Nikola Zaraisky, with life

In the 13th century arose “The Tale of Nikola Zaraisky,” telling about the origin of the icon (A. S. Orlov, Heroic themes of ancient Russian literature, M.-L., 1945, pp. 107–112, as well as V. L. Komarovich, On literary history stories about Nikola Zaraisky. - In the book: “Proceedings of the Department of Old Russian Literature of the Institute of Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences,” V, M., 1947, pp. 57–72). According to this story, the Korsun icon of St. Nicholas in 1228 was transferred from Korsun to the Ryazan land, where an event took place near the cathedral founded in honor of the icon, which gave the name to the city of Zaraysk and the icon itself. The icon reaches the Ryazan land from Korsun through the mouth of the Dnieper, through Kes (Wenden) in the “German Land” and Veliky Novgorod. In 1513, due to the raid of the “Crimean people”, the image of Nikola was temporarily in Kolomna. There was a copy of the Zaraisk icon from the early 16th century. (now the Tretyakov Gallery, No. 557, [inv. 20861]). Even before 1471, the Church of St. Nicholas of Zaraisky (or St. Nicholas in Boots) was known on the Trinity site, opposite the Kutafya tower (dismantled in 1838). The cult of Nikola Zaraisk spread widely in 1531–1533, when Vasily III went on pilgrimage to Zaraysk (“Russian Vremennik”, M., 1820, part 2, p. 360).

Beginning of the 14th century. Kyiv school 2.

2 This monument of the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries. may be associated with the late Kyiv school both in style and in the legend telling about its origin.

The design, proportions of figures and architecture, as well as the monochrome coloring of this icon bring it closer to ancient examples of painting of Kyiv origin, for example, with miniatures of the psalter of the late 13th century, No. 3 from the collection. Khludov (State Historical Museum) written for Simon, the elder of the Yuriev Monastery in Novgorod.

According to the family legend of the ancient Moscow family of the Kvashnins-Samarins, the icon of St. Nicholas of Zaraisky with its life was taken from Kyiv by their ancestor, the Kiev boyar Protasius, who moved to Moscow with 3 thousand Kiev residents. According to legend, he founded the Church of St. Nicholas in Kievets in the ancient tract of Kievets (now the area of ​​​​Metrostroevskaya Street), on the banks of the Moscow River, where this icon brought by Protasius was placed.

Nikola is represented on the centerpiece, surrounded by fourteen hallmarks of his life. His broad figure is monumental, thanks to the majestic movement and the design of the folds of white, slightly greenish phelonion falling almost to his feet. The cassock is pinkish ocher, the omophorion is white with brown crosses. The club and stole are ocher, as is the lid of the Gospel: they are decorated with colored stones. On the face there are records from the 16th and 17th centuries. The background of the middle was probably white. The manure is dark green. Order of stamps: 1. Christmas. 2. Bringing into teaching. 3. Ordination to the deaconate. 4. Ordination to the priesthood. 5. Ordination to bishop. 6. Appearance to Eparch Evlavius. 7. Rescue of Dmitry from the bottom of the sea. 8. Deliverance from execution. 9. The miracle of the carpet. 10. Deliverance of Agrikov's son. 11. Resignation. 12. Transfer of relics from Mir to Bar. 13. The miracle of the Kiev youth. 14. Deliverance of the patriarch from drowning. The order of the marks is unusual: starting from the top field, they continue on the right field, then below and end on the left field. The marks are separated from each other by wide pinkish stripes. The swirl is dark, like olive sankir. The coloring is muted, formed by transparent, soft shades of brown and green, with a few spots of cinnabar and blue vat paint. The gaps on the slides and clothes, as well as the original background on the margins, judging by the surviving fragments of it among the 16th-century gesso, were white. The inscriptions are red.

Linden board with ark, mortise dowels, one-sided. In the upper part, wooden nails from the dowel have been preserved. The fields are sawed off. Pavoloka, gesso, egg tempera. 115x78. On the ground, at Nikola’s feet, there are inscriptions on both sides. On the right is a red inscription from the 16th century: “By the grace of God and the Most Pure Mother of God and the haste of the holy and great miracle worker Nicholas, this icon was made in the summer ¤ z 7lв(7032 - 1524) June on day No. 1 (11) by the desire and intention of Ivan Jacob, son of Kozhukhov, and there were no memorials to her previous writing.” On the left is a hard-to-read white inscription in 17th-century script in ten lines with dates: ¤ z 7R…d(1656) and ¤ z 7R§f(1691) - see page 79 [the said figure is shown below - approx. ed. site].

