Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery is a special place located in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Curious tourists studying the history of Russian lands and numerous pilgrims from Christian countries who humbly ask for the intercession of the Mother of God come here.
Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevo Convent
History of the monastery
The Diveyevo convent was founded in the second half of the 18th century by Mother Alexandra (Melgunova). At the behest of the Mother of God, she went from Kyiv to the north of Russian lands. In the village of Diveevo, the Virgin Mary appeared again to the nun and ordered her to stay in this area.
In 1780, the first stone temple (Kazan Church), erected at the expense of Mother Alexandra, was consecrated. Eight years later, on the lands adjacent to the Kazan Church, a house was built in which Alexandra and four novices settled.
In 1789, monk Seraphim from the Sarov Monastery took custody of the community. In 1796, Ksenia Mikhailovna Kocheulova, whom Seraphim of Sarov spoke of with great respect, was chosen as the head of the monastic community.
Read about the elder:
- Icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov
- Feast of Seraphim of Sarov
- Prayer rule of Seraphim of Sarov for the laity
With the blessing of trustee Seraphim, in 1827, a Mill community was founded not far from Kazanskaya, headed by a representative of the noble Manturov family, nun Elena. The Church of the Nativity of Christ was built with the money of Prince Mikhail Manturov.
In 1842, the Diveyevo communities united, and 20 years later they were given the status of a monastery. By the beginning of the 20th century, 1,600 nuns lived permanently in the monastery.
It didn't take long for it to get done
The appearance of the Mother of God occurred in 1825, but members of the female monastic community did not immediately decide to follow the decree of Father Seraphim, since the land around the community did not belong to them, and the women were afraid of the volume of work ahead.
There were some miracles: the landowner who owned the land donated it to the monastery, and the sisters decided to start work after one of the nuns saw Father Seraphim himself at night digging a ditch. The woman was surprised, because she knew that he should be in his cell in Sarov. Running to the sisters, she told them about the elder, and the nuns went to Father Seraphim, but as soon as they bowed to the ascetic, he disappeared, leaving behind a shovel and a hoe.
By a miraculous coincidence, one of the sisters of the community spent the night in Sarov that night and in the morning she heard from the saint an order to go to Diveevo and tell the nuns to continue the work that he had begun. The woman understood what the elder was talking about only after returning to the community and listening to the sisters.
After that, they began to develop the Ditch and built it for three years, finishing it by Christmas. Literally a few days after the completion of the work, Seraphim Sarovsky died.
Decline and restoration of the monastery in the 20th century
After the Bolshevik Revolution, the monastery continued to function until 1927. Some of the nuns settled in neighboring villages. Many were repressed. Religious buildings were placed at the disposal of administrative and educational institutions. But even in Soviet times, people came to closed churches and held religious processions and services.
Lower Church of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Diveyevo Monastery
At the end of the 80s, the monastic community began to function again. In the year of celebrating the millennium of the baptism of Rus', the Diveyevo Orthodox community was registered. A year later, the Trinity Church was handed over to her. In 1991, the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov were discovered. In 1995, the monastery acquired the status of an architectural monument of federal significance.
The modern monastery is a place where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists from all over the world come every year. On its territory there are several holy springs and many relics of Orthodox saints. But the main shrine of the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveyevo Lavra is the Holy Canal of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Holy destiny of the Mother of God on earth
This holy place experienced many difficulties, atheism, and one day the time came when all the inhabitants of the monastery were ordered to leave the temple within 7 days. They did not leave the village and remained to live next to the holy temple. In the 70s, a transformer substation and a boarding school were installed on the ditch. Soon the pilgrimage ...
The gooseberries bloomed again, the ditch was put in order, all the depressions were leveled, since the sisters who laid it were not always able to adhere to the proportions that the Mother of God spoke about. As for the icon from which the monastery originates, today it is located in the Fatima Monastery. In Diveevo, they are confident that the times will come when healing, miraculous icons will once again be seen in their native land.
