Snotogorsky Monastery: where is it, photo

The Pskov land is famous for its magnificent monasteries, located in the most unexpected and often very picturesque places. Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Snetogorsky Monastery is one of those ancient buildings that has its interesting centuries-old history. Now it is an active women's monastery, located 3.5 km from the city of Pskov. The first mention of it can be found in the chronicles of the XIII century, but at first it was a man's monastery.

Snetogorsky Monastery, Pskov

The architectural ensemble of the Snetogorsky Monastery includes the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin, the refectory church of St. Nicholas (1519), the Bishop's House (1805), the ruins of the bell tower and the Church of the Ascension of the Lord (mid-16th century), the fence and the Holy Gates (XVII-XIX century). Today it is home to 60 sisters.

It is located on the right bank of the Velikaya River on the Snooty Mountain, so called because of the snet fish that local fishermen catch here. It is for certain unknown when the Snegogorsky Monastery was established. According to one version, it could be founded by monks who came here from the Holy Mount Athos. On the other, which is the main one, the hegumen Joasaph became its founder.

If you look into the chronicle of the XIII century, you can get therefrom information that on March 4, 1299 Snetogorsky Nativity of the Virgin Monastery was burned Livonian knights. At the same time, the martyr Joasaph died, and with him 17 more monks.

But in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the monastery's cloister is again being rebuilt, and it becomes one of the main spiritual centers of Pskov. This fact is also said by the construction of a stone church in it, the first after a long break, associated with the attack of the Mongols on Rus.

New life

In the very center of Pskov Krom (historical and cultural center), on the bank of the Pskov River, in the XIV century there was a monastery courtyard. Later (in 1352) in the same place the church of St. John the Theologian was built. This farmstead supported economic and trade relations with merchants from the neighboring Baltic States.

Monks of the monastery at that time were the Reverend Fathers Euphrosynus of Pskov and Savva Krypetsky. They worked on the foundation of other monasteries located not far from Pskov.

Snotogorsky monastery hosted retired Pskov princes and boyars, who took their tonsure there. During the epidemic of 1420-1421 years. The Moscow governor, Prince Fyodor Alexandrovich Rostovsky, was cut in monks here, who became very ill, but then again returned to Moscow.

In 1416, in the porch of the main cathedral of the monastery, the son of Prince Efstafievich of Izborsk was buried - Grigory. Inside the church itself, today you can see ceramic plates of the 16th-17th centuries. On the territory of the cathedral, over time, a large monastery cemetery grew. To the walls of the temple were added funerary chapels.

Located on the full river Velikaya, the monastery often acted as a hotel, where merchants and travelers stayed. In 1472, he was visited by Sofia Paleologus , a Byzantine princess who traveled from Italy to Moscow.

During the Livonian War (1558-1583), the troops of the Polish King Stefan Batory ruined the monastery. The cathedral itself underwent a fire, as a result of which part of the ancient fresco painting was lost forever, and the brothers themselves found refuge in the courtyard of the monastery.

For the monastery, great disasters and ruin were also brought by the Cossacks and the troops of the Polish voivode Lisovsky. And in 1615 the monastery was seized by Swedish King Gustav Adolf, who, however, did not take Pskov.

Revival and decay of the monastery

However, by the XVII century the monastery began to rebuild anew. This was facilitated by the border location of Pskov (for Russia this was very important in terms of trade). Snetogorsky monastery had a large economic block, participated in supplying the army and repairing the walls of the city.

During the Northern War, he again suffered disaster. The fire that originated in 1710 destroyed the most ancient archive with unique historical data related to the times of the creation of the monastery.

The land reform of Catherine II led the monastery into a real decline. And in 1804 it was abolished, and in its place it was decided to arrange a bishop's house, where in 1816-1822. Lived the Archbishop of Pskov Evgeny (Bolkhovitinov), who was not only an active clergyman, but also a great historian. All worship services were mainly performed in the church of St. Prince Vladimir (she was the former refectory of St. Nicholas). This quiet monastery was visited by the great poet AS Pushkin in 1825.

Soviet time

After the October Revolution, the Bishop's house was ruined. The destruction was also affected by the oldest cathedral of the Snotogorsky monastery, which was referred to the monuments of antiquity and subject to state protection. The entire territory of the monastery was given to the rest home. In 1934, the Voznesenskaya church underwent partial destruction, now only ruins remain from it.

During World War II, the monastery housed the headquarters of the powerful German group "North". In the St. Nicholas Church, the Germans set up a meeting hall, in the cathedral - a shooting gallery and a wine warehouse. On the remnants of the Ascension church a garage was built.

After the war, the Snetogorsky convent was not expected to improve, it was converted into a children's sanatorium and a rest home. Only in the fifties the monastery will begin to restore it on the sly. Partial restoration work, which goes on and on, began in 1985.

