Temple of Maron the Hermit (Annunciation) in Starye Panekh

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55.730831; 37.607574

Russia, Moscow, Central Administrative District, Yakimanka district

Moscow

Russia

Telephone:

8(499)238-0898

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Temple of St. Maron the Hermit (Annunciation) in Starye Panekh

- a parish church of the Moscow city diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, located in the Yakimanka district of Moscow. It is famous for the fact that the first parochial school in Moscow was opened here in 1885.

History[edit]

The first mention of the temple was found in 1642 during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich under Patriarch Joseph, it was known as the Church of the Annunciation “in Babii Gorodok.”

On June 12, 1730, by decree of Empress Anna Ioannovna, it was ordered to build a warm stone Church of the Annunciation with a Maron chapel. In pursuance of the “Highest Decree,” a stone double-altar church with a bell tower was erected during 1731–1747. During the Patriotic War of 1812, the temple was badly damaged, it was desecrated, and for some time no services were held in the temple.

In 1831, at the expense of the Lepeshkin merchants, the temple was restored and a new double-altar refectory was built.

The complete consecration of the temple was performed on October 29, 1844 by Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret (Drozdov).

The temple had one of the best selection of bells in Moscow, which were rung by the famous Moscow bell ringer Konstantin Saradzhev. Many Moscow musicians gathered to listen to its ringing.

In 1930, the temple was closed. By the 1990s, the church building was dilapidated and the fence was broken. Gates for cars were broken into the wall of the temple, and pipes were attached. Car repair shops were located inside. The domes were destroyed, there was no heating and no window frames. The quadrangle was divided into four floors.

In this condition, in 1992 the temple was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Since 1993, restoration work has been actively carried out in the temple under the leadership of the rector, Father Alexander Marchenkov.

In 2001, the temple won the Moscow competition for the best results in the restoration and reconstruction of architectural monuments.

Temple of St. Maron the Hermit on Babii Gorodok

In Babiy Gorodok

The name of the area where the Maronovsky temple was built, according to legend, appeared at the end of the 14th century - during the reign of Dmitry Donskoy.
As if in 1382, during the invasion of Khan Tokhtamysh, several hundred women wanted to hide from the enemy within the walls of the Kremlin. But the Kremlin was overcrowded with people, and then the women built a small wooden fortification on the other side of the Moscow River, opposite the Kremlin, and held a siege there for several days. According to another version of the legend, the enemy simply did not notice them. Tokhtamysh occupied and ruined the Kremlin by deception, putting to death almost everyone who was in it, and the women in Zamoskvorechye escaped. Since then, the name “Baby Town” seems to have remained behind the area where the temporary fortress stood. Scientists explain the origin of the name differently: the low Zarechensky bank was fortified, that is, fenced,

in the old days, piles that were driven deep into the ground with hammers made of wood or cast iron -
babami
. In the old days, the Crimean Courtyard, the embassy of the Crimean Khan, was located here. This is where the nickname of the church came from - “that at the Crimean courtyard, in the Inozemnaya Sloboda.”

The reliable history of this area begins in the 17th century. After the Time of Troubles and the victory over the interventionists in 1612, captive Poles settled in a settlement near Babii Gorodok. Hence another name for the area - Panskaya Sloboda, nicknamed by Muscovites “Old Gentlemen”. Its inhabitants obeyed Russian laws; many converted to Orthodoxy in order to stay in Russia and have the opportunity to start a family and business. For those who accepted Orthodoxy, as well as for the Russian inhabitants of the settlement, a parish wooden church was built in honor of the Annunciation: it appeared around 1640, during the reign of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. Its parish was small and poor, so in 1682, by decree of Patriarch Joachim, they did not even take the usual tax from this church “for its poverty and sorrow.” The temple building was dilapidated, and the parishioners could not renovate it.

