Chudov Monastery

Did You Know?

• Patriarch Hermogenes was starved to death by the Poles in the monastery vaults in 1612.
• In 2014, president Vladimir Putin suggested restoring the Chudov Monastery and the Ascension Convent on the site of Building 14.

History

The Chudov Monastery, along with its main cathedral, was completed in 1365. That cathedral was rebuilt in 1431 and again between 1501 and 1503. Royal children, including the future Tsars Feodor I, Aleksey I, and Peter the Great, were traditionally baptized here. Until 1561, the monastery’s abbot held the highest rank among all Russian monastery heads.

Along with the Simonov Monastery and the Trinity–St. Sergius Lavra, Chudov was a key hub for Moscow’s book culture and learning. Monks like Maximus the Greek, Yepifany Slavinetsky, and Karion Istomin focused on translating and correcting religious texts. Gennady, who later became Archbishop of Novgorod and sponsored the first complete Slavic Bible in 1499, had previously served as the monastery’s abbot. In 1612, Patriarch Hermogenes was starved to death by Polish forces in the monastery’s vaults.

After the Time of Troubles ended, the Greek-Latin School was established there with help from Patriarch Filaret. From 1744 to 1833, the Moscow Ecclesiastic Consistory operated within the monastery. Additional churches were built over time: the Church of St. Alexius the Metropolitan and the Church of the Annunciation, both from 1680, and the Church of Saint Andrew from 1887. During the French invasion of 1812, Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout took over the monastery for his personal use, and a painting by Vasily Vereshchagin shows him using the cathedral as his office.

Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the monastery was shut down in 1918, and all its buildings were torn down in 1929 as part of the Soviet policy of state atheism. The Red Commanders School was built on the site, which also included the former Ascension Convent. Manuscripts from the 11th to 18th centuries were moved to the State Historical Museum. The relics of Metropolitan Alexius were relocated from the Church of St. Alexius to the Cathedral of the Dormition, and later to another Moscow church.

The remains of about a hundred other people buried there, including Archbishop Gennady, were lost and remain unaccounted for. A scene in Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov takes place at the monastery.