It was located in the Church of the Assumption on Ostozhenka in Moscow, where it ended up in 1772 during the abolition of the neighboring Church of St. Nicholas in Kievets, where it was a temple icon. With. 78
With. 79¦

At the very edge of the Moscow region, 170 kilometers south of the capital, is the small town of Zaraysk. The inconvenient location from a practical point of view, far from the railway and the nearest Ryazan and Kashira highways, allowed the city to retain its district spirit: one- and two-story houses predominate, many of which were built by merchants at the end of the 19th century, and the high-rise landmarks of the city, as in the old days, are bell towers and crosses of churches. Today's Zaraysk differs little from the city that Dostoevsky saw. There are also monuments from more ancient times here. The city is a witness to three different stories: the invasion of Batu, the Time of Troubles and the childhood of the writer F.M. Dostoevsky. In order to get acquainted with these three stories of Zaraysk, one day is enough if you leave Moscow early in the morning.

Traditionally, people traveled to Zaraysk from Moscow along the Ryazan Highway. So, for example, the Dostoevsky family went to their estate. But today it is more convenient to drive your car along the Don highway, where there are fewer traffic jams and the road is better. From Moscow almost to Kashira you need to drive all the time along the highway. Then turn off the highway in the Saigatovo area and, having crossed the Oka bridge, go through Kashira to Aladino. After the railway crossing in Topkanovo, you need to go straight until the turn to Zhuravna, where one of the oldest churches in the area stands - the Church of the Transfiguration. After Zhuravna there will soon be a turn to Monogarovo and Darovoye - it is better to visit them first, and only then go to Zaraysk.

You can also get to Zaraysk from Moscow by bus; it runs from the Kotelniki metro station to the very center of the city. From there you can get to the Dostoevsky estate in Darovoe by taxi or bus (about 15 km from the city).

Dostoevsky's childhood

In 1831, the father of the future writer, staff doctor Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky, bought the small village of Darovoe in the Tula province of Kashira district, 160 versts south of Moscow. The not very rich employee had two reasons for such a purchase. Firstly, in the summer, of course, it was necessary to take the children out of stuffy Moscow. It was necessary for the children, and then there were already six of them, to take a break from the environment of the hospital for the poor, in the premises where the doctor’s family lived. The second reason was more important. If Mikhail Andreevich had died or lost his job, his household would have ended up on the street, because they lived in a service apartment.

On the way to the village there is the village of Monogarovo. Recently a good asphalt road was built to it, along which, turning at the dam, you will drive straight to the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The Dostoevsky village of Darovoye belonged to the parish of this church, and in the summer the writer’s mother Maria Feodorovna took him here to the liturgy.

“I also remember huge trees near the house, linden trees, it seems, then sometimes the strong light of the sun in the open windows, a front garden with flowers, a path, and you, mother, I remember clearly only in one moment, when I was given communion in the church there and you lifted me up to receive gifts and kiss the cup; it was in the summer, and a dove flew right through the dome, from window to window...” These words of the hero of the novel “The Teenager” contain Dostoevsky’s memories of the Monogar church, located not far from their house, surrounded by huge linden trees even today. Unfortunately, today the 18th-century church where little Feodor went is in poor condition and requires major repairs. During the Soviet years, the church and its cemetery were destroyed and abandoned. Currently there is a slow recovery process. On the temple grounds you can see the remains of a priest’s house, pre-revolutionary tombstones from the graves of neighboring landowners and a memorial cross on the grave of the writer’s father, Mikhail Andreevich.

Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky was not a nobleman by birth, he served himself in favor. He was a poor landowner; besides Darovoy, he owned only one more neighboring village, Cheremoshnya. The management of the farm was not happy. The year Darovoy was purchased, the entire village burned down in a fire, and then litigation began with the neighboring landowner Khotyaintsev. A few years later, Mikhail Andreevich’s wife dies of consumption. The death of his wife especially hardened the character of the writer's father. Evidence appeared that he became harsh towards the peasants, and after another skirmish with them he was found dead on the road to Cheremoshnya. The mysterious death of Dostoevsky's father is still a matter of debate - was it an accident or murder? His brilliant son felt this family tragedy acutely. Many years later, while working on the concept of the novel “The Brothers Karamazov,” Dostoevsky visited the family nest and visited his father’s grave. The writer embodied the theme of the murder of a landowner by his own lackey in this last novel, and the ill-fated village “Chermashnya” also appears in the novel as a kind of password in the conspiracy of Smerdyakov and Ivan.

You will not find the grave of the writer’s mother in Monogarovo. During the Soviet years, her remains were kept in the storerooms of the Museum of Anthropology; now her coffin stands in the Zaraisk Cathedral of John the Baptist, but in the near future it will be reburied in the Monogar cemetery near the grave of her husband.

