Pechersky Ascension Monastery is a monastery in Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...

, Russia. It is the principal monastery of the Nizny Novgorod Eparchy

Eparchy

Eparchy is an anglicized Greek word , authentically Latinized as eparchia and loosely translating as 'rule over something,' like province, prefecture, or territory, to have the jurisdiction over, it has specific meanings both in politics, history and in the hierarchy of the Eastern Christian...

 (diocese) and the seat of the Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas.

History

Pechersky Voznesensky Monastery is usually said to have
been founded ca. 1328-1330 by St. Dionysius, who came
to Nizhny Novgorod from Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Kiev Pechersk Lavra or Kyiv Pechersk Lavra , also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, is a historic Orthodox Christian monastery which gave its name to one of the city districts where it is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine....

(i.e., Kiev Monastery of the Caves, pechery meaning 'caves') with several other monks, and dug for himself a cave on the step Volga shore some 3 km southeast of the city. Later on, he founded at that site a monastery with a church of Resurrection of the Lord.

The monastery soon became an important spiritual and religious center of the Principality of Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod.

The monastery was destroyed by a landslide on June 18, 1597; surprisingly, no one died. The same year the monastery was rebuilt about 1 km upstream (north) of the old site.

Although there are no caves in the modern monastery, the appellation Pechersky, linking it to the old Kiev cloyster, has been preserved. Moreover, the entire section of Nizhny Novgorod surrounding the monastery, occupying uplands above the Volga south of the city center, is known as Pechery.

The monastery was closed by NKVD

NKVD

The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....

 in 1924, and reopened in 1994.

Principal buildings

The principal buildings of the monastery include:

• Ascension Cathedral (Вознесенский собор), constructed in 1630—1632.
• The Church of Dormition of Our Lady (Успенская церковь), 1648.
• The Church of Saint Venerable Euthimios of Suzdal, built over the monastery's inner gate (Надвратная церковь во имя св. преп. Евфимия Суздальского), 1645.
• The Church of SS Peter and Paul (Церковь во имя св. апостолов Петра и Павла), 1738.
• Bishop's residence (архиерейские палаты), 1632.
• Hegumen
  Hegumen
  Hegumen, hegumenos, igumen, or ihumen is the title for the head of a monastery of the Eastern Orthodox Church or Eastern Catholic Churches, similar to the one of abbot. The head of a convent of nuns is called hegumenia or ihumenia . The term means "the one who is in charge", "the leader" in...
  
  's building (игуменский корпус), 1765.
• Monks' residence (братский корпус), 17th century.

The belfry of the Ascension Cathedral (which also serves as a clock tower) is noticeably out of plumb. It has been leaning almost since the time it was originally constructed.

The monastery is surrounded by a red brick wall with small towers, making it look like a small kremlin

Kremlin

A kremlin , same root as in kremen is a major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there...

.

The diocesal archeological museum and a book and icon

Icon

An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...

 shop operate in the monastery. In the latter, one
can request a variety of prayers for the living and dead, in accordance with the posted fee list.

Holy relics

• In 2006-2007, the monastery housed an important relic
  Relic
  In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
  
   known as the Honorable Head (i.e., skull
  Human skull
  The human skull is a bony structure, skeleton, that is in the human head and which supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.In humans, the adult skull is normally made up of 22 bones...
  
  ) of the Venerable Macarius
  Macarius of Unzha
  Venerable Macarius of the Yellow Water Lake and the Unzha, the Miracle Worker is a Saint of Russian Orthodox Church.He is credited with the founding of four monasteries in the Middle and Upper Volga regions of Russia....
  
  . It was solemnly transferred
  Translation (relics)
  In Christianity, the translation of relics is the removal of holy objects from one locality to another ; usually only the movement of the remains of the saint's body would be treated so formally, with secondary relics such as items of clothing treated with less ceremony...
  
   to Makaryev Monastery
  Makaryev Monastery
  Zheltovodsky Makaryev Convent of the Holy Trinityis one of the convents of Russian Orthodox Church.It is located in the vicinity of the urban-type settlement of Makaryevo in Lyskovsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast....
  
  in 2007.

External links

• Official site of the Monastery
• An extract from a 19th century Nizhny Novgorod guide book
• Frescos of the refectory of the Ascension Cathedral in Nizhny Novgorod's Pechersky Ascension Monastery

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