Monastery before closing. 1917-1929
For many years, the Intercession Monastery was a relatively small abode, located on the outskirts of Moscow - at the Intercession Outpost, where 50 monks lived in the 19th and early 20th century. St. Innocentiy, Metropolitan of Moscow, in 1870 gave the monastery the status of missionary.
St. Innocentiy, Metropolitan of Moscow
Here, clergymen and monks were trained to preach about Christ and were sent to distant lands of Siberia. Former missionaries lived in Intercession monastery in peace. Many of them were buried in the vast monastery cemetery. There were about three thousand tombstones and a lot of common burials here since the XVI century.
In 1893, after the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the reign of St. Sergius of Radonezh, a school for boys (for 30 people) was opened at the monastery and a hotel for visiting missionaries was built. In the nineteenth century, Mrs. Khlebnikova arranged a women's hospice for 80 people. It was located in a separate house outside the monastery.
In the early twentieth century, the monastery hosted classes of Moscow pastoral courses. By 1916, four hundred students were here; they studied in two monastic buildings near the eastern monastery wall.
Surprisingly, before the revolution, the monastery was associated with Athos: in 1913-1915, by the decision of the Holy Synod, more than 20 Athonite monks, " name-worshipers", former inhabitants of the St. Panteleimon Monastery, were sent here, the supervision of which was entrusted to the abbot of the monastery, the vicar of the Moscow diocese . Other monks were transferred from the Moscow Athos monastery to the Intercession Monastery in 1923.
During the First World War, seven residents of the Intercession monastery were sent to the army and mobile hospitals for pastoral duties. Four of them were awarded with the Order of St. Anne of the 3rd degree, and one - the Order of St. Anne of the 2nd degree. In addition, two Athos hieromonks were also sent to the front to perform divine services. The Intercession Monastery supplied them with everything necessary: antimins, liturgical vessels, tabernacles, vestments, wine, incense, candles, liturgical books, permissive prayers and coronets. A hospital for 500 wounded soldiers was located in the monastery itself in 1914-1918. The brethren of the monastery took a spiritual care of them; other Moscow priests came to the monastery for correction.
By 1917, the monastery was well-kept, with well-established liturgical and economic life. It was a real spiritual center for the surrounding inhabitants. The monastery provided the young priests, who were sent to remote provinces of the Russian Empire, with a welfare. The monastery paid for the horses sent from Moscow to Blagoveshchensk, the former students were well sponsored.
Services were performed daily, 5 liturgies were served and on Sundays and holidays. Matins were served at 4 am, and the first early liturgy began at 5.00. Two chapels belonged to the monastery: in honor of the Bogolyubsky icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Barbaric Gate, near the Kremlin, and in honor of the St. Nicholas on the Upper Taganskaya Square. The brethren served regularly the prayers to the Mother of God and to St. Nicholas. Brothers, and the students, and pupils of the monastery school sang at the services. A large festive choir of hired singers, up to 30 people, mostly young, 20-30 years old belonged to the monastery. The repertoire was rather complicated, singing more partes - four-voice compositions of Bortnyansky, Turchaninov, Lvov, etc.
Bogolyubskaya chapel at the barbaric gate
Behind the cemetery, in the western part of the monastery territory, there was a vast orchard. Novices, numerous students of the monastic school had food from that orchard. Since 1918, the Soviet government has forbidden monks from collecting fruits, which henceforth must belong to the "workers."
The tragic years of the revolution reflected the Intercession monastery. In 1918-1919, the monks received bread on cards. The authorities gave three times less coal for heating buildings than it was necessary. The brothers repeatedly wrote to the church council asking them to increase the sums given to each of them for living in the church circle. "In view of the incredible high cost of the most necessary items, both edible and tangible products, we are compelled to turn to the church council of the Intercession Monastery with the request to increase salaries for our maintenance, because a certain salary is barely enough only for half a month. March 18, 1919". Some of the monks after the revolution lived in private apartments near the monastery, coming to the monastery as a job, but worship services were still performed daily.
