The Spaso-Preobrazhensky Gennadiev Monastery
The Spaso-Preobrazhensky Gennadiev Monastery was called the New Korniliev Desert until 1647 and was located in the Kostroma province until 1787. The monastery is located 33 kilometers from the city of Lyubim, located on the eastern shore of Lake Sursky, near two rivers Obnora and Kostroma.
The Preobrazhensky Gennadiev Monastery was called the New Korniliev Desert until 1647 and was located in the Kostroma province until 1787.
The monastery is located 26 versts from the city of Lyubim, located on the eastern shore of Sursky or Surb Lake, near two rivers Obnora and Kostroma, on an even place.
The monastery was founded by St. Gennady, a disciple of St. Cornelius, at the request of Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich in 1529. Until that time, there was only one cell here, in which the Venerable Cornelius and Gennady lived as recluses for some time after they retired from the Komel desert. The reason for the ascetics' departure to the dense forests of Kostroma was the murmur of the Komel brethren against St. Cornelius for the fact that, as abbot, he clearly preferred Gennady to others and especially loved him for his constant tireless labors, great humility and obedience. As a result, the Monk Cornelius, in order to calm himself and the brethren, parted with them and left with Gennady 60 versts from the Komel desert, entrusting the monastery to 12 brothers.
The voluntary exiles settled in the wild desert of Sursky Lake. There were forests belonging to the Grand ducal peasants. Kind and simple people, visiting their forests, noticed the holy hermits, fell in love with them, built cells for them and shared bread and honey with them. This is how the "ascetics of love" lived until 1529.
This year, Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich and his wife Elena, traveling to the Beloezersky Monastery and its surroundings, reached the Komelskaya desert for a prayer about childbearing. Having failed to find the Venerable Cornelius here, glorified by the sanctity of his life, and having learned about the reason for his removal, the Grand Duke was indignant at the obstinate brethren and immediately sent his servants to ask the Venerable Cornelius to come to the Komel desert. Cornelius obeyed; the Monk Gennady appeared with him. The Grand Duke begged the Monk Cornelius to stay in the monastery he had founded, and allowed Gennady to establish a monastery in the desert on the shore of Lake Sursky, which was newly established by ascetics.
Gennady, having received the blessing of his teacher, began the foundation of the monastery. Having cleaned the place on the shore with his own hands, draining this place with four ponds, Two of them were filled up by the middle of the XIX century (Yar. Ep. Ved. 1866 No. 24. p. 75) and a well, he, with the help of the new brethren, erected a wooden church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, to which another was later attached – a warm one in the honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh the wonderworker. This is how the monastery of the Savior Gennadievskaya was founded. The Monk Gennady passed away after an illness on January 23, 1565.
The life of St. Gennady, Kostroma and Lyubimogradsky, along with the service, was written to him by the abbot of the Spaso-Gennadiev monastery Alexy, a disciple of the monk between 1584-1586. In his instruction to the brethren about the life of St. Gennady, he asks them to take his work to Tsar Theodore and Metropolitan Dionysius. It is likely that Abbot Alexy was already at an advanced age since he himself could not come to the capital, and probably for the same reason, the widespread glorification of St. Gennady did not take place then. In Kostroma, in 1628, a church in the name of St. Gennady was mentioned. ("Temples of Kostroma"? Russian Bibliographic Dictionary. M., 1914. pp.395-396.) The author attached to the life both a spiritual testament and an instruction dictated by St. Gennady, "be bo Gennady does not know how to read and write." In them, Gennady remained faithful to the testament of his mentor, the Monk Cornelius: "accept the ancient holy fathers with reason, patience, love and humility, more so with conciliar and cell prayer and work hard in feats of hypocrisy." (V.O. Klyuchevsky Ancient Russian Lives of Saints as a historical source M., 1989 repr. p. 303.)
In 1644, during the dismantling of the old wooden church, the relics of St. Gennady were found. At the same time, in the middle of the XVII century, a story was compiled about the finding of relics with two miracles marked with numbers 17 and 18. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Joseph, the feast of the finding of the relics of St. Gennady began to be celebrated on August 19.
