Description of the attraction
The cathedral church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos is built right above the grave of the Monk Saint Nikandr, who was the first abbot of the Nikandrovskoe Hermitage. The church was erected with the active work of Hegumen Isaiah with the blessing of the Novgorod Metropolitan Alexander at the end of the 16th century.
In 1673, the Church of the Annunciation and other monastery buildings burned down, and a new Church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos was erected on the site of the previously existing church, only this time from stone. In 1807, under the rector-Archimandrite Samuel, the church was significantly expanded, thanks to the following additions: a porch, an altar, two side-altars: the first was consecrated in the name of the Monk Nikandr, and the second - in the name of the two Holy Apostles Paul and Peter; above the porch itself, a chamber was built to store the sacred monastery sacristy.
In the church vestry of the Annunciation Church, a wide variety and numerous objects were kept at one time, which, first of all, include multiple vestments and garments of crimson velvet, which were donated by the Emperor Pavel Petrovich himself. Among other things, a large number of various utensils and other vestments were kept in the sacristy, which include 125 priestly vestments, most of them made of precious brocade, 94 apitrachilios, 80 podrizniks, 7 most valuable covers intended for the tomb of the Monk Nikandr, 11 made of silver altar crosses, decorated with gilding, 18 small and large altar gospels, of which the largest number was kept under solid gold with a silver setting, as well as a huge amount of silver dishes, carved lamps and many other precious objects and things. An important feature and attraction of the monastery at one time was the Gospel, which was printed in the winter of December 7, 1698, weighing 1 pood and 15 pounds. On one of the walls of the sacristy hung a portrait of Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev, engraved on a spacious board made of copper, who donated 33 thousand rubles for the arrangement of the silver shrine of St. Nikandr.
The main and revered shrine of the monastery's church was the relics of the holy Reverend Nikandr, which were laid to rest in the southern wall of the Annunciation Church during the period of their examination, namely in 1687. The chased, made of silver with enameled edges of the crab, located directly above the coffin of the Monk Nikandr, was built in 1792 with the active work of Sheremetev. Some of the relics were kept in a special silver and gilded, as well as a tomb-shaped reliquary, which was transferred to the throne of the church in which the process of worship took place. All traces of the crayfish are lost.
In the Church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos there was an ancient and especially revered image of the holy Reverend Nikandr in a silver robe gilded by means of fire, which became an example of chased work weighing 19 pounds, as well as a pair of icon cases, in which were placed holy crosses and icons with particles of the Holy Lord's Robe. The Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the belt and Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos, as well as 130 pieces of the relics of various God's Holy Pleasures. This kind of shrines disappeared after the cloister was closed in 1928.
The Cathedral Church of the Annunciation was completely turned into a heap of unnecessary construction waste. Throughout the 1960s, on these ruins, above the very place where the saint's shrine was located, the symbolic tomb of St. Nikandros, which was built by the God-lovers, found its place. In 2001-2007, work was carried out regarding the dismantling of the rubble. In a solemn atmosphere in 2007, Metropolitan Eusebius of Velikie Luki and Pskov, as well as Abbot Spiridon - the governors of the desert - laid the first cornerstone in the foundation of the new cathedral. On October 7, 2011, the first church service was held, which coincided with the commemoration day of the Monk Nikandr.
