Nikolo Babaevsky Monastery Yaroslavskaya. Roschektaev Andrey Vladimirovich

Two versts north of Bolshiye Soli settlement (now Nekrasovskoye settlement, Yaroslavl region) is the Nikolo-Babaevsky monastery. Here is how priest Alexei Voskresensky describes it in 1912: “When a traveler, making his voyage along one of the great rivers of our Motherland, the Volga, reaches the limit where the Kostroma province borders on Yaroslavl, separated by the small river Solonitsa, which flows into the Volga, he still from afar, he fixes his attentive gaze on the monastic monastery that appears to him, lying on the right bank of the Volga, surrounded by a long white ribbon of a stone fence, with four big temples, of which one - the cathedral - reigns not only over other stone buildings of the monastery, but also over the entire immediate vicinity.

This is the house of the great ecumenical wonderworker Nicholas - the Nikolaevsky Babaevsky cenobitic monastery. Standing on the banks of the abundant Russian river, surrounded by verdant copses and golden fields, with a vast oak grove on its southern side, the monastery, like a bright and auspicious candle, burns before the heavenly throne of the Most Holy and Life-Giving Trinity, stretching to the sky the numerous domes of its four temples, in which, for more than five centuries, believers have been offering their prayers to the Lord at the miraculously revealed image of His Great Pleasure - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

The Babaevsky Monastery got its name from the baboons - large oars used instead of a rudder when rafting timber down the Volga from the Sheksna and Mologa rivers. When the lumber merchants brought timber from the Volga to the Solonitsa, then these babayks became unnecessary, and they formed on the shore at the very mouth of the Solonitsa, near the place where the monastery is located.

In the XIV century, not later than its second half, a miraculous event took place here - the appearance of the icon of St. Nicholas, who gave a different purpose to this hitherto desert area, about which we read the following in the ancient news: Blessed people, having found it, worn it out and put it on the bank in the oak forest, it is very red, where the monastery is now; And many people began to flock to worship the holy icon and perform miracles; And a certain monk of the Sergius Monastery, John, came and built the first prayer temple of baboons, and a chapel in the name of Sergius the Wonderworker of Radonezh; And I began to build a monastery, and endured great need from the robberies and ruin of evil people.

Undoubtedly, popular zeal could not leave the holy icon that appeared in the open air: a wooden chapel was built for it, where believers flocked to worship the image of the Great Wonderworker. In the second half of the 14th century, a monastic monastery was formed here, which repeatedly suffered not only from enemy raids (Kazan Tatars), but also from devastating fires that destroyed all its ancient papers and those precious information that they could give about its past historical life in the past. century. The most disastrous of them in this respect were the fires of 1619 and 1870. Founded by one of the students Reverend Sergius Monk John of Radonezh, the Babaevsky Monastery was little known for a long time and existed in the form of a poor desert.

From the first days of its existence and up to the middle of the 17th century, the monastery was wooden, surrounded by a log fence with a single wooden church, and only around this time the latter was replaced by a two-story stone one. There is no doubt that without donations from benefactors, the construction of such a temple for a monastery that had meager material resources was impossible. It is not known exactly who were the benefactors of the monastery at that time; one can only assume that they were wealthy people. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich granted the Babaev monastery "to feed the forest two versts in length, and a verst in diameter."

Of the abbots who ruled the monastery from the time it was founded until the 18th century, only three are known: hegumen Joseph, mentioned in the monastery synod, written in 1730; hegumen Anthony, recorded in the same synodique after Joseph, and hegumen Longinus, who was mentioned in the inscription on the monthly menaias. In 1709, the Babaevsky Monastery was deprived of independence and assigned to the Nikolaevsky Monastery, which is in a swamp, in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, from which he began to receive his abbots. In addition to alms from pilgrims and donations from philanthropists, the monastery received income from the lease of its lands, from rented mills and fishing, and from the nearby transportation across the Volga River. The brethren were diligently engaged in arable farming and cattle breeding.

In 1728, by decree of St. The Synod of the Nikolaev Babaevsky Monastery was removed from the Nikolaev Monastery, and Hieromonk Galaktion, who ruled from 1729 to 1739, was appointed hegumen. Hegumen Galaktion put the Babaevsky Monastery in order, but after the death of this active and troublesome abbot, the economic condition of the monastery soon fell into decay.

