One of the famous sights of Yekaterinburg is the chapel of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine. It is located on Truda Square, on the site where previously there was a church in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine, the heavenly patroness of the Ural capital and mining. It was erected in 1723 at the founding of the city.

After a series of rebuildings and reconstructions, by the middle of the 18th century the church turned into the majestic Catherine Mountain Cathedral. In size it was second only to the cathedral, but it was more revered by the people. In 1930, on the barbaric order of the authorities, the temple was blown up, and what was left of it was used as building material.

The territory freed up after the destruction of the cathedral later became Labor Square. A square was laid out directly on the site of the temple, where the “Stone Flower” fountain was later installed. In 1991, a memorial cross was installed on the site of the main altar (architect: A.V. Dolgov). A solemn prayer service is held near it every year on December 7 in honor of the feast of St. Catherine.

In 1998, Yekaterinburg celebrated its 275th anniversary. To commemorate this significant date, a stone chapel of St. Catherine with five domes was built next to the memorial cross. In 2003, a capsule with soil taken from the burial site of the founder of Yekaterinburg, an outstanding Russian historian and statesman Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev, was placed in it.

Address: pl. Truda, 1, 620075 Ekaterinburg, Russia.

Location map:

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Hello everyone, my dears! The Chapel of St. Catherine is located in one of the most beautiful places in Yekaterinburg - on Labor Square.

Today I want to give some important information for those who want to visit it.

In this article:

Where is it located?

As I said above, the chapel is located on Truda Square, in the center of Yekaterinburg, literally a stone's throw from Plotinka.

Exact address: Ekaterinburg, Truda Square, 1.

Location on the map:

How to get there on your own

Since the chapel is located almost in the heart of the city, there are no problems with public transport.

If you don’t want to get confused with transport, just look for a way to get to 1905 Square, from there you can walk to the chapel in literally 5 minutes.

To be more precise, here are a few public transport stops nearby:

1. Metro station "Ploshchad 1905 Goda" - 650 meters.

2. Bus stop "Ploshchad Truda"- 120 meters.

3. Tram stop "Musical Comedy Theater"- 350 meters.

Working hours

The chapel is open to visitors daily from 8:00 to 20:00.

Contact Information

The chapel has its own website, which is good news.

Here you can see telephones and e-mail.

Here you can find out schedule of services.

This is official Vkontakte community, where you can also find a schedule of upcoming events.

Photos

Short story

In the year of the founding of Yekaterinburg, the Church of St. Catherine was built on this site. First a small wooden one, and a few years after the fire - a large stone temple, which occupied almost the entire territory of today's Labor Square.

Photo source

It must be said that Catherine was considered the patroness of the city, and the first cathedral was built even earlier than the famous plant on the dam.

The cathedral stood for 200 years, after which it was demolished by the Bolsheviks. It did not fit into either the political mood or the city’s planned ensemble at that time, so it was simply destroyed.

On the site of the temple, a labor square appeared, where a park was laid out and a fountain was built. Since the 1930s, the square has undergone changes: instead of a primitive fountain, the “Stone Flower” appeared, the park has grown and now in its place there are not only flower beds, but also a very beautiful lilac garden.

Photo source

For the next anniversary of Yekaterinburg in 1998, a chapel was built on the square, which is undoubtedly a decoration of the square.

In 2010, the question of restoring the cathedral in its original appearance and in its original location was first raised. But the public voted against it; about 6 thousand people took part in the rally.

Many will say that the temple would become a decoration of the city, so why not return it to its historical place?

The answer is simple: the square has become one of the favorite recreational places for the townspeople, a small park, of which there are not so many in the city.

In 2015, another attempt was made: a project was created in which the temple occupies a smaller area, and there is no need to demolish the fountain. For now the issue is in limbo.

Dear friends, I hope that you have found all the information you need. If not, write in the comments, we’ll figure it out together.

Before us is not just a parish church, but a monument to one of the most famous Russian empresses, an interesting example of Baroque architecture, and today also a center for English-language worship.

A wooden church on this site was first mentioned in 1612, but it is most likely that it was founded earlier, at the end of the 16th century, in the Catherine Belilnaya Sloboda. The stone church existed from the middle of the 17th century with the chapel of St. Nicholas. In 1763, Empress Catherine II ordered the construction of two churches in Moscow in honor of her accession to the throne: in the name of Saints Cyrus and John on Solyanka (the palace coup occurred on the day of remembrance of these saints) and in the name of her patron saint on Ordynka. Both projects were developed and implemented by the famous architect Karl Ivanovich Blank. The construction of the Catherine Church on Bolshaya Ordynka was carried out by him in 1764 - 1767 using state funds.

