Vladychny Monastery

The Vladychny Monastery was founded in 1360 by Metropolitan Alexius of Moscow, under the guardianship of Prince Vladimir Andreevich of Serpukhov.[1]

There are several churches at the convent including the Cathedral of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple and St. George’s Church. The cathedral houses the relics of St. Varlaam of Serpukhov, a 14th century monk who is considered to be the builder and the first abbot of the Vladychny monastery.[2] For many years, the monastery held a community of monks but by the late 18th century, it had fallen into decay and its numbers had dwindled. In 1806, the Metropolitan Platon obtained the permission of Emperor Alexander I to re-establish this monastic community as a nunnery and in 1806 first nuns came to live there.[3]

The Vladychny Monastery is the site of the original icon called, “The Inexhaustible Cup.”[4] According to the legend, in 1878, a retired soldier who had suffered from alcoholism for many years had a vision where he saw a staretz or elder who commanded him to go to the Vladychny Convent to find the Icon “The Inexhaustible Cup” (Russian, Неупиваемая Чаша) and to hold a moleben (service of supplication) before it. At first, the nuns did not recognize any icon by that description. Finally, a nun remembered an icon in the passage between the convent and St. George’s Church. That icon showed the Infant Christ standing in a communion chalice while behind Him the Mother of God raises her hands in an orans gesture as in the icon called the Virgin of the Sign.

The old soldier is said to have been immediately healed and relieved of his alcoholic obsession. Afterwards, when he saw an icon of St. Varlaam at the convent, the old soldier at once recognized him as the holy elder who had appeared to him in the vision and commanded him to go to the Mother of God for healing from alcoholism. The news of the healing rapidly spread and the convent became a place of pilgrimage for those suffering from alcoholism.

The original icon of the Inexhaustible Cup was preserved for many years in the convent at Vladychny Monastery until it was lost during the Soviet period, along with other relics. In 1992, the iconographer Alexander Sokolov painted a new copy of the icon in the Byzantine style. In 1993, the copy was installed in the Vysotsky Monastery, also in Serpukhov, where it is now venerated as wonder-working, particularly in healing from addiction. This icon has become renowned throughout all of Russia and throughout the Orthodox world. The Vysotsky Monastery has since become the major shrine of the icon of the "Inexhautible Chalice”.[5]

In 1995, the Vladychny Monastery, site of the original icon "The Inexhaustible Cup", was re-opened as a female convent and is slowly being re-established.[6] In 1996, a copy of the icon, The Inexhaustible Cup was enshrined in the monastery. This icon is also reported to be wonder-working. Since August 2000, there have been reports that several of the icons at Vladychny have become myrrh-streaming.[7]

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