Ancient church legends say that during the bloody persecutions of Christians in the Roman Empire, many adherents of the new faith scattered around the world in search of refuge. Once, several of these exiles, having reached the Don lands, decided to settle here - these places were very much reminiscent of the landscapes of holy Palestine. Soon the first Christian churches were built in the caves of the local chalk mountains, which sheltered settlers from the raids of nomads. The legend says that centuries later on this fertile place was founded the Kostomarovsky Holy Savior Convent, which is now one of the most significant shrines of the Voronezh region.
Cradle of Russian Orthodoxy
The conclusion that the cave temples of the Kostomarovsky Monastery were founded at the dawn of Christianity came from the amateur archaeologist D. M. Strukov, discovering that their structure coincides with surprising accuracy with the underground structures in Cappadocia, which for a long time served as a refuge for the first adherents of Jesus Christ. However, the official science claims that the Don caves began to be "settled" in the VIII-X centuries, when during the time of iconoclasm many monks and priests, dissatisfied with the policy of the monarchs, fled here from the Byzantine Empire in search of shelter. Thanks to their labors, entrances to cave temples and cells appeared in the foundations of the chalk Divas (outlier pillars), and from here the Christian faith began to spread throughout the Russian land. But after several centuries, due to the constant raids of nomads, the Don lands fell into desolation,and anew the oldest monastery was revived in the 17th century, when fugitive Little Russians settled here, who did not recognize the union.
Surprisingly, the Kostomarovsky Spassky monastery became widely known to the Russian believers only at the end of the 18th century. By that time, it was considered the skete of the Belgorod Monastery, and in its strict, tiny, damp underground cells, hermit monks performed their spiritual feat.
Underground shrines
Today, the Kostomarovskaya monastery is a women's monastery, and it is also often called the center of Russian Palestine. The monastery received such a nickname because from time immemorial the places adjacent to it bear ancient biblical names - Tabor, Kidron, Gethsemane, and there even has its own Calvary with a worshiping cross. However, the most interesting and mysterious shrines of the monastery are hidden underground, where truly magnificent structures have been built over the centuries.
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The main temple of the Kostomarovskaya monastery is the Cathedral of the Savior Not Made by Hands, located in an ancient cave. The entrance to it is at the foot of two chalk pillars connected by an old belfry. It is hard to believe, but the spacious side-chapel of this church, the vault of which rests on 12 tall chalk columns, can accommodate two thousand people at a time. It would seem why a small monastery needs such a spacious room? It turns out that history itself "ordered the tune" here. Several centuries ago, the temple was a fortified outpost in case of an unexpected raid. The entrance to it was reliably fortified, there was also a well and a secret passage leading outside.
Now, services in the Savior Church are held only in the warm season, except for the holidays of Christmas and Epiphany, in winter, services are held in the new ground-based Church of the Most Holy Theotokos, the construction of which was completed at the end of the last century.
The second side-altar of the temple, dedicated to Vera, Nadezhda, Lyubov and their mother Sophia, has more "modest" dimensions. It is known that the hermit monks themselves built it and the work on the arrangement of this part of the cathedral did not stop even in Soviet times.
I must say that the appearance of the monastery's underground temples is changing today. Thus, the Church of Seraphim of Sarov, founded at the beginning of the XX century, was completed several decades ago. They say that after the consecration of the temple in 2005, Father Seraphim appeared here to the sisters of the monastery more than once, as if indicating that he liked the new shrine dedicated to him.
It should be noted that the walls of each underground church are decorated with unique icons carved directly into the chalk rock. Moreover, many new images have been made today.
The executed Virgin
The main shrine of the monastery is also kept in the Savior Church - the icon of the Valaam Mother of God, a gift from Emperor Alexander I. Tradition says that, while in the Kostomarovsky monastery, the sovereign drew attention to the humidity of the underground churches, and therefore, returning to St. Petersburg, he asked for a supplier of icons for the imperial court V. V. Shokarev to write a special image - on metal. The monks treasured and were very proud of this gift, but in the era of militant atheism, everything changed. At the first attempt to close the monastery in 1922, one of the commissars, in a fit of anger, fired six bullets into the image. The Vandal aimed at the faces of the Mother of God and the Child, but miraculously, none of the shots reached the target. Later, the icon, hidden in one of the caves of the monastery, went through troubled times, and after the opening of the monastery in 1993 it was again transferred to the Church of the Savior.
In 2001, the icon showed its first miracle to the nuns and parishioners - a few drops of blood appeared on it, after which the image was covered with glass so that it would be more convenient for believers to apply to it. Today, the monastic chronicle lists many miracles created by this icon, in addition, they say that it can give signs of the future. So, if a sincerely believing person prays to the image and turns to him with a request, he should carefully look at the faces of the Mother of God and her Son. Affectionate and kind smiles on their lips promise a favorable outcome of the case, and if the Mother of God suddenly “frowns”, then the person asking should abandon his idea.
Let me go, father, sins …
In addition to churches, there are several more almost legendary structures in the dungeons of the monastery. One of these is the Cave of Repentance, which was known throughout Russia a hundred years ago. This structure is a long, low underground corridor 220 meters long. He leads to a small cell, and, approaching it, it becomes noticeable that the vault of the corridor is dropping lower and lower. The fact is that before 1917 sinners from all over the country came to the Cave of Repentance to relieve their souls. Passing to confession to the old man-recluse, visitors walked with their heads bowed, and crossed the threshold of his cell, bending over in a deep bow. It was believed that repentance in the Kostomarov monastery saved a person from the most terrible sins, and for this, even noble gentlemen steadfastly endured the severe penance imposed on them,which most often consisted of hard physical work at the temple.
Some of the monks who accepted confession lived in the so-called cloisters - tiny underground cells, of which only three survived in the monastery. Today it is difficult to believe that the hermits almost never left their place of "asceticism." They received food through small windows on the doors of the cells, where believers and pilgrims submitted notes with requests to pray for themselves and their loved ones. It must be said that in the vicinity of the Kostomarovskaya monastery there are still rumors that the most staunch schemas in the faith did not leave the monastery after it was closed in Soviet times. Knowing that they could be shot for insubordination to the new authorities, the hermits took refuge from the persecutors in distant caves unknown by idle people, where they carried their spiritual exploits until their death. This is confirmed by the stories of the inhabitants of the village of Kostomarovo,who in the 50-60s of the last century several times at night saw the figures of monks in robes and pointed caps wandering near the monastery.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №46, Elena Muromtseva