The plan of the church complex has a three-part division: in the east, closer to Ordynka, there is the main summer church of St. Catherine (also called cold, since it was not heated in winter), and in the west, in the depths of the property, there is a side-altar winter church in the name of the Savior Image Not Made by Hands (also called warm because there was heating for the winter). They are connected to each other by a bell tower, which was initially two-tiered and then built on in the middle of the 19th century. The main Catherine Church, created by K.I. Blanco, decorated in Baroque style, topped with one chapter on a wide dome, cut through by four round hatches A rnami. The icons for the church were created by the outstanding painter of his time, Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky. A special decoration of the temple interior were the silver Royal Doors in the baroque iconostasis. In 1870 - 1872, a warm side-altar Church of the Savior was added to the Catherine Church from the west. It repeats the architecture of the main temple. Thus, the ensemble of two churches and the bell tower between them acquired a complete appearance. The church fence with a forged lattice is noteworthy: it was created back in 1731 and was originally located on Cathedral Square in the Kremlin, and in the late 1760s it was donated by the Empress to the Catherine Church.

The church was closed in 1931. Its interior decoration (including the icons by Levitsky) has been completely lost, only the paintings and stucco work have been preserved in the dome. The bell tower was dismantled down to the first tier, both churches were deprived of their heads, and their premises were occupied by various offices. After restoration carried out in the 1980s, the head of the winter church overlooking Ordynka was restored. Since 1992, there has been a gradual process of returning the complex of buildings to the community of believers. In 1994, a metochion of the Orthodox Church in America was created at the temple; today services are held not only in Russian, but also in English. Restoration of the winter church and reconstruction of the lost tiers of the bell tower are expected.

Architect K.I. Form. 1766-75

In the 16th century In the whitewash settlement, built by Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna, the first wife of Ivan the Terrible, a wooden church was erected in the name of St. Catherine the Great Martyr, to whom they pray to ease childbirth and protect children.

The church has been known documentarily since 1612, but it is wooden, and in the literature there is information that it was erected at the site of the battle between Russian troops and the Polish-Lithuanian ones. After the defeat at the Klimentovsky prison, Hetman Khotkevich transferred his troops here, setting up a fortification here. The battle ended in victory for the Russian troops.

Since 1625, the chapel of Theodore the Studite has been listed in the church, since 1636 - the chapel of St. Nicholas.

In 1657, the church was shown in documents to be made of stone.

In 1696 the church was renovated.

In 1762, Catherine II came to Moscow for the coronation. After the coronation, the empress stayed in Moscow for a whole year. It is believed that the empress herself wanted to rebuild the temple in the name of her saint; She commissioned the project from the architect K.I. Blank.

The temple was built with government funds. Temple icon of St. Catherine was decorated with a precious chasuble with the royal monogram donated by the empress.

All the icons in the iconostasis were painted by D.G. Levitsky together with V.I. Vasilevsky.

The old refectory was preserved. The Feodorovsky chapel was dismantled, but the St. Nicholas chapel in the refectory was preserved and functioned as a winter church for a long time.

Both churches - old and new - were connected in the middle by a two-tier bell tower, the lower tier of which served as the vestibule of the main, summer Catherine's Church.

Thus, Blank revived the traditional Russian architecture composition of two churches - “warm” and “cold” - with a bell tower between them, bringing the buildings closer together.

Catherine's Church is a rare late Baroque monument for Moscow. The central part, which is a square in plan with cut corners, is flanked on all sides by reduced volumes of the refectory, apse and vestibule. Together with the central part, they form, as it were, the first tier; the top of the temple acts like a traditional octagon, but low, pressed down by a heavy attic and a massive dome. The plastic expressiveness here is revealed more clearly than its vertical composition. Paired columns flanking the entrances are placed diagonally on the semicircular sidewalks. Tall dome lucarnes, a slender dome, elegant large platbands and stucco decoration complement the richness of the appearance.

In 1769 a fence was installed. For it, forged links of a figured lattice were used, made in 1731 for fencing Cathedral Square. Kremlin. In the 1740s. the fence of the square was dismantled, and the preserved links were transferred, by order of Catherine, for the fence of the Catherine Church.

