Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery
Encyclopedia
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
monastery in Zvenigorod
Zvenigorod
Zvenigorod is an old town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Population: -History:The community has existed since the 12th century, although its first written mention is dated 1338. The town's name is based either on a personal name or on a hydronym Zvenigorod is an old town in Moscow Oblast, Russia....
.
In 1398, Prince Yuri asked St. Savva Storozhevsky
St. Savva Storozhevsky
Saint Savva Storozhevsky or Sabbas of Storozhev - an Orthodox monk and saint of 14-15th century. He was the founder and first hegumen of Rozdestvo-Nativity of the Mother of God monetary in Zvenigorod, which was later given the name of saint .Savva Storozhevsky was one of the first disciples of...
, one of the first disciples of Sergii Radonezhsky, to go to Zvenigorod
Zvenigorod
Zvenigorod is an old town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Population: -History:The community has existed since the 12th century, although its first written mention is dated 1338. The town's name is based either on a personal name or on a hydronym Zvenigorod is an old town in Moscow Oblast, Russia....
and to establish a monastery on the Storozhi Holm (Watching Hill). St. Savva of Storozhi was interred in the white stone cathedral of the Virgin's Nativity in 1407. This diminutive, roughly hewn church still stands, although its present-day exquisite look is the result of recent restoration. The fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
es in the altar date back to the 1420s, but the rest of the interior was painted in 1656. A magnificent iconostasis
Iconostasis
In Eastern Christianity an iconostasis is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. Iconostasis also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church...
in five tiers and the Stroganov School
Stroganov School
Stroganov School is a conventional name for the last major Russian icon-painting school, which thrived under the patronage of the fabulously rich Stroganov family of merchants in the late 16th and 17th century....
heaven gates were installed in 1652.
In 1650, the monastery was chosen by Tsar Alexis
Alexis I of Russia
Aleksey Mikhailovich Romanov was the Tsar of Russia during some of the most eventful decades of the mid-17th century...
as his suburban residence. In five years, they constructed a white stone royal palace and a festive chamber for the tsaritsa
Tsaritsa
Tsaritsa , formerly spelled czaritsa , is the title of a female autocratic ruler of Bulgaria or Russia, or the title of a tsar's wife....
. The cloister
Cloister
A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...
was encircled with stone walls and towers, patterned after those of the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra
Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra
The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church. The monastery is situated in the town of Sergiyev Posad, about 70 km to the north-east from Moscow by the road leading to Yaroslavl, and currently is home to...
. Particularly noteworthy is a large belfry, erected in four bays in 1650 and crowned with three tents and a clocktower. A church over the holy gates was consecrated to the Holy Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
in 1652.
After the death of Feodor III
Feodor III of Russia
Feodor III Alexeevich of Russia was the Tsar of all Russia between 1676 and 1682....
, who spent most of his time there, the monastery declined. In May 1918, when the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s tried to seize the relics of St. Savva, several persons were shot dead. The monastery was ransacked and pillaged, including the tomb of Saint Savva, made of gold plated silver, then the monks were chased out and finally the cathedral was left to ruin. Both cathedrals were entirely covered with frescoes and until the revolution had five-tiered iconostasis. Presently only a few fragments of the original frescoes remain. In 1985, the cloister was assigned to the Danilov Monastery
Danilov Monastery
Danilov Monastery, in full Svyato-Danilov Monastery or Holy Danilov Monastery , is a monastery on the right bank of the Moskva River in Moscow, Russia...
in Moscow. St. Savva's relics were returned to the monastery in 1998.