Excursion to the village of Yam Temple. Floro-Lavra Church yam. Fatal twentieth century

The beginning of its history goes back to the distant past, and it is now impossible to say anything definite about it. However, given the location of the village, it can be assumed that people settled here a very long time ago. This is confirmed by archaeological research carried out in the surrounding area by employees of the State Historical Museum of Moscow in 1995. On the territory of the village of Yam, it was possible to identify two villages dating from the 13th-17th centuries. One of the first written evidence about the village dates back to 1543, when the Archimandrite of the Simonov Monastery complained to the Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich about the Florovsky coachmen, who from the peasants of the village of Korobovo belonging to the monastery “take many carts under the messengers every day, and the peasants need chinitsa from the coachmen and great offense." Apparently, already at that time there was a church named in honor of the holy martyrs Florus and Laurus, who were revered in Rus' as patrons of livestock, and especially horses.
According to a long-standing tradition, on the day of remembrance of the saints, August 18/31, a “horse festival” was held, when horses from all over the area were brought to the church, decorated with red ribbons, under embroidered blankets and in the best harness, and bathed them in the Pakhra River and in the “Yamsky Ozerki”. In the church itself, according to custom, a solemn prayer service was served, after which the priest sprinkled the horses with holy water.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, the village church was wooden. It is mentioned as such in the “Geographical Dictionary of the Russian State,” published in 1805. Apparently, it was completed, like Pakhrinskaya and Ermolinskaya, after the Patriotic War of 1812.
As stone and covered with iron, it is listed in the clergy registers for 1819. In 1855, construction of the bell tower was completed, and in 1860, work was completed in the Nikolsky chapel.
In 1888, priest John Nikitin, church elder, Moscow merchant, who had previously been a peasant in the village of Pavlovskaya, Vasily Semenovich Leonov, village elders of the parish, Sergei Andreevich Shurygin, Boris Ivanovich Mikheev, presented Metropolitan Ioanikiy with a new plan for the reconstruction of the temple, drawn up by the diocesan architect
V. Krygin. The petition for reconstruction emphasized that according to the new plan, the temple “will be much more majestic from the outside, and the internal structure will be more open, roomy, and more convenient in everything,” and the funds and building materials for reconstruction are available, and the brick and stone of the old temple will be used for construction of a new one.
Basically, the construction of the temple was completed in 1893, when the consecration of the right St. Nicholas chapel took place, the construction of the three altar rooms envisaged by the project, adjacent to the refectory, and the interior decoration of the temple were carried out in subsequent years. During the finishing process, the interior walls were covered with plaster and painted, and then richly painted. The temple was decorated with three new gilded iconostases. The rebuilt church could accommodate up to a thousand believers at a time. On July 12, 1898, the left chapel was consecrated in the name of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and on August 23, the main altar was consecrated in the name of St. martyrs Florus and Laurus.
The merit of the ministers of the Flora and Lavra Church is the opening of parochial schools in the village. The first school here was opened by the specific department back in the 60s of the 19th century. In 1868, there were 54 boys studying there. But after it was transferred to the zemstvo, it closed due to lack of funds, and the house in which it was located was sold. However, the need for children’s education remained and increased every year.
The decline of the temple began during the years of Soviet power. In 1922, 2 pounds of valuable church utensils, including silver crosses and bowls, were confiscated from it. In the 1930s, bell ringing was banned, and in 1937, a priest, Archpriest Yaroslav Savitsky, was arrested and soon shot in Butovo. Before the Patriotic War, the bell tower was dismantled, the church cemetery was abolished, the ancient gravestones of which were used to lay the foundation for the collective farm pigsty. Later, the church domes, iconostasis, surviving utensils, and fence were lost.
On April 14, Easter 1990, the first service took place in the dilapidated building of the church in the name of the holy martyrs Florus and Laurus, which was led by the rector of the church, Archpriest Valery Larichev. Before this, the church building housed a Mosenergo warehouse for many years, and later a cooperative for the production of tights. The entrance to the building was through the altar, the roof was leaking, there was a second floor where machines and other equipment were located.
During the period 1997–2004. According to the original design of the icon painter Vladimir Sidelnikov, the construction of the iconostases of all three chapels of the temple was completed.
In 1997, according to the design of the architect Alexei Neiman, a baptismal church was erected in the name of St. John the Baptist.
Through the efforts of the rector, who was trained as a psychiatrist and narcologist, the Brotherhood of Temperance was organized at the church in the name of the holy martyrs Florus and Laurus. The fraternal building and production workshops are currently under construction.

The first mention of the Floro-Lavra Church in Yama dates back to the beginning of the 17th century. The temple was wooden; it has not survived to this day. The stone church was built at the beginning of the 19th century. In the middle of this century, the building was rebuilt; funds for construction work were donated by parishioners and other benefactors. The project for rebuilding the temple was developed by the architect A. Elagin.

At the end of the 80s of the 19th century, the church was rebuilt (expanded) according to the design of the architect V. Krygin. After completion of the work, the temple could accommodate up to a thousand parishioners. The church was richly painted; gilded iconostases were made for the temple.