The pillars decorated with pilasters and the powerful pylons of the gates, symmetrically flanking the building along the street line, were crowned with white stone eagles. Forged Russian coats of arms crowned the central bars of the lattice.

In the 1820s. F.M. Shestakov, repairing the ensemble after the fire of 1812, erected a one-story stone building (a gatehouse or a candle shop) on the corner. On the western side, a fence was built, made in the shape of the old fence.

In 1870-72. According to the project of P.P. Petrov (in the literature also called D.N. Chichagov), the “warm” church was completely rebuilt. In the new building with the main altar of the Savior of the Image Not Made by Hands, the chapels of St. Nicholas and Blgv. book Alexander Nevsky.

The corner gatehouse, which replaced the Shestakovsky building, was decorated with arched niches of different sizes; some of them may have been open. The brick volume on the white stone plinth is not plastered; The brick decoration is highlighted with whitewash.

The massive volume of the Spasskaya Western Church is decorated with pilasters, reproducing the pilasters of the main Catherine Church. Its dome also resembled the dome of the main church. The thin and tall four-tiered bell tower became the center of the composition.

In 1931 the temple was closed. Temple icon of St. Catherine was moved to the Church of the Resurrection in Monetchiki, after the demolition of the Church of the Resurrection - to the Church of Florus and Laurus on Zatsep. The latter was also closed; the fate of the icon is unknown.

After the closure of the Church of St. Catherine's bell tower was destroyed down to the first tier, the chapters were dismantled. The Spassky Church was given for housing, the Catherine Church - for an office. Subsequently, the church building was occupied by the Central Design Bureau of Instrument Engineering.

In the 1970s The restoration of the temple began. By 1983, the Church of St. Catherine's church was restored externally, even a dome with a cross was installed.

The Research Institute for Standardization of Instruments was located in the Spassky Winter Church. Catherine's Church was occupied by the All-Union Art Restoration Center named after Grabar, which carried out the restoration. By 1990, the Center also occupied the winter church, placing workshops in it.

In 1992, the temple was partially returned to the believers. Since 1992, the first rector of the temple was Protopresbyter Daniil Gubyak. In 1994, by the decision of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II, the temple became the representative office of the Orthodox Church in America under the Moscow Patriarchate. On the day of the temple holiday in 1994, His Holiness Alexy, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' and His Beatitude Theodosius, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, served a prayer service to commemorate the official opening of the representative office.

Great consecration of the Church of St. VMC. Catherine by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, with the concelebration of His Beatitude Theodosius, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, took place on June 11, 1999.

Through the many years of work of the rector of the temple since 2002, Archimandrite Zacchaeus (Wood) on the day of the Patronal Feast of the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine on December 7, 2006, the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine was finally transferred to the representation of the Orthodox Church in America under the Moscow Patriarchate. After the festive service, the director of the All-Russian Art Scientific and Restoration Center named after Academician Grabar, Alexey Petrovich Vladimirov, solemnly presented the keys to the temple to his then rector, the representative of the OCA under the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', Archimandrite Zacchaeus.

About the history of the emergence of the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine, in the mountains. Moscow on Bolshaya Ordynka, and my memories of it

The church community was registered in 1991. However, due to the fact that the building was occupied by a restoration workshop named after. Grabar, prayer services were held on the steps of the southern entrance to the summer temple until the end of 1994.

December 7, 1994 in the front part of the summer church, on the day of memory of St. Great Martyr Catherine, a prayer service was performed, led by Patriarch Alexy II, co-served by the Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan Theodosius of All America and Canada and priests of Moscow churches. After the prayer service, His Holiness the Patriarch read out the Decree that this temple is being transferred to the metochion of the American Orthodox Church in Moscow.

At the end of 1995, part of the temple without the refectory was vacated by the Grabar workshop, and on December 7, 1995, St. of the Great Martyr Catherine, a solemn service took place both on the eve and on the very day of the holiday. From that time on, regular services began. Mitred archpriest (now protopresbyter) Father Daniel (Gubyak), a cleric of the Orthodox Church of America, was appointed rector of the church.

Church of St. The Great Martyr Catherine appeared already in 1612 as a witness to the desperate battle of the Russians with the Poles and Lithuanians. Taking advantage of the unrest of the Cossacks, Hetman Khotkevich moved his convoy and camps from the Church of St. Kliment (Klimentovsky Lane goes from Bolshaya Ordynka to Pyatnitskaya Street) to the Catherine Church, filling the ditch with people on foot, and behind the ditch (which was then nearby) he placed carts.

The zealous Abraham Palitsyn, cellarer of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, in 1608-1619, in the name of St. Sergius of Radonezh, pacified and inspired the hesitant Cossacks with courage. With them, the regiments of Pozharsky and Trubetskoy, joining together, attacked the enemies who had captured the Church of the Martyr Catherine. A bloody battle ensued. According to eyewitness Abraham Palitsyn, “the Cossacks severely and cruelly attacked the Lithuanian army, except that they had only one weapon in their hands - a sword at their hip, beating them mercilessly, and they tore apart the Lithuanian people’s baggage train and caught the supplies and beat all the Lithuanian people in the prison.” . 700 Hungarians alone died here. This victory at the Catherine Church was the beginning of the complete defeat of the Poles, the beginning of the liberation of Moscow.

Palitsyn's legend, although it mentions the Catherine Church, does not say what kind of church it was then - wooden or stone. Later, in the scribe books of 1689, it is already listed as a stone one, in the Catherine Settlement.

Perhaps the birth of Princess Catherine in 1658, marked by a miraculous phenomenon, inspired Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with a good desire to again build a stone church in honor of the namesake Great Martyr, since in gratitude to God and His saint, he founded the Catherine Hermitage in 1659 along the Kashira Road ( in the Podolsk district of the Moscow province, 25 versts from Moscow) and even named the grove near her Ekaterininskaya.

It is known that Russian sovereigns and tsars used to build, renovate and decorate churches in honor of namesake saints for themselves and their children. The Church of the Great Martyr Catherine enjoyed such mercy.

Empress Catherine II (1729-1796), in the second year of her reign (from 1762), marked by the founding of an orphanage, vowed to build, at her own expense, a temple in the name of her namesake Great Martyr Catherine, instead of the previous one, which was already dilapidated.

The temple was founded on May 25, 1766. On the copper plaque in the main church was the following entry: “With the favor of the most august, all-merciful, wise Empress, the second Empress Catherine Alekseevna, Mother of Mercy, with her dear son and heir, the blessed Sovereign Tsarevich and Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, this holy temple of the Great Martyr began in the 2nd summer upon his accession to the All-Russian Throne, i.e. 1763, the foundation and foundation of this temple was 1766 on May 25. at noon at 4 o'clock, having taken place in 1767, it was consecrated in 1768 by His Grace Ambrose, Archbishop of Moscow and Kolomna Cathedral, September 28 the care of that church of Priest Simeon Stavrovsky."

In the church there was a temple image and precious utensils brought as a gift by Empress Catherine II and marked with the Russian Coat of Arms with the Imperial Monogram. In 1812, the valuables were hidden by a priest under the church platform.

The church was built by Russian architect K.I. Blanc (1728-1793). In the main temple there was a magnificent altar, and on both sides of the royal doors there were icons depicting the appearance of Jesus Christ to St. Catherine in prison and His betrothal to Her with a ring; in the upper tiers of the iconostasis the sufferings and coronation of the great martyr were represented. The images were painted by the academician in the Italian style. In front of the icons, large, artistically executed silver lamps hung on brackets. The interior painting of the temple was carried out by the Russian artist D. G. Levitsky and his students.

A remarkable decoration of the temple were the silver royal doors and deposits for two local images, made by the court manufacturer Sazikov. The gates consisted of end-to-end ornaments, artfully mixed with ebb colors, closely matching nature. The entrance to the summer temple was on the south side at the beginning of the refectory. “There were small elevations along the refectory windows on both sides, slightly higher than the main floor.”

The warm church burned down in 1812. According to the clergy register for 1904, the Spasskaya warm church was built on the site of the old one in 1872 using the amount collected from willing donors over a period of 20 years and the interest accumulated on it with the addition of the former church warden, Moscow merchant Alexander Nikolaevich Eremin 19 thousand rubles.

Thus, the building consists, as it were, of three departments in one connection: in the first - the cold church of St. Great Martyr Catherine, in the other - the bell tower, in the third - the main altar of the Savior Not Made by Hands, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (built by the Highest order at the expense of Empress Catherine II) and the third, left, in the name of Alexander Nevsky.

