Over time, the monastery became a significant center not only of the religious life of Kyiv, but also a center of education and culture. Thus, in 1870, a school for girls from low-income families was opened on the territory of the monastery, and until the end of the 19th century, an almshouse was organized (by 1918, 100 people were fully supported by the monastery) and hospital (for 10 beds).
The Florovsky Monastery has at all times been famous for its ascetics of piety. In the 17th-18th centuries, women who most often belonged to the upper classes were tonsured there as nuns. Abbesses Callisthenia (Princess Miloslavskaya), Augusta (Countess Apraksina), Pulcheria (Princess Shakhovskaya), Smaragda (Norova) labored here. (Mother is a church writer and poet who wrote the very popular book “Reverent Christian Reflections”), Parthenia (A.A. Adabash), schema-nun Nektaria (Princess N.B. Dolgorukaya) and others.
In the Kiev Florovsky Monastery, Grand Duchess Alexandra Melgunova (vested Anastasia), the founder of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery http://4udel.nne.ru/history/monastery, took monastic vows.
The Florovsky Monastery, like many other holy monasteries, was closed in 1929, but in the autumn of 1941 its revival began, when the activities of the monastery resumed, and since then it has not been interrupted.

Currently, the monastery belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and there are 230 sisters working there, including 6 schema nuns, 121 nuns, 4 nuns and 42 novices.
The monastery still lives according to the charter of Basil the Great, which is confirmed in the deed of gift of Iakov Gulkevich, and old traditions are honored in it: the rite of tonsure takes place at night, the ancient monastic form is preserved.
An interesting uniqueness of the monastery is that the organization of Ionian life in it is organized in a form that is rare for modern monasteries - it, as in the old days, is self-costing(unsociable).

I think some clarification is needed here..
In Christianity, there are three types of monastic life: special life, community life and waste.
Special(unsociable, selfish) hagiography preceded the monastery hostel and was a preparatory step for it. It was very common in Rus' as the simplest type of monasticism and took various forms. Sometimes people who renounced or were thinking of renouncing the world built themselves cells near the parish church, even got an abbot as their spiritual leader, but lived in separate households and without a specific charter. Such a mansion-monastery was not a brotherhood, but a partnership, united by a neighborhood, a common church, and sometimes a common confessor.
Dormitory(coenobitic monastery) is a monastic community with undivided property and a common household, with the same food and clothing for everyone, with the distribution of monastic work among all the brethren. Not to consider anything as yours, but to have everything in common is the main rule of community life.
Waste life people dedicated themselves to living in complete solitude, fasting and silence. It was considered the highest level of monasticism, accessible only to those who achieved monastic perfection in the school of common life.

Based on this feature, there is no common meal in the monastery, and food, in accordance with the monastery charter, is provided in the kitchen once a day.
In the monastery, in addition to serving the Lord, traditional Florian handicrafts are also being successfully revived: icon painting and gold embroidery.
Prosphora, Easter cakes and the monastery meal are traditionally prepared over wood.
The monastery has two of its own farmsteads in the villages of the Kyiv region, where agricultural production is carried out for the monastic needs.

The Florovsky Monastery amazes with its grandeur and beauty: both inside and outside. The architectural ensemble of the monastery of the 18th-19th centuries includes 4 churches (until the 1930s there were 5).

The main architectural attractions of the Florovsky Monastery are:

● Ascension Cathedral– the main temple of the monastery, built in 1722-1732. In the temple, in addition to the main altar in the name of the Ascension of the Lord, on the right side there is a side altar in the name of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Theotokos and two chapels in the choirs: one in honor of the appearance of the Akhtyrka Icon of the Mother of God, and the other in the name of all saints, built in 1818.
The church has three apses and is topped by three domes. In its shape, it is very similar to ancient Russian churches, but its central apse has the same height as the church, and the side apses are half as high, the domes are located along the same line, as in wooden Ukrainian churches. From the cathedral there is an ascent to the old churchyard, where the deceased nuns were buried.

● Resurrection Cathedral(Church of the Resurrection of Christ) - a one-domed rotunda church, built in 1824 on the slope of Castle (Kiselevskaya) Mountain with a donation from Countess A. R. Chernysheva, on the site of an old wooden church that burned down in 1811;

● Refectory Church in the name of St. Nicholas– a two-story stone temple, built on the site of the burnt ancient wooden Florovsky temple (in honor of Saints Florus and Laurus). On the lower floor there is a warm church in the name of St. Nicholas of Myra (built at the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries); upper (cold) temple - in honor of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, built after a fire (1811) in 1818.

At the altar wall, on the south side, at the Church of St. Nicholas there is a small porch on which the Resurrection of the Lord is depicted,

and on one of the walls of the temple there is a large painting: “Reverend Seraphim prays at a stone in the forest”;

● temple in the name of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God– stone, three-altar church (1844) with two borders: southern - in the name of St. martyrs Florus and Laurus, and the northern one - in the name of the Evangelist John the Theologian, built on the model of ancient Russian churches. In 1869, the walls and vaults inside the church were painted with iconography, and the arches and cornices were gilded.
When during the war (1941-1945) , Kyiv was captured by the Germans, the Florov nuns hid wounded Red Army soldiers in the attic and basement of the church. The Nazis discovered the secret infirmary and there, near the cathedral, they shot the nuns and soldiers. Those executed were buried here under the walls of the Kazan Church, in a mass grave. When the church was closed in 1960, and the plot of land around the temple was transferred to the use of a prosthetic factory, the tombstones over the burials were removed, the graves were rolled under asphalt, and a sewing workshop was set up in the premises of the Kazan Church... Currently, the temple is transferred to the monastery and restoration work is underway there - restoration work;

In addition, until the 1930s, on the territory of the monastery cemetery there was Holy Trinity Church (1857) . It had two altars: the main one - in the name of the Holy Trinity and another one, in the name of the Akhtyrka Icon of the Mother of God. A stone bell tower with six bells was built over the vestibule of the church in 1855. In 1934 the church was destroyed by local authorities (it was planned to open a park of culture and recreation on the site of the cemetery), and in its place there was only a pile of bricks left...

And from the mountain itself (near the churchyard) there is a beautiful view of Podol;

● 4-tier Bell tower with Holy gates (in the lower tier), built in 1732. Initially, its two upper tiers were wooden. They burned down in the fire of 1811 (the fire was so strong that the bells melted). In 1821, during the reconstruction of the bell tower, it was made entirely of stone. There are a total of 9 bells in the bell tower (and previously there was also a clock installed, which has not survived to this day). The largest of the bells, weighing more than 158 pounds (more than 2.5 tons), was cast in 1851. In the lower tier of the bell tower there were two cells, and in a one-story house attached to the bell tower, prosphora was baked and sold;

● Abbess's house, built in 1820 - a small house with a mezzanine, fenced with a wooden fence and surrounded by overgrown trees (that it is almost invisible), looks cozy and secluded;

● spring in honor of St. Martyrs Florus and Laurus is currently a rough stone with a shiny brass tap sticking out of it. Previously, there was an artistic gazebo above the source, which was destroyed. Local residents consider this water to be healing. It is difficult for me to judge how healing it is, but I have experienced the fact that it is tasty and quenches thirst in the very heat.

● chapel (behind the Ascension Cathedral), in which one of the most revered inhabitants of the monastery, St. Elena Kiev-Florovskaya (in the world - Ekaterina Bekhteeva, 1756-1834);
● graves:

– residential 2-storey stone building – built near the Ascension Cathedral in 1857;

– other buildings, purchased and built in 1860-70.

