Description of the attraction
Makaryevskaya desert is located 16 kilometers from the village of Morshchinskaya, Kargopolsky district, Arkhangelsk region, on the shore of Lake Hergozero. Makaryevskaya Hergozerskaya hermitage was formed in 1640 by 2 monks of the Alexander-Oshevensky monastery, Sergius and Longin, in honor of the Monk Makarii Zheltovodsky and Unzhensky. He was a famous church leader of the 17th century, the founder of a monastery in the town of Makaryevo on the banks of the Unzha River in the Nizhny Novgorod province. Monk Sergius in Novgorod from Metropolitan Aphonius received a charter for the construction of the Church of the Holy Trinity. Thus, the history of the Makaryevsky monastery began in honor of one of the most revered saints of the Kargopol region. After 17 years, the wooden Trinity Church was damaged by fire. In 1658, a new Trinity Church and another wooden church of the Presentation of the Most Holy Theotokos were built. Two years later, the III temple arose - in the name of the Three Saints of Moscow. Soon the monastery, even with the organizers, was filled with brethren and began to conduct economic work.
The monastery kept the miraculous icon of Macarius Zheltovodsky and Unzhensky, revered in Kargopol, about whose miracles a work was written. At the beginning of the 20th century, the icon was kept in the Vvedensky church of the Hergozersk parish, and in 1910 it was described in detail by the priest of this parish A. Kipreev. The icon was about 98 centimeters long and about 72 centimeters wide. The face of the saint, depicted in the middle of the icon, was removed. Along the edges of the icon 11 hallmarks were depicted: from the birth of the saint to his repose. In the middle of the icon is the Monk Macarius praying for people in the church. Where the icon is now is unknown. But other icons with the image of the saint have survived (the second half of the 18th - 19th centuries).
The miraculous icon, even after the closure of the monastery, attracted many pilgrims to Makarya (this was the name of this place). Every year on July 24-25 (old style), on the feast of Macarius, many people came here. From Kargopol, a procession was organized, which went to the Chelmogorsk monastery, then to the church in Trufanovo and turned onto the Trufanovskaya road in Makarya. People also traveled here from Oshevensk (30 kilometers away), where the Alexander-Oshevensky monastery, the largest in the Kargopol region, was located. The Khergozersky, Chelmogorsky and Oshevensky monasteries, connected by paths along which the pilgrims walked, were regarded as centers of one sacred space. Therefore, on some Kargopol icons you can see Macarius Zheltovodsky, Kirill Chelmogorsky and Alexander Oshevensky depicted together.
In 1764, the monastery was abolished, and its churches became part of the Hergozersky parish. Also included in the parish were the villages Fedorovskaya, Okatovskaya and Turovo Seltso, which now make up the village of Porzhenskoye, and the villages of Hernovo, Kurmino and Navolok (now called Ozhegovo, Dumino and Olsievskaya). And the Church of St. George the Victorious (1782) in the village of Fedorovskaya (now Porzhensky churchyard) was transferred to the Hergozersky parish.
Thanks to the rumor about the miracles of St. First, the Vvedensky temple was changed. In 1786-1790, a 5-domed stone church with the Nikolsky side-altar was built.
In 1857, the wooden Trinity Church, along with all the utensils, books and icons, burned down. In 1868, a new Trinity Church was erected with 3 thrones: Trinity, Makarievsky and Borisoglebsky. A stone bell tower stood along the axis of the Trinity Church. The parish was closed in the 30s of the XX century. As early as 1958, the Vvedensky and Trinity churches were preserved.
Currently, on the peninsula, where the monastery was located, the five-domed Trinity Church has been preserved, which in 2004 was measured by restorers for later preservation. On the site of the surviving village N. Ya. Ushakov (the great-grandson of the last priest of the monastery) installed a vowed cross from the beam of the collapsed parental house.
In 2008, restoration work began on the territory of the monastery. In 2009, between Kenozersky Park and the parish of the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist in the city of Kargopol, an agreement was concluded on the joint maintenance and use of the lands of the Makaryevskaya Hergozerskaya Hermitage, on the revival of the traditions of Orthodoxy.