Holy Groove
The main shrine of the monastery appeared after the appearance of the Mother of God to Seraphim of Sarov. The Virgin Mary ordered the founding of a new monastery (Mill) and surrounding it with a ditch and rampart. The nuns and novices of the monastery had to dig a ditch in the indicated place. The labor of village residents was used for auxiliary work. Construction of the ditch was completed in 1832.
Among the many shrines of Diveevo, the Holy Kanavka occupies a special place
The ditch consists of six sections with a total length of 777 meters. Its depth and width, as well as the height of the adjacent shaft, are 2.13 meters (3 cubits).
Believers claim that the holy ditch is the fence of the fourth spiritual abode of the Mother of God on earth, which even the Antichrist cannot cross. The Mother of God is invisibly present in her destiny every day.
Interesting! Pilgrims and nuns are advised to come to the shrine from 3 to 4 am. They believe that the Virgin Mary walks there at this time and is the chosen one.
Background
Agafya's visions are a story dedicated to Agafya Semenovna Belokopytova. After her husband died, she and her small child left the village, giving herself and her earthly life to God. Her path was directed to Kyiv, where there were already many monasteries at that time. She decided to complete her journey in one way, until one day the Mother of God appeared to her. She told Agafya that she was ordered to go to those lands that would be shown to her and establish a women’s monastery there, which would be her earthly inheritance.
After communicating with the elders, she nevertheless decides to take a new path. Agafya walked around Holy Rus' for a long time, until 1760, when the Mother of God appeared to her again. In a dream, she said that she had found the future holy lands, and it was here that there would be a monastery, which previously had no equal on earth. An event occurred in Diveevo. After sleep, she went to a village nearby, where she and her daughter found shelter. But, unfortunately, the daughter soon died. The woman was no longer held back, and after the sale of the property in 1767, construction of the great cathedral began. When Agafya was 55 years old, her strength suddenly left her. Realizing that her death is near, she asks three monks to accept her confession. On that day, one of them was Seraphim. It was to him that she handed over this divine mission over Diveevo.
Why go to Diveevo
Many argue that a tourist trip to the Diveyevo Monastery makes no sense. But the architecture of the monastery cannot leave a single person indifferent. It is the solemn and monumental appearance of the temples, the cleanliness and well-groomed territory that sets the mind to the thoughts necessary for humble prayer.
Diveevo is a unique place worth coming to for spiritual cleansing and strengthening of Faith. Coming here, people ask for the fulfillment of their deepest desires and thank the Mother of God for their fulfillment. According to tradition, believers must offer the prayer to the Mother of God 150 times during their journey along the Kanavka.
The soil of the Grooves and the flowers and herbs growing in it have healing properties. You can take the soil from the Queen of Heaven’s Canal with you to a specially equipped place.
It has many wonderful properties:
- Land from the Holy Kanavka in Diveevo is used for protection from evil spirits and unkind thoughts. To do this, part of the miraculous earth is mixed with ordinary soil or sand and placed at the front door or buried under the threshold of a private house.
- A handful of earth wrapped in cloth is applied to sick or injured parts of the body to speed up the healing process.
- Strengthening physical health is promoted by daily consumption of holy water, in which a small amount of earth is diluted.
Advice! It will take more than one day to see all the shrines and relics of the monastery. Therefore, you should allocate 2-3 days for your trip to Diveevo. At this time, you can live in a hotel for pilgrims, or rent housing from village residents. Many advertisements of this nature are posted on thematic pages on social networks.
The main shrine of the Diveyevo monastery is a shrine with the holy relics of St. Seraphim
Time to build
To find out exactly where the ditch was, archaeological work had to be carried out at the end of the 20th century. The restoration of the shrine began in August 1997 in strict accordance with the instructions given to Saint Seraphim.
Nowadays the ditch runs exactly where it was built under Father Seraphim; it has the shape of an open heptagon - according to plans, there should have been a temple in the gap between the beginning and the end.
Pilgrims walking along it still read the prayer “To the Mother of God, Virgin...” and try to time it so that they have time to say it 150 times. It is believed that at the beginning of the path one must ask for spiritual things, and at the end it is permissible to ask for material things.
