Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker big cross on Ilyinka. Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker "Big Cross"

“Without any defects, the five-domed church of St. was built in an amazingly elegant and strict architectural design. St. Nicholas "Grand Cross" on Ilyinka. This echo of the old temple type was built by Arkhangelsk merchants, the Filatyev brothers, in 1680 - 1697. The brilliant decoration makes this temple one of the most outstanding artistic monuments in Moscow."

“The temple is popularly called St. Nicholas at the Great Cross after the large cross built by the same Filatyevs. This cross is wooden, 3 arshins high. The cross contains 156 particles of relics."

“The Filatyevs invited the best craftsmen to decorate the temple. Built on a merchant scale, on several floors, on a basement, the skyward five-domed pale blue temple amazed with its carved white stone decoration. To contemporaries of the construction it seemed like a miracle, and even in the 19th century they spoke of it with admiration: “The stone carvings of the Church of St. Nicholas the Great Cross are all covered with wonderful carvings: the high porch, window frames, small hatches under the cornice, and finally, the necks of the domes - all of this is dotted with dense patterns , the effect of which is complemented by star-studded chapters and, like filigree, crosses.”

The interior decoration was not inferior to the exterior: “the window sills are lined with tafel with various images from the gospel story; the walls are decorated with carved figures; the choirs are figuratively carved from stone; the floor is made of wild dark marble.

In the basement of the church in the 19th century, a warehouse for merchant goods was located. At the same time, the temple finally secured its status as the main shrine of the Moscow merchants, which was due to the location of the temple on Ilyinka, the main shopping street of Moscow.

In 1928, the church building was carefully restored, but this did not save it from destruction. In 1931 they began to destroy the southern porch, and in 1934 the temple was finally demolished along with the bell tower, under the pretext that it was interfering with travel along Ilyinke Street.”

“Nikola’s” cross was knocked down -
It became so bright around!
Hello, new Moscow,
New Moscow – crossless!
– wrote the proletarian poet Demyan Bedny...

The following materials were used to prepare the publication:
Guide to Moscow edited by I.P. Mashkova. / Moscow: Moscow Architectural Society, 1913
Kondratyev I.K. The Hoary Antiquity of Moscow: Historical Review and Complete Index of Sights (according to the 1893 edition). / Moscow: Voenizdat, 1996
Berkhina T.G. Lost shrines. Ilyinka through the centuries. / Moscow: Publishing house of the Temple of Elijah the Prophet, 2011.

A stunning, heartbreaking poem “on the death” of the famous Church of St. Nicholas at the Ilyinsky Gate (popularly known as St. Nicholas the “Big Cross”), mercilessly and senselessly demolished in 1933 - after all, in addition to the destroyed churches (in the vast majority of architectural monuments), there were also unbroken ones. The poems were written at the same time (naturally, “on the table”) by a Moscow expert, an eyewitness to the demolition of the temple by Yu.K. Efremov:

“Yesterday there was a church. Gorda, five-domed.
Azure clumps bloomed on the corners.
Those who did not hand over gold for remelting,
Placers of stars burned on the domes.

And now - “Khodynka”... They are stingy with spectacles
Weeks and months of everyday affairs.
And someone on the royal star-shaped dome
I put on the loop of the quarter lasso.

The lasso rope will finish you off, bastard.
And the dome will give way, rounded, full-chested...
Faces are tense. Pressed and driven
No, we are crowding around the stone piles again...

Korezha. Breaking. Krosha. Hewing -
They beat with pickaxes and crowbars, dirty them and execute them.
Oh, how the blue head moaned!
How painful it was for her! The rope is pulled

Again! - The head gave way, staggered,
The cross shining with gold swayed,
And a crash, like a scream, rang along the streets,
And the echo of the answer sobbed all around.

And torn out by the roots, torn off with the meat,
The mute head fell on its back,
“E-ah”! - swept through the tense masses,
Those who heard the pain and forgot the words...

The masterpieces of Russian architecture included one of the most beautiful churches in Moscow - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which is near the Great Cross in Kitay-Gorod. The temple, erected in the 1680s with magnificent stone carvings of the Baroque decor that was then in fashion, had an undoubted influence on the formation of this style in Moscow architecture. The emphatically vertical composition of the church, standing on the basement (in the 19th century - early 20th century, it served as a warehouse for a trading company), established its role as the spatial dominant of Ilyinka.

White-blue, with a luxurious five-domed church, it had a separate bell tower in the “northern” style, the 2 upper tiers of which were erected in 1819. The temple received its name from the chapel of St. Nicholas and from the large carved wooden cross that stood at the right choir and contained 156 particles of relics, as well as the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in its very core. After the destruction of the temple in 1933, it was possible to save the iconostasis (now in the refectory of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra), and part of the choir, which is kept in the Donskoy Monastery.

