Baryatinsky convent. Seven sunsets in baryatino, or why a layman should go to a monastery. Theology with an agrarian slant

was in the village. Baryatin Dankovsky U. Ryazan province. (now Dankovsky Lipetsk district region).

It was founded as a community in the spring of 1900 by the widow of the actual state councilor Sofia Petrovna Muromtseva (nee Princess Golitsyna) on her estate. Muromtseva donated bud. monastery 1357 dec. 378 soot. land and capital of 100 thousand rubles. The first sisters began to come to the community in August. 1900 By 1903, the number of nuns reached 130 people. 16 Nov 1902 Muromtseva appealed to the Holy Synod and the Ryazan diocesan administration with a petition to establish a monastic community. On Dec. the same year. Bishop visited Baryatino. Mikhailovsky, Vic. Ryazan diocese Vladimir (Blagorazumov). By resolution of the Holy Synod of March 18-26, 1903, the community was officially approved. Muromtseva became the abbess, and took monastic vows with the name Sofia. Inner life was organized according to the monastery rules, the sisters were cared for by a priest: from December 15. 1902 - Andrei Kunitsyn, then - Uspensky (name unknown, probably a priest of a rural church), in 1917 - priests Mikhail Vyazemsky and Grigory Panfilov. In 1907, the community was transformed into the Sofia non-staff dormitory monastery, and the monastery. Sofia 24 Oct. 1907 elevated to the rank of abbess. According to the staff of 1911, there were 100 sisters in the D. m., in 1914 - over 300 sisters, by 1919 there lived an abbess, a treasurer, 25 nuns, 230 designated novices, 5 laborers.

By 1902, the community had built a two-story wooden cell building on a stone foundation with a room for rehearsals, a tea room, 17 rooms for nuns and a house church, consecrated in the name of the monastery. Sofia 2 Sep. 1901 rector of the Vladimir Church. Ryazan DS prot. Jonah Solntsev. By 1904, a wooden priest's house with 8 rooms, a refectory with a bakery and a basement, a hospice house with a hotel, a courtyard for visitors, a wood shed, a brick icehouse, a laundry, and a 2-story brick building were also built. Afterwards 2 brick 2-story houses were built, as well as a brick house of the abbess. The last one, with reminiscences of the Middle Ages. Northern European architecture, was distinguished by its original composition: 3 high 8-sided towers topped with tents were attached to the main rectangular building. The monastic buildings were surrounded by a high brick wall and, according to eyewitnesses, occupied an area of ​​approx. 10 hectares For water supply, an artesian well with a depth of 246 arshins was built. A monastery was organized at the monastery, Mont-Rue owned a steam thresher, and there was a parish school for 40 orphan girls.

In 1903-1904 with the blessing of bishop. Ryazansky and Zaraisky Demetrius (Sperovsky) in the D. m. a 2-story brick cathedral was erected in the name of the mts. Sofia (with a capacity of 600 people), as well as a bell tower with 8 bells (the largest weighed 242 pounds). 17 Sep. 1904 bishop Ryazan and Zaraisky Arkady (Karpinsky) consecrated the main altar on the top floor. 25 Apr 1906, rector of the Skopinsky monastery in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles of the Ryazan diocese, archim. Joseph consecrated lower temple in honor of the Akhtyrka Icon of the Mother of God. The design of the cathedral, compiled by the architect, is known. A. Shesternikov, according to whom it was supposed to resemble the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir (Wagner, Chugunov). The cathedral was built with Byzantine elements. and Russian styles. The main volume of the cathedral, cruciform in plan, was crowned with a high dome, the refectory and the vestibule with the bell tower were located on the same axis. Apparently, the temple was one of the versions of the unrealized project of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ on the Blood in St. Petersburg by I. S. Bogomolov (1882). The bell tower also had an obelisk-like finish, and the facades were decorated with tall 3-part windows. However, the composition of the original source, which tends to be centric, acquired elongated proportions here.

