BOGORODITSE-SMOLENSKY MONASTERY
The Great Convent of the Virgin Odigitrii, the Orthodox female New Maiden Monastery in Moscow or the Novodevichy Convent of Smolensk
Monastery, was founded by Grand Prince Vladimir and Moscow Basil III in 1524 in honor of the main shrine of ancient Smolensk - the icon of
the Smolensk Mother of God. “In the summer of 7032 May (1524) Maya on the 8th day,” says the chronicle, “Post the Novichesky Monastery of
the Maiden near the city of Moscow behind the city”.
The monastery was new in relation to the more ancient Moscow monasteries - Alekseevsky (Zachatievsky) monastery and Kremlin Voznesensky,
whose ancient glory Novodevichy adopted, becoming a new court monastery and where in the XVI-XVII centuries, representatives of the most
generic nobility came. As follows from the patriarchal diploma of 1598, the full name of the shrine was as follows: Priestly Great Convent of
the Most Pure Mother of God Odigitrii New Maiden Monastery.
The Novodevichy Convent is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Odigitria (translated from Greek - Mentor, Guide). This was the name of the
ancient image of Our Lady of Odigon, the famous temple of Constantinople. The icon of the Odigitria, written by the holy Apostle and
Evangelist Luke, along with the sacred veil and belt of Our Lady was revered in Byzantium as the keeper of the Empire. In 1046, Princess Anna,
the daughter of the Russian emperor Constantine IX Monomakh, brought the icon of the Most Pure Protestant to Russia, as a blessing of
parents for marriage with Prince of Chernigov Vsevolod Yaroslavich. Subsequently, this icon has become the shrine of the Russian princes. In
Russia, the icon was revered as a symbol of continuity and closeness of two Orthodox monarchies: Constantinople (Second Rome) and the
young Russian State. In 1097, Vladimir Monomakh transferred the image of the Guide to ancient Smolensk and installed it in the cathedral
Uspensky church. Since then, the icon has been called Smolensk, and the city itself is named after the Blessed Virgin.
The Novodevichy Convent is located on the former Maiden's Field in the bend of the Moscow River, three versts from the Moscow Kremlin. The
successful location of the ancient monastery at one time allowed to control the bridge across the Moscow River, which protected the south-
west direction of Moscow from the enemy. Until the end of the XVI century, during the reign of Boris Godunov, in the likeness of the walls of
the Moscow Kremlin, stone walls and 12 towers of the Novodevichy Monastery rose.