Throughout the entire territory of the monastery, in combination with ancient temples, there is a magnificent garden with a rose garden, fruit trees, magnolia, creating a picturesque picture of “earthly paradise” - the center of which is considered to be the so-called “ Garden of Eden"- a small piece of land between the monastic cells, the Ascension and Resurrection Cathedrals, somewhat similar to a biblical garden...

But external beauty is not the most important thing; what is most important is the spiritual atmosphere that reigns in every building of this monastery. Everything in the monastery is imbued with divinity, beauty and tranquility... The noisy city life falls silent as soon as you enter the monastery walls. When all restoration work is completed in the monastery and the third-party organizations still remaining in it move out, the monastery will undoubtedly become even more beautiful and attractive...

April 6th, 2014 , 01:15 am

In May 2013, I visited the Holy Ascension Florovsky Convent of Kyiv, which belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate.

Located in Kiev-Podil, at the foot of Florovskaya ("Castle", "Kiselevka") mountain.

For the first time, a monastery in the name of St. Muchch. Flora and Lavra were mentioned in 1566 in the confirmation letter of the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus, given to the Kyiv archpriest Yakov Gulkevich as hereditary possession, with the right to have income from it.

Unfortunately, there are no documented explanations why the convent on Podil is dedicated to the holy martyrs Florus and Laurus. Among the traditional names of Kyiv churches, established since the times of Kievan Rus, such a consecration of the throne is not found. Therefore, in this matter, versions are based on assumptions and indirect evidence. It is worth remembering the special traditions of venerating Saints Florus and Laurus in Rus'. According to legend, when their relics were discovered, the loss of livestock stopped. Therefore, the martyrs Florus and Laurus began to be especially revered by those who are in one way or another connected with animal husbandry, in particular horse breeding.In the Middle Ages, trade flourished in Kiev-Podil, including horses and oxen. A relatively late document from the 17th century has been preserved, confirming that the Florovsky Monastery had income from such trade. There certainly was a certain connection between the choice of the monastery’s patron saints and the earthly concerns of its founder.

In 1642, the Kiev-Pechersk monk John Bogush Gulkevich, the grandson of Ya. Gulkevich, gratuitously ceded the rights to own the monastery to Abbess Agafya (Gumenitskaya) with nuns with the condition that the monastery would always remain “under the old-time Greek Orthodox faith.”

In 1711, the nuns of the Kiev-Pechersk Ascension Monastery were transferred to the monastery, the monastery received a double name - Florovsky Ascension and became one of the large landowners, annexing most of the possessions of the Ascension Monastery to their own. Before secularization in 1786, he owned 12 villages and 8 hamlets.

With the introduction of monastic states he was assigned to the first class.

Representatives of many noble families were tonsured at the monastery: ahem. Nektaria (Dolgorukova), ig. Pulcheria (Shakhovskaya), ig. Augusta (Apraksina), ig. Callisthenes (Miloslavskaya), ig. Elena (de Genty), ig. Eleazar (Hubert) and others, as well as Mon. Elena (Bekhteeva). The latter was canonized on September 23 / October 6
2009

Until 1918, more than 800 nuns lived in the monastery, there was an almshouse (up to 100 beds), a hospital (up to 10 beds), and a school for girls with free teaching.

Architectural ensemble of the monastery of the 18th-19th centuries. included 5 churches (4 have survived to this day): Refectory (its lower floor was built at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, the second was completed after the fire of 1811), Voznesenskaya (1732), Resurrection Hospital (1824), The Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (1844) and the Trinity Cemetery on Florovskaya Mountain (1857, was dismantled in 1938), as well as the bell tower and cell buildings.

After 1808, the Florovsky Monastery until the end of the 19th century was the only convent in Kyiv.

No attention was paid to this, but the fact remains: at that time, everyone who wanted to become a nun in Kyiv could only take monastic vows in the Florovsky monastery. And then people from all over the Russian Empire sought to go to Kyiv - the cradle of ancient Russian monasticism, so, naturally, it was a huge miracle to become a nun of the Florovsky Monastery.

Since 1919, the authorities have pursued a policy of liquidating the monastery. The churches were turned into parish churches and were soon transferred to various organizations for “cultural and economic” purposes. A “town of metalworkers” settled on the territory of the monastery. The nuns were registered as members of the craft and agricultural labor community, and in 1929 they were evicted from the housing cooperative, which took away the monastery cells. In the fall of 1941, the activities of the monastery resumed and have not been interrupted since then. In July 1960, 75 sisters of the closed Vvedensky convent moved here.

The monastery lives according to the charter of Vasily the Great, which is confirmed in the deed of gift of Yakov Gulkevich in 1642. The rite of tonsure takes place at night, and the ancient monastic form is preserved.

The modernity of the monastery - the number of nuns (nuns, persons in holy orders, novices), preserved traditions, liturgical features, rules for entering the monastery:

Currently (as of 2014) in the Florovsky monastery, under the leadership of Abbess Antonia (Filkina), 230 sisters are asceticizing, among them 1 abbess in retirement (of the Ovruch monastery), 6 schema nuns, 121 nuns, 4 nuns, 42 novices and the rest of the workers.

Services in the monastery are performed by 3 full-time priests and 1 deacon, 1 priest in the rank of schema-abbot is the confessor of the monastery.

The ancient monastic form is preserved.

There is no common meal in the monastery; food, in accordance with the monastery charter, is provided in the kitchen once a day .

Prosphora, Easter cakes and the monastery meal are traditionally prepared over wood.

The Indefatigable Psalter is read in the monastery.

The monastery revives traditional Florian handicrafts: icon painting and gold embroidery.

There are 2 farmsteads in the villages of the Kyiv region, where agricultural production is carried out for the monastic needs.

Monastic churches:
The Ascension Cathedral with its southern aisle in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God is the only one in operation.

Rebuilding temples:
Kazansky,
Voskresensky,
refectory Tikhvinsky.

Schedule of Divine Services:

The monastery does not switch to daylight saving time, so there are differences in the time of services in summer and winter.

Every day the Divine Liturgy is celebrated at the monastery(except for the days of Great Lent prescribed by the church charter) and evening worship. On the days of the twelfth and patronal feasts, 2 Divine Liturgies are celebrated in the monastery.

Every Thursday at the end of the Divine Liturgy, a prayer service is served to St. Elena Kiev-Florovskaya. The holy akathist, chanted, is served on non-polyelean days, except for the twelve days and patronal feasts. The order of serving prayer services during Great Lent has not yet been established.

Summer schedule:
Liturgy - on weekdays - 8.00;
— on Sundays and holidays — 8.00; 10.30;
Evening service - 17.30.

Winter schedule:
Liturgy - on weekdays - 7.00;
— on Sundays and holidays — 7.00; 9.30;
Evening service - 16.30.

You should go to the monastery by metro to the Kontraktova Ploshchad station.

.
The relics of Saint Venerable Helen rest in the monastery.

Nun Elena, in the world Ekaterina Alekseevna Bekhteeva, was born in 1756 in the city of Zadonsk, Voronezh province and came from a rich and noble family.

Family piety, without a doubt, was passed on to young Ekaterina Bekhteeva. Following the calling of the Lord Jesus Christ, renouncing all the blessings, pleasures and vanities of life, leaving her parents, home, wealth and honors, in the 18th year of her life she secretly went to Voronezh and there in 1774 she entered the Intercession Convent. The saddened parents began to look for her, and finally, after a long search, her father learned that she was in the Voronezh monastery. Having gone to Voronezh, he turned to the monastery demanding the return of his daughter. Sympathizing with Catherine and seeing in her a soul truly dedicated to serving Christ and ready for His sake to bear the heavy monastic cross with its sorrows and suffering, the abbess persuaded Alexei Dimitrievich not to oppose his daughter’s choice.

