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Among the ancient Russian monasteries, one of the most famous for a long time was the Kursk Root Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God of the Desert. This is one of the first monasteries in the Kursk region. The root desert is located on the right bank of the Tuskar River, 30 kilometers from Kursk in the direction to the north. In the dark blue of the vast Korensky forest, the crosses of the monastery churches shone with gold, the white-stone arches descended in slender ledges to the river and the overhead church of the Life-Giving Spring, reminiscent of descents into the caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra or coastal Athos monasteries. Founded in 1597, on the site of the appearance of the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign".

Successful in the construction of the monastery was the period of the beginning of the XVIII century. In 1713, the Church of the Life-Giving Spring grew over the site of the appearance of the icon - a memory of the zeal for it of the first domestic field marshal Count Boris Petrovich Sheremetev. In 1764 the monastery became independent from the Znamensky Monastery. By the end of the 18th century, the desert had a completely completed look. On both sides of the Holy Gates there are two-storey rector's and fraternal cells. In the left side of the monastery, the Church of All Saints was founded in 1797. Behind the monastery in 1793 two hotel yards were built. There was a large monastery garden. Emperor Paul I granted the holy monastery land and a mill in the village of Dolgoe. At the beginning of the 19th century, 30 monastics worked spiritually in the monastery. In 1806, by the Decree of the Most Holy Synod, it was allowed to leave the miraculous icon in the desert until September 12. The year 1816 is memorable for the fact that an archimandry was established in the monastery. The construction of the Church of All Saints was completed under Hieromonk Palladius; it was consecrated in 1819. Pallady became the first archimandrite of the Root Hermitage. From 1832 to 1835, steep stone descents were built in the monastery, going from the upper monastery square to the lower Church of the Life-Giving Spring. They surprisingly harmoniously fit into the ensemble of the church, creating maximum comfort for the pilgrims. From all the steps and platforms, the middle of the church was visible and the divine service performed in it was perfectly audible (the gatherings have now been restored in their original form).

On July 1, 1852, in the desert, according to the project of the famous architect K. A. Ton, a new temple was laid on the site of a dilapidated church that had become by the middle of the 19th century. In 1860, the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built and consecrated. The history of the monastery is connected with the life in it of one of the outstanding enlighteners of the past - Sylvester Medvedev. He was a monk in Korennaya from 1675 to 1678, did a lot for the development of book printing, and became one of the outstanding Russian bibliographers. The iconostasis installed in the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God of the Root Hermitage is one of the most significant works of the masters of the Holy Trinity Brotherhood from the town of Shchigry, Kursk Region.

During the Civil War, in 1919, the icon (which had been kept in the Kursk Znamensky Monastery (Kursk) for most of the year) was taken out of Kursk: in

When we visited our parents in Kursk this summer, the only trip around the district not "on business" (for example, to visit someone for pancakes :) was a trip to Korennaya Pustyn - an Orthodox male monastery. This is one of the most famous sights of the Kursk region, a place of special importance for religious people, and simply beautiful. Below are sunny summer photos and my retelling of the history of this place.


The Root Hermitage is a male monastery located about 30 km from the city of Kursk, based on the supposed site of the appearance of the Kursk Root Icon. According to legend, the icon was found by two hunters on September 8, 1295 in a forest not far from Kursk, which was burned by the Tatars. One of them found a small icon lying face down on the root of a tree, and when he lifted it up to examine it, a spring gushed from the place where the icon lay. At this place, together with his comrades, he cut down a small chapel, where they placed the icon. Since then, Kursk has been several times destroyed by the Poles and Tatars, and the icon was taken to Moscow by "false tsars". Since 1618, the icon has been kept for most of the time in the Znamensky Monastery of Kursk, and only in the summer it was transferred to the Korennaya Hermitage. The annual religious procession with thousands of pilgrims, which accompanied the transfer of the icon from Kursk to the Root Hermitage, is depicted in Repin's famous painting "The Religious Procession in the Kursk Governorate", here on this one:

