Serafimo-Diveevskiy monastery in Nizhny Novgorod
Village Diveevo, located in Nizhniy Novgorod region, became one of the centers of Russian Orthodox Church. Svyato-Troitskiy Serafimo-Diveevskiy monastery was founded by the nun Alexandra in XVIII century; however, it only attained its All-Russian glory thanks to Seraphim Sarovskiy.
Traditionally, Diveevo is considered the forth domain of the Holy Mother. The first three domains are – ancient Iveria (now Georgia), Mount Athos, and Kiev-Pecherskaya Laura. The monastery in Diveevo and the land within the Seraphim`s Ditch is the only domain of the Holy Mother in Russia. It is believed that only this domain is daily visited by the Holy Mother.
At the beginning of XIX century the God`s mother revealed herself to Alexandra, a nun of the Kiev-Pecherskaya Laura, saying her to go to the north of Russia and found there a new community. Consequently, there appeared a monastery in the village Diveevo, Nizhniy Novgorod region. You should take a train to Diveevo going via Arsamas; also you can take a car in Moscow and go via Murom.
In 1760 the nun Alexandra, under the patronage of the Seraphim Sarovskiy, founded the Kazan community and laid down the foundation of Kazan Cathedral. Though the Reverend Seraphim was a monk-priest of nearby Sarovskiy Monastery, he preferred to live in a cell near the village Diveevo. Seraphim Sarovskiy died in 1833, and in 1903 he was sanctified as the Reverend Seraphim of Sarov and All-Russian Miracle-Worker.
The God`s mother revealed herself to Seraphim in the last years of his life and ordered him to take a mattock and dig the ditch near the monastery. The nuns remembered: “The Father Seraphim told many wonderful things of the ditch calling it the pathway of the God`s mother. That she went around it. That it was the domain of the Holy Mother herself.” “Here is Athos, Kiev and Jerusalem, - said he, - and Antichrist can not go across it.”
By all means, every pilgrim must go along the Ditch. As a rule, the faithful do it holding rosary and silently repeating «Ave Maria» 150 times. However, if you haven’t enough pa-tience you may not repeat the prayer 150 times, and if you don’t remember the text, you may take with you some prayer book, but only say it.
There are two cathedrals in Diveevo. Trinity Cathedral houses the relics of the Reverend Seraphim. They were returned there in 1991. Nearby there is the Cathedral of Our Savour`s Transfiguration founded in 1907. However, because of the events of 1918, its construction was suspended until 1998, when the temple was, finally, consecrated. Seraphim`s Ditch is started just near the church.
There are several sacred sources in Diveevo. Among them, the source of Our Lady of Kazan is the oldest one. It already existed when the convent was founded. Another large source of the Reverend Seraphim is in the village Tsiganovka. Both sources have bath huts. In every season of the year the temperature of water is about 5°C, but you must have a bath all the same. You can buy bathing robes at the source.