According to “Memoirs of the Nun Elena” published back in 1890, her ascetic path was associated with many sorrows, trials and persecutions. Remaining in the monastery, Catherine took in an orphan from a noble but poor family and devoted herself to fasting and prayer. Soon the ascetic life of the young novice became known in the city, and many began to visit her to receive spiritual instructions. This caused the displeasure of the abbess, who rebelled against her and tried by all means to remove her from the monastery. Everyone turned away from the disgraced nun, even her former pupil, about whom she cared so much, became her enemy. In grief, Elena turned with prayer to Christ and his saint, Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, exclaiming: “With whom am I staying now, when they took away from me All!". Having cried for a long time, she, exhausted, fell into a deep sleep, and the saint appeared to her in a dream, who said: “You regretted that everything was taken from you. Know that I will reward you for your loss with consolation that you do not expect.” Instead of her former pupil, Elena’s comforter and friend became a novice of the same monastery, Elizaveta Pridorogina (monastically Evgeniya), the daughter of an eminent Voronezh citizen. Together they decided to go to Kyiv, hoping to enter a monastery there. Upon arrival in Kyiv, they rented a squalid corner at a distance from the city and visited the holy Lavra monastery every day, pouring out their grief in warm prayers before the Pechersk miracle workers. Here they also found an earthly patron in the person of the hieromonk of the Lavra monastery Anthony (Smirnitsky), later the vicar of the Lavra, and then the Voronezh bishop, glorified among the host of saints by the determination of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of June 24, 2008. Having learned about their misadventures, Fr. Anthony helped them enter the Kiev Florovsky Monastery. Some time later, a terrible fire occurred in the monastery. The monastery burned down, and with it the cell bought by Elena and Evgenia. Once again their situation became very difficult. It seemed that the last hope of settling in the monastery had collapsed. Accepting the misfortune as the will of God, they decided to return to Voronezh, since rumors spread that the burned monastery would not be restored.

Arriving in Voronezh and starting efforts to be accepted into their former monastery, they suddenly received a notification from Kyiv about the restoration of the Florovsky Monastery after the fire and an invitation to enter it. Delighted by this news, they immediately went to Kyiv. Their path was difficult. They had to endure hunger, poverty, and all sorts of hardships until they reached the city. Upon arrival, they were immediately received into the Florovsky Monastery, where they lived for some time until a new misfortune befell them. Their cell burned down again, and they were ordered to leave the monastery.

And again the ascetics turned for prayerful help to the Queen of Heaven and the venerable fathers of Pechersk. One day, on the way to the Lavra, Elena met a noble Voronezh gentleman who had come to Kyiv and knew her family well. He went with her to the Lavra and begged the bishop, Metropolitan of Kyiv Serapion (Alexandrovsky), to return the nuns Elena and Eugenia to the Florovsky Monastery. The Bishop promised, but this promise was already fulfilled by his successor, Metropolitan Evgeniy (Bolkhovitinov), who was a distant relative of nun Elena. The then abbess Smaragda, at the request of the bishop, in 1817 accepted both nuns as nuns of the Florovsky monastery.

Here Elena labored until her death. According to the recollections of her contemporaries, she was distinguished by endless kindness and an exemplary life. With her many years of work, love for her neighbors and mercy, she gained the respect of all the monastery elders.

But no matter how many guests are in a foreign land, they still need to go home. No matter how much you live in this vain world, the last minute will come, then both the rich man, who has abundance in everything, and the beggar, who has only rags, must leave all earthly cares and worries, happiness and suffering, retire to another world and give an account there of all their deeds before the Almighty Judge, Who will reward everyone according to his deserts.

Finally, the moment came when the Lord called His humble servant, nun Elena, to Himself. In the spring of 1834, in mid-March, she fell ill. But she was not embarrassed by her illness, she did not grieve in her soul, but was awake like a happy traveler who knows that, having arrived at his homeland, he will find greetings and affection there. She endured her illness with extraordinary patience, remaining in prayer all the time, but when she felt the approach of death, she wished to accept the Holy Mysteries.

With the greatest joy and trembling, she pronounced the words of the pre-communion prayer: “I believe, Lord!” When nun Evgenia, who did not leave her side for a minute, asked why she exclaimed with such special feeling: “I believe, Lord!” - Elena replied that she saw the Holy Chalice surrounded by heavenly radiance.

Having said goodbye to her sisters, on March 23/April 5, 1834, the old woman went to the Lord in peace and, in accordance with her last will, she was buried in the tomb of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. Saint Tikhon prepared this wretched coffin for himself long before his death and asked to be buried in it. To the assurances of his relatives that it was indecent for a bishop to be buried in a simple coffin, he replied that “if you do not bury me in this coffin, I will sue you before the Throne of Christ the Savior.” When the saint rested and they dressed him in bishop’s robes, the coffin turned out to be too small. Then another coffin was made, in which the saint was solemnly buried. Forty days after his death, the brethren began to distribute the property of the deceased saint to the poor, and thus the old coffin went to nun Elena, who kept it for 50 years.

Today, in our pragmatic age, when for many people the departure of a young girl to a monastery seems almost savagery, it is all the more difficult to understand why for half a century, wandering, enduring various hardships, nun Elena kept the old coffin as a precious treasure. Not money, not gold, or even a precious icon, but a simple coffin knocked together from boards. “Remember your last, and you will never sin,” the Holy Scripture tells us. If we really remembered that not today or tomorrow we will have to leave this world and give an answer for everything that we did wrong or did not do what we should in this life, we would not do many bad, or even simply rash actions. committed. The feat of the nun Elena consisted precisely in preserving the memory of a mortal, and for this attentive attitude to life, for her aspiration from earthly to heavenly things, for her endless love for God, from which love for her neighbor is born, the Lord bestowed her with many grace-filled gifts.

Prayer

O reverend and blessed mother Elena, our speedy helper and intercessor, and vigilant prayer book for us! Now standing before your holy icon (or: with your holy relics) and looking at this (or: these) with tenderness, as if you were living, we earnestly pray to you who are with us: accept our praises and petitions and bring them to the Throne of God, for there is much boldness for He has nothing to do with it. Ask for deliverance from enemy attacks. Hey, our God-wise mother! You, who stand before the Throne of God, know the essence of our spiritual and everyday needs: look upon us with your mother’s eye and with your prayers turn away all evil from us, especially the increase of evil and ungodly customs. Establish in all the faith consonant knowledge, mutual love and like-mindedness, so that through all our lives the all-holy name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the One God, worshiped in the Trinity, to Him be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. .

The Kiev-Florovskaya convent has been mentioned in documents since the 15th century. For some time, the mother of Hetman Ivan Mazepa was the abbess of the convent. In the Florovsky Monastery there is a refectory church in the name of Saints Florus and Laurus. During Soviet times, an industrial enterprise was located on the territory of the monastery. Now the monastery has been restored to its original form. A functioning source of holy water has been preserved on the territory of the monastery.

04070, Kyiv, st. Florovskaya, 6/8, tel. 416-01-81.

Directions: metro to the station. "Kontraktova Square.

Patronal holidays. Ascension Cathedral with the southern aisle in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. The days of remembrance of the martyr are celebrated as patronal holidays. Flora and Laurel (August 18/31), St. Nicholas, as well as the Rudenskaya (July 13/26) and Tikhvin (July 27/August 9) icons of the Mother of God.

Shrines. In the Ascension Cathedral: locally revered icons of the Mother of God of Kazan (with a particle of the relics of the Great Martyr George), Tikhvin and Quick to Hear.
In the altar there is a reliquary with particles of the saint’s relics. Pechersky.
Icons with particles of the relics of St. Job Pochaevsky and VMC. Barbarians.
On the territory of the monastery there is the grave of the locally revered ascetic of piety nun Elena (Bakhteeva, †1834).

