Annunciation Kirzhach Convent diocesan convent. Holy Annunciation Kirzhach Monastery Holy Annunciation Monastery
Story
The founder of the Kirzhachsky Annunciation Monastery is St. Sergius of Radonezh. Wanting to avoid conflict with his brother, Archimandrite Stephen, he, presumably in 1354, secretly left the Trinity Monastery on Makovets and went to his spiritual friend, the Monk Stephen of Makhrishchsky. According to one of the later Lives of St. Sergius, he did not leave alone, but together with his devoted disciple, St. Roman. After spending some time in the Makhrishchi Monastery, St. Sergius, taking a guide, set off in search of a place convenient for the desert life he desired. He found it on a high steep near the Kirzhach River. Here he again indulged in physical labor and prayer feat.
Having learned where St. Sergius was, his spiritual children began to move to live with him. With the blessing of the Metropolitan of Moscow, St. Alexis, the Monk built a small wooden church, which he consecrated in honor of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos. Four years later, with the blessing of St. Alexia, Rev. Sergius returns to the Trinity Monastery, and St. Novel. The date of foundation of the monastery is considered to be 1358. The first official rector of the Annunciation Monastery, founded by St. Sergius on Kirzhach, becomes his student, St. Roman Kirzhachsky. He fulfilled the commandment of his spiritual father: he built the Annunciation Monastery and became a model of ascetic life for his brethren.
Having multiplied the monastery buildings and decorated the Church of the Annunciation, Saint Roman reposed in 1392 (the same year as his teacher) and was buried near the walls of the Church of the Annunciation. Thanks to the fame of its founder, St. Sergius, the Kirzhachsky Monastery enjoyed great fame and attention of Russian tsars, princes and boyars. They gave him lands, villages and various lands, so that very soon he became one of the richest monasteries in northeastern Rus'.
By the middle of the 16th century, the Kirzhachsky Annunciation Monastery was the second of 14 ascribed monasteries to the Trinity-Sergius monastery. The abbot of the Kirzhachsky Monastery, who, as a rule, was appointed from among the monks of the Trinity Monastery, occupied the second step after the Trinity Archimandrite. It had 90 monks. The possessions of the monastery grew and were located not only in Pereslavl, but also in Dmitrovsky, Vladimir and Yuryevsky counties. The monastery had its own peasants, its own fishing, six water flour mills, two salt pans, income from fairs.
Until the middle of the 17th century, there were three churches in the monastery - Annunciation, Sergius and at the Holy Gates (XVI-XVII centuries). In 1656, the boyar Ivan Andreevich Miloslavsky erected a new stone church next to the Annunciation Church over the graves of his parents in honor of the All-Merciful Savior. Subsequently, this place becomes the family tomb of the Miloslavskys. In the 18th century, the Annunciation Monastery continued to flourish and expand. But in 1764 it was abolished by the Manifesto of Catherine II. His property was transferred to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the brethren were transferred partly there, partly to other monasteries. Monastic churches became parish.
In the middle of the 19th century, the founder of the silk industry in the city of Kirzhach, Alexander Petrovich Solovyov, was engaged in painting parish churches. In 1864-1869, his sons Peter and Alexander built the Church of All Saints with a high bell tower.
In Soviet times, the monastery did not function. In 1932-1934 the temple of St. Sergius of Radonezh was blown up. During the war years, the Annunciation Cathedral was used as an ammunition depot; at different times, its premises housed either a sausage shop or a kerosene shop. The city bakery was located in the Church of All Saints.
In 1989, two ancient monastery churches were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. On July 1, 1990, the first - since 1930 - Divine Liturgy was served in the Church of the All-Merciful Savior. The parish at the Cathedral of the Annunciation existed for five years. At this time, there was a hope to resume the activities of the monastery, but it did not come true. And on July 4, 1995, by decree of the Archbishop of Vladimir and Suzdal, Evlogy (Smirnov), the Annunciation Kirzhachsky Monastery was renewed as a female monastery. The first residents of the newly opened monastery were two novices of the Holy Dormition Convent in Alexandrov. They arrived at the monastery on July 12, 1995. One of them, nun Fotinia (later Abbess Maria (Stashevskaya)), was appointed the first abbess of the Kirzhach convent. In 1997, a shrine with the relics of Roman Kirzhachsky was installed in the basement of the Cathedral of the Annunciation. Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II took part in the crowded divine services on the occasion of the acquisition of the relics of Roman Kirzhachsky.
