Saint Anna Kashinskaya is revered by Orthodox people as the patroness of families and children, an assistant in ending all family troubles. A hundred years ago, in 1909, in St. Petersburg on Sampsonievsky Prospekt, a church in the name of Anna Kashinskaya was consecrated. The church is still in operation.
Princess Anna
Today the city of Kashin is a regional center in the Tver region. And in the XIV century, on the banks of the Kashinka River, there was a small lot of Prince Constantine. Nun Anna moved here to her son. Her other son, Vaoiliy, built a monastery here for his mother.
Anna Kashinskaya was born around 1278. She was the daughter of the Rostov prince Dmitry Borisovich. She was brought up in the Orthodox faith. She was surrounded by people who were not spiteful, peacefully inclined, and pious.
In 1294, Anna was married to the Prince of Tver Mikhail Yaroslavovich. The times were hard then - the Mongol-Tatar yoke. Russian princes from time to time visited the Golden Horde to obtain a label for the principality. The khan also called them for other reasons.
Once the ruler of the Horde, Uzbek, ordered Mikhail Tverskoy to appear to him. The point was that Yaroslavich was slandered. To all the troubles, the Russian princes also did not get along with each other, they tried to trip each other up. True, the Tver prince did not differ in this. He was generally alien to any intrigue, so with a clear conscience he went to Khan Uzbek, although he was discouraged. But how not to go - they would have ruined the entire Tver land. And in the Golden Horde, the prince was martyred. Subsequently, Mikhail of Tverskoy was canonized.
Then Princess Anna lost her two sons in the Horde. After that, she took tonsure and moved to Kashin. The residents of the city revered her during her lifetime for wisdom, piety, for generous beneficence to the poor. Anna Kashinskaya died in 1368. They buried her in the Cathedral of the Assumption Monastery.
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The vision of the sexton Gerasim
Over time, the place of Anna's burial was forgotten. But the residents of Kashin felt that someone was protecting them from harm. During the Time of Troubles, Poles and Lithuanians ravaged more than one Russian city. They repeatedly approached Kashin. And each time they retreated without harming the city.
And in 1611, the seriously ill sexton of the Assumption Cathedral, Gerasim, had a vision in a dream: a nun appeared and called herself Anna. She promised Gerasim healing, but at the same time she reproached the residents of the city for forgetting about her: “My people’s coffin is not imputed to anything, you consider it ordinary and you despise me. People put their hats on my coffin, sit on it. And how long will you trample me under your feet? Don't you know that I pray to God for you and save you from many evils and misfortunes?"
Few believed the sexton's dream, but Gerasim really recovered. And after a while the floor in the temple rotted, the floorboards fell through, and a stone coffin was opened. After that, the people poured into the cathedral and began to pray earnestly. Numerous healings took place near the tomb of the princess. Before Anna's canonization, 41 miracles were recorded. After the incident, the wife of Mikhail Tverskoy was numbered among the Saints.
Unique case
In 1678, Saint Anne found herself in disgrace. By the decision of the cathedral, her veneration was canceled. It was forbidden to devote prayers to her, but only to sing requiems. It was also forbidden to paint icons of the disgraced Saint. The reason for this decision was in the following case: when opening the relics (they were incorruptible), they found that Anna Kashinskaya's right hand was folded for the sign of the cross with two fingers. And at that time there was a struggle against the schism, constantly arguing about how to be baptized correctly - with two or three fingers. Saint Anna Kashinskaya became the banner of the Old Believers. Therefore, the church ministers of the new wave went to excommunicate the princess from the face of the Saints. This is the only case in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Anna Kashinskaya stayed in disgrace near the church until 1909. However, the common people continued to venerate the Holy One. In difficult times, not fearing publicity, the inhabitants of Kashin went to her relics. There is even a known case that happened in 1864. The merchant Yermolai Fleshcheev suffered from epilepsy. Somehow another seizure happened: Ermolai fell, hitting the cupboard, from which an ancient icon of the Blessed Princess Anna fell. The image covered the patient's face. The seizure immediately stopped, and in general Fleshcheev did not have more seizures!
The people of Kashin constantly worked to restore the veneration of St. Anna. But only in 1909 the request of the residents of Kashin was granted. The princess was again canonized. And in St. Petersburg a church was erected in her honor.
Temple of Anna Kashinskaya
The Vyborg side in St. Petersburg has always been predominantly a factory district. At the beginning of the 19th century, there were clearly not enough Orthodox churches here, so people were drawn to the Pashkovites sect. The doctrine of the sect was of a Protestant nature, that is, icons, candles, church sacraments, and clergy were not recognized. The sect was organized after a visit to the city by the English preacher Lord Redstock. His views were picked up by retired Colonel Pashkov.
Petersburg clergy were very worried about the influence of the Pashkovites on the local flock. Therefore, they decided to build an Orthodox church on Sampsonievsky Avenue. This plot of land was donated to the Kashin convent by the honorary citizen of St. Petersburg, a native of Kashin, Philip Pavlovich Kruchinin. And on the Vyborg side began to build a church and a courtyard of the Kashinsky monastery. The solemn consecration of the temple took place in December 1909. It should be noted that the last Russian tsar did a lot to restore the veneration of Anna Kashinskaya.
The destruction and restoration of the church
1917 brought ruin to the church of Anna Kashinskaya. Almost all the property of the courtyard was nationalized. But the temple still continued to operate. And the premises of the courtyard became a refuge for many nuns from different monasteries, since in 1925 the Soviet government issued a special order to close the monasteries in the USSR. However, despite all the persecution, the believers continued to apply for admission to the community of the courtyard. But it was 1930, and the Stalinist system had already come into force. And the repression was not long in coming. The first to be arrested was nun Valeria (Bukvareva), 52 years old. She was illiterate, came from the peasants of the Tver province. She was tonsured at the age of 20. When questioned about her political convictions during interrogation, she simply replied: "I believe in God."
August 17, 1932 is called Good Friday of Russian monasticism. Then most of the monastics were arrested throughout Russia. Brothers and sisters were brought to the Leningrad Big House on Liteiny from all the nearest farmsteads and monasteries, including 18 nuns of the Kashinsky farmstead. Even 87-year-old Anastasia (Lebedeva) was arrested. After some time, the investigator reported: "It is not possible to remove the detailed interrogation from citizen Lebedeva, because she is almost deaf." However, she was not released. 15 nuns of the courtyard were sentenced to exile in Kazakhstan for 3 years. The three were given 3 years in concentration camps for keeping books by "the Black Hundreds of Nilus, Dmitry Rostovsky and others." In 1932, the church was closed. But the building was not demolished. At first, there was the workshop of the sculptor Tomsky, later - the sculptural workshop of the arts and crafts combine.
The temple of the church was returned in 1994. It was in disrepair: without domes and crosses, with broken glass, without electricity, with out of order engineering systems, with a flooded lower church. All this has been restored to date. Services are held here regularly, and the parish is growing.
Source: Secrets of the XX century, No. 4, February 2010, Mikhail ERSHOV