Bishop Savva of Krasnogorsk shall serve the Divine Liturgy and a molieben at the Marfo-Mariinskoe House of Mercy on 23 February, the 100th anniversary of its founding. After the services are completed, the worshippers shall be treated to a hot festive meal from mobile kitchens set up for the event. Also, a concert of spiritual music shall be held as a part of the event, a spokesman of the Andrei Pervozvanny (St Andrew the First-Called) Foundation (FAP) told Interfax-Religion. The FAP has taken an active role in the revival of this historic monastery.
The implementation of the restoration programme began in late 2006 under the leadership of the chairman of its board of trustees, Patriarch Aleksei II, and the two co-chairmen, Mayor Yuri Luzhkov of Moscow and Vladimir Yakunin, who heads both the Centre of Russia’s National Glory (TsRNS) and the FAP. The rehabilitation of the monastery was preceded by the taking of the relics of the New Martyrs Ss Grand Princess Elizabeth and Nun Barbara Fyodorovna to many dioceses of the MP in 2004-05. This event, held at the initiative and with direct participation of the FAP, was the first joint project of the MP and the ROCOR.
The Marfo-Mariinskoe House of Mercy was founded by Grand Princess Yelizaveta Fyodorovna Romanova in February 1909. She refused to leave Russia when the revolution came, so, she was arrested in the spring of 1918, and accepted a martyr’s death in a mine near Alapaevsk. The House of Mercy remained open until 1926. Since September 1944, the Cathedral of the Protection in the monastery was the location of the workshop for the Igor Grabar Icon Restoration Centre. The revival of the monastery began in 1992, when the municipal government turned the architectural complex over to the Church.
On 12 November 2007, the monastery was reconsecrated and six crosses were installed in six crosses on the domes of the Cathedral of the Protection. Patriarch Aleksei served the rite of lesser blessing at the cathedral on 15 December 2007. The late Metropolitan Laurus Skurla of the ROCOR received the International Prize of the FAP “For Faith and Loyalty” in a ceremony at the Cathedral of the Protection on 27 February 2008 “for his great personal contribution to the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church and the strengthening of the unity of the Russian people”. The formal reopening ceremony of the monastery was held on 15 September 2008.
Through the efforts of the programme participants, coordinated by the FAP, the architectural complex was reconstructed, including the Cathedral of the Protection, the Church of Ss Martha and Mary in the infirmary, the Golgofa (Calvary), the hostel of the sisters of mercy, the cell of Elizabeth Fyodorovna, the Sunday school with a flat for a priest, a house (for the Sunday School), the fence, gate-keeper’s hut and chapel, the gardener’s house, the pavilion in the park, a garage, and a equipment shed. The entire area was landscaped, with new plants in the garden.
As a part of the rehabilitation programme of the monastery, the FAP has undertaken a number of projects aimed at reviving the traditions of charity and philanthropy of the sisterhood. The photo exhibition, From Charity to Holiness, dedicated to Grand Princess St Yelizaveta Fyodorovna and the Marfo-Mariinskoe House of Mercy, was presented In Yekaterinburg, Verkhnei Pyshma, Veliki Novgorod, Arkhangelsk, Smolensk, Ivanovo, Kostroma, Belgorod, Dubna, Riga, and the Crimea. On 14-20 November 2008, at the Moscow Theatre of Russian Drama Kamernaya Tsena (Chamber Scene), with the support of the FAP, the 10th all-Russian School Theatre Festival was dedicated to the memory of Grand Princess St Yelizaveta Fyodorovna, and the 2nd St Yelizaveta Children’s Reading was held on 30 October 2008 in Smolensk. In Moscow, a series of readings dedicated to St Yelizaveta were held in the Cathedral of the Protection on 1 November 2008.
Interfax-Religion
20 February 2009
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=28956 (in Russian)
