Mysteries of a Monastic Prison
Marina Gourina
History of the Ivanovsky Cloister in Moscow goes back to remote ages. According to one version, its foundation is linked to the name of Ivan the Severe (the Terrible). According to another, the construction of the monastery dates back to the rule of Ivan III. It is known that the architecture style of the original church dedicated to the Beheading of John the Forerunner corresponds to that of 14-15 c. The name of the cloister derives from the main altar of the church of the Beheading of John the Forerunner. That feast day happens to be the namesake of Ivan (John) the Severe. In the popular usage the cloister was nicknamed Ivan the Fasting, since according to church canons, feast of the Beheading of St. John is also a day of very strict fast. Until 1764 there were no peasant serfs registered as a property of the cloister [estate], hence it existed exclusively thanks to the donations of the royal family and high-rank patrons, as well as the common lay people. Special attention was given to the cloister by the first Romanovs: Mikhail Feodorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich. They hugely contributed to the decoration of the monastic shrine and visited the monastery not just on the patronal feast, but on other days too.
This Moscow cloister was notorious as a place where many women of aristocratic lineage were tonsured against their will. Their families would typically make sumptuous offerings for the monastery [and] towards the upkeep of their female relation. It is here, often under the guise of mentally ill, female ‘secret [prisoners]’ of the Ivestigations Department (Сыскной приказ) and the Secret Investigations Bureau (Тайная розыскных дел канцелярия) would be sent, typically involved in political and criminal cases. Also, schismatic women from the Schismatics Bureau (Раскольничья контора) were assigned to the cloister. Adepts of the ‘ancient creed’ were transported in secrecy, wrecked by torture or, as it was called then, ‘purified by blood’. And they were held in the ‘stone sacks’ under supervision of the cloister sisters.
The most famous prisoner of the Ivanovsky Cloister was Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova, commonly known as Saltychikha. The ‘torturess and murderess’ spent a half of her life in the cloister. According to the forensic detectives, over the period of six to seven years Daria Saltykova murdered by various methods 139 people, among whom there were mainly women (only 3 of her victims were men), including young girls of 10-12 years of age.
In the Summer of 1762 peasant serf Hermolai Ilyin who had subsequently lost three of his wives, which were beaten to death on orders of Saltychikha, fled from the estate to St. Petersbourg where he complained to the recently coronated Catherine II. The empress ordered the College of Justice (юстиц-коллегия) to begin an investigation regarding torture and murder. On 2 October 1768 a sentence of life imprisonment in the Ivanovsky Cloister was given to Saltykova, preceded by the ‘civil execution’ ceremony at the Red Square. Saltykova was flogged and transported to the Ivanovsky Cloister. There a windowless wooden structure was built for her, so for a long time she lived in complete darkness. Next to the door a guard stood 24 hours. A nun would bring food and a candle; after meals the candle would be taken away. In the Imperial verdict there was also a prescription: “From this reclusion take her out in such a place during church services where she would be able to hear one, without entering the church proper.” In the ‘penitentiary [cell]’ (покаянная) Saltychikha spent 11 years.
Ivanovsky Cloister was also a place of imprisonment for many noble persons and even those belonging to the royal family. The cloister received a name of a “prison for the persons of exceptional status”. First prisoners of the monastery were people of the royal families who were tonsured against their will. For instance, from the Protection Cloister in Vladimir, where she was tonsured by force, tsarina Pelagea Mikhailovna of Petrov-Saltykov family, second wife to the older son of Ivan the Severe, was sent here. She adopted the name Paraskeva as a (monastic) postulant. In 1610, separated from her husband, Maria Petrovna Shuyskaya, a wife of the tsar’ Vasily Ivanovich Shuysky, became a nun of the cloister.
