Story. The village, previously called Dorna (along the Dorenka River), back in the 15th century. belonged to the Pushkin family, later to the boyars Polev, Shakhovsky, Streshnev, Chaadaev. In 1658, Darna was bought by Patriarch Nikon, who assigned the village to the New Jerusalem Monastery. In 1686, a wooden church was built here in honor of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The church existed for about a hundred years. Through the diligence of landowner Anna Sergeevna Tsurikova, a three-altar church with side chapels was erected in Darna in 1895: in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, in honor of the Ascension of the Lord and the Exaltation of the Life-Giving Cross.
The church project was completed free of charge by Arch. S. W. Sherwood. The large square four-pillar temple, connected by a vestibule with a bell tower of three tiers, has a rare five-tent composition. Their heads and the hipped top of the bell tower, lost during the war, were restored in the 1990s, when the temple was handed over to believers.
In the 1890s. On the church land there was also a wooden church of Sts. App. Peter and Paul, parochial school, brick factory and house for church ministers. After the revolution, the temple was closed and used for various agricultural needs.
In December 2001, the rite of great consecration of the restored temple was performed. The parish of the church is constantly engaged in charity and spiritual care for military units, correctional colonies, a shelter for minor children in Glebov-Izbishche and the Central Regional Hospital.
Center for children's and youth tourism and excursions in Istra
Municipal educational institution "Ivanovskaya Secondary School"
Regional local history conference
"Chronicle of the native land"
"Temple by the Road"
(The fate of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in the village of Darna)
The work was completed by 10th grade students
Municipal educational institution "Ivanovskaya Secondary School"
Kunitsyna Veronica
Head: Kunitsyna N.V.
Agricultural town 2012
Content.
Introduction……………………………………………………………. ……………2
I
1.1. History of the village of Darna from the 15th to the 17th centuries…………………………….4
1.2.The village of Darna in the system of Russian Palestine…………………..5
II. Temple by the road.
2.1. Construction of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross…………………….6
2.2. Moscow devastation of 1812…………………………….8
2.3. Royal visits………………………………………………………9
2.4. Construction of a new temple…………………………..……10
…………………….….. 11
2.6. Years of great change……………………………...... 12
2.7. Restoration of the temple……………………………………...….15
Conclusion……………………………………………………..….17
References……………………………………………………………… 18
Introduction.
Goals : study the history of the emergence of the village of Darna and the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross.To form an idea of duty, honor, responsibility, morality, an understanding that without patriotism and spirituality it is impossible to lead Russia to revival.
Tasks:
1) introduce the heroic and tragic pages of the history of the Fatherland;
2) instill respect among young people for the exploits of ordinary people;
3) contribute to the formation of young people’s readiness to defend the Motherland.
4) introduce you to the wonderful people of our region.
Methods:
- study of literature. Working with literature involves the use of methods such as compiling a bibliography - a list of sources selected for work in connection with the problem under study; abstracting - a condensed summary of the main content of one or more works on a general topic; note-taking - keeping more detailed records, the basis of which is highlighting the main ideas and provisions of the work; annotation - a brief record of the general content of a book or article; citation - a verbatim recording of expressions, factual or numerical data contained in a literary source.
Document analysis. Documents, with varying degrees of completeness, reflect the spiritual and material life of society, convey not only the eventual, factual side of social reality, but also record the development of all expressive means of society, and above all the structure of language. Document analysis allows you to obtain information about past events, the direct observation of which is no longer possible.
Ancient Istra land near Moscow. Darna village(photo 1). A huge, handsome red-brick temple, perched on a hill next to the road, crowns a picturesque valley through which the golden domes of the temples of New Jerusalem are visible in the distance. Near the temple there are two crosses. This is the first thing that attracts the attention of those entering the spacious temple enclosure. Tall black crosses
stone and wood on neat, well-groomed graves - this is where the new life of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross began, what determines its spiritual essence. And hardly anyone will be surprised by the functioning church today. Little by little, both its purpose and its meaning in the midst of our hectic life begin to be re-evaluated.
One of the ten beatitudes convinces a person of the best, meek attitude towards the earth and people. The Istra region, where life has been in full swing for centuries, has been replaced by generations of Christians, has not been forgotten by God's blessing.
Is it really possible that we have neither faith nor love?
If you can’t find it, call or don’t call?
Is it really neither Allah nor Christ,
No temple, no prayer, no cross,
No truth, no way of the cross?
Is it really possible that the grass won’t even grow?
Neither the past, which is in honor,
No shore to row to?
No conscience to say
At the last moment, the last “sorry”?
But there is hope to find it.....
We visited our church many times with our parents and grandparents. The rector of this church, Father Konstantin, often comes to our school. He told us about the history of these places, about how difficult it was to raise the temple from the ruins. The treasurer of the temple, Tatyana Georgievna Vasilyeva, constantly donates books to the school museum and library. Many children attend Sunday school at the temple. In the modern world, many people forget about spirituality, morality, and mercy. Walking or driving past the temple several times a day, people do not even notice its greatness and beauty. We decided to talk about our beautiful temple at a local history conference.
I . The history of the emergence and formation of the village of Darna.
1.1. History of the village of Darna from the 15th to the 17th centuries.
The village of Vozdvizhenskoye - Darna is one of the ancient settlements of the Istra region.
The name could have arisen in connection with the word “dor” - a place free from forest, or from its consonant word - “gift”. In the Middle Ages and later, the Dorenka river was called Darenka, Darinka, Doronka. The name of the village was written differently in documents - Dorna, Darno, Dorny. In flowery word-creativity, the people expressed the beauty of their native land, joyful to the heart.(photo 2)
IN XV- XVIIcenturies, Darna (Dorenskoye) was part of the huge Moscow district, divided into camps and volosts. Settlements on the left bank of the Dorenka River belonged to the Surozh camp (photo 3). Darna was first mentioned in a traveling charter of 1490-1499. The charter established the border between Dorenskoye and Pavlovskoye: the boundary between the two large estates ran along the Volotsk road. The owner of the village is named Ivan Ivanovich Tovarkov-Pushkin, a close associate of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III(photo 4). According to documents from those years, two villages with the same name Dorenskoye are known. In 1451, Grand Duchess Sophia, wife of Vasily Dmitrievich of Moscow, son of Dmitry Donskoy,(photo 5) dedicated her village of Dorenskoye to the Moscow Ascension Monastery, in which all the women of the grand ducal house were buried. (photo 6) The “second” Dorensky was called one of the two large villages - Aleksino or Eremeevo.