In the early 20s of the 20th century, church valuables were confiscated in favor of the starving. The temple lost all silver and gilded items: two crosses, four lamps, nine robes from icons, two bowls, two stars and a number of other items of church utensils. Bell ringing was prohibited. The abbot and his entire family were deprived of voting rights. At the end of the 20s of the 20th century, Archpriest Ya. Savitsky became the rector of the temple; he served in the church until 1937. He is currently canonized.

In the 30s the temple was closed. A few years later the bell tower was destroyed. In the early 90s of the 20th century, church doors were reopened to believers. The first service took place on Easter. Currently the church is active; It opened two Sunday schools, one of which is intended for children, the other for adults.

Church of St. mchch. Flora and Lavra in the village of Yam before the revolution was considered one of the largest churches in the Moscow region. Located at the intersection of trade and military routes, it participated in many events in Russian history.

Everywhere in Rus', the martyrs Florus and Laurus, the martyrs Florus and Laurus, were deeply revered and loved; the inhabitants of the Yamsk settlements often erected churches in the name of these saints. The Kashirskoe tract (modern Kashirskoe highway) led to the southern lands from Moscow. It began on Zatsepa, where back in the 15th century. there was a vast meadow where the Nogai Tatars drove herds of tens of thousands of horses for sale. At a distance of one “gon” from Zatsepa, with the advent of the postal service, a coachman’s settlement appeared, which was called “Starofrolovsky Yam” or simply “Old Yam” (the modern name of the village is Yam). It received this name after the merger of the Starofrolovsky churchyard with the village of Yam.

A village arose at the intersection of the Great Kashirskaya Road with the Pakhra River, coachmen and their families settled here, inns, stables, and rest areas for coachmen were built. The first mention of the village of Yam in documents dates back to 1543. According to the parish books of the Patriarchal Treasury Order for 1628, it is listed as “The Church of Florus and Laurus in the sovereign palace village on Old Yamu, on the Kashirskaya road.” It is also mentioned in the entry of 1633: “Church on the Pakhra River, on Old Yamu.” In 1646, it was served by “priest Alexei Arkhipov, in the courtyard the sexton Potapko Kupriyanov, his courtyard’s mallow worker Antonidina, and 6 churchyards of church servants, with 15 people in them.” The church was wooden. Among its parishioners were residents of the palace villages of Pavlovskaya and Beleutov, the villages of Gorki Verkhnie and Gorki Nizhnie, the villages of Staroye and Novoe Syanovo of the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery and the village of Pakhrino, which belonged to Prince A. M. Lvov.

The church was very poor, so according to the decree of His Holiness Patriarch Joseph of November 7, 1643, “it was not ordered to take tribute for the previous year 1638 for its poverty.” And yet, it was under the priest Alexy Arkhipov (+1649), no later than 1646, that a chapel was built in the church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Then the land and transportation through Pakhra were given as the patrimony of Prince Yu. In 1706, Peter I granted Stary Yam, together with the Domodedovo volost, to Prince A.D. Menshikov. After the prince’s disgrace, the village was again transferred to the palace department. In the neighboring village of Pakhrino, a consolidated imperial stable was built, and some of those who served in it settled in Old Yamu, in addition, some of the village residents were taken to serve in Pakhrino. Since 1781, the village of Stary Yam became part of the Nikitsky district. Then the village of Kolychevo was renamed the city of Nikitsk, which became the center of Nikitsky district.

Church of St. mchch. Flora and Lavra with the Nikolsky chapel were rebuilt several times, but until the end of the 18th century. remained wooden. On August 3, 1791, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Platon (Levshin) issued a charter for the construction of a stone church in the name of Saints Florus and Laurus with chapels in the name of the holy apostles Peter and Paul and Saint Nicholas. However, according to the clergy registers of 1798, the church was still listed as wooden, and only in 1819 was it recorded as stone and covered with iron. In a letter from the rector of the church, priest Mikhail Vasiliev and church warden Nikolai Isidorov, to Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Saint Philaret in June 1823, it was reported that the church in the village was stone, the altar in the name of the holy apostles Peter and Paul in the right aisle was consecrated, and a place was left on the left side , where they would like to build a chapel in the name of St. Nicholas. At the same time, a plan of the chapel and a petition for its construction were attached. On October 18, 1825, the new chapel was consecrated by the dean, Podolsk priest Vasily Ivanov.

Priest Feodor Timofeevich Shemetov, who served here from 1835 to 1859, did a lot for the Yamsk parish. Through his efforts, with the help of benefactors, an almshouse was opened at the church in 1837, and a school was also established. On his initiative in the early 1850s. architect A. Elagin developed a project for rebuilding the church refectory and bell tower. In 1855, the construction of the bell tower was completed, and by 1863 more extensive chapels were built, one of which, in the name of St. Nicholas, was consecrated by St. Philaret himself.

In 1888, the rector of the temple, priest John Nikitin (served from 1875 to 1889), presented Metropolitan Ioannikiy with a plan for rebuilding the temple, drawn up by the diocesan architect V. Krygin. Work according to the plan began in 1889, and already in 1893 the consecration of the right side chapel, dedicated to St., took place. Nikolai. “Moscow Church Gazette” reported this event as follows: “In the large trading village of the Podolsk district of Stary Yam, a celebration took place of the consecration of one of the chapels of the newly rebuilt rural church. The old temple was small and not particularly splendid. In its new form, the church will have a majestic appearance. The architecture of the temple is reminiscent of the Moscow Church of St. Basil of Caesarea. The work is carried out exclusively with voluntary donations.” The walls of the church were plastered and painted. The temple was decorated with three new gilded iconostases. On July 12, 1898, the left aisle was consecrated in the name of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, on August 23, the main aisle was consecrated in the name of Sts. mchch. Flora and Laurel.