From 1748 to 1754, Abbot Guriy was the abbot of the monastery, who immortalized his name in the monastery by establishing the annual celebration of the Iberian Icon in it. Mother of God. The impetus for the establishment of this holiday was the fact that Gury, who suffered from a leg disease, was healed after praying before the Iberian Icon, donated to the monastery in 1724 by Vasily Isakov, a resident of Bolshiye Soli settlement.

During the years of hegumen Filagry's government (from 1759 to 1790), the monastery received a precious donation: the famous nobleman of the time of Catherine II, Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin, donated to the monastery part of the relics of St. Nicholas in a gilded silver reliquary. Potemkin had around the Babaevsky Monastery up to 12 thousand souls of serfs.

Hieromonk Savva, who ruled the monastery from 1793 to 1810, was one of its prominent abbots. He was distinguished by high moral qualities, a strict ascetic life, sincere innocence and non-acquisitiveness, and at the same time he was an active, energetic and caring organizer of the monastery. Having expanded and decorated the monastery church, Savva in 1798 added a new stone three-tiered bell tower 18 fathoms high to it on the western side. He also rebuilt or repaired dilapidated monastic cells, and replaced the wooden fence of the monastery with a stone one.

Donations good people for the dispensation of the monastery were made not only with money, but also with precious icons. So, the nun of the Kostroma Holy Cross Monastery brought the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, decorated with gold embroidery and pearls, as a gift to the Babaevsky Monastery. According to the special instructions of God, which she had in a dream, this icon was revered as miraculous on a par with other miraculous icons of the monastery. Then Mrs. Pobedimskaya, who lived in the Suzdal nunnery, donated to the Babaevsky Monastery the icon of the Assumption of the Mother of God, which in size was a copy from the miraculous Kiev icon, with particles of the relics of the Kiev saints of God embedded in it.

From 1810 to 1824, the rector of the Babaevsky Monastery was Archimandrite Anastassy, ​​who made the monastery one of the first in the Kostroma diocese both in terms of the number and way of life of the brethren, and in the improvement of churches and other buildings. In 1814, he completed the construction of the Dormition Gate Church, and in 1821, the hospital church in the name of St. John Chrysostom and St. Sergius of Radonezh. At the same time, from 1817 to 1823, a new five-domed church was built on the north side of the monastery in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. A two-story stone hotel was built for visiting and visiting pilgrims. In the Babaevsky Monastery, he also established a reverent fulfillment church services, harmonious pillar singing and unhurried intelligible reading in the church. For some work, such as harvesting bread and hay in the summer, he attracted all the brethren, not excluding the elders.

In 1846, the rector of the Sergius Hermitage near St. Petersburg, Archimandrite Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), came to the monastery on sick leave for 11 months. This visit had important consequences for the monastery.

On October 13, 1861, Bishop Ignatius, retired, arrived at the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery as rector. The leadership of such a chief as was Bishop Ignatius, famous for his administrative experience, strict monastic life and ascetic writings, laid the foundation for the prosperity of the monastery in all respects.

Together with Bishop Ignatius, Abbot Justin, the sacristan Hieromonk Kallistos, Hieromonk Feofan, and several novices arrived at the monastery, who ruled the Caucasian bishop's house under him. At the end of 1862, Vladyka's brother Peter Alexandrovich Brianchaninov, who had previously held the post of Stavropol Governor, also came to live in the Babaev Monastery. He settled in the monastery as a pilgrimage. The Bryanchaninov brothers donate all their savings to repair buildings and meet urgent needs of the monastery. Under Bishop Ignatius on the Volga, a pier-chapel was installed opposite the monastery, at which all passing passenger steamers stopped. Prayers were served in the chapel and sales were made church candles, prosphora and images. To improve the material resources of the monastery, arable farming was restored on those belonging to it. Since these lands were part of the swamp, ditches were dug to drain them and water was lowered into the Volga. In connection with the increase in the number of pilgrims and the tightness of the St. Nicholas Church, which could accommodate no more than 600 people, Bishop Ignatius repeatedly had the idea of ​​building a new cathedral church instead of the dilapidated Iberian Church.