Many of the local villages were part of the vast estates of the Pushkins, who received land on the Istra in the middle of the 14th century for their service to the Moscow princes. Tsar's clerk Istoma Zakharyevich Kartashev, who served under Theodore Ioannovich(photo 7), bought the village of Darna from the treasury, and it began to be considered his patrimony - his own, purchased land. In 1609, the owner of Darna led the defense of Moscow against the Tushino thief - False Dmitry II (photo 8). The orders have been preserved - letters from Kartashev to his neighbor on the estate, the royal clerk Matyushkin, the owner of the village of Kashino. After the death of Istoma Kartashev at the hands of supporters of the impostor, his wife sold the estate on Dorenka.
The buyer of Darna was a relative of the Pushkins, Fyodor Chebotov. After some time, Chebotov suffered a professional disaster, and his estate was taken into the treasury. Since 1635, Darna was listed among the sovereign's lands and was distributed as an estate.
Estates were awarded for royal service. The village was divided into three parts between the nobles L. Sumin, K. Trusov and K. Zhokhov. In the 1640s, the royal steward Afanasy Fedorovich Boborykin bought half of Darna from Kallistrat Zhokhov. Together with his neighbor and co-owner of the village, Prince Stepan Shakhovsky, he built a pond in Darna. In 1648, Afanasy Boborykin died, leaving the village to his wife Olena. Darna passed to the new owner, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich's second cousin Grigory Streshnev. Despite their close relationship with the first tsars of the Romanov dynasty, the Streshnevs did not sit in orders, but walked many miles along the Siberian rivers in search of valuable metals. Found copper ore on the Tagil River. She was sent to Moscow in two leather bags. The young Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich praised his relatives, but did not allocate government money for the construction of mines and factories.
Streshnev sold Darna to steward Ivan Ivanovich Chaadaev. Ivan Chaadaev, a prominent courtier, served in embassies, concluded “eternal peace” with Poland, for which he was awarded a huge sum of three thousand silver efimkas. Traveled with the heir to the throne, John Alekseevich, to monasteries or remained “in charge” of Moscow(photo 9). Ivan Chaadaev died in 1696; Patriarch Adrian himself performed his funeral service. The famous Russian philosopher and friend of his Lyceum youth A.S. Pushkin, Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev is the direct great-great-grandson of the last private owner of Darna. In 1658, the village was bought for the monastery by Patriarch Nikon, who, along with the tsar, bore the title of Great Sovereign.(photo 10 )
1.2. The village of Darna in the system of Russian Palestine.
“Palestine” is an image of splendor and a collection of shrines. The construction of the New Jerusalem was conceived as the creation of copies of holy places, which every Orthodox person knew about from the Gospel texts. Patriarch Nikon and his associates renamed many places in Istria. Palestinian names were heard here.Patriarch Nikon anticipated the mission of New Jerusalem near Moscow as the Spiritual center of the Orthodox world. He even inhabited the monastery
coast of Istra by a purely Orthodox, but diverse people: the brotherhood of the monastery included Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Germans, Poles, and Greeks.The monastery was built on land purchased from the governor Roman Fedorovich Boborykin.
The first acquisition of the monastery in 1656 was the village of Voskresenskoye! For him and three villages - Makrusha, Kotelnikovo and Rychkovo - Roman Boborykin received two thousand rubles from Patriarch Nikon. In 1657, Boborykin sold Ivanovskoye-Kashino to the monastery for a thousand rubles. The second half of Ivanovsky was assigned to the monastery free of charge, by order of the Tsar. Finally, in 1658, Patriarch Nikon redeemed the village of Dornu from the treasury for two thousand rubles. Suddenly, the position of the Patriarch and the Russian Palestines he created changed dramatically: Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich openly opposed Patriarch Nikon. Removing himself from the royal wrath, the Patriarch donned poor monastic clothes and spent eight years almost continuously in New Jerusalem, doing construction work. Hundreds of craftsmen, and not only from Russia, as well as peasants of the monastery estate, participated in the construction of the largest cathedral in Rus' - a copy of the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection of Christ.The village of Darna was included in the general system of Russian Palestine under Patriarch Nikon and was named Vozdvizhensky in advance.(Photo 11)
II . Temple by the road.
2.1. Construction of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross.
The first wooden church in Darna was dedicated to the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. According to Nikon's plan, it was to be the last, concluding in a series of great holidays, in honor of which the thrones of the New Jerusalem were consecrated. The wooden building of 1686 (under Patriarch Joasaph) was inexpensive; the liturgical books, sacred vessels, and iconostasis were much more expensive.
Political changes in the Muscovite kingdom had relatively little impact on the life of monastic villages. The monastery continued to remain a state within a state, both under Alexei Mikhailovich, and under Feodor Alekseevich, Peter I, Catherine I, Peter II, Anna Ioannovna, Elizaveta Petrovna. The population and priests of the rural churches closest to the New Jerusalem dealt more often with the monastic authorities than with government officials and the Diocese.There is no information preserved about the first Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, built in Darna, and it is unknown how it ceased to exist. In 1757, the Peter and Paul Church was erected in its place. Russia was then ruled by Elizabeth, daughter of Peter I(photo 12). Her daughter-in-law - the future Catherine II, wife of Peter III, by that time already had a son-heir - he will become Emperor Paul I(photo 13). The dedication of churches to Saints Peter and Paul is one of the signs of the era. Apostolic names are special for the Romanov dynasty and in Russian history. Preserving the former name of the village, Vozdvizhenskoe-Darna, was fundamentally important for the sacred topography of Russian Palestine.
In 1762, the priests of the villages of the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery (Voznesenskoye, Preobrazhenskoye-Nikulino, Vozdvizhenskoye-Darna, Troitskoye, Chernevo-Nazareth, Sokolovo) announced to their parishioners a government document that marked the beginning of a new period in history. This was a decree of Peter III on the confiscation of church lands. Having ascended the throne, Catherine II canceled the decree, but soon realized her benefit, and the monastery villages became “economic”.