June 15, 1914 in the presence of Bishop. Demetrius (Sperovsky) laid the foundation stone for a 3-altar church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord with chapels in honor of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God and in the name of Martyr. Tryphon. The temple, designed for 2 thousand people, was not completed.

On Dec. In 1917, the plunder of D. m. by the Ryazan food detachment began, a requisition of bread was carried out: 30 pounds of flour and 4.5 pounds of millet per month were allocated for the sister, 2 pounds of oats for the horse, “in addition, they gave firewood, and the clergyman did not refuse , since the peasants were dragging everything they could from the monastery” (GARO. F. R-1033. Op. 4. Table 3. D. 8. St. 3. L. 12-19). In Jan. 1918 D. m. was plundered: property, including church utensils, icons, books, inventory, cash, livestock, exported to the village. Baryatino and divided among the participants in the robbery, almost all the land was taken away (out of 1300 dessiatines, 25 dessiatines remained under crops). Some of the buildings were demolished and the monastery farm was destroyed. At the same time, according to the abbess, “the peasants went into a frenzy, like the Tatar horde, they beat the sisters half to death” (GARO. F. R-1033. Op. 4. D. 8. St. 3. L. 1-1 vol. , 14).

In March 1919, by resolution of the Ryazan Provincial Executive Committee, a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients was organized in the D.M., the sisters lived in 2 buildings. By May 1920, the D.M. was closed. In 1925, the Baryatinskaya commune was located in the buildings of the monastery. To the beginning 30s XX century in the commune it was ok. 100 hectares of arable land, up to 300 pigs, up to 50 cows, more than 500 sheep, 50 horses; there were 2 Fordson tractors with a set of plows and seeders. In 1930-1931 most of the buildings and fences were broken, 200 thousand pieces. bricks were taken to Voronezh. 77-year-old abbot. Sofia was subjected to repression and was forced to leave for Moscow. In 1933, the commune was disbanded, the Baryatinsky state farm was soon abolished, and the territory of the monastery was desolate. In 2005, the bell tower collapsed. As of 2007, the rector's building with 2 towers, a brick one-story house, 2 wooden cell buildings on stone foundations, 2 brick barns have been preserved; restoration of D. m. was not planned.

Arch.: GA Lipetsk region. F. R-1569. Op. 1. D. 4; D. 21; GARO. F. 5. Op. 2. D. 2398; F. 1033. Op. 1. D. 657a; Op. 4. Table 3. D. 8.

Yu. Klokov, A. A. Naydenov The monastery was created with a specific practical purpose: the village, like many, many Russian villages, was fading away, and the once magnificent church, built in the 18th century, needed care. Its architecture is an example of the Empire style. The main altar was consecrated in 1796 in honor of Christmas Holy Mother of God, the other, later, is dedicated to the holy unmercenary doctors and wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian, who suffered in Rome.

Another reason for the opening of the monastery was the actual existence of a small monastic community at the church, which formed in the 70s of the twentieth century under the care of Hieromonk Arkady (Afonin), a monk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra; He served here, with a short break, from February 28, 1972 until his episcopal consecration on March 25, 1991 and appointment to the Yuzhno-Sakhalin See. In Baryatin, nuns who passed through the camps, lost their health and returned to their native places gathered: Anastasia (Kuzmina), tonsured Optina hieromonk Meletia (Barmina), schema-nun Tikhona, nun Nikodima, blind nun Iulitta, nun Maria (Klimkina), nun Ksenia. They came to services from near and far villages, looking for an opportunity to settle next to the only temple operating in the territory from Medyn to Kaluga. The community was replenished by local single parishioners, but by 1993 it was weakened: the old tonsured women of the pre-revolutionary monasteries went to the Lord, and those who were tonsured in Baryatin reached old age and could not, as before, sing and read during worship, or care for the temple, which was dilapidated with them.

Arriving on April 3, 1993, the sisters came to an empty house built twenty years earlier for the community, and everyone started from scratch. First of all, they took care of the daily cycle of worship, which is strictly observed to this day: at six in the morning the morning service begins with the canons of the monastic rule; At 5 p.m. Vespers and Matins are performed, at 9 p.m. prayers for the future and the memorial service are read. The nuns of the desert live according to the rules of the cenobitic monastery: they attend all church services, have a common meal, and work in obediences.