Bishop Ignatius entrusted the drafting of the new church to a familiar architect, professor of the Academy of Arts I. I. Gornostaev.

The news about the beginning of the construction of a new temple quickly spread among the inhabitants of the Yaroslavl and Kostroma provinces, and many of them began to send their donations not only in money, but also in building materials. P. A. Brianchaninov, who took an active part in this matter, donated about 5,000 rubles - his last fortune.

The influence of Bishop Ignatius, an experienced leader in monastic deeds and a wise mentor in matters of piety, on the inner life of the monastic brethren, of course, was very great and fruitful. In his free time, the bishop was engaged in revising his writings, supplementing them with new articles and preparing them for publication. Four volumes of these works were published during the life of Bishop Ignatius, and the fifth after his death. All his life he was a zealous performer of inner feat, a special performer of the Jesus Prayer, he wrote a lot about it. A number of his works were written during his life in the Nikolo-Babaev monastery. On April 30, 1867, Bishop Ignatius died quietly. His body was buried in the hospital monastery church of St. John Chrysostom and St. Sergius of Radonezh, in a crypt behind the left kliros.

After his death, the Holy Synod approved Archimandrite Justin as rector of the Babaevsky Monastery. He received his spiritual upbringing under the direct guidance of St. Ignatius, and therefore he was a zealous imitator of him in the affairs of monastic administration.

The beginning of the 20th century was just as stormy and catastrophic for the monastery as it was for the whole of Russia. People guided by the idea of ​​world destruction and revolutionary violence, having taken power, set to work. Everything that was created over the centuries turned into piles of ruins. This fate did not bypass the Babaevsky Monastery. By the beginning of the 1920s, worship in the cathedral church ceased and most of the brethren scattered to different places. On the territory of the monastery, the Kostroma orphanage was organized, and then a school for rural youth. The state farm "Revolution" was also located here, then the regional executive committee. neighborhood with church churches caused irritation and discontent of the new government. Gradually, church buildings inside the monastery were dismantled; the turn came to the cathedral church. In the mid-30s, they began to take it apart into bricks and take it to the village of Krasny Profintern for the construction of a bathhouse. However, the quality and strength of the walls of the temple were so high that it did not lend itself to further disassembly, so it was decided to blow it up.

For this purpose, in the summer of 1940, a special brigade of explosives arrived at the monastery, which planted explosives in the holes drilled in the walls of the Iberian Church and destroyed it.

From September 1941 to August 1945 in the buildings former monastery evacuation hospital No. 3044 was located, the first head of which was a military doctor of the 3rd rank V. V. Boldin, and from 1943 to 1945 - lieutenant colonel of the medical service G. S. Lopatukhin.

After the liquidation of the hospital in Babayki, a children's labor colony was opened, which had its own school. In the mid-1950s, the colony was closed, transferring the premises to the needs of the regional children's bone and tuberculosis sanatorium. After the transfer of the sanatorium in 1995 to the Levashovo boarding house, the Babaiki, left without an owner, underwent final destruction.

In 1998, the territory of the monastery was transferred to the Yaroslavl diocese. In one of the surviving buildings, several monks settled, who, under the leadership of hegumen Boris (Dolzhenko), set about restoring the destroyed monastery.