In 1796, Emperor Paul I ascended the throne. Having inherited a great power from his mother, the “romantic” emperor, however, wanted to immediately change the entire administrative-territorial system. The Moscow province was redrawn. The city of Voskresensk has turned from a district town into a provincial town. The immediate surroundings of the New Jerusalem Monastery, contrary to tradition, were annexed to the Ruza district. The village of Vozdvizhenskoye-Darna unexpectedly turned out to be the center of the newly established economic volost. The Vozdvizhenskaya volost included nearby monastic villages, villages and settlements located along the Pesochnaya and Istra rivers: Kotelniki, Makrusha. Troitskoe, Polevo, Nikulino.
2.2. Moscow devastation of 1812.
The Patriotic War of 1812 did not bypass the Resurrection District. There were no major military operations, but French detachments came from devastated Moscow and Zvenigorod to the monastery for the purpose of plunder.(photo 14-15). On August 6, 1812, on the eve of the French occupation of Moscow, 22-year-old priest Peter Ivanovich Voskresensky was appointed to the Church of Peter and Paul in Darna. Thanks to the defensive actions of the parishioners, the church in Darna was not destroyed: “The church is intact and inviolable by the enemy, the clothes and antimension are safe and sound. Church utensils have been saved. The iconostasis, with icons in frames, are intact and unharmed,” says the inventory of those years.The city of Voskresensk was defended by warrior-villagers. The testimony of one of the serfs of master Soimonov has been preserved: “Mastergo from Moscow to his Teploye estate on Nudoli. They came to Pesochna - a noise and a cry was heard in Voskresensky across the river. They saw a woman: “Tell us, my dear, what’s that noise?” “It’s our peasants who are fighting the French, but I don’t know what they’re doing there.” Here's what happened. The French wanted to rob the cathedral; Yes, men, some with an ax, some with a pitchfork, let’s roll them around, and the French will shoot at them. Such was the war, but the Lord helped, he did not want the infidels to rob the monastery. There were 500 French people, there weren’t many of us against them, but more were coming - they came running from different villages to hear the noise.”
In the Zvenigorod district, more than two thousand enemies were killed, wounded and captured. Several residents of the city of Voskresensk and the village resident of Luchinsky, Pavel Ivanov, were awarded commemorative medals. Priests who distinguished themselves during the defense of churches were awarded a memorial cross with an inscription. Among them we find the name of the Darnovsky shepherd Peter of the Resurrection. The year of the war with Napoleon led to a numerical predominance of women in Russian villages, this is due to numerous recruitments during the war. Then the situation leveled out: after serving the required 25 years, the surviving soldiers returned to their native lands.
2.3. Royal visits.
In 1816, Emperor Alexander I the Blessed returned to Russia from the French campaign and on August 24 visited the New Jerusalem Monastery. In September 1817, the tsar once again visited Russian Palestine. This time, on the way from St. Petersburg, having parted with the Empress in Klin, Alexander I toured cities, villages and monasteries, including New Jerusalem.(photo 16) The Emperor traveled 120 miles with stops in Fominskoye, Dyutkovo, Kubinskoye, Zvenigorod, Voskresensky and other villages. The procedure for meeting the tsar, who followed a predetermined route, was set out in a special decree of the Moscow Spiritual Consistory. The priests of all the temples he visited received these instructions. The priest of the Darnovsky church in the list of churches awaiting the arrival of the sovereign is named Peter Pavlovsky. It is clear that this is the same Pyotr Ivanovich Voskresensky, who changed his surname at his place of service in the Church of Peter and Paul. Such changes are not uncommon among the Russian parish clergy.
In August 1861, New Jerusalem was visited by Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Alexander III (photo 17), with his brother, Grand Duke Vladimir. After touring the monastery, they dined at the monastery hotel like ordinary pilgrims, paying six rubles for cabbage soup and porridge. We drove, like everyone else, through the Kryukovo station, passing Eremeevo and Darna. Of great importance for Darna was the construction of the Nikolaev railway, connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg (photo 18). Before the construction of the Vindavo-Rybinsk (Riga) railway in 1900, it was the only transport route north-west of Moscow. Darna found herself on the way from Kryukovo station to Voskresensk. The journey along a 21-mile country road took at least five hours. Passengers were carried by six-seater lines, tarantasses, britzkas and simple carts. Summer residents who flocked to Voskresensk sometimes rode bicycles. They made a stop at the temple in Darna; there was a two-story church hotel for pilgrims.
On the first Saturday after Easter, April 12, 1903, Emperor Nicholas visited New JerusalemIIwith his wife AlexandraFeodorovna and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich with Elizaveta Fedorovna(photo 19-20), Venerable Martyr, founder of the Martha and Mary Convent in Moscow. In the same year, the glorification of St. Seraphim of Sarov took place. Archimandrite Seraphim (Chichagov), who worked hard for his glorification, was appointed rector of the Resurrection Monastery. During his year in this position, Archimandrite Seraphim restored the Resurrection Cathedral.
2.4. Construction of a new temple.
In Eremeevo, near the now stone Church of the Ascension with the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, pilgrims heading to New Jerusalem began to make a stop. Having reached the Kryukovo station, the second stop from Moscow, by train, they hired a cab driver in Kryukovo and drove to Eremeev. In Eremeevo, travelers were fed. And their last stop was in Vozdvizhensky-Dorn. The path was not easy, especially in the slush and rain. In 1885, a young doctor and aspiring writer A.P. Chekhov(photo 21) complained that he walked half the way behind the crew. The half-day ordeal of the road was forgotten only in Darna. The pilgrims going to pray at the New Jerusalem Monastery admired the golden domes of the Resurrection Cathedral from the hill.
During Lent from March 25 to 26, 1893, the wooden church in Darna burned down. The grief of the parishioners was immeasurable. The parish of the temple immediately submitted a petition, asking to bless the construction of a temporary temple, to which they received a comforting answer. The construction plan was approved under No. 3628 by the construction department of the Moscow Theological Consistory. The project was carried out by the architect S. Krygin. In the same year, a temporary church in honor of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul was added to the parish school that had existed in the village since 1890. Landowner Anna Sergeevna Tsurikova provided great assistance in thisphoto 22). The consecration of the temple and the liturgy were performed by the dean, archpriest of the Zvenigorod Assumption Cathedral, John the Rozhdestvensky. The parochial school with an attached church was located 21 meters west of the porch of the existing bell tower. The total length of the building was 21 meters, width - 11 meters. The design of the five-domed brick temple was completed in 1895 by the architect Sergei Vladimirovich Sherwood. He drew up drawings, as well as a land plan of the area(photo 23).
