Sretensky Monastery

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Sretensky Monastery (Russian: Сретенский монастырь) is a male monastery in Moscow, founded by Grand Prince Vasili I in 1397. It used to be located close to the present-day Red Square, but in the early 16th century it was moved to what is now Bolshaya Lubyanka Street. The Sretensky Monastery gave its name to adjacent streets and byways, namely Sretenka Street, Sretensky Boulevard, Sretensky Lane, Sretensky Deadend, and Sretensky Gates Square.

The monastery is named after one of the twelve Great Feasts of Russian Orthodox Church Sretenie Gospodne (Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple), with Sretenie being a Church Slavonic word for "meeting".

The monastery was built on the spot where the Muscovites and the ruling prince had met the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir in 1395, moved from Vladimir to Moscow to protect the capital from the imminent invasion of Tamerlane. Soon thereafter, the armies of Tamerlane retreated and the grateful monarch founded the monastery to commemorate the miracle. In 1552, the Muscovites gathered at the walls of the monastery to meet the Russian army returning after the conquest of Kazan.

In the 1920s, the monastery was closed down. In 1928-1930, most of its buildings were dismantled by the Soviets, including the Church of Mary of Egypt (14th-16th century) and Church of Saint Nicholas (16th century). Only the Cathedral of the Meeting of the Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir (собор Сретения Владимирской иконы Богоматери) with a side chapel to the Nativity of John the Forerunner (built in 1679 by the order of tsar Fyodor Alexeyevich) survived to this day.

The service in the Sretensky Cathedral was resumed in 1991. The cathedral was transferred under the authority of the Pskovo-Pechorsky Monastery in 1994, but nowadays it is a separate monastic establishment, with the Patriarch Alexy II as its hegumen.

[edit] Modern views of Sretensky Cathedral

[edit] External links

• (Russian) Official website
• (Russian) History of the monastery

Monasteries of Moscow
Andronikov | Bogoyavlensky | Chudov | Danilov | Donskoy | Krutitsy | Marfo-Mariinsky | Nikolsky | Novodevichy | Novospassky | Perervinsky | Simonov | Sretensky | Ugreshi | Voznesensky | Vysokopetrovsky | Zaikonospassky | Zlatoustovsky