Well, the truth has come to light about a piece of His Holiness Alexy’s personal savings:

“According to the materials of the Moscow Arbitration Court, in the accounts of Vneshprombank, whose license was revoked at the beginning of 2016, the personal savings of the late Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II (Alexey Ridiger) were kept. Now they are claimed by the heiress of the patriarch - the abbess of the Moscow courtyard of one of the Estonian monasteries of Alexandra Smirnov (Abbess Philareta), who has been Ridiger's closest associate since the mid-1960s.

Abbess Philareta, abbess of the Moscow metochion of the Holy Dormition Pukhtitsa convent (right), and abbess Seraphima, abbess of the St. John's convent in St. Petersburg

The heir to the fortune of Patriarch Alexy II (Alexey Ridiger), 80-year-old Alexandra Smirnova, filed an application with the Moscow Arbitration Court demanding that she be included in the list of creditors of Vneshprombank (the license was revoked in January 2016). It was there that there were accounts containing the personal savings of the late patriarch with a total amount of about 300 million rubles - 2.92 million dollars, 8829 euros and 9.37 million rubles; Smirnova demands that just over 305 million rubles be returned to her.

According to court materials (available to Meduza), Ridiger made a will back in 1976, appointing Alexandra Smirnova, a native of the Yaroslavl region, as his heir. As a source in the Russian Orthodox Church told Meduza, Smirnova, in spiritual life - Abbess Philareta, was the patriarch’s closest associate, who spent more than 40 years next to him. Now Philareta is the abbess of the Moscow metochion of the Pyukhtitsa Holy Dormition stauropegial (that is, subordinate directly to the patriarch) convent, located in Estonia.

In her book “Abbess. For holy obedience” Philareta (Smirnova) recalled that she entered the Pyukhtitsky monastery in 1956, when she was 20 years old. And ten years later, in 1966, Filareta and her cellmate were sent to obey the future patriarch - then Alexy was the Archbishop of Tallinn and Estonia, as well as the manager of the affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate. “Then I began to come to Pyukhtitsa, accompanying [Alexy],” wrote the abbess. It is interesting that her book was published in 2013 with the money of a major trustee of the Pyukhtitsa Monastery, Maxim Liksutov, who has headed the Moscow Department of Transport since 2012.

In 2005, in an interview with Gazeta, Alexy II said that obedience at the patriarch’s residence is carried out by nuns from the Pukhtitsa Holy Dormition Convent. “They are led by Abbess Philareta, who has been running the farm for over 40 years. She selects the household staff,” said the patriarch. It was Philareta who was the first to learn about the death of Alexy II - she found the patriarch dead on December 5, 2008.

In court against Vneshprombank, the interests of Abbess Philareta are represented by lawyer Kravtsov. He also represents the interests of the co-chairman of the Union of Orthodox Women of Russia, Anastasia Ositis, at the trial. She met Abbess Filareta and the future patriarch back in the 1970s in Estonia. Anastasia Ositis and her daughter Irina Fedulova were shareholders of Vneshprombank at least until 2008. The Ositis reception declined to comment."

“The Moscow Arbitration Court, at the request of the heiress of the late Patriarch Alexy II, Alexandra Smirnova, decided to include in the register of creditors’ claims the inheritance “stuck” in Vneshprombank in the amount of almost 300 million rubles, it follows from the court materials.

However, the temporary administration introduced at the bank established that as of January 21, 2016, assets actually amounted to only 40.43 billion rubles, with liabilities amounting to 250.55 billion rubles, RIA Novosti reports.

Alexy II (Alexey Ridiger), according to the case materials, made a will for Alexander Smirnov back in 1976. The inheritance, as of 2009, consisted of two dollar accounts, an account in euros and an account in rubles. The principal amount was kept in dollars.

Smirnova filed a lawsuit to recover the equivalent of 305.6 million rubles from the bank. However, the court found the demand for only 297.5 million rubles justified.”
http://vz.ru/news/2016/12/5/847678.html

***
But he is not a fool to keep all donations and labor savings in one basket and in one country. There are also foreign accounts.

During her lifetime, Philareta always called her millionaire employer “Holy.”

But why he, or even his successor, would need that kind of money is beyond our intellect. The patriarch lives “under communism.” He holds the post for life. Clothes, vestments, utility bills, food and premium transport - everything is free and for life. There are no children of their own (?), distant relatives have already been well provided for for a long time. Every day they bring him new gifts and envelopes. At the same time, he has completely uncontrolled access to any church accounts.

Why, in such a situation, multimillion-dollar and ever-increasing personal nest eggs? This is the purest example of pure beauty. An example of captivity by passion.

And yet the language, which habitually calls on others to live in modest poverty and asceticism, has never faltered...

And again we listen to Fr. Vsevolod:

“The bishop has practically nothing extra, he cannot pass on anything by inheritance, because he has nothing in particular, he cannot pass on anything to his brothers or sisters, or anyone else like that. A priest usually has personal property.”

I won’t cling to the word “superfluous”. Perhaps this is a printing error and refers only to the bishop's "personal" property.

Alas, here too Fr. Vsevolod is telling a lie. Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, as a rule, have an excess of personal property. So I go out into the courtyard of my Moscow church and can show with my finger the houses (within direct visibility) in which six bishops have their completely private apartments (and four of them are in one house).

During the time known to me, one of them retired - and from a distant diocese moved to live in this particular Moscow apartment. During the same time, two of my other bishop neighbors changed their sees - and the bishops who were appointed to their former sees did not move into their Moscow apartments. Yes, none of these bishops are Muscovites. These are precisely the apartments they acquired during the years of their episcopal service.

The rationale is simple: a) you never know how my relationship with the patriarchy will develop - I must have at least some kind of economic independence from it; b) it is not right for a bishop to live in a Moscow hotel, where he can run into prostitutes. I don’t know what doesn’t suit them about the two patriarchal hotels in Moscow (“Danilovskaya” and “Universitetskaya”).

Therefore, quite often the path of expansion of a bishop’s personal real estate is as follows: an apartment in a diocesan city - a house in the suburbs - an apartment in Moscow - real estate abroad. Everything is like people. Well, those of them who belong to the upper class in terms of their income and consumption standards.

But you still need to help your loved one. The list of relatives who improve their living conditions for the light of their Eminence relative can be quite wide.

And sometimes it’s quite interesting: one pious elderly provincial bishop collects funds from the priests and transfers them to his beloved niece - she needs a lot of money to make a career as a pop singer in Moscow.

