spiritual children. Two of his most beloved spiritual children entered the Sarov Monastery, one of them later became the abbot of the monastery.
From 1853 until his death, Father Abraham served and spiritually cared for the sisters of the Arzamas St. Nicholas Monastery, which became his home.
Father Abraham reverently honored the memory of Seraphim of Sarov and willingly shared with his sisters his memories of meetings with him. Every year on the eve of the day of the saint’s death (January 15, New Art), he served a memorial service for him, at his own expense he bought many candles, which he placed in front of all the icons in the temple and distributed into the hands of all those praying. As the greatest shrines he kept a flap from the saint’s mantle, a tooth once knocked out by the robbers who attacked him, and part of the hair from the head of Father Seraphim. He gave all this on the eve of his death to the nun Euphrosyne, who later became the abbess of the monastery. The death of Father Abraham was easy and calm.
After 1928 the monastery was closed. The cells were turned over for housing, and the church buildings gradually deteriorated and collapsed.
In 1994, the monastery was returned to the Church, and monastic life began to revive there. With great difficulty, the warm Epiphany Church and cells for the sisters were restored.
In 2001, 25 sisters lived in the monastery, led by Abbess Georgia (Fedotova).
Shrines
In the lower temple:
miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Deliverance from the troubles of the afflicted.” The icon of the Mother of God “It Is Worthy to Eat” was brought to the monastery, blackened and gradually began to brighten.
Special Promise Holy Mother of God bears the Diveyevo monastery: “This is My fourth lot in the universe. And like the stars of heaven and like the sand of the sea, I will multiply here those who serve the Lord God and Me, the Ever-Virgin, Mother of Light, and My Son Jesus Christ, who magnify,” these words were heard from the Queen of Heaven by Mother Alexandra, the first founder of the monastery. The Mother of God walks around it every day Kanavka and all the pilgrims, nuns and novices of the monastery who were honored to pray here, poured out his rich mercy. The spiritual father of the Diveyevo monastery was Father Seraphim, the Wonderworker of Sarov, through whose prayers the monastery survived the closure and ruin of the monastery. Soviet era and is reborn again in its wondrous beauty.
In our days, the prophecy of St. Seraphim that St. will rest in Diveevo. power. A stream of pilgrims comes here from all over the world. Father Seraphim said to the Diveyevo sisters: “Come to my grave, and the more often, the better. Whatever is in your soul, everything you grieve about, no matter what happens to you, all come to my grave , and fall down as if you were alive and tell me. And I will hear you, and your grief will pass. As you speak to me alive, I will always be alive for you.” Believers, as in the past, receive grace-filled help and healing from the relics of the Saint. The Trinity Cathedral also preserves some things that belonged to Father Seraphim: a mantle, a body iron cross, stole, leather mittens, shoes, cast iron and some others. The altar contains a cauldron from which Father Seraphim served crackers to visitors. (You can bring your own crackers and ask them to be blessed in a cauldron). The worship of the monastery retains the special charter of St. Seraphim: on Sundays the Paraklisis (the canon of the Most Holy Theotokos is chanted), the indefatigable psalter is read in the Church of the Nativity of Christ.
The monastery has several springs, famous for their many healings. These are the sources of the Kazan and Iveron icons of the Mother of God, the source of Mother Alexandra. Pilgrims are especially fond of the source of Father Seraphim, located in a picturesque area in the Sarov Forest, not far from the places where the saint lived and prayed. At the monastery cemetery, pilgrims visit the graves of Schema-nun Alexandra, the founder of the monastery, Schema-nun Martha, Elena and Mikhail Manturov, Nikolai Motovilov, blessed Pelagia, Natalia and Pasha of Sarov; Abbess Maria Ushakova. Everyone who wishes prepares and proceeds to the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion. Every day, pilgrims, together with the sisters of the monastery, go through the procession along the Kanavka. On the last day, pilgrims visit Nikolsky convent and cathedrals of Arzamas. Including the grandiose Resurrection Cathedral - a monument in honor of the victory over Napoleon, a masterpiece of Russian architecture of the 19th century. NOTE: Sisters! For bathing in the source of St. Seraphim, take the shirt.
The St. Nicholas Convent, which is one of the most ancient convents operating to this day, has a rich and interesting story. It was founded on the territory of the city of Arzamas back in the sixteenth century. Today it belongs Nizhny Novgorod diocese ROC.
History of the monastery
Many townspeople know the long and colorful history of the monastery. And the building itself is a wonderful decoration of the streets of Arzamas.
Foundation, architecture
St. Nicholas Convent was founded and first built back in 1580 during the reign of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. The builder of the first building is considered to be the city dweller Theophylact Yakovlev, who was later named a saint. Then a wooden temple was built first, and later a convent was built on the site.
St. Nicholas wooden church was subject to fires several times during its existence. To prevent a new fire, a stone building was erected in its place in 1683. However, in 1723 the temple had to be restored again after another destruction.
Later, on the site of the temples, the Church of the Epiphany was built from stone, consecrated in 1813, and in 1878 Nikolsky was restored. The buildings functioned in this form until 1924, when the revolutionaries came to power, the monastery, like most in those days, was closed.
The temple resumed its work only in 1994. Later, the upper, winter section was added to it.
Current state
Today there are two churches in the monastery: in honor of the icon of the Mother of God and in honor of the Holy Epiphany. The latter is located on the ground floor. In addition, a temple in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is under construction.
The monastery has a monastery in honor of Sergius of Radonezh (the village of Novy Usad) and a monastery of the Nativity of John the Baptist (the village of Novaya Sloboda). All of them are located in the Nizhny Novgorod region. About forty nuns live in the monastery itself. Her sisters are now guardians of the Arzamas educational colony. There is a library at the temple.
Shrines of the monastery
The shrines of the temple were carefully collected and preserved for decades. Today in Arzamas the following are located:
- Icon of the Mother of God “Deliverance from the troubles of the afflicted” (miraculous). It is believed that it was given to the church in 1997, blackened. The sisters then took it to the storage room, and later they took it out and placed it in a frame. After prayers began to be said to her in the monastery, the image gradually became lighter.
- Icon of the Mother of God “It is Worthy to Eat.” It got its name, which has survived to this day, from the beginning of the song about the Virgin Mary.