In addition to the monastery, the place is famous for its Korensky Fair, which has been held nearby since the beginning of the 18th century. In the middle of the 19th century, the fair experienced its heyday and was one of the three largest in the country along with Nizhny Novgorod and Irbit. Since 2001, the fair has started its work again and since then it has been held annually in mid-June.
The monastery was founded in 1597 by decree of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, but the construction took a long time, in the "Time of Troubles" the monastery was devastated, and they began to restore it again only from 1611.
The monastery stands on the high bank of the Tuskar River. We go down to the bell tower:

Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, and on the left - a refectory with cells:

Behind the church, not so long ago, a monument was erected to Seraphim of Sarov, who was born and raised in Kursk.

The legend says that when he was ten years old and he became seriously ill, an annual religious procession with the Kursk Root Icon took place along their street. Because of the sudden onset of rain, the procession entered their courtyard. The icon was carried over a sick child, he kissed it and soon recovered.

View from the coast, such a native Central Russian landscape - hills, blue sky and the distance:

We went down to the river and drank water from the spring. Font:

We walked along the river. On the one hand, the path goes into the forest, where, as it turned out, there is another source and a bath is equipped:

Came back:

We walked to the bridge to the right:

Here, it seems, both those who came to the monastery and locals from neighboring villages bathe together. In general, since the last time we were here 5 years ago, the infrastructure has been greatly improved: slopes to the water, paths, benches have been equipped.

On the opposite bank of the river there was a field with weeds)

The Kursk Monastery was built in the 13th century on the banks of the Tuskar River, about thirty kilometers from the center of modern Kursk. The place for the construction of this famous temple was not chosen by chance. It was here, according to ancient legends, that the ancient icon “The Sign” of the Mother of God was found.

The acquisition of this miraculous icon took place in 1295, according to local legends. For these lands, these were difficult times of constant raids by the Tatar-Mongolian troops led by Batu Khan. Local hunters were stalking their prey when one of them noticed an icon standing by a large tree. The hunter took it in his hands, and a small spring immediately gushed out of the ground. The man hid the icon on the same tree, and later told his friends about his amazing find.

On the site of the amazing find, the hunters erected a small chapel, in which they placed the icon. A little later, a temple of the Nativity of the Virgin was erected on the site of the chapel, and the sculptures at the entrance to the cathedral remind everyone of the amazing find and the hunters.

Numerous pilgrims began to converge on the place where they found the miraculous image. Over time, there were so many of them that Prince Vasily Shemyaka ordered the icon to be transported to Rylsk. However, he did not show her any honors and soon became completely blind. The prince managed to see clearly only when he publicly promised to rebuild a huge temple in the city and consecrate it with the name of the Nativity of the Virgin. The icon did not stay in the new temple for very long: after a few months it miraculously disappeared and reappeared at the site of its original discovery. Several times they tried to return her to the temple, but she stubbornly returned back.

Another old legend tells about an attempt to set fire to the chapel during the next raid of the Tatar-Mongolian troops.

After several unsuccessful attempts, the invaders decided to simply cut the wonderful icon in half. After they left, the elder Bogolyub came up with the idea to try to collect it and put it in its place. As soon as the cut halves touched, they immediately grew together before the eyes of the surprised old man.

Soon, rumors about the miraculous icon reached Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. He ordered that every effort be made to restore the city of Kursk, and he took the holy image to Moscow. Here, a worthy cypress frame and a silver frame with gilding, precious stones and pearls were prepared for the icon. The queen, together with her daughter, sewed a veil for this salary with their own hands, decorating it with gold embroidery. After that, the miraculous icon was returned back, but was no longer placed in a chapel, but in a new rebuilt monastery and the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Field Marshal Sheremetyev donated a considerable amount for the repair of this temple. The building was restored and overlaid with stone masonry on all sides. And above the source, at the place where the image was found, a small church with stone gates was erected.

The indigenous hermitage has experienced a lot over the years of its existence. It was destroyed and robbed during the years of the revolution, and then during the Great Patriotic War. It stood in a dilapidated form until 1989, when it was decided to breathe new life into it. Today, the Root Hermitage deservedly occupies the third place of honor among the main shrines of the Russian Church.