Chaplin likes to say that bishops are childless, and therefore they have no heirs. Which, in his opinion, means that all their property is not personal. Well, I’m ready to live under such communism: everything will be brought to me according to my desire, everything will be serviced not at my expense. I just can’t bequeath anything. Cars, a driver, servants... Yes, this is even tastier than having it as purely personal property: none of it gives me a headache.

By the way, oysters eaten by an ordinary rich person cannot be passed on by inheritance either. As well as the money he spent on the cruise voyage. Or all kinds of services. Or cars he bought not in the last 2-3 years of his life. So, let's not consider all this as luxury goods?

So the ability to bequeath something cannot at all be a criterion for whether it is compatible with declared asceticism or not.

Bishops are excellent at converting even diocesan property into their own. If, when moving to another diocese, the outgoing bishop left his successor a diocesan vehicle fleet - this does not look like a rule, but like a miracle.

They know how to store the eggs they accumulate in different baskets.
Once our bishop abroad received an order from the Patriarchate to restore his cathedral for the anniversary. They gave him an order, but they forgot to transfer the money. And his diocese was indeed poor. Then this ruler decided to turn to the Greek bankers. They happily came to the dinner party. But while the bishop was delivering a long speech on the topic of Slavic-Hellenic friendship and pan-Orthodox brotherhood, the bankers quietly, silently and bowing deeply, left. Tradition says that by the end of his speech, only one banker remained in the hall. The Bishop asked him: “Did I say something wrong? Why did they leave? To which his interlocutor replied: “Vladyka, dear, you said everything wonderfully! The 5-6 million dollars that you are asking for is, in general, a small amount for us, and we could very well give it to you. But we are bankers. We know who holds what money in our banks. Believe me, Vladyka, your Moscow bishops keep such funds in our banks that the amount you ask for is completely insignificant. So ask yours!”

I will also note that bishops, as a rule, set a small official salary for themselves - in order to exclude requests from their subordinate employees of the government to increase their salaries (even Patriarch Alexy once responded to my request in exactly this way). Like, you can’t get more than me! The fact that the bishop does not live on his salary at all is taken out of the equation. Accordingly, they do not make all their personal expenses out of what they earn. This is the case when “state” wool is, in principle, indistinguishable from personal wool. And this means that the personal real estate they purchase is a waste of church money. The money that the priests took from their families and their parishes.

One more nuance: the precious episcopal vestments, accumulated by the bishop throughout his life, are usually not inherited by anyone. Is it possible to see the vestments of Patriarch Alexy on Patriarch Kirill? No - everything is brand new (the only exception is the enthronement red vestment, which is taken out once a year on the day of celebrating the anniversary of the enthronement).

... After the death of Patr. Alexy, a commission was created to inventory his personal property. There was a lot of work (money-grabbing was not alien to the deceased). Everyone is tired. And already at two o'clock in the morning, suddenly a box filled with panagias is found under his bed. Everyone looks at each other in horror: describing each little thing separately is an extremely long process. Then Vladyka Arseny pushes the box back under the bed with his foot and says to the secretary: “Write: “box with panagia!” This act of Vl. I find Arseny quite humane.

But where is the promised publication of the diary of Patriarch Alexy? What is the fate of his accounts and assets? Silence.

In Estonia it is special place of pilgrimage not only Orthodox from Russia and the Baltic states, but also from many other countries. People come here from all over the world, regardless of visa requirements and border formalities. They travel alone and in groups, for a long time and for one or two days. Someone comes on an excursion to get acquainted with the life of the monastery, someone goes for work and prayer, and others direct their feet to these regions in order to undergo a difficult but blessed monastic feat.

The monastery itself is located in the small village of Kuremäe, which means “Crane Mountain,” in northeastern Estonia, about 30 kilometers from the Russian border. Twice a week (on Mondays and Fridays) there is a direct bus from Tallinn to Kuremäe (the journey usually takes about three hours). On other days, getting here is also easy: you can take an intercity bus to the city of Jõhvi, and from Jõhvi you can take a commuter bus to Kuremäe (on weekdays there are 7 - 8 trips a day, on weekends buses run less frequently).

The trip from Jõhvi to Kuremäe took me about an hour. I got off at the last stop, near the grocery store. A wide road led up to the monastery gates, with pretty birch trees bordering it on both sides. Approaching the gate, I crossed myself and walked inside with reverence. “What a blessing that I finally managed to come to Pyukhtitsa,” I rejoiced when I stepped onto the grounds of the monastery.

I didn’t know the road to the abbot’s house, there were no signs at the entrance, and I couldn’t find the guards on duty either. Following the instructions of the nun I met, I went out to three identical houses located opposite the entrance to the largest temple - the Assumption Cathedral. After additional questioning, we managed to find out that the abbess’s house is the one in the middle.

It turned out that I entered the monastery through the utility gate. The Holy Gates are located near the Assumption Cathedral, and, of course, there is a duty officer there, ready to help a visiting pilgrim.

The monastery pleasantly surprised me with its neatness and cleanliness. It was also neat and clean in the pilgrimage hotel where I was accommodated for two days. The meal for the pilgrims was unusually tasty and nutritious; I especially liked the apple confiture and the monastery cottage cheese and sour cream. Of course, behind all this beauty, splendor and neatness lies the painstaking daily work of the sisters and those pilgrims who come to the monastery to share part of their concerns with the nuns.

Pyukhtitsky Assumption Convent was founded in 1891. According to legend, there was an apparition of the Mother of God near the mountain in the village of Kuremäe in the 16th century. Near the place where the Mother of God appeared, an icon of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary was found in the branches of an oak tree. Since that time, local residents began to call the mountain Pyukhtitskaya, translated from Estonian - Saint. He played a major role in the formation of the monastery holy righteous John of Kronstadt , patron and spiritual mentor of the first sisters. Since 1891, the Pukhtitsa Monastery didn't close for a single day; Patriarch Alexy II has shown significant concern for him since the time he ruled the Tallinn diocese. Since June 1990, the monastery has been stauropegial, that is, it is directly subordinate to His Holiness the Patriarch.

MOTHER FILARETA ABOUT HERSELF AND ABOUT MONASTERY LIFE

Since the founding of the monastery, there have been seven abbesses. From 1968 to February 2011, the monastery was ruled by Abbess Varvara (Trofimova). The eighth abbess in November 2011 was Abbess Philareta (in the world - Ksenia Viktorovna Kalacheva). She is originally from Samara and entered the monastery in 1992.

