The Sarapul Annunciation Women's Monastery was founded by the decree of the Holy Synod on September 22, 1881, based on the Women's Community of Sisters of Labor. Land was allocated for the monastery in the northwestern part of the city, where the sisters conducted religious ceremonies in a stone church built in 1877 with funds from the Perm merchant Nikandr Alexeyevich Dedyukhin. The church had three chapels: the main one in honor of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, the right one in the name of All Saints, and the left one in the name of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius.
In 1882, a literacy school was opened for the novices of the monastery, where they also learned singing, handicrafts, icon painting, and other arts. The monastery's handicrafts were known far beyond the borders of the Vyatka province. In 1893, the works of the monastery's gold embroiderers received a bronze medal and an honorary diploma at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1904, at the First All-Russian Exhibition of Monastic Works, the Annunciation Monastery was awarded a diploma and a small silver medal for excellent craftsmanship.
In 1899, with funds from merchant Nikolai Ivanovich Dedyukhin, a chapel was built in the monastery in honor of Martyr Alexandra. Until the closure of the monastery, it was served by Archpriest and spiritual composer Alexei Nikolayevich Chistyakov, who disappeared from Sarapul with the last sounds of the monastery choir. In 1904, Archpriest Ioann Sergeev served in the Annunciation Cathedral, the righteous St. John of Kronstadt, who received a set of priestly vestments as a gift from the monastery's gold embroiderers. In 1918, Anna Alexeyevna Krasilnikova, a holder of the George Cross, took the veil in the monastery.
The monastery was closed on November 14, 1923, by the decision of the Sarapul City Executive Committee, and the buildings were repurposed for a children's town. Currently, the territory of the monastery houses divisions of the Sarapul Radio Plant, evacuated from Moscow in 1941.
The first abbess of the monastery was Abbess Angelina, in the world Afanasiya Vukolovna Nazarova. On September 8, 1901, the monastery celebrated the 25th anniversary of her service, and she was presented with a golden pectoral cross from Emperor Nicholas II. Angelina was a noble and educated woman, a member of the Imperial Palestinian Pilgrimage Society, teaching the sisters choral singing, handicrafts, and icon painting. Under her guidance, a professional icon painting workshop was established, and the products of the gold embroidery workshop were in demand. Abbess Angelina passed away on April 15, 1914, and was buried near the monastery's Annunciation Cathedral.
Afanasiya, the future Abbess Angelina, left for the Vyatka Monastery at the age of 12 with her mother, where she took the veil. In Sarapul, she served for 38 years, demonstrating organizational skills. She actively engaged in the arrangement of the monastery, building houses and churches, leading the choir, and teaching icon painting. On June 5, 1913, she handed over the abbess's staff to Abbess Kheruvima but continued to participate in services until the end of her life.
On January 29, 2015, the Sarapul City Duma decided to transfer the building at the address: Sarapul, Soboleva St., 15, to the Sarapul Diocese for gratuitous use. The decision to restore the monastery was approved at the Diocesan Council on March 10, 2015. On November 5, 2016, Bishop Antoniy performed the rite of great consecration of the church in honor of the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Quick to Hear" at the Archdiocesan courtyard of the Annunciation Women's Monastic Community in Sarapul.
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first.
To leave a comment, sign in with Google.