Returning from the church to the road and driving past the “Mama’s Pond”, created at the request of the writer’s mother, you will find yourself in Darovoye. At the very end of the village, among the houses of summer residents, it is not immediately possible to distinguish a modest green house. This is the house that Mikhail Andreevich built for his family in 1832.

The house is well preserved. After his father's death, Dostoevsky's sister lived there, and in the post-revolutionary years, his niece. At the entrance to the estate, you will be greeted by a monument to Dostoevsky and ancient linden trees. These linden trees are more than 200 years old, they are living witnesses of the writer’s childhood games, and this alley itself is called “Fedina Grove”. Everything on the estate is modest and homely. As a rule, there is no one around, and there are no museum employees either. You can go to the site yourself and sit at a table by the porch.

True, you can only go inside the house with a tour group, having issued a ticket in Zaraysk. However, it is worth noting that valuable furnishings were at one time taken to the Dostoevsky Museum in Moscow, so you won’t lose much if you don’t get inside the outbuilding.

Now it’s worth going to Zaraysk, the city that Dostoevsky in his letters put above the Swiss Vevey! According to the novel, the dyers in Crime and Punishment were from Zaraysk. One of them, Mikolka, unexpectedly confessed to the murder of the old pawnbroker, which confused the investigator Porfiry, and the real murderer Raskolnikov.

Time of Troubles and Prince Pozharsky

Even at the entrance to Zaraysk from Darovoy and Monogarov, a beautiful view of the city standing on the Sturgeon River opens up. And already from afar you can see brick towers with wooden tents - the famous Zaraisky Kremlin.

The Zaraisky Kremlin is one of the main attractions of the city. It was built in the 16th century to defend against attacks by the Crimean Tatars and was an important southern defensive line along with Tula and its Kremlin. The Zaraisk fortress is the only one in the Moscow region that has been completely preserved. In addition, this is the smallest Kremlin in Russia. There are only seven archery towers in the fortress. The Crimean Tatars besieged these walls about twenty times, but never took them.

At the beginning of the 17th century, new enemies appeared at the Zaraisk Kremlin, and the country was engulfed in turmoil. Gangs of robbers, Lithuanian and Polish garrisons, and impostors are walking around everywhere. Many southern cities and royal governors swear allegiance to False Dmitry II, known as the “Tushino Thief.” The rebels enter neighboring Kashira and Kolomna. Residents of Zaraysk are also ready to kiss the cross to the new impostor, but the future hero Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky is serving as the governor here at this time. Here, in 1609, he first manifests himself as an opponent of the unrest. Together with the garrison, the prince locks himself in the Zaraisk Kremlin and declares to the townspeople and supporters of False Dmitry that he will remain faithful to the legitimate Tsar Vasily Shuisky. The Kremlin turns out to be impregnable to the troublemakers, and Pozharsky wins. The townspeople do not swear allegiance to the thief, but remain loyal to the king. In memory of the voivodeship of Pozharsky in Zaraysk, a memorial plaque was hung on the Nikolskaya tower of the Kremlin, and a bust of the hero was installed on Pozharsky Square.

You can climb the Kremlin galleries only with a guide; entrance is paid. Among the seven towers, Nikolskaya with two tents was considered the main one. The Zaraisky Kremlin also has its own Spasskaya Tower, crowned by a double-headed eagle. The Yegoryevskaya western tower is also crowned with an eagle. The Taininskaya tower of the Zaraisk Kremlin is named after the secret passage located in it. There are towers of the same name in both the Moscow and Tula Kremlins, where there was also once a secret passage.

Another monument to the events of the Time of Troubles is the “Lisovsky Mound” near the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Annunciation Church is located at Komsomolskaya Street 28. To get from the Kremlin to the church and the mound, you need to leave the Kremlin to Sovetskaya Street and drive along it straight until the roundabout, and then turn right.

Shortly before the voivodeship in the city of Pozharsky, the Pole Lisovsky took the Zaraisk Kremlin in battle for the only time in history. Three hundred defenders of the city of Arzamas and Zarayans were killed by the interventionists, and their bodies were buried in one large grave. Lisovsky built a mound over the defeated as a sign of his glory and victory. After his expulsion from Zaraysk, the mound was preserved, but as a monument to the fallen heroic defenders, having erected a cross over it. A wooden Church of the Annunciation was built nearby. The current church building, with a blue dome, was built at the end of the 18th century.

The church is also interesting because among the seven surviving churches in Zaraysk, it was the only one operating in the city during the Soviet years and has preserved its interior decoration. In the Church of the Annunciation, they carefully preserve the banner, donated more than a hundred years ago by the people of Arzamas to the Zarayans in memory of the battle with the invaders.