The plan shows the projected stone church of the Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, a parochial school with a temporary wooden church attached to it, clergy houses, peasant yards and the road to Voskresensk(photo24). Peasant households were located behind the road,
leading to Voskresensk. The location of the road currently remains unchanged. In the report of the dean of the Zvenigorod Assumption Cathedral, Archpriest John Rozhdestvensky, dated February 9, 1895, to the Moscow Spiritual Consistory, it is written: “The place for the construction of a temple in the name of the Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord in the village of Dorne, Zvenigorod district, is convenient and decent, since there is no place near this place and has never been there cannot be drinking establishments and factory establishments, the temple will be at a legal distance from the buildings, the main guarantee for the construction of a new temple is there is a church brick factory, two hundred thousand bricks have already been prepared.” The plant was presumably located on the descent from the parochial school to the river, along the road. The location is convenient, since water is necessary for brick production. The large three-altar church in the name of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord with the chapels of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the Ascension of the Lord was built by 1898.
After work was carried out to improve the interior decoration, it was consecrated in 1900.(photo 25-26) The elegant red-brick church with a bell tower, whose decoration immediately recognized the features of the “Russian style” so beloved at the end of the 19th century, was always visited by descendants of the Sherwood family. The Sherwood surname is forever inscribed in the history of the Orthodox Empire, of great Russia. The construction of the temple in Darna, thus, was a continuation of the family business and asceticism of Russian artists and architects Sherwood. It seems miraculous that the historical connection between the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross and the descendants of the family was not interrupted. Our contemporary Elena Pavlovna Sherwood is visiting the rector of the church, Archpriest Konstantin Volkov.
2.5. A village does not stand without a righteous man.
The first of the priests in the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, built in 1686, was Fyodor Emelyanov; he is mentioned in documents in 1704. When describing the Moscow district in 1715-1716, the entire population of cities and villages was taken into account and, for the first time in Russian history, women were listed. The churchyard is mentioned in
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Darne-Vozdvizhensky and priest Fyodor Timofeev. There is information that a shepherd from Darna, most likely Fyodor Timofeev, found a treasure of ancient precious things and presented it to the tsar. The following clergy are known in the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (1757-1893). In the clergy register of 1788, priest Andrei Feofilov is mentioned. In 1801, in the village of Darny, Ruza district, priest Fyodor Andreev served in the Church of Peter and Paul. In 1812, priest Peter Voskresensky was appointed here. The revision report dated February 22, 1834 states that priest Peter Ivanov in 1832 went to the Bogorodsky district to the Paraskeva Church, on the Berezovka River, prohibited from serving in the priesthood.
In 1834, 56-year-old priest Iakov Evfimevich Bogoslovsky, a widower, was appointed to the vacant position. Priest Alexander Ioannovich Nevsky was installed on July 31, 1841 and assigned to the parish of Peter and Paul in Darna. After 1857, his ministry took place in the vicinity of Voskresensk, but in a different church. In 1857, 43-year-old Yakov Ivanovich Klyucharyov was appointed priest of the church in the village of Vozdvizhenskoye-Darna. According to the statement for 1879, 51-year-old priest Alexander Ioannov Poniatsky served as rector here.
In the stone Vozdvizhensky Church (1895), the first to serve was its builder, priest Lazar Gnilovsky. In 1905, Alexander Dobronravov, transferred from Dmitrovsky district, was appointed priest of the church in the village of Darna, head and teacher of the law of the Darna parochial school. The last of the priests in Darna was 59-year-old Alexey Yakovlevich Solovyov. He entered this position on November 1, 1926 years old, transferred from Omsk province. The psalm reader was 44-year-old Dmitry Nikolaevich Aleshin. The temple was closed in 1937, and hieromonk Mikhail Filippovich Dubovenko was arrested and shot.
2.6. Years of great change.
Since 1929, religious life was strictly limited to the church fence.In the 1930s, the villages that once formed the church parish in the villageDArna, they turned out to be
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divided between different administrative entities:DArna, Ivanovskoye, Aleksino and Podporino were assigned to the Ivano-Aleksinsky village council, and Kashino and Rychkovo to Kashinsky. At the same time, an asphalt road was built from Istra to Darna and a new bridge to Kashino.One of the chapters passed along the Volokolamsk highwayThere are no new directions of attackNazi troops to Moscow.(photo27)
On November 16, 1941, two German tank and two infantry divisions rushed to the capital. Against 400 German tanks and 1030 guns of the 16th Army of Lieutenant General K.K. Rokossovsky and the 5th Army of General L.D. Lelyushenko were able to field only 150 light tanks and 757 guns and mortars. Istra was defended by the 78th Infantry Division under the command of Colonel A.P. Beloborodova(photo 28). On November 26, she retreated to the right bank of the Istra and heroically defended the city for two days. For this feat, the division was renamed the 9th Guards Division on the same day. On November 28, the enemy captured Istra. By evening, German tanks and armored personnel carriers occupied Darna and nearby villages. Here the 258th Infantry Regiment M.A. fought the Germans. Sukhanov and other units of the Red Army.(photo 29)
The last two days before the arrival of the Red Army were the most terrible for the civilian population. Residents of Istra were ordered to leave the city, otherwise they would face execution. The order of the German commander, written in broken Russian, stated that “the private population is being transferred to a collection camp.”(photo 30) A long line of people stretched along the highway, carrying infants and meager belongings in their arms. Some columns were driven from village to village until they found a place for them in the Darnitsa church. (photo 31)
In one of the December issues of the regional newspaper for 1943, a memoir was published by a resident of the village of Sokolniki, E.M. Smirnova. “On December 7, the Germans burned the village, and the residents were ordered to go to Istra, and from there to New Jerusalem and Luchinskoye. The next day they were driven from Luchinsky back to Istra. We walked through the city without stopping, they drove us through Makrusha, Polevo, Vysokovo. Along the way, the Germans set houses on fire with torches and, mockingly, asked us: “Is it a beautiful sight? Are you warm? The robbery did not stop. Teacher K.K. Korenevskaya's Nazis took her felt boots off her feet, and from Vysokov to Ivano-Aleksin she walked through the snow wearing only stockings.