The community of sisters was nourished and supported by Archbishop Evlogii (Smirnov) of Vladimir and Suzdal, Confessor of the monastery Abbess of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra Kosma (Alekhin), Assistant Confessor Priest Sergiy Alfeev. On March 22, 2011, the nun Theodora (Trumpeter) was appointed abbess of the monastery, on April 7, 2011 she was elevated to the rank of abbess. Hieromonk Mercury (Dvinin) is currently the confessor of the monastic community.
The monastery observes a full daily circle of services. In addition, in the monastery, an indefatigable prayer is performed: the Holy Gospel for those who are well and the Psalter for the dead. Divine Liturgy in the monastery is performed 5 times a week. Once a month, a night service is performed (midnight office, matins and Divine Liturgy).
Within 20 years after the beginning of the revival of the monastery, the Annunciation Cathedral was restored, in which in August 2000 the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated since 1923. In its basement, a new church was built, consecrated in honor of the Monk Roman of Kirzhach and taking under its shade a shrine with his holy relics. Above the renewed source of St. Sergius, a new chapel stood up to replace the destroyed one. Above the monastery and the city, as a century ago, the restored bell tower of the Church of All Saints flaunts, and the temple itself, freed from foreign outbuildings, found new domes and was crowned with crosses. The architectural monastery complex was organically supplemented by a new private building and a house of goalkeepers. The monastery has recently reopened its central Holy Gates to the world.
The architectural ensemble of the Holy Annunciation Kirzhachsky Monastery currently includes the following buildings:
1. Cathedral of the Annunciation (XV-XVI centuries)
2. Church of the Savior (1656)
3. Church of All Saints with a bell tower (XIX century)
4. Gate Church (XVI-XVII centuries)
5. Holy gates with part of the fence (XVI-XVII centuries)
6. The building of the fraternal corps The fraternal corps (XVII-XX centuries)
7. Chapel of St. Sergius of Radonezh above his St. source (recreated in the 21st century on the site of the one destroyed in the 30s of the 20th century)
8. House of Goalkeepers (XXI century)
9. Cell building (XXI century)
Holidays and honored dates
Temples and Worships
By: Sat, Holidays
History does not tell us the names of the skilled architects who created this marvelous architectural monument. The Annunciation Cathedral is similar to the Trinity Cathedral of the Sergius Lavra, but was built a little later, at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century, presumably in the last years of the life of Grand Duke Ivan III († 1505)
Later, in the basement of the Annunciation Cathedral, Vasily III, the son of John III, built a chapel of Constantine and Elena, the heavenly patroness of his second wife, Elena Glinskaya. According to some researchers, this happened around 1530, when Vasily and Elena visited the Kirzhach Monastery in transit after the birth of the long-awaited son Ivan IV.
The Annunciation Kirzhachsky Cathedral, as well as the Trinity Cathedral of the Lavra, in terms of its architecture, size, harmony of spatial relationships and some decorative features can be attributed to the monuments of Moscow architecture. Its architecture is simple and at the same time majestic. It creates the impression of unusual harmony and artistic integrity. The building of the cathedral stands on a high basement, where on the south side of the altar in a copper tomb they rested under the shadow of the relics of St. Roman. A troparion and a kontakion to St. Roman were minted on the tomb. The top of the tomb was decorated with the image of the Monk, and the head with the image of the Life-Giving Trinity. Above the tomb was a gilded, carved canopy on four columns.
Now in the basement of the Annunciation Cathedral there is a temple, the throne of which was consecrated in honor of St. Roman of Kirzhach. The relics of the Kirzhach miracle worker rest in it.
According to an inventory of church property compiled in the 19th century, at that time the iconostasis of the Annunciation Church was wooden, three-tiered, had 47 icons, two of which - the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God and the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos - were local, in expensive silver vestments. The lower tiers of the iconostasis were decorated with 12 carved gilded columns.