The lack of funds did not allow us to begin repairing the temple for a long time; we had to put up with an unplastered dome, dark with soot, painted with white oil paint about twenty years ago, walls of an indeterminate color with stains from washing at a height where grandmothers reached from a stepladder, and ridiculous ceiling paintings. But bouquets of fresh flowers near especially revered icons, competent monastic singing and reading gave the service a unique flavor.

Most of the sisters are city dwellers; Having settled in the village, they enthusiastically took up agricultural work: in the first spring they planted potatoes, dug beds for vegetables, got a goat and a cow, and built a barnyard over the summer. By autumn, the monastery already had its own subsidiary farm, providing it with natural village products. In 1995, an orchard was founded. A few years later they ventured to set up several hives. Today the monastery owns 18 hectares of fodder land, two gardens, a large vegetable garden, an apiary, and in the new barnyard there are three cows, a goat, a donkey, and chickens.

From the first days of its existence, the monastery began to collect a library, and from the very first days a theological seminar on a system of reports was introduced. It so happens that most sisters have an intellectual need, i.e. the desire to comprehend God not only with all the heart and soul, but also with all the mind (Matthew 22:37). Every year, from September to Easter, weekly classes are held in one of the theological disciplines: they studied the history of the Old and New Testaments, dogmatics, liturgy, the history of the Church, the history of the Russian Church, Christian anthropology, the history of monasticism, the history of Russian monasticism, in addition, the Greek language of the New Testament , icon painting.

In October 1996, construction began on a cell building with a kitchen, refectory, and cellars; six years later an extension was made to it with new cells, large room for a library, winter garden, medical office. But the sisters did not live in excellent conditions for long. On May 4, 2007, a fire in two hours destroyed all the works, eight thousand volumes of the library, property acquired over fourteen years; details on the page

People who find themselves in sorrowful circumstances, the poor, the elderly, and the lonely often turn to the monastery, and no one leaves without consolation. Those in need receive food, medicine, clothing, and spiritual advice.

During school summer and winter holidays the monastery accepts teenage girls who want to see monastic life from the inside. They live in the sisters' cell building, attend divine services, learn church reading, perform all possible obediences in the refectory, sewing workshop, in the garden, and use books from the monastery library.

