Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Tobolsk

The Monastery of St. John the Baptist and the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin was established at the road leading from Tobolsk to the Abalak Monastery in 1653. The monastery is located in the rural settlement Priirtyshsky 10 kilometers from the center of Tobolsk.

In 1638 the Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign was carried from the Abalak Monastery to Tobolsk. The religious procession passed through Shantalyk village where a local peasant Vasily led to the miracle-working icon his congenitally blind daughter Anne and she suddenly recovered her sight.

Following this miraculous healing the Archbishop of Siberia and Tobolsk Simeon blessed the establishment of a monastery on that place. He himself laid down there the first wooden church in honour of St. John the Baptist. The place was then a wild country so the new monastery was called the Mezhdugorskaya Pustyn of St. John the Baptist. Later, a village called Ivanovskoye grew around the monastery.

Originally, it was a male monastery but in 1864 it became a female monastery. In 19 century on his territory there were erected three stone churches: the Trinity Cathedral, the Church of the John the Baptist and the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin.