Leushinsky monastery began with the construction of a small wooden church in the village of the same name in the Novgorod province. Landowner G.V. Kargopoltseva allocated funds for the construction, a church was dedicated in honor of Ion the Baptist. At the same time, the merchant G. M. Medvedev donated the icon of Praise to the Mother of God, which soon became famous for the miraculous. It was in 1862.
Creation of a monastery
The fame of the Leushinsky shrine quickly spread in the district, this prompted the nun of the Rybinsk monastery Sergius to create a new monastery. Initially, there was the Desert Forerunner community, where 17 sisters lived in two small houses. From 1877 to 1881, the community was led by a nun of the Goritsky monastery Leonty. During this time, great work was carried out on the construction and improvement of these places. Two stone houses appeared for the sisters, a church was repaired, a house church was built.
The third of the sisters, due to whom the Leushinsky monastery arose, was the nun Taisiya of the Znamensky monastery. Her efforts continued beautification and construction, local traditions were introduced, prayers were held, which allowed renaming the community into the John the Baptist Convent. In 1885, the nun Taisia became his first abbess.
Mother Superior Taisiya (Maria Vasilievna Solopova)
The founder of the monastery led the monastery 34 years before the day of her death. During this time, the Leushinsky monastery achieved the glory of the "Northern Lavra", rightfully considered the third monastery in the country after Diveev and Shamordin.
Having received a good education in St. Petersburg, and showing great literary abilities, Maria Solopova went to the monastery, considering service to God as her true calling. She received tonsure in 1870, lived in several monasteries, performing various obediences, the last of which, before being appointed to Leushino, was the treasurer of the Znamensky monastery on the Volkhov River.
The abbess of the Leushinsky monastery, Taisiya, worked hard to create a well-known, prosperous monastery from a small monastery. The territory was rebuilt, new temples and buildings appeared, paths were lined with slabs. But the main thing is that she managed to establish good relations with local residents who were previously opposed to the monastery. An almshouse and a hospital with 10 beds appeared in the monastery, where specially trained sisters, a library, and three schools worked. Education of children was carried out on monastery money, and the quality of education was considered the best in the Novgorod province.
Before the revolution, 460 natives lived in the monastery, who ran a farm, worked in the fields, kept livestock, worked in various workshops. Their products were accepted as a gift by the imperial family, and the abbess was awarded a personal meeting with the royal couple 7 times, which was unusual for a provincial nun.
The development of the Leushinsky monastery under the direction of mother Taisiya continued not only on its territory. Over the years, three farmsteads were opened: in St. Petersburg, Rybinsk and Cherepovets, two hermitages appeared, a pier was built near the village of Borki, where all passenger ships sailing along Sheksna began to moor.
Mother Taisia buried herself in 1915, leaving her successor Abbess Agnia one of the best monasteries in Russia.
Monastery Closure
After the revolution, it was renamed to preserve the monastery. In 1919, the Leushinsky monastery ceased to exist officially, turning into a female labor commune. And in 1923, the new Leushino state farm was headed by a secular man who did not want to delve into the concerns of sisters who did not leave the monastery walls.
In the early 30s, the natives, as an alien element, were evicted, and those who opposed such a decision were repressed. The monastery buildings passed to the authorities, who opened a school here for hard-to-educate children.
Since services and monastic tonsure continued in the monastery until 1932, the clergy considers the closing time the forced removal of the last nuns from the monastery.
Construction of the Rybinsk reservoir
The well-known Big Volga plan, thanks to which a huge breakthrough was made in the development of industry and the defense capability of the Soviet country, was accepted for execution in 1923. The construction of the eight largest hydroelectric facilities solved the energy problems of the young Union, made the Volga a transport highway along its entire length.
The solution to this issue was accompanied by huge sacrifices. Colossal areas of forests were cut down, an even larger area of floodplain meadows with high-quality forage grasses went under water, a tremendous intervention was made in violation of the ecology, living conditions of local representatives of flora and fauna. But the biggest blow was the eviction of locals from the flooded territories. Destroyed houses, buildings, temples. 700 settlements were hidden under water, the city of Mologa completely disappeared, Kalyazin, Uglich, Myshkin and other cities were flooded, having lost part of their property.
Flooding of the Leushinsky monastery
In 1935, construction of a hydroelectric power station in Rybinsk and Uglich began, preparations were underway for flooding the territories. The former territory of the monastery fell into this zone. The documents assure that on the eve of her appointment to the Leushinsky monastery, mother Taisiya had a prophetic dream about the flooding of these places.
The heads of the monastery churches towered above the water until the 60s of the last century; for their concealment, the depth of the reservoir was not enough. Then they collapsed. The driest summer in the long-term observation period occurred in 2002.
The water level has critically decreased, and islands began to appear on the map of the Rybinsk reservoir. So, from the water, the preserved walls of the buildings of the former Leushinsky monastery became visible. A moleben was served on the island.
Creation of the Novoleushinsky John the Baptist Monastery
In the town of Miaxe in memory of the deceased monastery in 2015, a new church was consecrated in the name of John the Baptist, which is not far from the old monastery. A new community of six sisters was created here, who lived in an old, merchant's house near the temple. They were engaged in farming and land improvement. At the end of 2016, the Holy Synod granted the request for the opening of the Novouleushinsky monastery in the village of Myaksa, appointing him Superior as the nun Cyril. The history of the Leushinsky monastery continues.