The temple was broken mercilessly and absolutely uselessly, because... The Bolsheviks still failed to kill the faith, and the monument of ancient Russian architecture was destroyed (in a strange and selective manner, churches were demolished - some were broken, some were not..) Now in its place is a public garden with some outbuildings, next to clock tower office building of the Northern Insurance Company (1910-1911, architect I.I. Rerberg, M.M. Peretyatkovich, V.K. Oltarzhevsky)

Church of St. Nicholas "Big Cross" and Ilyinsky Gate of Kitay-Gorod, lithograph

Nikola "Big Cross", view from Ipatievsky Lane (in my opinion, it is now closed with bars, because there is a checkpoint there)

St. Nicholas the Great Cross, Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Moscow on Ilyinka, the main shrine of the Russian merchants. Built by Arkhangelsk merchants Filatiev in 1680-1697. The five-domed temple sparkled with elegant, shiny decoration with a pale blue color, several floors on the basement, and at the same time served as a warehouse. In the temple, according to the vow of its creators, a huge, fathom-high cross with 156 pieces of relics was erected. Kissing the cross is connected with the custom of swearing in persons suing Kremlin V royal orders. The best craftsmen were invited to decorate the temple.

In 1933 the church was destroyed by Jewish Bolsheviks.

NIKOLSKIE CHURCHES OF OLD MOSCOW

In old Moscow, there were a huge number of churches consecrated in the name of the most revered Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker in Rus' - both those that have survived to this day and those that were destroyed under Soviet rule. Among the latter, we will remember the most famous church of St. Nicholas "Big Cross", which stood at the very beginning of Ilyinka and was founded there even before the construction of the Kitai-Gorod wall in the first half of the 16th century. In it, citizens who had litigation were sworn in - “kissed with the cross”, and in the temple, according to the vow of its creators, a huge cross with particles of holy relics was erected.

The very name of the area - Bersenevka - already brings to mind a gloomy memory of a Moscow boyar executed in distant times. In the 16th - 18th centuries. here was the “Berseneva Lattice,” that is, a night outpost, locked and guarded by watchmen who kept order in the city. During the reign of Ivan III, boyar I.N. was responsible for guard duty in this area. Bersen-Beklemishev, whose name is also given to one of the Kremlin towers - Beklemishevskaya, because his courtyard was located next to it. Somewhere there, near the Moscow River, the boyar was executed in 1525 - because of careless and bold sincerity with Grand Duke Vasily III. They also said that before his death, the disgraced boyar moved from the Kremlin with his entire courtyard to Bersenevka.

However, another, less substantiated version says that the name of this area comes from the Siberian word “bersen” - gooseberry, which could grow in the nearby Sovereign Garden on Sofiyka. It was defeated by the order of Grand Duke Ivan III in 1493, when the entire Zarechye region opposite the Kremlin burned down in a fire, and the sovereign ordered that only a garden be built there, without residential buildings, in order to prevent fire in the city in the future.

Already at the end of the 14th century, here, in the Bersenevka area, there was a monastery called Nikola the Old, which is “on the Swamp” - this marshy area received this name due to the constant floods of the Moscow River and heavy rains, which turned the right bank part of the city into a swamp until The Vodootvodny Canal was built in 1786.

Apparently, from those times, from the ancient monastery, the St. Nicholas Church remained on Bersenevka - it is even possible that it was formerly the cathedral church of this monastery or one of its churches. The church was mentioned back in 1475, when it was wooden, and in 1625 it was called “The Great Wonderworker St. Nicholas behind the Berseneva Lattice.” And Moscow kept the memory of the Zamoskvorechsky, or, as they used to say in the old days, Zarechensky monastery for a long time - rumor claimed that it was in it that Ivan the Terrible imprisoned the disgraced Metropolitan Philip. And it was as if people from all over the capital flocked to the Swamp and crowded around the walls of the martyr’s prison. In fact, the metropolitan was kept under arrest in the Epiphany Monastery of Kitai-Gorod, and the legend about Bersenevka appeared due to rumors about Malyuta Skuratov. Rumor connected the red chambers adjacent to the church with his name - as if the chief guardsman himself lived in them, to whom the gloomy house passed from that same boyar Bersen.

The ancient part of these chambers actually dates back to the 16th century, and it is possible that secret and bloody reprisals against those displeasing the king took place here. In 1906, during the construction of an electrical station here, not far from the future House on the Embankment, ancient underground rooms were discovered - so high that a horse could fit in them, as evidenced by the bones discovered there. In the gloomy dungeons, human remains and many vices were found, and soon silver coins from the time of Ivan the Terrible were found nearby. These were probably the torture dungeons of Malyuta Skuratov, who lived somewhere nearby. However, in Soviet times, the grave of a guardsman was discovered on the opposite bank of the Moscow River, near the Church of the Praise of the Virgin Mary, which left historians with a new mystery - after all, in those days the dead were buried only in their church parishes, which means that Skuratov did not live on Bersenevka, but directly opposite her.

One way or another, only Bersenevka in Moscow rumor was closely connected with Malyuta Skuratov. Another legend says that after Skuratov the house passed to his son-in-law, Boris Godunov - the tsar was married to Malyuta’s daughter.

