Zavolzhsky Monastery (Podgory)

The Zavolzhsky Monastery of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord is a men's monastery of the Samara diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church near the village of Podgory, Volzhsky District, Samara Region. It stands on the left bank of the Volga, opposite Samara, on the Samara Bend, at the foot of Mount Plaksikha by the spring of the Prophet Elijah, one and a half kilometres from Podgory. The monastery was founded in 2007 on the site of a skete of the monastic community of the Church of St Sergius of Radonezh in Samara.

History

In the early 2000s a monastic community formed at the Church of St Sergius of Radonezh in Samara. In the summer of 2003 its first brothers settled across the Volga next to the Elijah spring and set up a skete there. In 2006 a wooden church was built and consecrated in the skete. By a decision of the Holy Synod of 16 May 2007 the skete became a men's monastery.

In 2008 about 20 monks lived here under the abbot, Hegumen Georgy. Today the monastery has 17 monks, including 6 hieromonks and 2 hierodeacons. Since November 2022 the superior has been Hieromonk Antony (Podorovsky). In Samara the monastery has a metochion at the Trinity-St Sergius Church, with a Sunday school for children and a centre of religious education; it also publishes the Orthodox People's Newspaper.

What to see

The main church was consecrated on 14 August 2006. It was designed by the Samara architect Nikolai Zhogolev in the tradition of northern Russian wooden tower architecture. The log frame took about 200 cubic metres of spruce from the Tver Region, and the stone for the foundation came from the Soksky quarry. The large dome is covered with some fifteen hundred aspen shingles, and the cross is carved from pink oak. The church holds two mosaic icons, of the Prophet Elijah and of the Holy Prince Oleg of Bryansk, made in Valery Molchanov's Samara workshop from Ural stones: jasper, charoite, quartz and rhodonite.

The grounds are divided in two. The open part holds the main church, the Elijah spring with its bathing pools and a few cells; the second, the skete, has another wooden church, the brothers' refectory, cells and a pilgrims' house. The monastery keeps an orchard, a vegetable garden, a farmyard, an apiary and a pond cleared for fish farming.

Legends and accounts

People say the water of the Elijah spring contains silver that supposedly comes from treasure hidden in the Zhiguli Mountains. Pilgrims describe the place as quiet and prayerful: the cells are simple, and some buildings have no electricity.

Getting there

From Samara you first cross the Volga to the village of Rozhdestveno, either by boat from the river station (about 30–35 minutes) or by private boats. Cars are carried by a cargo ferry during the summer navigation season. Podgory is about 13 kilometres from Rozhdestveno; many visitors ride bicycles rented in Rozhdestveno or take a taxi. In Podgory itself there is the Holy Elijah women's monastery, and the two are often visited together.

Good to know

The monastery lies within Samarskaya Luka National Park; a park nature trail leads to the spring, and tickets are sold at the checkpoint where the tarmac road turns into a dirt road in Podgory. Women and tourists may visit the spring and the Church of the Holy Cross; the skete part is open to everyone only on 22 November, the feast of St Nectarios of Aegina.