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When we approached Ivano-Aleksin, the village had already burned out. There is not a single house left in it. We were driven to Darna. Exhausted people could barely stand on their feet. Those who fell from fatigue were shot by the guards. Having driven us to Darna, where only the church survived the fire, the guards disappeared. And two days later, the native Red Army entered the village.”(photo 32-33-34) As a result of artillery shelling and bombing, the Holy Cross Church was also damaged: two domes were demolished and the third tier of the bell tower was completely destroyed.
Temple parishionerNadezhda Dmitrievna Gazeva recalls: “The Germans drove us past the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross; although it was not operational, it was packed with people who were fleeing here. We kids went from there to my older married sister. There was an Austrian in their house. The Austrian took pity on us, because many small children had gathered, and gestured to the cow that his sister had, so that we could put it in the canopy and block it as best we could. That's what we did. The Germans came and kicked us out of the house and took us to the village of Nebogatkovo. And there was shooting, we were holed up in a ravine. As the shooting died down -We went to the Khrabrovo farm. There we were accommodated in the dining room along with the orphanage children. So we waited for ours. We returned to our village, and we had no house, no garden, all the apple trees had been cut down. And not only here, the entire village was burned and the adjacent buildings. The barn was just standing. We began to live in a barn, decorated it, and cut windows. My sister had a little daughter, so we dried her diapers on ourselves. I was hungry and wanted to eat constantly. But there is nothing to eat: everything has burned down, no one has anything.”
Following fresh tracks in the newspaper “Evening Moscow” dated December 16, 1941, war correspondent Alexander Bek (photo 35), in the future, a famous writer also wrote that the civilians of Darna, herded into the church, were going to be made into living shields for the SS army. Soon, on January 7, 1942, all Soviet newspapers published the “Note of the Commissar of Foreign Affairs V.M. Molotov about the widespread robberies and monstrous atrocities of the German authorities in the occupied Soviet territories.” It spoke of two thousand civilians of Istria who could become victims of the second Khatyn. Partisans from a detachment organized at the Tuchkovo spinning and weaving factory (commander Alexander Kokorin) reported the camp in the church to the command of the 9th
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guards division of the advancing Red Army (photo 36). On December 10, the village of Darna was liberated by our scouts.When preparing the counter-offensive, Zhukov, looking at the map where a river and a swamp were marked near Darna, decided to send the forces of the People's Militia Division here. Winter 1941There was deep snow here, and the militias had no transport; they moved on their own. The first regiment moved forward, but did not have time to take up defense when it was attacked and defeated. Then the command ordered to gather together all the units equipped with equipment, the cavalry units of the 17th Cavalry Cossack Division, which arrived from the Urals, and the 2nd Cavalry Corps under the command of General Belov. “We were thrown here to block the territory of the tank breakthrough,” recalls Boris Pavlovich. “It’s frosty, the snow is deep, it’s very difficult for horses to gallop through it to attack, and there’s no cover.” With the command “Checkers out!” and "Attack!" Boris Baturin twice led his cavalry squadron into mortal combat. When asked if it was scary, he answers: “There was no time to be scared. After those two attacks we stopped the German tanks. The losses were large - about 900 people. About 220 fighters from our division remained alive; the wounded quickly froze in the forty-degree frost.”
2.7. Restoration of the temple.
In the post-war years, the temple served as a garage for equipment (photo 37). Then it was turned into a forge and a repair base for agricultural machinery. With the departure of the machine operators, the ownerless building was empty. The kids here played Cossack robbers. People casually entered the temple to look at elements of the frescoes. For some time it was closed as a fertilizer storage facility. Then they freed it from the chemicals and left it wide open again. The wind was blowing, the children were running around, misbehaving, and writing all sorts of inscriptions on the wall frescoes. There was painting on the high arches and under the dome, and then the dome fell. Over the years, grave diggers visited the temple, digging everything up in search of gold and silver.
Under the guise of “protection of monuments” in the early 80s of the last century, by collecting a considerable part of the already modest parish profits, a census of movable church property was conceived, which was considered transferred free of charge
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use of the Church. In the stories of parishioners there is a mention of bricks and boards brought to the territory of the Darnitsa temple for restoration work. However, the beheaded, ruined temple even in 1990 appealed to human conscience. God gave the beginning of its real restoration to the church community created in 1991.
In 1992, the Istrinsky church district was formed, separated from the Solnechnogorsk deanery. The Istra deanery was headed by Archpriest Georgy Tobalov, rector of the Church of the Intercession and a well-known confessor in Moscow. Father attracted me with his spiritual maturity and love, meek, quiet disposition, warm-hearted kindness and attentiveness to all people. Among the thirty-three chosen priests, for whom he was a spiritual mentor, is Archpriest Konstantin Volkov in Darna. (photo 38)
In 1991, the dilapidated building of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross was transferred to the local parish of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Darnitsa community needed a priest, and one of the local residents, Nikolai Ivanovich Khrabrov, turned to Konstantin Volkov to become this priest. The call of the temple in distress echoed in the heart of the future abbot: “I saw the temple, I really liked it, and I promised people to definitely raise it from the ruins, no matter how many years and strength it took me.” It’s easy to understand Father now when you see the temple that arose from a dream. And in the early 90s, even his spiritual mentor, Dean Georgy Tobalov, found the choice incomprehensible. (photo 39-40)
HMany years after the start of construction and restoration work, the temple stands as if born again. The faster, with the breeze, you approach Darna, the more suddenly the majestic victorious temple rises to its full height - grows to the skies. From a distance, it resembles an Easter candle on a candlestick entwined with flowers. Elegant, slender, five-headed, he seems like a miraculous miracle revealed in earthly beauty.
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Conclusion.
Since 1985, the Ermolinsky rural district has been headed by Nina Vladimirovna Smirnova. The Head of the Administration, at the behest of his heart, stands vigil in memory of those who saved ours at the cost of their lives. In the circle of fellow village veterans, Nina Vladimirovna, together with Father Konstantin, is the organizer and soul of events on Victory Day - prayers, religious processions, rallies at the cross, victory fireworks near the temple. This is only part of the charitable deeds of the residents of the Istra region. Patronage of schoolchildren over military graves has been organized.