The abbess is Abbess Antonia (Filkina).

Worship is daily. The monastery does not switch to "summer time". Divine service: evening - 16.30 (in summer - 17.30), Liturgy - 7.00 (in summer - 8.00). On Sundays and holidays - 2 Liturgies: 7.00 and 9.30 (respectively, in the summer at 8.00 and 10.30).

At the monastery there is an “Orthodox Pilgrim” service, which carries out pilgrimages to the shrines of the East. Tel. 416-54-62.

It has been documented since 1566 as consecrated in the name of Sts. Flora and Laurel. In 1712, the nuns of the abolished Ascension Monastery, which stood opposite the Holy Gate of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, were among the local nuns. The Florov sisters also inherited the lands of the Ascension Monastery, which it received especially in abundance under Abbess Maria Magdalene Mazepina, the mother of Hetman of Ukraine Ivan Mazepa. In the XVIII-XIX centuries. outstanding ascetics of piety in Russian history lived in the Florovsky monastery. From 1758, Princess Natalia Dolgorukova (1714-1771; buried in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra), daughter of Peter I’s associate B. Sheremetev, worked here until her death, taking monastic vows with the name Nektaria. When Prince I.A., wooed and beloved by her, Dolgoruky found himself in disgrace from Bironov, she did not refuse to become his wife and went into exile with her husband. In 1739 I.A. Dolgoruky was executed. Having courageously endured all the suffering, the princess described them in “Handwritten Notes” (published in 1810) and thus became the first Russian memoirist whose life was an example of great humility. N. Dolgorukova, according to legend, threw her wedding ring into the Dnieper before her tonsure.

OK. 1760 In the monastery she accepted monasticism and in a vision received instructions from the Mother of God to found in Russia the fourth inheritance of the Most Pure One on earth - the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery - ascetic Alexandra Melgunov. Blessed Irina Zelenogorskaya also began her monastic path at the Florovsky Monastery. An ascetic of piety was the Florovskaya tonsure (since 1856) and abbess (since 1865) Parthenia (Adabash; 1808-1881, buried in the monastery) - the spiritual daughter and first biographer of the Venerable. Hieroschemamonk Parthenius of Kyiv (d. 1855), spiritual poetess, author of the approved Holy. Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church for the Service of Sts. Cyril and Methodius.

Among the Florov ascetics is the nun Elena (Bakhteeva; +1834).

In 1929 the monastery was closed, and in 1941 it was revived. The first miracle occurred at the monastery (healing of a deaf-mute girl) from a cell kept here in 1961-1992. the great Kyiv shrine - the icon of the Mother of God "Look at Humility", which became famous in 1993 for transferring its negative imprint onto the glass of the icon case (see article about the Kiev Vvedensky Monastery).

In the central part of the monastery on one axis are located (from northeast to southwest): the bell tower above the Holy Gate (entrance from Pritisko-Nikolskaya Street; erected in several stages in 1732-1821; classicism), the Ascension Church ( 1722-1732; three-domed, combines the features of a cross-domed church with the arrangement of domes along one longitudinal axis characteristic of wooden Ukrainian architecture) with the right side chapel in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (in the past - in the name of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and the Church of St. Nicholas of Myra (until 1857 - St. Flora and Laurus; the oldest surviving building of the monastery, rectangular in plan, with a single head on the apse protruding near the southwestern corner; the first tier is the 17th century, the second is 1818). West of the St. Nicholas Church is a single-domed rotunda church in the name of the Resurrection of Christ (1824, classicism; after the revival of the monastery, the throne inside was not restored). At the north-eastern wall, under a glazed canopy, is the grave of nun Elena (Bakhteeva). The coffin in which the ascetic rests was made for himself by Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk. When the festive bishop's vestments were placed on the body of the deceased hierarch, this coffin turned out to be too small and, replaced by another, when the saint's property was distributed to the poor, it went to the nun Elena.

From the Church of the Resurrection there is an ascent to Castle Hill. Having steep slopes on all sides, it is separated from neighboring heights by wide ravines and at one time was very convenient for building a fortress. There is reason to believe that it was on this mountain that Kyiv was founded. In the XIV century. she again becomes a city child - a Lithuanian wooden castle appears here. All R. XVII century The mountain received a second name - Kiselevka - after the head of the Polish administration of the city, A. Kisiel, who lived in the castle. Then the castle was burned and the mountain was deserted. Over time, it became the property of the monastery and began to be called Florovskaya. In 1854-1857 Here they built the stone Church of the Holy Trinity (only the foundations have survived) and founded a monastic cemetery with it (from the 19th century until 1960, there was also a civil cemetery on the mountain).

In the southeastern part of the monastery, a single-domed church in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (1841-1844), rebuilt in Soviet times as a factory, is being restored.

Pilgrimage trips to the Kiev-Florovsky Ascension Convent

• Trip from Dmitrov to the Kiev-Florovsky Ascension Convent
• A trip from Moscow to the Kiev-Florovsky Ascension Convent

History of the monastery

Abbess Parthenia, in the world Apolinaria Alexandrovna Adabash, who came from a noble Moldavian family. The father of Abbess Parthenia A. A. Adabash served with the rank of brigadier in the Russian army and received significant lands in the Novorossiysk region for his services from Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. The nun is known for compiling the church service to Saints Cyril and Methodius and “The Legend of the Life and Deeds of the Elder of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, Hieroschema Parthenius.”

The ensemble of the Florovsky Monastery was formed over two centuries; here you can see buildings dating back to different eras and different styles. The oldest building of the monastery is the Church of the Ascension, built in 1732. The church has three apses and is topped by three domes. The church is very similar to ancient Russian churches, but its central apse has the same height as the church, and the side apses are half as high, the domes are located along the same line, as in wooden Ukrainian churches.

The terrible fire of 1811 destroyed the entire Old Podil, all that was left of wooden houses, sidewalks, and fences was only coals; all the churches, including those in the Florovsky Monastery, were badly damaged. The restoration of the monastery was carried out by the architect Andrei Melensky, who built a rotunda church, the house of the abbess and a three-tiered bell tower at the entrance to the monastery in the classicist style.

Ascension Frolovsky Convent.
Today's day part 1

Before talking about today, dear reader, we would first need to go through the history of the monastery, because it is in its history that the roots of the current problems are hidden. Here it would be appropriate to note the fact that the author in 2008 already published the first work on the history of the monastery http://h.ua/story/96896/, but almost 5 years have passed since then and it’s time to visit again monastery to see all the changes, as they say, with your own eyes.
For those Internet travelers who are always in a hurry and eager to click on the above link, I will nevertheless give here a brief excursion into the history of the monastery and at the same time I will refresh it with new facts.
And the first documentary mention of the monastery is contained in the charter of 1441, according to which the Kiev prince Olelko Vladimirovich provided the Church of St. Sophia and Metropolitan Isidore with various property, in particular “St. Frol and Laurus horse washing.”
In 1566, the Kiev archpriest Gulkevich renewed it and received it into eternal possession by decree of Sigismund II.
In 1632 Gulkevich's grandson renounced the rights to the monastery, leaving it under the management of Abbess Agafia Gumenitskaya.
And from that time on, the monastery began to live its own difficult but independent life.