Inside, the entire Annunciation Cathedral and its gallery were decorated with paintings. The temple was painted in 1857 by Alexander Petrovich Solovyov, and the gallery in 1878 by the painter Ilya Yakovlevich Yakovlev. In 1885, the paintings were renovated by the Moscow painter A.Ya. Storozhenko.
In 1918, the Annunciation Cathedral was nationalized and requisitioned by the military department. In the same year it was returned to believers, but only for free use. The most valuable property from the sacristy of the cathedral was sealed and registered by the Main Museum of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR. In 1923, the lease agreement with the parishioners of the cathedral was terminated. The temple taken away from the believers ended up under the jurisdiction of the newly established Kirzhach Church and Household Museum. In 1924, together with other ancient temples of the monastery, it was declared a "monument of history and architecture protected by the state" and registered with the Museum Department of the Glavnauka of the People's Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR.
Since 1924, the Cathedral of the Annunciation, together with the Church of the Savior, formed the basis of the Kirzhach museum complex. It housed an exposition of ancient Russian church art, consisting of icons of the 14th-17th centuries, silverware of the 15th-19th centuries, church utensils and sewing of the 16th-19th centuries, wood carvings, stone gravestones of the 15th and 17th centuries, ancient manuscripts and early printed books. . Most of these exhibits came to the museum from the cathedral sacristy and other "historical" churches of the Kirzhach district. The Annunciation Cathedral was in direct operation of the Kirzhach Museum until the end of 1928. During the entire existence of the museum, no repairs were made in it, and the temple began to collapse. By 1928, one of its altar apses had a through vertical crack, the roof was leaking.
After the cessation of the activities of the Kirzhach Museum, the Cathedral of the Annunciation was completely ruined. According to the surviving memoirs, in 1929 “everyone who wanted to go in and take whatever they wanted” entered it. At that time TORGSIN was working in Kirzhach, who calmly accepted what eager people ripped off from the icons and walls of the cathedral. In the summer of 1930, the Kirzhach City Council began an illegal "breakdown" of the Cathedral of the Annunciation. Upon learning of this, the Glavnauka of the People's Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR, in whose department he was, stood up for him. The monument of history and architecture was preserved, but due to the lack of funds for repairs and restoration, it turned out to be ownerless. The building continued to deteriorate, its wall paintings were destroyed. During the war, the Cathedral of the Annunciation was used as an ammunition depot. And in subsequent years, in its lower premises, there was either a sausage shop or a kerosene shop.
In 1963 - 1964, the Annunciation Cathedral, together with the Church of the All-Merciful Savior, was restored according to a plan developed under the guidance of architect I.A. Stoletov in the scientific restoration workshops of Vladimir. As a result of two years of work on the cathedral, a new dome and a cross covered with plowshares were installed. Due to dilapidation, as well as following the then existing concept of restoring churches in their original form, they dismantled the second floor of the gallery connecting the cathedral with the Spassky Church. stairs were built, door and window openings were repaired. No repairs were carried out inside the building, limited to its external whitewashing. After that, it remained ownerless for another 20 years.
In 1983, the city authorities of Kirzhach intended to open a museum in the Annunciation Cathedral. But since the repair and restoration work of the 1980s-1990s was carried out with a violation of technology, the monastery churches fell into disrepair, and the authorities were forced to abandon their plans. In 1990, the Cathedral of the Annunciation was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church.
The temple in honor and glory of All Saints was built in 1866 by the sons of the long-term headman and benefactor of the Annunciation Cathedral Alexander Petrovich Solovyov as a parish church after the abolition of the monastery. The sons wished to honor the memory of their pious parents and erected a church at their own expense not far from their grave.
Initially, the temple was warm, with one altar. It had two domes: above the church and above the altar. On the western side, a high five-tier bell tower was added to it, built according to the project of the Vladimir diocesan architect N.A. Artleben.