In 1837, an almshouse was established at the church, which was later transformed into a community. The famous ascetic, the holy fool for Christ's sake, Ivan Stepanov, took part in the creation of the community. He was born on May 7, 1814 in the village of Novo-Syanovo and in his youth lived here with two brothers, doing ordinary peasant labor. At the beginning of 1848, he fell ill and went to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra to venerate the holy relics of St. Sergius and ask for healing. Here he met the holy fool for Christ's sake, Philip, who, with the blessing of Metropolitan Philaret, lived in the Gethsemane monastery, and then, for greater solitude, settled in a dilapidated uninhabited gatehouse.

The feat of foolishness for Christ's sake prompted Ivan to make the decision to retire from worldly life and completely devote himself to serving God. Returning to his homeland, he met with a local peasant, Ivan Antipov. In the fall of 1846, Antipov also went to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where he intended to settle in one of the monasteries, but due to illness he was unable to fulfill the obediences assigned to him and soon returned home. It was here that kindred souls agreed, following the example of the Trinity-Sergius hermits, to set up a cell with caves in the forest near their native village for living together and praying.

As a parishioner of the Church of the Martyr. Flora and Lavra, Ivan Stepanov in the early 50s. XIX century collected donations for its renovation. When the almshouse was demolished by a flood in 1853, he suggested that priest Fyodor Shemetov build a prayer house instead, where it would be possible, as the request to the metropolitan stated, “to read the Psalter day and night by female persons about the health of the reigning house, about the pacification of the ongoing war and especially about the repose of Orthodox soldiers who laid down their lives for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland on the battlefield.” At the same time, the priest explained that benefactors provide funds for the construction and maintenance of the house. On this request, Metropolitan Philaret wrote: “Bless the godly undertaking and those who do good and pray.”

On August 25, 1855, permission to begin work came. By winter, the construction of the house was completed, and on December 18, 1855 its consecration took place. Metropolitan Philaret sent the community as a blessing the Jerusalem Icon of the Mother of God from an ancient script, which became the main shrine of the almshouse. Metropolitan Philaret gave three Psalms to the organizer of the almshouse, Ivan Stepanov, from which constant reading was made about the health of benefactors and the repose of the deceased. Canons and akathists were read in the morning and evening. Many surrounding residents came to listen to the reverent reading and pray.

In 1856, the house officially began to be called a prayer almshouse, and its abbess became an old friend of Ivan Stepanov, who spared no expense in its improvement, the merchant widow Paraskeva Rodionovna Savatyugina. The activities of the house became widely known, it was replenished with new members. They were predominantly girls 16-25 years old from neighboring villages, as well as from the villages of Oryol, Tverskaya, Kaluga provinces, from petty-bourgeois and merchant families of Moscow. Moscow Governor-General A. A. Zakrevsky, referring to the fact that the almshouse was inhabited not by the poor and old, but by young women, emphasized that this did not correspond to the regulations on almshouses and petitioned the Minister of Internal Affairs to close it. However, the Holy Governing Synod, having heard the case of the Staroflorovsky prayer and almshouse on January 15, 1860, “did not find a valid reason for closure.” At this time, 36 girls and widows already lived here.

Having arrived in the village at the invitation of Ivan Stepanov to consecrate the St. Nicholas chapel of the church, Saint Philaret also visited the prayer and almshouse. “This is not an almshouse, but a monastery,” concluded the Bishop. This prophetic word of the great saint was fulfilled 27 years later. In 1865, Emperor Alexander II gave his consent to the establishment of the Florovskaya women's community. That same year, on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, Ivan Stepanov died. They held his funeral service in the church of the martyr. Flora and Lavra, and were buried in the cemetery at the Trinity Church in the village. Pakhrino. The village of Pakhrino itself subsequently ceased to exist. The burial place of the ascetic and benefactor of the Floro-Lavra Church is now hidden.

By 1870, the number of sisters in the community had reached seventy, and the problem of finding a more suitable place for it had become even more acute. And such a place was soon found. Just a few kilometers from Old Yam downstream of the Pakhra River, on the left bank, was the ancient village of Lukino, surrounded by forests. In the 30s XVIII century a wooden church was built here in the name of the All-Merciful Savior, and the village began to be called the village of Spassky.

Landowner Alexandra Petrovna Golovina built a small stone church with a bell tower in the village, placing a throne and an iconostasis in it. The church was consecrated on October 10, 1848 in the name of the Exaltation of the Precious Cross of the Lord. The husband of the landowner of the guard, second lieutenant Nikolai Ivanovich Golovin, and their daughter Sophia were buried near her. Having lived to an advanced age, the owner of the estate was worried about the future of a place so dear to her heart. During her lifetime, she transferred the estate with the manor's house and the church to the Catherine Hermitage, reserving for herself the lifelong right to use the manor's house, with the condition that the brethren of the hermitage would serve daily in the church. However, due to the remoteness of the desert, with the permission of the authorities, the estate was transferred to the Florovskaya community.