The monastery itself was originally small and poor. He had one church in honor of Saints Florus and Laurus.
Only at the end of the 17th century. A stone house for the abbess was built, but the monastery continued to remain one of the poorest among all Kyiv monasteries. But in 1712, after it was merged with the rich “Voznesensky Monastery”, liquidated in the Pechersk town in connection with the beginning of the construction of the Kyiv fortress, extensive stone construction began in the Frolovsky Monastery.
Already in 1732, the Ascension Church was consecrated, in 1740 a bell tower was built, the first tier of which was stone, and the upper ones were wooden, the monastery courtyard was surrounded by a stone fence.
In 1759, the former house of the abbess was turned into a refectory.
After 1712, the monastery became considered aristocratic and indeed many of its nuns came from noble families, given that the monastery was initially self-contained, they could live in separate houses and cells.
In addition, the monastery was famous not only for this, but also as a center for artistic embroidery.
As an example, historians usually refer to Princess Natalya Dolgorukova, who in 176 became a nun under the name Nektaria. The life story of N. Dolgorukaya deserves a separate story.
Reference; Dolgorukova, Natalya Borisovna - princess (1714 - 1771), daughter of Field Marshal Count Boris Petrovich Sheremetev.
Having passionately fallen in love with the favorite of the young Emperor Peter II, I.A. Dolgorukov, she became engaged to him at the end of 1729.
When Peter II subsequently died, her relatives, knowing Anna Ioannovna’s dislike for the Dolgorukovs, tried to persuade her to refuse Prince Ivan, but she indignantly rejected this advice.

Dolgorukova's wedding took place on April 6, 1730, and three days later the Dolgorukov family suffered exile.
In Berezovo, Dolgorukova’s son Mikhail was born, and his mother devoted herself entirely to raising him. The first years of her stay in Berezovo were quite tolerable for Dolgorukova, because the hardships of exile were softened for her by the love of her husband and affection for her son.
In 1738, a few days after Prince Ivan was taken away from Berezov, Natalya Borisovna gave birth to a second son, Dimitri. He subsequently suffered from a nervous breakdown.
At the end of 1739, Dolgorukova sent a petition to the Empress, asking that if her husband was alive, not to separate her from him, and if he was not alive, then to allow her to cut her hair.
Only from the answer to this petition did she learn that her husband was no longer in the world.
She was allowed to return to her brother. Upon arrival in Moscow (on the very day of Empress Anna’s death), Dolgorukova changed her intention to immediately cut her hair.

She was left with two young sons who needed to be educated.
When the eldest of them, Mikhail, reached adulthood, she assigned him to military service and married him, and with the youngest, who turned out to be incurable, she left for Kyiv in 1758, where she took monastic vows at the Frolovsky monastery under the name Nektaria.

In 1767 she accepted the schema. Soon after, her youngest son died in her arms, and Dolgorukova devoted herself entirely to prayer and asceticism. The “Notes”, which became famous 70 years after her death, and brought to light only before her arrival in Berezov, occupy one of the prominent places among the literary monuments of the first half of the 18th century.
In addition to its significance for characterizing the morals of the beginning of Anna Ioannovna’s reign, these “Notes” represent an excellent example of emotional confession, written simply, but with great power and captivating sincerity.
The fate of Princess Dolgorukova has served many times as a theme for poets; One of Ryleev’s “Dumas” and Kozlov’s poem, which received great fame, are dedicated to her.
But all these works pale in comparison with the ingenuous story of the princess herself. See article by D.A. Korsakov in the “Historical Bulletin” (1886, February) and a book by the same author: “From the life of Russian figures of the 18th century.”

The modern ensemble of buildings of the Florovsky Monastery was formed after the fire of 1811, when the stone buildings of the monastery were renewed, and instead of the burnt wooden ones, new stone ones were built, in particular, the Resurrection Church and cells.

Development of the Florovsky courtyard during 1821-32. - the most famous work of the Kyiv architect Andrei Melensky.
In 1844, the ensemble included the Church of the Kazan Mother of God, and in 1857 - the cemetery Trinity Church, built on Castle Hill.
At the same time, the monastery cemetery located on this mountain, along with the entire territory of the monastery, was again surrounded by a stone fence.

Among the shrines of the monastery, the miraculous icon of the “Rudnyanskaya Mother of God”, brought to the monastery in 1689, was especially famous, but according to church historians of the Russian Orthodox Church MP, it was lost during the Soviet period.
This is a very interesting story, so let us delve into it in more detail, especially since your author managed to find traces of the “disappeared” icon...

Help: Icon of Rudnenskaya (Rudenskaya) - description
Source: Website "Miracle-Working Icons of the Blessed Virgin Mary", author - Valery Melnikov
“The icon, which is an adaptation (copy - author) of the CZZZZTOCHOW image of the Mother of God, appeared in 1687 in the town of Rudnya, Mogilev diocese (now Smolensk region).
(The author describes in detail about the “Czestochowa Icon of the Mother of God” in this work. And I, as the author, strongly recommend that you, dear reader, read it first, and then continue reading the main article, since this will make it clearer where the “cult of the Rudny Icon of the Mother of God” came from)

And the Belarusian town was called “Rudney” because of the mines in the area for the extraction of iron ore.
Since then, this image has been especially revered in many places in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
In 1689, the local priest Father Vasily moved it to the Kiev-Pechersk Convent (Ascension Monastery-author).

Since 1712, the image of the Most Holy Theotokos resided in the Kiev Florovsky Monastery in Podol after its unification with the Kiev Pechersk monastery.

In the 1920s of the last century, the miraculous image, placed in a beautiful chasuble decorated with diamonds, disappeared; apparently it was stolen from the temple.

The further history of other lists of this icon is as follows:
On the territory of Russia, the Rudnensky image of the Blessed Virgin Mary is especially revered in the village of Krylatskoye, Moscow region.
According to folk legend, passed down from mouth to mouth, approximately in the middle of the 19th century, the icon of the Mother of God was found by peasants of the village of Krylatskoye, who, having come early in the morning to a spring (and now full-flowing) in a ravine, saw a holy image in the grass.
At the site of the appearance of the image, a chapel was erected in the name of the found Rudny icon, and a copy of the image was placed in the local Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It is known that even before the October Revolution of 1917, residents of Krylatskoye ordered an All-Night Vigil and Liturgy on the day of the icon’s feast on October 12, toured many Moscow churches with the shrine, and organized long processions of the cross.
In 1936, during the atheistic persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church, the holy Rudny Icon of the Mother of God was destroyed.
However, the pre-revolutionary copy of the icon, located in the temple, was preserved by local residents.
The renewed icon, handed over to the rector of the newly opened church in 1989, took its rightful place in it and became famous for the many miracles that occurred from it through the fervent prayers of the parishioners.
In 1996, one of the thrones of the temple was consecrated in honor of the Rudny Icon of the Mother of God.
Many Orthodox residents of Moscow come on the day of the celebration of the Rudny Icon of the Mother of God to the source, consecrated by a miraculous image that once appeared at this place.
(Source: Disc "Orthodox Church Calendar 2011" published by the Moscow Patriarchate Publishing House
Among them there is also an ancient icon painted on canvas, which was in the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the town of Aleshki, Kharkov region.

Tradition says that it was brought to the Kharkov region around 1612 by a certain priest Peter Andreev, who came from the Podolsk region, fleeing the persecution of the Uniates.
There is a completely different icon with the name Rudnenskaya, which is usually called RUDNENSKAYA-RATKOVSKAYA (Ratkovskaya - from the word army).
Other copies of the Rudny Icon of the Mother of God were known - in the village of Lubny, Lubny district, Poltava province; in the village of Olishevka, Kozeletsky district, Chernigov province, in some villages of the Rivne region, Grodno region and Vitebsk region.

