Vyazhishchsky Monastery, Novgorodskaya oblast, Russia

The Nikolo-Vyazhishchskii Stavropegial Women's Monastery was founded in by the monks Efrosiny, Ignaty, and Galaktion and the hieromonk Pimen at the end of the 14th century (a charter from 1391 mentions it), with Pimen becoming the first hegumen of the monastery. It was first mentioned in the chronicle under the year 1411. The monastery was patronized by Archbishop Evfimy II (r. 1429-1458), who was hegumen of the monastery before his election as archbishop of Novgorod in 1429, and was buried there (he is known as St. Evfimy of Vyazhishche). His sarcophagus is now in the Church of St. Evfimy of Vyazhishche, built in 1685. The monastery was one of the greatest landowners in the Novgorodian land, holding in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, some 2,000 hectares of land. Much of its lands were confiscated during secularization under Catherine II (r.1762-1796) at which time it was classified a 2nd Class Monastery.

Following confiscation by the Soviets, the monastery was closed in 1920. It became part of a collective farm and the buildings were used to store yams, as well as a threshing floor, a forge, and a metalshop. From the 1950s, there were efforts to restore the monastery and it was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1989. On March 31, 1990, then Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod Alexius (later the Patriarch of Moscow) reconsecrated the main church to St. Evfimy.

The convent has the status of a stauropegic monastery (as of a grant from the Holy Synod of 7 October 1995), that is, it is under the direct control of the Patriarch of Moscow rather than of the Archbishop of Novgorod. The current hegumenia is Antonia (Korneeva). There are at present some 15 nuns living at the monastery. Of four churches in the Monastery (St. Evfimy, St. Nicholas, St. John the Divine, and The Church of the Ascension), only one is now a working church, that of St. Evfimy. The rest are still being restored.

References:

Wikipedia

User Reviews

Алла Рыгина (20 months ago)
Well, it's just fantastic! Very interesting design: tiles around the entire perimeter of the building! I saw this for the first time! Very nice church, small, but with miraculous relics!

Анна Бочкова (2 years ago)
Very very beautiful magical place! With original tile decorations on the walls. Everything is well-groomed, clean, but very deserted. For the entire time of inspection, we did not see a single local person. The door at the checkpoint was open, come in and look.

Julia Zolotova (2 years ago)
Stunning beauty of a small monastery in very good condition. Quiet, tidy. The architecture is characteristic, but the tiles distinguish the monastery from others.

Анастасия Синицына (2 years ago)
A small monastery of the 15th century with a style atypical for the Novgorod region. The buildings are decorated with green tiles depicting animals. The monastery is active, female, very clean, comfortable. We were on a Saturday morning and there were two other tourists besides us. The monastery is fenced with a brick fence, in front of the main entrance there is a small parking lot where several buses or about 20 cars can fit. It is worth visiting this place, but it is better with a guide or read about the monastery in advance, since I did not notice any information stands for tourists on the territory.

Ernesto Reinaldo Barreiro (2 years ago)
Very beautiful and calm place. It is a pity we couldn't see it inside.

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