Description of the old photo: The monastery is located 28 km from Yaroslavl, near the village of Nekrasovskoye (former Bolshiye Soli settlement), at the confluence of the Solonitsa River into the Volga.
The time of foundation of the monastery is not exactly known (according to some sources, the XIV, according to others, the XVI century). But all the legends agree on one thing: the founding of the monastery is connected with the appearance of the miraculous image of St. Nicholas, who appeared on babayks - this was the name of the special oars that were used to float the timber.
The stone buildings that reached the 20th century were relatively late - there were hardly any buildings older than the first half of XIX V.
The history of the monastery is connected with the life in it of St. Ignatius (in the world of Dmitry Alexandrovich Brianchaninov), a remarkable Russian theologian of the 19th century.
For the first time St. Ignatius visited this place in 1847. At this time, he, the archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage near St. Petersburg, was sent to the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery to improve his health. Later St. Ignatius became Bishop of the Caucasus. However, by 1861 his health deteriorated again, and the saint filed a petition for retirement and asked for an abbotship at the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery. The request was granted. Here he died in 1867.
During his stay in the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery of St. Ignatius wrote many of his books. At the same time, he constantly took care of the monastery. Thanks to his efforts, a new grandiose cathedral was built (completed after his death). The Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery soon became one of the most famous and revered monasteries in Russia. In this state, he was captured by Prokudin-Gorsky.
With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the situation changed completely. In 1920, the monastery was closed, while all the shrines of the monastery, including the ancient miraculous image of St. Nicholas disappeared without a trace. During the Soviet hard times, the buildings of the monastery suffered greatly. Two of the four churches, and moreover the most monumental - the Cathedral of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God and the Winter Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker - were blown up.
The last of the Soviet institutions located in the monastery was an anti-tuberculosis dispensary. In the 1980s the dispensary moved out of here, and the remains of the monastery began to quickly collapse and be plundered. Under such conditions, in 1988, after the canonization of Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), his relics were transferred from here to the Tolga Monastery, which was being revived.
Since 1998, the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery has been operating again. Since then restored small temple St. John Chrysostom and built a new wooden church St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. However, he is still experiencing enormous difficulties. His brethren are extremely small: according to 2006 data, there were only four monks in it. photographs by S. M. Prokudin-Gorsky
(1902 - 1916)

Even 100 years ago, one of the most beautiful monasteries of the Volga region, Nikolo-Babaevsky, could be seen on the banks of the Solonitsa River. Regal, surrounded by centuries-old oak forests, it stood a few kilometers from the settlement of Bolshiye Soli, renamed in Soviet times into the village of Nekrasovskoye. The monastery was known throughout Russia, its favorable location between Yaroslavl and Kostroma made it easy for pilgrims to get here along the Volga. From its former grandeur, only stone walls and several buildings of the 19th century have survived today. Survived miraculously: the barbaric attitude towards the monastery after the revolution did not suggest any future.

Official name: Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery
Geography: Nekrasovskoye village, Yaroslavl region.
Chronology: the monastery was founded in the XIV century. Stone buildings were erected from the end of the 17th century. The monastery was abolished in the 1920s. Returned to Russian Orthodox Church in 1998.
Condition: most of the temples on the territory of the monastery are destroyed. Only the Dormition Gate Church and a partially rebuilt hospital church in the name of St. John Chrysostom and St. Sergius of Radonezh early XIX century. The new building of the Iberian Cathedral was erected in 2010-2014.
Address: pos. Nekrasovskoe, st. Volzhskaya, 11. Website: http://babayki.orthodoxy.ru/index.html

Icon on a babayka
The Babaevsky Monastery got its name from the baboons - large oars used instead of a rudder when rafting timber along the Volga. When the lumber merchants brought timber from the Volga to the Solonitsa, the babayki became unnecessary, and they formed on the shore at the very mouth of the Solonitsa, near the place where the monastery is located.

According to legend, in the 14th century, an amazing event took place in this place: the appearance of the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The icon sailed along the Volga on a babayka, which stuck to the shore. First, the icon was taken to an oak forest, and then a chapel was built for it. Believers from all surrounding places came to bow to the image. And soon a monastic monastery was formed here. One of the disciples of Sergius of Radonezh, monk John, is considered the founder of the Babaevsky Monastery.

The desert was quite poor. It was often ruined during the raids of the Tatars. And the wooden buildings, surrounded by a log fence, were repeatedly destroyed by fires. Together with the buildings, all the papers of the first years of the existence of the monastery burned down.
In the middle of the 17th century, benefactors apparently appeared at the monastery, and the wooden church was finally replaced with a two-story stone one. It is not known exactly who donated money to the monastery. But information has been preserved that Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich himself granted the Babaev monastery "to feed the forest two versts in length, and a verst in diameter." In addition to alms from pilgrims and donations from philanthropists, the monastery received income by renting out its lands, renting out its mills and fishing.

Under the abbot of the monastery, hegumen Guria, in the middle of the 18th century, the annual celebration of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God was established. Guriy, who suffered from some kind of leg disease, was healed after praying before the Iberian Icon, donated to the monastery by one of the residents of Bolshie Soli settlement. Later, an amazingly beautiful Iberian Cathedral in the Byzantine-Romanesque-Russian style, designed by the architect Ivan Gornostaev, will be erected on the territory of the monastery.