Under the bell tower, on its left side, a sacristy was arranged. The bell tower is remarkable for its strength and beauty. The largest bell in the bell tower, cast at the expense of the brothers Peter and Alexander Solovyov, weighed 549 pounds (8,784 kg). The second - polyeleos - the bell weighed 182 pounds (2912 kg). There were nine bells in all. Inside the temple, the walls and dome were painted by the remarkable Moscow artist N.G. Stepanov. He also painted icons for the magnificent gilded iconostasis.
On November 30, 1929, the city authorities closed the All Saints Cathedral. The “Tikhonovsky” parish, which has been in it since pre-revolutionary times, trying to defend its temple, wrote complaints to various authorities and sent walkers to Moscow. Thanks to their perseverance, the believers managed to regain their temple for a short time. However, in February 1930, at the height of the struggle for the cathedral, the Kirzhach OGPU arrested its clergy and the most active parishioners.
Priest Nikolai Prozorov, church warden Vasily Ilyich Shigolev, members of the church council Vasily Petrovich Borisov and Yakov Fedorovich Smirnov, "active churchman" Yegor Mikhailovich Karev and some other parishioners were accused of anti-Soviet activities and condemned by the Troika. At the end of February, the cathedral was closed for good.
The Kirzhach City Council intended to sell the empty building of the All Saints Cathedral "for rubble" to the Ivstroy office. But without obtaining permission from the regional authorities, in October 1930, the city authorities opened a public canteen in it.
According to the memoirs of Kirzhachsky, an old-timer Nikolai Matveyevich Kosolapov, for some time bright murals with biblical scenes remained intact on the walls of the dining room, but then they were painted over. Probably, at the same time, bells were removed from the bell tower of the Church of All Saints, among which was the 46-pood bell of the roundabout Alexei Ivanovich Rzhevsky, the great-nephew of Ivan Andreevich Miloslavsky.
By 1936, the Cathedral of All Saints, together with the bell tower and the gate "Royal" church, was converted into a Gorpo bakery. Transformed into a bakery, it existed until the 90s of the XX century.
During these years, the leadership of the ruined bakery offered the sisters of the reviving monastery to buy out the bell tower and the Church of All Saints. But the monastery refused to pay for its own church property. Soon these buildings went to the Kirzhachsky District Administration for debts, and it donated them to the Holy Annunciation Monastery.
To: Mon., Tues., Wed., Thu., Fri., Sun.
By: Sun, Holidays
At the eastern altar wall of the Annunciation Cathedral in 1656, a stone church in honor of the All-Merciful Savior was built at the expense of the boyar Ivan Andreevich Miloslavsky. This was evidenced by an inscription carved in ligature on a white-stone slab in the southern wall of the temple, which said that boyar Miloslavsky built this church "with his treasury over his parents and in his own soul an eternal commemoration"
The tomb of the boyars Miloslavsky was built under the church. The head of the family, boyar Ivan Andreevich, served as a roundabout under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, nicknamed the “Quiet” by the people, and was related to the first wife of the tsar, Maria Miloslavskaya. Ivan Andreevich was married twice; after the death of his first wife Agrippina Nikitichna, his wife was the granddaughter of the famous leader of the people's militia - Dmitry Pozharsky. To the great grief of the father, all his children (a son and four daughters) died in infancy, so this branch of the Miloslavsky boyars' genealogy was interrupted with his death in 1663.
In the tomb of the family there were 15 tombs, which had stone tombstones, decorated with artistic carvings. They had inscriptions made in ligature, from which it follows that representatives of the Miloslavsky family were buried here.
The Church of the Savior is a rare and interesting architectural type of a hipped-roof church “like a bell”. It is placed on the basement and ends with the original hipped bell tower.
On its corners, on the western side, there were two turrets: the northwestern one with a clock and the southwestern one, which covered the exit to the upper platform and to the ringing, where there were two large bells of 100 pounds and 46 pounds (1,600 kg and 736 kg, respectively) .
The Church of the Savior was connected to the Cathedral of the Annunciation by one common platform - a grove set on the arches of the basement. This technique of connecting two churches with one gallery is quite rare in Russian temple architecture.
Inside, the Church of the Savior was magnificently decorated: it had a wall painting made in 1856 by Alexander Petrovich Solovyov, a five-tiered gilded iconostasis with 74 icons, some of which belonged to the famous Moscow court icon painter of the 17th century Simon Ushakov.
