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Temple of the Prophet Elijah (Exaltation of the Holy Cross) in Cherkizovo. Church of the Prophet Elijah (Exaltation of the Holy Cross) in Cherkizovo Schedule of services in the Church of Elijah Cherkizovo

The Church of Elijah the Prophet (Exaltation of the Holy Cross) in Cherkizovo is an Orthodox church of the Transfiguration deanery of the Moscow diocese.

The temple is located in the Preobrazhenskoye district, Eastern administrative district of Moscow. The main altar was consecrated in honor of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross; chapels in honor of the Prophet Elijah, in honor of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, Wonderworker.

The history of the Elias Church is inextricably linked with the history of the village of Cherkizovo, where it was built in the 14th century. The village got its name from its owner, Tsarevich Serkizi, who after baptism became Ivan Serkizov. Ivan Serkizov owned the village for a short time and then sold it to Ilya Ozakov, a fellow native of the Golden Horde. Ilya Ozakov was a baptized Tatar and a very devout person. It was he who built a church in Cherkizovo in honor of his heavenly patron, Elijah the Prophet.

Elias Church was located in a picturesque place, on the banks of the Sosenka River. Sosenka is the right tributary of Khapilovka, its source is located in the Golyanov region, and the length of the entire river is almost nine kilometers. Currently, the main part of the Sosenka channel is enclosed in a pipe. Cherkizovsky Pond, on the banks of which the Ilyinskaya Church still stands, is one of the few places where the river comes to the surface.

Together with his brother Sergei, Ilya was one of the close servants of Metropolitan Alexy. It was to the metropolitan that Cherkizovo passed from Ilya Ozakov. Metropolitan Alexy liked the picturesque location of the village and he made the temple the summer residence of the Moscow patriarchs. Over time, especially under Saint Innocent (Veniaminov), the residence grew and was rebuilt.

In 1689-1690, on the site of a burnt wooden church, a stone church was built. The temple was consecrated on June 18, 1690, it already had a chapel of St. Alexis, a refectory and a belfry. In the 19th century, the Elias Church was rebuilt twice. After the first reconstruction in 1821-1825, the temple for some time became five-domed. A more serious reconstruction was carried out at the end of the 19th century on the initiative of the rector of the church, Father Paul, and the church warden, merchant Alexander Zelenyaev, who wrote in an appeal to the diocesan authorities: “The Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah in the village of Cherkizovo does not correspond to a fairly significant number of parishioners...” . The plan for the reconstruction of the church and the construction of a new bell tower according to the design of the architect Egorov was approved in 1888. After the completion of work in the late 1890s, the temple was re-consecrated.

Elias Church is surrounded by a cemetery, which is the oldest cemetery in Moscow. This is one of the rare domestic historical necropolises that was not destroyed during the Soviet era. In 1861, the famous Moscow holy fool Ivan Yakovlevich Koreysha, who was revered as a saint for a long time, was buried here. His popularity is evidenced by the fact that the image of Koreishi is depicted in the works of N.S. Leskova (“Little Mistake”) and F.M. Dostoevsky (“Demons”).

During the Great Patriotic War, the believers and clergy of the temple collected 1 million rubles for the construction of aircraft and sent them to I.V. Stalin. Stalin sent a telegram of gratitude in response. And the temple survived all the difficult years of Soviet rule. In the middle of the 20th century, icons from neighboring churches that were to be destroyed were brought to the temple. The rector of the temple at that time was Pavel Ivanovich Tsvetkov.