Mother Philareta tells:

I was born into an Orthodox family, my biography is the most ordinary: school, then the biological department of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Kuibyshev State University. I really love the city where I was born, the Volga, central Russia. This is my homeland, and you always treat it with reverence - after all, it is impossible to forget the place where you spent your childhood, those people with whom you grew up. Every summer my parents tried to take us children to the Black Sea. I was a serious swimmer, and these trips to the sea not only brought me joy, but also had a positive effect on my health. And then one day I returned home after another such trip, all tanned. Maybe I was in my third year or fourth year, I don’t remember exactly. After Sunday Liturgy, I decided to quickly approach the cross to venerate myself and run about my business. And at this time our Samara ruler John (Snychev) was preaching a sermon.

- Future Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga?

Yes, he ruled the Kuibyshev diocese from 1969 to July 1990. Mom was his spiritual daughter, loved him very much and turned to him for advice. So, on that Sunday, Vladyka said that people spend their days meaninglessly, waste their time carelessly. He said that they lay on the beach like pigs, burning under the sun. I felt that this was said for me. She decided not to approach the cross, quietly walked away and left the temple in shame. At home I consulted with my mother: maybe we should go to a monastery, work hard, and pray? We will help the monastery, and it will be beneficial for our soul. Mom replied: “Let’s ask the bishop where he recommends, and we’ll go there.” Vladyka had just been transferred to St. Petersburg, and he blessed us to go to Pyukhtitsa. This is how I became acquainted with the Pukhtitsa Monastery.

In the summer of 1991, after passing the exams, I went with my mother to Estonia,” Mother Abbess continues. - Mom then returned to Samara to work, and I stayed for the whole summer; I didn’t want to leave. She began to ask to enter the monastery. Mom, of course, understood everything, but asked me to graduate from the university and get a diploma. I was in a different mood: who in the monastery would benefit from my profession - embryologist and geneticist? What will I do with this diploma? However, Bishop John also said that his studies needed to be completed. I asked Mother Superior Varvara, but her answer was the same: “Finish your studies!” It seemed to me then that the doors of the monastery were closed to me.

- This was probably a big disappointment for you?

Yes, a year of bitter waiting and testing has come for me. I really liked it in the monastery, although I I immediately noticed the colossal amount of work the sisters do. Everyone worked. I helped at the hotel, from morning to night and from night to morning. There was no free time at all. Sometimes we didn’t even have time for the service: we had to clean up after the guests, wash them, dust them... Some say that all this is vanity. Of course, in all human affairs there is no escape from vanity, but Despite being constantly busy, the sisters never forgot about prayer. And the work was creative, for the glory of God and for the good of the holy monastery. As Mother Varvara said, work can be equated to prayer if it is done with a feeling of gratitude to God and is perceived as serving the Lord.

- Which is probably not easy, especially if the work is exhausting and hard...

I remember how we went to mow. The older sisters went to mow, and we left later to dry the hay. You start turning this hay (and the places here are humid, the heat is hard to bear), and out of habit you become tired not so much from the work as from the heat. In addition, huge gadflies flew into the field and caused terror. And among this heat and frightening insects a voice sounds: “Sisters, come and drink tea!” It’s the samovar sister who lit the samovar and is calling. Everyone comes tired, sits down to drink tea, makes fun of each other, but kindly, without any anger, without sarcasm. It immediately felt easy and good, and even the fatigue went away. This captivated me, and therefore I already wanted to work with them, I wanted to stay with them forever. I was captivated by this sisterly love, although, of course, they could quarrel for a short time, they are still people. But that's how it was not like what's happening in the world, everything was different, with a different attitude towards each other. I have never seen such a life before... But alas, I had to return to Samara to study. After Pyukhtitsa, everything suddenly became foreign to me at home, even my room. Mom, of course, was upset, realizing that I would leave.

It’s hardest for mothers,” says Abbess Philareta. - They are the first to lay this cross on themselves: it’s not easy to bless your child on the monastic path, give it to the Lord and not regret it. Although, I think, a mother’s heart will always grieve. Every parent wants their child to be with them, to support them in old age, to console them, to strengthen them. Parents go to great lengths, sending their child to a monastery and depriving themselves of consolation, but the Lord will reward them for this a hundredfold.

In Samara, Ksenia Kalacheva successfully completed her last year at the university and received a diploma, as Bishop John and Abbess Varvara ordered her. Saying goodbye to her native land, she bought a train ticket and left for Estonia, to her much-loved Pyukhtitsa, dreams of which had filled her all last year. Here Ksenia again plunged into monastic life, but not as a pilgrim, but as a full-fledged nun of the monastery, carrying out, together with all the sisters, the feat of work and prayer that she had chosen for the rest of her life. At first she helped in the monastery hotel, worked in the barnyard, then again there was work in the hotel and, finally, obedience in the abbot's room. Ksenia was tonsured into the ryassophore in November 1993, and into the mantle in March 2002. In November 2011, nun Philareta became the abbess of the Pyukhtitsa monastery.

WHO ENTERS THE MONASTERY

Now Abbess Philareta bears the difficult task of managing the monastery in which she lives about 120 sisters(of which approximately 90 are nuns and nuns, and the rest are novices). Before the collapse of the USSR, the monastery was mainly replenished with sisters from Russia. And these days, with the closed eastern border and visa regime with the CIS countries, this has probably become difficult. I asked Mother Superior about this.

Of course, it has become more difficult due to the closure of borders. People have to apply for foreign passports and obtain visas, but, as before, Those who wish have the opportunity to come to the monastery and also enter the monastery. Those accepted as sisters eventually receive a residence permit in Estonia. So even today the monastery is replenished mainly with sisters from Russia and the CIS countries.

In Russia itself, many monasteries have opened in recent years, so there is a lot of competition,” Mother Philareta notes with a smile. - A Previously, our Pyukhtitsky monastery was the only women’s monastery on the territory of the USSR, where a young girl could enter, not counting the isolated small monasteries that remained in the territory of Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova. But nowadays there are other problems. Unfortunately, very few people now go to the monastery. This is the situation in Russia, and in other places. I don’t even know what exactly this is connected with, but I assume that there are many reasons... Our time is very difficult. A huge country fell apart, customary ideals were overthrown - all this, of course, affected the new generation. I can’t imagine what we would have become if we had grown up in the same conditions. And how much untruth and cynicism falls on young people through the media! Concepts such as loyalty, constancy, devotion are being erased... People are becoming more and more fickle. If such people come to the monastery, they do not stay, but move from one place to another. And this is also a problem. True, we have less such turnover, due to the visa regime. Among the reasons why few people go to monasteries these days, one can also mention the fact that today few young people live in rural areas, and after finishing school, many of them try to move to the city. But the monasteries always had the most inhabitants from the peasant class, who knew how and loved to work on the land.

