In 1920, the monastery ceased to exist: a home for the elderly was opened on its grounds, administrative offices were housed in its buildings, and one building was given to the remaining brethren led by Archimandrite Dimitry (Arkhangelsky). In 1921–1923, a church parish was organized on the grounds of the former monastery, but in 1928 it was abolished and Archimandrite Dimitry was arrested. In 1918, Archimandrite Augustine was arrested and shot; at the same time, the monastery's khutor farm and part of the skete's buildings were requisitioned and plundered by local residents.[5] In the 1930s, various organizations operated on the monastery grounds, including a people's theater; in the 1940s, a camp for interned Poles and Czechs was located here, and from 1942 to 1950, a camp for German prisoners of war.
From 1952 to 1972, a colony for minors was housed within the monastery walls, and from 1972 to 1993, a medical labor rehabilitation center (LTP).[1] The prisoner-of-war camp, opened in 1942 on the orders of the NKVD, bore the official name "Oranki-74" as a secret facility; in 1993, the monastery was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. By 2004, the monastery was in need of major restoration work: the churches and cell buildings ruined during the Soviet period were being rebuilt.[2][3]
The monastery, founded in 1634 in the village of Oranki in Bogorodsky District, carefully preserves the wonder-working icon of the Mother of God "Vladimirskaya" (1693). Church history tells how, during the reign of Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov, a pious and virtuous man named Pyotr Gladkov commissioned an exact copy of the Vladimir icon for himself, and it led him to accomplish a spiritual feat. The monastery was founded by the nobleman Pyotr Andreyevich Glyadkov (in the schema, Pavel), a retired head or captain: in 1629 he fell gravely ill, vowed to venerate the Vladimir icon in Moscow and, having been healed, commissioned an exact copy of it; in 1634, in the fifth week of Great Lent, Glyadkov heard in a dream a command to build a church on a hill, and then discovered Slovenskaya Hill near a field called Orano Pole, where he saw a radiance rising to the sky like a pillar; having obtained a charter from Patriarch Joasaph, he built a wooden church in honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, consecrated in 1634, around which cells were built for eight elders led by Hieromonk Theodoritus.
The wonder-working copy of the Vladimir icon was painted in 1629 by Archpriest Kodrat of the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow on commission from Gladkov; brought by the founder to his ancestral village of Bocheyevo, the icon soon became famous for its miracles, after which Gladkov, following a special inspiration, moved it to Slavenskaya Hill and founded a monastery around it. A year after the monastery's founding, the icon became famous for streaming myrrh and in that time healed 131 pilgrims; when news of the miracles reached Moscow, Patriarch Joasaph ordered a detailed description of the healings to be compiled, and the full report was presented not only to the patriarch but also to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich.[6][5] In 1665, the monastery's founder, the schemamonk Pavel, was killed by a gang of robbers from the surrounding Mordvin villages who attacked the monastery at night. After the founder's murder, the monastery fell into desolation and was restored in 1700, becoming from then on a center of Christian enlightenment for the pagan Mordvins of the surrounding area.[5][4]
Obeying a higher will revealed to him in a dream, P. Gladkov founded a monastery dedicated to this icon on Slavyanskaya Hill near the village of Oranki, close to Nizhny Novgorod. The Oranki Icon of the Mother of God saved the monastery from attacks more than once. In 1771, the icon saved Nizhny Novgorod from the plague.[3]
The monastery stands on a picturesque hill, at the foot of which one can drink holy water from a sacred spring. In the 18th century, under Archimandrites Athanasius and Joachim, the monastery was rebuilt: in place of the wooden church, a stone cathedral was erected in honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, with a stone bell tower beside it and a stone wall with a gate church dedicated to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul; in 1720, by decree of Peter I, the Kresto-Marovskaya Exaltation Hermitage in Vasilevsky Uyezd was assigned to the monastery, remaining under the authority of the Oranki archimandrite until 1771, when it was plundered and burned by Pugachev. From 1801 to 1837, extensive construction took place at the monastery: a large summer cathedral of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was built, along with a heated three-altar, five-domed church, a single-altar church in the refectory building dedicated to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, five stone buildings, a stone chapel over the spring, a stable yard, and other structures.
In 1867, the monastery was raised to the rank of a first-class monastery and placed under the direct administration of the diocesan bishop; it ran a school for orphans — children of clergymen who were supported by the monastery. In 1905, a skete was founded in the monastery forest, in which a stone church was built in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God; by 1907, 27 monks lived at the skete.[5][4] A skete is located near the monastery. Every year in the selo of Oranki, on the feast day of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Slavic Literacy Days are held. Religious processions are held twice a year.
The main sacred object of the monastery is the miracle-working Vladimir-Oransk icon of the Mother of God, in whose honor a religious procession takes place every year on June 3 after the Divine Liturgy. In early August 2004, a children's health camp, "Holy Monastery," opened on the monastery grounds.[2] In 2004, the monastery celebrated its 370th anniversary: on December 4, the feast of the Presentation of the Mother of God in the Temple, Bishop George of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas celebrated the Divine Liturgy and the festive doxology in the monastery's Vladimir Cathedral.[2][1]
In the selo of Oranki, there is a museum at the library devoted to the history of the selo and the monastery. Here one can also become acquainted with the work of the distinctive artist Yu. M. Aparin and the works of his students.
Contacts
Address: 606125, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Bogorodsky District, selo of Oranki.
Tel.: (83170) 45-5-45.
Monastery website
Links
- Official website (archive) (orankimon.ru)
In 1771, when plague was raging throughout the governorate, the miracle-working icon was brought to the city at the request of Nizhny Novgorod residents and with the blessing of Bishop Theophanes, and was carried in a religious procession around the Kremlin; grateful Nizhny Novgorod residents vowed to hold a solemn procession with the icon from the Oranki Monastery every year, and did not break this vow for 150 years.[6]
Sources
- nne.ru — The miracle-working Vladimir-Oransk icon of the Mother of God is kept in the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Museum; its temporary transfer to the monastery requires a special (archive)