Being in the monastery of the Root Hermitage, which is forty kilometers from Kursk, I heard about the healing of cancer patients from bathing in holy springs and drinking water from them. And there are more than sixteen of them on the territory of the Root Hermitage Monastery. There is also a spring in which Seraphim of Sorovsky was healed, there is a spring of "Panteleimon the Healer". All sixteen holy springs flow into the river, the waters of which, flowing through reserved places, are also considered to be healing.

During one of my visits to the Root Desert in the early spring morning, I was lucky to observe the insight of a blind girl while bathing at the “Eye Spring”. Even a few years later, after this miracle happened, in my ears there is an exclamation of an unfortunate girl who washed her eyes in a holy spring: “Mom, look, the Mother of God is in front of me!” - and a minute later: "Mom, mom, I see the light." Goosebumps ran through all those who watched this scene, and tears of tenderness and joy flowed from the women.
The remarkable church writer Sergei Nilus wrote about bathing in the spring of St. Seraphim of Sarov: “Without giving myself time to cool down, all as I was, inflamed by fast walking and scorching heat, I undressed, sank under the tap, from which the icy water of the source flowed in a silvery stream, crossed myself: “I believe, Lord,” and three times gave this water to pour all over himself and sick members.

The first moment I was completely suffocated: the icy water burned me - it took my breath away. But what a wondrous feeling came upon leaving the bath! It was as if a new stream of new life was poured into all my veins - the distant youth seemed to have returned again ... I simply rejoiced and loved Father Seraphim, as they love a doctor who manages to instantly quench the unbearable, burning pain at the moment when this pain stops . This fiery love with which my heart suddenly ignited, this joy of love by faith, were they not my spiritual final recovery, which is without any comparison more important than any bodily healing?

And here is a case published in the Tver Diocesan Gazette in April 1885. The priest of the city of Murom of the Nikolo-Preobrazhenskaya Church, John Chizhov, writes about it.
“I want to describe a wonderful case that happened with one of my spiritual sons, a Murom merchant Ivan Ivanovich Zasukhin in 1882. He developed tumors behind his ears and in his right groin. The tumor in the groin was cut. At first she slept, and then began to grow stronger. The invited doctors recognized the patient's situation as hopeless and even determined the day of his death.

The patient began to prepare for death. As a true Christian, he heartily confessed and was granted Holy Communion. With true contrition of heart that the life of a young man, leaving behind him a wife and five babies, ends so early, I began to read the prayers of departure. Having finished my prayers and blessed him, I no longer had any hope of a successful outcome for the patient. But on the third day I hear that the patient got better. The wife said that their neighbor M. F. Bychkova, out of pity for the dying, offered a new medicine, but not human, but Divine. As soon as, after reading the waste paper, I went out, she brought water taken from the source of Father Seraphim. The patient could not open his mouth. From a teaspoon she poured a few drops into his mouth, and poured the rest of the water over his head. The patient no longer took food - everything erupted out. After pouring water into him, he calmed down and fell asleep. A few hours later I woke up and asked for a drink. The wife, bewildered, gave him milk, which was forbidden to him. The patient drank, the stomach accepted the milk. Then he began to walk. The doctors suggested repeating the operation in the groin. But he decided to go to the Sarov Desert. Doctors held me back, as the road was long and bumpy. But he was persistent. The wife, listening to the words of the doctors, took with her everything needed for burial. They also took the children so that they could say goodbye to their father.

We arrived on the eve of the feast of the Holy Trinity, and the patient wished to be in the Church for the all-night vigil. He was brought on a stretcher from the hotel to the Church and carried almost in his arms into it.

After the service, the patient on crutches, with the help of his wife, went up to venerate the icon of the feast and receive anointing with holy oil. “When I venerated the icon and received the anointing, my eyes involuntarily turned to the holy icon of the Mother of God standing in the iconostasis, which had previously been in the cell of Elder Seraphim, and at that moment I felt that my sore leg was firmly on the floor and without pain for me. Not remembering what I was doing, I raised my crutches and, without their help, to the surprise of all those present, went to my place. When the service ended, I boldly got to my feet and left the Church, where my servants were waiting for me with a stretcher; but I did not need their help, I even gave crutches and walked to the hotel itself (about a quarter of a mile away) without any help.