Nevertheless, in 1727, a wooden chapel was added to the Annunciation Church in the name of St. Maron of Syria. Scientists believe that this happened because by that time in the Annunciation Church there already existed a revered image of the Monk Maron, to whom people flocked for healing, because this saint was especially famous for helping with such common diseases as fever, fever, and colds with a high temperature. And Moscow, which was constantly visited by various epidemics, was in great need of such a temple where one could offer prayer to the miracle worker-healer. There were so many pilgrims that they decided to build a separate chapel. However, the church itself was still dilapidated, so that in rainy weather water dripped through the leaky roof onto the altar and onto the heads of the pilgrims. And in 1730, abbot Sergius Anisiforov decided to turn to Empress Anna Ioannovna herself for help. He submitted a petition to her to build a stone church, because “due to the cowardice of the parishioners and the meager church income, there is nothing to build this church with.”

Anna Ioannovna responded to this request and on June 12, 1730, ordered the construction of a stone church with a bell tower in place of the wooden one. It was erected slightly to the south of the previous one and built like a “ship” - a temple, a refectory and a bell tower on the same axis, which has been traditional for temple construction since the era of Peter the Great. The dedications of its two altars have been preserved: the main temple was consecrated in honor of the Annunciation, the southern warm chapel - in the name of St. Maron, but the temple became better known in Moscow by its chapel. In his parish there were a little more than a dozen houses, but the temple itself was always full of pilgrims from among Muscovites and especially rural residents who came to pray to the Monk Maron, stood for services and prayer services, sometimes spending nights near the church. The temple existed on their alms. The son of his priest Theodore Avramov even studied at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy.

The fire of 1812 swept through Zamoskvorechye. The temple was robbed and desecrated by Napoleonic soldiers, but did not burn down, although all the wooden buildings around it burned to the ground. The Patriotic War halved his arrival. And although the Maronovsky chapel was consecrated at the end of 1812, the next year a resolution was issued by Bishop Augustine, according to which the temple, “as of little significance,” along with all its property was assigned to the neighboring Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Golutvin. The clergy of the Maronovsky temple tried to maintain its independence and their parish, but even the peasants almost stopped coming to this temple, since it was locked on holidays. For five years the temple was virtually closed, until its new life began in 1818.

A temple was erected

In 1818, a petition was received in the name of Bishop Augustine, which indicated that the church was “now corrected,” decorated, “the furnishings were satisfied,” and was completely ready for independent worship. It was restored at the expense of the eminent Moscow merchants Lepeshkins, who from then on for more than 80 years, until 1902, became its hereditary elders.

The Lepeshkins were originally from Kashira merchants. They began their business immediately after the Patriotic War of 1812, when Moscow was being rebuilt after a fire: the founder of the dynasty, Longin Kuzmich, entered the Moscow merchant class with his two sons, Vasily and Semyon, in 1813. The eldest, Vasily Longinovich, became a merchant of the 1st guild, a manufacturing adviser and a hereditary honorary citizen, and built a chemical plant in Moscow on Mytnaya Street. Semyon Longinovich became a famous textile king, the builder of the Zamoskvorechsky Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Vishnyaki (now the temple of the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Theological Institute). He corresponded with Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, and Elder Zosima (Verkhovsky), the founder of the women's Trinity-Hodegetri Zosima Hermitage. By the way, the grandson of Semyon Longinovich, Semyon Vasilyevich, at the beginning of the twentieth century headed the Varvara Society of Homeowners, which built the famous apartment building on Solyanka and the National Hotel. And a little earlier, in 1887, he set up at his own expense the first dormitory in Moscow for students of Moscow University in Filippovsky Lane.

From their very first steps in Moscow, Longin Kuzmich Lepeshkin and his son Vasily became stronger in the field of charity. Having become parishioners of the Maronovsky temple, since they owned several houses on Yakimanka, they quickly brought it back to life. Its first headman from the Lepeshkin family was Longin Kuzmich himself, and in 1828 his son Vasily accepted this position. He bought a two-story house next to the temple, and on the first floor he set up a women's almshouse, and rented out the second floor: the proceeds went to the needs of the clergy and to the maintenance of the temple.