Glorified by the all-bearing power of the relics, they rested openly in the Transfiguration Church for a long time, but then for unknown reasons and it is unknown when they were hidden under a bushel. (Yar. Ep. Vedas. 1873 No. 25 pp. 202-203, part neof.). In those years, the glorification of St. Gennady took place. The service with the Akathist was published in 1861, composed by G. Kartsev and "recomposed" by Archbishop Nil of Yaroslavl. In the 1830s, Abbot Palladius tried to inspect the holy relics. When they began to disassemble the masonry at the site of the shrine, there was a strong crack and shaking of the cathedral. The abbot and the workers fled the temple in fear.
Outside the monastery there were two houses in Yaroslavl, one in Lyubim, a hotel, and two wooden wings at the back. According to local residents, there was a Forerunner's courtyard in the city of Lyubim, where there was a church of St. Pror. and the Forerunners of John.
After the revolution in the early 1920s, the monastery was forcibly dispersed, and all icons and property were taken to Yaroslavl under escort. According to local eyewitnesses, when the cancer was being transported, the Rev. Gennady (silver 8 pounds), then the horses reared up in front of the Slobodsky bridge. The soldiers refused to transport the cart, and one local resident undertook to take it. When he began to whip the horses, he saw the Rev. standing on the road in front of them. Gennady. This man went mad, he was possessed by a violent demoniac, and he died in chains.
Also, local Sloboda old-timers remember a very old Archimandrite Athanasius, who was sheltered by them and buried in the monastery, but the place of his burial is unknown. According to them, the last monk of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Gennadiev Monastery, Abbot Sergius, was in camps and prisons several times for a total period of 40 years. For the last three years he served in the Vvedensky Church from Pavlovka. He died in the 50s and was buried in Lyubim. In the monastery itself, the fraternal cemetery has been devastated.
The buildings of the monastery were repeatedly blown up. Currently, there is no fence left, some towers were preserved until the 1980s (the Yaroslavl Museum has photographs from 1988). The fraternal building was used as a prison, but it was disbanded and the building was broken. They tried to keep horses in the Transfiguration Cathedral. The cathedral was blown up in 1961, but the walls and necks of its heads survived, and the altar of the cathedral was demolished by tractors in 1988.
The Alekseevsky temple was used as a collective farm office, and the first floor was used as a granary and a warehouse of pesticides.
A silo pit was made on one side of the Alekseevsky Temple, and tractor tracks were cut on the other sides, as well as throughout the monastery. The orchard was cut down in the 1960s, and the reverend's well was filled up.
Modern local legends tell about three places in the Lyubimsky district associated with St. Gennady. One of them is Sokolena (village of Sokoliny), near the city of Lyubim. This place is considered cursed by the Monk Gennady, because the locals did not allow him to establish a monastery on it and drove the monk away.
Another legend says that one day the Monk Gennady asked to be transported across the river, and since he had nothing to pay with, the local Lyubim residents took off his mittens for this. For such cruelty, the Monk Gennady said this: "And you will not be Loved, neither well-fed nor hungry." The city has been loved since then and has remained a small, not developing town.
Locals say that the village of Timino has a spring, the water of which has healing properties. Locals call this source "Gennadiev". It is believed that he was fossilized by the monk. Old-timers remember the chapel at this place. The water in this holy spring beats from a small depth with many springs and does not freeze even in forty degrees of frost.
In 1996, the community of the Spaso-Gennadiev Monastery was registered. The ensemble of the monastery was transferred by the Committee for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Yaroslavl region in 1997. The description includes, in a dilapidated state, the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior in 1647, the Church of Alexei in 1751, the bell tower in 1715.
In the monastery itself, the well of the Rev. Gennady is 12 meters deep. A wooden church in the name of St. Rev. was built over the well. Gennady.
There is also a miraculous tombstone in the monastery, which is located not far from the Transfiguration Cathedral, this stone has the power to heal diseases. Unfortunately, it is not known who is buried under this stone.