The image of Nikola Zaraisky and the invasion of Batu

Ancient Zaraysk allows you to travel even further into the past, to the 12th and 13th centuries. Monuments from this ancient history of the city have also been preserved.

The city itself, according to the chronicle, was founded even before Batu’s invasion. Its foundation is associated with a miraculous event described in an ancient chronicle. From distant Korsun to the borders of Ryazan, a Greek priest comes to the Sturgeon River with an icon of St. Nicholas in his hands. He tells the local prince who met him that he saw St. Nicholas himself in a dream, who ordered him to go with the icon hundreds of miles to a foreign country and give the icon to the prince in the land of Ryazan. In honor of this unusual meeting, the prince orders the construction of a wooden church of St. Nicholas, where he places a Greek image brought from Korsun.

The current building of the St. Nicholas Church in the Kremlin was built at the end of the 17th century on the very spot where the first wooden one stood. And that same ancient icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is now kept here in the Kremlin in the neighboring St. John’s Cathedral at the right side chapel. Because of its antiquity, during the Soviet years it was taken from Zaraysk to Moscow, to the Icon Museum. Andrey Rublev. She remained there until 2012, and quite recently the shrine returned to Zaraysk. The ancient icon is in an icon case with a special microclimate, so it is not in danger of destruction. In the cathedral, near the left side chapel, there is a modern copy of the same icon. He was revered in Zaraysk before the original image was returned to its historical place.

According to legend, at the place where the Ryazan prince and the priest from Korsun met, a healing spring flowed. This source still flows in Zaraysk to this day. Now the source is well equipped. A staircase was made going down to the healing spring, a new good bath was built. The key flows like a stream into the Sturgeon River, which flows nearby below.

To get to the source, which the locals call the “White Well,” you need to drive straight from the Kremlin all the way north, past Kirov Park, and then turn left following the sign to the gas station. Having passed the gas station, continue straight ahead to a dead end, where there will be a parking lot and a small church store.

Another, this time tragic story dates back to the same ancient times. In the very center of the Kremlin, near the altars of St. John’s Church, you will see a canopy under which there are three crosses. This is the site of an ancient burial from the 13th century. The locally revered noble princes Theodore, his wife Eupraxia and their son John are buried here.

Theodore was the first prince of Zaraysk in history. During the first Mongol invasion, he was killed on the Voronezh River, leaving his wife and son in Zaraysk. After a while, Batya’s hordes entered the land of Ryazan and besieged the then wooden fortress on Osetra. Batu wanted to take the wife of the defeated prince into his harem, but the faithful Eupraxia chose a different fate - she and her son jumped out of the window of the prince’s mansion and “got infected,” that is, fell to their death on the ground. By the way, some local historians associate the origin of the city’s name with this word. Soon, at the burial site of the princes in Zaraysk, a wooden church of the Beheading of John the Baptist was erected. Instead of a wooden one, a stone one was subsequently built. This happened during the time of Ivan the Terrible, who visited Zaraisk more than once and considered John the Baptist his heavenly patron. The current church building was built shortly before the revolution and is somewhat away from the old one. Thus, the graves of the princes were not under the altar, but on the street.

Helpful information

The Zaraisky Museum of Local Lore is located right in the Kremlin, in public buildings, where you can book excursions around the Kremlin, the museum and Dostoevsky's Darovoe estate.

You can park your car on the north side of the Kremlin.

There are good toilets in the cafe or at the bus station, which is located near the shopping arcades, on the eastern side of the Kremlin.

You can have a snack in Zaraysk at the Lyubava cafe, located not far from the Kremlin at the Nikolsky Gate.

There is a good playground on the territory of the Kremlin where children can play. In Zaraysk there is a city beach on the Sturgeon River.

The city also has a museum-apartment of the famous sculptor Anna Golubkina, not far from the city administration (38 Dzerzhinsky St.).

Zaraisk icon

Not far from Moscow is the ancient Russian city of Zaraysk. According to legend, the land of Zaraisk has been preserved for nine centuries by the miraculous image of Nicholas, Saint of Myra of Lycia, or, as people say, Nicholas of Zaraisk. The story of the miraculous image is as follows.

