Sofroniev Desert is a forest skete located between the villages of Naumovka and Pyavochnoe in the Arzamas district. According to local historian Vladimir Bakunin, the skete was founded in the late 19th century by Archimandrite Sofroniy, known in the world as Sergey Georgievich Smirnov, who was the abbot of the Arzamas High Mountain Ascension Monastery. After retiring in 1907, he settled here. Sofroniy was renowned for his gift of foresight and healing, which led to the establishment of other cells around his cell, belonging to his admirers. After his death in 1921, the Iver-Sofroniev women's community was created here, which ceased to exist in 1929.

The revival of the monastery began in 2000. To date, a wooden church has been built, a burial church over the grave of Father Sofroniy, where his relics rest, as well as a sisterhood building and services. In 2008, Father Sofroniy was canonized as a locally venerated saint by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He began his monastic life in the Holy Dormition Desert of the Kharkov Diocese, which is now known as the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra in the Donetsk region.