The youth club “Istoki”, which is under the patronage of the head of the Istrinsky district, Anna Shcherba, collects materials about the war and piece by piece restores the historical panorama of the battle for Moscow. On May 9, 1999, the Istoki club erected a memorial sign to the song “In the Dugout” in the village of Kashino. The dugout where the words of the song were written, it turns out, was dug not by soldiers, but by the then very young sons of Agrafena Osipovna Kuznetsova, Mikhail and Vladimir.
The Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, with its wounds and revival, has earned the title of the Temple of Military Glory, to which the poem is dedicated:
Worth watching throughout the area
God's temple is indestructible.
Evil blizzards nailed him,
Dashing, subject to the winds,
But he, a timeless wonder,
Here, apparently, stood for centuries,
He was beautiful even in ruins,
He reminded me of Christ.
All in wedding garments - sisters, brothers,
Shaking off the heavy sleep from my soul,
We'll listen at sunset
Evening bell...
Easter ringing!
As an evangelist of people's power
And the unity of hearts:
All Russia will perk up
And it will finally be reborn!
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References:
1. “Darna - a particle of the Holy Land” M. Vega Print 2009
2. Kiseleva T. “Flowers for St. Daria.” M "Father's House" 2008
3. “Encyclopedia of villages and hamlets of the Moscow region” Moscow 2004.
4. “Lives of the Istra New Martyrs” 2007
5. V.G. Glushakov “Monasteries of the Moscow Region” Moscow “Veche” 2008
6. “Slavic Encyclopedia 17-18 centuries” Olma-Press 2004.
7. “Istra 1941” M “Moscow Worker” 1985
Sources:
Notes by V.S. Kusov “Lands of modern Moscow and its environs in the 18th century”
Large biographical encyclopedia
Archimandrite Leonid Kavelin “Historical description of the stauropegal Resurrection Monastery”
Manuscripts from the ancient repository of M.P. Pogodin in the Imperial Public Library No. 1623
Report of the dean of the Zvenigorod Assumption Cathedral, Archpriest John Rozhdestvensky
Kholmogorov V and G “Historical materials about churches and villages of the 16-18 centuries.”
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Photo 1. Village Darna.
Photo 2. River Darenka.
Photo 3
Photo 4. Ivan 3.
Photo 5. Princess Sophia.
Photo 6. Ascension Monastery.
Photo 7. Fyodor Ioannovich.
Photo 8. Defense of Moscow from False Dmitry 2.
Photo 9. Ioann Alekseevich.
Photo 10. Ptriarch Nikon.
Photo 12. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna
Photo 11
Photo 13. Pavel 1.
Photo 14. Moscow fire.
Photo 15. French troops.
Photo 16. Alexander 1.
Photo 17. Prince Alexander Alexandrovich, future Emperor Alexander III.
Photo 18. Nikolaevskaya railway.
Photo 19. Nicholas II with his wife.
Photo 20. Nicholas II’s visit to the New Jerusalem Monastery.
Photo 21. A.P. Chekhov.
Photo 22. Monument to Tsurikova.
Photo 23. Sergey Sherwood.
Photo 24. Plan of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross.
Photo 25. Temple of the Exaltation of the Cross
Photo 26. Decoration of the temple.
Photo 27.
Photo 28. A.P. Beloborodov.
Photo 29. A.P. Beloborodov and Sukhanov.
Photo 30. Residents of the occupied territory.
Photo 31. Column of refugees.
Photo 32. Occupied Istra.
Photo 33. Germans at the walls of the monastery.
Photo 34.
Photo 3. Alexander Beck.
Photo 36
Photo 37. Destroyed temple in the village of Darna.
Photo 38. Beginning of restoration work.
Photo 39. Father Konstantin and the first parishioners.
Photo 40.
Application
Five kilometers from the city of Istra in the village of Darna there is a beautiful Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Anyone who has visited the Shamordino Monastery near Optina Pustyn will notice the similarity of its cathedral with this church near Moscow. Both churches were built by the architect Sergei Vladimirovich Sherwood in the 1890s. Blessed Alexandra, the holy fool of the end near Moscow, is buried on the territory of the church in DarnaXIXand startedXXcentury. In the temple there is the August icon of the Mother of God, at which the military and their relatives pray.
Blessed Istra
On the site of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross there is a forged grave cross. Under this cross lie the remains of Blessed Alexandra near Moscow. Maria Efimovna Kuznetsova, a resident of the village of Onufrievo, left valuable memories of the blessed one. Some of them are published on the website of the Holy Cross Church. Maria Kuznetsova lived a long life. She remembered Blessed Alexandra and lived until the 1990s, when church life in the village of Darna was being revived.
Blessed Alexandra was born in the 1870s in the village of Uglyn. Today this is the border of the Ruza and Istrinsky districts. The girl lost her parents early, so she lived with her aunt Mavra in the village of Safonikha. She did not go to school, but learned to read and write on her own from church books. Since childhood, Alexandra led an almost reclusive lifestyle. She did not go out with her friends and boys, but only went to church and funerals. When Alexandra learned about someone’s death, she told Aunt Mavra that “we need to go, we need to see them off.”
Like other holy fools, Alexandra wore light clothing in winter and summer. When it was cold, she wore a canvas shirt and felt boots without stockings. “In the cold, the Lord warmed her,” recalled Maria Kuznetsova. However, unlike most blessed ones, she did not tolerate ridicule from others. On the contrary, people from nearby villages, as well as from Novopetrovsky, Ruza, Volokolamsk, Mozhaisk, came to the blessed woman’s house in Safonikha for advice or healing. She healed the sick with prayer, foresaw destinies and read thoughts.
Alexandra lived only 32 years. The blessed one went to church in the village of Onufrievo and one day took a shovel with her. After the service, she left the shovel at the temple and returned home. The next day, Alexandra was found dead, although her aunt did not notice that she was sick with anything or complained about her health. The blessed one was buried in front of a large crowd of people and priests; her coffin was carried four kilometers in arms from Safonikha to Onufrievo. Alexandra was buried in the temple fence in the place where she left the shovel.
After death, healings continued to occur at Alexandra's grave. In the 1940s, the temple in Onufrievo was destroyed during the German offensive, but the grave remained. After the war, the burial site was surrounded by country houses, a garbage dump and a pigsty. In 1996, believers turned to the clergy with a request to rebury the remains of the blessed one on the site of an existing church in the Istra district. We chose the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in the village of Darna, 30 kilometers from Onufrievo.