Listening to Mother Filareta and largely sharing her opinion, I still talk about the positive aspects of the fall of the communist regime. After all, it was thanks to the collapse of the totalitarian Soviet system that the Church finally gained freedom. There were no obstacles to opening new parishes, holding services in prisons and hospitals, missionary work and church preaching.

Yes, there is freedom of the Church,” Mother agrees with me. - But look how many sects have surfaced, how many people have gone to the side. I don’t know how to explain this, but, despite the period of church revival, not so many young people began to go to church, and a small proportion of them choose monastic life.

I remember how Abbess Varvara used to choose nuns. Thirty young girls stood in front of her, and she said: “No, girl, you are not on a monastic path, no, you can’t go to a monastery...” As a result, out of thirty, she chose three or four. There were many people then who wanted to live in the monastery. What now? For example, in 2011, only four girls contacted us, three from Russia, and one from the Baltic states. Two had to be refused - one was seriously ill and would not have been able to carry out monastic obediences, and the second had small children (divorced). I explained to her that the children must first be raised and put on their feet, and that in the monastery you cannot hide from your responsibilities and sorrows. Of course, many people who come to the monastery see the external splendor and are immersed in grace, but sometimes they do not quite understand what titanic work is behind it.

“Indeed, this is a lot of work,” I thought. “After all, this is not only daily worship, cleaning, cooking and taking care of receiving pilgrims.” The monastery has large subsidiary farm: 75 hectares of land on which grain crops, various vegetables and fruits are grown (including apples, from which the confiture that I like so much is then made). There is a barnyard where cows, goats and chickens live. In May, on the day of memory of St. St. George the Victorious, before releasing the cattle to pasture, a water prayer service is served in the barnyard (according to the monastic tradition, colored bows are tied to the horns of cows on this day). The monastery also has sewing, art and bookbinding workshops. In a word, everything in the monastery is aimed at living off the labor of one’s hands without unnecessary outside help.

Thank God, everything in the monastery functions well and is debugged,” mother emphasizes. - Although I won’t hide it, we still need an influx of new nuns, we need young forces. Moreover, we are the only stauropegic monastery of the Moscow Patriarchate in the European Union.

There are almost always a lot of pilgrims and sightseers in Pyukhtitsa. Estonians who have no connection with Orthodoxy also come here. I wonder what motivates the native inhabitants of Estonia who direct their steps to the walls of the monastery: purely cultural interest, the desire to get acquainted with one of the sights of their country, or the desire to learn about the faith that the nuns of the monastery profess?

I think Estonians love the monastery as an architectural monument, as one of the most beautiful places in their country, they are proud of it, they love to come here and bring guests; they love the monastery,” emphasizes Mother Philareta. - They respect the way of life that we adhere to. More than once I was told that all this is very high and beautiful, and one can admire it all. And it sounded very sincere.

MONASTERY SERVICES

Life in Pyukhtitsa, as in any other monastery, is unthinkable without daily services. The main temple in which services are held is the Assumption Cathedral. It is in it that the icon of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, miraculously found more than 400 years ago, is located, as well as the miraculous image of St. Nicholas, the Pukhtitsa icon of the Mother of God and other shrines of the monastery.

Sometimes services are performed in other churches - in the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh, which is on the top of the Pyukhtitsa Mountain, the Refectory Church in the name of St. Simeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess, in the house church in honor of St. Alexy and the Great Martyr Barbara, as well as in the cemetery Church in the name of St. Nicholas and St. Arseny the Great. Divine services are traditionally performed in Church Slavonic, but in some cases, during cathedral services, individual litanies and exclamations can be pronounced in Estonian. Now there are three full-time priests serving in the monastery: Archpriest Dimitry Khodov, Abbot Samuil (Karask), and Priest Vyacheslav Karyagin.

Archpriest Dimitri is the senior priest of our monastery; he has served us for more than thirty years,” says Abbess Philareta. - Our second priest, Father Samuil, is an Estonian who converted to Orthodoxy. There is also Father Vyacheslav, a clergyman of the Estonian diocese, but he has a secular job (he works as a road engineer), so he is able to serve in the monastery only on Saturday and Sunday.

Well, through confessors and the Sacrament of Confession, the Lord heals the souls of the nuns of the monastery, as well as the souls of those who go to the monastery for spiritual nourishment. And although the town of Kuremäe for CIS citizens is behind the veil of a visa regime, people find the opportunity to come to the “Crane Mountain” (as a rule, consular service workers are friendly towards pilgrims). In addition, Estonia has no borders with the countries of the European Union (part of Schengen), and yet several million Orthodox Russians live in the EU, as well as Orthodox Christians of other nationalities. AND The doors of the Pukhtitsa monastery are open to everyone, where under the Protection of the Mother of God and at the intercession of St. righteous John of Kronstadt, a great prayer is performed for the whole world and, of course, for the Estonian land, on which, by the will of God, this amazing and beautiful monastery fell to be.

Interviewed by Sergey Mudrov

Abbess Philareta (Kalacheva)

About genetics and Darwin, temptations on the state border and about monastic life abroad, MV magazine talks with the abbess of the Pyukhtitsa Assumption Stauropegic Convent, Abbess Filareta (Kalacheva).

Abbess Filareta (in the world Ksenia Viktorovna Kalacheva) was born in 1968 in the city of Samara, where she graduated from Samara University, and on July 7, 1992 she entered the Pyukhtitsa monastery as a novice. She passed obediences in the hotel, on the choir, was a photographer for the monastery, was the senior cell attendant at the abbot’s house for many years, carried out assignments for construction work, and also took part in the publication of books on the history of the monastery. On November 17, 2010, by the Decree of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', Kirill was appointed acting abbess of the monastery, and on November 19, 2011, she was elevated by His Holiness to the rank of abbess with the presentation of the abbot's staff.

"Let me help you"

Mother Philareta, how do you remember your life path?

It’s probably not time to talk about my life’s journey yet; my life was quite ordinary and not full of special events. Rather, it can be defined as the path to the Church. And, probably, in this sense, in many ways it was easier for me than for others, because I come from a believing family. We come from Samara, a city on the Volga. Mother, Natalya Georgievna, was cared for by the future Metropolitan John (Snychev), then still Archbishop of Kuibyshev and Syzran. She herself loved monasticism very much, revered it, considering it a spiritual peak. Her faith was greatly strengthened by a visit to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the Upper and Lower Caves, where the incorruptible relics of many ascetics of piety rest.