Only from the middle of the 17th century the house and church on Bersenevka have a truly known history. In 1657, Duma clerk Averky Kirillov, who was in charge of the royal gardens in Zamoskvorechye, built himself an estate from the old chambers. At the same time, he rebuilt the beautiful church with the main altar, consecrated in the name of the Holy Trinity, and with the St. Nicholas chapel, which became his home church. In 1695, after the death of the clerk, a 1,200-pound bell appeared on its bell tower, cast by Ivan Motorin himself - 42 years later, he and his son would cast the infamous Tsar Bell in the Kremlin.

The construction of the chambers took a long time - work was still going on at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. It is believed that the famous M. Choglokov, the architect of the Sukharev Tower, took part in the creation of their final form. However, another, more accurate version names the author of the chambers as Ivan Zarudny - due to the similarity of the decor of the Bersenevsky chambers with the elements of his Menshikov Tower, built later.

After the death of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, Averky Kirillov sided with the Naryshkins and fell into the circle of courtiers whom the Miloslavskys planned to destroy. And the clerk was killed along with Artamon Matveev during the Streltsy riot of 1682: he was thrown from the Red Porch to the ground, chopped up, and the corpse was dragged to Red Square shouting: “Make way, the Duma is coming!” He was buried here, on Bersenevka, in the parish of his home church.

His son Yakov was also at first a Duma clerk, and then became a monk at the Donskoy Monastery. The Kirillovs donated a lot to this monastery - it was with their funds that the monastery’s red walls with beautiful towers were built.

Since 1756, the house on Bersenevka began to belong to the treasury: at first the Senate archive was located here, then the Senate couriers lived in it, and the house was called “Courier”. In the 60s of the 19th century, the former Kirillov house was donated by the government to the Moscow Archaeological Society, which held its famous public scientific meetings there.

From the middle of the 18th century, the church became an ordinary parish church. In 1812, it was damaged by fire - it was “burnt” and restored, it was re-consecrated the following year after the expulsion of Napoleon.

At the end of the 1920s, a dormitory for the builders of the House on the Embankment was located in the former chambers of the Duma clerk. And in the 30s, in the basement under the closed St. Nicholas Church, ancient icons and the skeleton of a girl with a braid and woven ribbon, walled up in a niche, were found. No one else was able to see the terrible discovery - when they opened the stone slab, the ashes instantly crumbled.

In 1930, after the closure of the Zamoskvorechsk church, they immediately began to seek its demolition: that same year, the bell tower was destroyed because it “darkened out” the premises of the neighboring restoration workshops. The reason for the demolition was, of course, different - the notorious architect Boris Iofan was especially concerned about the liquidation of the church on Bersenevka, who was building an entire architectural ensemble in that place - the Palace of the Soviets and the House on the Embankment - as an example of a socialist “house-city” in the style of constructivism. According to the original design, the House was supposed to be in harmony with the Kremlin and was supposed to be red-pink in color. But fate decreed otherwise, and the house turned out to be gloomy gray.

The tragedy of Bersenevka continued in the ominous House on the Embankment - a rumor spread that it was built from cemetery slabs from graves devastated by the Bolsheviks, and that is why the fate of its many residents was so unhappy. These were mainly members of the Soviet government, ministers and their deputies, marshals and admirals, on whose heads the ax of Stalinist repression fell in the 30s. Only a few of them escaped execution and camps. Even the “peace” of the residents of the house was guarded by the military instead of concierges, and guard dogs were kept in small basement-windows on the first floor.

They began to dismantle the ancient St. Nicholas Church - there was no place for it in such proximity to the new ideological center of the Soviet capital. And then the construction of the Palace of Soviets was suspended, and the temple miraculously survived. In 1958, a research institute for museology was opened there, and its restoration began in the 70s.

Divine services there were resumed in 1992. At the Feast of the Transfiguration of the same year, a prayer service for peace in Abkhazia was served in the church. Currently the temple valid.

Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, called "Red Bell".
Photo frombooks by N.A. Naydenov "Moscow. Cathedrals, monasteries and churches." 1882-83

Another wonderful and very ancient, but, unfortunately, closed St. Nicholas Church in Moscow is located in Kitay-Gorod (formerly Yushkov Lane, in Soviet times - Vladimirov Passage, and since 1992 - Nikolsky Lane). It is called "Red Ringing", or "at the red bells" - from the "red", beautiful ringing of its bells. In the old days there was a well-known saying: “Eat bread and salt, listen to the red ringing of Mother Moscow,” and the Kitaygorod St. Nicholas Church, like Moscow, was famous for its bells.

