There are many monasteries in Russia with an ancient history. The Sredneuralsky nunnery, located 20 km from Yekaterinburg, is not one of them - it is notable for the fact that it arose at the beginning of the current century, literally in front of the eyes of people living today.
The monastery was founded on a place known in these parts as the "German Farm", where during the Great Patriotic War a prisoner of war camp was located. The Holy Synod officially decided to establish the monastery in the spring of 2005, but construction began back in 2002. All that was at that time was a wooden gatehouse where four nuns lived, and two tents for workers. By 2011, 4 churches, a four-storey cell building, a school, workshops were built, and the number of nuns reached 300. Such a time frame can be called a record for the creation of the monastery.
Icon of the Mother of God
The monastery is dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God “The Conqueror of the Breads”. It was painted in 1890 and is notable for its unconventional iconography - there have never been such images of the Mother of God. The Mother of God is depicted without a baby, sitting on the clouds with her arms outstretched in a blessing gesture. Below is a compressed field with sheaves.
The Monk Ambrose of Optina gave the icon the name "The Conqueror of Bread", thereby emphasizing that the Mother of God helps Christians not only in spiritual, but also in earthly labors.
In honor of this icon, the monastery was created. The earthly labors of the nuns are numerous. The monastery has its own farm, including a cattle breeding, an apiary. Those who had a chance to dine in the dining room of the monastery say that the locally produced cottage cheese and honey are simply excellent.
And, of course, there is no shortage of godly deeds. The nuns support and raise orphans and abandoned children, take care of cancer patients, and take them to a special medical center. One of the nuns now serving in the monastery originally got there in this capacity, without any hope of recovery, but was healed in the monastery.
Miracles of the Sredneuralsky Monastery
The realities of the modern world least of all are conducive to expectation of miracles. But in the Sredneuralsky monastery the Divine presence is so felt that miracles do not seem to be something unnatural.
Miracles began during the construction phase. The salaries of the builders were paid through donations. Once a seriously ill woman came to the abbot, who needed expensive treatment, and the abbot gave her all the money intended to pay the workers' wages. And the next day a rich man arrived and made a large donation - and the workers were paid off safely. Someone will see this as a simple coincidence, while others - the providence of God.
The case of a teenage girl named Olga is notable. This girl was brought to the monastery by her parents in the last stage of cancer, she could no longer walk or even sit. While in the monastery, the girl made a vow to the Mother of God that she would become a nun if healed. Soon her condition miraculously improved, she began to walk and even run. Friends arrived, began to dissuade her from taking monasticism, and Olga succumbed to persuasion - she renounced her vow, left, and soon returned in an even more serious condition. Olga accepted the schema under the name Anna and soon died. In her dying letter, she wrote that she was grateful to God for the illness and would not want to change her fate with anyone.
But the most important miracle of the Sredneuralsky women's monastery is the atmosphere of true love that everyone who comes there feels. Indeed, in such places it seems that the Sky is getting closer.