The next morning after the service, the patient hurried to the source. Feeling the cold jet of the spring on me, I noticed that this cold jet aroused some kind of relieving heat in the body, and there was more strength.

“I lived in this monastery for several days, in tearful prayers thanking God for His wondrous help, through His Saint Seraphim.”
The patient is currently healthy. He does not use any medical devices."

Fortunately, the healing springs have not been destroyed. As before, they carry their life-giving forces in Sarov and Diveevo, in the Holy Trinity Sergeyeva Lavra and Optina and Root deserts. And throughout Mother Russia.

One of the most ancient and famous holy places in Russia - the monastery of the Root Hermitage is located near the city of Kursk in the town of Svoboda. The monastery was founded in 1597 by decree of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. The name of the monastery was in honor of finding the miraculous icon "The Sign" Kursk Root. On a high hill above the Tuskar River, prayers have not ceased for seven centuries, people have not stopped walking, the holy spring has not dried up.

STORY

In the 13th century (1295), during those difficult times of the invasions of Batu Khan into Russia and the Kursk lands, the “Sign” icon was acquired. Hunters who hunted in the dense forests near the Tuskar River saw an icon at the base of a large tree, lying on its bare roots. When one of the hunters picked up the icon, a miracle happened, a spring gushed from this place. Then it was decided to build a chapel in this place, where they put the miraculous icon.

Soon, having learned about this, numerous pilgrims were drawn here. And then Vasily Shemyaka, Prince of Rylsk, decided to transfer the icon from distant places to the city of Rylsk, to the temple he built in the name of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. However, the icon somehow again ended up at the place where it was found. Several times they tried to transport it to the city, but every time the icon ended up in the place of its appearance.

The news of the miraculous icon spread throughout Russia and beyond. The next raid of the Tatar-Mongol happened in 1383. Having robbed the cities, they decided to destroy the shrine as well. They failed to burn the chapel, the damp wood did not catch fire, they cut the icon with a blade and threw the pieces to the ground. After the wicked left the neighborhood, the elder Bogolyub found the remaining particles and put them together. And again a miracle happened - the icon grew together.

Monastery Root Hermitage, view from the east side, 1900-2016

In 1597 Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich decides to transport the Kursk icon to Moscow for veneration. The tsar himself met the Icon brought to Moscow with his nobility and army. She was placed in a setting made of silver with gilding, adorned with pearls and precious stones. After staying in the capital, the icon again went home, to the Root Hermitage, where, at the direction of the tsar, a monastery was opened and a cathedral was built in the name of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. In 1618, a religious procession took place from the Znamensky Monastery in Kursk to the Root Hermitage. Since then, a religious procession, with the icon of the Sign, to the place of its acquisition began to be arranged annually. The famous Russian artist I.E. Repin depicted this procession in his painting The Religious Procession in the Kursk Province.
A difficult time came in 1634. The Kursk lands were attacked by the Poles, and in 1643 a new raid of the Crimean Tatars was transferred to the monastery.

Religious procession in the Kursk province. Hood. I.E. Repin	Procession to the Root Hermitage in Kursk on the street. Moscow

And yet, despite the difficulties and devastation, the Kursk Root Hermitage has not sunk into oblivion. From the very beginning of the 18th century, the monastery began to be intensively built and reconstructed. Thanks to the donations of Field Marshal Boris Petrovich Sheremetyev, who visited the holy monastery, a new stone church of the Nativity of the Theotokos was erected instead of the dilapidated one, stone gates and a gate Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord with a chapel Archangel Michael.