SEVEN SUNSETS IN BARYATINO, OR WHY WOULD A LAYMAN GO TO A MONASTERY If a stranger appears on the threshold of your house and says that he will live with you, for example, for a week, while he will help you with the housework and pray with you, you will take him for a madman and if he doesn’t leave kindly, call an ambulance. If a pilgrim appears on the threshold of the monastery and declares the same thing, he is joyfully received, first of all he is fed, left to spend the night... Really, these monks are not of this world. Although it is still better to notify about your arrival by phone. By human standards, the monastery should now be in transition: the monastery is fourteen years old. In 1993, five sisters of the Maloyaroslavets convent arrived in the village of Baryatino - a monastery with an agricultural focus was planned. However, in 1995, an independent convent, nun Theophila (Lepeshinskaya) became abbess, and then abbess. The monastery was created for a practical purpose: the village was dying out, and the once magnificent church, built in the 18th century, needed care. The temple, an example of the Empire style in architecture, is dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The second altar was consecrated in honor of the holy unmercenary doctors and wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian; The monastery contains a particle of the relics of these saints of God, who suffered in Rome in ancient times, but were revered both in Rus' and throughout the Orthodox world. Once upon a time there was neither this shrine in the monastery nor the splendid decoration in the temple. For a long time there was not enough money to put the unplastered, soot-dark dome in order; the desolate cells in the house handed over to the community were rebuilt from scratch. It couldn't be easy. However, the next concern after the service was the library, vegetable garden and cowshed. How the nuns, mostly city dwellers, managed to provide themselves with the products of subsistence farming even in the early stages is incomprehensible to the mind. At the same time, the books did not lie as dead weight: from the very first days they began to conduct a theological seminar. They study the history of the Old and New Testaments, dogmatics, liturgics, the history of the Church and monasticism, Christian anthropology, the Greek language of the New Testament, and icon painting. The charter, that is, the rule, is present in every business as a kind of basis for any creativity and imagination. Every family, even a disorderly one, has its own traditions and routine: at a certain time they wake up, go to work, get ready... A monastery is a big family, and a harmonious routine is needed here. A pilgrim is included in this way of life, even if he has come to a short time . First of all, you will find out what time the service and meal begin, when you should come to this or that obedience, when you can rest. The charter also determines the order of worship - we didn’t come to the monastery for meals. Weekdays in Baryatino differ from holidays primarily in that the service is performed without a priest. In parish churches we usually do not hear the Midnight Office, Compline, or figurative. Here, getting up at dawn, you will enter a quiet temple, where an elderly nun is already lighting the lamps, and soon the usual morning prayers, the seventeenth kathisma, the amazing “behold the Bridegroom comes at midnight” and the canons to the Sweetest Jesus, the Mother of God and the Guardian Angel, the Clock and Fine Art will begin to sound. . It would take a long time to list, but in the end there is not so much: the charter is permeated through and through with mercy towards the weak, but does not allow him to weaken at all, and does not allow the strong to ascend in ascetic zeal. On Sunday, the service will be little different from the parish service - several people will come from the village, some will come from the regional center, and some from Kaluga... And for Peter and Paul in the church it will even be a little crowded, but Abbess Theophila will bless everyone, greeting by name. In the morning and evening, sisters and pilgrims kneel before the main shrine of the monastery - the Lomovskaya Icon of the Mother of God. A special celebration here is June 25 - the day of honoring this icon. Why exactly this date is unknown: maybe it was on this day that someone noticed two tablets floating along the Ugra River, connected them - and with amazement saw the image of the Mother of God in a crown, with the Royal Child with a scepter in his hand. It is not even known in what century this happened, but it is likely that in pre-Nikonian times, even though the letter is non-canonical. The icon survived both the period of persecution in the twentieth century and the bombings of the Great Patriotic War. The monastery also remembers another discovery of a shrine: in 1997, the temple was robbed, and only on June 25, 1999, the miraculous image returned to the monastery - a familiar priest, seeing it for sale, bought it and returned it to the sisters. There has never been such a holiday as on that day here... During the time of orphanhood, the sisters compiled a troparion, kontakion, magnification, even stichera and canon for the Mother of God, which were sung for the first time on that memorable day. Many miraculous healings are forever included in the monastery chronicle. People go and go to the Merciful Intercessor. The starting point is a fire. In 1996, construction began on a cell building with a kitchen, a refectory, a large room for a library, a winter garden, and a medical office. But the sisters did not live in excellent conditions for long. On May 4, 2007, a fire in two hours destroyed all the works, eight thousand volumes of the library, and property acquired over fourteen years. “We became monks - we have nothing,” the sisters said then. Since then they have rebuilt - just as good people consoled us after the fire. The refectory is now larger and better than before, and the paintings in it will be remembered by any guest of the monastery. But the crisis did not allow the completion of the second building, so there is still no library, and the books are in the attic of the cell building: it is already unbearable to live without using what was donated and bought for two years. Until now, chronology here is based on fire. In the