Cyril Belozersky Monastery

Russian Fivaida
; Fivaida ... This is a harmonious name refers to the desert area near the Egyptian city of Thebes, where the first centuries of Christianity, committed spiritual feats of the holy fathers, zealous for the faith, the power of prayer and spiritual combustion won any temptation and earned God's grace.
But in Russia we have their Fivaida, only North. This - the ancient land of Vologda. Here in the wilderness of forests, over the clear waters of the quiet lakes, from the time of Sergius refuge from the madding crowd Russian Orthodox zealots, praying for the salvation of suffering of our people. Among them are based hermitages and monasteries in the first row is the Dormition Cyril Belozersky Monastery, created works of St. Cyril - one of the wisest companions Sergius. This is the place to the XIX century, has earned the reputation of the "center of radiation of living holiness».

sign in the sky over the lake Siversky
28 August 1997, the procession participants - representatives of the clergy, many pilgrims and inhabitants of the Vologda region - who celebrated a solemn 600-anniversary of St. Cyril-Belozersky Monastery, have witnessed a very rare natural phenomenon: the solar rainbow, which in a few laps on a dazzling blue, completely cloudless sky surrounded by a bright shining star.
In this marvelous dance of colors, whose appearance (given the state of the atmosphere and dry weather conditions) in terms of physical and meteorological sciences looks absolutely fantastic, faithful saw a good omen. As if the powers of heaven rejoiced that decent Christian monastery of the Russian North is not sunk into oblivion under the onslaught of godless evil, but it gradually revived and finds its former glory ... And while the returning of the Orthodox Church in 1999, Cyril-Belozersky monastery until a total of four inhabitants of (the rector and Three novices), while Ivan the Terrible the number of monks more than two hundred, Ignition novelty lamp of spiritual fire gives hope for the rebirth of life-giving traditions of Northern Thebaid ...

soul-peace and eternal salvation for
The architectural ensemble of the monastery Kirillova impression of an unusually solid, stately and manly way. All 11 of its temples, set in the XV - XVI centuries, and most important - the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built by master Prokhor Rostov with 20 masons in 5 warm summer months in 1497, and his cousins, named one in honor of the archangel Gabriel, the second - the Beheading head of the Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John, the third - St. Vladimir, as well as others, amazingly accurate blend and complement each other. Even an inexperienced visitor to their strict harmony sets the mood for a silent prayer of silence and internal samopogruzheniya in the depths of his own heart, that St. Cyril, as is evident from his Life, prized above all, and regarded as the first terms of initiation of man to God, the soul is not available for covert insinuations of Satan force ...
Actually, for the sake of gaining spiritual silence came he had already attained the age of 60, Archimandrite Moscow Simonov Monastery, who comes from a noble boyar family Velyaminov, together with his like-minded monk Ferapont in Moscow for not a short cool Lakeland. According to legend, during the prayer in the Simonov monastery before the image of the Virgin holy man heard her voice: "Get thee hence from here, Cyril, and go on Beloozero, there is prepared Ty place, it is vozmozheshi be saved ...»
long way, coupled with a spiritual brother to the desired goal of ascetic piety, until I knew on the shores of Lake Siverskoye a place that shows it was Virgin. Here, on a hillside, Cyril and FERAPONT in 1397 erected a stone cross, dug out his cell and made a chapel. Soon FERAPONT left Cyril and 15 miles from the hill on the shore of Lake Borodavskogo, began pustynnozhitelstvovat independently, giving rise to the glorious Ferapontov Monastery ...
dragged ashore Siverskoye lake as once the mountain Makovec, the teacher of his, St. Sergius, who searched for salvation monks and local residents.

... And nothing personal
and the first in the new monastery church was consecrated in the name of the Dormition of the Theotokos, in what one can not see the connection with Moscow and raised in the Kremlin, Assumption Cathedral - then the main church of Russia. Following the example of St Sergius Trinity Monastery established Cyril in his monastery of strict rules of the hostel: collaborative work, common property, and literally nothing personal. In the cells could not have any things to bring back food and water. Outsiders, that is far from the spiritual to those conversations were condemned. It was done in silence, and during the long prayers, monks were not allowed even to lean against the wall, easing the load on the legs ...
stricter all to yourself was Cyril. He wore a tattered, many times subordinate clothing, rejected the proposed donation of boyars ... Do not let the abbot and monks go for alms to the laity, that by the standards of even the present time, looks amazing.
; Founded by Cyril monastery became a spiritual homeland for new abodes of the Russian North, created Savvaty Solovetsky, Alexander Ovenskoye, Cornelius Komelskim. Natives of St. Cyril of Lake Beloe laid eight monasteries, and one of his "daughter" mansions, Kornilievo-Komelskaya, became ancestor of all thirteen ... All in all, in the XVII century, during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich (1613 - 1645), in "Russian Fivaida - Vologda and Belozerskaya dioceses - had 47 monasteries and 2 girls'.
And while many of the monastery is now destroyed, and the mention of some were only on the map, so that traces to find it almost impossible, they glow lit the spiritual light, heartfelt prayers of monks and nuns visible presence on the northern land. He survived, say, in a special hospitality, warmth and cordiality of relations that are inherent in the people of this region today, striking a contrast with how, for example, do not like to answer questions visitors tired of the hustle and other "pleasures" of life in the capital from Moscow ...

non-possessors against Josephites
HOW MANY benefits a person needs for a decent life? This question, perhaps, at all times will be one of the most vital. And for decades, starting with the last quarter of the XV century, he found a kind of refraction in the fierce disputes spiritual fathers of the Russian nation which belonged to the opposing camps and non-possessors Josephites. Fates decreed Cyril Belozersky monastery was in the midst of controversy, because of these walls came founder nestyazhatelskogo flow and its head, Nil of Sora (in the world Nick Mike), and then here was the situation of the prisoner's spiritual heir and successor, Prince Vassian Patrikeev. At the Church Council in 1503 Sora warmly supported the idea of