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# Not far from Moscow stands one of the foremost Orthodox monasteries, Savvino-Storozhevsky, founded in 1398 by the Venerable Sabbas, the Wonderworker of Zvenigorod
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/sovsem-nedaleko-ot-moskvy-nakhoditsia-odna-iz-glavnykh-pravoslavnykh-obitelei-savvino-storozhevskii-osnovannyi-v-1398-g-prepodobnym-savvoi-zvenigorodskim-chudotvortsem/
- Published: 2024-09-24T14:52:26.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:32:35.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Architecture, Faith, Monarchies, Observations, Heritage

Not far from Moscow stands one of the foremost Orthodox monasteries, Savvino-Storozhevsky, founded in 1398 by the Venerable Sabbas, the Wonderworker of Zvenigorod. Sabbas was one of the first disciples of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh.

Prince Yury Dmitrievich revered the Venerable Sabbas and extended his patronage to the monastery. The prince received the saint's blessing for a distant military campaign against the Kama Bulgars and, as the Venerable Sabbas had foretold, returned victorious. In gratitude, villages and hamlets in the districts of Zvenigorod and Ruza were given to the monastery.

Around 1405 the white-stone Cathedral of the Nativity was built; at its entrance the Venerable Sabbas was buried in 1406 or 1407, and he was numbered among the saints at the Council of Makary in 1547.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century the monastery suffered at the hands of the armies of False Dmitry I and False Dmitry II, as well as those of the Polish prince Władysław, during the Polish-Lithuanian intervention. It began to revive already under the first Sovereign of the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fyodorovich, and his father, Patriarch Filaret.

During the Khovansky Rebellion of 1682 the monastery, as is well known, sheltered the Tsarevna Sophia together with her brothers, the Tsarevichs Peter and Ivan. Yet, despite the important part the monastery played in the life of the first Emperor of All Russia, from the beginning of the seventeenth century Savvino-Storozhevsky gradually lost its standing, its privileges and a considerable share of its lands, and by the middle of the century all its landed estates had been secularised.

In the Patriotic War of 1812 the enemy was given battle beneath the monastery, which delayed the advance of the French troops on Moscow by six hours. From 31 August to 15 October 1812 the monastery was occupied by French troops under General Beauharnais. According to tradition, the Venerable Sabbas appeared to General Beauharnais in a dream and forbade him to plunder the monastery. And indeed, after the monastery was liberated, its holy relics were found untouched. Whether or not to believe in the apparition of St Sabbas is a matter for each to decide. But the fact remains that Eugène de Beauharnais became almost the only one of the French generals to come out of that war alive, and was not wounded even once in any of the battles that followed.

At present there are 30 monks and novices at Savvino-Storozhevsky. By their labours the monastery's churches are being restored, and work is under way on the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the bell tower, and the fortress walls and towers. A library with a reading room has been opened at the monastery, its holdings amounting to 6,500 volumes.

I most warmly recommend a visit to this divine corner of the world.

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