The church certainly belongs to the oldest Moscow churches. Previously, there was a chapel in the name of St. Zosima of Solovetsky, and this led researchers to the idea that this church, so close to the Kremlin, was founded by Metropolitan Philip himself in 1566 - in memory of the peaceful days of his stay in the Solovetsky monastery. And when the saint fell into disgrace, Ivan the Terrible, in a rage, ordered the reconsecration of the Kitai-Gorod church, which was renamed in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. And when Metropolitan Philip was canonized, and his relics were solemnly greeted in Moscow, then during the next renovation of the temple at the end of the 17th century, S.G. Naryshkin, honoring the memory of the saint, again built a chapel in St. Nicholas Church in honor of the Solovetsky saints Zosima and Savvatia.

Another story says that this church appeared here back in 1561, made of stone, through the diligence of an ordinary Chinatown merchant Grigory Tverdikov, and some even attribute his life to the next, 17th century. The usual confusion of history.

In the 17th century, the St. Nicholas Church was called “what is known at the Red Bell Towers on Posolskaya Street” - the Ambassadorial Courtyard was then located here. Its main altar was consecrated in the name of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, and here was a priceless shrine - the icon of Hodegetria written by Simon Ushakov.

This temple was famous for the fact that, according to legend, the head of the rebel Alexei Sokovnin, the head of the Konyushenny Prikaz, who in 1697 participated in a conspiracy by supporters of Princess Sophia against Peter I and was executed for that, was buried there. His relatives demanded the remains, but the authorities sent the body to a “wretched house”, and only the severed head was buried with honors.

In 1858, the church, which had been rebuilt several times by that time, was completely dismantled and, through the efforts of the merchant Polyakov, a new temple was built, which has survived to this day. Perhaps its architect was the famous N.I. Kozlovsky, who built the Church of All Who Sorrow Joy in Kalitniki - he certainly made the iconostasis of the new St. Nicholas Church.

And the most interesting page in the history of St. Nicholas Church is connected with its “red” bells. From the old Moscow name of the church came a legend that its bells, astonishingly in Moscow, were painted red, but this is just a fiction: it would be absurd to cover the sacred bells with paint, especially since bells in Rus' were sometimes beautifully gilded. That's what they were called - gilded. And there were also royal bells - large bells, cast by the highest decree, or for the main churches, ringing on very important holidays. In the Kremlin, for example, there was another “Tsar Bell” weighing a thousand pounds, which was rarely struck, in the event of the death of the Tsar or Patriarch, slowly and spaced out, three times. It was cast already in the middle of the 16th century and was in a special wooden frame, and then it was cast with the addition of copper, called “Festive” and placed on the Assumption Belfry.

In addition to the royal and gilded ones, there were also prisoners, exiles and bast bells. One of these bells was located in the St. Nicholas Church. Bells taken from the enemy in war as trophies were called captives. The exiles were disgraced or captive bells who were sent to the outskirts of the country: sometimes alone, and sometimes together with people who had fallen into disgrace or captivity. Thus, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, many Poles and Lithuanians were exiled to remote Russian provinces, and along with them their captive bells. The disgraced bells were called bast, first broken by decree, and then tied with bast (however, some believe that these were ordinary bells of a simpler finish.)

One captive bell was placed in the St. Nicholas Church, taken under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich during the war with Poland: cast in 1575, with the image of three lilies and with an ancient inscription in a foreign language: “All hope is for the bell from Shen in France” - this is how it was presented translation in the form of a working hypothesis by modern specialists. This captive bell was “lucky” - it was not sent to some distant exile, but remained in the capital city of Moscow, and even on the beautiful central church. After the closure of the St. Nicholas Church in 1927, it was transferred to a museum in the village of Kolomenskoye.

The ringing of bells in Rus' invariably accompanied all great celebrations and marked both joyful and sad events. The ringing of bells called the Orthodox people to church services, and it encouraged those who could not come to church to internal prayer. And according to the church charter, the ringing of bells during Holy Week was called red. Here, in the St. Nicholas Church, located close to the Kremlin, all the bells were matched “to the same tone, and the sound from them was pleasant,” wrote one of the distant contemporaries who heard its ringing. Therefore, this church was also called “at the good bell.”

At the end of 1922, the St. Nicholas Church was seized by some “Free Labor Church”, in 1925 it was slated for demolition, and two years later it was closed, but miraculously survived. At one time it even housed an electrical substation. The church was not under state protection, and it was only included in the list of objects proposed for this production.

Text quoted from the book: Romanyuk S.K. Moscow. Loss. M.: Publishing house PTO "Center", 1992. 336 p., ill.

Photo from Naydenov's album

Before the revolution, the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker stood on Ilyinka and was popularly called the “Big Cross”.
It was erected in 1680-1688 by wealthy merchants from Arkhangelsk, the Filatiev brothers, who ordered the construction of such splendor that would glorify the temple builders themselves, their generosity and zeal for godly deeds. Unfortunately, we do not know the names of the architects.
The lower floor served as a tomb, and there were two entrances to the temple itself through a porch raised on three arches and beautifully decorated with white stone carvings. The elegant building was almost square, the second and third tiers were decorated with capitals, and large windows were framed by lush architraves. The most unusual thing was located at the top of the building - here unknown craftsmen placed hexagonal windows of a magnificent and unusual shape for Moscow in the lower tier of the two-tiered completion, and filled the upper one with ribbed shells, so beloved by Russian craftsmen after the Fryazin Aleviz Novy, who built the Archangel Cathedral in the Kremlin.
The same shells were placed at the base of the elongated necks of all five domes, decorated with relief stars.