Since ancient times, the icon of St. Nicholas of Korsun (later called Zaraisk) was in the city of Korsun, on the shores of the Black Sea, in the church in the name of the Apostle James, where the Grand Duke of Kiev, Equal-to-the-Apostles Vladimir, was baptized. The icon depicts Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker in full height in the ceremonial vestments of a bishop, a cross phelonion and a white omophorion, with his arms spread wide. He blesses with his right hand and holds the Gospel on his left hand, covered with a scarf. The miraculous image brought help and healing from illnesses to many. In 1224, the great miracle worker Nicholas, whose image was in the temple, appeared in a dream to the presbyter of the Korsun temple, the Greek Eustathius, and commanded: “Take my miraculous image and go to the land of Ryazan. Because there I want to be in my image and perform miracles and glorify the place...” The presbyter was in no hurry to fulfill the will of the saint. The miracle worker appeared to the indecisive priest three times, and only when Eustathius was punished with blindness for disobedience and received healing in repentance, the priest and his family set off on the road... Due to the raids of the Mongol-Tatars, they had to move not along the Polovtsian land, but in a roundabout way, through Europe. But the path chosen by the travelers was full of obstacles and dangers. And each time the miraculous image of St. Nicholas saved travelers from inevitable death.

Around the same time, in 1223, Prince Theodore Yuryevich, the son of the Ryazan prince Yuri Ingvarevich, received the Zaraisk principality as an inheritance from his father. When miracles happened on the Korsun land with Eustathius, Saint Nicholas the Pleasant announced in a dream to Prince Theodore the arrival of his image in the city of Zaraysk. As the chronicle tells, “the great wonderworker Nikola appeared to the blessed prince Theodore Yuryevich of Ryazan,” and said: “Prince, go meet my miraculous image of Korsun. Because I want to stay here and create miracles. And I will pray for you to the All-Merciful and Humane-loving Lord Christ, the Son of God, to grant you the crown of the kingdom of heaven, and to your wife and to your son.” The noble Prince Theodore Yuryevich, waking up, became thoughtful and began to ask the Pleasant: “Oh, great wonderworker Nikola! How can you pray to the Merciful God for me, to grant me the crown of the kingdom of heaven and my wife and my son: after all, I am not married, and I do not have the fruit of my womb”... But he immediately went to meet the miraculous image, as the wonderworker commanded him , - the narrative continues in the Chronicle. - And he came to the place that was spoken of in the dream, and from afar he saw, as it were, an indescribable light, shining from a miraculous image. And he fell lovingly to the miraculous image of Nikola with a contrite heart, emitting tears from his eyes like a stream. And Prince Theodore accepted the miraculous image and brought it to his region. And great and glorious miracles came from the miraculous image. And a temple was created on the land of Zaraisk in the name of the great holy wonderworker Nikolas of Korsun.”

Since time immemorial, a church festival has been established in memory of the bringing of the miraculous icon of the saint (this day coincides with the birthday of Nicholas the Wonderworker). It begins the day before, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, with prayer singing and blessing of water. At 6 pm the all-night vigil begins with an akathist to the saint, and the next day the Divine Liturgy and solemn prayer are served.

Before the revolution of 1917, on this day, the Zaraisk clergy visited the homes of their parishioners, who warmly greeted them with bread and salt. Children went home in groups and praised St. Nicholas by singing special folk poems - “glory”.

This is how the miraculous image of St. Nicholas came to the land of Zaraisk. At the site of the meeting (meeting) of the icon, a holy spring flowed, called the White Well, which has survived to this day.

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The history of one of the oldest Russian cities - Zaraysk, the first mention of which dates back to 1146, is closely connected with the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas of Zaraisk. For a long time, the icon of Nicholas of Korsun (later called “Zarazskaya” and “Zaraiskaya”) was located in the city of Korsun (Chersonese Tauride), in the temple of the Apostle James. In this temple at the end of the 10th century, Grand Duke Vladimir received Holy Baptism. Numerous miracles and healings came from the miraculous image of St. Nicholas.

The famous literary monument of Ancient Rus' “The Tale of Nikola Zarazsky” (which, according to academician D.S. Likhachev, “ belongs to the outstanding phenomena of ancient Russian literature") talks about the bringing in 1225 " image of the great Wonderworker Nikolas of Korsun from the glorious city of Chersonesus to the borders of Ryazan, to the region of the blessed Prince Fyodor Yuryevich of Ryazan".

According to legend, Saint Nicholas himself appeared in a vision to the priest Eustathius and commanded: “Eustathius, take my miraculous image of Korsun, your wife Theodosius and your son Eustathius and go to the land of Ryazan. I want to stay there and create miracles and glorify that place" Nicholas the Wonderworker appeared to this priest three times, and only when he was punished with blindness for disobedience and, having repented and received healing, set off on his journey.

It took Eustathius and his companions about a year to reach the Ryazan land. At the same time, Nikolai Ugodnik appeared in a dream to the appanage prince Fyodor Yuryevich, who reigned in the city of Krasny (now Zaraysk) and announced the arrival of his miraculous image. Fedor Yurievich “he took on the miraculous image and brought it to his region.” And he immediately sent the news to his father, Grand Duke Yuri Ingvarevich of Ryazan... The Grand Duke took Bishop Euphrosynus of the Svyatogorets with him and immediately went to the region to his son... And he saw great and glorious miracles from the miraculous image and was filled with joy. And he created a temple in the name of the great holy wonderworker Nikolas of Korsun. And Bishop Efrosin consecrated it, and celebrated brightly, and returned to his city" At the site of the meeting (meeting) of the icon, a source of spring water emerged from the ground, called the White Well, which has survived to this day.