They also built a hostel for monks and a number of other buildings.
In 1793, at the behest of Empress Catherine II, Gostiny Dvor and large shopping arcades began to be built near the walls of the monastery according to the project of the outstanding architect G. Quarenghi. Thus, the famous Root Fair, which became the second most important in Russia, after Nizhny Novgorod, began to work.
From year to year, the traditional religious processions to the Root Hermitage became more and more numerous, as well as the fair, the auctions at which were timed to coincide with this event. Processions of the cross gathered a huge number of people. There were years when the procession stretched for all 27 miles, when the first pilgrims entered the vicinity of the monastery, the latter were still on Red Square near the Znamensky Cathedral in Kursk.

In the monastery Root hermitage. Photo 1900 - 2016

In 1819, another church was consecrated in Root Hermitage - the fourth - "All Saints", located in the refectory building. In 1825, a new church was laid in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. In 1830, a brick factory was opened on the territory of the monastery. The monastery mill near the village of Dolgoe provided the inhabitants with flour. Consecrated in 1860, the new temple was one of the best examples of the Russian-Byzantine style.
In 1875, the fifth monastery church was built - in honor of the icon of the Mother of God of the Sign on another nearby hill.
From the Nativity Church, standing on a high hill, down to the holy spring, a descent was built. Thousands of pilgrims walked along the covered stone staircase-gallery to the holy springs and the temple in the name of the icon "Life-Giving Spring".

Russian art sheet, No. 18: "Root hermitage in the northern side (30 versts from the city of Kursk). The interior of the church above the Holy Well in the Root Monastery at the confluence of pilgrims on the ninth Friday after Easter. Root hermitage from the Tuskari River (eastern side). Sobornaya square in the city of Kursk, during the removal of icons: The Sign of the Mother of God to the Root Hermitage, on the ninth Friday after Easter Market in the city of Kursk with a confluence of pilgrims.
The author of the lithograph Vasily Fedorovich Timm is a Russian painter and graphic artist. The author of the drawings Konstantin Alexandrovich Trutovsky (01/28/1826 (Kursk) - 03/17/1893, the village of Yakovlevka, Oboyansky district, Kursk province) is a Russian genre painter, illustrator, academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts.
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The 20th century was coming, the century of persecutors of the church, the century of new atheists, destroyers and the century of creators. In 1918, the Root Hermitage was renamed "Svoboda Township". In 1922, according to the "Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee", church valuables were seized and taken to Moscow to be exchanged and sold abroad. In 1923, the monastery was completely closed officially. Many buildings were dismantled into bricks, the bell towers, the covered gallery, the domes of churches were demolished, the Bogoroditsky forest with relic oak forest was cut down. The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was completely blown up. The unique library of the monastery, looted and taken outside, disappeared. A sanatorium was made on the site of the monastery, and where the majestic Nativity Church towered, a fountain with plaster figures of bears was built.
That's just the memory of people could not be erased. Anyway, they went to the holy springs for water, praying in a desecrated place. Some monks, remaining devoted to the Holy Place, huddled in dugouts not far from the monastery.
During the Great Patriotic War and the occupation of the Kursk region, the former monastery and its buildings also suffered.

Well, after the war, a vocational school was set up here.
Time passed, epochs changed, this is how one can characterize the stay in power of the leaders of the Soviet state. The era of Stalin, terrible and unjustifiably cruel, has gone into oblivion. Other people came, trying to whitewash themselves, blaming everything bad on their predecessors.
Nevertheless, the struggle with faith continued, the atheistic frenzy did not pass, but the authorities no longer fought Orthodoxy so militantly and loudly. So, quietly, in the mid-60s, in order to stop any pilgrimage to the place of worship, the communist leadership concreted the holy spring at the foot of the mountain. But tons of concrete could not hold the will and faith of the people, the source made its way lower and in several places at once. It was a sign that the time of truth and repentance would come, the time of creation and reflection on what happened to us, to the country…