In 1831, Vasily Longinovich turned to Metropolitan Philaret with a request to allow him to build the third, northern, chapel of the church at his own expense - in honor of the Nativity of John the Baptist. Permission was obtained: Saint Philaret was very fond of the Maron temple and was especially favorably disposed towards the Lepeshkins. At the same time, the temple was renovated and given empire forms. In October 1844, Metropolitan Philaret consecrated it. The main shrine of the Maron Church was the miraculous image of the Monk Maron. A silver cross with particles of his holy relics was also kept here. The temple image of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a silver gilded robe was also venerated.

Later, the temple was renovated more than once. In 1881, under the elder Nikolai Vasilyevich Lepeshkin, elements of the Russian style appeared in the appearance of the church. This restoration was the last in pre-revolutionary times. It was then, according to researchers, that the famous bell tower of the Maron Temple was built: it was famous for its unique acoustics and amazing selection of bells. The Maronovskaya bell tower was considered the best in Moscow, and its bells, according to the brilliant bell ringer Konstantin Saradzhev, represented “complete harmony.”

Headman Nikolai Vasilyevich Lepeshkin died in 1882, and the position was inherited by his son Vasily Nikolaevich. Just three years later, his daughter Alexandra Vasilievna was born, who from an early age became a parishioner of the Maronovsky Church, for she spent her childhood in the family house on Yakimanka. She graduated from the Usachevsky School and received an excellent education. A beautiful, rich, intelligent girl could have found a very good match for herself, but she preferred serving the Lord to life in the world. In 1902, Alexandra Lepeshkina entered a monastery, because she felt deep faith in the Lord and, in her words, was ready to “lay down her life for God and Christ.” They took monastic vows in the same Zosima Hermitage, which had been under the care of the Lepeshkins since 1833. She became the last abbess of the monastery: in 1920 she was tonsured into the mantle with the name Athanasius and elected abbess, she was only 35 years old. By that time, the monastery had been turned into an agricultural artel; eight years later it was completely closed, and Abbess Afanasia was arrested in 1931 on charges of anti-Soviet activities and agitation against collectivization and the closure of rural churches. She was sentenced to exile in Kazakhstan, where she died on the second day after arrival. In 2000, Abbess Athanasia was glorified as a new martyr.

“Whoever handles a book carelessly is an ignoramus”

The Maronovsky Church was also famous for the fact that in 1885 the first parochial school in Moscow was opened under it.

Emperor Alexander III signed a decree on the opening of such schools in June 1884 at the suggestion of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, K.P. Pobedonostseva. And although the “progressive community” called these schools “a breeding ground for obscurantism and obscurantism,” the schools undoubtedly became a positive phenomenon, since they provided primary education to the poor and people from the common people. Church-parochial schools educated in pious Orthodox traditions, opposing the spreading atheistic and anti-state teachings that were increasingly captivating young people. In principle, these schools were not something completely new. After all, the Church stood at the origins of national education. Even at the Council of the Stoglavy in 1551, it was established that the local clergy should elect priests and deacons capable of teaching literacy, and open schools in their homes where they would send children and teach them the fear of God. The spiritual regulations of Peter the Great's time prescribed the creation of schools at bishops' houses and monasteries. Under Emperor Alexander I, parish schools were created in 1804, where the clergy taught peasant children. And Nicholas I ordered the creation of primary schools at churches and monasteries. In the liberal era, they were criticized for giving the common people exclusively religious education, and even then only the very basics.

After the tragedy of 1881 - the assassination of Emperor Alexander the Liberator - and the general “going to the people” of revolutionaries, Alexander III considered it necessary to return the Church to its position in the education of the people. This is how parochial schools were created. According to Pobedonostsev, they had to raise children from the common people in their own environment, without separating them from their natural work. He wrote about this to Alexander III: “In order to save and raise the people, it is necessary to give them a school that would enlighten and educate them in the true spirit, in simplicity of thought, without separating them from the environment where their life and activities take place.” This is how millions of people got the opportunity to learn to read and write.