That would seem to be all about the icon and its lists. And the conclusion is this: The original miraculous Icon is lost forever!
Although we have another version!
That the icon turns out to be nowhere from the Frolovsky monastery and did not end up?
(here is the source - http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Life/life1725.htm) “RUDNY ICON OF THE MOTHER OF GOD “Memory Day: October” - “The Rudny Icon of the Mother of God appeared in 1687 in the town of Rudny, Mogilev diocese. In 1712, the icon was transferred to the Florovsky Ascension Monastery in Kyiv, where it is now located.”

And since we had significant and important contradictions on this issue, the author conducted his personal, historical investigation and found that the information from the site www.days.pravoslavie.ru is not reliable, because there is no such miraculous icon in the Holy Ascension Frolovsky Convent.
No, not even her revered list!
But, as a result of simple search activities, I reliably established that the “missing” Rudensky Icon”, together with its gilded and diamond-decorated frame (and this was the main search criterion!), is currently stored in the Hermitage Museum
Here is direct confirmation of the above: http://pravicon.com/icon-285
"Rudenskaya" icon of the Mother of God, 18th century, Russia Storage location: Museum of Icons of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Description: Rudny icon of the beginning. XVIII century Hermitage Museum. The inscription on the icon is a poem by St. Demetrius of Rostov, written on the occasion of the discovery of the miraculous Rudny Icon of the Mother of God: “Where iron is created from cronyism, There the Virgin dwells, dearest gold, May people soften cruel morals and turn iron hearts to God.”
And here is a photo of the “missing” icon"

And here, the matter remains small! It is time to begin the process of returning the miraculous Rudny icon to its permanent location in the Ascension Frolovsky Convent.
Moreover, today the monastery is repaired by the Russian Orthodox Church MP, since it is part of the UOC MP and, in connection with this, Russia will not create significant obstacles to this process.

But, in the Ascension Frolovsky Convent itself, today the following shrines are venerated:
Revered icons of the Mother of God: Kazan, Tikhvin and “Quick to Hear”. Kazan Icon of the Mother of God with a particle of the relics of St. Vmch. George.

Icons of St. Job Pochaevsky, VMC. Barbarians, martyr. Lavra, St. Theodosius of Chernigov and Nicholas the Wonderworker with particles of relics.
Among the new icons, the image of the Sovereign Mother of God, donated from the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior, deserves attention.

Shrines:
1. The relics of St. Elena Kiev-Florovskaya;
4. spring in honor of St. mchch. Flora and Laurel;
5. chapel in which St. Petersburg was buried. Elena Kiev-Florovskaya;
Revered burial places:
Ep. Theodora (Vlasova);
Abbess Eupraxia (Artemenko).

Patronal holidays: Ascension of the Lord, days of remembrance of the martyr. Flora and Laurel (August 18/31), St. Nicholas (May 9/22, December 6/19), days of celebration in honor of the Kazan (October 22/November 4, July 8/21), Rudenskaya (July 13/26) and Tikhvin (June 26/July 9) icons of the Mother of God . St. Helena (March 23/April 5 and September 23/Oct 6)

1) Patronal holidays:
2) St. mchch. Flora and Laurel - August 18 (old style) / August 31;
3) Ascension of the Lord;
4) Kazan Icon of the Mother of God - August 8/21; 22 of October /
5) November 4;
6) St. Nicholas the Wonderworker - May 9/22; December 6/19;
7) St. ap. John the Theologian - May 8/21; September 26 / October 9.
1. Days of memory of St. Elena Kiev-Florovskaya:
2. Death - March 23 / April 5;
3. Glorification - September 23 / October 6;

2. Days of veneration of miraculous icons:
Pochaevskaya - July 23 / August 5;
Bogolyubivaya - June 18 / July 1;
Rudnenskaya - July 13/26;
4. Days of veneration of especially revered saints:
5. vmch. Demetrius of Thessalonica - October 26 / November 8;
6. St. Alexandra Diveevskaya - June 13/26.

Schedule of Divine Services:
The monastery does not switch to daylight saving time, so there are differences in the time of services in summer and winter.

Every day the Divine Liturgy is celebrated at the monastery (with the exception of the days of Great Lent prescribed by the church charter) and evening services. On the days of the twelfth and patronal feasts, 2 Divine Liturgies are celebrated in the monastery.

Every Thursday at the end of the Divine Liturgy, a prayer service is served to St. Elena Kiev-Florovskaya. The holy akathist, chanted, is served on non-polyelean days, except for the twelve days and patronal feasts.
Summer schedule:
Liturgy - on weekdays - 8.00;
- on Sundays and holidays - 8.00; 10.30;
Evening service - 17.30.
Winter schedule:
Liturgy - on weekdays - 7.00;
- on Sundays and holidays - 7.00; 9.30;
Evening service - 16.30.

The monastery also has its own locally revered saint.
Thus, on September 23 / October 6, 2009, the glorification of the ascetic of piety, nun Elena (Bakhteeva; †1834) took place in the rank of venerable.
You, dear reader, can familiarize yourself with a detailed story about the new saint by following this link.

I want to introduce you, dear reader, to the sensational conclusions made by Olga KRAYNAYA, head of the history sector of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Lavra caves and necropolis of the National Kiev-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Reserve. And in particular, O. Krainaya gives comprehensive answers to the questions of the core member Olga Mamon in her article “7 facts-unraveling the secrets of the Florovsky Monastery in Podol” published on the website http://www.religion.in.ua/
(The full text of the article is here:
Why did women from noble families, among whom were princesses and baronesses, choose the Florovsky Monastery?

Kyiv generally attracted people who sought to serve God simply because the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was located here. Therefore, of course, every woman who decided to take the monastic path tried to be closer to this great Orthodox shrine.
Until 1711-1712 noble ladies, apparently, sought to get into the convent, which was located closest to the Lavra caves - the place of the exploits and rest of the Pechersk monks. And this was the Pechersky Convent, from the middle of the 17th century. known as Voznesensky. The woman simply could not get any closer to the shrine.
Therefore, this particular monastery was considered, if one can talk about monasteries, as privileged. Getting there, of course, was difficult.
Therefore, women from very rich noble families stayed there. We know, for example, that in the middle of the 17th century, according to the testimony of Archdeacon Pavel of Aleppo, the Ascension Pechersk Monastery was ruled by an abbess who came from a royal family, and at the end of the same century - the mother of Hetman Ivan Mazepa (and then hetmanship was equated with a royal title ).

In the Upper Town, from the 16th century. The convent at St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery was also famous. At first, the nuns' cells were moved outside the monastery fence.
This happened in 1688 after receiving a charter from the Russian tsars. And at the beginning of the 18th century. Mikhailovsky and Ascension convents were transferred to the Lower Town. The Ascension nuns settled on the territory of the Florovsky monastery. In addition, the abbess and the abbess of the St. Michael's Monastery, taking with them the treasury and part of the sacristy, moved here, and not to the Jordan St. Nicholas Monastery on Ploskoy, like all the other sisters of their monastery.
Thus, the material base of the Florovsky Monastery was significantly strengthened, the opportunity arose to carry out the rather expensive stone construction of the main temple and bell tower, expand the territory, build new wooden cells, and create conditions acceptable for the life of representatives of the privileged classes who were accustomed to prosperity.
Then we see attacks on the Church, which end with the secularization of church lands in 1786 and at the same time a reduction in the number of monasteries.
The sisters of the St. John the Theologian and St. Nicholas Jordan monasteries were transferred from Kyiv to the Poltava province.
But some of them remained in Kyiv, in the Florovsky Monastery.
After 1808, the Florovsky Monastery until the end of the 19th century was the only convent in Kyiv.

No attention was paid to this, but the fact remains: at that time, everyone who wanted to become a nun in Kyiv could only take monastic vows in the Florovsky monastery.