Pilgrimage trips to the Temple of Elijah the Prophet in Cherkizovo in Moscow

The Moscow Church in the name of the Prophet Elijah, in Cherkizovo (Moscow region), is famous for the fact that it houses a rare icon of St. Alexis and the relics of Blessed Ivan Yakovlevich Koreishi rest next to it...
The handsome temple makes an extraordinary impression. You enter it, and it’s as if you are plunging into the mysterious depths of centuries. The temple is ancient and prayed for. The icons are extraordinary, old - each one looks like it comes from a museum of antiquities. Of course, this temple has been standing since 1690! And it was built on the site of a burnt wooden temple that stood here back in 1370!
The temple is directly connected with the name of many Russian Metropolitans - and above all with St. Alexy. The village of Cherkizovo takes its name from the name of its first owner, Tsarevich Serkiz (Cherkiz) of the Horde, who served with Grand Duke Dimitri Ivanovich Donskoy and received lands near Moscow for his service. Having been baptized, Tsarevich Serkiz began to bear a new name - Ivan Cherkizov. The Tsarevich of Russia served faithfully, to the point that his son Andrei on the Kulikovo Field was the governor of the Pereyaslavsky regiment and laid down his head there.
Soon Cherkizovo passed to the servant of St. Alexy, baptized Tatar Ilya Ozakov. It was he who built the first wooden church in Cherkizovo in the name of the Holy Prophet of God Elijah, and soon it, together with the church, was transferred by Ilya Ozakov to Metropolitan Alexy of Moscow, who made it a summer residence (the winter one was in the Chudov Monastery, which was also built by Saint Alexy in memory of miraculous healing through his prayers of the Tatar Khansha Taidula).
According to the spiritual will of Saint Alexy, Cherkizovo went to the Cathedral Chudov Monastery. So the village became the residence of the Moscow Metropolitans. Cherkizovo is a very large property, at least 2000 acres of land, ten villages, 36 wastelands. Over time, a “monastery courtyard” developed around the church of the Holy Prophet Elijah.
During the Time of Troubles of the Polish-Lithuanian attack on Rus', the temple was burned by the enemy, but was soon restored. And during the tenure of His Holiness Patriarch Cyrus Adrian in 1690, on the site of a wooden church, a stone one was built, with a chapel to St. Alexis, the Wonderworker of Moscow and All Russia.
Over time, especially under Saint Innocent (Veniaminov), the residence grew and was rebuilt.
The fate of the temple is unusual. During Soviet times, many churches in Moscow were barbarically razed to the ground. And the Ilyinsky Temple survived even when, during the construction of the metro, it was planned to build a line directly under it. Believing Muscovites stood up to defend the shrine with a wall. The authorities were forced to give in, although during this construction they were breaking down what they had not yet had time to destroy: not far from the temple of the Holy Prophet Elijah, four churches were demolished. The elder of the temple, Vladimir Grigorievich Kiselev, says:
- If you have noticed, when you ride the metro, the train near Cherkizovo slows down, goes quietly for a while, and then picks up speed again. At the request of believers, the line was moved away from the temple to a safe distance, but caution is still being observed. We have sensors installed that show the level of soil vibration. Thank God the church is standing. And this is providential! Here, in the temple and at the temple, there are invaluable spiritual treasures.
We enter the temple and look at the ancient icon “The Healing of Taidula” according to the prayers of St. Alexis. According to Vladimir Grigorievich, this icon is very rare, perhaps the only one in Russia. Believers approach her with trepidation and reverence.
But, of course, the main shrine of the temple is the grave of the famous Moscow blessed Ivan Yakovlevich Koreysha (1783 - September 19, 1861). Many Orthodox Christians know him, but do not know where to go to worship him.
Ivan Yakovlevich is a man of God. Even among the blessed, he stands out for the unusualness of his feat, for its special, if we speak in secular language, romantic height. No wonder Ivan Yakovlevich signed himself mysteriously: “Student of cold waters.” And in general he spoke in a lofty, almost poetic style. On Holy Saturday 1861, having received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, he said, handing out prosphora: “I congratulate you on the new year, on the morning aurora.” This is how he spoke about his imminent death.
Favorite poems he sang:

Lord, who dwells
In a bright house above the stars?
Who lives with you
The top of sacred mountain places?

He who walks blamelessly
Always creates the truth
And with an unflattering heart for sure,
Like he says with his tongue...