After the October Revolution of 1917, the Church of the All-Merciful Savior shared the fate of the Cathedral of the Annunciation. From 1918 to 1923, it was rented by the community of believers of the Annunciation Cathedral. In the spring of 1922, when church valuables were confiscated under the pretext of helping the starving in the Volga region, two tombs of the 17th century were opened in the tomb of the Miloslavsky boyars in search of jewelry. However, apart from human remains and cypress icons, there was nothing in them, and the tombs were closed. In 1923, the Church of the Savior was transferred to the Kirzhach Church and Household Museum, and in 1924 it was registered with the Museum Department of the Glavnauka of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR as a monument of history and architecture.
Since 1924, the “household” part of the museum exposition was located in the basement of the Spassky Church - paintings, furniture, weapons, clothes, hats, a carriage and other things taken from the estates of the Kirzhach landowners, in particular, Prince I.N. Vadbolsky and Count Saltykov. Saints, castles, earthenware and wooden utensils, seamstresses, coins, etc. were also exhibited there. The museum experienced an acute shortage of funds and could not ensure its safety. Like the Cathedral of the Annunciation, the Church of the Savior was neither heated nor repaired during the "museum period". After the destruction of the Kirzhach Museum in 1929, it turned out to be completely abandoned. In the summer of 1930, the Kirzhach City Council, simultaneously with Blagoveshchensk, began the “breakdown” of the Church of the Savior. But the illegal destruction of the monument of history and architecture was stopped by the Glavnauka of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR.
In the following decades, the Church of the Savior was subjected to final looting and natural destruction. At that time, all stone tombstones with artistic carvings and a white stone slab with the name of the builder Ivan Andreevich Miloslavsky, which hung on the southern wall of this temple, disappeared from the tomb of the boyars Miloslavsky.
In 1963-1964, the Church of the All-Merciful Savior was restored together with the Cathedral of the Annunciation. A dome and a cross covered with a plowshare were installed on it. Door and window openings have been repaired. No renovation work has been carried out inside the building.
In 1983, when the city authorities of Kirzhach decided to use the monastery churches for public needs, it was planned to arrange a youth club on the first floor of the Church of the Savior, and install slot machines on the second floor. But the Lord did not allow another blasphemy to happen. And in 1990, the Church of the Savior, together with the Cathedral of the Annunciation, were transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. On July 1, 1990, the first Divine Liturgy was served by priest Stefan Benziuk after a long break. In 2008, an external restoration of the Church of the Savior was carried out. The temple was painted in its traditional yellow and white colors. The dome and the cross were renewed on the bell tower.
The temple is being restored.
Worship in the monastery
Since 1999, a children's Sunday school has been operating at the monastery, the head of which is Matushka Alexandra Alfeeva, and the confessor is Archpriest Sergiy Alfeev. About 60 children attend the school. Today it occupies part of the premises of the fraternal building. The parishioners of the monastery teach the pupils the Law of God, the History of the Church, Russian literature, the Church Slavonic language, needlework and singing. It is obligatory for students to attend the Divine Liturgy.
Confession and communion of all students during school holidays have become an established rule. Much attention is paid to working with parents with the aim of churching the family, which is facilitated by Sunday school classes for adults. The guys regularly prepare festive performances - on Christmas and Easter holidays, as well as on the Week of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, they perform in front of disabled children, students of a correctional boarding school.
The Sunday school also has its own small choir, which takes part in divine services. During the holidays, the children, together with their parents and teachers, make pilgrimages to holy places, and in the summer a summer camp is organized at the monastery courtyard. Graduates of the school study at the Orthodox St. Tikhon University, at the Moscow Theological Academy and the Vladimir Theological Seminary. The monastery provides the material base for the Sunday School and is the environment where today's children can see the practice of a pious life.
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Research work
In the Holy Annunciation Kirzhach Convent, a long-term research work is being carried out. In state archives and museums, search, copying and accounting for storage in the monastery archive of materials on the history of the monastery are carried out. The stories of the old-timers are recorded, the materials of their family archives of the Kirzhachians are copied. On the basis of already known and newly discovered sources, the previously written history of the monastery and the city of Kirzhach is clarified and supplemented.