The relocation of the community to a new location took place on May 17, 1870. Parishioners and members of the community, led by Rev. Archimandrite Pimen, the hieromonks and the hierodeacon of the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery left the village in a long line and headed to Lukino. A new stage began in the history of the community, which was officially opened on June 28 under the name of Holy Cross Florolarskaya. The nephew of the abbess, E.F. Savatyugin, was approved as its trustee. The development of the new place began with the construction, at the expense of Savatyugin, of a second temple in the name of the Jerusalem Icon of the Mother of God and a three-story building for sisters adjacent to the temple. The temple was consecrated on September 30, 1873, and its main shrine, the Jerusalem Icon of the Mother of God, was placed in it. In 1887, by determination of the Holy Synod, the community was renamed the Holy Cross Jerusalem Convent.

At the end of the 19th century. Stary Yam became the center of the Staro-Yam deanery. The dean was the priest of the Floro-Lavra Church, Father John Nikitin. He headed the parish trusteeship, which did a lot to raise funds for the beautification of the temple. In 1895 he was transferred to the village of Izmailovo, and the deanery was united with Zakharyinsky, after which it received the name Zakharyinsky deanery. It included thirty churches and two monasteries: the Catherine Monastery and the Holy Cross Jerusalem Convent.

By that time, the village of Stary Yam was the largest in the territory of the modern Domodedovo district. It had 157 courtyards and about a thousand inhabitants, and next to it there was a holiday village. “The parish of the village of Old Yam,” wrote Dean Archpriest Nikolai Sirotkin, “is the richest in the dean’s district, populous in the number of souls, ancient in its existence. The village of Old Yam itself is commercial and large, like a city. The population of the parish is wealthy. The temple is very large and rich.”

With the advent of Soviet power, fierce persecution of the Church began. Father Peter Kolosov remained the rector of the temple in the post-October period. In 1920, a typhus epidemic began in Old Yamu and its environs. Father Peter went to the homes of the sick, gave communion to the sick, instructed the dying to eternal life, and performed funeral services for the dead. The same terrible disease claimed his life during Lent in 1920; He was then forty-eight years old. He was replaced by his brother Konstantin Pavlovich Kolosov, who graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary and served in 1907-1920. priest of the Kazan Church in the village of Bogorodskoye, Moscow province.

When the campaign to confiscate church valuables began, the deacon of the church, Father Peter Minervin, spoke out against the sacrileges and convinced parishioners to defend the church treasures. For this he was arrested. It is most likely that he was shot; the trial was quick and unfair. Usually the authorities demanded an inventory of church property, but in most churches the priests refused to give them out, citing loss. This was qualified as counter-revolutionary actions and resistance to power with all the ensuing consequences according to the laws (or rather, lawlessness) of wartime. According to surviving documents, 32.5 kilograms of objects with precious metals and stones, including liturgical utensils, were seized from the Church of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus.

In the spring of 1934, bell ringing was banned in the village of Stary Yam. The reason for the ban was that the ringing of the bells allegedly interfered with those in the school, village council, reading hut and MTS directorate, respectively, from studying or working. After this, a decree came to hand over the bells for recycling, and they even gave the volost an annual plan.

After the death of Father Pyotr Kolosov, priests from closed Moscow churches came to serve in the church. In the 1920s Father Nikolai served here (his last name is not known to us), who came to the temple from the closed Kremlin cathedrals. At the end of the 1920s. he was arrested and sent into exile. In 1929, Father Yaroslav Savitsky came to Stary Yam with his mother Olga Fedorovna and daughter Nina. After the arrest of Father Yaroslav, no services were held in the church.

For quite a long time, the church was able to be preserved from desecration and destruction. But local authorities obtained the keys to the temple and in 1940 decided to dismantle the bell tower so that, as they explained to people, the bricks could be used to build a barnyard. The bell tower was blown up, and the brick from which the bell tower was made crumbled into pieces. Then they began to take out the icons, break them and burn them. Local communists especially tried. Church utensils were thrown into Pakhra. Many years later, when the river bed was being cleaned, objects from the temple were pulled out from the bottom along with the sand. A grain warehouse for the Yamskoy collective farm was set up in the temple, and then a workshop for repairing agricultural machinery.

In 1990, the Church of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus was returned to the believers. Priest Valery Larichev, who was a psychiatrist before his consecration, was appointed rector of the temple. After the death of his wife, Mother Margarita (+1999), Father Valery became a monk. Currently, Abbot Valery (Larichev) continues to be the rector of the temple in the name of Sts. mchch. Flora and Lavra in the village of Yam, Domodedovo deanery, Moscow region, and is also the confessor of the Moscow diocese. Much has been done to restore the temple to its former beauty. The destroyed bell tower was restored, the temple paintings and iconostases were completed. A baptismal temple was built and consecrated in the name of John the Baptist. The temple also has a chapel attached to the military unit, consecrated in honor of the holy righteous Theodore (Ushakov). There is a Sunday school for children at the church. A children's educational center was built.

The legend about the icon of the Mother of God of Jerusalem, which is in the city of Bronnitsy, Moscow province. M., 1908.

Trofimov A., Volovikova M. Miracle of Flora and Laurel. M., 1995.