kitchen they are looking for some special curved knife, convenient for cutting fish, until they remember: it was the same “before.” Thank God, none of the sisters were injured in the fire. Several cats died - they are still pitied. Maybe at the evening service they will also give you a memorial to read. A very touching list: many of the names are accompanied by explanations in parentheses. Often these are surnames: about the health of the servants of God Dimitry (Medvedev), Vladimir (Putin), Georgy (Luzhkov) and others like them in “her powers and army”; about the health, for example, of Lyudmila (Moscow, icons), Boris (father of so-and-so), Vasily ($7,000). And I, diligently reading the memorial, could not help but think that for those living in the monastery, each name evokes a living image of a person, so that pronouncing the names turns into a heartfelt prayer for the suffering, for friends, for donors. From the window of the room, that is, the cell where I was lodged, I saw a bright yellow field not far away; Having reached it, I heard a smooth, businesslike hum: it turned out that this was a meadow where bees from the monastery apiary were working. Do you know how wonderfully a beekeeper’s hat with a protective net, worn right over the apostle’s cap, suits a nun? In each cell of the monastery there is a desk and an armchair with a sconce - a special place for reading. In each cell of the monastery there is a desk and an armchair with a sconce - a special place for reading. Bees are not only flowers and honey, they are also wax, and wax is candles. “Only O.’s mother adds cinders to fresh wax, and so the candles turn out dark, so we only put them on weekdays, and on holidays we use store-bought ones,” complains I.’s mother. She asks me why I give tea without sugar. I drink: “It’s immediately obvious that you’ve recently entered the monastery. If you live longer, you will start eating sugar...” It’s strange, but this “prophecy” is memorable. What is so difficult about a monastery that you can’t live without sugar? I don’t know... But I know that here they don’t try to squeeze the impossible out of a person, they don’t “break” them with backbreaking work (and you often have to read “horror stories” about women’s cloisters). They explain a little embarrassedly: there is only enough greenery from their garden in the summer, but mother buys it for the winter - you can’t feed yourself with women’s labor. Obediences in Baryatin style - Well, what kind of obediences do we have? - Mother O gives a “tour” of the monastery. - Mainly self-service. Kitchen, cleaning, a little gardening... Will you cut some green onions after dinner? “What’s there to talk about, all I have to do is chop the onions,” I think, but when I see a bowl full of lush greens, I understand that I’ll stay in the kitchen for an hour and a half or two. Picking strawberries in the garden is a real pleasure: even slightly spoiled berries are not suitable for the table, they can be sent straight to your mouth. Strawberries flavored with conversation. “I had a very good French teacher,” says E.’s mother. “I already thought that I would speak like the French themselves.” But I didn’t have time - I went to the monastery. Specific care in Baryatino is about cats. Feeding 64 little animals (they throw them up!) every day is a special obedience, and I have more than once watched A.’s mother walk across the yard with a large saucepan, and a meowing crowd runs after her. I’ll also share my discovery: the fish offal and fins from the kitchen go to chickens, not cats... A week in the monastery will also enrich you with some new skills. For example, how to cut a fish called catfish? Now I can do it. True, they say I was lucky - I got a carcass weighing only five kilograms. At least somehow it was possible to move her. And they can be much larger. - Not talking about Dickens again! - exclaims A.’s mother, tripping over a kitten named Dickens, and everyone who is working in the kitchen at this time understands that this is a game with a quote from Kharms. It seems that reading here is one of the most important obediences. The day after the fire, the abbess bought clothes, shoes, dishes, basins and... several volumes of poetry to console the sisters. And the monastery website, where new articles and photographs appear regularly, amazes with the liveliness of the language and subtle taste. Here about history and plans for the future, about everyday life and Orthodox holidays, about unbookish consolations from the Lord... For example, one night a stork, a disheveled winged pilgrim, spent the night on the cross of the temple, and I saw him not only on the website. Don't know; Perhaps the combination of a good education with the unsurpassed poetry (and true poetry is devoid of sweetness) of the surrounding landscapes gives the effect of a “sabbatical”? A week at the monastery means, for example, seven completely different sunsets. Let me remind you that the service to the Lomovskaya Icon of the Mother of God was held here. It seems that hymnography is one of the highest areas of literature. A week in a monastery is very little. It is stupid and presumptuous to think that for such short term you can look at the life of the monastery from the inside. But during this time, Baryatino manages to become a reserved, promised place. Therefore, when Mother Theophila, giving her farewell blessing, invites you to come again, you think: Lord, please bring me here more than once! Baryatin’s “signature” souvenir is woolen donkeys. They are knitted in memory of the sisters’ favorite donkey Camilla, who lived at the monastery for a long time. Knitting donkeys is carried out by those who, for health reasons, cannot bear more difficult obediences. The “signature” baryatin souvenir is woolen donkeys. They are knitted in memory of the sisters’ favorite donkey Camilla, who lived at the monastery for a long time. Knitting donkeys is carried out by those who, for health reasons, cannot bear heavier obediences. How to get there The monastery is located 4 km from the Medyn-Kaluga highway, near the regional center of Kondrovo. Directions from Moscow (from Kievsky railway station) to the railway station Maloyaroslavets or Kaluga, then by bus to the city of Kondrova or by bus Moscow-Kondrovo from the metro station "Yugo-Zapadnaya" or " Teply Stan" You can get from Kondrov to Baryatino by taxi.