History of the Ivanovsky cloister is linked to the fate of another woman, whose name is known to all in Russia. It is the princess Tarakanova, daughter of Elisaveta Petrovna and Alexey Razumovsky. (A real one, as opposed to the impostor Tarakanova, captured and brought over from Europe by Alexey Orlov.) According to legends, the daughter of Elisaveta was raised in Russia until the age of 11 and then sent to Holland. Later she was brought from abroad where she lived incognito till the age of 40. In Russia she was received by Catherine II, after which she agreed to mysteriously disappear away from social circles, so as not to become a weapon in the hands of vain people and not to cause upheaval in the land. One day, accompanied by mounted guards, a spacious carriage with carefully blinded windows approached the gates of the cloister. The woman was taken to the abbess. From the abbess the mysterious female guest was taken to a small two-room stone cell with windows overlooking the courtyard. It is in this cell the princess was to spend a quarter of the century until her death.
Until her tonsure, Tarakanova was named Augusta. In the Ivanovsky Convent she was given the name of Dosithea. It should be noted, her imprisonment combined certain comfort with harshness and austerity. For instance, there was a Dutch-tile stove in the cell. A female cell attendant, lodged in the ante-room, was assigned to the mysterious nun. Apart from the yearly ‘special fund’ from the Treasury, large sums of money came from the unknown people. Years later, Dosithea became accustomed to her situation, keeping busy with handwork, the proceeds of which she would give to the poor or for the building of churches. In the reign of Pavel (Paul) I Dosithea was allowed to receive guests: both aristocracy and commoners visited her.
Much about life of Dosithea we know from the testimony of a Moscow merchant Filipp Nikiforovich Shepeliov, tea and sugar merchant. According to him, she was medium height, thin, slender, notwithstanding her not so young age. Her demeanor showed breed and good education. Dosithea spoke a foreign language with high-rank personalities, whom the abbes would allow to pay short visits to the recluse. A portrait of the empress Elisaveta Petrovna hung in her cell. Her curtained windows would often attract onlookers, so that a full-time guard had to turn them away. The army chief of staff for Moscow count Gudovich attended her funeral. Gudovich was married to Praskovia Kirillovna, the niece of Alexei Grigorievich Razumovsky. It may be that the count wanted to pay the last respects to his wife’s third-degree cousin. Another remarkable fact: Dosithea was buried not in accordance with the ancient rule, at the Ivanovsky Cloister's own graveyard, but in the Novospassky Monastery where the boyard (later royal) dynasty of Romanovs was buried. In 1910, a hundred years since the death of nun Dosithea, a graveyard chapel was built, remains of which were preserved to this day.
In the reign of Mikhail Feodorovich a certain Daria lived in the Ivanovsky Cloister, who took the monastic name of Martha. She died on 1 March 1638. Who she was we do not know, yet, according to the tombstone inscription, this woman was a fool-for-Christ. It could be that she did that on purpose to hide her noble name and lineage.
Later in history, Ivanovsky Cloister was gradually transformed from a prison into a charitable institution for the poor. This noble undertaking was established by the empress Elisaveta Petrovna. Later a school of iconography for the sisters and a crèche for abandoned babies were founded at the Ivanovsky Convent. A variety of workshops, such as: tailoring, shoe-making, handcrafts, gold-embroidery and metal works for church vestments and accessories were set in place. Qualified female tutors taught the illiterate church grammar and catechism. Also there were lectures of church music. Nuns in the workshops not only had serve the needs of the cloister, but also by their work improve its financial situation.
In 1918 the monastery was closed down, the buildings were taken over by a succession of state security agencies known under various acronyms. In 1941 it became the Law School.
In 1980s the church was occupied by Moscow Region Central State Archives. The main courtyard and surrounding buildings, by the same Law School, in front of which the Department of Interior built an ugly black monument to the state security employees fallen in the 1941-45 war. The main gateway was filled with bricks, crosses were taken down from the bell towers.
In 1989 voices began to be heard for the transfer of the Ivanovsky Cloister to an Independent Fund of the Revival of the Church Art, in order to establish on its premises a contemporary church art center with a fully functioning chapel.
In 1992 some of the premises were given to the Fraternity of Saint Prince Vladimir. In the House of clergy an Orthodox College (Gymnasium) was open and a charity house in the former hospital building. The church of St. Elisaveta was re-opened for worship. Restoration of the monastery continues.
