Vyksa, Nizhny Novgorod Province, Russia, October 30, 2026
Photo: Wikipedia
A convent that was shut down, blown up and lost its last abbess to a firing squad marked 30 years since its monastic life was revived this week.
On October 26, the feast of the transfer of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God to Moscow, the Vyksa Iveron Convent celebrated the anniversary of its second opening, the monastery reports.
The convent was founded in 1864 by St. Barnabas of Gethsemane with the blessing of St. Philaret of Moscow. Soviet authorities turned it into a labor cooperative in 1919, when it was one of the largest convents in Russia, with 1,000 nuns.
Photo: nne.ru
Fr. Dimitry Bugaev, dean of the Vyksa District of the Vyksa Diocese, led the Divine Liturgy in the convent’s Dormition Church. He was joined by clergy from the convent and the diocese.
Fifty pilgrims who had arrived the day before on a cross procession from the Kulebaki District also attended. Many of those in the church received Holy Communion.
The Liturgy ended with a cross procession around the Dormition Church and the singing of praises to the Queen of Heaven before her Iveron icon.
Afterward, Fr. Dimitry Bugaev congratulated Abbess Alexandra, the clergy and the faithful on the convent’s patronal feast and the anniversary of the revival of monastic life. He then gave a homily to those gathered.
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Photo: nne.ru
The Iveron Convent in Vyksa was founded in 1864 by St. Barnabas of Gethsemane with the blessing of St. Philaret of Moscow. It began as an almshouse for 12 women, but was turned into a cenobitic convent on July 8, 1887.
By the time the Soviet authorities turned it into a labor cooperative in 1919, it was one of the largest convents in Russia, with 1,000 nuns. Services continued there until 1923.
In 1927, the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity and the Iveron church were blown up, the bell tower was destroyed, and the convent wall was dismantled. The last abbess, Abbess Margarita Soldatkina, was shot in December 1937 and buried at the Bugrovskoye Cemetery in Nizhny Novgorod.
On October 26, 1991, a religious community was registered in Vyksa. In 1995, a church in honor of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God was consecrated in the former church shop. Conditions were created for the start of monastic life, and the little house of Elder Barnabas, which housed a kindergarten in Soviet times, was prepared for the first nuns.
On October 26, 1996, the late Metropolitan Nikolai Kutepov of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas announced the opening of the convent, with the first sisters coming from the St. Seraphim-Diveyevo Convent.
In February 2016, the fully restored Dormition Church was consecrated.
Today the Iveron Convent is led by Abbess Alexandra Sitnikova, who was elevated to the rank on July 18, 2021. She succeeded the first abbess, Abbess Antonia Mironova, who fell asleep in the Lord on July 29, 2020.
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