The monastery archives

Fotina Xenofontova (standing on the right)

An interesting story has been recently told to us by Klavdia I. Xenofontova. The story is about her grandmother’s sister, Fotina F. Xenofontova, born in 1881. She came from a large family with many children, and before Fotina was born her father had sworn that the child’s life would be dedicated to Our Lord; he had vowed to send the child to monastery. At the age of four Fotina was sent to the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery, where her aunt was a nun. Fotina got accustomed to the place at once. Abbess Magdalen used to call up the girl and ask her with consideration: “Have the sisters awakened you?” “No, mother,” would answer Fotina “I woke up myself.” Then Abbess would ask her to recite an acathist , and the girl would recite not one but two. One day Abbess wanted to praise the girl for her obedience and ordered to treat the child to some honey. Sisters took her to the casks with honey and left her there alone. And Fotina has eaten to her heart’s content so that three years aferwards she would not bear the sight of honey.

A Tikhvin holy image

When Fotina got older sisters have taught her the art of icon-painting. Icons painted by the nuns of the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery have been renowned far beyond the bounds of the Urals region. The nuns not just painted their icons (there was an icon-paintning studio), they also artfully decorated their works- there was a gold-chiselling workshop in the Monastery. Today we can judge about the then icons by the works ot Sister Anna (Anna Chekantseva). There remained the holy image of Tikhvin Virgin. The image was performed nearly a century ago but till now it has kept the brightness of the colour and the clearness of the chiselling.

Sister Anna Chekantseva

People of Yekaterinburg bring photos, postcards and things that belonged to nuns to the monastery archives. Many families have preserved them as memory. There is understanding among the people of Yekaterinburg that the Monastery wants to restore its history, just as families want to restore their past. If you know some intersting facts from the history of the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery — contact us.
Phone: +7 343 3475451 (ask the archives).

Also read:
— The Monastery Archives
— The Tikhvin Icon