The elders compare the Kanavka with the belt of the Virgin Mary and point out that the best time for prayer is from three o’clock in the morning, when you can even meet the Virgin Mary walking around the monastery.
How to get to Diveevo
The Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery is located in the village of Diveevo, Diveevsky district, Nizhny Novgorod region. The closest city from which you can get to the Holy Monastery is Arzamas. Nizhny Novgorod is located 180 kilometers away.
Travel by public transport
People traveling by public transport should choose the method of arrival in Arzamas or Nizhny Novgorod depending on their region of residence. Moscow residents should take the train departing from Kursky or Yaroslavsky railway stations.
Having reached the Arzamas-2 station, you should change to a bus to Diveevo. Buses depart at intervals of one hour.
Tourists and pilgrims coming to Nizhny Novgorod should get to the bus station on the street. Gagarin and take bus No. 1645 to Diveevo. As an alternative route, you can consider a trip in the Nizhny Novgorod - Sarov minibus, which makes a stop in Diveevo. This bus leaves from the bus station on the street. Lyadova.
Traveling by car
Based on reviews from people who have repeatedly visited the monastery, a trip to the Diveyevo Monastery by personal vehicle is the most economical and convenient way to travel to the holy place. To get to the place from the regions of Central Russia it will take on average 7-8 hours.
Transfiguration Cathedral in Diveyevo Monastery
Motorists from Moscow need to move along Gorkovskoye Highway in the direction of Vladimir. At the junction in front of the city you need to turn towards Murom. Then the path continues through Murom, Ardatov and Mayevka. After about 270 km, travelers will arrive in Diveevo.
Advice! To get to the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery, without thinking about travel arrangements and accommodation problems, you can contact a travel agency. Many of them organize tourist and pilgrimage trips to the monastery.
Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery: photos and impressions of the visit
Village Diveevo
So, we arrived in Diveevo. The village itself, whose population is about 6.5 thousand people, seems to be all about pilgrims. Near the monastery there were traders, or rather, traders, selling what the pilgrim needed. Scarves and skirts are sold - in the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery this is strict, women must wear a skirt/dress and cover their heads.
Problem with parking near the monastery
There is parking near the monastery. However, to our disappointment, there was a sign there that there was no room. Considering that I was driving a huge Mitsubishi L-200, this was somewhat disappointing. However, as it turned out, there were still places - our friends, who were driving the second car, parked calmly. It turned out that there were no places only for those who came overnight. But seeing the sign, it somehow didn’t occur to me to ask whether there were parking spaces or not. Having driven several circles around Diveevo and not finding any free ones (it was Saturday of Easter week, so there were a lot of people), I ended up parking the car with local residents near the house, right opposite the monastery. All the fun is 100 rubles. True, they helped us turn around in a bottleneck.
How to obtain permission to take photographs?
Next we had to get permission to take photographs. I was sent to a pilgrimage center. There was a line to the open window. The second window was open, but there was no one near it. However, there sat a stern nun who did not bother to answer whether permission could be obtained. As a result, after standing in line, I received permission to take photographs, paying either 30 or 50 rubles. Along the way, it turned out that I could do the same thing on the territory of the monastery, where the requirements are filled out.
Bell tower
Building on the territory of the monastery
Cathedral of the Life-Giving Trinity and Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral in Diveevo
And here we are inside the monastery. In front of us are two huge cathedrals. The first, green, is the Cathedral of the Life-Giving Trinity , built between 1848 and 1875 by Ton’s student A.I. Rezanov, who also took part in the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. In the Trinity Cathedral there is a shrine with the relics of Seraphim of Sarov.
A little further is a beautiful white temple - the Transfiguration Cathedral . They began to build it even before the revolution, but did not have time to consecrate it. During the Soviet years it housed a shooting range, then a garage. It was completed in the 90s and consecrated on September 3, 1998. We were not able to see the Transfiguration Cathedral from the inside - it was closed for cleaning