August icon: “Appearance of the Mother of God to soldiers in 1914”
In the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in the village of Darna there is a rare August icon of the Mother of God. The name does not refer to the month, but to the city of Augustow in what is now Poland. At the beginning of the First World War, Russian troops suffered two serious defeats on the Northwestern Front. Confusion reigned in the army. During this difficult period, the soldiers of one of the regiments witnessed a miracle - in the sky above the camp in Poland on September 1, 1914, the Mother of God herself appeared and pointed her hand to the west.
The news of the miracle at the front, which was witnessed by several dozen soldiers, hit the newspapers. The first article entitled “Miracle” appeared in the “Birzhevye Vedomosti” in September 1914. Part of the note is given in Andrei Farberov’s book dedicated to the history of the icon: “After our retreat, our officer, with a whole half-squadron, saw a vision. They just settled down at the bivouac. It was 11 pm. Then a private comes running with a stunned face and says: “Your Honor, go.” Lieutenant R. He went and suddenly sees the Mother of God in the sky with Jesus Christ in her arms, and with one hand she points to the west. All lower ranks are on their knees and praying. He looked at the vision for a long time. Then this vision changed into a large cross and disappeared... After this, a great battle took place near Augustow, which was marked by a great victory.”
The news of the miracle from Birzhevye Vedomosti was reprinted by many newspapers. Based on the description of the note, they began to print postcards with the Virgin Mary in the sky above the soldiers’ camp. The news and images spread throughout the Russian Empire. The news inspired the people after the unsuccessful start of hostilities. It seemed that the Mother of God would now become the intercessor of Russian soldiers in the war against the Germans.
An investigation into the miracle by priests began by order of the Synod. They found out the details, which were later published in the “Bulletin of the Military and Naval Clergy”: “On September 1, at 11 o’clock at night, the convoy of the 2nd category of the Life Guards cuirassier brigade... located near the city of Mariampol, was suddenly caught by the Germans: it was received a report that the enemy in cars with machine guns and cannons was near the highway... The soldiers saw in the sky an unusually bright star, from which a radiance of small stars gradually formed, and a wonderful image of the Mother of God with the Eternal Child, with the Mother of God pointing her hand to the west... A wonderful phenomenon lasted about half an hour... When the vision disappeared, the same bright star shone at the site of the phenomenon. After this, there was no limit to the general joy: the enemy was no longer there, and the convoy safely continued its journey.” Thus, the soldiers saw the Mother of God in the sky about a month before the victory at Augustow, but in the popular consciousness both of these events were combined.
The temple in Darna has a “Garden of Memory of the Bagram Reconnaissance Battalion,” and four modern mosaics on the bell tower depict holy warriors: Alexander Nevsky, St. George the Victorious, Andrei Bogolyubsky and John the Warrior. The rector of the temple, priest Konstantin Volkov, is a former participant in the war in Afghanistan. He is in charge of contacts with the armed forces in the Istra deanery. That is why such an icon of the Mother of God appeared in the temple. Military personnel and their relatives pray in front of her.
Sherwood's Temple
The Holy Cross Church in the village of Darna is an interesting architectural monument in the Istrinsky district and the entire Moscow region. It was built according to the design of the architect Sergei Vladimirovich Sherwood in 1895. His father, architect Vladimir Osipovich Sherwood, is famous for the building of the Historical Museum in Moscow on Red Square. Sergei Sherwood helped his father in this work. He, like his father, made his architectural projects in the pseudo-Russian style. The temple in Darna is also similar to the Kazan Cathedral of the convent in Shamordino, Kaluga region. This majestic monastery church not far from Optina Pustyn was also built according to the design of Sergei Sherwood.
In the Istra district there is a beautiful five-tent temple, which can be visited along with the church in Darna. This is the Church of the Kazan Mother of God in Glebovo. The temple project was created by another iconic architect XIX century Konstantin Ton. Court architect of Tsar Nicholas I became the author of many churches in different cities of the Russian Empire, but the most famous of them is the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
At the top of a green hill, in the midst of the picturesque landscape of the Istrinsky district, the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross occupies a special place in the ancient and modern history of the Moscow region. This temple is a magnificent gem of this place that cannot be missed. From a distance, the view of the temple pleases the eye: a high bell tower, silver domes crowning the temple, built of red brick at the turn of the century. You will always remember this beautiful place with running small rivers, dense forests, deep ravines and hills... and a Temple built in the traditional Russian style.
The history of the village of Darna (historical name Dorn) dates back to the 15th century. These places remember their noble landowners. In 1658, these lands became part of the stauropegic monastery of the Resurrection of Christ, today called the New Jerusalem Monastery. His Holiness Patriarch Nikon of Moscow and All Rus' bought these lands and made them a monastic estate.
Dorna was renamed Vozdvizhenskoe as soon as the first wooden church was built here in 1686 in the name of the Exaltation of the Honest Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. The pilgrims who went to pray at the New Jerusalem Monastery and stayed here could admire the monastery domes turning golden in the distance from the hill. The wooden church existed for about a hundred years. It is not known what happened to it: whether it fell into disrepair due to disrepair, or burned down.
In 1757, “through the diligence of the parishioners,” a new wooden church of Sts. was erected on the site of the former Church of the Exaltation. apostles Peter and Paul. On the night of March 26, 1893 During Lent, the single-altar wooden Peter and Paul Church burned down. The grief of the parishioners was immeasurable. In a most humble petition to the Moscow Metropolis, the parishioners and clergy asked for permission to build a temporary church instead of the one that burned down, to which they received a comforting response. The plan was approved on June 8, 1893 under No. 3628 by the construction department of the Moscow Ecclesiastical Consistory. The project was carried out by the architect S. Krygin. Temporary temple in the name of St. Apostles Peter and Paul in the same year was added to the one that existed in the village since 1890. parochial school. Landowner Anna Tsurikova provided great assistance in this. The consecration of the temple and the liturgy were performed by the dean, archpriest of the Zvenigorod Assumption Cathedral, John of the Nativity “cathedral”. The parish school with its attached church was located 21m west of the porch of the existing bell tower. The total length of the building was 21m, width - 11m.
The decree of the Moscow Ecclesiastical Consistory, allowing the above-mentioned extension, set the condition for preparations for the construction of a new stone church.