Temple in the name of the holy martyrs Florus and Laurus. M., 2008.

Chulkov Nikolay. From the history of the Domodedovo land. Notes of a local historian. Domodedovo, 1996.

DOMODEDOVO, June 23, 2017, DOMODEDOVO NEWS - Our correspondent Alexander Ilyinsky has already told readers of Domodedovo News about the work of the museum in detail. Alexander continues to acquaint Domodedovo residents with the history of the district and the revival of Domodedovo shrines.

Time to throw away the stones. And it's time to collect them

The village of Yam has been known since the 17th century. For many centuries, coachmen, gold weavers and other hard-working and talented residents of this village, stretching along the important Kashirsky tract, were engaged in even labor, fought for their Fatherland, helped the sick and poor under the canopy of the domes and crosses of the famous Floro-Lavra Church. Having survived the terrible godless years, the village lives again, having rebuilt its spiritual center and restoring the connection of times and generations.

In the fall of 1940, the village of Yam on the Old Kashirskaya Road was rocked by a powerful explosion. Glass fell in the villagers' houses. The white candle of the bell tower of the Floro-Lavra Church rose several meters up, and then settled on the ground like a pile of bricks. A mushroom-shaped cloud of dust and smoke flew high into the sky, like a bird opened its wings and so - in the form of a bird - floated over Pakhra into the clouds. People watching what was happening from the courtyards sighed heavily: “The soul of the village flew away.” And less than a year later the Great Patriotic War began.

The priest of the Floro-Lavra Church Yaroslav Savitsky was shot back in 1938. Before this, in the early twenties, the valuables that the villagers had collected bit by bit from their favorite church were looted. Temple lands were taken away, bells were thrown down, almshouses and schools were closed. Faith is ridiculed, trampled and forbidden. Many believers were sent to camps.

Even horses, which from ancient times determined the life of the Yamshchi village, were replaced by cars. The remaining residents scattered. They simply had nothing to do in the village. Some moved to Domodedovo, some to Moscow, and some even further. By the beginning of the 80s of the 20th century, the village was still frail, but alive. By the early nineties, only one name remained from the village of Yam. And a handful of old people who lived out their lives there. It seemed that the past was visibly leaving with them... It was at this time that enthusiasts appeared in the ancient village and decided to restore the temple. And with it - the historical connection of times.

Connection of times

The first documentary information about the village of Yam is contained in the scribe book of the Ratuev camp of the Moscow district for 1627. They concern the temple, which was originally its center.

“The parish churchyard on the Pakhra River on the Kashirskaya road,” it is written in it, “and on the churchyard there is a wooden church of Flora and Lavra. And in the church there are images, candles, and books. There are bells on the bell tower.”

In addition to the residents of the churchyard, the parish of the church then included residents of the palace villages of Pavlovskaya and Beleutov, the village of Gorki Verkhnie and the village of Gorki Nizhnie, the villages of Staroye and Novoye Syanovo, as well as the village of Pakhrino. The village of Yam itself belonged to different people over the years. Among them, for example, are the princes Dolgoruky. Since the 17th century, he was assigned to the reigning family.

There has been a temple near the village since time immemorial. The village was Yamshchitsky. This is indicated by the Turkic word “yam” - road, postal station. A network of such stations was scattered throughout Rus'. The life of coachmen was difficult, connected with endless Russian roads and the main “driving force” of these roads - horses. These stern and hardy people considered the martyrs Florus and Laurus to be their heavenly patrons, who were even prescribed to be depicted on icons with these noble animals.

The martyrs Florus and Laurus were siblings. Their life dates back to the 2nd century AD. From MalayaAziAndthe brothers moved to Illyria (Serbia). By profession, the Christian brothers were stonemasons. Therefore, they participated in the construction of a pagan temple, converting the pagan priest and his community to Christianity during construction, crushing idols, and also installing a cross in the temple. The temple, which began as pagan, became Christian. The Roman governor of the region did not like this. He sentenced the converts to be burned, and ordered the holy brothers to bropour them alive into the well and cover them with earth. After the Roman Empire became Christian, the relics of the holy brothers were found incorrupt and solemnly transferred to Constantinople. According to legend, with the discovery of the relics of the martyrs, the loss of livestock stopped in the area where they suffered. Therefore, since ancient times they have been revered as the patrons of shepherds and horse breeders. Until today, many Russian museums keep wonderful icons of saints.x martyrs with images of horses.

Since ancient times, the Temple of Florus and Laurus was wooden. Only in 1791 did the villagers think about building a stone church. But they realized their idea only by 1819. By that time, the village had 110 households and almost one and a half thousand inhabitants. By the standards of that time, it was almost a city. The villagers lived prosperously, and therefore two chapels were added to the temple of their beloved saints, the carved iconostasis was gilded, and the temple icons were decorated with silver crowns. In 1837, children began to be taught literacy, numeracy and the Law of God at the church. At the same time, an almshouse was opened to feed wanderers.