In 1884, the emperor, approving the Rules on parochial schools, imposed a resolution: “I hope that the parish clergy will be worthy of the high calling in this important matter.” The first paragraph of the Rules read: “These schools have the goal of establishing among the people the Orthodox teaching of Christian faith and morality and imparting initial useful knowledge.” Below this task was revealed more fully: “Parochial schools, inseparably from the Church, must instill in children a love for the Church and worship, so that attending church and participating in worship becomes a skill and a need in the hearts of the students.” In our time, one can only regret the lack of such education.

Schools were divided into one-class with two years of study and two-class with four. Academic disciplines consisted of the Law of God (which included the study of prayers, sacred history, explanation of worship and a short catechism), church singing, reading the Church Slavonic press, teaching writing and basic arithmetic. The basics of the history of the Church and Russia were still taught in two-year schools. At the same time, there could be additional lessons for adults, craft departments and handicraft classes, and Sunday schools. The formation of Orthodox consciousness and rooting in traditions was the main task of such schools.

Teachers' and students' libraries were created at schools. Students were required to be especially careful with books, reminding them: “Whoever handles a book carelessly is an ignoramus.”

Education was entrusted to the clergy of the temple, at which the school was created, sometimes with the involvement of teachers from the ecclesiastical department or from secular persons with the title of teacher of an elementary public school. Schools were opened with funds from the parish, sometimes with benefits from various trustee societies or from the treasury. Of course, not all parish schools taught at the proper level. But the priests and elders of the Maron Temple managed not only to provide good teaching in their parish school, but also to create such a warm, benevolent atmosphere in it that the students did not forget it for a long time after graduation. And it existed for more than a quarter of a century, and the rector of the temple, Father Sergius Lavrentiev, headed it continuously and free of charge from its opening until 1913. He also organized pilgrimage trips for students.

The parish and clergy of the Maroon Church have always been distinguished by patriotic sentiments. And when the Russian-Japanese War began in 1904, the school began to sew linen for the wounded. During the terrible Moscow flood of 1908, when boats were floating through the streets, families with young children took refuge in the Maronovskaya school. And during the First World War, a hospital for Russian wounded was opened here. The end of the school was put by the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of December 24, 1917 “On the transfer of the matter of upbringing and education from the Spiritual Department to the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat for Education.”

Under the shadow of Saint Maron

The Lepeshkins remained church elders until 1902. The last headman of the Maronovsky Church, the headman during the most difficult, dark time of its history, was Vasily Petrovich Maksimov, who lived in his parish from childhood: he was born in the same year, 1885, as Mother Afanasia. The inspired boy was noticed and brought closer to him by the elder of the Chudov Monastery, Abbot Gerasim (Antsiferov), who made him his cell attendant. Vasily really wanted to take monasticism, but the elder, seeing what troubles awaited the monks in the future, instructed him to remain in the world and always be faithful to the truth of Christ. And he predicted that the enemy would hit his back so hard that it would hurt to death: “And you endure the pain, it will be for you instead of monasticism.” The prediction came true: one day in a store, a young man lifted a heavy load onto his shoulders, and several of his vertebrae broke, so that a hump formed, which brought him terrible suffering. After the death of the elder in 1911, Vasily returned to his native parish of the Maronovsky Church and, together with his father, served on the parish council. Soon after the revolution, he became chairman of the council and assumed the position of headman. In 1930, it fell to him to hand over the keys to the closed church to the authorities and, together with all the parishioners, move to the neighboring church in the name of St. John the Warrior.

But before the closure, the Maron Church was still honored to see within its walls two wonderful shepherds who were sent from above as if to console the parish. In 1925, its rector became the holy martyr Archpriest Sergius Makhaev, a graduate of the Bethany Theological Seminary and a former priest at the Moscow Iverskaya community of sisters of mercy in Zamoskvorechye. At the personal request of her patron, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, Father Sergius taught future sisters the Law of God. When the community was liquidated in 1918, the priest became rector of the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul on Yakimanka and at the same time got a job in the legal department of the Zamoskvoretsky Soviet of Deputies. He did his best to help Zamoskvoretsk churches and their parishioners, for example, by giving home churches to believers instead of closing them. And even in that godless time, he organized theological readings in Zamoskvorechye, which were probably attended by parishioners of the Maronovsky Church.

