Description of the attraction
Cyril-Chelmogorsky Monastery is an abolished monastery. It is located southeast of the village of Morshchinskaya, Kargopol District, Arkhangelsk Region, between Lekshmozero and Monastyrskoye lakes. Now only ruins have survived from the monastery.
In 1316, Saint Cyril of Chelmogorsk, a monk of the Novgorod Anthony Monastery, permanently resided on Mount Chelma, which belongs to the Chud lands. He spent the first winter in a cave, later he built a wooden cell and a chapel. By the end of Saint Cyril's life, the entire local population was baptized. For the converts, the monk built a church in honor of the Epiphany. Saint Cyril died in December 1368. 10 years after his death, in 1378, Hieromonk Arseny founded the Cyril-Chelmogorsk Monastery.
In the 15th century, a new Epiphany Church with a side-altar in the name of the Great Martyr Catherine was erected. Ivan IV the Terrible gave the Kirillo-Chelmogorsk monastery arable land, fields for mowing, forests, lakes and small rivers and ordered to transfer part of the Kargopol income to the monastery. There are versions that one of the wives of Ivan the Terrible was sent to this monastery. In 1599, the wife of Dmitry Kurlyatev-Obolensky and his 2 daughters were forcibly tonsured here. In 1612-1615 the monastery was devastated by Lithuanians more than once. In 1633, Metropolitan Cyprian of Novgorod and Velikolutsk gives the Cyril-Chelmogorsk monastery a letter with a blessing for the construction of two churches: the Epiphany and the Mother of God. In 1637, the monastery received another letter with a blessing for the construction of the III church over the Holy Gates in the name of the Great Martyr Catherine. The church of St. Catherine is not mentioned in the chronicles after 1656, it probably burned down. In 1674, the Annunciation Church perished in a fire, and the Assumption Church was erected in its place. In addition, the monastery had its own courtyard in the city of Kargopol.
In 1727, the impoverished Cyril-Chelmogorsky monastery was attributed to the Spaso-Kargopol monastery. In 1732 the monastery became independent, but in 1751 it was again assigned to the Spaso-Kargopol monastery. In 1764, by order of Catherine II, the Kirillo-Chelmogorsk monastery was liquidated. Two monastery churches became parish churches. In 1844-1845, merchant Mikhail Nikolayevich Lytkin built a new Epiphany Cathedral with a side-altar in the name of St. Cyril of Chelmogorsk on the site of the old Epiphany Church. In 1845, the buildings of the former monastery were given to the Alexander-Oshevensky monastery.
In the 1880s, the Chelmogorsky monastery gained relative (but not officially confirmed) independence. In 1880 and 1887, it experienced fires. The Epiphany Church was rebuilt again in 1897-1899. In 1904, the Holy Synod granted independence to the monastery. In 1917, Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd blessed the construction of the Kirillo-Chelmogorsk Epiphany Hermitage in Petrograd. In June 1918, a chapel dedicated to the Holy Martyr Hermogen was consecrated here.
In 1932, after the arrest of the monks and clergy, the Kirillo-Chelmogorsk monastery was abolished forever, the wooden monastery buildings were dismantled, including the Assumption Church. At present, only ruins remain of the former monastery. In 2005, Bishop Tikhon of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogorsk consecrated a veneration cross in memory of St. Cyril of Chelmogorsk not far from the place where the monastery stood.
