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The Resurrection-Mironositsky Women's Monastery in Zubovka

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In the 1850s, a women's community appeared in the stanitsa near the village of Zubovka, led by Ksenia Polievktova, who was the supervisor of the Kalmyk orphanage and a novice of the Astrakhan Annunciation Monastery. In 1884, using funds left by her parents, Ksenia purchased land for the community. This plot included an estate with a garden, vegetable patch, cabbage fields, meadows, and a lake. In 1887, she submitted a request to open a monastery, but due to her unreliable reputation, the decision was delayed. That same year, the community consecrated its first church in honor of the Holy Myrrhbearers. In 1896, after a change in the diocesan administration, permission to open the community was granted. At that time, five sisters lived there. Ksenia took the monastic vows under the name Eusebia and became the first abbess of the monastery. By 1897, a stone building, wings, cabins for workers, a stable, a cellar, and a bathhouse had been constructed on the territory of the former estate. A church was also built in honor of the Myrrhbearers. The community owned cattle, sheep, horses, and a camel, and the number of residents exceeded 120. In 1901, a brick factory and a windmill appeared in the community. On September 8, 1902, the monastery was officially opened in the presence of Bishop George and benefactors such as merchants Ivan Gubin, Georgy Kulikov, and Ivan Tsvetkov. I.I. Gubin, a well-known patron, donated capital to the monastery, the interest from which was used by the community. His sister became a nun of this monastery. In 1903, a stone wall was built around the monastery with the help of merchant benefactors. Saint John of Kronstadt visited the monastery three times, blessed the site for the Church of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity, participated in its laying, and consecrated it in 1906. After the death of Abbess Eusebia, the monastery was headed by nun Valentina Ulyanova. In 1906, a water tower was built on the monastery grounds, and plumbing was installed. The Church of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity was built in the Byzantine-Russian style and reached a height of nearly 35 meters. There was a holy spring at the monastery, and by 1908, a bell tower was constructed. The community operated an orphanage for girls and had dependencies in Astrakhan and the village of Nikolaevka. After the 1917 revolution and the civil war, a children's home was organized on the monastery grounds, and in 1922, the monastery cathedral was destroyed. Former residents of the community, led by Abbess Valentina Ulyanova, settled in the neighboring village of Staritsa, where a secret monastery arose under the spiritual care of Elder Archimandrite Dosifei. In 1933, all the nuns of this community were arrested and exiled to camps. Currently, local residents are increasingly discussing the possibility of partially restoring the monastery. To this day, part of the monastery wall, the sisterhood buildings, and the church in honor of the Holy Myrrhbearers have been preserved, where a rural club was located during the Soviet era.

The revival of the monastery began to gain momentum with the arrival of Bishop Anthony to the Akhtubinsk diocese. On Palm Sunday in 2015, a fundraising campaign was organized throughout the Akhtubinsk diocese, and the collected 100,000 rubles were donated to the reviving community. On April 26, 2015, the day of the Holy Myrrhbearers, an archpastoral service was held dedicated to the beginning of the revival of the Voskresensko-Myrrhbearers Women's Monastery. At that time, the monastery did not even have a place for the residents to live. Now the community has the status of a dependency of the Christ-Birth Women's Monastery, and nun Vera Sergeeva has been appointed the head of the community. She and several novices moved to the new monastery on June 5, 2015. Daily morning and evening prayers are held here, as well as services of the daily cycle: midnight office, hours, small vespers, matins, akathists are read, and processions are conducted. The parish priest, Father Vyacheslav Lysikov, also serves in the Kazan church in the village of Staritsa. The monastery's relic, the icon of the Mother of God "Iveron," was kept in the Protection Cathedral in Astrakhan after the closure of the community, and in 2016 it returned to Zubovka. On May 3, 2016, Metropolitan Jonah handed the icon to Bishop Anthony, and on the same day it was delivered to the cathedral in Akhtubinsk, after which it visited 10 settlements in the Astrakhan region. On May 21, the icon was brought to the entrance of the village and carried in a procession to the monastery, where a Divine Liturgy and a moleben were held outdoors. In August 2019, a dome was restored on the monastery building.

Geo point

Воскресенско-Мироносицкий женский монастырь в Зубовке

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