Description of the attraction
Nikandrova Pustyn is located 40 km from the town of Porkhov, near Demyanka. The desert was formed by the Monk Nikandr. This man was born on July 24, 1507 in a peasant family, in the village of Videlebye, which is located in the Pskov region. At the age of 17, Nikon went to work for a merchant named Philip in the city of Pskov. After a while, he entered the Krypetsky Monastery as a novice. Soon Nikon was tonsured a monk with the name Nikandr. The desire for a hermit life and silence forced Nikandr to settle on an island located not far from the monastery, where he founded a hut for himself, but soon returned to his desert. Nikandr died in the fall of September 24, 1581, after which a certain deacon Peter decided to build a small church over the grave of the monk, thereby laying the foundation for the monastery.
In 1585, the layman Isaiah came to the grave of Nikandr - it was during his time in the person of the hegumen that the Church of the Annunciation of the Mother of God was built at the grave of the Monk Nikandr. Throughout 1652, with the blessing of Metropolitan Nikon, a wooden church was erected in honor of the Monk Nikandr. During the middle of the 17th century, wooden churches were built at the monastery in the name of the Monk Alexander of Svir and the Holy Trinity. In 1665, the Poles brutally plundered the monastery, and in the spring of 1667, due to a fire, all four churches, as well as all the monastery buildings, burned down. A new revival of the monastery began only under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
After Russia passed the 1917 revolution, the desert literally shared the fate of the largest number of monasteries. Production equipment, religious things, cattle, as well as monastery buildings were left to the monks for their "free" use, which gave the state the right to withdraw them at any time. On the basis of this decree, all the monastery property would have been exported at the beginning of the 20s of the 20th century to Petrograd and Leningrad, taking into account all the items made of silver at the end of the 18th century and even relics, the cypress cross and the shroud - the shrine of the monastery.
After the Great Patriotic War, the monastery disappeared, although the place that was previously called the Nikandrova Annunciation Hermitage still carries the status of a saint in the minds of Pskov residents.
A large number of pilgrims from all over Russia are attracted by the fact that on the territory of the desert there are two sacred stones, five keys and a holy oak - these objects have become symbols of divine veneration among the Finnish and Slavic peoples even in distant pagan times. One of the stones is called the "head". After the death of the Monk Nikandr, this stone was kept in the main monastery church on the porch and was especially venerated among monks, the local population and a large number of pilgrims. The stone called "God's Footprint" (an oval flat boulder with a small depression that clearly resembles the footprint of a human foot) has long been considered a saint, as they say that this footprint was left by the Mother of God.
Located in the desert, the oak was the object of medieval worship. It is believed that Nikander received pilgrims under this oak tree, displaying a prophetic gift. After a while, Nikander was buried under an oak tree. The oak has not survived to our time - most likely, it died during a terrible church fire.
In the Nikandrovaya desert, pilgrims must visit four holy springs, which are reservoirs of completely different sizes, which are enclosed in wooden log cabins. One of the keys is called the "tomb", which contains bluish water enriched with rhodon. The other two keys are dedicated to Paul and Peter and are located next to the “God's footprint” stone. The farthest key is located immediately behind the monastery cemetery, which has been completely destroyed today. This key is a pond of water that smells strongly of hydrogen sulfide, which is why it is covered with a yellowish foam.
Now, work continues on the revival of the Nikandrova Hermitage, the temples of the Icon of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost" and the Royal Passion-bearers are in operation, in 2011 the first service was held in the Cathedral of the Annunciation.