The village grew. By the middle of the 19th century, it had more than two hundred households and two thousand inhabitants. Many of the villagers were engaged not only in agriculture and carting, but also in gold spinning. There were also those who worked in textile factories in Moscow or were hired as coachmen in the court stables. The villagers were accepted willingly. The hereditary coachmen had plenty of experience; they were distinguished by their love of horses and their calm, sober character. Some village residents became rich and became merchants, but did not break ties with their small homeland. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the early 50s the temple began to be rebuilt and expanded. Architect Elagin developed the project, which was completed within ten years. A new bell tower rose above the village, the refectory was rebuilt and larger chapels were added. The famous Metropolitan Filaret (Drozdov) took part in the consecration of the new building. At the temple, through the efforts of the holy fool Ivan Stepanovich, a stone almshouse for women was built. The almshouse sisters dedicated their lives to God and serving the sick and infirm. It was from this charitable institution that the Holy Cross Jerusalem Convent subsequently grew,

There is no limit to perfection

It is interesting that the village residents did not calm down during the restoration of the temple. There is no limit to perfection. A new large-scale reconstruction began just thirty years later. Metropolitan Ioaniky of Moscow was presented with a new project drawn up by the architect Krygin.

That's right - the villagers themselves found an architect, paid for the project and put it ready and calculated down to the last penny on the table of the diocesan authorities. The Metropolitan marveled at this business-like approach and gave permission for construction work. In fact, the temple was dismantled brick by brick, building materials were added and a new one was built. This was done in the shortest possible time. The walls of the temple became thicker and higher, a central light drum appeared, placed on four stone pillars, and four small blind drums were placed in the corners of the vaults. The acoustics of the temple immediately improved significantly. And capacity too. In 1893, the ceremonial lighting of the building took place.

“In the large trading village of Podolsk district, Stary Yam,” reported “Moskovskie Tserkovskie Vedomosti,” “there was a celebration of the consecration of one of the chapels of the newly rebuilt rural church. The old temple was small and not particularly splendid. In its new form, the church will have a majestic appearance... The work is being carried out exclusively with voluntary donations.”

In subsequent years, the decoration of the temple premises was carried out. The church, which now accommodated up to a thousand believers, was decorated with three gilded iconostases and beautiful paintings. A parish house was built near the temple. Charity activities expanded. A council of guardianship for the poor was created. The Society of Banner Bearers was created, the charter of which also provided for assistance to poor parishioners. Parishioners cared for widows and families whose breadwinners were drafted into the army. This became especially popular after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The cause of public education expanded. With the money of benefactors, the building of a girls' parochial school was built. And the members of the church taught parables not only in their village, but also in the surrounding zemstvo schools. In 1915, the parish was assigned a church, built at its own expense in the Gorki estate by the local landowner Reinbot-Rezva. The pious tradition of August religious processions was very popular among parishioners. They were held with the icon of the Mother of God of Jerusalem, painted at the beginning of the 16th century. The miraculous image was specially delivered from Bronnitsy, for which special permission was given back in 1871.

By 1917, the parish of the Church of Flora and Laurus already had 385 households and 2,145 parishioners of both sexes. Muscovites actively built dachas on the beautiful banks of the Pakhra and came to church. The parish was considered rich. But he generously shared this wealth with the sick and poor, the homeless and those with many children.

Fatal twentieth century

Everything changed dramatically from the very first years of Soviet power. The Russian Church was subjected to systematic strangulation by the godless authorities. In particular, the land was immediately taken away from the Floro-Lavra Church and parochial schools were closed. The parish Gorkinsky church, even before Lenin’s arrival in Gorki, was hastily closed. A club was set up there, but due to an oversight by the administration, a fire very soon broke out. The building was completely burned down. In 1920, the country engulfed in the Civil War was hit by a typhus epidemic. The parish priest Peter Kolosov was not afraid of the infection and continued to fulfill his duty. He gave communion to the sick and buried the dead, provided assistance to those in need and provided shelter to the homeless. Having contracted typhus, he died and became the last priest whom the parishioners mourned and buried behind the altar of the temple. He was replaced by his brother Konstantin Pavlovich Kolosov, who, after graduating from the Moscow Theological Seminary, taught for some time at the parish school in the village of Yam.

In May 1922, the district commission
In order to help the starving people, all silver and gilded objects with a total weight of two pounds were confiscated from the church. The priest and members of his family were deprived of voting rights, and the ringing of bells was prohibited.

“Taking into account the petition of the local population to close the Church of Flora and Laurus in the village. Yam of the Podolsk region and on the transfer of its premises for the canteen of the local collective farm and taking into account the suitability of the requested church for this, - the Presidium of the Moscow Regional Executive Committee wrote in its resolution on March 1, 1930, - the said church should be closed and its building, after photographing, transferred to the local district executive committee for the establishment of a canteen for the collective farm"

It is not superfluous to say that the valuables confiscated from the churches never reached the starving people. But the Soviet government gave a multi-million dollar loan to the Turkish dictator Ataturk, who fought with Orthodox Greece. With this money, the Turks won the war and expelled all Orthodox Christians living there from Asia Minor.

But even under conditions of terrible pressure from the state, believers resisted the closure of the temple for another ten years! In the thirties, the “Godless Five-Year Plans” were announced. The authorities took up the physical destruction of religion in the USSR. The temple in Old Yam was not spared the persecution either. It was finally forbidden to perform divine services in the church, which stood in full view. Priest Yaroslav Savitsky was arrested and, after a quick trial, shot in the village of Butovo near Moscow. The church deacon, Father Peter Minervin, also died in prison.