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Orthodox youth association "Change" of the Holy Annunciation Kirzhachsky Monastery in Kirzhach
This youth association was created in 2011 primarily for graduates of the Sunday school of the Kirzhach Holy Annunciation Monastery and other Sunday schools of the Kirzhach deanery, as well as for all young people who want to learn more about the Orthodox faith, seeking communication with peers who are not alien to such concepts as morality, chastity, mercy, honor, patriotism. The public organization "Change" is a youth association of spiritual, moral and patriotic orientation. The name "Change" is not accidental. It comes from the Greek word "metanoia", which means "change of mind" in translation - a change of mind, like repentance - such a change in a person's life that turns him towards God. The resulting public organization is called upon, first of all, to unite our youth, to become for them that platform of communication where young people in a warm and sincere atmosphere could discuss their problems, get answers to burning questions, make their creative contribution to the life of youth club.
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social service
At the request of the administration of the Veteran Gerontological Center, the sisters of the monastery regularly conduct free tours of the monastery for vacationers and permanent residents of the center, as well as other social institutions.
As far as possible, we help those in need with things, food, medicines.
The monastery provides spiritual guidance to a special correctional school - a boarding school of the 8th type in the city of Kirzhach and a charitable shelter "Mother's House" in the village of Eltsy, Kirzhachsky district
Archpriest Sergiy Alfeev in the correctional boarding school 1-2 times a month, talks and prayers are held with children. The sisters of the monastery pass sweet gifts to the children for the holidays of the Nativity of Christ and Easter. Sunday school students congratulate the children of the boarding school on the holidays of the Nativity of Christ and Easter in the form of a small festive concert.
The Annunciation Monastery was founded by Sergius of Radonezh in the middle of the 14th century. Due to a conflict with his brother, Sergius left the Trinity Monastery and retired to the banks of the Kirzhach River. He chose this place on the advice of his friend, St. Stephen of Makhrishchsky, whose monastery is located a few kilometers to the north (we did not get there that day due to inconsistency with the dress code). Soon Sergius was joined by several more monks from the Trinity. The Church of the Annunciation was erected, and a new monastery arose. Later, the monk returned to the Trinity, but the Kirzhach monastery continued to exist. Its first abbot was the Monk Roman of Kirzhach, now revered in the monastery as a locally revered saint.
From the time of its foundation until the abolition, the monastery was dependent on the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, and was officially called the "Trinity-Sergius Monastery, the Monastery of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos on Kirzhach."
Kirzhach owes its existence to the Annunciation Monastery. It was from the monastery settlement in 1778 that the city of Kirzhach was formed by Catherine's decree. True, the monastery itself had already been abolished for twelve years after three hundred years of existence - as a result of Catherine's reforms. such is the dialectic.
In 1995 the monastery was revived as a convent.
Passing under the gate with the icon of the Reverend Founder, we will begin to get acquainted with the monastery buildings
The oldest building of the monastery is the Church of the Annunciation, erected in the middle of the 16th century.
More than a hundred years after secularization, in 1876, the parish Church of the Annunciation was elevated to the rank of a city cathedral.
Now the cathedral is being actively restored, so it was not particularly possible to photograph it in all its glory. 
apparently, the remains of a gallery around the temple. 
From the pre-Petrine era in the monastery there is another interesting temple -
in honor of the Origin of the Holy Trees of the Cross of the Lord, 1656 
Even in the last century, an inscription was preserved on the wall, which read:
in this monastery he built this church of the All-Merciful Savior with all church utensils
Boyar Ivan Andreevich Miloslavsky with his treasury over his parents
and according to his soul in eternal commemoration and he was buried under this church
As you know, the Miloslavskys were relatives of the first wife of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and held leading government posts under him.
Boyar Ivan Andreevich Miloslavsky (+1663) owned the village of Fedorovsky near the Kirzhachsky monastery.
The temple "like under the bells" of rather unusual shapes looks very expressive. Tried to capture it from all angles 
the gate with the gate church was also built in the 17th century, rebuilt in the 19th century. 