It’s like another world, completely different from ours, a very unusual monastery. The nuns there draw beautifully, write icons, poetry and prose, learn languages. Bright faces, clear smiles... It seems that, unlike many of us, worldly people, they know why they live on this earth, they do not rush around in search of themselves , the meaning of life...

The decision to travel came completely unexpectedly - everything in life was so intertwined that I really wanted to rush somewhere to the ends of the world away from problems, but not just like that, but to find their solution.

What have I not heard when the question: “Where are you going?” answered: “To the monastery,” - from the malicious one: “To the men’s, I suppose?” to incredulous: “Are you drunk?” This is how my acquaintances who are far from the Church reacted in an “original” way. Actually, I am not a supporter of “Orthodox tourism” and the race to holy places. But just then a friend told me about her fateful trip to the monastery, and I decided to go.

Which one was not a question for me - to the Mother of God Nativity maiden hermitage in the village of Baryatino Kaluga region. It was about him that I heard so many good things from my friend. This is a small but very unusual monastery. The nuns there draw beautifully, write icons, poetry and prose, and learn languages. From them, again through a friend, I asked for prayers in absentia when my son and I were having a hard time. She prayed for them herself with her family. I also heard a lot about the miraculous icon kept in the monastery church. And here is the road. It’s scary - how, for the first time in the monastery (I’ve only visited our Pokrovsky convent several times), how will I be received, what will I do there? But what about the harsh regulations? After all, you can’t go to someone else’s monastery with your own. Poor nuns, praying and working all day long... I can’t do that, can I?

A bus from bustling Moscow took us to the unknown Kondrov, then a taxi to Baryatino. In the car I pull my skirt over my trousers and tie a scarf on my head. Oh, how can I be in a skirt all the time? It’s unusual, I always wear trousers (this habit played a cruel joke on me after a couple of days). I get out of the taxi. Shivering from the unknown, I think: why am I here?

I immediately get to the evening service. An amazing feeling - it seems that the temple is full of people. I look around - no, just a few villagers and nuns. “Why be surprised,” they explain to me, “for more than two hundred years prayers have been heard here, the temple is warmed by them, breathes, lives.” It’s easy for me, the service flies by in a flash, leaving a warm feeling of joy and peace, and I understand that I have arrived where I need to go. The abbess and sisters greeted me like family and settled me in a small guest house. The places around are indescribably beautiful.

There was a large house here with cozy cells, a refectory, icon painting and sewing workshops, and a wonderful library. On May 4, 2007, a fire destroyed it in two hours. We didn't manage to save anything. Fortunately, no people were injured. Thousands of people close and far from the Church responded to help the sisters in need. Every benefactor is still prayed for here. Today, the whole world is building a new building here, and the sisters are still living in houses that are poorly suited for living and eating in the Ministry of Emergency Situations tent. Friends console us: the new building will be stronger and more reliable, but you can’t order your heart - it’s still hard for the sisters to remember this.