Marina V. Gourina is a teacher of the Moscow State College of Teaching
History of the Ivanovsky Cloister in Moscow goes back to remote ages. According to one version, its foundation is linked to the name of Ivan the Severe (the Terrible). According to another, the construction of the monastery dates back to the rule of Ivan III. It is known that the architecture style of the original church dedicated to the Beheading of John the Forerunner corresponds to that of 14-15 c. The name of the cloister derives from the main altar of the church of the Beheading of John the Forerunner. That feast day happens to be the namesake of Ivan (John) the Severe. In the popular usage the cloister was nicknamed Ivan the Fasting, since according to church canons, feast of the Beheading of St. John is also a day of very strict fast. Until 1764 there were no peasant serfs registered as a property of the cloister [estate], hence it existed exclusively thanks to the donations of the royal family and high-rank patrons, as well as the common lay people. Special attention was given to the cloister by the first Romanovs: Mikhail Feodorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich. They hugely contributed to the decoration of the monastic shrine and visited the monastery not just on the patronal feast, but on other days too.
This Moscow cloister was notorious as a place where many women of aristocratic lineage were tonsured against their will. Their families would typically make sumptuous offerings for the monastery [and] towards the upkeep of their female relation. It is here, often under the guise of mentally ill, female ‘secret [prisoners]’ of the Ivestigations Department (Сыскной приказ) and the Secret Investigations Bureau (Тайная розыскных дел канцелярия) would be sent, typically involved in political and criminal cases. Also, schismatic women from the Schismatics Bureau (Раскольничья контора) were assigned to the cloister. Adepts of the ‘ancient creed’ were transported in secrecy, wrecked by torture or, as it was called then, ‘purified by blood’. And they were held in the ‘stone sacks’ under supervision of the cloister sisters.
The most famous prisoner of the Ivanovsky Cloister was Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova, commonly known as Saltychikha. The ‘torturess and murderess’ spent a half of her life in the cloister. According to the forensic detectives, over the period of six to seven years Daria Saltykova murdered by various methods 139 people, among whom there were mainly women (only 3 of her victims were men), including young girls of 10-12 years of age.
In the Summer of 1762 peasant serf Hermolai Ilyin who had subsequently lost three of his wives, which were beaten to death on orders of Saltychikha, fled from the estate to St. Petersbourg where he complained to the recently coronated Catherine II. The empress ordered the College of Justice (юстиц-коллегия) to begin an investigation regarding torture and murder. On 2 October 1768 a sentence of life imprisonment in the Ivanovsky Cloister was given to Saltykova, preceded by the ‘civil execution’ ceremony at the Red Square. Saltykova was flogged and transported to the Ivanovsky Cloister. There a windowless wooden structure was built for her, so for a long time she lived in complete darkness. Next to the door a guard stood 24 hours. A nun would bring food and a candle; after meals the candle would be taken away. In the Imperial verdict there was also a prescription: “From this reclusion take her out in such a place during church services where she would be able to hear one, without entering the church proper.” In the ‘penitentiary [cell]’ (покаянная) Saltychikha spent 11 years.
Ivanovsky Cloister was also a place of imprisonment for many noble persons and even those belonging to the royal family. The cloister received a name of a “prison for the persons of exceptional status”. First prisoners of the monastery were people of the royal families who were tonsured against their will. For instance, from the Protection Cloister in Vladimir, where she was tonsured by force, tsarina Pelagea Mikhailovna of Petrov-Saltykov family, second wife to the older son of Ivan the Severe, was sent here. She adopted the name Paraskeva as a (monastic) postulant. In 1610, separated from her husband, Maria Petrovna Shuyskaya, a wife of the tsar’ Vasily Ivanovich Shuysky, became a nun of the cloister.