However, raising a child in faith is one thing, raising a conscious person is another. Now I understand that for a long time I went to church because of my mother, out of respect for her. Having already entered Samara State University, I tried to attend early liturgy: it was very convenient, by 9 o’clock in the morning you are already free and you have the whole Sunday ahead, which you can spend on meeting with friends and relaxing. Mom, watching me, of course, understood that in my heart I was still far from deep, true faith, but my parents were very delicate and, praying, patiently waited for an awakening from my spiritual carelessness.

Everything changed after a personal meeting with Bishop John (Snychev). This happened, undoubtedly, through maternal prayer. Mom was supposed to come to the diocese. Seeing that she had a heavy bag, she suggested to her: “Let me help you.” And so we went together to receive Vladyka John. I sat quietly and waited for my mother to free herself, but unexpectedly the Bishop invited me for a conversation. This meeting became fateful.

How have you changed after this meeting with the Bishop?

After this meeting, I realized that there is a completely different life, a spiritual one. Faith, by its nature and essence, is a deeply personal matter, and it truly lives only in the heart of every person. And only when the teaching of the Church, Her Truth, becomes your faith, your personal experience and, as a result, the content of life - only then does this faith live.

And if you look closely and think about how the transfer of faith from one person to another takes place, it will become obvious that it is personal experience that truly convinces and inspires and converts.

Much has changed in the worldview, but most importantly, a conscious desire to pray has appeared.

Years passed and my studies continued. Once, returning from a student vacation, which she spent near the Black Sea, she came to the cathedral for a service. After the liturgy, Bishop John delivered a sermon that spoke about how recklessly a person wastes the time allotted to him for earthly life. Instead of saving their immortal souls, people lie on the beach like pigs to get a suntan. Having heard this, I, of course, did not dare to approach the blessing...

At home, having told my mother about what I had heard, she suggested: “Let’s go to a monastery next year, work there, help, and receive spiritual benefits.” She agreed, and Bishop John gave his blessing to go to Pyukhtitsa.

And how was the trip?

I crossed the threshold of the monastery gate and immediately realized that I was at home, that my place was here. I didn’t want to leave, but I had to finish my studies - there was one year left before graduating from university.

“I’ll take you, I’ll take you!”

What specialist has the world lost?

She studied at the Department of Embryology and Genetics, Faculty of Chemistry and Biology. She defended her thesis on mutogenesis.

Was biology taught within the framework of the Darwinian evolutionary hypothesis?

There has always been a difficult attitude towards Charles Darwin, or rather his evolutionary theory, but this is the great work of a great scientist, and it must be treated with respect. But that's not what we're talking about. The university school was good, the teachers were wonderful. I remember my teachers with a feeling of gratitude. A well-thought-out curriculum from years 3 to 5 immersed us in specific practical work. The scientific topic on which our group worked was ordered by one of the Kuibyshev enterprises and was of an applied nature. The Soviet education system cannot be compared with the current one. Compared to today's excellent students, the then C-grade student looks almost like a luminary of science.

The decision to stay in the monastery, as I understand it, was unexpected. But your mother insisted on finishing your studies?

Yes, she insisted. And not only she, but also the Bishop, and Mother Varvara, the Abbess of the Pyukhtitsa Monastery - all unanimously set the condition: to finish my studies. I remember very well how my sisters walked me to the bus. I drove to Jõhvi, from there to Leningrad, then by plane to Samara. And here’s an amazing feeling: I arrived at my home, where everything is close and familiar, but everything that was familiar yesterday has become foreign today. It became difficult for me to be in the world; without a monastery I felt like a sprout without fertile soil. Mom, seeing my condition, sent me to Pyukhtitsa for the winter holidays. Then I was able to meet with Mother Varvara and talk frankly about my desire to enter the monastery. “I’ll take you, I’ll take you, you finish your studies, get a diploma and come - I’ll take you!” - Mother reassured me.

Have you received your diploma and come here straight away?

Yes, I went straight away. Summer 1992, at the station in what was then still Leningrad, it turned out that tickets to Estonia were sold only to those who had Estonian registration. I ask at the ticket office: “How can we get to Estonia now?” The cashier, a woman, answered sharply: “You won’t get in!” Tears started flowing from my eyes. Mom reassured me. We went to Vladyka John, already Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga. He invited us to dinner. Having learned about what had happened, they thought about it and said: “Well, apparently, this is not God’s will... Maybe you’ll go to Karpovka, to the St. John’s Monastery? Or is the Iversky Monastery opening in Samara?” I answer: “Vladyka, if you do not bless me to be in Pyukhtitsa, then say so. But I won’t go to any other monastery.” He smiled: “Yes, I’m testing you! Otherwise you’ll say later that you forcibly sent me to Pyukhtitsa!” And then he asked: “What do you think we should do?” We asked him to write a certificate that we were going to Estonia with humanitarian aid from the St. Petersburg diocese. Using this certificate, we bought tickets and crossed the border safely.

And Pyukhtitsa, of course, was empty by this time. For obvious reasons, the flow of pilgrims from Russia has dried up. It was strange to see the monastery deserted. And some sisters also left: out of 170 nuns, about 30, and these were “working youth.” The closed border and rumors about the new style have scared many. And the enemy of the human race, of course, intensified all these fears.

Behind the stone wall

And your monastic everyday life began.

Yes. We went to mowing the very next day. They found me a scythe, taught me how to mow, and put me in a row with experienced mowers. And we went out to mow early, at 4 in the morning, and mowed at dawn. The old sisters squinted beautifully: a synchronized swing in one breath, a strong impression of their spiritual and physical strength has been preserved to this day.

After the border was closed, the Pukhtitsa Monastery went through difficult times. The monastery was left without the support of male labor and without heating. Mother Abbess Varvara had to do more than just organize the life of the monastery in new conditions. The issue of firewood procurement became acute. The Kohtla-Järve city government helped - they allocated us a section of the park, which we had to thin out, according to the principle, out of 10 trees we leave five, and cut down the other five for the monastery. There was a lot of work, but I don’t remember the sisters being discouraged. On the contrary, at obedience there was always an atmosphere of jokes, encouraging each other. In Pyukhtitsa, the sisters always worked conscientiously and were not afraid of work.

How did the attitude of ordinary Estonians and the Estonian state in general towards the Pukhtitsa Monastery begin to change in the 90s? Wasn’t it perceived as a “Russian citadel”, a “Russian fortress”?