Approaching the monastery, I expected to see pious old women spending their time in stern silence, work and prayer. There was no limit to surprise - many turned out to be very young! By the way, they can joke and laugh. But there really is a lot of work, especially now, after the fire. Nobody sits idle. Now there are about twenty sisters in the monastery - nuns, nuns, novices. I followed on their heels and asked why they went to the monastery? Unhappy love? No. Family troubles? No. Any personal problems? No. For what? At the call of my heart... I accidentally overheard a conversation outside the monastery fence: “Do you know that if a girl lives in a monastery for a year, her mind will be blown away? Poor..." I think: which of us should still be pitied - them, who have found God and live for Him and all people, or us, worldly ones, always seeking earthly goods for ourselves, which are never enough. Everything here is unusual. And the “professions” (obediences) - treasurer, dean, housekeeper, regent, sacristan, cellarer...

And the monastery itself is like another world, completely different from ours. Bright faces, clear smiles... It seems that, unlike many of us, worldly people, they know why they live on this earth, they do not rush around in search of themselves, the meaning of life, they do not dream of new jewelry, a car, furniture, a trip -love. It’s so good - here it is, right next to the temple, I often pop in between services just to stand near the miraculous icon and pray. And there is almost no temptation to postpone the evening rule “until tomorrow” or skip the service - life in the monastery is very disciplined. Here Confession and Communion are experienced completely differently.

I sleep in the cell, eat in the refectory, perform simple obedience tasks - peeling potatoes, washing dishes, working in the garden. One of the nuns of the monastery always accompanies, advises, and helps. I live with everyone according to the rules: at six in the morning - morning worship with the canons of the monastic rule; at five in the evening - vespers and matins, at 21.00 prayers for the future and the memorial are read. Meals are also at a strictly designated time, but it depends on whether there is a Liturgy today. The charter - the rules of life in the monastery - turned out to be not so terrible. One day I decided not to go to the morning nursing service and sleep longer. I got some sleep, quickly read the morning rule, ran to take pictures of the monastery and... slipped on a piece of wet tile and fell to the ground, quite noticeably injuring my knee. I didn’t realize that I was wearing a skirt and not trousers and didn’t have time to react.

Mother laughs: “Now we will forever remember you as Lena the lame.” Meal. Mother rings the bell and says a prayer. One of the nuns reads the lives of the saints aloud. Sometimes, having listened to everything, I forget to eat, and then the bell rings again, we drink tea, the bell rings - the meal ends. I used to often hear how delicious the food is in monasteries. I was personally convinced that yes, a simple monastic meal prepared with prayer cannot be compared to a lunch in a chic restaurant. I always have difficulty remembering names. I was wondering how I would be able to distinguish the nuns, since they were all in black robes, with the same apostles on their heads. Literally every other day I can easily find out who is who, because the names suit the girls surprisingly.

I find out that before the tonsure, mother herself chooses the name of the future nun. Royal mother Anastasia, fighting mother Alexander, cellarer mother Nektary... They turn to the nuns - Mother Lyubov, Mother Claudia, Mother Euphrosyne, and only to the abbess - Mother Theophila. And she really is a mother - she takes care of her children, takes care of them like a mother and at the same time is strict, like the head of a large family! A separate article – monastery cats. There are about sixty of them here! Some are thrown into the monastery by “well-wishers” from the locals, others, for some reasons unknown to me, are brought to the monastery by the unfortunate owners... to die! As a result, both the first and the second lead a very active life here - they climb onto the roofs using the fire escape, rush around the area, sort things out. Each cat has its own name. For example, the street cat Zvenya Savelich received his nickname because he loved to ring the bell - he jumped up, clung to the rope, and the ringing was heard. The main guardian of the cat kingdom is mother Anastasia. As far as possible, she arranges housing for each foundling: some live in cells - almost every sister has a cat, others - in the yard (it is also impossible to leave 23 cats in a cell). He feeds them: every day he cooks a bucket of stew for them, takes milk and cottage cheese from the cellarer, washes bowls and pots, and cleans the cat house. And treats: viral infections in such a large cat community, unfortunately, are inevitable. In a word, he does everything to keep them fed, healthy, and loved. He even writes about them in the newspaper, trying to place his pets: “If someone wanted to adopt a cat or kitten from the monastery, I would put the names of these people in a separate memorial and bow to the ground, even if it seems stupid to someone...”