In 1904, a new two-story apartment building was built through the efforts of the headman, Mitrofan Samuilovich Romanov. The clergy is laid down: a priest, a deacon, two psalm-readers. To support the clergy they receive interest on securities - 1239 rubles. 14 kopecks For a leased plot they receive 1,713 rubles. 14 kopecks At the church there is an almshouse for 10 female people. For the maintenance of the almshouse they receive interest from the capital, as well as from the State Treasury - 56 rubles. 48 kopecks on two State continuous income cards.

In 1904 - priest Ioann Petrovich Klyucharev, 56 years old, ordained in 1882. He has a wife, three daughters and a son. Deacon since 1872 - Pavel Ivanovich Lebedev, 56 years old, has two sons, one of whom is the priest Fr. Sergius in the Novodevichy Convent, the other is a teacher, three daughters, one of whom is a teacher.

Around the temple site, a metal lattice in a stone fence is topped with the Russian coat of arms, and its pillars are topped with the imperial crown. There are four metal gates in the fence. Two of them overlook Bol. Ordynka, and two - in Mal. Ekaterininsky lane (now Shchetininsky lane).

In 1916, the rector of the church was priest Pyotr Nikiforovich Postnikov, and the deacon was Sergei Alekseevich Semenovsky. Psalm-readers - Sergey Vasilievich Glinkov and Ivan Andreevich Moshkov. I found these psalm-readers when I was in church, and they were there until the church closed.

In the warm temple, all three altars were built in one row and communicated with each other. The main altar was built slightly deeper in relation to the two chapels. The iconostasis of the temple was wooden with carved royal doors, gilded, and contained two icons. On the right is the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, on the left is the icon of the Kazan Mother of God. Nearby are the northern and southern doors of the entrance to the altar. On the south door there was a full-length image of the Great Martyr Catherine. The altar was much wider and deeper compared to the altar of the summer temple. The altarpiece - the Ascension of the Lord - was painted across the entire wall. In the right corner along the eastern wall stood a richly inlaid shroud of the Savior. The throne of considerable size is framed in thick transparent glass with gilded drains on its sides. The iconostases of the two chapels were also small in width - two or three icons with carved gilded royal doors. Particularly majestic was the icon of the blessed prince Alexander Nevsky, painted in full height on the right side of the altar. The solea and pulpit rose two or three steps above the floor of the temple. In the middle of the ambo there were semicircular steps along the entire length of the sole. Between the steps of the temple stood a small gilded metal railing, opening in the center and opposite the north and south doors of the altar. The floor of the temple was tiled and rope rugs were laid all over the floor for warmth. In the center of the temple hung two electric chandeliers with white lamps. In the aisles hung one chandelier of beautiful colored lamps in several tiers.

The temple had a rich sacristy. In the chapel of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky, along the stone wall on the right, there were large wooden cabinets with drawers from floor to ceiling in which vestments were stored. In the Nikolsky chapel there was a chest of drawers, where vestments were also kept. There were all sorts of vestments. Embroidered with gold and silver thread, velvet, black and purple, woven gold and silver, Easter - red and gold, colored for Trinity Day and others. All this was lost and was taken away when the temple was closed. The entrance to the warm temple was only from one western side of the small Ekaterininsky Lane (now Shchetininsky Lane) in the center of the main building. Currently, the doorway is blocked and a window is made. Three stone steps led from the sidewalk to the porch. On the porch there were half-glass oak double-leaf doors, both at the beginning and at the entrance to the temple. Outside there was a metal double door, probably two and a half meters high.

In 1920, our family - my mother, two older brothers and I moved from Malaya Dmitrovka, where I was born, to Malaya Ordynka, a 2-3 minute walk from the Church of the Great Martyr Catherine. This was our parish church, and on major holidays the clergy of this church came to our home and performed prayer services. Since 1920, I served together with other peers at the altar, I think that everyone knows what our task was, I will only note that I sometimes read the Six Psalms.

When I was in the church, the rector was Archpriest Father Alexander Dobronravov, quite elderly (about 60 years old), awarded a miter in 1925 or 1926. He lived with his daughter in a two-story house near the church on the corner of Bolshaya Ordynka and Bolshoy Ekaterininsky Lane. His voice was loud and beautiful. He loved to preach in church.