Well, this is just a stereotype, a journalistic template, unfortunately, for some reason very widespread in Russian society. No, nothing like that happened and no - Estonians sincerely love Pyukhtitsa. By the way, on the issue of media responsibility: some publication will publish material with such reasoning, and this can very seriously spoil relations between peoples. It is clear that the media often “play” by some of their own rules. After this you will hardly trust the news.

But Mother Varvara, judging by your monastery museum, loved to listen to the radio...

Yes, but we must make a reservation: she listened to the Radonezh radio station. Moreover, it is difficult to do this in our monastery: the Assumption Cathedral physically blocks the radio waves coming from the East. Experts came to us and were amazed at how powerful our walls are, that they even protect us from radio waves. It took my mother’s patience to tune the receiver and deal with interference until the end of the two-hour broadcast, but for me, 10-15 minutes were enough to “listen enough.” Although there was no need to stand by the radio for the entire program: mother would listen to everything in full and retell it to us in detail.

I am glad that you speak about Mother Varvara in the present tense.

This happens completely naturally. She is next to us. She is our spiritual mother. 95 percent of the sister nuns are barbarian, i.e. those whom mother accepted into the monastery.

To everyone without exception

Tell us about her. Main.

I happened to be her cell attendant for 16 years. This is a man of enormous spiritual stature, an ascetic of piety of the 20th century; it is precisely such people who personify the Church. What is striking is the love and humility with which she accepted everyone who came to her - be it a politician or a simple grandmother crying because her daughter-in-law was offending her. Mother received everyone; the main aspiration of her big maternal heart was to care for the sisters entrusted to her and to comfort her neighbors who strove for her. People who sought communication with her came to God and remained in the Church.

Please remember such a case.

At one time, Gennady Konstantinovich Efimov was the Consul General of Russia in Narva. A man at that time far from the Church, unbaptized, came to Pyukhtitsa with his wife to get acquainted with the abbess and the monastery. Much later, his wife admitted to me: “You know, I used to think that my mother treated me in such a special way, with respect, because I was the consul’s wife. And over time I saw that this is how she treats all people without exception!”

There was also a situation: our monastery had run out of church wine; there was nothing to serve the liturgy with. And the virtues sent a whole van with Cahors to us from Moscow. The van passed the Russian border, but got stuck at the Estonian border. What to do? Then Gennady Konstantinovich helped in this difficult situation: he found another car and himself and the employees of the Consulate General reloaded the boxes of wine. I was pleasantly surprised by the nobility of this man - no reproach to us, the act of a real man. And this was done, of course, out of love for Mother Varvara, who became his godmother.

When did the flow of pilgrims return to Pyukhtitsa?

The flow of Orthodox pilgrims from the Baltic states began immediately. Pilgrims also come from Russia, alone or with groups organized by active parish priests or pilgrimage services. Pyukhtitsa, by tradition, is always hospitable.

Cut it once

How did they perceive the decision of the hierarchy regarding your appointment as abbess of the Pukhtitsa Monastery? What were the first steps? Was it necessary to change anything in the life of the monastery?

Mother Abbess Varvara (Trofimova), during her dying illness, wrote a petition to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill with a request to relieve her from her post due to illness and appoint me as acting abbess of the monastery. The blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch came on November 17, three months before the death of our mother. How the sisters perceived this... You’d better ask the sisters themselves about this. I am sincerely grateful to the sisters for the support, love and trust that they have shown me and continue to give me to this day.

Was it necessary to change something in the life of the monastery?.. I am a person of conservative views, and the school of Mother Schema-Abbess Varvara taught us to measure seven times and only then carefully cut. There is a very good parable about a monk who came to a cell where an ascetic had previously lived, and with youthful ardor changed a lot there. He did not like the unusually shaped steps in front of the cell, the large nail on the wall that was in his way, the stick standing in the corner, and much more. And then life showed that everything that seemed unnecessary and meaningless to him was simply necessary for life in that cell. It turned out that the stick was needed to scare away crawling snakes. And the nail on the wall was needed right here, since water from rain-wet clothes did not flow into the cell, but seeped out. And over time, he returned everything to its place.

Our generation has a great responsibility to preserve traditions, and in our monastery, which has not been closed for a single day, this issue is especially relevant. After all, we can invent and change anything we want, but we need to preserve living continuity and pass it on to other generations. Monasteries have always been the guardians of traditions. This is what we live for.

Having already had behind you, albeit a small, but still experience in managing this monastery, how would you explain why the Pyukhtitsy people in Russia have such a respectful attitude? We often hear in women's monasteries that you are a guide, a model for them.

I think the answer is quite simple: we have preserved spiritual continuity. The monastery did not close. And this continuity is felt in everything - we have always had older sisters who will explain how to properly organize this or that aspect of monastic life. And in Russia, unfortunately, the monastic tradition was largely interrupted. And this gap still needs to be healed.

10 years of obedience

Mother, now I would like to move on to monastic life itself. How many nuns are there currently in the monastery?

At the moment, there are 111 nuns in the monastery: 105 people work in the monastery itself, 6 in the Elias monastery in Vasknarva. Of these, 27 novices, 25 nuns, 54 nuns, 4 schema-nuns.

It should be noted that about half of the nuns are sisters over 60 years old. On the one hand, it is good that there are a sufficient number of experienced nuns who have lived in the monastery after monastic tonsure for more than 30 years, who keep the living traditions of monastic life and can pass on their experience to young sisters. On the other hand, among young people there is a general trend towards a decrease in the number of people wishing to live a monastic life. This applies to all monasteries, and we are no exception. The old nuns mourn that there are few young sisters, but at the same time they say that the Mother of God Herself will find “handmaids” for herself.

How large is the flow of people wishing to enter the Pukhtitsa monastery now? What are the selection criteria for laborers/novices?

There are always those who want it, maybe not as many as we would like, but we must always remember that monasticism is a calling. The Lord Himself calls people to monastic life. They go to the monastery for work and heroic deeds, not for the sake of rest and peace, but consciously go to battle, and it is rather the heart that feels and prompts, and not the mind, on which wise lovers of monastic life are so fond of relying. Therefore, in Pyukhtitsa great importance has always been given and priority has been given to practice. All girls who wish to enter a monastery are always invited to live in a monastery in order to test themselves, to check whether the desire to work in the monastery was not accidental and thoughtless. Only after a person tests his strength, his heart, and understands whether the Pukhtitsa family is his own, the issue of admission to the monastery is decided.

How is the decision to take monastic vows made - how is the novice’s readiness to take on the angelic rank assessed? How long does the preliminary test last?