In the meantime, more cats are dropped off at the monastery than taken away. In addition to cats, the monastery is home to chickens, a rooster, three cows, a goat, two dogs and a local landmark - the donkey Camilla. I ask: “Why is she here, what benefits does she bring?” - “No, she’s too spoiled, but it’s a joy for the soul...”1 Little knitted donkeys - sisterly handicraft - the nuns give to their friends, take them to fairs, where they are in constant demand. I remember how joyfully my friend here in Yakutsk showed me such a donkey - a monastery gift. Later, I saw the same toy in the cell of the Sretensky Monastery, where I came (what a miracle!) precisely to take a blessing for a trip to Baryatino. And now knitted Camilla lives in my son’s bedroom. Tomorrow - on the road. As every evening, there is a religious procession around the monastery. The nuns sing very beautiful prayers. I listen specifically and it seems like there’s nothing special; they sing here in the Transfiguration Cathedral, maybe even better. But here it’s completely different. It's as if the angels are heard.

Evening rule in the night temple. Silence, darkness, lamps are burning, candle lights are flickering. It seems that as soon as I leave, I will lose something very important, that almost thought-out thought will disappear, the thread will be lost... It seems that I have always lived here, I just left for a short time, everything is so familiar and close. And those problems that were so annoying at home go somewhere far away, and the answers to the tormenting questions appear on their own.

Elena BONDAR, Baryatino - Yakutsk.

The monastery was founded at the temple in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1995. The temple itself was built in 1796 with the money of the widowed Major General Anna Vasilyevna Pozdnyakova. Its architecture is an example of the Empire style. The temple has two altars, the main chapel is consecrated in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the second in honor of the holy unmercenaries and wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian of Rome.

After the revolution of 1917, the temple remained active until 1938, when its rector, Archimandrite Euphrosin (Fomin) and the chairman of the church council, Andrei Anokhin, were arrested and shot on a trumped-up case, and the elder Elena Kondratyeva was sentenced to 10 years in the camps. With the closure of the temple, all its property was confiscated, and the nearby orchard was cut down. During the period of fascist occupation, the Germans kept livestock in the church building.

In the 50s XX century the temple was opened. It was restored by priest Andrei Pavlikov, a retired colonel, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, who was awarded many awards. Father Andrey served in the church for 17 years. He had special care for the monastics who settled in the nearest villages from closed monasteries. Initially, services were held in a small chapel in honor of the unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, and then the main chapel was restored.

On February 28, 1972, Hieromonk Arkady (Afonin), a monk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, was appointed rector of the temple, who served there with a break from April 1, 1974 to September 1, 1975 until March 25, 1991, when the Holy Synod was appointed Bishop of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

With the blessing of Bishop Donat (Shchegolev) of Kaluga and Borovsk, Father Arkady began to create a female monastic community. He built a house at the temple in which the sisters’ cells were located. He invited experienced nuns who had taken monastic vows in the old monasteries to the created monastic community. The following settled in the community: nun Anastasia (Kuzmina), schema-nun Martha, monastic monk of Optina Meletia (Barmina), schema-nun Tikhona, nun Dorothea, nun Nikodima, nun Agnia, nun Ksenia, blind nun Julia, who was in the camps for several years, and others. Young sisters also came to the community, 3 of whom took monastic vows, and 4 took monastic vows.

With the opening of new monasteries and due to the advanced age of the sisters in the community, by the beginning of the 90s. only 4 nuns remained, and on April 4, 1993, with the blessing of Archbishop Clement, several nuns of the St. Nicholas Chernoostrovsky Monastery were sent to strengthen the monastic community in Baryatino. Big sister nun Theophila (Lepeshinskaya) was appointed. The community began to develop: new buildings were built, the number of nuns increased. On December 26, 1995, by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, the monastic community was transformed into a convent - the Nativity of the Virgin Hermitage, and nun Theophila was appointed abbess.

 

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