The interior of the church matched its appearance. Its decoration was considered to be a majestic carved iconostasis, more like a work of jewelry. The landmark of the temple, from which it received its name, was a two-meter wooden cross standing near the choir, built by the same Filatyev brothers, in which more than a hundred particles of the relics of various saints were enclosed.
Next to the church stood a bell tower, built at the same time, but crowned with a pseudo-Gothic completion after the fire of 1812.
The official reason for the demolition of the temple was that its porch overlooked the sidewalk and interfered with traffic. First, in 1933, the porch was dismantled, and then the church itself.

More images of the church:

Photo from Barshchevsky's catalog

From a wonderful site.

At the Saint on Ilyinka, or a few words after the destroyed Church of St. Nicholas the Great Cross

In the Degree Book of the 16th century. The Church of St. Nicholas the Great Cross is mentioned as standing “outside the city,” that is, outside the city wall. And this could only have happened before 1534–1538, when the Kitai-Gorod wall was built. The Church of St. Nicholas the Great Cross stood at the very beginning of Ilyinka Street. In it, citizens who had litigation were sworn in - “kissed with the cross”; In the temple, according to the vow of its creators, a huge cross with 156 pieces of holy relics was erected. In 1680, the Arkhangelsk merchant Filatyev built a new stone church to replace the old one. It was famous for its elegant porch, stone carvings, openwork crosses on the five-domed dome... The temple sparkled with elegant, shiny decoration with a pale blue color. The basement served at the same time as a warehouse. St. Nicholas the Great Cross was one of the most famous and beautiful churches in Moscow. Its decoration can be judged by the iconostasis, which is now located in the Refectory Church of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

Church of St. Nicholas the Great Cross (XVII century) – destroyed

Church of the Entry (XVII century) – destroyed

The history of the Church of St. Nicholas the Great Cross is closely connected with the name of Bishop Seraphim (Zvedinsky). We will try to briefly trace the life path of this bishop in order to introduce the reader to this confessor and new martyr of Russia. Bishop Seraphim Zvezdinsky was born in Moscow in May 1883 on New Blessed Street in the parish of the Edinoverie Church in the name of the Holy Trinity and the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The father of the future ruler, having converted in his youth from the Bespopovsky schismatics and secretly leaving his parent, the leader of the Bespopovsky sect, John Zvezdinsky became a zealous preacher among his lost brothers, calling on them to join the Church of Christ. He took holy orders in St. Petersburg, marrying the daughter of Priest Vasily Slavsky.

The birthday of Bishop Seraphim was the day of St. Nicholas. The name of the newborn was given in honor of the holy day, and it was the grace of St. Nicholas was entrusted with a small child who was orphaned in the third year of life. Nikolai grew up under the supervision of his father, a kind nanny and an older sister. His favorite toy was a censer. One day, during the Liturgy, seeing his father standing at the Throne, the boy entered the altar through the Royal Doors. In this they saw an indication from God - the child himself will be a priest and primate at the Throne of God.

Years passed. While excelling in spiritual sciences, Nikolai lagged behind his classmates in mathematics. He sighed prayerfully for help and was heard - he began to prosper, and subsequently was always one of the first students. The youth especially earnestly prayed to his heavenly patron - St. Nicholas - about his cherished desire: “St. Father Nicholas, help me preach the Word of God as best as possible, without notebooks and books, with your help to glorify the Lord and convert people to Christ.” After graduating from the Zaikonospassky School, Nikolai continued his studies at the seminary. In 1901, the Lord visited the seminarian with His miraculous visit. On the evening of January 25, Saturday, the young man did not go with his family to the all-night vigil, but decided to simply walk the streets. Finding himself at the Church of the Epiphany in Elokhov, he slowed down somewhat and thought about stopping in, but then decided that it was too late. Returning home, he felt a pinpoint pain under his right arm, like a bite, after which his arm began to hurt greatly. At dinner he told his family about this, and in the morning he could no longer get out of bed: a strong fever began. The invited doctor found lymphadenitis (inflammation of the lymph nodes) and advised him to undergo surgery. The operation was refused, and the disease progressed. The pain intensified to the point that Nikolai sometimes fainted, tossed about, and screamed. On February 7, the abbot of the Sarov Hermitage, Father Hierotheus, unexpectedly came to their house and advised them to turn for help to the late elder of the Sarov Hermitage, Hieroschemamonk Seraphim, who even after his death helped many. Father Hierotheus promised to send an image of Elder Seraphim. “God willing, through the prayers of the elder, your son will recover, do not lose heart,” said Father Hierotheus, saying goodbye.