History of the Ivanovsky cloister is linked to the fate of another woman, whose name is known to all in Russia. It is the princess Tarakanova, daughter of Elisaveta Petrovna and Alexey Razumovsky. (A real one, as opposed to the impostor Tarakanova, captured and brought over from Europe by Alexey Orlov.) According to legends, the daughter of Elisaveta was raised in Russia until the age of 11 and then sent to Holland. Later she was brought from abroad where she lived incognito till the age of 40. In Russia she was received by Catherine II, after which she agreed to mysteriously disappear away from social circles, so as not to become a weapon in the hands of vain people and not to cause upheaval in the land. One day, accompanied by mounted guards, a spacious carriage with carefully blinded windows approached the gates of the cloister. The woman was taken to the abbess. From the abbess the mysterious female guest was taken to a small two-room stone cell with windows overlooking the courtyard. It is in this cell the princess was to spend a quarter of the century until her death.
Until her tonsure, Tarakanova was named Augusta. In the Ivanovsky Convent she was given the name of Dosithea. It should be noted, her imprisonment combined certain comfort with harshness and austerity. For instance, there was a Dutch-tile stove in the cell. A female cell attendant, lodged in the ante-room, was assigned to the mysterious nun. Apart from the yearly ‘special fund’ from the Treasury, large sums of money came from the unknown people. Years later, Dosithea became accustomed to her situation, keeping busy with handwork, the proceeds of which she would give to the poor or for the building of churches. In the reign of Pavel (Paul) I Dosithea was allowed to receive guests: both aristocracy and commoners visited her.
Much about life of Dosithea we know from the testimony of a Moscow merchant Filipp Nikiforovich Shepeliov, tea and sugar merchant. According to him, she was medium height, thin, slender, notwithstanding her not so young age. Her demeanor showed breed and good education. Dosithea spoke a foreign language with high-rank personalities, whom the abbes would allow to pay short visits to the recluse. A portrait of the empress Elisaveta Petrovna hung in her cell. Her curtained windows would often attract onlookers, so that a full-time guard had to turn them away. The army chief of staff for Moscow count Gudovich attended her funeral. Gudovich was married to Praskovia Kirillovna, the niece of Alexei Grigorievich Razumovsky. It may be that the count wanted to pay the last respects to his wife’s third-degree cousin. Another remarkable fact: Dosithea was buried not in accordance with the ancient rule, at the Ivanovsky Cloister's own graveyard, but in the Novospassky Monastery where the boyard (later royal) dynasty of Romanovs was buried. In 1910, a hundred years since the death of nun Dosithea, a graveyard chapel was built, remains of which were preserved to this day.
In the reign of Mikhail Feodorovich a certain Daria lived in the Ivanovsky Cloister, who took the monastic name of Martha. She died on 1 March 1638. Who she was we do not know, yet, according to the tombstone inscription, this woman was a fool-for-Christ. It could be that she did that on purpose to hide her noble name and lineage.
Later in history, Ivanovsky Cloister was gradually transformed from a prison into a charitable institution for the poor. This noble undertaking was established by the empress Elisaveta Petrovna. Later a school of iconography for the sisters and a crèche for abandoned babies were founded at the Ivanovsky Convent. A variety of workshops, such as: tailoring, shoe-making, handcrafts, gold-embroidery and metal works for church vestments and accessories were set in place. Qualified female tutors taught the illiterate church grammar and catechism. Also there were lectures of church music. Nuns in the workshops not only had serve the needs of the cloister, but also by their work improve its financial situation.
In 1918 the monastery was closed down, the buildings were taken over by a succession of state security agencies known under various acronyms. In 1941 it became the Law School.
In 1980s the church was occupied by Moscow Region Central State Archives. The main courtyard and surrounding buildings, by the same Law School, in front of which the Department of Interior built an ugly black monument to the state security employees fallen in the 1941-45 war. The main gateway was filled with bricks, crosses were taken down from the bell towers.
In 1989 voices began to be heard for the transfer of the Ivanovsky Cloister to an Independent Fund of the Revival of the Church Art, in order to establish on its premises a contemporary church art center with a fully functioning chapel.
In 1992 some of the premises were given to the Fraternity of Saint Prince Vladimir. In the House of clergy an Orthodox College (Gymnasium) was open and a charity house in the former hospital building. The church of St. Elisaveta was re-opened for worship. Restoration of the monastery continues.
Marina V. Gourina is a teacher of the Moscow State College of Teaching
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