And people from all over the Russian Empire sought to go to Kyiv, the cradle of ancient Russian monasticism, so, naturally, it was a huge miracle to become a nun at the Florovsky Monastery.
The best known are the names of representatives of privileged strata of society who labored in the Florovsky Monastery from the 18th century.
Firstly, our archives have preserved more documents from this time; secondly, objective reasons contributed to the increase in the status of the monastery. One of the most important should be named direct subordination to the Pechersk archimandrite.
In the second half of the 18th century. Nektaria (Princess Natalya Borisovna Dolgorukova, nee Countess Sheremetyeva), Afanasia (Princess Tatyana Grigorievna Gorchakova, nee Princess Mortkina) labored here. It should be noted that representatives of such famous aristocratic families did not apply for the abbess in the monastery. They went to the monastery purely for spiritual purposes and worked hard for God.
The mental makeup and upbringing of many upper-class women made monasticism a desirable choice of life path for them, especially since behind the monastery fence they could realize their abilities, even their craving for literary creativity, as did Schema-nun Nektaria (Dolgorukova) and Abbess Parthenia (Adabash).

6. Why was the nun Elena (Bekhteeva), who was a Florov nun for only 12 years, glorified?
In 2009, by a resolution of the Holy Synod of the UOC, the ascetic of the Florovsky Monastery, nun Elena (in the world Ekaterina Bekhteeva), was canonized as a locally revered saint of the Kyiv diocese. However, a monastery with such rich spiritual experience certainly has saints that have not yet been revealed to the world.

From a young age, the life path of Saint Elena Florovskaya was aimed at monastic service.

She was born in 1856 in Zadonsk, Voronezh province. Father - Major General Alexey Dmitrievich Bekhteev. The family was closely acquainted with Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk. There were no obvious obstacles to Ekaterina Bekhteeva’s entry into the monastery; however, she had to show unprecedented firmness and patience in order to receive monastic tonsure in her declining years.
She settled in the Florovsky monastery after the death of her father, in 1806. After a terrible fire in Podol in 1811, when more than 20 nuns of the monastery died, the monastery almost completely burned down, and the full-time nuns were settled in the Pustynno-Nicholaevsky monastery, Ekaterina Bekhteeva had to leave Kiev, since she was not enrolled in the staff.
And only in 1812, unexpectedly, Alexander I gave the order to quickly build wooden cells and resettle the Florov nuns back to Podol. Unfortunately, the motives for this act were not as noble as we like to imagine in relation to the Florovsky Monastery. Since the war with the French was already underway, and Alexander I received news from his advisers that it was necessary to again strengthen the Pechersk fortress, to expand it, a secret decision was made to destroy the Desert Nicholas Monastery.

This was precisely the reason for the hasty return of the nuns to Podil. Before the fire of 1811, there are documents on which the question of the possibility of allocating a plot to the Florovsky Monastery in another place, more suitable for life, was discussed; in particular, the option of exchanging places between the Florov and Pustyn-Nikolaev monasteries was considered. The site under Castle Hill was considered difficult both for construction and for living. Therefore, of course, the nuns dreamed of moving closer to the Lavra and settling in the area of ​​the current Glory Square. But a fire and the War of 1812 intervened, and the Florov nuns again found themselves in their monastery. Apparently, this was predetermined. At the same time, after the fire, plans for stone construction in the Florovsky Monastery, which arose even before the tragedy, are being implemented.
So, in 1812, the sisters returned to Podol, and in 1817, Ekaterina Bekhteeva was again accepted into obedience at the Florovsky Monastery. After the cell built through her efforts burned down in 1821, she and her companion, Elizaveta Pridorogina, were forced to rent housing outside the city. And only at the insistent demand of Metropolitan Evgeniy (Bolkhovitinov) (after 1822) were both wanderers tonsured into monasticism. Thus, Saint Helena took monastic vows in her declining years.

Nun Elena died on March 23, 1834 at the age of 78. According to her will, she was buried in the tomb of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, which she had been carrying with her since 1783.
“Memories of the nun Elena, resting in the tomb of Tikhon of Zadonsk in the Kiev-Florovsky convent,” which describes in sufficient detail the circumstances of her amazing life, appeared at the end of the 19th century. On their basis, the life of St. Helena of Florovskaya was compiled. The grave of nun Elena was located near the Church of the Resurrection. After the discovery and glorification of the saint’s relics, they were placed in the Ascension Church of the Florovsky Monastery.
The feat of Saint Helena is in tolerance and humility, in such a desire for monasticism that is insurmountable by any everyday difficulties. The thought may arise that only at that time were there such ascetics who meekly sought not worldly well-being, but... tonsure. However, any time produces ascetics, and what is most surprising is that even in the world people sometimes show miracles of asceticism and fasting. I had to see this.
In fact, there is no time more favorable or less favorable for spiritual achievement. There is a place for feat at any time. When you study history, you see that little changes in the souls of people, the organization of our society, so we are faced with the same trials that people faced both in the time of St. Helena (Bekhteeva) and in the time of Nektaria (Dolgorukova).

For example, when you read the teachings of St. Ephraim (Syrin), compiled in the 4th century, you understand that they are still relevant today for a person walking the path to God (by the way, the Institute of Manuscripts houses one of the handwritten books of the monk (17th century copy) from the library of the Florovsky Monastery with a signature Florovsky nuns).

7. Not every Florovskaya eldress could be buried in the Lavra, but schema-nun Nektaria (Dolgorukova) was awarded (!?)
Another famous nun of the Florovsky monastery, which should be remembered, and which reflected the complexity of tonsure, was Nektaria (Dolgorukova). She was not an abbess; at first she was not even a member of the cathedral elders.
Most likely, she did not strive for this. The long-suffering journey of Schema-nun Nektaria is known: she lost both her husband and her son, who died in her arms.

Nun Nektaria invested a lot in the construction of the monastery. Under her, the Floro-Lavra throne was actually restored, which had not been in the monastery for a long time after the transfer of the Ascension nuns. The fact is that in 1718 the Florovskaya wooden main church burned down. And when the issue of uniting the monastic communities - Ascension and Florovskaya - was finally resolved, in 1722, Abbess Maria (Mokievskaya), from the Ascension tonsures, initiated the construction of a large stone church in honor of the Ascension of the Lord, in order to subsequently restore the throne of Florus and Laurus.
But before the tonsure of Schema nun Nektaria (Dolgorukova) there was no such throne in the monastery. That is, from 1722 to 1758.
The Throne of Florus and Laurus was built and consecrated in the Refectory Church, which is still the oldest in the monastery - its construction dates back to the turn of the late 17th - early 18th centuries. But the nun Nektaria built a wooden church in honor of the Resurrection of the Lord under the mountain. True, then this church burned down, and in its place in the 20s of the 19th century. Andrei Melensky built a new stone Resurrection Church.

Also, thanks to the efforts of schema-nun Nektaria (Dolgorukova), it was possible to solve a very difficult engineering problem of erecting a stone wall around the monastery and a wooden one at the foot of the mountain. Mountain until the 19th century. did not belong to the monastery. Landslides still occur in spring and autumn to this day, and the mountain has always posed a certain threat to the monastery buildings.
Schema nun Nektaria was buried in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, as she wished. And this is the happy occasion when even today we can approach her tombstone, being in the Lavra, and honor her memory.”

Having dealt with the history of the monastery, now let’s talk about the problems facing the monastery today and how they are being solved.

