The female Shamordinsky Monastery is located 20 kilometers from the Monastery Optina Deserts on the high bank of the Serena River. It has another name Kazan Ambrosievskaya Deserts, since the monastery was founded in 1884 by one of the most famous Optina elders, St. Ambrose.
During the 19th century, there was a tradition of eldership in the Optina Desert, which attracted thousands of pilgrims from all over Russia. In the monastery for more than a hundred years there were more than ten elders who received and instructed people who came to them. Writers, Russian emperors, and ordinary people came to Optina Deserts to the elders. Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote the novel The Brothers Karamazov after visiting the Optina Desert. The prototype of the elder Zosima was the Optina elder Ambrose. Leo Tolstoy also visited Optina Deserts many times. After visiting the monastery, Leo Tolstoy wrote a novel Father Sergius.
The founder of the spiritual school of eldership in the Optina Desert was the elder Leonid (Lev Nagolkin). The great Optina elders St. Macarius and St. Ambrose were his disciples. Elder Ambrose (1812-1891) extended his spiritual influence to the whole of Russia.
In the 1880s, Elder Ambrose blessed his spiritual daughter Sofia Bolotova to create a women`s community. A place for this community was found in the village of Old Shamordino. Later, a convent was founded here. By the name of the village it is called Shamordinsky, but by the name of the founder the monastery is also called Ambrosievskaya Desert. Sergey Perlov, a wealthy tea merchant, donated large funds for the construction of temples and monastic buildings. The house of the Perlov family has been preserved in the Shamordinsky monastery, where they stayed during their visits to the Shamordinsky monastery. They are also buried here.
The main temple of the Shamordinsky monastery is called the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Virgin Mary. It was built in 1902 by architect Sergey Sherwood, the son of the famous architect Vladimir Sherwood, who founded the neo-Russian architectural style. The most famous building in this style, which was built by father in 1875, was the Historical Museum in Moscow. The most famous building of son was the Kazan Cathedral in the Shamordinsky monastery.
The Kazan Cathedral in the Shamordinsky Monastery is also built in the neo-Russian style. It has 15 domes, a large number of decorative arches and semi-columns. The windows are decorated with beautiful patterned platbands. The temple is built of red brick. The interior is also made in the neo-Russian style. Nuns embroider rizas for icons with beads. They can be seen inside the monastery.
Behind the Kazan Cathedral there is a Refectory connected to it by a covered gallery. The Church of Ambrose of Optina was erected behind the refectory. Previously, there was a cell of St. Ambrose, where he stayed during his visits to the Shamordinsky monastery. He died there in 1891.
Next is located the white Trinity Church. A path down to the Serena River begins there. There is a Holy Life-giving Spring on the shore. You have to go down a steep staircase to 600 meters. There is a font near the spring, so you can not only drink saint water, but also plunge into it.