Father Stefan (I don’t remember his last name), a former monk from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, then already closed, served as a deacon. He had a small but very pleasant baritone. There were two psalm-readers, mentioned above. Divine services were performed mainly in the winter church, with the exception of the warm summer time, when they served in the summer unheated church of St. Great Martyr Catherine. This was the period between Trinity Day and the autumn cold.

Early liturgies were celebrated in the warm church all year round, and only later ones in the summer. Trinity Day was always celebrated very solemnly, in a church decorated with birch trees and flowers. Evening services were always performed at 6:30 p.m., and morning services at 7 a.m., and on holidays at 10 a.m.

Several times I had the opportunity to ring the bell tower. The first time it was quite scary to climb to the upper tier of the bell tower, where the bells hung, along a steep stone staircase with winding steps. The entrance to the bell tower was on its northern side through a separate door. The main bell was a bass bell, very large in size, the most sonorous of all the bells of the seven temples located on Bolshaya Ordynka. Its ringing could be heard for several kilometers. The tongue of this bell was heavy, and in order to swing it, it was necessary to exert considerable effort, and then it was easy to pull the string and strike it. One person could only ring this bell, and all the others, of which there were more than a dozen, were rung by another bell-ringer.

I wanted to tell you about the unforgettable impressions that remained from the annual Easter celebration.

At night at 12 o'clock a procession with many icons, banners, candles left the warm church and walked around the church. First I went out to Bolshaya Ordynka, where in the distance one could see the same religious processions in other churches located on Bolshaya Ordynka. During the religious procession, according to those times, grandiose fireworks displays were arranged - rockets, firecrackers, sheaves, etc. were launched from the bell tower, and it became as light as day. The Easter service usually ended around 4 a.m., and no further Liturgy was served.

There was always a particularly solemn service on the day of the feast of St. Great Martyr Catherine - November 24 (December 7). We always prepared for this holiday in advance. They cleaned the temple, washed and cleaned the candlesticks, and decorated the temple with tree branches.

It should be said that on the eve of Catherine’s Day there was also a patronal feast day in the church in honor of the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky - November 23 (December 6), which was celebrated in the church.

On the eve of Catherine's Day, the all-night vigil and liturgy on the holiday itself were celebrated by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon (now St. Tikhon) from 1920 (and perhaps earlier) until 1924. He was usually concelebrated by one or two metropolitans, several bishops and many priests and protodeacons. Once I had the opportunity to see and hear Archdeacon Father Konstantin Rozov, with his powerful, strong bass voice. He was of large and strong build and spoke litanies beautifully.

Patriarch Tikhon gave the impression of a very modest, spiritualized, benevolent church hierarch. He always blessed us boys, and, I think, all believers, with a kind smile and kind words, which we were infinitely happy about. On December days in those years there was always a lot of snow, and His Holiness the Patriarch came to the church with his cell attendant on an open sleigh drawn by a beautiful horse, to the sound of all the church bells. On the street he was met by the clergy and people, and he went into the temple. There were never any incidents or disturbances. The service was held without haste, solemnly, for quite a long time, and everyone rejoiced at the Patriarchal service. The temple was always crowded. A large choir, specially invited for this day, sang. Usually, on holidays, the church sang its own choir - 10-12 people, always harmoniously and without any special frills.

Sometimes His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon stood on the salt during the evening service, opposite the icon of St. great Catherine, depicted on the southern gate of the entrance to the altar, and prayed there. So apparently it was better for him to pray for all of Russia, for believers and for “those who hate and offend us.” I was left with an impression of Saint Tikhon when, while under house arrest on the second floor of the building located at the Northern Gate of the Donskoy Monastery, he walked on the platform near the Church of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, always blessing the people passing by from above, illuminating everyone with his smile. After the death of St. Patriarch Tikhon (1925), Catherine's Day was also celebrated in the church, but perhaps less solemnly. In 1925, on this day the service was led by the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky), who was arrested on December 14, 1925, was exiled and died there. In subsequent years, the service on Catherine's Day was usually performed by bishops, Administrator of the Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, who in those years were short-lived. On this day, the protodeacons or Father Mikhail Kholmogorov or Father Maxim Mikhailov (later an artist) always served, delighting the ears of the believers in the church with their singing. I had the opportunity to personally attend the funeral of St. Patriarch Tikhon, who died on March 25 (April 7), 1925. Thousands and thousands of people walked from Kaluga Square along Donskaya Street to the Donskoy Monastery to venerate his ashes and say goodbye to the extraordinary Shepherd of the Russian Orthodox Church.

