8 km west of Verkhoturye, on the picturesque bank of the Aktay River, lies a small village of the same name. Here is the skete of the Holy Nicholas Men's Monastery, known as the Aktay Hermitage. These lands were granted to the monks in 1850 and were initially used for economic needs: local believers harvested firewood and hay for livestock. The hermitage on the Aktay River was founded in 1852 as a stopping point for pilgrims heading to Verkhoturye to venerate the relics of Saint Simeon of Verkhoturye. Soon, a chapel was built in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Life-Giving Spring," which was consecrated as a church in 1894 by Archimandrite Ioann. Later, the hermitage became a skete with the introduction of communal living and elderhood. On the bank, there is an inexhaustible spring of holy water.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Aktay land became famous for its elders: Macarius and Elijah. Macarius, in the world Mikhail Vasilyevich Polikarpov, was the spiritual father of Grigori Rasputin, and Emperor Nicholas II invited him to the imperial palace in St. Petersburg twice. Macarius was known as a fool for Christ and a clairvoyant, and many rumors circulated about his prophecies. He was called the "chicken saint" because he was constantly surrounded by domestic birds. Elijah, in the world Ioann Chebotarev, a monk from the island of Valaam, spent the last seven years of his life in Verkhoturye and at the Aktay Hermitage. The Russian Orthodox Church honors him as the Venerable Elijah of Verkhoturye; he passed away in 1900.

After the revolution, when the monastery was closed, expelled priests from Verkhoturye settled at the Aktay Hermitage. In 1928, by order of the Soviet authorities, a Rest House was established on the site of the skete, and a rural club was opened in the church.

In the late 1990s, the church in honor of the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Life-Giving Spring" was transferred to the Holy Nicholas Men's Monastery, and services resumed. In August 2002, Archbishop Vikentiy of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye consecrated the spring and the church in honor of the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Life-Giving Spring." The building of the church was transferred to the ownership of the monastery based on the resolution of the head of the municipal formation "Verkhoturye District" No. 279 dated June 7, 2001, under the gratuitous property transfer agreement dated June 9, 2001.