The patient was getting worse; He felt especially bad on February 10th. Subsequently, he said that there was a feeling as if the soul was being separated from the body. In the evening of this day, a book with the life of Elder Seraphim and his image on tin were received from Father Hierotheus. When the patient took the icon, he was struck by the living eyes of the Sarov elder, kind and kind. “Father Seraphim, heal me!” – the young man begged. With difficulty, he crossed himself with his sore hand, applied the icon to the sore spot, and suddenly the pain subsided. A little later Nikolai forgot. They told him that at night he sat on the bed, prayed, whispered something, kissed the icon, but he himself did not remember any of this. Nikolai woke up only at 5 o’clock in the morning and felt that he was all wet. He asked to change his underwear. Everyone thought at first that he was just sweating, but when they lit a candle and looked, it turned out that an abscess the size of a fist had broken through and everything came out. Nikolai was saved. Now it was necessary to heal the resulting wound. In the first burst of joy, the Zvezdinskys wanted to write to Father Hierotheus about the miracle that had happened, thank him for the icon and ask him to serve a memorial service at his grave in gratitude to Elder Seraphim. But all this was put aside and then forgotten. Meanwhile, the wound, despite the doctor’s efforts, did not heal, although several months had passed. On July 14, Father John finally sent a telegram to Sarov with a message about the healing and a request to serve a memorial service. Soon the answer came that the requiem service had been celebrated and the miracle was recorded in the monastery chronicle. After this, the wound healed over a few days so that not a trace remained of it. In gratitude for saving his son, Father John composed a troparion and kontakion for the saint of God, St. Seraphim, the wonderworker.

After graduating from the seminary as one of the best students, Nikolai Zvezdinsky entered the Moscow Theological Academy. In his third year, he suffered great grief - he lost his beloved father, who died on January 6, 1908. During these difficult days for the young man, the Lord consoled him by sending him a spiritual father, who replaced his parent. Near the Holy Trinity Lavra in the quiet Zosima Hermitage lived the reclusive Hieroschemamonk Alexei. The elder took the student completely under his leadership. Nikolai felt how, through the power of the prayer of the holy recluse, everything earthly departed from him and his heart was lit with spiritual fire, and zeal for monastic life appeared. Together with two of his friends, students of the academy, at the shrine of St. Sergius, he made a vow to devote his life to God and His Holy Church, taking monastic orders. One of them betrayed his oath promise, being carried away by one girl, but just before the crown he unexpectedly fell dead. “God is a Jealous God,” responded the rector, His Eminence Evdokim (Meshchersky) in his funeral homily. “The young man made an oath promise to God to betroth himself to Him, and the Lord took him to Himself before he betrayed Him.”

Nicholas was firm in his intention to devote his life to God. But the enemy did not sleep, attacking him with night insurance. When this did not work, he took advantage of a young girl towards whom Nikolai had warmed up. Previously unapproachable to his youthful pure love, she now began to seek a meeting with him. The young student preparing for tonsure felt a disposition towards her in his heart, was carried away by the thought of earthly happiness - but, calling on God for help, he rejected this temptation and hastened his steps to the hermit elder, who in his reclusive cell blessed him not to delay taking tonsure. On September 25, 1908, at the all-night vigil in the academic Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, the rector, His Eminence Evdokim, tonsured third-year student Nikolai Zvezdinsky. The face of the newly tonsured monk shone with an unearthly lightness. The Right Reverend Rector, meaning free-thinking professors and students who hated monasticism, said: “Look at his face and be convinced of the brilliance of monastic deeds and God’s grace.” The newly tonsured monk Seraphim was taken to the Gethsemane monastery, where he spent seven days in prayer and fasting in the church in the name of the Dormition of the Mother of God, in the choir area. It was as if angels were singing in his soul, praising God, as if he had heard heavenly music. But the warrior of Christ was not abandoned by the enemy. Suddenly, hell approached his heart - fear, melancholy, impenetrable darkness, despondency of loneliness... Then there was a terrible roar: the temple collapsed, falling down; The iconostasis crumbled into splinters with a roar. The young monk woke up - everything was in place, the temple was intact, a quiet prayerful twilight filled it...

Miracles Monastery (XVI century) in the Kremlin - destroyed in 1928.

On the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, November 4, Seraphim was ordained hierodeacon. How grateful was his heart when he held the Almighty of the Universe in his hands, how filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, consuming the Holy Mysteries after the Liturgy! On the summer feast of the Kazan Mother of God, July 21, he became a hieromonk. In 1910, Hieromonk Seraphim graduated from the Theological Academy with a master's degree in theology and, as an ardent preacher and zealot for Orthodoxy, was left as a teacher at the Bethany Theological Seminary. At the seminary, he won the hearts of students with his example and word, prayed for each of his students, and took out a particle for each one at the proskomedia. The young students felt this, their hearts were inflamed with the desire to serve God, to be faithful servants of the Throne of God until death, like a mentor. But here too the enemy hatched intrigues against the ascetic of Christ. Wanting to change the good opinion of his mentor, he sent to him a woman of high rank, extraordinary beauty, who, with subtle flattery, under the guise of spiritual disposition, began to bribe the ascetic monk, showering him with valuable offerings and gifts. But Father Seraphim looked inward vigilantly and did not bow to flattery, protecting himself with seclusion and silence.

