The Spaso-Transfiguration Desert, known to the people as Starcev Ugl, is located on the border of the Bolshie Ignatov district of Mordovia and the Sechenov district of Nizhny Novgorod region, near the village of Gorki. Both Mordovia and Nizhny Novgorod region claim the monastery due to frequent border changes in the 20th century. Currently, the site where the monastery from the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was located belongs to Nizhny Novgorod region, while the first monastery, according to legend, has gone underground and is located in Mordovia. The monastery was visited by saints such as Seraphim of Sarov and Saint Luke Voyno-Yasenetsky. Local revered elders also became famous here, whose prayers healed the sick and helped the faithful. It is because of the abundance of such elders that the monastery received the name Starcev Ugl. The history of this place begins with the campaign against Kazan, when Tsar Ivan the Terrible was visited by Saint Spyridon of Trimythous, who predicted victory over the Kazan kingdom. In memory of this, a stone church was built, which later went underground.

In a petition from 1685, the monks mentioned that their desert was founded during the reign of Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich by a decree from Patriarch Joseph, between 1641 and 1645. During the Catherine era, the monks were transferred to the Alatyr Holy Trinity Monastery. The last church in Starcev Ugl was sold for firewood at the end of the 19th century, but according to the memories of locals, the church stood until the 1930s.

After the revolution, two hermits went into seclusion, living in caves, and they were long untraceable. Metropolitans Ioann Snychev and Manuel Lemeshevsky secretly visited Starcev Ugl disguised as bricklayers.

Many legends are associated with this holy place. After the war, believing women cleaned the chapels when widow Agrafena saw a fiery Angel emerging from the hill. The Angel transformed into an elder and led her inside the hill, where she took monastic vows. She was absent for several days, although it seemed to her that only a day had passed. Schema nun Margarita was the builder of the last female community in Starcev Ugl.

The community was not registered, as construction began before the revolution. Cells and a chapel were built, but the church was officially considered a church in the cemetery, and there was no priest there. In difficult years, the residents were dispersed, and the buildings were destroyed. Mother Margarita went to Sechenovo to seek the truth, knowing that suffering awaited her. She was shot, but she survived and was saved by people.

Now the monastery is being revived: a master plan has been drawn up, land has been formalized, construction materials have been delivered, and the construction of the first building has begun.