The Kazan Alexiev-Sergiev Desert is located in the southeast of the Penza region, in the village of Sazanye. Here, by God's will, a male monastery was revived in the same place where it existed more than a hundred years ago.

The village of Sazanye got its name from Sazany Mountain, about which many legends circulate among the locals. One of them tells that in the 18th century, unknown hermit monks dug a cave in the forest, where they prayed for the salvation of the world. This unique monastery was not registered in any diocese. The legend also recounts that during the Pugachev uprising of 1773-1775, rebels, hiding from the authorities, stumbled upon this cave and asked the monks for refuge. The monks, following Christian commandments, sheltered them. However, the residents of Serdobinskaya Sloboda reported to the authorities, and a punitive detachment destroyed everyone who was in the cave.

The new history of the Sazansk caves began in the 20th century. In 1901, 6 versts from Serdobsk, a male monastery was founded at a river bend. Its beginning was a cell in a cave, dug by a 70-year-old elder, Sila Zhulin.

In 1913, Sila took monastic vows and lived on Sazany Mountain until the monastery was closed. By the blessing of Bishop Germogen, he dug underground caves, where a temple, cells for hermits, and niches for the burial of deceased monks were placed. It is known that monk Seraphim was also a hermit and spent several years in the caves. His cell has survived to this day.

The founder of the monastery is considered to be the Serdobsk merchant Andrei Nikolayevich Gruzintsev, who appealed to the Serdobsk Duma with a request to allocate a plot for prayers and feats. Since then, he was called Elder Andrei.

In 1904, surveyor Gavriil Grigoryevich Krapivin requested permission to erect a chapel in honor of the birth of the heir Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, and his request was granted.

The place chosen by the monks was picturesque: a mountain descending into a ravine and surrounded by forest, with the Serdoba River flowing below.

Soon, there were already three temples in the monastery. On December 4, 1905, a wooden chapel was consecrated in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, and the desert was assigned to the Saratov Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery under the name Kazan-Alexievsk.

Construction in the desert continued, and soon a stone warm temple with a bishop's house and several outbuildings were erected. The temple had two altars: the main one in the name of the Dormition of the Mother of God, and the northern side altar in the name of St. Alexius and St. Sergius. The southern side altar was not consecrated.

Later, a bell tower was built. The ringing of the monastery bells was heard in Serdobsk, and the townspeople walked to the monastery on foot.

Today, the male monastery continues to exist. On its territory, there is a ground temple in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, a chapel in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, cleared caves with the Nikolsky temple, a spring with a bathing area and chapel, as well as a bell tower with 11 bells and an electro-mechanical bell ringer.