Consolation in these sorrows was a visit to the Chudov Monastery, where at that time the meek, prayerful Archimandrite Arseny (Zhadanovsky), the good shepherd of a large monastic flock, shone with a quiet light. In 1914 Fr. Seraphim became the rector of the Chudov Monastery, and Archimandrite Arseny became the Bishop of Serpukhov. The Chudov brethren and parishioners fell in love with their new rector. Vladyka Arseny saw in him a faithful helper, prayer partner and friend, the brethren - a good steward and a high example of monastic life, parishioners - a comforter, mentor, teacher. The year 1917 came like thunder from heaven, and a year later Chudov was empty. Father Seraphim sealed the relics of St. Alexei with the abbot's seal and was one of the last to leave the monastery. Shortly before the destruction of the monastery, in July 1918, Archimandrite Seraphim had two visions. In the Annunciation chapel, on Monday, during the proskomedia for the early liturgy, which was performed by Bishop Arseny, Fr. Seraphim stood at the altar. Suddenly a large and strong boar entered the altar, grunting and looking askance at Vladyka Arseny and Fr. Seraphim, and with a roar he began to dig a mountainous place. Father Seraphim saw the second vision from the windows of his chambers - a black demon, as if in tights, was climbing into the window of the Patriarchal sacristy...

The brethren were transferred to the Novospassky Monastery, but were not given premises. The fathers settled in the Seraphim-Znamensky monastery of the women's community of the Intercession, under the caring care of Mother Abbess Tamar. Liturgy was served daily. In October 1919, Patriarch Tikhon summoned Fr. Seraphim. “I need you,” said the patriarch and appointed him Bishop of Dmitrov. – Do you think that bishops burn incense three times three times for nothing? No, not for nothing. For many labors and exploits, for confessionally faithfully kept faith. Follow the apostolic path. Don’t be embarrassed by anything, don’t be afraid of inconveniences, endure everything,” Patriarch Tikhon instructed the new bishop. The Bishop diligently cared for his Dmitrov flock, was accessible to everyone, and knew every house. The Dmitrov residents lived quietly and peacefully, warmed by his love and prayer...

In November 1922, the bishop was imprisoned in Lubyanka. The Lord alone consoled the saint in a deep dungeon. Eating nothing for nine days, he strengthened his soul and body with the Holy Mysteries. Then he was transferred to Butyrki. His suffering here was similar to that suffered by the martyrs of the first Christian centuries. His body, eaten by lice, was covered with scabs. My heart weakened and I started having frequent heart attacks. But the Lord preserved the saint for the Church and his beloved flock, who prayed for him with tears. Vladyka was admitted to the hospital. The deliveries to the prisoner were so plentiful that many prisoners fed on them. The saint never ceased to capture souls with the love of Christ. People who had not approached the Holy Mysteries for decades united again with the Lord, confessing their sins. After five months of imprisonment, Fr. Seraphim went along the convoy to the Zyryansky region. The modest village of Vizinga accepted him into its borders. They set up a house church. The daily statutory service took up all the free time. The exiled saint indulged in prayer. “Only here, in saving exile, did I learn what solitude and prayer are,” he wrote to his friend Bishop Arseny. Liberation followed two years later, but it was overshadowed by the death of Patriarch Tikhon. Returning to Moscow, Vladyka settled in the Anosinaya Hermitage. Prayer calmed the archpastor’s soul. In the summer of 1926, he was again expelled from Moscow and the Moscow region. O. Seraphim goes to Diveevo. But the fearful abbess did not immediately allow such a famous saint to perform divine services in the monastery. The bishop suffered for a long time; finally, with his humility and prayer, he persuaded his mother to fulfill his request. In the basement church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Quench My Sorrows,” His Grace Seraphim began to celebrate the Liturgy daily, praying for the monastery and for his orphaned flock. After the liturgy, he walked along the canal, accepting with his heart the rule of St. Seraphim - one and a half hundred prayers of “Theotokos, Virgin, Rejoice” daily. And on November 9, 1927, the bishop was arrested again. Arzamas, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Melenki, Kazakhstan, Penza, Saratov, Uralsk... In Uralsk, severe malaria almost took his life. Then he was transferred to Siberia, to 60-degree frosts... On June 11, 1937, Bishop Seraphim was arrested for the last time. On August 23, 1937, the “troika” of the NKVD in the Omsk region sentenced N.I. Zvezdinsky. under Article 58-10-11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to be shot. Three days later the sentence was carried out. It is known that Vladyka Seraphim was buried in Omsk, in a mass grave, on the site of which a residential building now stands. Today he is a saint of our Church and prays for us at the throne of the Most High in the host of new martyrs who have shone forth in the Russian land.