In 1798, a stone three-tiered bell tower was built on the territory of the monastery. Then the wooden fence of the monastery was replaced with a stone one. In 1814, the Assumption Gate Church was erected, and in 1821, a hospital church in the name of St. John Chrysostom and St. Sergius of Radonezh (often called the Chrysostom Church, or hospital temple). At the same time, from 1817 to 1823, a new five-domed church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was being built on the northern side of the monastery. And for the pilgrims, a two-story stone hotel was built. What churches and temples looked like in those years can now only be seen in pre-revolutionary photographs by S.M. Prokudin-Gorsky…

Contemporary of Pushkin and Glinka
In 1846 Archimandrite Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), the abbot of the Sergievskaya Hermitage near St. Petersburg, came to the monastery on vacation due to illness. He spent 11 months in the monastery. This visit had important consequences for the monastery.
Saint Ignatius (in the world Dmitry Alexandrovich Brianchaninov) was born in 1807 in the village of Pokrovsky, Vologda province. His father belonged to the old noble family of the Bryanchaninovs, whose ancestor was the boyar Mikhail Brenko, the squire of Prince Dmitry Donskoy. Four daughters and five sons grew up in the Bryanchaninov family, Dmitry was the eldest.
At the insistence of his father, Dmitry entered the Main Military Engineering School in St. Petersburg. He graduated from it in 1826 with the rank of lieutenant. During the years of study, he was a welcome guest in many high-society houses, invited to literary evenings, which were attended by A.S. Pushkin, I.A. Krylov, K.N. Batyushkov... Dmitry especially became friends with the Muravyov brothers, years later he also became their confessor.

After serving for about a year in the Dinaburg fortress, Brianchaninov fell ill and in the fall of 1827 he retired. He immediately left for the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery, where he became a novice. Later he lived in various monasteries, and in 1831 he was tonsured a monk, receiving the name Ignatius - in honor of the Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-bearer.

Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) was appointed rector of several monasteries. He was a talented leader, he revived the cloisters literally from desolation: under him dilapidated buildings and cells were rebuilt, the economy was restored, a high-level choir was created. At his request, famous composers of that time even specially wrote works for the church choir. And Mikhail Glinka helped with the study of ancient Russian music.

With its prosperity in late XIX century is obliged to Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) and the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery. Here in October 1861, Bishop Ignatius, retired, arrived as rector. By that time it was a little-known monastery, which fell into an extremely deplorable state. There was not even food, large debts accumulated, and many buildings, in particular, the cathedral church, were dilapidated.
In a short time, the new ruler was able to improve financial situation monastery, overhaul buildings, restore arable farming and build new temple in honor of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God.

At the end of 1862, Vladyka's brother Peter Brianchaninov, who previously held the post of Stavropol Governor, also came to live in the Babaev Monastery. He settled in the monastery as a pilgrim. The Bryanchaninov brothers donated all their savings to the repair of buildings and the construction of the Iberian Cathedral.

In his free time, Bishop Ignatius edited his previous writings, and also wrote a number of new ones. His works during his lifetime were distributed to many monasteries - from the Sarov Hermitage and Kiev-Pechersk Lavra to distant Athos.
On the morning of April 30, 1867, Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) died. His body was buried in the Zlatoust church. And in 1988 on local cathedral Russian Orthodox Church Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) was canonized as a saint.

On the site of the former ruins
By the beginning of the 1920s, worship in the cathedral church of the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery had ceased, and most of the monks had gone to different places. An orphanage was organized on the territory of the monastery, then a school for rural youth. The state farm "Revolution" was also located here, later - the district executive committee.

The monastic buildings were gradually dismantled. The turn came to the cathedral church. In the mid-1930s, they began to take it apart into bricks and take it to the village of Krasny Profintern for the construction of a bathhouse. However, the quality and strength of the walls of the temple were so high that it was not possible to completely dismantle it, then it was decided to blow it up. In the summer of 1940, a special brigade arrived at the monastery. Explosives were placed in the holes drilled in the walls of the Iberian Church. According to eyewitnesses, after the first explosion, the cathedral survived. But the second could not stand it - collapsed. At the same time, the dome was preserved and stood for several years over a mountain of debris, and during the Great Patriotic War it was sawn up for scrap metal.

