At present the site has the status of a bishop's metochion (representative residence) of the former Holy Nikolsky Ambrose Dudin Monastery for men and is located at: Nizhny Novgorod Region, Bogorodsky District, the selo of Podyablonnoye, Priokskaya Street, building 1v.[1]
Ambrose Nikolaevsky Dudin Monastery is located on the steep right bank of the Oka. A dirt road 2 km long connects the monastery with the nearest village, Podyablonnoye.
History
The first mention of the Dudin Monastery dates to 1408. The monastery is located in Bogorodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Region, between the villages of Podyablonnoye and Teteryugino; historically this territory was known as the Berezopolsky stan (a medieval administrative district) and became part of medieval Rus in the 13th–14th centuries.[1] According to some accounts, it was visited by St. Sergius of Radonezh on his way from Nizhny Novgorod. Tradition links the founding of the monastery to the appearance at this spot of an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker; the first builder of the community was apparently the monk Ambrose, whose name has been preserved in the monastery's name.[1] In 1535 a bell tower was laid down, which became the first stone structure.
In the 1620s, besides the stone bell tower, the monastery had three wooden churches: the log-built Dormition Cathedral, the Church of St. Nicholas, and, on the bank of the Oka, the Church of Elijah the Prophet.
From 1676, by charter of Tsar Feodor Alekseyevich, the monastery was placed under the authority of the Patriarch and came to be called the Synodal Household Monastery. In the monastery's sacristy were kept 67 state documents confirming the monastery's rights to its holdings; the oldest of these was a grant charter from Tsar Ivan the Terrible dated 1560; the number of residents in the monastery was historically small and ranged from 15 to 30 people.[1] Among the monastery's abbots, Archimandrite Yevfimy stands out; he governed the monastery in 1592–1606: in 1612 he signed Prince Dmitry Pozharsky's charter pledging "to defend Moscow or lay down one's life for it," and from 1613 he again headed the Dudin Monastery, this time with the rank of archimandrite.[1] In the 16th–17th centuries the monastery carried on diverse economic activity: it owned the surrounding villages (14 settlements in all), fishing grounds on the Oka, a salt works in Balakhna, and, in Nizhny Novgorod, seven shops, a granary, and four inns; according to the Land Survey Charter of 1630, the monastery had a metochion (a town estate of the monastery) in the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin.[1] On February 2, 1677, by decree of Patriarch Joachim, the Dormition Church was laid down — the only one partially preserved. In 1785, under Catherine II, the monastery was abolished and became the parish church of the selo (a larger village) of Podyablonnoye.
In the 1920s the venerated, wonder-working icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was lost. And in 1939 the parish was closed.
Interesting facts
As late as 2004, an inscription reading "Ancestral Church of the Rurikids-Romanovs" was displayed on the ruins of the monastery.
Holy springs
Two holy springs flow from beneath the hill — those of St. Nicholas and St. Sergius of Radonezh. The spring named for Sergius of Radonezh is already marked on a map from the 17th century.
Links
- Official website (pecherskiy.nne.ru)