Returning to the Zvezdinsky case, concocted by the NKVD, it should be noted that it contains the story of the failed underground movement of the community of the St. Nicholas Church of the Great Cross. This was the same church where Archpriest Valentin Sventsitsky served before his arrest, where he sent his last letter, blessing his spiritual children not to go underground, but to become members of the Church headed by M. Sergius. Father Valentin (1882–1931) was a remarkable man in his own way and an excellent pastor-confessor, who suffered a lot from the godless authorities. In order to at least to a small extent enable the reader to feel the charm of his words, we present an excerpt from one sermon delivered by Fr. Valentin in the 1920s, during the terrible time of persecution of the Russian Church. “...Church shortcomings are not a phenomenon of our time, they have always been there. It is enough to recall the words of Saint Gregory the Theologian, who said: “Faith in God has perished.” It is enough to recall the words of St. John Chrysostom, who in a conversation on the Epistle to the Corinthians said: “We in the Church have many only good memories, that both before and now we gathered for hymns, but earlier, when we gathered for hymns, there was unanimity, but now you will hardly find at least one person who would be like-minded.” After all, all this was said when some of the fathers of the Council of Nicaea were still alive, when Athanasius the Great had just died, when Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom were still alive. But what does it mean? This only means that the earthly Church has many shortcomings, which are the result of human weaknesses and infirmities. Can the holiness of the Church be shaken by the sins of individual people? What a temptation, what the greatest foolishness to say that I am leaving the Church because I met an unworthy shepherd, that I will no longer believe in the Church because I had to endure a difficult personal impression from one or another bearer of grace. The holiness of the Church does not lie in this - it lies in the sacraments, in the holiness of God’s grace, in all the good that this grace has done to human souls; it lies in the host of saints who are saved by this grace, it lies in every truly good movement of our soul. This light and sacred constitutes the holiness of the Church. And our sins are our illnesses, they are sinful infirmities, which we wash and cleanse in this Holy Church of Christ. That’s why, just as in our personal lives, let not the crafty thought about the uselessness of our labors, when we feel the weakness of our sins, not confuse us, so let not our faith in the holiness of the Church be confused in us, when we see certain shortcomings in the earthly Church. Our consciousness of sins should not cause despondency in us, but only greater and greater effort to do the Lord’s work. Awareness of the shortcomings of church life should not entail departure from the Holy Church, but an even greater love for it and a desire to serve for the benefit of the church.”

The case of Bishop Seraphim bears traces of the ambiguous reaction of parishioners to the message of Fr. Valentina. Some of them even left the temple. It is noteworthy that among the arrested children, Fr. There is no Valentine, except his wife's sister. It is not clear whether those of them who listened to their spiritual father remained in the Church of St. Nicholas the Great Cross or whether the arrests were more clearly selective than it seems to us. To the extent that we can judge from the materials of the case, at the beginning of 1932 in the Nikola Big Cross community there was no noticeable tendency towards the adoption of the declaration of Met. Sergius - on the contrary, it was one of the most active non-commemorators. It is even possible that the parish perceived itself as some kind of Moscow center of the Orthodox Church. In particular, they received pilgrims from other cities who came to confess and receive communion. For example, groups of 12 people came to them from the city of Kozlov, who, in a situation close to a state of emergency, were accommodated in Moscow for the night. Perhaps all this affected the attitude of the OGPU towards them.

Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker Grand Cross shortly before destruction

In the fall of 1931, even before the verdict of A.F. Losev, St. Nicholas the Great Cross Church was closed. A few months before, anticipating the closure of the temple, its community and rector, Fr. Mikhail Lyubimov, made attempts to find forms for continuing liturgical life. What to do next? The Orthodox community must exist, Fr. believed. Michael; “...in no case should believers be allowed to recognize the Sergian Church, since this leads to some reconciliation with the existing system...” The parish of the Church of St. Nicholas the Great Cross maintained constant communication with other Moscow churches that did not commemorate St. Sergius: Serbian courtyard (Church of Cyrus and John on Solyanka), Nikola Kleniki on Maroseyka, Nikola Kotelniki, Nikola Podkopai. After the closure of the Church of St. Nicholas the Great Cross, Fr. Mikhail invited his parishioners to take communion in one of the listed churches. Understanding the inevitability of going underground, the parishioners were concerned with the problem of maintaining themselves in the Church, and therefore, episcopal care. “...Those who are the people of God and the essence of Christ are with the bishop,” wrote the svmartyr. Ignatius the God-Bearer. How close the self-awareness of the Church of the first centuries has now become! Immersed in an atmosphere of God-hatred, both priests and laity, faced with the need to choose, realized with extraordinary clarity their involvement precisely in Christ and the Church of Christ. They seek this unity in Christ with each other, they persistently seek the completion of this unity in their spiritual primates - the bishops. Everywhere, both priests and laity - representatives of communities - go and go to their bishops, who have become church-wide. The temple was demolished in 1933. The parishioners moved to the Church of the Serbian Compound on Solyanka...