By modern standards, the preliminary test at the Pukhtitsa monastery lasts a long time, usually at least ten years, and often more. Being tonsured into the mantle is perceived by all sisters as a high honor and a great reward. After all, they have been waiting for this day since entering the monastery, and this is why they came to the monastery - wanting to accept the rank of angel. Seeing the successes of a novice in the spiritual field, observing her spiritual growth, her behavior - whether they correspond to the norms of monastic life - the question of tonsuring a particular novice is decided. After a conversation with the sisters and the confessor of the monastery, a petition is submitted to the name of His Holiness the Patriarch, in which we petition for tonsure, also attaching a description of the novice and her biography.

Tours in different languages

According to your observations, to what extent are ethnic Estonians drawn to the Orthodox faith?

Here it would be appropriate to resort to statistics. Currently, many Estonians are converting to Orthodoxy. At the same time, they very conscientiously fulfill the rules of Christian life prescribed to Orthodox believers. Among our regular parishioners there are local Estonians, and among the nuns of the monastery there are Estonian sisters - nuns and nuns, who very diligently fulfill their monastic obediences.

To what extent does the monastery now have a missionary orientation?

Our Pukhtitsa monastery, like other monastic monasteries in the western region, has always had a missionary orientation. From the day of its foundation, an orphanage, an almshouse for the elderly, a school for children of poor parents, a free hospital and a pharmacy for the poor local population were established and successfully operated here. Our predecessors, the first Pukhtitsa sisters, had to combine community building, daily work in charitable institutions, labor-intensive agricultural work and a full monastic liturgical circle. The Pukhtitsa sisters always fed themselves and the pilgrims with the labor of their hands.

All year round, the monastery provides hospitality to thousands of pilgrims, providing them with accommodation and food. The monastery is also visited by numerous groups of tourists, schoolchildren, students, people from various walks of life from different countries of the world. The sisters give them tours of the monastery in Russian, Estonian, English, French and Latvian, introducing them to the history of the monastery and its modern life. Tourists enter the cathedral and find themselves in a special world - people pray, sing, and read together. They also work together, live a completely different life, everything is unusual. Tourists come for viewing, and not for prayer, but they also feel grace here and are satisfied with spiritual food. Something sunk into my soul - next time they will come as more believers, and their lives will change. It turns out that this is a kind of educational activity.

There are especially many groups during school holidays, Christmas and Easter holidays. The monastery conference hall hosts concerts of children's art groups, competitions for young readers, etc. In the summer, it has become an annual practice to organize summer camps for Orthodox youth in the Ilyinsky skete of the monastery. Thus, in 2015, the monastery hosted groups of students from the Sunday school of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Kohtla-Jarve, pupils of the orphanage in Kohtla-Nõmme, as well as children from the Center for Creative Initiatives of Estonian Youth “Sretenie”. The main direction of this work is the socialization of adolescents, their catechesis and their assimilation of Christian moral values.

The monastery has published a number of books on the history of the monastery from the “Pyukhtitsa series”. It has become a good tradition to hold the international scientific and practical conference “Pyukhtitsa Readings” in mid-December, where prominent scientists give interesting reports on the issues of spiritual and moral education of adolescents, which also relates to the educational activities of the monastery.

To Jõhvi station

Mother, what significance does agricultural support have for the life of Pyukhtitsa?

In Pyukhtitsa there has always been a large subsidiary farm, including cows, horses, a chicken coop, a bee apiary, orchards and vegetable gardens. There is a significant plot of land that we cultivate using modern equipment - tractors, seeders, combines, etc., and where we grow grain crops, potatoes, vegetables, in specially equipped greenhouses - tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers. A modern machine milking facility was recently equipped on the farm. The sisters use milk to make cottage cheese, butter, sour cream, and fermented milk products. The main food products are produced in our subsidiary farm, and it is important in the life of the monastery, because the monastery receives thousands of pilgrims a year.

Life itself showed that without subsidiary farming the monastery would not have been able to survive during the years of trials. There were difficult times, but thanks to the subsistence farming, the sisters, although they ate poorly, did not starve.

What information is important for pilgrims from Russia to know?

All details can be found on the monastery website www.puhtitsa.ee. I think it would be useful to remind you that the monastery has hotels where pilgrims are provided with room and food free of charge. You can come as part of a pilgrimage group or on your own - the highways in Estonia are very good. You can get there by international train Moscow-Tallinn from Leningradsky station to Jõhvi station, then by local bus route 116 to Kuremäe (25 km). From St. Petersburg - by international buses also to Jõhvi station.

Pilgrims must take care of their passport and Schengen visa in advance. So come, we are waiting for everyone on the hospitable land of Pyukhtitsa, consecrated by the Queen of Heaven Herself.

Protodeacon of the Russian Orthodox Church Andrei Kuraev in LiveJournal told his version about the origin of about 300 million rubles. (approximately $4.7 million) of the personal savings of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) Alexy II (Alexei Ridiger), stuck in the accounts of the Russian Vneshprombank, which had lost its license.

Alexy died in 2008, and now Abbess Philareta (Alexandra Smirnova) is laying claim to the deceased’s money. The archdeacon noted that 37-year-old Metropolitan Alexy met 30-year-old nun Philareta in 1966, and she was his housekeeper until the death of the patriarch. In 1976, Alexy left all his property to Filarete in his will.

“I suppose the property was not so big then: an apartment and a dacha in Moscow, plus similar property in Estonia. But it began to grow rapidly in the years when Alexy’s personal patriarchate coincided with the years of market life in Russia. There was a lot of money and power. Real Estate became completely different and of a different class,” Kuraev wrote.

He suggested that Alexy could have forgotten about the 1976 will, and Filareta did not remind him “of his mortality.”

The archdeacon suggested that it was inconvenient for the patriarch to go to banks himself and replenish his accounts, so he could write out a power of attorney to Philareta, who thanks to this learned about the presence and condition of some of his assets.

“This does not mean that Alexy actually saw her as the heiress of these accounts. And I am convinced that she did not know about all the accounts and did not have access to all (especially foreign ones). We know that eight years later after the death of the testator, Filareta’s accounts in Vneshprombank alone contained over 300 million rubles. But we don’t know how much money was in these accounts eight years ago and how much of it Filareta spent or transferred,” he emphasized.

According to Kuraev, the abbess shared part of the assets of the deceased patriarch with the new head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill.

“I know that Patriarch Kirill had a tough conversation with her immediately after her election. If she remained in Moscow, it means that she nevertheless shared part of the patriarchal nest egg that she inherited and was known only to her.