Ivan Yakovlevich’s ascetic deeds were even higher than his poetic language. He was born into the family of a priest in Smolensk. But, having graduated from the Theological Academy, he did not become a priest, but, having apparently outlined the feat of foolishness for himself, he decided to become a teacher at the Theological School.
When the time came for Ivan Yakovlevich to set out on the path of his feat, he, while still a teacher, pretended to be crazy. True, he deceived few people, since the whole of Smolensk knew him as an unusual, Godly man, from childhood. Ivan Yakovlevich began to live in the garden, in an abandoned bathhouse. The enemy of the human race began to attack him with particular force, but only elevated Ivan Yakovlevich to an unusually high pedestal, even for a holy fool. By the evil will of those in power, in 1817 he was sent to an insane asylum in Moscow, on Preobrazhenka. He was thrown into the basement and chained to the wall. He himself talked about it this way: “When Ivan Yakovlevich was destined to cross to Moscow, he was provided with a horse, but only three legs, the fourth was broken. Of course, due to deprivation of strength, the unfortunate animal withstood universal condemnation, feeding on the coolness of its own tears, rather than grass. In such an exhausted position, we owed our gratitude to the beneficial zephyr, by God’s permission, who took part in us. The weakened horse could barely move three legs, and the fourth was lifted by the zephyr and, continuing the journey, we reached Moscow, and. On October 17, we entered the hospital. This was the beginning of sorrows. My driver handed over the indictment about me, and on the same day, by order of the strictest orders, Ivan Yakovlevich was lowered into the basement, located in the women's department. In accordance with the premises, they gave him a servant. who, out of compassion, threw away a bunch of raw straw, saying: Why hasn’t he seen this yet? Dear one, feed him every day, give him water and bread, and what did he eat in the bathhouse? Wait, I’ll be able to fatten you up - you’ll forget to prophesy with me!”
However, at the end of the 20s, thanks to the fact that Doctor Sabler was appointed to the Preobrazhenskaya Hospital, Ivan Yakovlevich was transferred to a bright and large room, but, looking for cramped conditions, he occupied only a corner of the large room. He settled down by the stove and never stretched his legs beyond the line he had once drawn. The entire room remained at the disposal of visitors, whose number was constantly growing. All of Moscow began to come to Ivan Yakovlevich. His fame was so great that his image was captured in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky, N.S. Leskova, A.N. Ostrovsky, L.N. Tolstoy. People asked a variety of questions - spiritual and everyday. With his answers, he constantly returned people from the everyday to the spiritual:
- Will I be welcome in St. Petersburg?
- God rejoices better over the salvation of a mortal person than over 9-10 righteous saved ones.
- What awaits the servant of God N?
- The world of incorruption.
Ivan Yakovlevich restored health and life itself to many, and set many on the path of repentance and salvation.
His spiritual path in the insane asylum was not easy and was based primarily on voluntary confinement and the deprivation of peace from the body. Since the hospital took money for admission to Ivan Yakovlevich (thanks to this, the hospital began to come into order, they began to feed the patients well, to purchase everything they needed), a man “Mironka” was assigned to him, who carried cobblestones and bottles in buckets to Ivan Yakovlevich’s cell all day, and carried out stones and glass ground into powder. Ivan Yakovlevich spent whole days “crushing” other people’s sins, passions, and evil thoughts with a special stick. Prayerfully, without fear of getting hurt, he mixed broken stones and glass with his bare hands. 60 people a day came to him. And everyone found what they needed in communication with him. Ivan Yakovlevich was not devoid of humor when he encountered outright stupidity, which stemmed from a person’s too much attachment to vain earthly goods. He had amazing insight.
When Ivan Yakovlevich was asked to leave the insane asylum, he replied that “he didn’t want to go anywhere, much less to hell.” Such was his complete and final rejection of the world.
The death of the old man was also extraordinary. I have never encountered such cases in my life. Ivan Yakovlevich received people until the last minute and gave spiritual advice and instructions. Having released the last woman, he was silent for a while, raised his hand and said loudly: “Save yourself, save yourself, save the whole earth!” And he gave up the ghost.
The body of the servant of God John was not buried for five days, since several monasteries were zealous to bury him at home (Smolensk, the Moscow Intercession Monastery, where the relics of the holy blessed Matrona of Moscow now rest, the Alekseevsky Monastery). But Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret (Drozdov) gave his blessing to respect the request of the elder’s own niece, who was married to a deacon of the Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah in Cherkizovo (and he received the deacon’s place at the request of Ivan Yakovlevich). Was it not Ivan Yakovlevich who saved the famous temple in Cherkizovo from destruction?
To this day, people come to Ivan Yakovlevich’s grave and ask for consolation in sorrows, illnesses, admonition and intercession. There are always flowers on the grave, some people put small money, some leave candles.
You stand and feel not in Moscow, but in a rural churchyard: the whole situation at the grave of the famous old man is so simple and artless, so quiet and good next to him.
...And I, too, had a small miracle happen at the elder’s grave. On the way to the temple, I shared my doubts with my wife: should I drink milk thistle herb to improve my health? And when, having prayed at the grave of the blessed one, he went outside the temple fence, he heard one beggar at the gate loudly say to another: “I drink milk thistle. It helps.”
Ivan Yakovlevich can hear us now. And sends a response.