I was in the monastery fence and saw how the body of the deceased Patriarch in an oak coffin was carried in their arms around the Great Cathedral. Then the procession headed to the Small Cathedral, where the Patriarch was buried under cover.

The service, burial and funeral service were performed by the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky) in the co-service of many metropolitans, bishops, priests, protodeacons, deacons, monks, etc. This whole mournful service and event left an unforgettable impression on my soul.

On April 5, 1992, I was lucky enough to be in the Donskoy Monastery, when the relics of St. Tikhon, discovered on February 7, 1992, were glorified and transferred from the Small Cathedral to the Great Cathedral of the Donskoy Monastery. St. Patriarch Tikhon was canonized at the Council of Bishops in 1989, held in the Danilov Monastery.

It should be said that for the Church of the Great Martyr Catherine, the time from the 20s of this century until its closure was not easy. The warm church had its own boiler room in the basement, from which heat was supplied to the church. During this period, it was always difficult and expensive to purchase fuel in sufficient quantities. Therefore, in the temple, especially in winter, in severe frosts, it was quite cold, and the clergy and we, the servants, had to “freeze.” Sometimes you breathe, and the “spirit” is visible. Usually, except on holidays, there were not so many people, and the income was not very large. Despite this, the temple was always kept in splendor. There were eminent parishioners in the temple who supported the temple and donated funds. The last time I had to be in church was on Easter in 1930.

In 1922, the Soviet government, ostensibly to help the starving people in Russia, confiscated church valuables. Thus, in the Izvestia newspaper on April 6, 1922, it is said that “the valuables of gold and silver were seized from the Church of Catherine the Martyr - 11 pounds 33 soil, 72 spools, which translated into kilograms is about 195 kg.” Among them, the silver royal doors from the summer church, donated by Catherine II, were removed and replaced with simple wooden ones of little artistic value. Gold and silver vestments were removed from the icons, and some of the sacred vessels were taken.

When describing the churches, I, unfortunately, missed the locations of the icons of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine. I'm filling this gap. An ancient icon of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine in the warm church was located on the southern wall of the church in the partition between two windows. She was quite large. To approach it, a platform was made and three steps on both sides for entry, framed by a fence. A small metal canopy was made above the icon.

In the summer church, the icon of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine was located at a small height above the floor, near the southern entrance to the temple on the right wall.

Closing of the temple and its consequences.

I cannot give the exact closing date of the temple, because... I was not in Moscow at that time. According to stories and descriptions, the temple was closed in 1931. When the temple was closed, the authorities were allowed to take only ONE ICON - the Holy Great Martyr Catherine to be transferred to the Church of the Resurrection of the Word, which was located in Bolshoy Monetchikov Lane, building 7. After its closure and demolition, In 1934 the parish moved to the Church of Flora and Lavra on Dubininskaya Street. After this temple was closed in 1935 or 1937, nothing was allowed to be taken from the temple. After the closure of the Church of the Great Martyr Catherine, there was housing on two floors in the summer church, and office space in the warm church. The tall multi-tiered bell tower was partially dismantled, leaving only its lower part at the same level as the summer church. The heads of both churches and crosses were broken. The entrance to the winter church was made in the lower part of the bell tower opposite the refectory of the summer church. Probably the entrance ended up in the main altar of the Spassky Church. Unfortunately, I was not there and did not see this disgrace.

Several years ago, the outside of the summer church was restored. The windows and doors were put in order, the head of the temple with the cross was restored.

The paintings in the summer church were defaced and almost all were destroyed. The painting inside the drum and a little on the left wing of the temple remained in poor condition. For several years, the premises of both the summer and winter temples have been occupied by the restoration center named after. Grabar.

In May 1992, there was an order from the mayor of Moscow, Yu. M. Luzhkov, to evict the center. Grabar from temples. This has not yet been done (December 1996). Only part of the summer church has been released for the needs of the church - without the refectory, where services are now held. The refectory and winter church are occupied by restorers.

In general, due to the barbaric and most disdainful attitude towards “architectural monuments” (and this is what a temple is considered to be), one should not be surprised at how disfigured something that was built with public money, such as, for example, a former warm temple.

Sources.

1. Tokmakov I. F. Historical sketch of the Church of St. great Catherine on Bolshaya Ordynka. M., 1882.
2. Clearing list of the Zamoskvoretsky forty. 1904.
3. Personal memories.