In the 16th century, on the left bank of the Seversky Donets River, there was a women’s skeet for about thirty nuns. Satisfying the petition of one of them, Apollinaria Prytkova, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich contributed to the foundation of a convent there in 1622. Elderess Apollinaria became the abbess, and in 1624, through her efforts, a wooden church of the Nativity of the Virgin appeared, after which the whole convent was named.
For a long time, the convent remained extremely poor. In the Cadastres of 1626, Vasily Afanasyevich Kerekreisky noted that “the phelonions and the sticharion are made of plain cloth”, “the vessels are of tin”, and “thirty-five elderly nuns are feeding on the name of Christ.”
Depending on alms continued in subsequent years; from time to time, the nuns had to turn to the sovereign for help. In 1639, Abbess Marianna complained that the lands allocated by the tsar were reduced by local authorities, leaving the convent “without either land to labor or funds to live on”; in response, the tsar ordered that the nuns be given compensation of 15 rubles annually, and that “newcoming” peasants be settled on them to cultivate the conventual lands. In 1673, when the convent was moved to another place, above the left bank of the Vezyolka River, “Abbess Ofrosinyitsa and her nuns” asked Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to grant them salt.
In 1717, referring to the fact that “the elderly nuns are dying of starvation… there is a great scarcity of candles, incense and church wine, ” Abbess Martha turned to Metropolitan Hilarion with a request to bequeath the Bishop’s forest estate (known today as the Monastyrsky Forest) and Ligovskaya chapel with an icon of Our Lady of Korsun to the convent. The alms and the sovereign’s stipend (30 rubles a year plus “some bread”) were supplemented with donations from pilgrims who came to see the miraculous icon.
The situation of the convent improved. In 1726, a new stone church was built on the site of the old wooden one, with a chapel in honor of the great martyr Jacob the Persian; in 1783, under Abbess Nymphodora, the construction of a stone belfry with the Church of Our Lady of Kazan began, and in 1804, once the construction was completed, it was decided to replace the old wattle hedge with a solid stone fence. Among the convent’s generous donors were the merchants Ivan Alekseyevich Sorokin and Nikolay Ivanovich Chumichyov.
In the 18th century, women accused of crimes or apostasy were exiled to the convent: schismatics of the Vetka sect, Ulyana Andreyevna Tatishcheva, Georgian Queen Maria with children, Princess Yekaterina Chelokaeva and noblewoman Maria Natalova, and others.
After the revolution of 1917, the convent was closed and destroyed. A theater named after M. Shchepkin is now on its site.
For a long time, the convent remained extremely poor. In the Cadastres of 1626, Vasily Afanasyevich Kerekreisky noted that “the phelonions and the sticharion are made of plain cloth”, “the vessels are of tin”, and “thirty-five elderly nuns are feeding on the name of Christ.”
Depending on alms continued in subsequent years; from time to time, the nuns had to turn to the sovereign for help. In 1639, Abbess Marianna complained that the lands allocated by the tsar were reduced by local authorities, leaving the convent “without either land to labor or funds to live on”; in response, the tsar ordered that the nuns be given compensation of 15 rubles annually, and that “newcoming” peasants be settled on them to cultivate the conventual lands. In 1673, when the convent was moved to another place, above the left bank of the Vezyolka River, “Abbess Ofrosinyitsa and her nuns” asked Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to grant them salt.
In 1717, referring to the fact that “the elderly nuns are dying of starvation… there is a great scarcity of candles, incense and church wine, ” Abbess Martha turned to Metropolitan Hilarion with a request to bequeath the Bishop’s forest estate (known today as the Monastyrsky Forest) and Ligovskaya chapel with an icon of Our Lady of Korsun to the convent. The alms and the sovereign’s stipend (30 rubles a year plus “some bread”) were supplemented with donations from pilgrims who came to see the miraculous icon.
The situation of the convent improved. In 1726, a new stone church was built on the site of the old wooden one, with a chapel in honor of the great martyr Jacob the Persian; in 1783, under Abbess Nymphodora, the construction of a stone belfry with the Church of Our Lady of Kazan began, and in 1804, once the construction was completed, it was decided to replace the old wattle hedge with a solid stone fence. Among the convent’s generous donors were the merchants Ivan Alekseyevich Sorokin and Nikolay Ivanovich Chumichyov.
In the 18th century, women accused of crimes or apostasy were exiled to the convent: schismatics of the Vetka sect, Ulyana Andreyevna Tatishcheva, Georgian Queen Maria with children, Princess Yekaterina Chelokaeva and noblewoman Maria Natalova, and others.
After the revolution of 1917, the convent was closed and destroyed. A theater named after M. Shchepkin is now on its site.