The new authorities decided to use monastic buildings, as well as all the church property, in their own way. In addition, if in June 1919 the Abbot of the Intercession Monastery was "offered" "to vacate the occupied premises in a 3-day period, since this room is intended for kindergarten, pre-school section Rogozh.-Simon. Soviets, "then in the spring of 1921 the brethren received more menacing instructions. The monastery was going to be converted to a concentration camp, and the monks were ordered to leave the monastery within 7 days, "since they cannot be with prisoners." The commandant of the Tagansky camp signed the paper, and at first, the camp was planned to be called "Novo-Pokrovsky", but, apparently, it was considered that this name is not suitable for the institution under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Forced Labor Authority.
Document by TsGA, Moscow
Document by TsGA, Moscow
However, the Queen of Heaven kept Her abode and did not allow to place a prison here. For an unknown reason, the camp was never established, and in the monastery buildings, hostels were arranged for tram depot workers; the cemetery was ruined and turned into a park. For monks, who in the midst of the civil war were considered workers of the cemetery, were left only 3 bad cold rooms. The head of the cemetery, Archimandrite Alexy (Patrikeev) reported to the Funeral Department in 1919: "The cemetery of the Intercession Monastery is located along Semenovskaya Street. under No. 56. The military headquarters and Red Army men occupied all the monastery buildings. The cemetery office with the cemetery workers and the gravediggers sit in the general corp with Red Army soldiers due to the courtesy of the military authorities. They move from one room to another at their discretion, since they do not have these premises, nor documents, nor warrants. I have the honor to inform the Funeral Department about the fact".
The monastery in the form of the church community existed for a relatively long time - until 1929, thanks to the support and firm position of numerous parishioners. The last governor of the monastery, Archimandrite Veniamin (Milov), who won popular love with daily services and sermons, played a great role in the unification of believers.
The last governor of the Intercession Monastery Archbishop Veniamin (Milov) after the exile
The future Bishop wrote in his diary: "the Solemn divine services, arranged in our monastery with possible splendor, were distinguished by the Cover and the assumption of the Mother of God. The Patriarch himself has always served us in the Veil. In the middle of the temple, the chapel was arranged from fir-tree, the Holy shroud was laid under it and the whole rank of the Shroud’s burial was served. Great temptations accompanied holidays, as usual: the quarrels between the monks, the disoders in the Church Council, the dislocation with the bishops or protodeacons, invited to the service. Everything ended well. The devil has always tried to poison the beginning of the celebration».
Until the last day the services were performed in the Resurrection Church, although the authorities made active attempts since 1923 to close the monastery completely: they took the Intercession temple, in 1926 completely demolished the bell tower, which, according to the inventory book, was "23 bells of copper, the largest weighs 327 poods , and the smallest - 23 pounds "
In November 1928, the Administration of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, asked for the closure of the monastery. "Monks live in the former Monastery of the Intercession, they worship and perform services. The external and internal type of the monastery is preserved completely. We find such a religious organization next to the working Bukharin’s Club extremely inappropriate". After almost a year, the monastery was finally closed.
The fates of the last monastery inhabitants was tragic, as were the fates of many thousands of monks and priests throughout Russia. We do not know all the names and places of the demise of the brethren.
To date, in the face of the saints are glorified 6 monks and 1 parishioner of the Intercession monastery, information about them is in the section "New martyrs of the Intercession Monastery." Four of them were shot at Butovskiy proving ground, and three of them are members of the Cathedral of Athos saints.
Names and brief information about all the inhabitants known to us, who lived in the monastery until 1929, are presented in the section The abbots, brethren and parishioners of the monastery until 1929 . Brief information about The Athos monks, who lived in the Pokrovsky monastery is described in the mentioned section.
According to the available documents, these were 1913-1919. After the revolution, in the documents of the ecclesiastical council of the "monastic" after 1919, we can see only some of the names.
In 2007, behind the Resurrection Cathedral, a worship cross was established in memory of all those buried at the monastery cemetery, all those who lived, prayed, worked in the Intercession monastery. It was shaped to the pattern of one of the gravestones in the cemetery depicted on the photograph.
We believe that the Lord will place His mercy upon all who cherish the memory of those who suffered for Christ with love, about those who lived and prayed in the monastery in those terrible years.