The design of the new five-domed brick church was completed in 1895. famous architect Sergei Sherwood. He drew up drawings of the plan, section, facade of the temple and church fence, as well as a land plan of the area. It should be noted that all the work performed by the architect was charitable. The land plan of the area shows: the projected stone church of the Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, a parochial school with a temporary wooden church attached to it, houses of clergy, peasant yards and the road to the city of Voskresensk. The houses of clergymen, recorded on the land plan by the architect S. Sherwood, already existed in 1895, as can be seen from protocol No. 156 dated February 6, 1895 of the construction department of the Moscow provincial government. They were located on land that belonged to the temple, located at a distance of 54.5 m south of the southern wall of the temple. The length of the boundary line, shown on the plan of the clergy's house, is 77 sazhens (an ancient Russian measure of length; 1 sazhen = 2.134 m), which today corresponds to 164 meters. Peasant yards were located behind the road leading to the city of Voskresensk. The location of the road currently remains unchanged.
In the report of the dean of the Zvenigorod Assumption Cathedral, Archpriest John Rozhdestvensky, dated February 9, 1895, to the Moscow Spiritual Consistory, it is written: “In pursuance of the decree of the Moscow Spiritual Consistory of January 30, 1895 No. 581, I have the honor to report that there is a place for the construction of a temple in the name of the Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord in the village of Dorne, Zvenigorod district, it is convenient and decent, since there are not and never can be drinking establishments and factory establishments near this place, the temple will be located at a legal distance from the buildings, the main guarantee for the construction of a new temple is the church brick factory ... “at present time, 200,000 bricks are already ready...” The plant was presumably located in the area from the parish school to the river, along the road. The location was chosen due to its proximity to the river, since water is necessary for brick production, and the proximity of the road made it possible to easily deliver bricks to the construction site.
The work on the construction of the new church was headed by 29-year-old priest Lazar Gnilovsky. The help of patrons and wealthy investors made it possible to implement an expensive project in a short time, which would have been unaffordable for the parishioners alone. The large three-altar church in the name of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord (chapels of the Exaltation of the Cross, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the Ascension of the Lord) was built by 1898. After work on the improvement of the interior decoration, it was consecrated in 1900.
Hard times came for the Russian Orthodox Church after the 1917 revolution. The building of the Holy Cross Church was looted. In 1935 The bells were removed from the temple in 1937. the church was closed. The church building was adapted for the economic needs of an organized collective farm: it was used as a tractor workshop and forge, and then turned into a mineral fertilizer warehouse.
The military events of the Great Patriotic War were not spared either. In 1941, the defense line of Moscow passed through the village of Darna. The German troops that entered the village set up a collection camp here for civilians who were evicted from their homes along the entire front line, which ran through the territory of the Istra region. The village was burned; As a result of artillery shelling and bombing, the temple tents and the third tier of the bell tower were thoroughly destroyed. It was to this destroyed temple building in December 1941. The Nazis rounded up women, children, and old people. For two days and two nights people were in the December frost. E.M. Smirnova, is an eyewitness who survived that difficult time. December 11, 1941 Darna was liberated by the 258th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Guards Division under the command of M.A. Sukhanov.
The Church of the Exaltation of the Cross stood dilapidated and forgotten for fifty years. Only Her ruins remember their great past. When the dilapidated church walls were transferred to the Orthodox Church in 1991, an Orthodox community was registered in the village of Darna. The young priest Konstantin Volkov, who had just been ordained by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, became the rector of the church. From that moment on, the restoration of the destroyed temple began. Residents of the surrounding villages and Agrogorodok actively helped the parish in restoration work. Under the leadership of Father Konstantin, parishioners cleared the rubble, set up a temporary altar, and collected church utensils. The temple was transformed literally before our eyes. And again the crosses shone in the sun, and again the gospel began to be heard throughout the area.
In December 2001, Vicar of the Moscow Diocese, Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk performed the rite of great consecration of the temple. At the end of the Divine Liturgy, Vladyka Gregory presented the rector of the church, Archpriest Konstantin, with the medal of St. Sergius of Radonezh, 1st degree, benefactors Almakaev Ruslan Fedorovich and Chumak Nikolai Georgievich for their diligent work for the Glory of the Holy Church were awarded the Order of the Holy Blessed Prince Daniel of Moscow, helpers and donors of the church were awarded certificates of honor Metropolitan Juvenaly.
Presentation of the medal to the rector
The rector of the church, Archpriest Konstantin Volkov, conducts a lot of public work in the Istra region. For about ten years he has been responsible in the deanery for interaction with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies of the Russian Federation. He carries out pastoral work and educational activities in military units, the Military Commissariat of the city of Istra, the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate and the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Istra region. Close relations are maintained with the regional committee of veterans of the Great Patriotic War, with youth military-patriotic organizations.
There is a guardianship service at the temple. Guardianship of the wounded and sick is provided at the Center for Rehabilitation Therapy for Internationalist Soldiers “Rus” (Ruza), and the church also provides spiritual care for internationalist warriors, disabled people from local conflicts and wars, family members of fallen soldiers, including organizations “Association fallen soldiers in Afghanistan", "Combat Brotherhood", military-patriotic club "Warriors" in Istra. With the blessing of the rector’s father, parishioners, church employees and patrons of the arts carry out charitable activities: constant assistance is provided to prisoners in correctional colonies in the Kirov, Kirovo-Chepetsk, Sverdlovsk, Vologda regions and Chuvashia. Once a month, parcels with clothes, personal hygiene items, food and spiritual literature are sent there.
Two Sunday schools are organized at the temple (in the premises of the House of Culture of Agrogorodok and the House of Culture of the village of Snegiri), classes in which are conducted on the basics of Orthodox culture, church choral singing and handicrafts. On the holidays of the Nativity of Christ and the Holy Holiday of Easter, teachers and students organize staged concerts with spiritual chants for parishioners.
The story of the locally revered Blessed Alexandra (Sasha) occupies a special place in the modern history of the temple. Sashenka lived on Istra land at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries and became famous for healing physical ailments and mental disorders; It was given to her to know and see human destinies for decades to come. Her remains were moved from the village of Onufrieva and buried inside the church fence in 1996. Sashenka’s grave with a large wooden cross is located inside the church fence, near the altar part of the temple.
Currently, the restoration of the building of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross has been largely completed, but the interior of the church requires large and expensive restoration work.