For some time, on the territory of the former monastery, a three-tiered bell tower and a partially rebuilt church of St. John Chrysostom and St. Sergius of Radonezh, in which the relics of St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) remained.
From 1941 to 1945, a hospital was located in the buildings of the former monastery. German planes often flew here during the bombing. And the head doctor of the hospital ordered to blow up the bell tower, believing that it could attract the attention of the Germans.
After the war, the hospital was liquidated and a children's labor colony was opened here, which had its own school. In the hungry postwar period even for a minor theft could give 5 years. In the colony, mostly children who stole a piece of bread or a few potatoes fell. To train the pupils of the colony, lathes were installed in the former Zlatoust church. And on the site where the Iberian Cathedral stood, they arranged a football field.

In the mid-1950s, the colony was closed, transferring the premises to the regional children's tuberculosis sanatorium. Later they gave the territory under the Levashovo boarding house.

In 1988, when Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) was canonized, representatives of the Yaroslavl diocese removed his relics from the Chrysostom Church and transported them to Tolga convent. Following this event, in some mystical way, the almost complete destruction of the monastery followed. There were fires one after another. The roof collapsed on one of the buildings. Looting began, during which local residents took out windows, doors, floors, beams and bricks - everything they could steal.
In 1998, the territory of the monastery was transferred to the Yaroslavl diocese. Several monks settled here with the rector hegumen Boris (Dolzhenko). The restoration of the destroyed monastery began. In 2014, a new building of the Iversky Cathedral was erected - not as majestic as the former one, of course. Its walls have not yet been painted. But today the Nikolo-Babaevskaya monastery is a functioning male monastery. As it was created 7 centuries ago.

Material prepared by: Laura Nepochatova / photo: from the archive of the monastery

In the small village of Nekrasovskoye, located on the territory of the Yaroslavl region, there is a remarkable male monastery - Nikolo-Babaevsky or Babaysky. The monastery belongs to the Orthodox faith.

According to chronicle sources, the foundation of the monastery took place in the 15th century at the confluence of the Solonitsa and the Volga - this place is called Babayki, because it was here, on one of the banks, that it was customary to stack oars or babayks in order to subsequently float the forest. It is believed that the foundation of the monastery was due to the discovery in these places in the 14th century of the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker; the icon was found on one of the baboons, on which she sailed. Initially, the holy icon was placed in a small oak grove, somewhat south of the founded monastery. There is evidence that Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich presented the monastery with a mill.

In the first decades of the 18th century, at the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery, there were many estates located in the Kostroma region. At the end of 1719 in monastery there was an unpredictable and devastating fire, while the largest part of the entire monastery property, as well as a valuable archive, burned out.

In the middle of 1764, Catherine II issued a manifesto, according to which the Babai Monastery was classified as supernumerary.

The writer Nikolai Nekrasov often visited the monastery, because his childhood passed quite nearby - on the opposite bank of the Volga, in the village of Greshnevo. The poet mentioned this monastery more than once in his works, namely in a poem called "Woe of the Old Mind" and "The Village of Bolshie Salts ...".

There were four churches at the monastery: a church in the name of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God, a church in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, a church in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh and John Chrysostom, the Church of the Assumption Holy Mother of God.

The temple in the name of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God was built in 1877 on the site of the destroyed Iberian Church. In the 1920s and 1930s, they began to gradually dismantle it brick by brick and take it to the village of Krasny Profintern for the construction of a large bathhouse. But then they decided to blow up the temple because of the rather high height. In 1940 the temple was gone.

The church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is a one-story stone temple, which is located on the north side of the monastery. Its foundation took place in 1817. The completion of the temple was done in the form of five chapters. In 2006, a solemn ceremony of consecration of the church throne was held.

The Church in the name of St. Sergius of Radonezh and John Chrysostom is a warm temple adjacent to a two-story building. The temple was built in 1819. The icons intended for the iconostasis were painted by icon painters named Khukhorevs. In the 1990s, the temple was completely restored.

The church in the name of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in 1814. This is a cubic-shaped temple, located on the western line of the monastery's fence. One of the most important and revered shrines of this church is the icon of the Assumption of the Mother of God, in which the holy relics of Kyiv miracle workers were placed. In 2000, the temple was completely restored.