In 1993, finally, the nunnery was transferred to the Pskov Diocese. Divine services began to be conducted in the St. Nicholas Church. In the monastery to this day are kept such shrines, as the particles of relics of St. Petersburg. Martyr Iosaph Snetogorsky, the Great Martyr Panteleimon, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Tikhon Zadonsky, St. Makarii Zheltovodsky, as well as icons of the Tikhvin and Iberian Mother of God.

On July 26, 2012 the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos was given to the Snotogorsky Monastery for free for a period of 50 years.

Snetogorsky Monastery: Hermogen (Murtazov)

No less interesting is to get acquainted with the confessor of the Snetogorsky nunnery - father Hermogen (Murtazov). It is on him that he has a great responsibility for the whole monastic way of life.

As he himself says about himself, he comes from Tataria, but his surname is not Tatar, as it may seem, but a real Russian one, as it ends with "M" - Murtazov, in the Tatar version it should end with "in". Father Hermogenes was born in the Novo-Sheshminsky area, where the Sheshma River flows into the Kama, where the city of Chistopol is located nearby, to which his whole family later moved.

History of Chistopol district

Everyone in his family was Russian. Historically, when Ivan the Terrible conquered Tataria, to keep all the lands under control, he sent whole Russian villages there. Their area was created from immigrants from Smolensk. In the street of Svobodka, there were servicemen who were exempt from taxes, Popushkina Street had guns, the third was called Targets, because of the targets they were shooting at. In general, a whole military settlement. Around the area there were several villages, for example Mikhailovka, everyone knew that there was a Mikhailovsky regiment, and in Ekaterinovka - the Catherine's regiment. Such serious protection did not allow for different manifestations of distemper. This area was called Chistopol, because at first it was a clean field. From Kazan it is about 200 km.

Facts from biography

There were no priests in the family, only his mother and grandmother were deeply religious. His brother - father Nikon - became a hierodeacon in the courtyard of the Pyukhtitsky monastery. The sister lives with Hermogen in the monastery. Their mother Magdalene had three children, and they all became monastics. Father died in the Great Patriotic War, in the very first days of the war.

There was a church in Chistopol, and Father Germogen's mother, on a share with the nuns, bought a house there. Father Hermogen graduated from school, then worked as a postman, then was drafted into the Baku anti-aircraft artillery. He never took off his cross. In the church he met with nuns from a closed monastery. After the demobilization, two old nuns and a mum-singing woman prepared him for admission to the Saratov theological seminary.

There, in seminary, in 1959 Father Hermogenes received the priesthood. Since that time, it has been 45 years.

After a seminary a year later he entered the Academy in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra (near Moscow). He often visited the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery and even wanted to settle there in the parish, but he was sent to the Holy Dormition Pyukhtitsky Monastery (Estonia), and since 1965 he served there for almost 30 years.

New appointment

About his service as a confessor in a convent he said that one must be an unbroken bush to burn and not to burn. For some time his spiritual father was John (Peasant). Together, they decided that Hermogen should leave the monastery and leave, especially after he had twice opened a bleeding ulcer. Then Father Germogen thought that he was not going to pull out the service, and so he decided to retire. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, with whom he was in good and trustful relations, gave him a wide road and said that he would choose any monastery. But then Vladyka Eusebius came and asked Father Germogen to help the Snotogorsky Monastery. And from that moment he settled there. From the Pyukhtitsky monastery, they were constantly receiving help, and gradually the monastery began to revive. A hotel was built for pilgrims, an animal farm, etc.

Patriarch

In early September 2014, Patriarch Kirill personally visited the Snotogorsky Monastery. In the Nikolsky temple he was welcomed by Archimandrite Germogen (Murtazov) with the Abbess, who noted that for many years the Primate of the Church visited their abode for the first time.

Father Hermogenes presented as a gift to His Holiness the list of the icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God, as the Pskov people often resorted to her for help during the Great Patriotic War.

A speech was also made by the Patriarch, who admitted that he was glad to visit one of the oldest monasteries - the Snegogorsky Convent of the Pskov Diocese, who once performed the very important strategic role of the fortress on the path of the invaders, but then was destroyed already in a relatively peaceful time, when The territory of the monastery began to be located Soviet organizations, not sparing monuments of architecture.

Conclusion

The Patriarch came not alone, but with a large delegation, and expressed the hope that the issues related to the restoration of the monastery monuments will soon be resolved. As a sign of respect and gratitude, he gave the monastery an icon of St. Petersburg. Makarios with a part of the relics. Now we can say with certainty that the whole Snetogorsky monastery will be restored anew. Father Hermogenes is that faithful guardian (like his ancestors in the time of John the Terrible), who fulfills his spiritual and mentoring mission, with all his heart and soul, rooting for his offspring.