As the chronicles describe, the icon appeared in the city of Krasny on July 29 (old style) 1225 and since then St. Nicholas took the city and its inhabitants under his heavenly protection.

The chronicle associates the change in the name of the icon with the death of Prince Fyodor’s wife, Eupraxia, and her young son, Ivan. Princess Eupraxia in 1237, during the Mongol-Tatar invasion of Rus', after the death of her husband at Batu’s headquarters, preferred death to Tatar captivity. Not wanting to become the khan’s concubine and forcefully renounce her son’s Christian faith, she threw herself and her child from the high prince’s mansion and fell to her death. “And for the reason that the icon of Zarazskaya, the great wonderworker St. Nicholas, is called, that the blessed princess Eupraxia with her son Prince Ivan infected (broke) themselves in that place.”

And the city eventually began to be called Zarazesk, Zaraesk, Nikola Zarazskaya on Osetra, the city of Nikola Zarazsky Posad and, finally, from the 17th century - Zaraisk.

The events related to the stay of the miraculous icon of Nikola Zaraisky in the city of Kolomna and the miracles that occurred there are narrated by “The Legend of the Bringing of the Image of Nikola Korsunsky from Zarazsk to Kolomna” (which is part of the “Tales of Nikola Zarazsky”). The stay of the miraculous image in neighboring Kolomna and its miraculous return to Zaraysk is also associated with the construction of a stone fortress - the Zaraisk Kremlin in 1528-1531. On its territory was the ancient St. Nicholas Cathedral. The current building of St. Nicholas Cathedral was built in 1681 on the site of the previous one.

For centuries, the holy miraculous image was in the cathedrals of the Zaraisk Kremlin: St. Nicholas (specially built for her) and St. John the Baptist. For many centuries, the icon was the main shrine of the Zaraisk region, and every year on July 29 (old style) citywide celebrations were held in Zaraisk. In the Kremlin churches, the entire clergy served the Divine Liturgy together and held a religious procession to the holy spring of the White Well.

In 1892, a small book entitled “The Miraculous Image of Nicholas Zaraisk” was published in Ryazan. Its author is a native of Zaraysk, writer Vasily Selivanov. This is how he begins the story about the shrine: “In the Zaraisk St. Nicholas Cathedral there is a miraculous image of St. Nicholas, brought to Zaraisk in 1225 from the Greek city of Korsun by Presbyter Eustathius. In the middle of this image, a full image of the Saint is written in paints, in priestly cross-shaped vestments with an omophorion on the ramens (shoulders), on the head is a miter with an image of the Holy Trinity in black, his right hand is stretched out for a blessing, and with his left he holds the Gospel on a shroud. On its right side, the Savior is depicted on the clouds, blessing the Saint with his right hand, and giving him the Gospel with his left; on the left side is the Mother of God holding an outstretched omophorion in her arms.

This image, with seventeen images of the life and miracles of the Saint, is twenty-five and a half inches long and twenty and a quarter inches wide. The painting on the image is ancient, Byzantine in high style, which is especially evident from the expression of spirituality imparted to the features of the Saint’s face, which almost only Byzantine artists were able to impart to images of saints.”

The following is a description of the valuable frame in which the miraculous image was placed: “The robe on the image is made of pure gold, with semi-precious stones, built by Tsar Vasily Shuisky in 1608, as can be seen from the inventory of the Zaraisk Cathedral and the following inscription inscribed in script on a special tablet (plate) at the bottom of the frame: “By the command of the Blessed Great Sovereign of the Tsar and Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich of All Rus', this setting was made for the image of the great Wonderworker Nikola Zarazsky in the second summer of his State, summer 7116 (1608). miter, crown, gospel and tsata. The frame around the brim in the form of a frame around the entire image is silver gilded, made by Shuisky, as well as the gold aureoles above the faces and the gold plates with patterns drawn in niello, depicting miracles. The miracles themselves were covered with silver gilded vestments in later times.”

People from all over Russia came to the Zaraisk shrine: peasants and artisans, traders and military men, cultural and artistic figures. The Monk Sergius of Radonezh, the Great Moscow Princes Ivan III, Vasily III, Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Tsar Vasily Shuisky, the heir to the Russian throne, the future Tsar Alexander II with his teacher V.A. Zhukovsky, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and many others prayed before the miraculous image of St. Nicholas of Zaraisky .