It is equally likely that with the help of Father Sergius, the Maronovsky Temple itself was kept from immediate closure. And when in 1924 the Peter and Paul Church was captured by the renovationists, Father Sergius became the rector of the Maronovsky Church to the joy of his parish, which was one of the centers of loyalty to His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon. It is not known exactly how long Father Sergius served in this church. In 1937, he was appointed rector of the Annunciation Cathedral in the city of Noginsk, but in November of the same year he was arrested on charges of “counter-revolutionary agitation” under the guise of propaganda of the Holy Scriptures. On December 2, 1937, he was shot at the Butovo training ground and in our time is glorified as a martyr.

The last rector of the Maronovsky Church was Archpriest Alexander Voskresensky - “a man of holy life and confessional destiny.” In his youth, he traveled to Kronstadt to see St. John of Kronstadt, and he taught him to pray. And Father Alexander himself had young John Krestyankin as his spiritual son. Previously, Archpriest Alexander served in the church of his native town of Pavlovo-Posad near Moscow, and in 1923 he became a priest of the Zamoskvorechye Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kozhevniki, where one of the chapels was dedicated to Saint Harlampy. One day Father Alexander fell seriously ill and began to pray to this saint for healing; His entire parish then prayed for his beloved priest. And a miracle happened: Saint Harlampius appeared to the sick man in a dream and said: “I will heal you, but I will come for you.” The prophecy was later fulfilled.

After the closure of the Assumption Church, Father Alexander became rector of the Maronovsky Church. That year, 1927, its archpriest Nikolai Sinkovsky died, and the parish, worried about the fate of its refuge, chose Father Alexander Voskresensky as its new rector. He already has a worthy reputation as a firm and good shepherd. The parishioners greeted him with warm words: “We ask our intercessor and patron Saint Maron, that your service to the temple of God will be joyful and bright, like the morning dawn of the Resurrection of Christ.” During his three years of service in the Maron Church, Father Alexander gained the heartfelt love of the parishioners for his reverent worship, for his kindness to his flock, and for his own pious and exemplary life. In 1929, his daughter Taisiya was married in the temple, and the next year the temple was closed. The rector was transferred to the Church of St. John the Warrior, where he served until his death. It was in that church that he performed divine services during the war, begging Russian soldiers. During the raids, he stood at the door of the temple and crossed the cardinal directions with his pectoral cross. Many pilgrims who came to the church to pray for their relatives once witnessed a real miracle: on May 6, 1945, on the feast of St. George the Victorious, during the liturgy, a priest suddenly came out of the altar and said impulsively: “My dears, what a joy! The war is over! Two days later, the surrender of Nazi Germany was signed, and on May 9, a thanksgiving prayer service was held at the Epiphany Cathedral, which was attended by Father Alexander. Patriarch Alexy I loved him very much and in February 1948 he himself served the festive liturgy in the Church of St. John the Warrior on the day of the 50th anniversary of Father Alexander’s church service.

Two days before his death, the priest suddenly opened his eyes wide and said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” He died in 1950 on the predicted day, on the day of remembrance of the holy martyr Harlampius - February 10/23, on Thursday of the first week of Lent. God sent him, as a righteous man, a quiet death from heart failure. He was buried in the Church of St. John the Warrior, where Patriarch Alexy I, Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) and Father John Krestyankin, who served the first requiem, came to pay their last respects to the deceased. At the grave of Father Alexander Voskresensky at the Vvedensky cemetery, a massive cross was installed with gospel verses carved on the pedestal: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5: 8).