Back in the days of the USSR, thanks to the efforts and prayers of the Archbishop of Kursk and Belgorod Yuvenaly and at the request of the Patriarch of All Russia Alexy II, the Root Hermitage was returned to the bosom of the Orthodox Church.
On August 15, 1989, after 66 years of oblivion, the first service was held on the site where the majestic church in the name of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos stood, and in June 1990 the first religious procession in modern history took place. Since 1989, the revival of the Root Desert began.
Already in 1990, the entrance gates of the monastery were restored. The following year, the bell tower above the Holy Gates and the monastery refectory were restored. The surviving foundation of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was discovered. Maybe it was prudently covered with earth and given to our generation as a memory of the past, distant and not so far, in order to understand and realize good and evil, and our deeds, righteous and vile, in order to strengthen our faith in the truth and not betray it anymore never…

The end of the 20th century was marked by many restoration works in the monastery. A unique covered gallery with descents to the spring and the Temple of the Life-Giving Spring were restored. The cell building, the household yard were restored, a skete with a house church of St. Seraphim of Sarov was built.

On August 1, 1998, a monument to Seraphim of Sarov by sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov was unveiled in the Root Hermitage.

In the new XXI century, the main cathedral church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos was restored, the painting of the Holy Gates was restored. The temple has a unique porcelain iconostasis made by Yekaterinburg craftsmen. Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin - consecrated by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on September 24, 2009

The revived shrine, photo 2016

The territory of the monastery was ennobled and equipped. Arranged paths and approaches to the holy springs. As before, thousands of believers from different parts of Russia, near and far abroad go to the water, which gives strength and faith, heals and quenches thirst.
The miraculous icon (its list) of the Mother of God "The Sign" of the Kursk Root is brought in the summer from the Znamensky Monastery in Kursk. The revival of the shrine continues even now, in 2016, the embankment of the Tuskar River was equipped on the territory of the monastery, lighting was installed. There are paths to the holy springs, and there are six of them in the Root Desert:

1. Spring at the site of the appearance of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God "The Sign" of the Kursk Root in 1295
2. Source of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
3. Source Rev. Seraphim of Sarov
4. The source of the "Kazan" icon of the Mother of God
5. Spring of the Great Martyr Panteleimon
6. Source Rev. Seraphim of Sarov (farm)

The path to the source, the Monument to Seraphim of Sarov, the source at the place where the icon "The Sign" was found

Recently, in the Root Desert, after a break of almost a century, the production and sale of the legendary "Root gingerbread" was resumed, baked two hundred years ago according to old recipes without yeast. Since ancient times, root gingerbreads have been famous throughout Russia, they were treated to both the surrounding peasants and numerous pilgrims.

Currently, there are free tours of the temple complex in the Root Desert. They will tell you about the difficult history of the monastery, show you its territory, and lead you to the holy springs.

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How to get to the Root Desert:

Buses and fixed-route taxis run from Kursk to the place "Svoboda", the journey takes about 30 minutes. They depart from Dubrovinsky Street (tram stop "Railway Hospital"). It is very close to the railway station - 3 stops by tram, from the station you can take a bus or walk, it will take 15-20 minutes.

If you are traveling by car, then we recommend that you visit not only the Root Hermitage Monastery, but also the monuments of the Severny Fas memorial complex, including the Teplovskie Heights, erected in honor of the famous battle on the Kursk Bulge in 1943 . If you are driving along the M2 "Crimea" highway from Moscow, then you need to turn left just before the village of "Upper Lyubazh", a sign to "Ponyri". Well, if you are coming from the direction of Belgorod, then after passing "Upper Lubazh" and climbing up the hill from the lowland, we turn right, the pointer is the same - to "Ponyri". All monuments are located along the road to Ponyri, you will see them and be able to drive up to them. In Ponyri themselves, near the railway station, there is a memorial to the Heroes of the Northern Face of the Kursk Bulge, and a historical and memorial museum is also located here. To get to the Korennaya Pustyn from Ponyri, look at the signs for Zolotukhino, after crossing the Kursk-Moscow railway, continue along the main road. Of course, this is not a freeway, but it is quite smooth and good road. In this case, you will arrive in Svoboda from the north, in the village itself there will be a sign “Root Monastery”, turn left.
Of course, if your goal is to visit only the Root Desert, then from Belgorod it is better to go through Kursk.

2018