Resurrection New Jerusalem Stavropegic Monastery

When Patriarch Nikon conceived the idea of building a New Jerusalem in Russia in the 17th century, he knew that sooner or later people from all over the country would come here. After all, this is a unique place, the full name of which is the Resurrection New Jerusalem Stavropol Monastery. Located 50 kilometers from Moscow, its landscape is very similar to the Israeli lands. It has its own garden of Gethsemane (similar to the one where Jesus prayed before his execution). And the river is not called Istra, as it is written on the maps, but the Jordan (where Christ was baptized).

In the Resurrection Cathedral, according to the idea of Patriarch Nikon, everything was supposed to tell about the way of Christ. Therefore, inside the temple, we see a chapel that houses the Holy Sepulchre. In Russia, it is a copy, a symbol of that holy place. At the entrance is a stone similar to the one on which the Angel sat after the resurrection of Christ. People usually kneel and pray near it.

If you walk around the temple, you will see all the stages of the last days of Jesus. These are the so-called temples of the Sorrowful Way. A prison temple, there with chained feet, built in memory of where Jesus spent the night before his execution. At the top is Calvary. The cross for her was brought by order of Nikon himself-from Jerusalem.

And in front of the entrance to the temple, there is an anointing stone, on which Jesus lay, taken from the cross. A crack is visible on the stone-from a fascist explosion. And to the right of the entrance was buried Patriarch Nikon.

History of the New Jerusalem Monastery

The monastery began to be built under Patriarch Nikon in 1656. Work continued under Elizabeth Petrovna (18th century) and under Catherine II, after the monastery survived a major fire. In the 19th century, it was a pilgrimage center.

During the God-fighting 1930s, when the monastery was long closed, local monks were shot. And suddenly … the water in the holy spring disappeared. People still can’t understand how this happened. They only say that the water reappeared as soon as the monastery was returned to the church and consecrated in the late 1990s.

Since then, they have begun to restore the former power and beauty of the monastery. They say that there were cases of healing from the most terrible diseases. But for this, as the locals specify, it is necessary to pray to God with faith.

Interesting facts

One of the towers has an aspen roof along the perimeter of the wall. As a reminder of the betrayal: after all, Judas hanged himself on an aspen tree. The tower of Gethsemane is named after the garden where Christ was betrayed.
The cross for Calvary was brought from Jerusalem. During the Great Patriotic War, when the Germans blew up the Resurrection Cathedral and everything was engulfed in fire, the cross collapsed to the ground, but did not burn down! After the explosion of the cathedral, the kuvukliya with the Holy Sepulchre also survived. It is assumed that people will come not just to see the architecture, but also to pray. After all, a person comes to God’s house as a child comes to his father. Patriarch Nikon had an idea to unite people here, so that they would come together, pray, appreciate life and each other, and wish each other well.

What to see on the territory of the monastery

Resurrection Cathedral

Inside it there are 44 churches on the first and second floors. In turn, they (but not all) have services. Here is a Edicule of the Holy Sepulchre. There is always a queue: do not be afraid, it goes quickly. At the entrance to the Edicule look closely at the floor: the restorers left of the old flooring of cobblestones. Imagine how many centuries before you people walked on it! And Nikon himself, and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Do not forget to throw your head up: above you will be an incredibly beautiful dome about the height of a 12-storey building. In diameter, it is 28 meters, it is almost a ten-story building.

Jordan

On the way to the river, you will see the hermitage of Patriarch Nikon. No one is allowed inside, but you can clearly imagine how he lived here, went fishing, received guests, washed… their feet. There was such a tradition.

Church of Constantine and Elena

The Roman emperor, who converted to Christianity, and his mother, who in the fourth century found the burial place of Jesus-the temple of their names stands in the New Jerusalem.

Holy Spring

In the 1930s, the water in the spring suddenly disappeared and reappeared at the end of the 20th century, when the monastery was returned to the faithful.
33 steps down (according to the number of earthly years of Christ) from the temple of Constantine and Elena — and you are at the source. The same one that suddenly stalled in the years of God-fighting, as if punishing for unbelief and mockery of churches. A spring where water should never be lost again.

New Jerusalem Monastery in culture and art

The Cubist Aristarchus Lentulov loved to paint the bell towers of the monastery, four of his works are dedicated to the “copy of the holy Land”. Poets Sergei Panchenko, Fyodor Kormukhin, and Alexander Bobrov recalled the golden domes, the melodious dialect of the belfry, and the stone of the anointing of the world.

However, the New Jerusalem Monastery itself is a temple of art, because until recently, a museum with the same name was located within its walls. Its stock collection includes 180 thousand items and includes archaeological, historical, ethnographic and art collections. People came from Moscow and many other cities to see the masterpieces of Aivazovsky, Shishkin, Levitan, Picasso, Kustodiev, Durer, Falk, and Faberge.

Three years ago, the museum received its own building 300 meters from the monastery, and almost immediately opened a permanent exhibition ” Russian Art. Ecclesiastical and secular art of the XVI-early XX century”. It contains items of painting, icon painting, sculpture, furniture and decorative and applied art from the museum’s collection. Most of them came to the museum’s collection in the post-revolutionary period.

Now visitors can also see the exhibition “Special Pantry”. It combines objects of decorative and applied art made of precious metals from the 16th and 20th centuries: sewing, church items, works of Russian masters of enamel and household silver.