The convent in honor of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God is one of the main attractions of Borisovskaya Sloboda. The monastery was built thanks to a vow made by an associate of Peter the Great, Count Boris Petrovich Sheremetev, who took possession of Borisovka in 1705.
According to memoirs, the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God was especially revered in the Sheremetev family, and the count always carried its copy with him, starting every battle with a prayer. Legend has it that this icon saved the commander from death when fragments of a cannonball pierced not only his armor, but also his dress, and even tore his shirt.
The feast of the Theotokos of Tikhvin falls on June 26 (July 9), that is, it was celebrated just before the decisive battle of the Great Northern War — the Battle of Poltava. Probably, then the count made a vow to celebrate the victory by building a monastery.
The exact date of the start of construction has not been established. Ivan Grigoryevich Volkov, who served in the Sheremetevs’ estate office and was the first to organize scattered information about the history of the region, believed the construction started in 1712. The honorary citizen of the village of Borisovka and local historian Ivan Grigoryevich Okhrimenko, who worked a lot with archives and devoted articles and publications to the history of Borisovka, suggested 1710. In any case, it is known that in 1713 the construction was still underway, and in 1714 the monastery was already consecrated.
The first monastic rules, or “covenant”, were drawn up by Boris Petrovich Sheremetev himself. His writings prescribed “to have twelve sisters in that convent, and one abbess.” Until 1798, this order was fulfilled, but gradually the number of nuns increased and by 1840 it grew to 300.
In addition to prayer service and monastic duties, the sisters were engaged in crafts — primarily decorating icons. They bought boards with holy images from local artisans (often only with the faces and hands painted), kiots (icon cases), paper, foil, glass and other necessary materials, the nuns embellished icons and sold them at fairs in the south of Ukraine, in the Kursk and Kharkiv Governorates.
The presented painting with a view of the monastery was donated to the collection of the Borisovka Museum of Local History by the artist himself, Vladimir Vasilyevich Dushenko, an amateur painter.
According to memoirs, the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God was especially revered in the Sheremetev family, and the count always carried its copy with him, starting every battle with a prayer. Legend has it that this icon saved the commander from death when fragments of a cannonball pierced not only his armor, but also his dress, and even tore his shirt.
The feast of the Theotokos of Tikhvin falls on June 26 (July 9), that is, it was celebrated just before the decisive battle of the Great Northern War — the Battle of Poltava. Probably, then the count made a vow to celebrate the victory by building a monastery.
The exact date of the start of construction has not been established. Ivan Grigoryevich Volkov, who served in the Sheremetevs’ estate office and was the first to organize scattered information about the history of the region, believed the construction started in 1712. The honorary citizen of the village of Borisovka and local historian Ivan Grigoryevich Okhrimenko, who worked a lot with archives and devoted articles and publications to the history of Borisovka, suggested 1710. In any case, it is known that in 1713 the construction was still underway, and in 1714 the monastery was already consecrated.
The first monastic rules, or “covenant”, were drawn up by Boris Petrovich Sheremetev himself. His writings prescribed “to have twelve sisters in that convent, and one abbess.” Until 1798, this order was fulfilled, but gradually the number of nuns increased and by 1840 it grew to 300.
In addition to prayer service and monastic duties, the sisters were engaged in crafts — primarily decorating icons. They bought boards with holy images from local artisans (often only with the faces and hands painted), kiots (icon cases), paper, foil, glass and other necessary materials, the nuns embellished icons and sold them at fairs in the south of Ukraine, in the Kursk and Kharkiv Governorates.
The presented painting with a view of the monastery was donated to the collection of the Borisovka Museum of Local History by the artist himself, Vladimir Vasilyevich Dushenko, an amateur painter.