But she most likely hid the foreign trade accounts. To transfer such sums somewhere would mean to be exposed. And where? And for what? There they were (and the interest rates were high in 2008). Filareta simply formalized the inheritance, but did not take the money,” he said.

The deacon added that Filareta probably missed the deadlines for compiling “lists of creditors” in case of bank bankruptcy, which are needed to pay insurance compensation.
“If Filareta received an insurance payment, she would automatically be in the register of creditors. If she is suing for this, it means that for the sake of a pathetic millionaire she did not go through the authorities,” he concluded.

Earlier, Abbess Philareta filed an application with the court demanding that she be included in the list of creditors of Vneshprombank. Patriarch Alexy II made a will in 1976, naming Filareta as his heir. Now she is the abbess of the Moscow metochion of the Pyukhtitsa Assumption Stauropegial Convent in Estonia.

Lawyer Stanislav Kravtsov, who represents Smirnova’s interests, told Dozhd that he does not know the origin of the money in his client’s accounts. According to him, as part of the bankruptcy case

Vneshprombank established Smirnova's demand for an amount of about 200 million rubles.

Alexy II was Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' from 1990 to 2008.

In December 2015, Vneshprombank clients began to experience difficulties in receiving deposits. On December 18, the Russian Central Bank introduced a temporary administration into the financial institution for a period of six months, and from December 22, a moratorium on satisfying the claims of the bank’s creditors for a period of three months.

In January 2016, the RBC agency reported that 1.5 billion rubles belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church were stuck in the troubled Russian Vneshprombank.

Nun Philareta: “We believe that the monastery will be reborn in its former glory”

Nizhny Novgorod Holy Cross Monastery is one of the most remarkable convents in Russia. Before the Soviet era, it was widely known not only in our country, but also abroad; its walls saw many famous people and the highest government officials.

On September 27, the entire Orthodox world celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. And for the Holy Cross Monastery this is also the patronal feast day of its main church. Nun Philareta tells our correspondent about today’s revival of the monastery’s former glory, its achievements and difficulties, what the great Feast of the Exaltation means for the sister community and how they celebrate it.

Mother, tell us what the condition of the monastery is today, how is its restoration progressing and what problems are you facing?

First of all, it is necessary to restore the material base of the monastery. Everything here is dilapidated: the floors in the buildings are rotten, the sewage system does not work, all communications need to be updated, and this requires a significant amount of time and money. To date, the territory of the monastery has been cleared of debris, a flower garden has been laid out, the monastery buildings have been whitewashed, and a new balcony for singers has been built in the cathedral.

The installation of five domes of the cathedral church is underway, and roof repairs are being completed. Now, perhaps, this is our most serious problem, because with the onset of autumn the rainy season is approaching and it is necessary to complete the work as soon as possible. There is particularly good news. Under the very altar of the monastery cathedral, in the crypt, there is the Church of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. It underwent restoration for two years, and is now ready for consecration. Restoring what was destroyed, the sisters set up a children's Sunday school in one of the buildings. The boys study the Law of God, the girls do handicrafts separately. An Orthodox medical center has been opened at the monastery, where priests and lay obedients receive help.
After reconstruction, about 100 nuns and novices will be able to live in the monastery. This requires, if possible, restoring the monastery within its historical boundaries. The authorities of Nizhny Novgorod promised to resolve this issue positively and help return the buildings that previously belonged to the monastery.
But the main thing is that by God’s providence our monastery again acquires great shrines. In the cathedral, for the worship of believers, a large crucifixion 4.5 meters high is displayed, which in 2005, on Good Friday in Jerusalem, was carried by a group of Nizhny Novgorod pilgrims led by Bishop George in the way of the Savior’s cross.

The monastery also received another shrine - a cross with a particle of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, donated by the Bishop to the nuns of the monastery on the patronal feast day. A glorious tradition has been renewed: on Easter Saturday the miraculous Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God is brought to us from the Oransky Monastery.

The Holy Cross Monastery is located within the city. Perhaps this circumstance causes difficulties in the life of the monastic community?

With the growth of Nizhny Novgorod, the once secluded Holy Cross Monastery has found itself in the very center of Nizhny Novgorod, and this, of course, causes difficulties. But still, the location of the monastery is wonderful. The place that the monastery now occupies was called “true” and “blessed” by Bishop Moses at the beginning of the 19th century. And indeed, although the bustle of the city is two steps away from us, silence, calm and prayer reign outside the walls of the monastery.

It is important to note: despite the fact that our sister community moved from the Conception monastery to the Origin monastery, and then to the Exaltation of the Cross, it always maintained unchanged its charter, established by its founder, Blessed Theodora.

This charter constitutes the spirit of our community, no matter within what walls we reside, no matter where we are. Blessed Theodora, whom we sacredly honor, sets an example for our sisters and for all women in general of humble service to God and people, abandonment of vain glory and wealth.

The upcoming Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is certainly significant for the Holy Cross Monastery. How do you celebrate it?

“The cross is the guardian of the entire Universe, the cross is the beauty of the Church, the cross is the power of kings, the cross is the affirmation of believers, the cross is the glory of angels and the plague of demons,” this is how one of the church hymns explains the meaning of the cross. Through the cross, the Kingdom of Heaven was revealed to people, and therefore the resurrection to eternal life.

The pages of the Old and New Testaments repeatedly report on the saving effect of the cross; since ancient times the Church has chanted: “Lord! Weapons against the devil You gave us Your Cross.” Our entire monastery and its main temple are dedicated to the historical events that formed the basis of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. For the Holy Cross Monastery and its sister community, this holiday, like the day of an angel for every person, is comparable to the Resurrection of Christ and the hope of salvation. In pre-revolutionary times, many people flocked to our monastery for the Exaltation, the service was performed with special solemnity, and after the liturgy a festive dinner was organized for all those who came. Today we strive to revive what was lost, therefore on this day we would like to see as many believers as possible in the monastery cathedral.

Particularly gratifying was the participation in the festive service of students of the medical college and children from the neighboring boarding school, which has become a tradition. Since I first crossed the threshold of the monastery three years ago, there has always been a treat here on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, and joy and love reign among the people gathered for prayer.

From the editor: we inform everyone who wants to help in the revival of the glorious Holy Cross Monastery the address of the monastery and its bank details.

603022, Nizhny Novgorod, Oksky congress, 2 A, tel.: 433–92–25, 433–76–85
INN 5262043748 KPP 526201001 r/s 40703810700820000145
BIC 042202772, CJSC "Nizhegorodpromstroybank",
Kanavinsky district of N. Novgorod, contract number 30101810200000000772