Until 1918, more than 800 nuns lived in the monastery, there was an almshouse (up to 100 beds), a hospital (up to 10 beds), and there was a school for girls with free teaching.
Architectural ensemble of the monastery of the 18th-19th centuries. included 5 churches (4 have survived to this day): Refectory (its lower floor was built at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, the second was completed after the fire of 1811), Voznesenskaya (1732), Resurrection Hospital (1824), The Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (1844) and the Trinity Cemetery on Florovskaya Mountain (1857, was dismantled in 1938), as well as the bell tower and cell buildings.
The monastery was finally closed by the Soviet authorities in 1929, the buildings were transferred to a housing cooperative, and a prosthetic factory workshop was located in the rebuilt Kazan Church.
In 1936, the Church of the Holy Trinity on the mountain was demolished, the iconostases and two unusually picturesque rotundas in the Empire style above the wells disappeared.
The monastery was re-opened during the “German-Soviet War of 1941-1945” with the permission of the German burgomaster of Kiev.
Since 1942, the monastery has been headed by Abbess Flavia (Tishchenko), then Antonia, Anemeisa (died in the mid-1970s), Agnessa (died in 1985), and now Antonia (Filkina) manages the affairs.
During the anti-religious campaign of the 1960s, they tried to close the monastery again; part of the monastery buildings were taken away by the state. But it all ended with the fact that in July 1960, 75 sisters of the closed Vvedensky convent moved here.
And yet there were losses.
Thus, the workshops of the Ukrainian Restoration were located in the former refectory and Resurrection churches.
Only in 1993-94. they were evicted. In those same years, the restoration of the Kazan Church began, which has now come to an end
“On February 8, 2013, the Kyiv City Council deputies at the session decided to transfer the buildings in Podil to the St. Florus Convent of the Kyiv Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
According to the decision made, the convent will receive 14 objects for indefinite use. The total area of ​​the transferred objects is almost 5 thousand square meters.
In this connection, the territorial claims of the monastery were fully satisfied, which further contributes to its active and dynamic development.

Currently, in the Florovsky monastery, under the leadership of Abbess Antonia (Filkina), 230 sisters are asceticizing, among them 1 abbess in retirement (of the Ovruch monastery), 6 schema nuns, 121 nuns, 4 nuns, 42 novices and the rest of the laborers.

Services in the monastery are performed by 3 full-time priests and 1 deacon, 1 priest in the rank of schema-abbot is the confessor of the monastery.

The monastery lives according to the charter of Vasily the Great, which is confirmed in the deed of gift of Yakov Gulkevich in 1642.

Reference: Charter of St. Basil the Great. Here it should be immediately noted that the charter of St. Basil was not personally created by him as such.
“The saint only left a large number of answers and teachings in letters addressed to the brethren in the monasteries he founded.
Being endowed with the rank of bishop, the saint was forced to travel frequently and stay away from the monastery for a long time, but still he strove not to leave the brethren without nourishment.
His teachings were later collected into a general set of rules entitled “Ascetic Writings.” They are divided into two parts: the first, theoretical, where Saint Basil speaks about renunciation of the world and the power of ascetic life, and the second - the rules themselves: lengthy and short, containing the rules of monastic life.
They are set out in answers to questions on specific occasions. The saint attached great importance to the Holy Scriptures. He tried to compare every small question, like the whole life of the monastery, with the biblical text.
Thus, he determines to perform seven prayers per day, in accordance with the verses of the psalm of David: “by day we praise Thee sevenfold” (Ps. 119: 164).
It is also characteristic that, having found in the Bible exact instructions only for six specific hours (evening, midnight, morning, noon, 3rd and 9th hours), Saint Basil agrees with the saying of the psalmist so that he divides the midday prayers into those performed before and after the meal.
And all other statutory instructions are constantly supported by references to the Holy Scriptures, so that some answers are simply a quotation from the Bible.
Here the saint’s concern for resolving spiritual issues and establishing the moral improvement of the brethren, based on sacred texts, is clearly visible.
And in our time, this method is the most suitable for regulating monastic life.
Back in the 15th century, the reverend revivalist of spiritual monastic work in our country, Saint Nil of Sor, wrote: “Nowadays, due to the complete impoverishment and impoverishment of the spirit, it is with great difficulty that one can find a spiritual mentor.
Therefore, the holy fathers commanded to learn from the Divine Scriptures, hearing the Lord Himself,” and to be guided by the writings of the fathers. And in the 19th century, Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) warns about the complete disappearance of the spirit-bearing elders, whom one could trust in complete obedience, and, consequently, about one’s own examination of one’s life according to the commandments of the Gospel.
And our revered contemporary mentor, Archimandrite John (Krestyankin), often convinced us of the need to correlate our lives with the Holy Scriptures, saying in his sermons: “To follow Christ is to study the Holy Gospel so that only it becomes an active leader in bearing our life’s cross.” .
The rite of tonsure in the Frolovsky Monastery takes place at night.

The tradition of performing services on the 1st and 2nd days of Great Lent without the priesthood is preserved.
The service is read by the sisters in accordance with the charter.
The Hours and Matins for the first 3 days of Great Lent are performed in the morning, then in accordance with liturgical tradition.
Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete on the 3rd day of Great Lent is read by His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir.
The ancient monastic form is preserved.
There is no common meal in the monastery; food, in accordance with the monastery charter, is provided in the kitchen once a day.

Prosphora, Easter cakes and the monastery meal are traditionally prepared over wood.
The Indefatigable Psalter is also read in the monastery.
Reference: “In many places there is a custom of asking monasteries to read the Psalter for the departed and for health, which is combined with giving alms.
At the monastery, the sisters constantly read the Psalter (the indefatigable psalter) with the remembrance of names (about health and repose). Great is the power of this unceasing prayer.
Reading the Psalter drives away demons from a person and attracts God's grace.
The Indestructible Psalter is a special kind of prayer.
The never-ending psalter is so called because its reading takes place around the clock, without interruption.
This kind of prayer is prayed only in monasteries.
You can give for both the living and the deceased.
Prayer for the living and the dead while reading the indefatigable Psalter has unprecedented power, which crushes demons, softens hearts, and appeases the Lord so that he raises sinners from hell.
The Indestructible Psalter... Why is this so important?
For many reasons
1. Monks have the special grace to beg the laity. The monks live by prayer; they have taken on the image of an angel. And real monks have the prayer of earthly angels. But if the monks are weaker, the prayer still has great power and the prayer gets through.
2. The Psalter is a prayer of the strongest power. Rev. Ambrose of Optina: “You will see from experience how great the power of God-inspired psalm words is, which scorch and drive away mental enemies like a flame. And prayer is always stronger with psalm words than with our own.” Elder Jerome of Sanaksar said that where the Undying Psalter is read, it is like a pillar of fire reaching to the sky.
3. The peculiarity of the Psalter prayer is that when one prays for a person during this prayer, it greatly protects him from evil demons and helps in the fight against passions. As St. says Parthenius of Kiev, The Psalter tames passions.
4. Also, the most important feature of the rite of the Indestructible Psalter is that you will be commemorated every day and usually several times a day. Those. some monasteries commemorate not only once a day, but at every kathisma (The Psalter has 20 kathismas, 20 parts).
5. The indefatigable Psalter is read not only during the day, but also at night. That is why this rank is called indestructible, because does not stop day or night. The monks replace each other after a certain amount of time. (http://simvol-veri.ru/)

At this time, the monastery is also reviving its traditional “Flora handicrafts”: icon painting and gold embroidery.
The monastery also has 2 farmsteads in the villages of the Kyiv region, where agricultural production is carried out for the monastery’s needs.

As in the old days, the Florovsky Monastery is self-contained (not communal).
A special attraction of the monastery is its large flower garden – called the “Garden of Eden”. You can clearly see how it looks in the photographs attached by the author.
(end of the first part)

Photos, dear readers, see this link: http://h.ua/story/377932/