Description of the attraction
The famous Cave is a kind of rural shrine, which is precisely what the locals call it. The cave is located in the northeastern part of Peipsi, a couple of kilometers from the coast of Lake Peipsi. The cave belongs to the village of Trutnevo, which began its history in the 1930s, while a central collective farm estate was created on the site of a previously existing manor. The revered and most significant holiday of the village has become the so-called Sixth Friday, or Friday, which occurs in the sixth week after the great holiday of Easter. On this day, numerous pilgrims came to the shrine, even from the most remote villages.
On the feast of the Sixth Friday, a procession of the cross followed from the Peter and Paul Church, located in the village of Kunes, to the Cave, and it was to this church that the territory at the disposal of which the parish itself was located. At what time this tradition appeared is difficult to say, because not a single written evidence has been found. Judging by the recollections of the villagers, it can be assumed that the processions of the cross took place until the 1950s, when in the 1930s the congregation lost their priest, who moved across the lake to Estonia. Religious processions were conducted under the leadership of a resident named Kunesti, who previously sang "on the wing". The largest number of people participated in religious processions during the Great Patriotic War.
As mentioned, a huge number of pilgrims flocked to the local lands during the holiday. Most likely, the biggest shock for the pilgrims was the test in the Trutnevo tract. The following story tells about this: the family of the landowner Trutnev once lived in these places, whose representatives decided to build a mill. Its construction began in the afternoon, and the next day the mill was completely destroyed. Then one of the Trutnev family decided to spy on who was destroying the staircase being built, and decided to stay overnight in the tract. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, a picture opens up in front of him: the Mother of God descends from heaven and, touching a stone, rises again to heaven. Then the builder realized that it was impossible to build a mill in this place, that this tract belongs to the Mother of God, that the power in these places is Divine. It is these “divine” sensations, according to many people, that arise when they go down to the stream. Until now, a trace of the foot of the Mother of God has remained on the stone.
During the reign of Soviet power, unsuccessful attempts were made to roll the stone away from the stream or turn it over, but nothing came of it, only terrible diseases overtook those who tried to fight this stone. In addition, the incredible miracles of healing from a stone on which there is a trace of the Mother of God are well known, therefore, every Sixth Friday, a procession is held. For healing, you need to pour water from a stream, and fill it with the Footprint of the Mother of God, and then wash with water from this footprint, drink water and pray.
At the moment, the veneration of the Cave takes place with the active work of the priest who served at the churches in the villages of Kunest and Vetvennik. Since the mid-1990s, he has regularly organized crusades to this revered site during the Sixth Friday, and also holds prayers on other holidays, while supporting the initiative of organized pilgrimage trips. Buses with pilgrims from Slantsy and Gdov, sometimes from the city of Pskov, as well as from St. Petersburg, go to the famous Cave.
The topography of this place is a fairly typical place with water and stone for this kind of shrines located in the North-Western part of our country, only in this case there is also a cave, into which, according to legend, the Mother of God disappeared when she stepped on the stone.
The cave itself has many inscriptions that were made by pilgrims who came here. It is in this shrine that they still continue to walk according to the covenant. Pilgrims throw coins into a small depression of the stone with a trace, and the water gushing from the source is considered healing, which attracts an increasing number of people here.
