Orthodox Syzran, or the Triangle of Faith

18 points5 km4 hours

This route introduces the difficult fate of Syzran's religious buildings. Before the revolution the town had 22 churches, two monasteries, and a theological school. Five old churches have survived to this day, forming a kind of Triangle of Faith. Learn more with Susanin's route.

Route author

Susanin Team

Things to do

📜 Learn the city's history
🏛️🕰️ Compare the eras
🏰🕵️‍♂️ Discover a legend

Route points (18)

Ascension Monastery in Syzran

Point on route “Orthodox Syzran, or the Triangle of Faith”

Point 15

Ascension Monastery

🕍 Place of worship

Historical Background

The Ascension Monastery is an active Orthodox monastery for men. Its first builder, before the monastery was moved here from the town of Kashpir, was the elder Kirill. The first father superior of the newly built monastery in Syzran was the elder Filaret, who was succeeded by the elder Kornily I. Among the later superiors, Abbot Mikhail is especially well known: in 1711 he founded the Zhadovskaya Hermitage not far from Syzran. In the 1740s the famous Archimandrite Iona (Salnikeyev) lived out his days here, in this quiet cloister. He was one of the nine hierarchs who signed the draft of Peter the Great's Spiritual Regulation (the law on the church). Under Catherine I, Archimandrite Iona became a member of the Most Holy Synod, but then he stumbled on the slippery paths of power and was exiled to the distant Holy Ascension Monastery in Syzran.

“From Third Class to First”

The monastery flourished in the second half of the 19th and the early 20th centuries. In 1855 it was raised from the third class to the first. The five-domed Ascension Cathedral was built (1852), and the former church was rebuilt (1861) in honor of the Feodorovskaya icon of the Mother of God. Archimandrite Avgustin (Shelengovsky) contributed greatly to the monastery's prosperity. In 1925 the monastery was closed. Its last father superior, Archimandrite Alexander (Vakhatov), was shot in 1938 in Samara.

Revival

In 1994 the former monastery grounds were handed over to the Samara diocese. The monastery's architectural complex had suffered, though less than other monasteries in the region. Of the four towers on the monastery wall, only one survived. Of the wall itself, built back in the 1850s, only a small fragment remains. On the whole the monastery complex needed major restoration. During the work, various burials of the monastery cemetery, destroyed in the 1930s, were found. Among them were the remains of Archbishop Anatoly, which by decision of the Patriarchate were moved to Ulyanovsk, and of Archimandrite German, as well as many others, which the monks of the revived monastery reburied in a common grave. Today the monastery has been almost completely restored.