Gethsemane Chernigov Skete is located 4 kilometers from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in the eastern suburb of Sergiev Posad. In Orthodoxy, there is a tradition of creating sketes at monasteries, where monks who are inclined to seclusion could live and pray. This was also the Gethsemane Chernigov skete, founded as a metochion of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
Chernigov skete was founded in 1844 by the abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, St. Anthony, in the Isakov grove on the shore of the Skete (Korbushinsky) pond. In 1847, Blessed Filippushka (Philip Horev) moved to the Chernigov monastery from the Lavra, who began digging a cave on the opposite side of the pond. This part of the hermitage was called Gethsemane. Now there is a military unit located there that is inaccessible to the public.
Nowadays, the hermitage is open to the public and its stone temples are more like a large monastery. It is called Gethsemane in honor of the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem, where Jesus prayed before his arrest, and where the Underground Church of the Holy Virgin Mary is located. Chernigov skete was named after the miraculous Chernigov icon of the Virgin Mary, which attracted a large number of pilgrims to the skete.
At the end of the 19th century, more than 400 monks lived in the Gethsemane Chernigov hermitage. At this time, the Gethsemane Chernigov skete became one of the centers of the elders, as well as the Optina Hermitage Monastery in the Kaluga region. The elder Barnabas of Gethsemane received dozens of people daily. In 1905, after the events of Bloody Sunday, Emperor Nicholas II also came to him. The elder Barnabas died in 1906, and in 1995 he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Stone construction in the Gethsemane Chernigov hermitage began at the end of the 19th century. The main Chernigov temple was built over caves that were dug by the first hermits who settled in the skete in the middle of the 19th century. The caves were reinforced with masonry. There are cells there, as well as the cave Archangel Church. A small Iver chapel was built behind the altar of this church. There are placed the relics of Blessed Philippushka, who dug the first cave, as well as St. Barnabas. The caves can be visited as part of an excursion.
All the buildings of the Gethsemane Chernigov hermitage are made in the pseudo-Russian architectural style of red brick. A huge five-tiered bell tower rises above the Skete. Its height reaches 80 meters.