Revival of the shrine

In 1990, the church revival of Russia began. People themselves, without prompting from above, began to organize church parishes and restore destroyed churches. Such a parish was organized in the village of Yam. The authorities returned to believers the ruins of the temple, the bell tower of which was blown up back in 1940. The first service was served on Holy Saturday, April 14, in the St. Nicholas chapel of the Floro-Lavra Church, created by the labors and cares of two ascetics - Blessed Ivan Stepanovich and St. Philaret. Now the main altar in the temple is consecrated in the name of the holy martyrs Florus and Laurus, the left one is in the name of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul, and the right one is dedicated to St. Nicholas.

Nowadays, services are again held in the Church of Saints Florus and Laurus. The permanent rector of the temple and the leader of the friendly community from the very beginning of the restoration of the temple is Hegumen Valery (Larichev) - one of the most amazing priests of the Domodedovo City District. (pictured to the right - editor's note)

The church has a Sunday school for children, conversations with adults, an art studio, and a unique museum of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. The bell tower was rebuilt, the interiors and paintings were restored, many shrines that were lost during the turbulent revolutionary years were returned to the temple. An almshouse for elderly nuns has been created at the temple and a pilgrimage center operates. Like a magnet, the temple attracts good and educated people. And if earlier residents tried to move to Moscow, now the reverse process is observed. People are returning. Children's laughter can be heard again on the streets of the ancient village.

The ringing of bells floats over Pakhra. It seems that the soul returned to the village along with the temple. The way it is. And if so, it means that the village of Yam and our entire land have a future. And faith, hope and love in our people will never become scarce.

The beginning of its history goes back to the distant past, and it is now impossible to say anything definite about it. However, given the location of the village, it can be assumed that people settled here a very long time ago. This is confirmed by archaeological research carried out in the surrounding area by employees of the State Historical Museum of Moscow in 1995. On the territory of the village of Yam, it was possible to identify two villages dating from the 13th-17th centuries. One of the first written evidence about the village dates back to 1543, when the Archimandrite of the Simonov Monastery complained to the Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich about the Florovsky coachmen, who from the peasants of the village of Korobovo belonging to the monastery “take many carts under the messengers every day, and the peasants need chinitsa from the coachmen and great offense." Apparently, already at that time there was a church named in honor of the holy martyrs Florus and Laurus, who were revered in Rus' as patrons of livestock, and especially horses.

According to a long-standing tradition, on the day of remembrance of the saints, August 18/31, a “horse festival” was held, when horses from all over the area were brought to the church, decorated with red ribbons, under embroidered blankets and in the best harness, and bathed them in the Pakhra River and in the “Yamsky Ozerki”. In the church itself, according to custom, a solemn prayer service was served, after which the priest sprinkled the horses with holy water.

Information about the church is contained in the scribe book of the Ratuev camp of the Moscow district of 1627–28.

“The parish churchyard on the Pakhra River on the Kashirskaya high road,” it is written in it, “and in the churchyard there is a wooden church of Flora and Laurus, and in the church there are images, and candles, and books, on the bell tower ..., at the church in the churchyard in the courtyard there is a priest Arkhip Vasiliev, in the yard is the church sexton Ileika Prokofiev, in the yard is the sexton Grishka Fedorov, in the yard is the mallow maker Orinitsa Prokofiev’s daughter, and in the churchyard on church land are two Bobylsky courtyards, and that Florovsky churchyard of priest Arkhip on the river. Pakhre transportation."

Until the beginning of the 19th century, the village church was wooden. It is mentioned as such in the “Geographical Dictionary of the Russian State,” published in 1805. Apparently, it was completed, like Pakhrinskaya and Ermolinskaya, after the Patriotic War of 1812.

As stone and covered with iron, it is listed in the clergy registers for 1819. Four years later, priest Mikhail Vasiliev and church warden Nikolai Isidorov wrote in a letter to Archbishop Filaret of Moscow and Kolomna that the church in the village was made of stone and was “satisfied with the utensils.” And the altar in the name of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the chapel had already been consecrated, and they asked permission to build a second chapel in the name of St. Nicholas in accordance with the church charter. In 1855, construction of the bell tower was completed, and in 1860, work was completed in the Nikolsky chapel.

In 1888, priest John Nikitin, church elder, Moscow merchant, who had previously been a peasant in the village of Pavlovskaya, Vasily Semenovich Leonov, village elders of the parish, Sergei Andreevich Shurygin, Boris Ivanovich Mikheev, presented Metropolitan Ioanikiy with a new plan for the reconstruction of the temple, drawn up by the diocesan architect V. Krygin. The petition for reconstruction emphasized that according to the new plan, the temple “will be much more majestic from the outside, and the internal structure will be more open, roomy, and more convenient in everything,” and the funds and building materials for reconstruction are available, and the brick and stone of the old temple will be used for construction of a new one.

After the metropolitan's permission was received, the old cold church was dismantled in 1889, and then the vaults of the refectory were also dismantled. In accordance with the project, the walls of the refectory were increased, new, higher vaults with a central light drum were erected above them, to support which four stone pillars were placed. Four small blind drums were placed at the corners of the new vaults.