In the photographs: Portrait image of Blessed Ivan Yakovlevich Koreysha on his grave; The grave of the blessed one.

Together with his brother Sergei, Ilya was one of the close servants of St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, who reigned from 1354 to 1378. Metropolitan Alexy liked the picturesque place and in 1378 he bought from him “the village of Cherkizovo with his silver,” as stated in his spiritual letter, i.e. with cell money, and according to his will he left it to the Moscow Metropolitanate, in the possession of the Chudov Metropolitan Monastery in the Kremlin. Later, this purchase was secured by a charter from Prince Vasily the Dark (1425–1462). It is no coincidence that in the census books of the 17th century the village of Cherkizovo is called “the patrimony of the miracle worker Alexy.” Subsequently, he made the temple the summer residence of the Moscow patriarchs. Over time, especially under Saint Innocent (Veniaminov), the residence grew and was rebuilt.

Stone Church

In the 1690s, a stone church was built on the site of a burnt wooden temple. The temple was consecrated on June 18, 1690, it already had a chapel of St. Alexius, a refectory and a belfry. In the 19th century, the Elias Church was rebuilt twice. After the first restructuring in 1825, the temple for some time became five-domed. A more serious reconstruction was carried out at the end of the 19th century on the initiative of the rector of the church, Father Paul, and the church warden, merchant Alexander Zelenyaev, who wrote in an appeal to the diocesan authorities: “The Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah in the village of Cherkizovo does not correspond to a fairly significant number of parishioners...”. The plan for the reconstruction of the church and the construction of a new bell tower according to the design of the architect Egorov was approved in 1888. After the completion of the work at the end of the 1970s, the temple was re-consecrated.

Elias Church is surrounded by a cemetery, which is the oldest cemetery in Moscow. This is one of the rare domestic historical necropolises that was not destroyed during the Soviet era. In 1861, the famous Moscow holy fool Ivan Yakovlevich Koreysha, who was revered as a saint for a long time, was buried here. His popularity is evidenced by the fact that the image of Koreyshi is captured in the works of N. S. Leskov (“Little Mistake”) and F. M. Dostoevsky (“Demons”). Ivan Yakovlevich is mentioned by A. N. Ostrovsky (“The Marriage of Balzaminov”).

During the Great Patriotic War, the believers and clergy of the temple collected 1 million rubles for the construction of airplanes and sent them to I.V. Stalin. Stalin sent a telegram of gratitude in response. And the temple survived all the difficult years of Soviet rule. In the middle of the 20th century, icons from neighboring churches that were to be destroyed were brought to the temple. The rector of the temple at that time was Pavel Ivanovich Tsvetkov.

Church of Elijah the Prophet in Cherkizovo today

On December 30, 2011, Archimandrite Savva, deputy manager of the affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate and head of the control and analytical service for the management of the affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, a member of the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church, was appointed rector of the church.

Clergy

The rector of the temple, Bishop Savva- born February 19, 1978. in 1999 - 2001 he studied at the Moscow Seminary.
Archpriest Georgy Chvilev- born November 14, 1958. Graduated in absentia from the Moscow Theological Academy.
Priest Andrey Silin- born April 29, 1975. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 7, 1997.
Priest Roman Tarabrin- born July 24, 1982.
Priest Timofey Gotyashvili- February 19, 1983.
Priest Alexey Kotemaka- born June 12, 1981. Graduated from Volga Institute from 1999 to 2004.
Protodeacon Alexander Bakhtin- born August 14, 1960. Graduated