A special page in the history of Zaraysk is the era of the Time of Troubles. At that time, the future savior of the Fatherland, Prince D.M. Pozharsky, served as the governor of Zaraysk. Through the prayers of the rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral, Archpriest Dimitry and Prince D.M. Pozharsky, before the miraculous image, the city of Zaraisk remained faithful to the legitimate authority and did not swear allegiance to the impostor False Dmitry. In gratitude to the Wonderworker, Tsar Vasily Shuisky decorated the Zaraisk icon with a valuable frame. Archpriest Dimitri participated in the meetings of the Zemsky Sobors in 1613 and was part of the embassy to Kostroma, to the elected Tsar Mikhail Romanov.

After the closure of the churches of the Zaraisk Kremlin in the 1920s, the icon was taken to the local history museum. In 1966, Moscow art historians, having visited the museum, announced that the ancient icon needed urgent restoration and took it to Moscow, to the Central Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art named after. Andrey Rublev. At the same time, museum staff carried out an examination and established the date of painting of the icon. In their opinion, one of the earliest copies of the ancient icon of St. Nicholas of Zaraisk, which has not reached us, was kept in Zaraysk, approximately from the late 15th to early 16th centuries. After a lengthy restoration, the icon became an exhibit of the Museum. Andrey Rublev.

With the revival of church life, believers, with the blessing of Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna, began to seek the return of the shrine to Zaraysk. We repeatedly drafted appeals, collected signatures, and sent petitions to various authorities. The idea of ​​returning the icon has always been supported by the city and district authorities. The leaders of the Moscow region, the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, deputies of the State and Moscow Regional Dumas, activists of many Russian parties and movements, and prominent cultural and artistic figures spoke out for the return of the icon.

Only once, during many decades of being away from Zaraysk, was the icon brought to our region. This happened in 1996, during the celebration of the 850th anniversary of the city, thanks to the joint efforts of the city Administration, the Zaraisk deanery and widespread public support. Within 2 days, the icon was exhibited in the St. John the Baptist Cathedral of the Zaraisk Kremlin, and thousands of believers were able to pray in front of the holy image.

However, then the icon was again taken to Moscow, and new appeals from the Zarayans for the return of the icon met only a negative response. The heads of the Museum named after them refuse their refusals. Andrei Rublev and the Ministry of Culture were motivated by the lack of necessary conditions in Zaraysk for the storage and preservation of the ancient image.

But the Zarayans do not lose hope, and are doing everything possible to return the shrine. The problem of returning the miraculous image is constantly discussed in the print media, radio and television. Brochures about the Zaraisk shrine are being published, and the issue of returning the miraculous icon is being raised at regional scientific, practical and theological conferences.

The ancient tradition of the regional festival on August 11 and processions of the cross to the holy spring White Well has been revived. In 1997, a list (an exact copy) of the icon of St. Nicholas of Zaraisk was made. It stands in a place of honor - at the central altar of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and services are performed in front of it. For a decade and a half, the restoration of the Cathedral of John the Baptist, which was desecrated during Soviet times and served as a cinema, took place. Now all conditions have been created in it to accept the ancient miraculous image under its arches.

13.08.2013

On August 11, in the city of Zaraisk, celebrations were held dedicated to the return to the Russian Orthodox Church of the ancient miraculous image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, called “Nicholas of Zaraisk.” Formerly the main shrine of the Zaraisk region for centuries, in Soviet times the icon became an ordinary museum exhibit. And now, almost half a century later, the miraculous image has returned to its historical place - the Zaraisky Kremlin.

The history of the appearance of the image of the saint in these lands is truly amazing. Almost eight hundred years have passed since St. Nicholas appeared in Chersonesus to the priest Eustathius and ordered his holy icon to be transferred to the “land of Ryazan.” “I want to stay there and perform miracles, and glorify that place,” Saint Nicholas said then and pointed the way to the distant and unknown Ryazan clergyman of Korsun. Here in the town of Krasnoye (as Zaraysk was previously called) many miracles were performed from the shrine. She was in great reverence in the churches of the Zaraisk Kremlin - St. Nicholas and St. John the Baptist. The fame of her, through chronicles and numerous lists, spread throughout the Russian land. Many events - both joyful and sad - visited this ancient land. But both in times of peace and in times of trial, Saint Nicholas of God through his miraculous icon showed consolation, help and great mercy. This was the case during the Tatar-Mongol invasion, and during the creation of a unified Moscow state, and during the Time of Troubles, and in the 20th century. The Monk Sergius of Radonezh, Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky, Russian sovereigns and grand dukes, the poet V.A. prayed before this holy image. Zhukovsky, as well as the great Russian writer F. M. Dostoevsky.