When talking about people associated with the Maronovsky Temple, one cannot fail to mention the famous bell ringer Konstantin Sarajev. They said different things about his skill: some praised him as “the bell ringer of the land of Moscow,” others accused him of not understanding the church essence of the bell, and instead of true church ringing, he organized “concerts” in the bell tower - “ringing into nowhere.” As a boy, endowed with unique hearing, he noticed that the bells on the Maronovskaya bell tower were chosen perfectly. Bell ringer Konstantin Saradzhev considered them the best in Moscow, which is why he chose the temple as the place for his ringing. In the 1920s, he himself selected the necessary bells from the bell tower for its “complete satisfaction,” and the entire Moscow intelligentsia and the musical elite of Moscow came to listen to his ringing in the poor Maronovsky lanes - composers Glier, Myaskovsky. And Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, conductor of the Moscow Private Russian Opera of Savva Mamontov and Zimin’s Opera, director of the Moscow Conservatory, liked to arrive long before the ringing began and sit on a bench near the church, waiting. “It’s Saturday evening, people are crowding around the bell tower of St. Maron. The first blows of the bell sound a dark, heavy sound. It’s as if lead is falling from the bell tower in huge hot drops,” recalled Anastasia Tsvetaeva, an ardent fan of Saradzhev, who enthusiastically talked about Saradzhev and her sister, and Gorky, on whose advice she wrote the book “The Tale of the Moscow Bell Ringer.”

But in 1930, the bells of the Maron Church fell silent, like all other belfries in Moscow: church ringing within the city was prohibited. Sarajev dreamed of turning the Maron bells into a kind of musical instrument, making the bell tower a secular concert belfry. In the early 1930s, he went to Harvard with bells taken from closed Moscow churches, and a belfry was built there for them according to his design. But a year later the bell-ringer returned to his homeland. Konstantin Saradzhev died in 1941: he was then treated in one of the clinics near Moscow; the Nazis, having occupied the clinic, destroyed all its patients. He was barely 41 years old.

“So a temple abandoned is still a temple”

On February 27, 1918, on the day of the patronal feast of Maron the Hermit, His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon served a liturgy with a prayer service here and consecrated a copy of the newly appeared Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God. It was like a blessing for the trials ahead. The temple was left virtually without funds, it was subject to high taxes, and the bank deposits of benefactors were expropriated. In 1919, the authorities took into account the artistic and historical value of the temple and drew up an agreement with the parishioners that they “accepted from the Moscow Council for free use the ... liturgical building located in Moscow” and pledged to “preserve the transferred national property.” Like a mockery.

In April 1922, the temple was robbed. The parishioners behaved quietly, not wanting to give rise to provocation, but stood in a crowd near the temple. More than 19 pounds of valuables were seized, and even brocade vestments were taken. Since the temple was the Zamoskvorechsk stronghold of Orthodoxy and did not surrender to the renovationists, they decided to close it, because it had long been an eyesore to the local authorities. In 1929, they intended to give it to the fat industry technical school, which wanted to have a library here. The parishioners tried to protest this decision, but the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, signed by presidium member P.G. Smidovicha rejected this request. The parishioners only managed to take everything possible to the Church of St. John the Warrior: books, candles, utensils, and most importantly, the temple miraculous image of St. Maron, the icon of the Annunciation and the Sovereign. Valuable ancient images of power were sent to museums, and the bells were sold abroad.

However, the fat technical school did not have enough funds to convert the temple into a library. Some owners replaced others with amazing speed. Finally, on April 25, 1930, the Moscow Council decided to simply demolish the temple in order to build an institute of civil engineers in its place. They had already dismantled the roof of the temple and the top of the bell tower, when suddenly again there was miraculously not enough money. As a result, in September of the same 1930, the dilapidated temple was handed over to the All-Union Construction Exhibition for the organization of a workshop. And since 1933, in the mutilated temple there was a garage with a car repair shop: gates for cars to enter were punched in the altar apse and in the northern wall. A warehouse was built in the central part of the temple.

In the 1960s, the question of demolishing the “unnecessary” temple building arose again. And again a miracle happened: they say that when calculating the estimate for demolishing the temple, a computer malfunction occurred, and the calculated amount turned out to be many times overestimated. The unprofitable demolition was abandoned, and the temple survived.

In 1992, when the Maron Temple celebrated its 350th anniversary, its building was returned to the believers in a terrible state. However, after two years of diligent prayer and work, in March 1994, his minor consecration took place. And the next year the miraculous image of the Monk Maron returned to the temple with a procession of the cross.

The article uses materials from the website www.st-maron.narod.ru.