Serafimo-Diveevsky Monastery, or Saint Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery, or Holy Trinity-Saint Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery () is a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...

s (

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

) in Diveyevo settlement near

Sarov Sarov () is a closed city, closed town in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It was known as Gorkiy-130 (Горький-130) and Arzamas-16 (), after a (somewhat) nearby town of Arzamas,SarovLabsCreation of Nuclear Center Arzamas-16/ref> from 194 ...

(12 km), and near the city of

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

(185 km), in the

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Nizhny Novgorod Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Nizhny Novgorod. It has a population of 3,119,115 as of the 2021 Ru ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

.Guide to Diveyevo
It is situated in a region considered to have immense spiritual significance. Within its immediate vicinity are situated two other

cloister A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open Arcade (architecture), arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cat ...

s: Sarov Monastery and

Sanaksar Monastery The Sanaksar Monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God is located in the Russian Federation, in the Temnikovsky District, Temnikov district of Republic Mordovia. The monastery was founded in 1659. It was returned to the Russian Orthodox chur ...

. The convent is famous because Saint Seraphim of Sarov served as Staretz (Elder) for the nuns of this monastery, though he only travelled to the convent once during his lifetime. He was a monk at the nearby monastery of Sarov. After the fall of communism, his

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...

s, which had been feared lost, were discovered in the storeroom of a "museum of atheism" in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and solemnly transferred to the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery, which has come to be named after him. The monastery is also famous for possessing the only portrait of Saint Seraphim that was painted of him by a contemporary, th
"Diveyevo Portrait"
. During the years of Communist

persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...

, the portrait was smuggled out of Russia and is kept to this day in th
Novo-Diveyevo Convent
in

Nanuet Nanuet is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Clarkstown, New York, United States. The third largest hamlet in Clarkstown, it is located north of Pearl River, south of New City, east of Spring Valley, and west of West Nyack. It ...

, New York. The convent is a subject of the writings of

Serge Nilus Sergei Aleksandrovich Nilus (also ''Sergius'', and variants; ; – 14 January 1929) was a Russian religious writer, self-described mystic, and prolific antisemite. His book ''Velikoe v malom i antikhrist, kak blizkaja politicheskaja vozmozh ...

in his semi-autobiographical work ''Velikoe v malom i antikhrist'', a work which has the dubious distinction of having been published, in book form, for the first time as the ''

Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multip ...

'' (which is only its last chapter, ''Chapter XII''). Diveyevo Serafimo-Diveevsky Monastery The Transfiguration Cathedral IMG 9567 1725

The monastery started with the Church of

Our Lady of Kazan ''Our Lady of Kazan'', also called ''Mother of God of Kazan'' (), is a holy icon of the highest stature within the Russian Orthodox Church, representing the Virgin Mary as the protector and patroness of the city of Kazan, and a palladium of all o ...

(''Kazanskaya''), built in 1773–1780. Saint Seraphim blessed the construction of two churches adjoined to Kazanskaya: The Church of the Nativity of Christ (1829) and the Church of the Nativity of

Theotokos ''Theotokos'' ( Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are or (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-beare ...

(1830). The large Trinity Cathedral with its

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

was constructed in 1865–1875. The Office of the

Hegumen Hegumen, hegumenos, or igumen (, trans. ), is the title for the head of a monastery in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, or an archpriest in the Coptic Orthodox Church, similar to the title of abbot. The head of a convent of ...

ia (

Abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa'') is the female superior of a community of nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, Lutheran and Anglican abbeys, the mod ...

) with it

Mary Magdalen Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...

House Church A house church or home church is a label used to describe a group of Christians who regularly gather for worship in private homes. The group may be part of a larger Christian body, such as a parish, but some have been independent groups that se ...

and the

Alexander Nevsky Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (; ; monastic name: ''Aleksiy''; 13 May 1221 – 14 November 1263) was Prince of Novgorod (1236–1240; 1241–1256; 1258–1259), Grand Prince of Kiev (1249–1263), and Grand Prince of Vladimir (1252–1263). ...

Trapeza Church were built in the end of the 19th century. Finally. The Transfiguration

Cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

was built in 1907–1916. In 2003-2004 there were significant restoration works in the Monastery celebrating 250 year anniversary of Saint Seraphim.

References

* Velikoe v malom :by

Tsarskoe Selo Tsarskoye Selo (, , ) was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the center of Saint Petersburg. The residence now forms part of the town of Pushkin. Tsarskoye Selo forms ...

: Tip. TSarskoselskago Komiteta Krasnago Kresta, 1905) *Cyrillic: ''Летопись Серафимо-Дивеевского монастыря Нижегородской губернии Ардатовского уезда с жизнеописанием основателей ее: преподобного Серафима и схимонахини Александры, урожденной А.С. Мельгуновой'' : :Translieration: ''Letopis' Serafimo-Diveevskogo monastyria Nizhegorodskoi gubernii Ardatovskogo uezda s zhizneopisaniem osnovatelei ee: prepodobnogo Serafima i skhimonakhini Aleksandry, urozhdennoi A.S. Mel'gunovoi'' : :Translation: ''The Annals of the Serafimo-Diveevsky Monastery, Nizhny Novgorod Province, Ardatov District, Including Life Description of Its Founders: The Reverend Serafim and the Monk Alexandra, Born: A. S. Melgunova'' : :(Moscow: Свято-Троицкий Серафимо-Дивеевский монастырь; Ковчег, 2007) :Subject: Biography. Memoirs. Christianity. Religion (general). :
Online version

External links

Website of the monastery

Diveevo convent portal
* Nizhny Novgorod Region''

*RANSAC Nuclear News, June 25, 2003''

{{Coord, 55, 2, 24, N, 43, 14, 41, E, display=title, type:landmark Russian Orthodox monasteries in Russia Buildings and structures in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Diveyevsky District

See also

References

External links