Description of the attraction
Every year, many foreign merchants came to Veliky Novgorod for the purpose of trade, one of whom was a wealthy German of a young age. In Novgorod, he was amazed at the multitude of churches and monasteries. Impressed by the beauty of the temples and the majestic ringing of countless bells, the solemnity and splendor of the rituals, he decides to move away from the bustle of the world and devote himself entirely to God. The young merchant gives away all his fortune, he gives part of it to the poor, part of it donates for the construction of the temple in the Khutynsky monastery, he leaves absolutely nothing for himself. The young man converted to Orthodoxy in 1287 and was tonsured a monk under the name Procopius. With the blessing of the hegumen, he leaves the monastery to go in search of a remote and sparsely populated place where no one knows him. Procopius makes a long journey to Veliky Ustyug and takes upon himself the feat of foolishness, one of the most difficult Orthodox feats. The blessed one was endowed with the gift of clairvoyance and repeatedly with his prayers saved Ustyug from disasters and ruin. The veneration of the righteous began long before his canonization. In 1471, not far from the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God, a wooden church was built over the grave of Procopius by the Ustyug warriors for salvation from a general illness during the campaign. The temple was dedicated to the noble princes the passion-bearer Boris and Gleb, the great martyr George the Victorious, when it burned down, another temple was erected on this place, already dedicated to the righteous Procopius of Ustyug.
Procopius the Righteous was canonized by the Orthodox Church in 1547. The cathedral in Veliky Ustyug was named in his honor, since he is the heavenly patron of the city. Prokopyevsky Cathedral is the second cathedral located in Ustyug on the Cathedral Court. The wooden church, which was consecrated in honor of Procopius, has existed since 1495.
In stone design, with a porch and a bell tower, the five-domed building of the Prokopyevsky Cathedral was erected in 1668 with donations from the merchant Afanasy Guselnikov. The bell tower had 10 bells, the weight of the largest bell was 120 pounds. The church was built by the talented Ustyug master Pyotr Kotelnikov. In 1867, a side-altar was added to the south side of the temple, which was consecrated in honor of St. Tikhon the Voronezh bishop.
Over the course of more than three centuries, the temple was rebuilt many times. The final appearance of the Prokopyevsky Cathedral was determined by the end of the 19th century. The cathedral stands out for its compositional completeness. On top of it there are two zakomar lines, which were later painted. The covering is hipped. The drums, crowned with faceted heads, are fenced off by kokoshniks from the roof. The altar semicircles divide the semicircles.
The stunning five-tiered iconostasis carved with gilding, created at the beginning of the 18th century, is the decoration of the cathedral. It represents a whole collection of paintings by Ustyug authors of the 17th-18th centuries, has immeasurable artistic value, icons for it were usually ordered by the most eminent masters.
Of considerable interest are the temple icons of the Stroganov school of writing “The Mother of God and Procopius of Ustyug in Prayer” (16th – 17th centuries) and the icon “Procopius of Ustyug, the forthcoming Mother of God with the Child, with a Life in 24 hallmarks” (17th century). Refined color harmony of painting, graphically accurate lines of figures add special expressiveness to the images. The icon "Procopius of Ustyug, with a life in 40 hallmarks" (17th century) was presented as a gift by the founder of the Prokopyevsky Cathedral, Afanasy Guselnikov. To the smallest detail, the icon painter illustrated the life and miracles of Procopius the Righteous, full of suffering. Retaining the conventionality of the style, the author created a spiritual image of a saint with great inner persuasiveness.
In the 80s-90s of the XX century, the iconostasis was restored, at the same time the wall paintings were recreated. Today, services are regularly held in the church, and it has been transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church and the historical, architectural and art museum to the reserve.