Basically, the construction of the temple was completed in 1893, when the consecration of the right Nikolsky chapel took place. “In the large trading village of Podolsk district, Stary Yam,” reported “Moskovskie Tserkovskie Vedomosti,” “there was a celebration of the consecration of one of the chapels of the newly rebuilt rural church. The old temple was small and not particularly splendid. In its new form, the church will have a majestic appearance. The architecture of the temple is reminiscent of the Moscow Church of St. Basil of Caesarea. The work is carried out exclusively with voluntary donations.”

The construction of the three altar rooms envisaged by the project, adjacent to the meal, and the interior decoration of the temple were carried out in subsequent years. During the finishing process, the interior walls were covered with plaster and painted, and then richly painted. The temple was decorated with three new gilded iconostases. The rebuilt church could accommodate up to a thousand believers at a time. On July 12, 1898, the left chapel was consecrated in the name of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and on August 23, the main altar was consecrated in the name of St. martyrs Florus and Laurus.

The merit of the ministers of the Flora and Lavra Church is the opening of parochial schools in the village. The first school here was opened by the specific department back in the 60s of the 19th century. In 1868, there were 54 boys studying there. But after it was transferred to the zemstvo, it closed due to lack of funds, and the house in which it was located was sold. However, the need for children’s education remained and increased every year.

The decline of the temple began during the years of Soviet power. In 1922, 2 pounds of valuable church utensils, including silver crosses and bowls, were confiscated from it. In the 1930s, bell ringing was banned, and in 1937, a priest, Archpriest Yaroslav Savitsky, was arrested and soon shot in Butovo. Before the Patriotic War, the bell tower was dismantled, the church cemetery was abolished, the ancient gravestones of which were used to lay the foundation for the collective farm pigsty. Later, the church domes, iconostasis, surviving utensils, and fence were lost.

On April 14, Easter 1990, the first service took place in the dilapidated building of the church in the name of the holy martyrs Florus and Laurus, which was led by the rector of the church, Archpriest Valery Larichev. Before this, the church building housed a Mosenergo warehouse for many years, and later a cooperative for the production of tights. The entrance to the building was through the altar, the roof was leaking, there was a second floor where machines and other equipment were located.

Claudia Timofeevna Samkova worked harder than all the parishioners to return the temple. Her energy and persistence forced the former tenants to vacate the church building. Until 1992, N.N. Budanov took a large part in the restoration of the temple, and from 1993 to the present, all work on the restoration of the temple and the organization of the parish is carried out under the leadership of the treasurer of the temple M.F. Andrianova. For religious services, part of the Nikolsky chapel was separated by a partition.

The reconstruction of the temple began with the dismantling of ceilings and partitions, the dismantling of old equipment, and the installation of a heating system. Then the five domes of the temple were restored, on which temporary crosses were installed. Over the course of three years, the interior of the temple was finally freed from everything extraneous, after which the construction of altars began.

In 1993, the Mosenergo office located nearby was transferred to the temple, which was used for the priest’s housing and an orphanage. 150 KAMAZ trucks of garbage were removed from the area adjacent to the temple.

In 1995–96 The restoration of the bell tower began, which has now been completed. With the help of donors, a selection of bells appeared on the bell tower, the largest of which weighs 1370 kg. Fragments of the remaining intact paintings from the end of the 19th century were restored and the entire interior space was painted. N.A. Krapiventseva and N.I. Oreshko worked the most in painting the temple.

During the period 1997–2004. According to the original design of the icon painter Vladimir Sidelnikov, the construction of the iconostases of all three chapels of the temple was completed.

In 1997, according to the design of the architect Alexei Neiman, a baptismal church was erected in the name of St. John the Baptist.

Through the efforts of the rector, who was trained as a psychiatrist and narcologist, the Brotherhood of Temperance was organized at the church in the name of the holy martyrs Florus and Laurus. The fraternal building and production workshops are currently under construction.

From the very opening of the church, a Sunday school for children began operating, headed by the rector’s wife, Margarita Arkadyevna Laricheva. Through her labors and care, the temple gained its identity - she sewed vestments for the temple and for the priests, banners and everything necessary for the festive decoration of the church. On December 17, 1999, Mother Margarita died and was buried in the parish cemetery near the church.

A year after the death of his wife, the rector of the temple, Father Valery, took monastic vows.

Currently, the work of a Sunday school for children under the leadership of Lyudmila Grigorievna Maslova continues.

Since 1992, Father Valery has been the priest of the house church in the name of the icon of the Mother of God and the Healer at the National Center for Healthcare of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences - the first hospital church in Moscow.

Through the efforts of Father Valery, the temple received a long-term lease on the building of the former parochial school, in which it is planned to organize a children's Orthodox center.

By 2004, on the foundation of the old Mosenergo garage, a building was built that housed a chapel in the name of the Mother of God of Jerusalem, a church store and a parish council.

In 2002, at military unit 56135, a chapel was consecrated in the name of the holy righteous Theodore Ushakov and a spiritual and educational center with a free video library was established. The spiritual care of its parishioners is provided by the second priest of the temple - Priest Dimitry Sverdlov. In addition, he runs a Sunday school for adults, founded in 2002.

• from Moscow by electric train from Paveletsky station to the station. Leninskaya or from the Domodedovskaya metro station by bus No. 466 to the Yam stop.