In 1919, the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery was abolished, and many of its documents were taken to Moscow. On the site of a previously existing monastery during the years of Soviet rule, there was a children's sanatorium for children with tuberculosis. At the end of 1988, which happened on the eve of the canonization of Ignatius Bryanchaninov, his relics were sent to the Tolga Monastery in Yaroslavl.

In 1998 there was a revival of the monastery; the rector at that time was Archimandrite Boris Dolzhenko. Since 2003, Metropolitan Simon Novikov, who was previously named Ryazan, lived, worked and later died at the monastery. Today, near the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery there is a healing spring, the waters of which are considered holy and capable of curing many diseases and ailments.

Nikolo-Babayevsky (Babaysky) monastery - active male Orthodox monastery in the village of Nekrasovskoye at the confluence of the Solonitsa River into the Volga ..

It is not known exactly when the monastery was founded (according to some sources, in the 14th century, according to others, in the 16th century). The place where the monastery was founded was called Babaiki. Babayka is an oar that was used instead of a rudder when rafting timber along the Volga. When the timber merchants started rafts at the mouth of the Solonitsa, they did not need babayki, and they were piled here on the shore. According to legend, the foundation of the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery is associated with the discovery of the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker at this place, which sailed on one of the babaykas.

This miraculous image attracted numerous pilgrims. A tradition has been established to solemnly wear this miraculous icon from the monastery to Kostroma and Yaroslavl. In winter, the icon was annually in each of these cities for three to four weeks each year.

The first written evidence of the Babai Monastery dates back to 1627.

It is known that Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich granted the monastery a mill.

Many famous Russian boyar families: the princes Sitsky, Khilkov, Lvov, Golenishchev-Kutuzov, Saltykov, Khitrovo, Choglokov and others - did good to the monastery, the kings and patriarchs were its contributors.

By the beginning of the 18th century, the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery had numerous estates in the Kostroma province. In 1764, according to the manifesto of Catherine II, he was ranked among the supernumeraries.

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov repeatedly visited the Babai Monastery, whose childhood was spent in the village of Greshnevo, on the opposite bank of the Volga.

“All around is the same distance and expanse,

The same monastery is visible

On an island in the sand.

And even the thrill of the old days

I felt in my soul

Hear the bells ring."

This is how the poet described the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery. And although the monastery is not located on an island at all, in spring the water reaches the very walls of the monastery, and then its buildings seem to be standing on the water or on the island.

In the poem “The Woe of Old Naum”, Nekrasov also mentions the monastery: “Nearby is the Babai Monastery, the village of Bolshie Salts ...”

The well-known Russian theologian and ascetic writer of the 19th century, Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, lived in the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery.

For the first time St. Ignatius visited this place in 1847. The saint fell in love with this monastery. In the summer of 1861, as Bishop of the Caucasus, Ignatius Brianchaninov filed a petition for retirement due to poor health. The saint asked for an abbotship at the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery. His request was granted.

Here he led a solitary prayer life, wrote monumental works: "The Offering to Modern Monasticism" and "The Father", as well as many edifying letters.

At the same time, St. Ignatius constantly took care of the monastery. Thanks to his efforts, a new grandiose cathedral was built (completed after his death). The Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery soon became one of the most famous and revered monasteries in Russia. Here, in the monastery, he died in 1867.

In the monastery, the perspicacious monk Abel (1757-1841) completed his first book of prophecies about the fate of Russia. In 1906 a famous Russian spent six months here spiritual writer S.A. Nilus.

In 1920 the monastery was closed, all the shrines of the monastery, including the ancient miraculous image of St. Nicholas disappeared without a trace. During the years of Soviet power, two of the four temples were blown up. During the war years of 1941-1945, a hospital was quartered within the walls of the monastery, later a nursing home and an orphanage, a colony for juvenile delinquents and a children's tuberculosis sanatorium were housed in the monastery buildings.

After closing in the 80s. anti-tuberculosis sanatorium, ownerless monastic buildings quickly began to collapse and plunder. In 1988, after the canonization of Ignatius Brianchaninov, his relics were transferred to the Yaroslavl Tolga Monastery. Since 1998, the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery has been operating again.