During the years of atheism, the icon was transferred from the closed Kremlin cathedrals to the local museum, and then, in 1966, it was sent for restoration to Moscow, to the Andrei Rublev Central Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art. Since then, the residents of Zaraysk have not stopped petitioning for the return of their shrine. They supported the memory of the miraculous icon, appealed to higher authorities, collected signatures, and revived desecrated shrines. And they never ceased to believe that the day of “blessed triumph” would come - the return of the shrine to its destiny.

Large celebratory events on the day of return began early in the morning at the holy spring of the White Well, where, according to centuries-old tradition, a prayer service is served on the day of bringing the icon on August 11 (July 29, old style). Every year, during a prayer service, the waters of the spring are blessed, which, according to legend, arose during the meeting of the miraculous image brought from Chersonesos back in 1225. On this day, a prayer service at the holy spring was performed by Bishop Konstantin of Zaraisk, co-served by the clergy of the Moscow diocese. After the prayer service, the clergy and believers went in procession from the source to the Zaraisk Kremlin.

The Divine Liturgy in the St. John the Baptist Church of the Kremlin was led by Metropolitan Yuvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna. Before the service, the bishop venerated the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas of Zaraisk. The returned shrine was installed to the right of the central altar in a special icon case, where a constant temperature and humidity regime, which is necessary for the preservation of the ancient image, will be maintained.

On this holiday, Metropolitan Yuvenaly was concelebrated by Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk, Bishops Ilian (Vostryakov), Vidnovsky Tikhon, Balashikha Nikolay and Zaraisky Konstantin. Deans of church districts near Moscow and abbots of many monasteries of the Moscow diocese arrived in Zaraisk for the celebrations. The interim governor of the Moscow region, A.Yu., prayed at the service. Vorobyov, ministers and members of the regional government apparatus.

The cathedral could not accommodate all the people who came to witness the current celebration. The service was broadcast to the street, so it could be heard by those thousands of worshipers who stood near the walls of the temple. There was also a live broadcast of the service on the Podmoskovye TV channel.

At the end of the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Yuvenaly read a prayer to St. Nicholas at the icon.

All those gathered for the celebration were able to venerate the miraculous image. The clergy anointed the faithful with oil consecrated on the relics of St. Nicholas, which rest in the Italian city of Bari.

In his speech to the participants of the celebration, Metropolitan Yuvenaly recalled the fate of the miraculous icon during the years of state atheism: “The churches were closed, and the icon was transferred to the Zaraisk Museum, and then in 1966 sent to Moscow, to the Andrei Rublev Museum for restoration, after which it was exhibited in this museum. And none of our human efforts could lead to the icon being returned to its original historical place. But it was created not as a museum exhibit, but as the greatest shrine, through which St. Nicholas provided help and miracles to everyone who came to him with faith.”

“And today we can say that the miracle of St. Nicholas happened! - continued the archpastor. - We are witnesses of this and thank God and St. Nicholas for the fact that, despite our unworthiness, the image is again in its historical holy place, surrounded by the veneration and prayer of people who look at it with faith and hope and ask for God’s mercy. This event comes at a time when a wonderful creative relationship has been established with the museum community, when we care for our sacred objects together, wanting to preserve them and pass them on to future generations. We look at the image with gratitude and see that over the years it has not changed its appearance and stands before us in all its grandeur and beauty.”

Many people gathered today from different cities, leaving their cares to share the common joy of the return of the shrine to its historical place, and this, according to Metropolitan Juvenaly, testifies to how close this event is to the people.

The acting governor of the Moscow region, A. Yu. Vorobyov, also congratulated everyone present on the joyful event.

Many people were involved in resolving the difficult and complicated issues of the return of the icon and difficult negotiations with the Andrei Rublev Museum: the leadership and employees of the Ministry of Culture of the Moscow Region, the leadership of the Zaraisky municipal district, representatives of the museum community, charitable and contracting organizations. These people were awarded with memorable gifts and awards.

From the St. John the Baptist Cathedral, Bishop Yuvenaly, archpastors, clergy, and distinguished guests proceeded to the open area near the walls of the Zaraisk Kremlin to open the festive concert program dedicated to the Day of the City of Zaraysk.

A.Yu. Vorobyov said that large funds have been allocated for the restoration of the entire complex of the Zaraisky Kremlin. It is planned to attract the best restoration specialists and architects so that the ancient Kremlin will once again shine with its former beauty and grandeur.

Head of the district administration A.V. Evlanov announced that the city and district dumas had made a unanimous decision to award Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna the title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Zaraysk and the Zaraisk Municipal District.” Residents of the city and guests of the holiday greeted this decision with thunderous applause for the Bishop.