In 1865-1866, the traditions of the boyar Miloslavsky were continued. The Solovyov merchant brothers, owners of a local textile factory, erected the All Saints Church with a bell tower over the grave of their parents.
Heavily damaged, she, fortunately, survived 
Until the middle of the 19th century, the inhabitants of Kirzhach were buried inside the former monastery fence.
Now at the altar of the Church of the Savior, a few surviving tombstones have been collected 
The goalkeeper's house is already a modern building 
to the right of it - most likely a renovated fraternal building, based on a building of the 17th century 
Wonderful views open from the monastery to the Kirzhach valley. 
On the cliff above the well, dug, according to legend, by St. Sergius himself, a chapel was restored 
Well, that's actually all about the Kirzhachsky Annunciation Monastery.
Finally - one more photo 
From the hustle and bustle of the metropolis, the soul of an urban man every time asks to be free. Again and again she strives to fall to the source in order to drink that deep silence and joy, familiar to every pilgrim.
This time, with the blessing of the rector of our church, Father Anthony, the Devyatinsky youth club visited the Holy Annunciation Convent in the city of Kirzhach, Vladimir Region.
The monastery was founded in 1358 by the Abbot of the Russian Land, St. Sergius of Radonezh. According to legend, the brethren of the Trinity Monastery, headed by Stefan, the elder brother of the monk, murmured against their abbot, and he secretly left the monastery. Having gone around many places, Saint Sergius stopped near the Kirzhach River and set up a cell there in order to remain in peace after the great labor, as the life tells.
The monk labored in Kirzhach for four years. During this time, the brethren who followed him built a cell on the Kirzhachskaya steep and erected a wooden church, consecrated in honor of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos. Returning to the Trinity Monastery at the call of the Moscow Metropolitan, St. Alexis, the great Sergius chose a successor for himself - a faithful disciple and associate of the Monk Roman Kirzhachsky, who put a lot of work on the improvement of the monastery buildings and the decoration of the Annunciation Church. On July 29, 1392, Saint Roman peacefully departed to the Lord. In 1980, the Church ranked it among the Cathedral of Radonezh Saints.
Reverend Roman Kirzhachsky
The Holy Annunciation Monastery is not often visited by tourists and pilgrims, so we had the opportunity to somewhat feel and plunge into the innermost monastic life, as well as enjoy the surrounding nature, as the monastery is picturesquely located on a hill high above the Kirzhach River.
We got there quite quickly and joyfully with our big cheerful company. In the monastery, the sisters greeted us very warmly, immediately fed us tasty food, and before the service we set to work. Since it was cool, the sisters performed their obedience in the refectory and in the temple, the brethren - on the street. In the evening we went to the service, where the sounds of delightful singing seemed to take us to another world.
We were placed in a small cozy house, where the nuns of the monastery lived during the formation of the monastery after the Soviet regime.
We were lucky to communicate with the sisters of the monastery, and sometimes it was embarrassing from the care and attention that they provided us. The nuns seemed to glow with joy and love, which made their souls very warm and calm. Some of the nuns seemed very young, but despite this, they felt the wisdom of experience and humility, which are so rare in our lives. We were allowed to read the evening prayer rule together in the lower church near the shrine with the relics of St. Roman.
On Sunday, after the service, Sister Maria gave us a very interesting excursion with love, which lasted more than two hours. We were taken to places that are not usually shown to pilgrims, which, of course, was another pleasant surprise. In addition to the history of the founding and restoration of the monastery, we heard stories about the feat of the sisters who labored here earlier, invisible to the world, about miraculous healings through the prayers of St. Roman and the miraculous finding of his relics. We really didn't want to leave, but each of us should continue our ministry in our place, strengthened by living fellowship and an example of ascetic monastic life. On the way back, we shared our impressions of the trip and many expressed their sincere desire to come here more than once.
And again, we, like every pilgrim, are faced with the task of trying to carefully preserve that quiet light and joy of Christian life, reflected in the bright gaze of the nuns. No wonder they say monks are the light of the world!
Our Reverend Fathers Sergius and Roman, pray to God for us!
You can see a photo report of the trip.